bedrich moldan - Academia.edu (original) (raw)

Papers by bedrich moldan

Public goods were recognized by Adam Smith and Paul Samuelson as an important part of the societa... more Public goods were recognized by Adam Smith and Paul Samuelson as an important part of the societal fabric. Their provision is one of the fundamental prerequisites for the progress of human civilization. With the growing complexity of societies over the course of history they are more and more important, and, in particular, they apply to the current situation where they are needed more than ever before. According to Eugene Stoermer and Paul Crutzen, we are now living in the Anthropocene era that started around 1800 and which is synonymous with our industrial and increasingly globalized society. During this period we have witnessed enormous growth in the human population and its economy, which have increased by more than two orders of magnitude. Global public goods have acquired several novel qualities and a unique significance over this period of time. One of the most fundamental is an environmentally safe operating space for humanity, which according to Johan Rockstrom is delineated by biophysical planetary boundaries. Changing climate is among the most important. The protection of global climate could thus be seen as one of the crucial public goods. Th e important question is how to adequately provide for this protection given the contemporary model of global environmental governance with vastly inadequate international and intergovernmental institutions. Various aspects of this question are discussed.

Edward Elgar Publishing eBooks, Nov 26, 2003

Environmental development, 2016

The author of the lecture is Director of the Postdam Institute for climate impacts research. He p... more The author of the lecture is Director of the Postdam Institute for climate impacts research. He presented the latest information on the process of global climate change and its effects. He also offered solutions to the climate problem based on new technologies namely what he calls cardinal innovations.

Macalester International, 1995

Environmental geology, Nov 1, 1989

Springer eBooks, 1996

This chapter summarizes the results of the Czech Republic’s assessments of vulnerability and adap... more This chapter summarizes the results of the Czech Republic’s assessments of vulnerability and adaptation to climate change. This assessment has two principal parts: detailed analysis of possible scenarios of future climate, and analysis of vulnerability and adaptation for agriculture, forestry, water resources, and health. The findings are summarized here for all sectors except the health sector, where the assessment found that the potential impact of climate change was insignificant (Kveton and Kazmarova, 1995). For the agriculture sector, a decrease in precipitation could lead to a change in winter wheat yields of −3% to +16% depending on the climate scenario. A number of adaptation measures are proposed, including improved soil management, integrated pest control, and careful water use. The potential impact on forests could be large, especially because there are already several problems (e.g., prevalence of Norway spruce monoculture) in this sector that would be exacerbated. The main adaptation mechanisms proposed are increased species diversity and sustainable forest management. The impact on water resources was estimated by modeling four catchments. The result under most of the scenarios was, at a minimum, a one-third decrease in runoff.

Analytica Chimica Acta, Oct 1, 1970

... Spectrochim. Acta 22 (1965), p. 1325. 8. I. Rube ka and B. Moldan. Analyst 93 (1968), p. 148.... more ... Spectrochim. Acta 22 (1965), p. 1325. 8. I. Rube ka and B. Moldan. Analyst 93 (1968), p. 148. Full Text via CrossRef. 9. W. Slavin. In: Atomic Absorption Spectroscopy, John Wiley, New York (1968), p. 176. 10. PO Juliano and WW Harrison. Anal. Chem. 42 (1970), p. 84. ...

Ecological Indicators, 2018

30 years after "Our Common Future" by the Brundlandt Commission (1987), sustainable development s... more 30 years after "Our Common Future" by the Brundlandt Commission (1987), sustainable development summits, educators, politicians, and civil society organizations have failed to a large extent to make the sustainable development concept broadly appealing. Among missing enabling conditions are a good narrative (making an extremely complex sustainable development strategy comprehensible to all and raising public support), social norms (reflecting commonly held sustainability principles and goals) and sustainability indicators (providing clear information). Information theory as well as empirical findings show that relevant, often multidimensional, indicators or indices may be instrumental in assessing the global sustainability strategy for People, Planet, Prosperity, Peace and Partnership adopted at a UN Summit in 2015. We identify the key obstacles and emphasize the instrumental role of sustainability indicators. We propose one indicator for each "P", i.e. five indicators in total, to assess and communicate the key sustainability trends. Since many potentially useful indicators and indices already exist, we call for immediate concerted action to select such a set of five indicators without waiting for perfect ones, to complement them with universally appealing narratives, and to spread them systematically and widely.

Envigogika, 2017

Sustainable Development strategy is going to celebrate its 30th anniversary this year (1987). Des... more Sustainable Development strategy is going to celebrate its 30th anniversary this year (1987). Despite its long existence it is a concept very little understood globally and causing public sentiment just at a small part of population. The article thinks about the causes and ways to improve it. It is indicators that have an underused potential for presentation sustainability principles and ideas. The sustainability indicators may serve as informative, educational and public enlightenment tools and assist in understanding of the whole concept – an instrumental condition for its embracing. The article defines general qualities of the indicators, as inter alia thematic relevance and indicator relevance, and proposes a set of five key indicators representing all dimensions of sustainable development: People, Planet, Prosperity, Peace and Partnership.

Ecological Indicators, 2016

At the UN in New York the Open Working Group created by the UN General Assembly proposed a set of... more At the UN in New York the Open Working Group created by the UN General Assembly proposed a set of global Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) which comprises 17 goals and 169 targets. Further to that, a preliminary set of 330 indicators was introduced in March 2015. Some SDGs build on preceding Millennium Development Goals while others incorporate new ideas. A critical review has revealed that indicators of varied quality (in terms of the fulfilment certain criteria) have been proposed to assess sustainable development. Despite the fact that there is plenty of theoretical work on quality standards for indicators, in practice users cannot often be sure how adequately the indicators measure the monitored phenomena. Therefore we stress the need to operationalise the Sustainable Development Goals’ targets and evaluate the indicators’ relevance, the characteristic of utmost importance among the indicators’ quality traits. The current format of the proposed SDGs and their targets has laid a policy framework; however, without thorough expert and scientific follow up on their operationalisation the indicators may be ambiguous. Therefore we argue for the foundation of a conceptual framework for selecting appropriate indicators for targets from existing sets or formulating new ones. Experts should focus on the “indicator-indicated fact” relation to ensure the indicators’ relevance in order for clear, unambiguous messages to be conveyed to users (decision- and policy-makers and also the lay public). Finally we offer some recommendations for indicators providers in order to contribute to the tremendous amount of conceptual work needed to lay a strong foundation for the development of the final indicators framework.

Soil and Groundwater Pollution, 1995

Immediately after the 1989 «velvet revolution» the newly created Czech Ministry of Environment pu... more Immediately after the 1989 «velvet revolution» the newly created Czech Ministry of Environment published its «Blue Book» with the first ever official and full report on environmental situation in the Czech Republic. The tone of this book is rather pessimistic because the data published here show that the scope of environmental pollution in the Czech Republic has been truly enormous.

Edward Elgar Publishing eBooks, Nov 26, 2003

Environmental development, 2016

Macalester International, 1995

Environmental geology, Nov 1, 1989

Springer eBooks, 1996

Analytica Chimica Acta, Oct 1, 1970

Ecological Indicators, 2018

Envigogika, 2017

Ecological Indicators, 2016

Soil and Groundwater Pollution, 1995

Please cite this article in press as: Holm, P., et al., Collaboration between the natural, social and human sciences in Global Change Research. Environ. Sci. Policy (2012), http://dx.doi.org/10.1016/j.envsci.2012.11.010, Dec 22, 2012

In nearly all domains of global change research (GCR), the role of humans is a key factor as a dr... more In nearly all domains of global change research (GCR), the role of humans is a key factor as a driving force, a subject of impacts, or an agent in mitigating impacts and adapting to change. While advances have been made in the conceptualisation and practice of interdisciplinary global change research in fields such as climate change and sustainability, approaches have tended to frame interdisciplinarity as actor-led, rather than understanding that complex problems which cut across disciplines may require new epistemological frameworks and methodological practices that exceed any one discipline.
GCR studies must involve from their outset the social, human, natural and technical sciences in creating the spaces of interdisciplinarity, its terms of reference and forms of articulation. We propose a framework for funding excellence in interdisciplinary studies, named the Radically Inter- and Trans-disciplinary Environments (RITE) framework. RITE includes the need for a realignment of funding strategies to ensure that national and international research bodies and programmes road-map their respective strengths and identified areas for radical interdisciplinary research; then ensure that these areas can and are appropriately funded and staffed by talented individuals who want to apply their creative scientific talents to broader issues than their own field in the long term, rather than on limited scope (5 year and less) research projects. While our references are mostly to Europe, recommendations may be applicable elsewhere.

Klima na Zemi se v posledních desetiletích mění tak pronikavě a přináší s sebou tak negativní dop... more Klima na Zemi se v posledních desetiletích mění tak pronikavě a přináší s sebou tak negativní dopady, že mluvíme o globální klimatické krizi. Svět se pokouší čelit prvním závažným důsledkům, jako jsou u nás například dlouhotrvající sucha či prudké jarní a letní lijáky a jinde ve světě mnohé další a často horší následky. Současné projevy jsou však jen počátkem krize, která se bude nadále prohlubovat, pokud svět nepodnikne systémová opatření především v řešení jejích příčin.

Na úrovni jednotlivých států a v celé Evropské unii se přijímají závazky snížit emise takzvaných skleníkových plynů (zejména oxidu uhličitého), plánují se adaptační opatření, vydávají se značné finanční prostředky. Týká se to nejen vlád na jedné straně a podniků na straně druhé, ale vlastně všech obyvatel. Planetární klimatický systém je však velmi složitý, a proto není jednoduché základním věcem porozumět. Tento stručný text se snaží podat podstatné informace, jež by k pochopení celé situace měly přispět.