This database integrates the portuguese part of ESS Round 8 - European Social Survey 2016 - with country-specific variables, which were only applied in Portugal. These variables are related with the subjects of the multi-country survey and have been elaborated by the portuguese research team. "The survey (…) includes questions on a variety of core topics repeated from previous rounds of the survey and also two modules developed for Round 8 covering Public Attitudes to Climate Change, Energy Security, and Energy Preferences and Welfare Attitudes in a Changing Europe (the latter is a partial repeat of a module from Round 4)." (from ESS website)

A pandemia SARS-COV-2 tem apresentado enormes desafios à nossa sociedade a diversos níveis. Todavia, o evidente paralelismo entre esta situação e a iminente emergência planetária decorrente das alterações climáticas, proporcionam uma oportunidade de repensar o modo como vivemos, para melhor nos adaptarmos à mudança e desenvolvermos estratégias capazes de mitigar este problema ambiental. Neste sentido, no âmbito de uma disciplina de educação ambiental, foi desenvolvida uma investigação com a finalidade de analisar os impactos do confinamento decorrente da pandemia nas perspetivas de estudantes do ensino superior sobre as alterações climáticas. Participaram no estudo 34 estudantes do Curso de Licenciatura em Educação Social de uma instituição de ensino superior portuguesa. Considerou-se pertinente envolver neste processo educativo e investigativo futuros técnicos de intervenção socioeducativo que atuarão com uma diversidade de públicos no sentido da melhoria da qualidade de vida. Os resultados demonstram que a adaptação súbita dos processos de ensino e aprendizagem ao ensino remoto foi eficaz na sensibilização e no aprofundamento de conhecimentos sobre a problemática das alterações climáticas. Para além disso, os resultados apontam para um impacto positivo da situação pandémica para a reflexão sobre a mitigação das alterações climáticas e para a formação de cidadãos para a ação.

The climate can be considered an extremely important factor in vegetation distribution and its characteristics in a global context. Climate changes affect the global distribution of vegetation in the distant past and probably will affect in the future. Spatial distribution models of species (SDMs), also known as niche models are one of the best current tools for predicting climate-induced changes on the distribution of species. In general, studies of the consequences of climate changes on the distribution of biomes include only the geographic distribution of the biome or the species are analyzed individually. The availability of climatic and ecological data on a large scale, in addition to more efficient procedures for obtaining data from geographic information systems, optimization programs and greater computing power favor the process of modeling the potential distribution, and broaden the effectiveness of results available by the SDMS. The main objective of this study is to evaluate whether there is a shift in the hierarchical structure of future distributions of biome, phytoeeological regions and plants species of the biome under the effect of climate changes. Consequently, we evaluate some effects of climate changes on the pattern of species richness and pattern of future distributions of the biome, phytoeeological regions and species. This study shows that there is a hierarchical structure in the response of vegetation distribution faces climate changes predictions for the year 2080 in the Brazilian Cerrado. In general, in the three scales studied their distributions are moving toward to southeast of Brazil, thus this region is replaced by a diversity gain while the rest of the local Cerrado suffers from the impoverishment of their diversity. This study also shows that in the near future, the Cerrado species will show habitat loss, due to both the loss of fragments and area reduction of these.

A urbanização brasileira caracterizada por um processo de exclusão social e econômica têm imposto a grande parte da população habitar de modo precário em áreas de risco de desastres naturais. A injustiça ambiental se agudiza no meio urbano, onde os assentamentos com moradias apresentam também inadequação da morfologia, funcionalidade e da infraestrutura dos espaços públicos e privados de uso coletivo. A falta de acesso à cidade legal faz com que famílias vivam em habitações precárias suscetíveis a problemas relacionados a mudanças do clima, como chuvas, enchentes e desabamento. Dado um enorme déficit de moradias, o Governo Federal, através do Ministério das Cidades, instituiu uma política pública de provisão de habitação de interesse social baseado principalmente na construção de conjuntos habitacionais. A inserção e forma urbana destes assentamentos planejados, porém, não responde aos problemas e desafios das cidades face à problemática ambiental, os riscos decorrentes e as respostas para mitigação e adaptação. Os projetos não contribuem para a redução dos impactos na construção, manutenção e reformas necessárias para o futuro mais adequado e confortável para a moradia. No entanto, o Programa Minha Casa Minha Vida, apesar de proporcionar condições mínimas de dignidade a essa população está muito aquém de proporcionar qualidade de vida satisfatória. O presente trabalho busca expor a realidade de reassentamentos de populações ocorridos na Bacia Hidrográfica do Ribeirão Piçarrão, localizada na região sudoeste de Campinas-SP, apresentando propostas preliminares para processos de remoção e reassentamento mais respeitosos e dignos. Foram realizadas entrevistas com lideranças locais e agentes públicos e aplicação de questionários com população diretamente envolvida no processo, com o objetivo de aproximação da realidade local vivida na determinada situação.

The growing demand of world food and energy supply increases the threat of global warming due to higher greenhouse gas emissions by agricultural activity. Therefore, it is widely admitted that agriculture must establish a new paradigm in terms of environmental sustainability that incorporate techniques for mitigation of greenhouse gas emissions. This article addresses to the scientific demand to estimate in a fast and inexpensive manner current and potential soil organic carbon (SOC) stocks in degraded pastures, using remote sensing techniques. Four pastures on sandy soils under Brazilian Cerrado vegetation in São Paulo state were chosen due to their SOC sequestration potential, which was characterized for the soil depth 0-50 cm. Subsequently, a linear regression analysis was performed between SOC and Leaf Area Index (LAI) measured in the field (LAIfield) and derived by satellite (LAIsatellite) as well as SOC and pasture reflectance in six spectra from 450 nm - 2350 nm, using the Enhanced Thematic Mapper (ETM+) sensor of satellite Landsat 7. A high correlation between SOC and LAIfield (R² = 0.9804) and LAIsatellite (R² = 0.9812) was verified. The suitability of satellite derived LAI for SOC determination leads to the assumption, that orbital remote sensing is a very promising SOC estimation technique from regional to global scale.

O uso intensivo da terra invariavelmente causa efeitos negativos ao ambiente e produção agrícola se práticas conservativas não forem adotadas. Redução na quantidade de matéria orgânica do solo significa emissão de gases (principalmente CO2, CH4, N2O) para a atmosfera e aumento do aquecimento global. A sustentabilidade do solo é também afetada, uma vez que a qualidade da matéria orgânica remanescente muda. Alterações podem ser verificadas, por exemplo, pela desagregação do solo e mudança na sua estrutura. As consequências são erosão, redução na disponibilidade de nutrientes para as plantas e baixa capacidade de retenção de água no solo. Estes e outros fatores refletem negativamente na produtivade das culturas e sustentabilidade do sistema solo-planta-atmosfera. Ao contrário, a adoção de boas práticas de manejo, tal como o sistema plantio direto, pode parcialmente reverter o processo, uma vez que objetiva o aumento das entradas de material orgânico no solo e/ou diminuição das taxas de decomposição da matéria orgânica do solo.

This paper analyzes the climate strategies adopted by wind energy producers and technology suppliers. An exploratory survey was conducted among companies operating in Brazil. The results indicate that their business strategies are strongly influenced by public policies which encourage renewable energy generation. Shareholders and the Federal Government exerts great influence on strategic decisions. The business practice more adopted to mitigate the effects of climate change involves technology development focused on improving the operational efficiency of wind turbines. The research demonstrates an alignment between the strategies of producers and suppliers, by stimulating the development of a sustainable energy matrix, ensuring energy security and respond to climate change challenges.

The world’s population will rise exponentially in the coming decades, increasing the demand for food and challenging the agricultural sector to ensure food security. Due to the importance of climate conditions for agriculture, this article analyzed two different hypotheses regarding climate impacts on agricultural markets in Brazil. First, farmers only observe the average climate conditions of their region when deciding the type and amount of crop or animal to grow or raise. Second, weather diversions from normal climate conditions cause farmers to deviate from optimal profits. Neither hypothesis was rejected by the data. The 2006 estimated loss from rainfall anomalies was 12.8 billion dollars (in 2014 values).

Climate change represents a real threat for the winter sport resorts, especially those situated at low altitudes and without any diversification of the tourism product. Mountain tourism represents a real attraction for the holidays and for short weekends being mostly visited by tourists in summer and winter season, which make them more vulnerable to the lack of snow in the cold season, floods, storms or even heat waves. This paper has two main objectives, firstly to measure the impact of the climate change on tourism demand for Romanian mountain tourism, and secondly to identify sustainable solutions for adaptation of vulnerable mountain resorts, such as Sinaia, one of the most known winter sport resorts in Romania. First, the authors will identify the impacts of climate change on Romanian mountain tourism, starting with the effect of the temperature increase, snow depth variation and the extreme weather events occurring in mountain resorts on tourist flows. Positive and negative effects of climate change will be identified, and starting from the results, the authors will present necessary measures to transform the Romanian mountain tourism in an adaptive destination.

Ecosystem-based adaptation (EbA) is a nature-based solution that has gained importance in the context of international climate policy, such as in the EU Adaptation Strategy (2013), which explicitly encourages its adoption and which should continue in The European Green Deal. This study aims to analyze how the EbA concept has been adopted in strategic adaptation planning at the municipal and intermunicipal levels in Portugal after the publication of the European adaptation strategy in 2013. Thus, a quantitative content analysis was carried out, based on EbA keywords, of municipal strategies and intermunicipal plans in Portugal. The term “ecosystem-based” has not been transposed as an explicit objective at the municipal and intermunicipal levels. All strategies and plans have included indirect references to the underlying elements of the EbA concept. This study highlights that although the EU Adaptation Strategy explicitly encourages EbA, this does not mean that it is adopted as a preferred adaptation approach at the local level in Portugal. The EbA seems to be more widely understood by the research community than by municipal technicians or private companies. It is necessary to explore how the EbA concept can be more widely accepted through the generation of co-benefits and by synergies between topics.