Kohti ekohyvinvointivaltiota

Terra, 2022

We present results from an expert questionnaire about the role of urban habitat types (biotopes) for urban biodiversity. Building upon the Biodiversity Quality framework (Feest 2006), we suggest nine community attributes that jointly act as a composite measure for urban biodiversity: species richness, habitat specialist species, biomass, abundance, evenness, uniqueness, regional representativeness, sensitivity, and connectivity. 24 taxonomic experts (representing vascular plants, polypores, fungi, birds, bats, mammals, herpetofauna, butterflies, hymenoptera, and beetles) scored 68 pre-defined urban biotopes in terms of their support for Biodiversity Quality in the Helsinki metropolitan area. Herb-rich forests and certain anthropogenic biotopes like fortifications generally received highest scores, whereas constructed areas like paved yards gained lowest scores. Results are mostly applicable in other Southern Finnish cities. Our openly available results provide a good tentative understanding of the biodiversity value of different urban environments. Biodiversity Quality is a more holistic measure than mere presence of protected or endangered species and it therefore supports biodiversity-aware and sustainable urban planning.

Supply web based Life Cycle Assessmen (LCA) was used to assess environmental impacts of oat flakes. Oat flakes were produced by RavintoRaisio in Nokia. Oat were cultivated mainly in Pirkanmaa and partly in Häme and Satakunta regions. All essential production and distribution stages were assessed, starting from the production of fertilizers and other farm inputs, including cultivation of oat, processing and packing in the industry, production of packaging, and distribution to the retail stores. In addition to the production chain, energy consumption and related emissions of several alternative home cooking methods of porridge were assessed. Global warming potential, photochemical ozone creation potential and environmental impacts on eutrophication and acidification were assessed based on environmental burdens. Valuation methods were not applied. According to the LCA results obtained from selected impact categories, the environmental load from the arable land was the primary cause for environmental impacts in production system. Nitrogen and phosphorus runoff dominated eutrophication. Main sources of global warming potential were nitrous oxide emissions from agricultural soil and carbon dioxide emissions from the use of tractors, drying of grain and use of lime. Volatile organic compounds from tractor use had major effect on photochemical ozone creation potential. Ammonia volatilisation from fertilisers and nitrogen oxides from tractors contributed more than 40% to acidification potential of the production system. Sulphur and carbon dioxide emissions from processing of oat have been decreased relatively much during the last two years. This is due to replacement of heavy fuel oil by bio and natural gas in steam production needed in production. Traditional porridge cooking caused multiple carbon dioxide emissions compared to the production of oat flakes. Cooking porridge had biggest contribution also to the global warming potential of the system. Most of the environmental impacts of the system can be affected by choosing the porridge cooking method. Most air emissions of porridge cooked in microwave were essentially smaller than when using traditional electric hot plate.

2014

Tämä pro gradu – tutkielma on osa Hyve-johtamisen kartta – hanketta. Hanke kuuluu sosiaali- ja terveysministeriön Pohjois-Suomen kansalliseen kehittämisohjelmaan. Tarkastelen johtamista sekä eettisestä että autenttisesta lähtökohdasta, ja syvennyn tarkemmin dialogiseen organisaatiokulttuuriin. Tutkielman tarkoituksena on selvittää eri sosiaali- ja terveydenhuollon sekä sivistys- ja kulttuuritoimen hallinnon aloilla toimivien palveluesimiesten kokemuksia lähijohtamiseen liittyvistä vuorovaikutustilanteista omien työntekijöiden ja toisten palveluesimiesten kanssa hyvinvointineuvoloissa. Tavoitteena on tuottaa tietoa palveluesimiesten vuorovaikutuskäytänteistä. Tietoa voi hyödyntää vuorovaikutteisen lähiesimiestyöskentelyn kehittämisessä. Tutkimuskysymys tässä yhteydessä on: Minkälaisia kokemuksia palveluesimiehillä on lähijohtamiseen liittyvistä vuorovaikutustilanteista omien työntekijöiden ja toisten esimiesten kanssa hyvinvointineuvoloissa? Tutkielma on laadullinen ja lähtökohtana o...

2018

Ecological compensations in coastal and open sea areas of the Baltic Sea The need to protect biodiversity is increasing worldwide. Human activities, especially eutrophication, have strongly and adversely impacted the marine environment in the watershed, coastal and open sea areas of the Baltic Sea. The existing marine protection area (MPA) network is a central component in sustaining the biodiversity values of the Baltic Sea. However, even though the MPA network protects important marine and coastal habitats and species, further measures are needed to reduce the rapid decline of biodiversity. One additional measure to halt biodiversity loss is ecological compensation or offsetting, where damage caused by human activity is compensated by restoring or protecting biodiversity elsewhere. The aim of ecological compensations is to produce ecological benefits to ecosystems (and/or species) and secure the essential ecosystem services in situations where human activities cause degradation to natural environments. General recommendation is that ecological compensations should be used as a final measure to minimize biodiversity loss. According to the mitigation hierarchy avoidance, mitigation and restoration on site should all be applied to minimize the damages prior to compensation. Furthermore, compensations should be measurable, permanent and of similar magnitude as the damages. The impact should be estimated based on ecological criteria, which separates ecological compensations from for example nutrient or carbon compensations. This report considers potentially usable measures that can be taken in the Baltic Sea watershed and coastal areas when planning ecological compensation. The compensation of marine ecological functions and values can be more complicated than compensations in terrestrial environments, because marine ecosystems are dynamically and three dimensionally connected ecological entities, which are characterized by strong spatio-temporal connectivity. The interconnectedness of terrestrial and marine systems is taken into account: the report includes measures for the watershed area because they can form an important part of a holistic approach in offsetting planning: reducing the effects of eutrophication on a local level by restricting the inflow of nutrients from the watershed can increase chances to actually achieve the offsetting goals than if only local coastal or marine measures are taken. Furthermore, concrete compensation measures are presented for sheltered and open coastal areas and different underwater habitats, including key habitats for fish. Finally, compensation measures for individual species are discussed shortly, although only a limited number of examples exist. Most of the measures presented in this report can be utilized also in other levels of the mitigation hierarchy when reducing and limiting the effects of human activities. It is thus essential that the chosen measures are planned and used to offset ecological functions and values and the planning, realisation and monitoring of the whole compensation procedure is well defined and carried out according to the principles of the mitigation hierarchy.

2013

Selvityksessä on tarkasteltu laajasti Suomen tukijärjestelmiä ympäristönäkökulmasta. Tuki määritellään toimeksi, joka vähentää kuluttajien tai tuottajien kustannuksia. Ympäristön kannalta haitalliseksi tuki luokitellaan OECD:n (2005) määritelmän mukaan mikäli ”kaikkien muiden tekijöiden pysyessä ennallaan, tuki kohottaa tuotannon tasoa tai luonnonvarojen käyttöä ja siten kohottaa jätteen, saasteen ja luonnon hyväksikäytön tasoa”. Tämän kaltaisia tukia on Suomessa lähinnä energia-, liikenne ja maataloussektorilla. Tarkasteltujen potentiaalisesti ympäristön kannalta haitallisten tukien yhteenlaskettu summa on välillä 3-4 mrd. euroa. Suurin osa näistä on verotukia. Vuonna 2011 energiateollisuuden, teollisuuden ja rakentamisen sekä teollisuusprosessien yhteenlaskettujen kasvihuonekaasupäästöjen osuus Suomen kasvihuonekaasupäästöistä oli noin 59 %. Tarkastellut energiasektorin ympäristörasitusta lisäävät tuet ovat verotukia. Näistä suurimmat ovat teollisuuden ja kasvihuoneiden alempi säh...

Poliittinen talous

Kirja-arvio: Kauppinen, Juha & Oinaala, Sampsa. Talvivaaran vangit. Kustannusosakeyhtiö Siltala, Helsinki, 2016. Erola, Marko. Kirottu kaivos. Totuuden jäljillä Talvivaarassa. Talentum, Helsinki, 2014.

2014

Pohjoismainen hyvinvointivaltiomalli elaa huomattavaa poliittista korkeasuhdannetta. Sen nimeen vannovat niin pohjoismaiset aanestajakunnat kuin myos suuri osa eurooppalaisista ja taloustieteilijoista (ks. esim. Svallfors 1989, 2012). Atlanttista talousliberalismia edustava The Economist omisti vuonna 2013 pohjoismaiselle mallille kokonaisen erikoisliitteen, joka ihasteli pohjoismaisen mallin markkinaehtoisuutta ja elinvoimaisuutta. Eurooppalaista talouspoliittista oikeaoppisuutta edustava Financial Times suhtautuu niin ikaan pohjoismaiseen hyvinvointivaltioon paakirjoituksissaan nykyaan myonteisesti. Ilmio on historiallisesti uusi. Kylman sodan aikana vastakkain olivat kommunismi ja kapitalismi, eika poliittisessa keskustelussa ollut paljoakaan tilaa nyansseille. Ruotsi on edustanut anglosaksisessa keskustelussa pohjoismaisen sosialismin arkkitapausta, ja Ruotsia pidettiinkin yleisesti puolimatkan asemana sosialismin ja markkinatalouden valilla. Kylman sodan polyn laskeuduttua asen...

2022

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