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Contents
1. Message from the president
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7th Global Stone Congress 2023
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Risks and Territorial conflicts. From natural disasters to geopolitical tensions.
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3. Organic food and pesticides
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1. Message from the President
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Research of the ISDRS community contributes to a world in conflict
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I keep track of United Nations (UN) Days of Observances since I want to be reminded of historic and current important issues and events. May 8-9 are days of Time of Remembrance and Reconciliation for Those Who Lost Their Lives During the Second World War. Since two family members of mine have died in the Second World War, it is of course of personal value to me to let my family and next generations know about this. UN writes: “The UN General Assembly declared 8–9 May as a time of remembrance and reconciliation and, while recognizing that Member States may have individual days of victory, liberation and commemoration, invited all Member States, organizations of the United Nations System, non-governmental organizations and individuals to observe annually either one or both of these days in an appropriate manner to pay tribute to all victims of the Second World War.” We shall never forget.
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And there is much more that we shall not forget: More than fourteen months have passed and “we are painfully reminded of daily, Ukraine has been hit by an illegal and unjust war, hit by an aggressor who does not hesitate to attack civilians, cultural buildings, hospitals, schools and universities; who does not hesitate to commit war crimes. The situation remains deeply worrying”. The text in citation marks is actually from the ISDRS Newsletter Q1 from 2022, and we can see that not much has changed indeed.
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It is my duty however to also mention other conflicts in the world, yet unresolved, and recognize their challenges and destruction they bring about: Nagorno Karabakh as yet another conflict in the hoods of Russia; protests of human rights in Iran; the war in Yemen with its fighting currently mostly on hold; recent agreements have brought the war in Ethiopia to a momentary end, but for how long; the M23 rebels have re-appeared and bring chaos and destruction in the Democratic Republic of the Congo; coups and toppled governments in Burkina Faso, Mali and Niger; after the murder of president Jovenel Moïse in 2021, Haiti has become an area of gang violence, political paralysis and a break-down in many social services; Taiwan as a region seems rather unstable with pressures increasing as USA and China have different views on their autonomy as a nation-state.
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In my view, as long as conflicts such as the above are active, it remains harder for humankind to reach a sustainable development. Several tracks of the upcoming ISDRS 2023 conference in Kuala Lumpur in Malaysia discuss causes or consequences to conflicts around the world; not seldomly rooted in ecological catastrophes. Track 9a for instance, on Peace and sustainable development, has attracted more submission than for many years. The ISDRS community and its scholars remain relevant and bring current research upfront. Also in this respect, I am very proud of what ISDRS stands for and that our annual conferences enable the ISDRS community of scholars from all over the world to contribute with new knowledge for a sustainable development.
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Peter Dobers, professor at Södertörn University
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ISDRS President 2021.01-2023.09
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May 8, 2023 in Stockholm, Sweden
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2. Announcements
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ISDRS 2023 conference
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Register for ISDRS 2023 now! For more information about pricing and how to register, click on button below.
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You can find useful information here about travel, accommodation and conference venues.
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The organising committee is working hard to develop the conference programme, please regularly check our latest news page here.
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What is the Best Sustainable Development Article in 2022?
The Best Article Award 2022 shortlist is here! The jury has been working hard to review the 34 nominated articles and have presented the best 6 for your consideration.
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Please click on the link below to read the six shortlisted articles. Then proceed to the voting page and vote for your favourite articles.
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7th Global Stone Congress 2023
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The 7th Edition of the Global Stone Congress (GSC2023), which introduces new technologies, cutting-edge scientific knowledge, and practical experience in the field of the Natural Stone Industry, will be held between the 18th and 23rd of June 2023.
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A rich program of valuable topics and guests will be presented at GSC2023, where current developments in natural stone exploration, operation, and factory production techniques will be shared. Taking place at the Mosteiro da Batalha, Portugal, the congress aims to bring together scientists and representatives from the Natural Stone Industry.
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A series of lectures, posters, round tables, seminars, and workshops will be organized as part of GSC2023. Aside from these initiatives, tech visits and networking sessions will provide participants with the opportunity to interact.
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Key elements will be highlighted and based on current research in the following topics:
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- Exploration, Exploitation, Quarrying
- Processing, Transformation, Stone Characterization and New Products
- Machines, Tools, and Consumables
- BIM integration in the dimension stone industry
- Environmental Recovery and Territory Management
- Natural Stone & Architecture
- Circular Economy & Sustainability
- Climate change impacts on geomaterials
- Geoheritage and Geoconservation
- Health and Safety at work
- Licensing and Inspection
The GSC2023 is organized by the Cluster of Mineral Resources, University of Évora and ASSIMAGRA – Portuguese Association of the Mineral Resources Industry. This organisation promoters develops the sector's gateway to the world and aims to add global brand value to Natural Stone. It allows an interdisciplinary analysis based on its value both on commercial and scientific grounds. Thrives to create strategic partnerships with other stakeholders to promote natural stones throughout the world.
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Moreover, aiming to raise awareness around the world by identifying upcoming trends in the use of natural stone, ASSIMAGRA encourages environmentally friendly, recyclable, and sustainable production with maximum efficiency and minimum waste in all processes from the moment the natural stone is extracted until it reaches the end consumer.
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Instituto Universitário de Lisboa (ISCTE-IUL), IBS, Lisboa, Portugal
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Risks and Territorial Conflicts.
From natural disasters to geopolitical tensions.
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23 to 26 of May 2023
Coimbra, Portugal
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All over the world and in an almost daily context, more frequently and intensely, we are confronted with situations of conflicts and catastrophes, be these environmental, military clashes, epidemic outbreaks or pandemics, contamination or scarcity of resources, which jeopardize the survival and daily lives of populations, destroy communities or affect their infrastructures and cause serious social and psychological trauma.
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The rapid economic growth, the globalized society, the urbanization of increasingly extensive areas, aggravated by climate change, put an increasing pressure on the territories, which together with the demographic increase or the strong migratory movements, “free” in search of better living conditions or “forced” by environmental catastrophes, promote the depilation of natural resources and the destruction of ecological niches, responsible for the Man-Nature balance, among others for filtering the air and thus containing possible viruses, and increasing exposure to different risks and, consequently, the vulnerability of populations.
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Due to a diverse set of factors, which must be framed in time and space, conflicts of interest exist and are normal.
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On the one hand, resources are finite and, on the other hand, value systems and perceptions of reality by different actors may not coincide.
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In this way, the cartography of disputes over the control of a place, a path or a relevant geographical position, or strategic assets such as water, soil, forests, minerals or various energy sources, is extensive.
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In multiple contexts and different geographic scales, these conflicts are crossed by asymmetrical power relations and by dynamics of dispossession and deterritorialization, especially on the part of the most vulnerable populations.
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In this interdisciplinary domain, fields such as political ecology, local geopolitics, critical and social cartography and territorial justice intersect.
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In this way, between competition and the necessary cooperation between the actors, it is important to problematize the origin and anticipate these situations of conflict, as well as to discuss and analyze the management of the crises that may result from this.
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Telefone: +351 239 992 251
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3. Organic food and pesticides
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Consumers purchase organic food to avoid pesticides (Paull, 2020). Data from the UK Department of Environment, Food and Rural Affairs confirm the wisdom of this strategy (DEFRA, 2022).
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The study tested 373 samples of twelve different fruit and vegetables (UK grown and imported) for the presence of 398 different pesticides.
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Most (85%) of the non-organic fruit and vegetables tested contained pesticides, while most (86%) of the organic fruit and vegetables tested did not contain pesticides (Fig.1).
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Figure 1: Most (86%) organic fruit and vegetables does not contain pesticides; most (85%) non-organic fruit and vegetables does contain pesticides (data source: DEFRA, 2022).
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For the non-organic fruit and vegetable samples (n=338), 85% (n=287) contained pesticides. Most (77%, n=221) of the samples containing pesticides, contained multiple pesticides. Some (8%, n=24) of samples containing pesticides, exceeded the maximum residue limits (MRLs).
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For the organic samples (n=35), 14% (n=5) contained pesticides. The organic samples containing pesticides (n=5) comprised: 3 (of 4) spinach samples, 1 (of 4) tomato samples, and 1 (of 9) cucumber samples.
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The results confirm the wisdom of consumers purchasing organic fruit and vegetables to reduce or avoid consuming pesticides.
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DEFRA. (2022). Report on the Pesticide Residues Monitoring Programme: Results of Quarter 1 2022. London: Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs (DEFRA).
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Paull, J. (2020). Organic food and agriculture. In M. Gibson (Ed.), Food and Society (pp. 179-199). London: Academic Press.
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Colophon
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This newsletter is presented by the International Sustainable Development Research Society on a regular basis to all registered Followers and members. If you want to receive this newsletter, please register here.
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Contributions to the newsletter and announcements of relevant activities are welcomed.
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Please send any contribution to the co-editors:
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Marlen Arnold and Prajal Pradhan
Email: newsletter@isdrs.org
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Followers and members are invited to share innovative, creative and critical ideas about about the further enhancement of sustainable development in a short essay form. This would have a size of between 500-2000 words, follow the general rules of academic publishing (proper references etc.), but it would fill the gap between journal/conference abstracts and official journal publications.
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Please provide submissions in a word document and not PDF format, any images must be submitted as a media file (.jpeg, .png or similar).
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Disclaimer; the ISDRS is not responsible for any content displayed on the websites that are hyperlinked in this newsletter.
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Get more involved with ISDRS
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ISDRS maintains several topic groups closely related to the UN SDG's with the goal of organising the annual call for papers preceding each conference. These working groups focus on different areas of sustainable development corresponding to each theme.
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