C. A. Marques, F. P. Gonçalves, S. F. Yunes, Adélio A. S. C. Machado, Views of Bazilian Chemical Researchers on Environmental Sustainability, 4th International IUPAC Conference on Green Chemistry, Foz do Iguaçu, Brazil, Agosto, 2012.
2012-08-25

Autores:
Carlos Alberto Marques
Fábio Peres Gonçalves
Santiago Francisco Yunes
Adélio A. S. C. Machado*

Instituições:
Departamento de Metodologia de Ensino, Universidade Federal de Santa Catarina, Florianópolis, Brasil.
*Departamento de Química e Bioquímica da Faculdade de Ciências da Universidade do Porto, Portugal.

Resumo:
INTRODUCTION

The purpose of this communication is to present the results of a study for characterizing the opinion of Brazilian chemistry researchers from the National Council for Scientific and Technological Development (CNPq) on the meaning and scope of the terms Environmental Sustainability (ES) and Sustainable Development (SD) in chemistry.
The final aim of the study is to find how chemistry researchers feel about providing Sustainability with respect to the environment when the fragility and limits of this are taken into account. This is important to understand the response chemistry may provide to these challenges, especially when the variety of contributions allowed by Green Chemistry (GC) are considered.

RESULTS AND DISCUSSION

The study consisted of an on-line questionnaire based on short texts on concepts and situations connected to SD and ES followed by nine groups of Questions (Q1-9) about the degree of agreement/disagreement on them. The Brundtland definition was used as a departure point (Q1), but the scope of the concept was broadened to include other formulations anchored in other areas of knowledge (biology, economics, etc.) (Q2), and different scenarios and implications on an environmental equilibrium state were also considered (Q3). The contradiction between the world limited resources and a continuous growth was explored in Q4 and led to questions on the effects on ES of the principles of matter and energy conservation, the 2nd Law of Thermodynamics (Q5), and consequences on how to deal with pollutants (Q6 to Q8), to search whether procedures based on risk (“risk paradigm”) are considered to be sufficient to resolve the problems or a new paradigm (“ecological paradigm”) (1) is desirable.
The questionnaire was sent to 456 researchers and 82 replies were received.
A majority of this group (ca. 82%) fully agrees with the conception of SD/Sustainability of the Brundtland Commission, considered sufficient and efficient to define the concepts. However, when other visions of the concepts such as those of biology, economics, etc, were considered, the group showed divisions on the degree of agreement, but strangely no mentions were advanced to the physical limits to Sustainability imposed by nature, as a consequence of the postulates of Thermodynamics.

CONCLUSION

The responses show awareness of the requirement of a more sustainable development model with respect to the limits imposed by the environment, although with no consensus about the nature and strength of these limits. Indeed, although the respondents recognize the limits of the classic “risk paradigm” that has been followed for environmental control, they were divided over the need for and the characteristics of the new "ecological paradigm" that fully supports the ES, as well as GC – indeed it is expressed in the 12 Principles.
The study will be continued by an analysis of the relations between the researchers’ responses and fields of work (shown by scientific papers), to try to understand how these influence their mindsets on ES.

ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS

To CNPq and CAPES Foundation (Brasil), and FCT (Portugal) for the award of a collaboration project (289/11-Brasil and 151/11-Portugal) on “Chemical Education under the Perspective of GC and ES”.

REFERENCES

1.J. Thornton, Beyond Risk: An Ecological Paradigm to Prevent Global Chemical Pollution, Int. J. Occup. Environ. Health, 6 (2000) 318-330




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