The spatial and temporal pattern of annual rainfall and the strength of the dry season within the Amazon region are poorly known. Existing rainfall maps are based on the data from full-scale, long-term meteorological stations, operated by national organizations linked to the World Meteorological Organisation, such as INMET in Brazil. Stations with 30 or more years of uninterrupted and reliable recordings are very few, considering the size of the region, and most of them are located along the major rivers. It has been suggested that rainfall conditions away from these rivers are substantially different. An analysis has been made of the records of a network of simple pluviometric sites in the Brazilian part of the region as maintained by the National Agency for Electric Energy (ANEEL) since 1970. The latter data sets were used to draw more detailed maps on annual rainfall, and on the strength of the dry season in particular; average number of consecutive months with less than 100 mm, 50 mm, and 10 mm, respectively. Also, some data were obtained on the spatial expression of El Niño events within the region. Sub-regional differences are large, and it is argued that they are important for the success or failure of agricultural settlements; for the hazard of large-scale fire damage of the still existing primary forest vegetation; for the functioning of this land cover as stock and sink of CO₂, and for the likelihood that secondary forests on abandoned agricultural lands will have less biomass. The effects of past El Niño rainfall anomalies on the biodiversity of the natural savannahs within the forest region are discussed.

A severe reduction in the populations of grey and ringed seals in the Baltic occurred during the 1960s and 1970s. Adult animals showed (and still show) a series of lesions inter alia in the female reproductive organs, intestines, integument, kidneys, adrenals, and skulls (the Baltic seal disease complex). The morphology and prevalence of light microscopic changes in the kidneys of 76 grey seals and 29 ringed seals collected in the Baltic proper and the Gulf of Bothnia during 1977–1996 are presented in this report. Specific changes in the glomeruli were diffuse thickening of the capillary walls and the presence of large, rounded, hyaline bodies in the capillary or capsular walls. Specific changes in the distal convoluted tubules and the collecting ducts included focal replacement of the normal epithelium by multilayered cell proliferations. The prevalence and extent of the changes were age-related and thus correlated with the time of exposure to environmental toxicants. The lesions were more conspicuous in Baltic grey seals than in Baltic ringed seals. Similar findings were recorded in 5 grey seals from Swedish zoological gardens. These animals had been fed Baltic fish for most of their lives. Electron microscopy was performed on 5 of the Baltic grey seals and on one of the grey seals from zoological gardens. Electron microscopy results mainly based on findings in one of the Baltic grey seals, included mesangial inter-position in the glomerular capillary walls and the characteristics of intercalated cells in cell proliferations in the distal parts of the nephrons. Eleven grey seals from the Scottish coast and 23 ringed seals from Svalbard served as reference material. None of the reference seals showed the specific lesions described above. The authors propose that organochlorine pollution of the Baltic environment is a factor in the cause of these kidney changes.

Organochlorine pesticides and polychlorinated biphenyls (PCBs) are ubiquitous and persistent in the environment. They are known to concentrate in cold environments as a result of progressive evaporation from warm regions, and condensation in colder regions. In this study we show that melting glaciers supply 50 to 97% of the organochlorine inputs to a subalpine lake in Alberta, Canada, while contributing 73% of input water. Tritium analyses indicated that during the mid- to late summer warm period, at least 10% of the glacial melt originated from ice that was deposited in 1950–1970, when it was more contaminated with organochlorines. This finding suggests that climate warming may cause melting glaciers to become increasing sources of contaminants to freshwaters. Organochlorines from glacial streams were largely in dissolved form because the organic-poor glacial clays had a limited sorption capacity for the more hydrophobic chemicals.

Eggs from 21 resident great blue heron (Ardea herodias) rookeries were monitored from 1983 to 1998 along the coast of British Columbia, Canada, for contamination with polychlorinated dibenzo-p-dioxins (PCDDs), dibenzofurans (PCDFs) and biphenyls (PCBs). Dominant congeners (1,2,3,7,8-PnCDD, 1,2,3,6,7,8-HxCDD, 2,3,7,8-TCDD, 2,3,7,8-TCDF, 1,2,3,7,8,9-HxCDD and 2,3,4,7,8-PnCDF) fell markedly in the early 1990s after pulp mills changed from molecular chlorine bleaching to alternative bleaching technologies, and the use of chlorophenolic wood preservatives and anti-sapstains was severely restricted. Strong positive linear regressions between prey fish and heron egg contaminant levels suggested that local dietary uptake was an important route of exposure for herons. Toxic equivalent concentrations (TEQs) sufficient to produce embryotoxicity in great blue heron chicks were measured in eggs from 1985 to 1991 at some colonies. Despite reduction in PCDD/Fs, estimated TEQs remained elevated throughout the 1980s at some urban colonies due to contributions from PCBs.

Urban metabolism measures quantitatively a city's load on the natural environment. We update the Newcombe et al. (3) pioneering study of Hong Kong's urban metabolism in 1971, highlighting trends in resource consumption and waste generation. Per capita food, water and materials consumption have surged since the early 1970s by 20%, 40%, and 149%, respectively. Tremendous pollution has accompanied this growing affluence and materialism, and total air emissions, CO₂ outputs, municipal solid wastes, and sewage discharges have risen by 30%, 250%, 245%, and 153%. As a result, systemic overload of land, atmospheric and water systems has occurred. While some strategies to tackle deteriorating environmental quality have succeeded, greater and more far-reaching changes in consumer behavior and government policy are needed if Hong Kong is to achieve its stated goal of becoming “a truly sustainable city” in the 21^st century.

Despite the fact that lifestyles, in particular goods and services consumption, play a key role for global inequity and unsustainability of greenhouse gas emissions, these issues are often inadequately addressed in information and education materials such as household greenhouse gas calculators. Often, only limited individual responsibility for climate change can be concluded, and this is restricted to the reader's immediate surroundings such as the household and the private car, while goods and services consumption are almost always ignored. As a consequence, recommendations for reducing personal emissions concentrate on the relatively minor aspect of electricity and fuel use, while missing the more important issue of reducing goods and services consumption as an efficient way to abate climate change. These shortcomings are illustrated using the example of a recently published household greenhouse gas emissions questionnaire. An example for a comprehensive greenhouse gas calculator is also presented.

The article elaborates on the role of international environmental regimes and multilateral environmental agreements in the process of development of environmental policy in the 3 Baltic countries; Estonia, Latvia, and Lithuania. Comparison of emission trends and changes in the state of the environment with reference to international environmental regimes allow one to conclude that there is no clear link between the official accession to environmental conventions and changes in environmental fields. The Baltic countries first joined international environmental regimes dealing with global or regional environmental security, while acceptance of the agreements and accession to regimes seen as more important from the point of view of solving their own environmental problems, took place later. Therefore, it can be concluded that the Baltic countries have seen the international legal instruments in their environmental policies as preventive, rather than curative instruments. Active participation in multilateral environmental agreements (MEAs) has, on the other hand, substantially contributed to the readiness of the Baltic countries to take the next step in their environmental policy—taking over the environmental policies (Acquis Communautaire) of the European Union.