We talk to the pioneering climate-change researcher Prof. Hans Joachim Schellnhuber about the role of decency in fighting climate change, and why excellent climate science requires freedom and trust.

The basic idea of the paper is to apply a multi-attribute notion of diversityproposed by Nehring and Puppe to technological changes appearing as aconsequence of innovations in Schumpeter’s sense of the term in the productionsphere of the economy modelled by the use of the Arrow and Debreu topologicalapparatus. The paper is inspired by the work of Malawski and Woerter whoused Stirling diversity concept to prove that innovative processes are the sourceof growing diversity in the Schumpeterian vision of economic development. Weshow that, under certain conditions, nondecreasing multi-attribute diversity inthe production sphere of the private ownership economy is a necessary andsufficient condition for the occurrence of innovation in the economy under study.

Prof. Paweł Rowiński, Vice-President of the Polish Academy of Sciences, talks about how climate change will affect Poland and what signs of it should we look for in our rivers.

Arctic glaciers respond quickly to climatic conditions, which is why they play a special role as climate warming indicators. Studying them in the long term is the key to understanding future global environmental changes.

Prof. Mirosław Kofta, a psychologist from the University of Warsaw’s Faculty of Psychology and Institute for Social Studies, discusses political change in Poland, authoritarian personality, and civil society.

It’s difficult to imagine a more curious continent: Antarctica, once very austere and inhospitable, is now becoming greener as a result of climate change.

Any effective response to ecological crisis calls for collaboration of all parties involved.

Prof. Tandong Yao and Prof. Fahu Chen describe our growing understanding of climate change impacts in the “Pan-Third Pole” region, discussing both coping strategies and research initiatives focusing on the region.

Air quality and climate change, as two crucial environmental emergencies confronting our societies, are still generally viewed as separate problems requiring different research and policy frameworks. However, they should rightfully be viewed as two sides of the same coin. What we truly need to seek, therefore, are “win-win” solutions.

Uncertainties as to how the climate will change and how it will influence the necessities and trends of irrigation development lead to a number of serious questions to be answered in the near future. How irrigation and water systems will have to adapt to climate changes is a challenge that planners, designers and O&M services will have to cope with.

It is widely accepted that air temperature in Poland will increase of 2–4°C, however a total yearly precipitation will not vary yet its pattern during the year may change towards higher in winter and lower in summer. Evapotranspiration and crop water demand may rise due to both an increase in temperature and duration of crop growth cycles.

Three main factors are expected to exert an accelerating influence on the development of irrigation: increased frequency and intensity of droughts and long-lasting precipitation-free periods with the high insolation and high air temperatures resulting from climate change; the intensification of agricultural production (e.g. in horticulture, orchards, seed crops), being forced by both domestic and European free-market competition; the necessity of reaching high level of quality for the majority of agricultural products.

To mitigate negative effects of climate change and extreme events, appropriate adaptation methods and adaptation strategies should be developed and implemented in existing irrigation and water control systems. A number of technological and organisational steps should be taken to improve operation, management, administration and decision making processes.

The pinnipeds were counted on the western shore of Admiralty Bay during 1994. It was found that the numbers of one breeding species Mirounga leonina is stable, the remaining four species show a variable pattern of occurrence. However, there is no evidence to detect any trend since 1988.

The paper analyses the consequences of structural change in the presenceof non-stationary stochastic processes I(1) or I(2). The structural change mayconcern the deterministic structure (in particular, the trend and the constantterm) as well as the process generating the stochastic part. The focus of thepaper is on the case of a discrete change in a regime for which the momentof switch is known. A change in the deterministic part does not alter thecharacter of the cointegration relationships but its consequences for cotrendingand cobreaking are interesting. The consequences of a change in the stochasticpart are more complex, because then the stochastic process as well as thedeterministic structure of the VECM are modified. The restrictions are analysedfor both cases.

Pewien buddyjski mnich wybierał się w długą i uciążliwą podróż. Jako towarzysza podroży wziął służącego, który znany był z krnąbrności i kłótliwości. Zapytany o powód tego wyboru oświadczył, że chce się ćwiczyć w cierpliwości i skromności. Dla mnie taką nauką były trzy lata prowadzenia międzynarodowego projektu CHIHE.

A simple resistance-based method was used to study the epoxy-carbon composite material. Measurement of changes of the resistance between contacts, located on the composite specimens, allows detecting the damage process in quasi-static and fatigue tests. The method can be useful to determine the margin of safety of composite elements.

This article proposes that the ’imāla phenomenon was an innovation in the Najd region. The non-’imāla form was the traditional form because it is the vowel production in the available Ancient North Arabian data. The article will separate the use of ’imāla as an assimilatory vowel from the Najdi non-assimilatory production by analyzing the testimonial data in the traditional books of grammar. Finally, the article will use the available genealogical literature to establish an approximate chronology for the innovation and to justify the spread of the innovation among the pre-Islamic tribes.