The role of trading environment-friendly goods in environmental sustainability: Does green openness matter for OECD countries?

Achieving carbon neutrality targets is a major challenge for Organization for Economic Co-operation and Development (OECD) countries that experience mounting ecological degradation over the last few decades. To deal with this situation, the trading of green products may play a crucial role. However, previous studies have not captured the net impact of green trading, and also the international trade basket used in these studies is proxied by the trade openness index including both environment-friendly and not-so-friendly goods. To provide a solution, this research intends to capture the net effects of green goods on the environment over the period 2003 to 2016 in 35 OECD countries. This study extends the literature by computing a new Green Openness Index based on the OECD Combined List of Environmental Goods (CLEG) basket that consists of 255 products. After this, an empirical model based on the Environmental Kuznets Curve (EKC) hypothesis is developed to test the role of the Green Openness Index in environmental sustainability using methodology robust against heterogeneity and cross-sectional dependence. The outcomes unfolded the validity of the EKC hypothesis in 35 OECD countries. Empirical estimates confirmed that the Green Openness Index, which considers traditional environment-friendly goods as well as environmentally preferable goods, stimulates environmental sustainability. Finally, numerous policies are directed to accomplish carbon neutrality targets.

Snakebites in Pediatric Patients in Kahramanmaras: Is Pro-brain Natriuretic Peptide a Prognostic Biomarker for Snakebites?

BACKGROUND: Snake envenomations are a serious cause of mortality and morbidity in the world. AIMS: This study was conducted to investigate snake bites in pediatric patients in Kahramanmaras and to determine whether pro-brain natriuretic peptide (proBNP) has a prognostic value in these patients. METHODS: Pediatric patients aged <18 years who presented to the pediatric emergency department with snakebites were reviewed retrospectively. The demographical, clinical, laboratory, treatments, and outcomes data were collected from their medical records. Stage 0 and 1 envenomation was considered as a non-serious complication and stage 2 and 3 envenomation was considered as a serious complication. RESULTS: A total of 32 pediatric patients, six females and 26 males, between 2016 and 2021, were included in the study. The mean age was 12.52±3.28 years. There were seven patients without serious complications and 25 patients with serious complications. The best cutoff point for proBNP to predict serious complications was found to be ≥272.5 ng∙L-1 (sensitivity, 83.3%; specificity, 100%, p=0.011). We also detected complex regional pain syndrome in one of our patients. CONCLUSIONS: In this study, proBNP was shown to be predictive of a poor outcome of snakebites. Moreover, complex regional pain syndrome, which is rarely reported in the literature, should be kept in mind during the long-term follow-up of snakebites.

Revisiting the environmental Kuznets curve hypothesis in a tourism development context.

This study investigates empirically an extended version of the Environmental Kuznets Curve model that controls for tourism development. We find that international tourist arrivals into Turkey alongside income, squared income and energy consumption, cointegrate with CO2 emissions. Tourist arrivals, growth, and energy consumption exert a positive and significant impact on CO2 emissions in the long-run. Our results provide empirical support to EKC hypothesis showing that at exponential levels of growth, CO2 emissions decline. The findings suggest that despite the environmental degradation stemming from tourism development, policies aimed at environmental protection should not be pursued at the expense of tourism-led growth.