Historic title is just one of many legal instruments which may be raised by parties and used by judges to decide a territorial dispute. If a claim of historic title in given circumstances may be deemed to have been extinguished as a result of its relative weakness, the elements advanced in support of its construction, for example uti possidetis or eff ective occupation, may be used to support other types of legal claims. Taking into account its construction and its systemic conditional criteria, historic title gains maximum eff ectiveness when conditions exist which would support a fi nding of its incremental consolidation. This involves a multi-dimensional interpretation in reliance on particular elements which, taken together, create a complicated factual state in a particular territorial dispute. On the other hand, consolidation of historic title is not an argument which can be used by the indigenous native inhabitants of a territory, since their arguments are not based on claims of sovereignty.

International law reflects systemic conditions compatible with its essence, which means that a space must exist inside the borders of that order for the presence of the phenomenon of general principles. The assumption that international law is a legal system ipso facto means that general principles must exist within its borders. A general principle of law is a necessary element of every legal order. It is a form and a tool in which the efforts of the individual seeking to comprehend a given phenomenon are materialized through imposing order on it rather than by breaking it down into unconnected and independent elements. Since law is an expression of order, law therefore applies general principles. The systematicity of law, and therefore of international law as well, creates the primary source of the binding force of any norm. Considerations of natural law or positive law justifications for the presence of general principles in international law are of little consequence, as the source of general principles is the systemic nature of the law. Order and hierarchy are part of the rationalized system in which norms of law present themselves. This dependency applies also to norms of international law. The role of the judge is to fill in the appropriate normative content (general principles) in fields constituting at one and the same time both a necessary element and a consequence of the systemic character of the international legal order. Within this context the principle of good faith constitutes one of the bases for considerations concerning the extent of the international legal order. The extent of international law reaches as far as the extent to which evidence of good faith are present among the subjects of international law. The impossibility of describing relations between two states by the use of the determinants of good faith, translated in turn into a normative general principle, determinates the limits of international law.

Transformacja w sektorze wytwarzania energii elektrycznej jest warunkiem koniecznym, lecz niewystarczającym do zapobieżenia katastrofie klimatycznej.

Na temat miksu energetycznego różne grupy społeczne mają odmienne zdania. Zmienia się on w czasie, w tempie, którego większość konsumentów energii nie docenia. Zmienia się nawet w Polsce, z pewnością niebędącej liderem transformacji energetycznej.

Przywrócenie niegdysiejszej świetności zabytkom architektonicznym z zastosowaniem materiałów identycznych lub przynajmniej zbliżonych do tych, których używano dawniej, to dla konserwatorów zabytków wielkie wyzwanie.

Population studies on Arion lusitanicus, a slug species introduced into Poland, were carried out over the last decade. The slug occurs commonly in some areas and spreads out relatively quickly. It has an annual life cycle with eggs, and immature individuals overwinter. In the end of July A. lusitanicus begins copulation and three weeks later it lays eggs from which the first offspring hatch within a month. The copulation process and egg laying last until late fall. One A. lusitanicus can lay over 400 eggs. During the growing season there are two peaks of population density. This species feeds on plant material such as leaves, stems, bulbs, but also consumes animal material. The basic plant material are arable crops particularly vegetables and some species of agricultural crops, some fruit trees, ornamental plants, herbs and weeds. A. lusitanicus displays apparent food specialization and prefers certain cultivated and wild growing plants. A. lusitanicus shows large reproduction potential, wide food and ecologic tolerance, and is regarded as a serious pests occurring in home gardens.

Forests may play important role in partial neutralization of CO2 emission. To maximize their potential it is unavoidable to divide them into forests that will be allowed to evolve toward natural state and forest predisposed for timber production, supplemented with forest plantations. Natural forests store almost twice more carbon in biomass and soil than managed forests, and carbon contained in wood from plantations and timber-producing forests will be frozen long time in wooden constructions. Gasification of wood debris instead of burning will allow for production of biocarbon that added to soil will residue there through decades, and will decrease necessary amount of artificial fertilizers, which production is an important source of carbon dioxide. Forests evolving to natural state will be less prone to fire and hurricanes, and will better protect biodiversity. Presented project is not contradictory to the project “The Forest Carbon Farms” of State Forests, but allows to reach better results in shorter time and likely at lower cost.

Global emissions have already reached a monstrous amount of 37 Gt of CO2 per year, and the content of this gas in the atmosphere, which is 50% higher than in pre-industrial times, and other greenhouse gases is changing the climate, causing enormous risks for humanity. A complete decarbonization of the economy is essential. Currently, China, the US and the European Union as a whole emit the most, but the US and EU countries bear the greatest responsibility for the carbon dioxide already accumulated in the atmosphere. They are high GDP countries, so they have a moral obligation to help poorer countries decarbonize their economies. Most urgent is the decarbonization of the energy sector, which has a huge, if not the largest, share of emissions. In addition, decarbonizing other sectors will significantly increase demand for electricity. Fortunately, methods to decarbonize this sector are technically mature – only RES and nuclear power should remain. The only problems are time and money. Decarbonization of transportation is proceeding faster than expected, through electromobility and the somewhat slower deployment of hydrogen fuel cells. More difficult is the decarbonization of industry, as the technologies are immature, although research in this direction has intensified greatly recently. Decarbonization of heating and cooling is a challenge not because there is a lack of methods to solve the problem, but because the scale of the undertaking is huge, especially since buildings have a long life span, and it is not always easy to change the heating in existing buildings. Despite the tremendous acceleration, it appears that the complete decarbonization of the economy by 2050, which is recommended by the IPCC to keep average temperature increases within a reasonably safe range, may not succeed. It will therefore be necessary to remove a significant amount of carbon dioxide from the atmosphere, which can be done either by capturing the gas and storing it, or by natural forces. One possibility is to accelerate the weathering of magmatic rocks, which would require grinding huge amounts of basalt and distributing it in soil over large areas. Action could also be taken to make forests store more CO2. The war in Ukraine may reduce the rate of decarbonization on a very short time scale, but it is expected to accelerate the process. Politicians have realized how dangerous dependence on fossil fuels, especially their imports, is. In addition, energy prices, which are of such great concern to everyone now, would be much lower if the power industry was much more RES-based, as wind and photovoltaic currently provide the cheapest energy. There is no return to coal-based energy, and Polish politicians making such demands are acting against the Polish raison d'etat.

The intensity of Arion lusitanicus occurrence and the damage degree of 31 crop species have been estimated. It has been found that the slug damaged lettuce and cabbage plants very heavily (Lactuca sativa L. var. capitata L., Brassica oleracea L. var. capitata L. f. alba) and many species of other vegetables (Cucumis sativus L., Phaseolus vulgaris L., Raphanus sativus L. subvar. radicula Pers.). Plant damages in the edge strips were also observed on rape and barley plantations attacked by this slug. The moving activity of particular individuals of Arion lusitanicus was varying. Planning of the experiments in a nested block design has made it possible to statistically determine tendencies of the slug movement. It was observed that when some individuals remained at the point where they were initially placed, others, 2 hours after, moved over 7 m away. The mean weighed length of pathway covered by a single individual and the mean movement rate of one were estimated for each of 9 observation dates. It has been found that slugs penetrating the site surface under observation displayed their tendencies to move towards more moist places and towards food sources.

Studies on food preference of herbivores include no-choice test and test with choice or multiple choice. Conclusions from statistic analyses of these tests are compared descriptively. The definition of compatibility index and consumption growth index has enabled us to use nonparametric test for verification of hypotheses about homogeneity of the consumption growths of selected plant species under no-choice and multiple choice conditions. The studies were conducted on food preference of the slug Deroceras reticulatum. It has been found that Chamaenerion angustifolium, Geraniumpusillum and Potentilla anserina can be used to reduce this slug feeding on cultivated plants. It has been also found that seedlings of Polygonum aviculare can be used as alternative food for slugs.

Studies on palatability of some commom weed species, herbaceous plants and oilseed rape to D. reticulatum, A. lusitanicus and A. rufus slugs have been carried out under laboratory conditions. In food choice trials the rate and degree of damage to seedlings and leaf disks were determined for 20 plant species. The conducted experiments have also permitted to establish, which plant species were preferred or were not accepted by particular slug species. It was found that the studied slug species preferred seedlings and leaves of Brassica napus and Papaver rhoeas, but showed no preference for Epilobium hirsutum, Geranium sanguineum and Saponaria officinalis plants. As to the remaining plant species under study, the preferences exhibited by particular slug species were quite diverse.

Restoring historic buildings to their former splendour using materials similar or identical to those used in the past poses a great challenge to the conservation community.

A country’s “energy mix” typically evokes varying opinions among different groups within society. It also changes over time, at a pace that most energy consumers fail to appreciate. It is shifting even in Poland – certainly not a leader in the energy transition.

Transforming the energy sector is necessary but not sufficient to prevent a climate catastrophe.

The mid-Ludfordian pronounced, positive carbon isotope excursion (CIE), coincident with the Lau/kozlowskii extinction event, has been widely studied so far in shallow-water, carbonate successions, whereas its deep-water record remains insufficiently known. The aim of this research is to reconstruct the sedimentary environments and the palaeoredox conditions in the axial part of the Baltic-Podolian Basin during the event. For these purposes, the Pasłęk IG-1 core section has been examined using microfacies analysis, framboid pyrite diameter and carbon isotope measurements. The prelude to the event records an increased influx of detrital dolomite interpreted as eolian dust, coupled with a pronounced decrease in the diameter of the pyrite framboids, indicating persistent euxinic conditions across the event. The event climax is recorded as the Reda Member and consists of calcisiltites, composed of calcite microcrystals (‘sparoids’), which are interpreted as suspensoids induced by phytoplankton blooms in the hipersaturation conditions present in the epipelagic layer of the basin. Both the prelude and climax facies show lamination, interpreted as having resulted from periodical settling of marine snow, combined with hydraulic sorting within a ‘benthic flocculent layer’, which additionally may be responsible for a low organic matter preservation rate due to methanogenic decomposition. Contrary to the observed basinward CIE decline in the benthic carbonates in the basin, the Reda Member records an extremely positive CIE (up to 8.25‰). Given the pelagic origin of the sparoids, the CIE seems to record surface-water carbon isotope ratios. This points to a large carbon isotope gradient and kinetic fractionation between surface and bottom waters during the mid-Ludfordian event in a strongly stratified basin. The Reda facies-isotope anomaly is regarded as undoubtedly globally triggered, but amplified by the stratified and euxinic conditions in the partly isolated, Baltic-Podolian basin. Hence, the common interpretation of the basin record as representative for the global ocean needs to be treated with great caution.

In the years 1997-1999, studies on the intensity of the slug Arion lusitanicus occurring in different microhabitats were carried out on the territory of Podkarpackie province. Observations were performed in the environments of vegetable gardens, arable fields and non-crop areas. The intensity of the slug occurrence varied greatly in arable crops of different plant species and in other microhabitats. Vegetable crops and areas adjacent to them were inhabited by the slug most numerously. Considerably less slugs occurred in agricultural plant crops.

In the years 1999-2000 the occurrence oferiophyoids on grasses was studied in the Wielkopolska region. 9 eriophyoid species were recognized on 29 grass species. Eriophyoids were present in 38% examined plant samples. The most often infested were Agropyron repens and Lolium perenne and the least Arrhenatherum elatius. Abacarus hystrix and Aculodes mckenziei were the dominating eriophyoid species. The intensity of occurrence varied and was related to the eriophyoid species and the host plant. Feeding of some eriophyoids species caused either matting or browning or twisting of the leaf blades.