浅谈环境保护与和谐社会的构建

实现人与自然的和谐,是构建和谐社会的重要组成部分。文章通过对和谐社会基本内涵和环境退化对社会和谐稳定的影响分析,认为环境保护是构建和谐社会的前提,进而提出了加强环境保护,推动和谐社会的构建具体措施。     

广东举办“绿色青春”首届广东高校环保辩论赛

环保工作任重道远,需要几代人的不懈努力,培养和塑造青年人的环境素质和环境意识是环保事业取得发展的基础性工作。为鼓励高校学生关注、参与环境保护,日前广东省环保局、共青团广东省委员会联合成功举办了“绿色青春”首届广东省高校环保辩论赛。16支高校参赛队伍通过初赛、复赛、半决赛和决赛四个阶段,最终决出了冠、亚军等奖项。主办方希望通过此次辩论赛,进一步增强全省高校学子环保理念,争做文明大学生与和谐社会使者,以实际行动为广东省污染减排工作和环境保护事业做出积极贡献。     

培养创新思维是高校面临的挑战——清华SRT计划实践启示

为什么大学生觉得学的东西没有意思7因为觉得它没有什么应用价值,这是学习和实践相脱离造成的。因此．在实践教育中培养和激发学生的创新思维和创新能力是高校面临的重要任务,应该贯穿于教学和人才培养的整个过程之中。清华十多年的实践证明,SRT计划在培养和提高学生综合素质和创新思维方面．发挥着高校其他课程无法取代的重要作用。尤为重要的,培养优秀人才．需要更深层次的思考和更大力度的改革．这不仅需要大批优秀教师的参与和投入,更需要教育家的引领。     

宣教司开展构建环境宣教大格局专题调研

为深入开展学习实践科学发展观活动,查找和解决目前宣教机制体制存在的突出问题,使宣教工作更好地服务于环保中心工作,11月上、中旬,宣教司组织力量就“创新体制机制、构建环境宣教大格局”进行了专题调研,一是赴云南省环保部门进行实地调研,了解了云南省环保宣教部门不断创新、大胆探索、勇于实践,充分发挥环境宣教作用的有益实践。二是于11月13日在京召开了“创新体制机制着力构建环境宣教大格局”座谈会,宣教直属单位主要负责同志、地方环保宣教部门代表、有关高校专家学者代表和宣教司全体人员围绕主题进行了大讨论。     

建设"绿色社区"构建和谐社会

党的十六届四中全会提出了"构建社会主义和谐社会"的目标,曾庆红同志曾经指出社区是社会的细胞,社区和谐是社会和谐的基础。建设和谐社区对构建和谐社会具有重大的战略意义和基础地位,而绿色社区建设是构建和谐社会的重要组成部分和基础性工程,是和谐社区建设的基础平台和重要切入点。     

高校思想政治工作新探

在新形势下，高校思想政治工作面临着新情况、新问题，如：大学生的思想观念和价值取向发生了新的变化；大学生生活方式发生了新变化；大学生接受信息的渠道发生了新的变化等。高校思想政治工作者要不断提高思想工作的创新性和实效性，研究工作对策和方法，开拓高校思想政治工作的新局面。     

建立环境友好型防洪体系实现人水和谐

胡锦涛总书记2005年3月在中央人口资源环境工作座谈会上提出要“努力建设资源节约型、环境友好型社会”。环境友好型社会作为一种全新的环境伦理观,体现了人与自然的友好相处,对于指导我们按照科学发展观要求构建社会主义和谐社会的实践具有十分重要的理论意义和实践意义。     

用法律推进生态文明建设

在我国环境公益诉讼制度尚未建立．缺乏明确法律依据的情况下,清镇市人民法院环保法庭在司法实践中先行一步,受理了贵州省一系列在国内外有重大影响的环境公益诉讼案．并积极开展能动司法活动．在推动社会管理创新、司法为民、化解社会矛盾、构建和谐社会方面发挥了积极作用。本文为本刊记者与贵州省清镇市人民法院刘明院长的笔谈记录。     

构建和谐昆明创建绿色家园——访昆明环保局局长和丽川

为了实现"让人民群众喝上干净的水、呼吸清新的空气"的目标,昆明市在环境保护工作方面努力进行法制与机制的创新,促进经济结构调整和发展方式的改变,大力发展循环经济,积极建设资源节约型和环境友好型社会.     

基于科技创新溢出效应的产业转型升级模型及对策研究——以南通市为例

当前我国产业结构矛盾仍未得到根本缓解,产业高度化进程缓慢、制造业水平不高、现代服务业发展滞后、产业创新能力不足等都制约着我国经济的进一步发展,如何依靠科技创新驱动产业转型升级是当前面临的重大课题。对科技创新的溢出效应建立明确的评测系统,以溢出效应为导向,确立产业发展极,合理地配置有限的资源,正确选择产业升级路径可以减少产业升级的时间成本。     

Conversion of temperate forests into heaths: Role of ecosystem disturbance and ericaceous plants

Fire and logging in nutrient-poor temperate forests with certain ericaceous understory plants may convert the forests into heaths. The process of disturbance-induced heath formation is documented by using examples ofCalluna in western Europe,Kalmia in Newfoundland, andGaultheria (salal) in coastal British Columbia. In a cool, temperate climate, rapid vegetative growth ofCalluna, Kalmia, and salal following disturbance results in increasing organic accumulation (paludification), nutrient sequestration, soil acidification, and allelochemicals. These are thought to be the main reasons to conifer regeneration failure in disturbed habitats. If continuation in forest is a land-use objective, then temperate forests with an ericaceous understory should not be logged unless effective silvicultural methods are devised to control the ericaceous plants and restore forest regeneration. Preharvest vegetation control may be considered as an option. Failure to control the understory plants may lead to a long-term vegetation shift, from forest to heathland, particularly in nutrient-poor sites. Successful methods of controllingKalmia andGaultheria, however, have yet to be developed. While theKalmia- andGaultheria- dominated heathlands are undesirable in Canada and the Pacific Northwest, a wide range ofCalluna heathlands of western Europe are being conserved as natural and seminatural vegetation.     

BIOLOGICAL INDICATORS AND BIOLOGICAL EFFECTS OF ESTUARINE/COASTAL POLLUTION1

ABSTRACT: Sustained interest in and concern about the health status of the aquatic environment has resulted in extensive research focused on (1) effects of pollution on survival, growth, and reproduction of resource species at all life stages; (2) diseases of fish and shellfish, as they may be related to pollution and as they may serve as indicators of environmental stress; and (3) contaminant body burdens in fish and shellfish - their effects on the aquatic animals and their potential effects on humans. Effects, lethal and sublethal, of pollutants on life history stages of fish and shellfish have been documented, as have impacts on local stocks in badly degraded habitats, but as yet there has been no adequate quantitative demonstration of effects on entire aquatic species - probably because of the difficulty in sorting out relative effects of the many environmental factors that influence abundance. Sublethal effects, especially those that result in disease, have been examined intensively, and some diseases and disease syndromes have been associated statistically with pollution. Other pollution indicators (biochemical, physiological, genetic, behavioral, and ecological) have also received some attention, as have body burdens of contaminants in aquatic species. Research, especially that conducted during the past decade, has done much to clarify the many pathways and toxic effects of contaminants on aquatic animals, and has also helped to identify mechanisms for survival of fish and shellfish in the presence of environmental changes caused by human activities.     

Using Paleo Reconstructions to Improve Streamflow Forecast Lead Time in the Western United States

In water stressed regions, water managers are exploring new horizons that would help in long‐range streamflow forecasts. Oceanic‐atmospheric oscillations have been shown to influence streamflow variability. In this study, long‐lead time streamflow forecasts are made using a multiclass kernel‐based data‐driven support vector machine (SVM) model. The extended streamflow records based on tree ring reconstructions were used to provide a longer time series data. Reconstructed data were used from 1658 to 1952 and the instrumental record was used from 1953 to 2007. Reconstructions for oceanic‐atmospheric oscillations included the El Niño‐Southern Oscillation, Pacific Decadal Oscillation, Atlantic Multidecadal Oscillation, and North Atlantic Oscillation. Streamflow forecasts using all four oscillations were made with one‐year to five‐year lead times for 21 gages in the western United States. This is the first study that uses both instrumental and reconstructed data of oscillations in SVM model to improve streamflow forecast lead time. SVM model was able to provide “satisfactory” to “very good” forecasts with one‐ to five‐year lead time for the selected gages. The use of all the oscillation indices helped in achieving better predictability compared to using individual oscillations. The SVM modeling results are better when compared with multiple linear regression model forecasts. The findings are statistical in nature and are expected to be useful for long‐term water resources planning and management.     

Journalists' views of advertiser pressures on agricultural news

All major journalism ethical codes explicitly state that journalists should protect editorial copy from undue influence by outside sources. However, much of the previous research on agricultural information has concentrated on what information various media communicate (gatekeeping studies) or communication's role in increasing innovation adoption (diffusion studies). Few studies have concentrated specifically on organizational and structural constraints that might adversely affect agricultural journalists' ethical standards; those that have, focus largely on farm magazines. A study of newspaper reporters who cover agricultural news found that the most pressing ethical concern is the effect of advertiser (agri-business) pressure on editorial copy, and that their concerns in general parallel those of farm magazine writers and editors. The majority reported being in situations in which they might be exposed to advertiser pressure, including pressures to change or withhold editorial copy. Large minorities suggested that advertising pressures affect the overall environment in which agricultural journalists work, and more than one in ten said they allow advertiser pressures to influence editorial decisions. The newspaper reporters who cover agricultural beats showed slightly more resistance to advertiser pressure than did farm magazine editors in a parallel study.     

Definition Procedures Have Little Effect on Performance of Environmental Classifications of Streams and Rivers

Mapped environmental classifications are defined using various procedures, but there has been little evaluation of the differences in their ability to discriminate variation in independent ecological characteristics. We tested the performance of environmental classifications of the streams and rivers of France that had been defined from the same environmental data using geographic regionalization and numerical classification of individual river valley segments. Test data comprised invertebrate assemblages, water chemistry, and hydrological indexes obtained from sites throughout France. Classification performance was measured by analysis of similarity (ANOSIM). Geometric regions defined by a regular grid and without regard to environmental variables and a posteriori classifications based on clustering the test datasets defined lower and upper bounds of performance for a given number of classes. Differences in classification performances were generally small. The ANOSIM statistics for the a posteriori classifications were around twice that of all environmental classifications, including geometrically defined regions. The hydro-ecoregions performed slightly better for the invertebrate data and the network classification performed slightly better for the chemistry and hydrological data. Our results indicate that environmental classifications that are defined using different procedures can be comparable in terms of their ability to discriminate variation of ecological characteristics and that alleged differences in performance arising from different classification procedures can be small relative to unexplained variation. We conclude that definition procedures might have little effect on the performance of large-scale environmental classifications and decisions over which procedures to use should be based primarily on pragmatic considerations.     

Urban ecological systems: scientific foundations and a decade of progress

Urban ecological studies, including focus on cities, suburbs, and exurbs, while having deep roots in the early to mid 20th century, have burgeoned in the last several decades. We use the state factor approach to highlight the role of important aspects of climate, substrate, organisms, relief, and time in differentiating urban from non-urban areas, and for determining heterogeneity within spatially extensive metropolitan areas. In addition to reviewing key findings relevant to each state factor, we note the emergence of tentative "urban syndromes" concerning soils, streams, wildlife and plants, and homogenization of certain ecosystem functions, such as soil organic carbon dynamics. We note the utility of the ecosystem approach, the human ecosystem framework, and watersheds as integrative tools to tie information about multiple state factors together. The organismal component of urban complexes includes the social organization of the human population, and we review key modes by which human populations within urban areas are differentiated, and how such differentiation affects environmentally relevant actions. Emerging syntheses in land change science and ecological urban design are also summarized. The multifaceted frameworks and the growing urban knowledge base do however identify some pressing research needs.     

Neighbourhood characteristics and urban gardens in the Toledo metropolitan area: staffing and voluntarism,food production,infrastructure, and sustainability practices

Urban gardens are important sources of sustenance for communities with limited access to food. Hence, this study focuses on food production in gardens in the Toledo metropolitan area in Northwest Ohio. We administered surveys to 150 garden managers from November 2014 to February 2015 in our attempt to better understand how neighbourhood racial composition and poverty levels are related to staffing and voluntarism, food production and distribution, the development of infrastructure, and the adoption of sustainability practices in urban gardens. The results from 30 gardens are presented in this paper. We used Geographic Information Systems to map the gardens and overlay the map with 2010 census data so that we could conduct demographic analyses of the neighbourhoods in which the gardens were located. Though the gardens were small – two acres or less – up to 46 varieties of food were grown in a single garden. Gardens also operated on small budgets. Food from the gardens was gifted or shared with friends, family, and neighbourhood residents. Gardens in predominantly minority neighbourhoods tended to have fewer institutional partners, less garden infrastructure, and had adopted fewer sustainable practices than gardens in predominantly White neighbourhoods. Nonetheless, residents of predominantly minority and high-poverty neighbourhoods participated in garden activities and influenced garden operations. Volunteering and staffing were racialised and gendered.     

Predicting deer-vehicle collisions in an urban area

Collisions with deer and other large animals are increasing, and the resulting economic costs and risks to public safety have made mitigation measures a priority for both city and wildlife managers. We created landscape models to describe and predict deer-vehicle collision (DVCs) within the City of Edmonton, Alberta. Models based on roadside characteristics revealed that DVCs occurred frequently where roadside vegetation was both denser and more diverse, and that DVCs were more likely to occur when the groomed width of roadside right-of-ways was smaller. No DVCs occurred where the width of the vegetation-free or manicured roadside buffer was greater than 40 m. Landscape-based models showed that DVCs were more likely in more heterogeneous landscapes where road densities were lower and speed limits were higher, and where non-forested vegetation such as farmland was in closer proximity to larger tracts of forest. These models can help wildlife and transportation managers to identify locations of high collision frequency for mitigation. Modifying certain landscape and roadside habitats can be an effective way to reduce deer-vehicle collisions.     

MANGANESE CYCLE IN IMPOUNDMENT WATER

Manganese entering impounded water will undergo a cyclic transformation. Oxidation precipitates manganese from top waters. At the bottom of the lake, biological activity will render manganese soluble by both intracellular as well as extracellular activity. The study was made to demonstrate that biological reduction and transformation, organometallic complexation, together with the presence of carbon dioxide and the lowering of pH all have some effect on the solubility of manganese. Dissolved manganese may be brought back to top waters during the lake overturn and therefore deteriorates the water quality.     

Effect of Light on Biodegradation of Estrone, 17β‐Estradiol,and 17α‐Ethinylestradiol in Stream Sediment

Biodegradation of [A‐ring ¹⁴C] Estrone (E1), 17β‐estradiol (E2), and 17α‐ethinylestradiol (EE2) to ¹⁴CO₂ was investigated under light and dark conditions in microcosms containing epilithon or sediment collected from Boulder Creek, Colorado. Mineralization of the estrogen A‐ring was observed in all sediment treatments, but not epilithon treatments. No difference in net mineralization between light and dark treatments was observed for ¹⁴C‐E2. Net mineralization of ¹⁴C‐E1 and ¹⁴C‐EE2 was enhanced in light treatments. Extents of ¹⁴CO₂ accumulation and rates of mineralization were significantly greater for E2 than E1 under dark conditions, but were comparable under light conditions. These results indicate substantial differences in the uptake and metabolism of E1 and E2 in the environment and suggest biorecalcitrance of E1 relative to E2 in light‐limited environments. The extent of ¹⁴CO₂ accumulation and rate of mineralization for EE2 in dark treatments were less than half of that observed for E2 and generally lower than for E1, consistent with previous reports of EE2 biorecalcitrance. However, ¹⁴CO₂ accumulation and rates of mineralization were comparable for EE2, E2, and E1 under light conditions. These results indicate photoactivation and/or phototransformation/photodegradation processes can substantially enhance heterotrophic biodegradation of estrogens in sunlit environments and may play an important role in estrogen transport and attenuation.