Hannah Arendt’s turn to the self and environmental responses to climate change paralysis

Environmentalists have struggled with how to mobilize people to act in the face of widespread and now inevitable consequences of climate change. Significant responses to this challenge, such as incentivizing individual Green choices in the market and avoiding the rhetoric of catastrophe, continue the philosophical and political trends, identified by Hannah Arendt, that contribute to world alienation and the decline of politics. Environmental thinkers are invited to use Arendt’s theories of the turn to the self and political action to think critically about contemporary strategies to address climate change.     

Ecological citizenship and democracy: Communitarian versus agonistic perspectives

Grassroots environmental movements have recently started to question the focus on sustainable consumption as a main strategy to tackle climate change. They prefer to address individuals as citizens rather than as consumers, and focus on collective rather than individual change. Two prominent movements in this regard are Transition Towns and Climate Justice Action. While both movements criticise conventional approaches, they put forward entirely different strategies for what has to happen instead. Based on extensive qualitative research, this article analyses how these movements manifest themselves in Flanders (Belgium). The focus is on their different accounts of how and why collective practices have to be built, and the place they attribute to ‘the political’ in this. The analysis reveals the existence of two different forms of ecological citizenship: one communitarian, the other agonistic.     

Moving targets: Carbon pricing,energy markets,and social movements in Australia

Reporting on the origins and directions of social movement strategy on climate and energy issues in the last decade, the shifts in ‘climate movement’ practice are discussed using a neo-Polanyian account of the political economy of climate change combined with sociological analysis of the strategic decisions campaigners reported making. Since the mid-2000s, Australia’s climate movement has been engaged in three concurrent arenas of political contestation. The longest-standing arena of movement activity has been negotiations over climate policy. More recently, activists and communities are engaged in a struggle over the expansion of fossil fuels. A third contest has been waged over the present and future position of renewable energy technologies in Australia’s electricity market. In the wake of climate policy failure, energy campaigns have been deepened, and it seems that a broader energy justice agenda is being forged. New strategic dilemmas are visible in the field.     

Welfare states and environmental states: a comparative analysis

A framework is presented for thinking about state intervention in developed capitalist economies in two domains: social policy and environmental policy (and, within that, climate-change policy). Five drivers of welfare state development are identified, the ‘five Is’ of Industrialisation: Interests, Institutions, Ideas/Ideologies, and International Influences. Research applying this framework to the postwar development of welfare states in the OECD is summarised, distinguishing two periods: up to 1980, and from 1980 to 2008. How far this framework can contribute to understanding the rise and differential patterns of environmental governance and intervention across advanced capitalist states since 1970 is explored, before briefly comparing and contrasting the determinants of welfare states and environmental states, identifying common drivers in both domains and regime-specific drivers in each. The same framework is then applied to developments since 2008 and into the near future, sketching two potential configurations and speculating on the conditions for closer, more integrated ‘eco-welfare states’.     

土地城镇化与人口城镇化的非协调性和互动关系

土地城镇化与人口城镇化失调是我国目前城镇化进程中的一个突出问题。但对各地区土地城镇化与人口城镇化的非协调性进行全面系统分析的研究相对较少。此外,鲜有研究对土地城镇化与人口城镇化之间的互动关系进行实证检验。本研究利用我国2005—2013年间的省级面板数据考察各省级行政区土地城镇化与人口城镇化的非协调性,并通过构建和估计面板向量自回归模型探究土地城镇化与人口城镇化之间的互动关系。研究发现,土地城镇化与人口城镇化的非协调性存在着显著的时空差异。在样本期的后半段(2009—2013年),多个省级行政区人口城镇化滞后于土地城镇化的程度有所加深。根据全样本期内土地城镇化与人口城镇化非协调性的严重程度,可将各省级行政区划分为5个等级。城镇常住人口变化对建成区面积变化具有显著的正向影响;建成区面积变化对城镇常住人口变化的影响方向虽然为正,但该影响不具有统计显著性。从而表明人口城镇化对土地城镇化起到了推动作用,但土地城镇化却未能有效地带动和促进人口城镇化。此外,第二、三产业增加值变化对城镇常住人口变化具有显著的正向影响。研究从改革新增建设用地指标分配方式、抑制城市空间粗放扩张及推动户籍制度改革和基本公共服务均等化等方面提出了促进土地城镇化和人口城镇化协调发展的政策建议。     

气候变化和人类活动对丹江口入库径流的影响及评估

科学估算气候变化和人类活动对河川径流的影响,可以更为合理地规划利用地球水资源。针对丹江口水库入库径流的减少问题,分别采用Mann-Kendall方法和Pettitt检验,对1960~2012年间丹江口水库入库径流的年际和年内变化趋势进行了分析,并与同时期汉江上游20个地面观测站的降水、气温的年际和年内演化趋势进行了比较,从气候变化和人类活动影响的两个方面分析了入库径流减少的原因。在此基础上,利用气候弹性模型分别估算了气候变化和人类活动对径流的影响度。结果表明:近年来丹江口入库径流的减少主要受春季和秋季径流减少的影响,在春季径流的减少总量中,气候变化的贡献度为67%,人类活动为33%;秋季径流的减少总量中,气候变化的贡献度为88%,人类活动为12%。气候变化是导致丹江口入库径流减少的主要原因。     

2000~2014年武汉市城市扩展时空特征分析

基于不同时相的高分辨率遥感影像,采用面向对象的解译方法提取了武汉市2000、2005、2010和2014年的土地覆被信息,从城市扩展强度指数,城市中心坐标迁移和分形维数等方面分析了武汉市2000～2014年城市扩展时空特征。结果表明：2000～2014年间,武汉市城市扩展强度指数为1.41,各主城区城市扩展强度不一,洪山区建设用地的增加对主城区城市扩展的贡献最大;在扩展过程中,武汉市城市分形维数增加,城市空间形态变复杂;其扩展呈现核心-放射扩展模式,并逐渐转向圈层式;自然条件、经济、人口、交通、政策和城市规划是武汉市城市扩展的主要驱动力,但随着交通的发展,自然条件和经济对武汉市城市扩展的驱动作用正逐渐减弱。     

泛长江三角洲城市旅游经济发展的空间效应

基于泛长江三角洲2002~2012年市域面板数据,并借助面板SDM及空间效应分解方法,对区域城市旅游经济发展及其动力因子的空间效应进行实证分析。结果表明:1区域城市入境和国内旅游发展都存在明显的空间依赖性和空间溢出效应,当邻近城市入境和国内旅游发展水平每提高1%,将促进本城市入境和国内旅游发展水平增加约0.257%和0.312%;2区域城市入境和国内旅游发展各动力因子的空间交互作用也较为明显。旅游资源禀赋、旅游服务设施、旅游交通设施和城市经济发展水平对入境旅游发展具有显著的空间溢出效应,旅游服务设施和城市经济发展水平对国内旅游发展的空间溢出效应也较显著。3保障性因子多为正向溢出,吸引性因子多为负向溢出。前者体现了动力因子的空间模仿效应,后者反映了空间竞争效应。保障性因子和吸引力因子的空间效应强度及作用路径差异推动着区域旅游发展格局不断演进。     

国际气候变化科学和评估对中国应对气候变化的启示

科学研究和评估工作推动了国际应对气候变化进程,并加大了各国行动力度。更多的科学证据表明人类活动是造成全球气候变暖的主要原因;气候变化影响、适应和脆弱性研究范围不断扩展和深化,区域甚至次国家级层面的问题受到高度关注;2℃温控目标的实现已然成为共识,政策协调与集成及相关政策在不同领域的协同作用成为研究的热点。未来中国应对气候变化需要在四个方面进一步开展研究和采取行动:1加强不同学科和领域的研究工作,围绕与实现温升控制1.5℃、土地利用、海洋以及城市相关问题开展专题研究。2加强国内绿色低碳转型和国际谈判的战略研究。3构建气候服务体系,以灾害风险管理为抓手,提升气候变化适应水平。4通过构建能源互联网实现能源变革,加快推进国内能源革命和经济发展的低碳转型。     

生态福利绩效视角下的上海市可持续发展评价研究

资源与环境约束加剧的大背景下,在"生态门槛"内实现社会福利最大化的可持续发展模式是未来城市发展的必然选择。从生态福利绩效视角出发,选取人均生态足迹和人类发展指数构建城市可持续发展评价指标体系,并采用DEA方法计算二者的投入产出效率,对上海市1999~2012年可持续发展水平进行多维度、动态化的实证分析。研究发现:1上海市人类发展指数、人均生态足迹与经济发展同步增长,但人均生态足迹水平大于生态承载能力,处于严重"生态赤字"状态,并不断恶化;2上海市多数年份的生态福利绩效处于DEA无效状态,且2005年以来进入规模收益递减通道。最后提出政策建议。