Sustainability: a Dissent

Abstract:  Broadly conceived and considered in its many usages, sustainability has grave defects as a planning goal, particularly when used by conservationists: it confuses means and ends; it is vague about what is being sustained and who or what is doing the sustaining; it is uninspiring; it is little more than Pinchot-era conservation (and thus ignores the many lessons learned since then); it need not be linked to land, to the land's functioning, or to any ecological science; it need not include a moral component; it is consistent with the view of humans as all-powerful manipulators of the planet; and, in general, it is such a malleable term that its popularity provides only a facade of consensus. When sustainability is defined broadly to include the full range of economic and social aspirations, it poses the particular risk that ecological and biodiversity concerns will be cast aside in favor of more pressing human wants. Given these many defects, the conservation movement should discard the term in favor of a more alluring goal, attentive to nature and its ecological functioning. A sound goal would incorporate and distill the considerable ecological and moral wisdom accumulated since Pinchot's day while giving conservationists the rhetorical tools needed to defend the land against competing pressures. In our view, conservation would be well served by an updated variant of "land health," Aldo Leopold's ecologically grounded goal from the 1940s. Land health as an independent understanding should set the essential terms of how we live and enjoy the earth, providing the framework within which we pursue our many social and economic aims.     

王心芳会长在2006年全国环保产业协会工作会议上的讲话(摘录)

中国环境保护产业协会王心芳会长在2006年7月18-19日在北京召开的全国环境保护产业协会工作会议上，就我国环保产业的现状及存在的主要问题、环保产业“十一五”期间面临的形势及“十一五”期间中国环境保护产业协会主要的工作思路做了讲话（本文为讲话摘录）。     

移动通信基站电磁辐射环境保护与评价浅析

通过对移动通信基站天线的电磁辐射分析和探讨,归纳了移动通信基站建设在施工期、营运期环境保护工作的重点与措施,对电磁环境影响评价制度与方法进行了系统的描述,并指出了今后的工作方向。     

一般工业固废填埋场建设项目环境监理探析

介绍了一般工业固废填埋场工程的特点和环境监理的现状;结合填埋场项目环境监理工作的实践,分析并总结了填埋场建设项目环境监理要点,即制订切实的监理方案,对工程的关键部位、关键工序做好巡视、旁站监理工作,在实施过程中做好水土保持、生态保护的监理工作。     

浅谈环境监测分析实验室在流动分析技术上的选择

从环境监测实验室的角度对比了流动分析技术中目前比较常用的2种技术(即FIA和SFA)的优缺点,并指出目前在环境监测实验室中最适用的技术。     

Land User Participation in Developing a Computerised Decision Support System for Combating Desertification

Combating desertification in natural rangelands has recently become a priority in large parts of southern Africa. Rangeland managers, farmers, scientists, conservationists and land users have been applying a variety of restoration technologies to address this problem. Bush encroachment, as part of the desertification process, involves the natural replacement of the herbaceous plant cover by undesirable problem woody species. The active and passive restoration technologies that are applied, are mainly based on indigenous knowledge and include the chemical, mechanical or manual reclamation of unproductive rangelands, as well as the combating of woody and alien species encroachment. Indigenous practices and knowledge play a major role in the effectiveness and success rate of these technologies. This project faces the challenge of bringing together both local and scientific knowledge in a single user-friendly, computerised Decision Support System (DSS) which is directly accessible by land users to support them in the process of decision making, concerning the combating of desertification. Case studies from central and northern Namibia were used to combine qualitative and quantitative data to develop this Decision Support System. The DSS currently consists of two databases and an expert system, which evaluates the results of land users’ management practices, and provides easily accessible information and advice for participants in the system, based on the incorporated data. The DSS is also linked to national and international web sites and databases to offer a wider range of information on technologies concerning agricultural and conservation practices.     

关于加强全国环境监测站建设的思考

在分析现状的基础上,提出了加强全国环境监测站建设的对策与建议。     

可持续发展导向的环境规划研究

在论述可持续发展与环境规划之间关系的基础上,指出环境规划的指导思想是环境与经济、社会的可持续发展。针对可持续发展的实质,提出了环境承载力变化趋势是衡量可持续发展的依据,从而为区域可持续发展提供了量化的依据。并以长春技术开发区环境规划为例进行了案例分析,验证结果合理、可行。     

Cultured human-cell-based bioassay for environmental risk management

Among bioassays for evaluating various impacts of chemicalson humans and ecosystems, those based on culturedmammalian-cells can best predict acute lethal toxicity to humans. Weexpect them to be employed in the future in environmentalrisk management alongside mutagenicity tests and endocrine-disrupting activity tests. We recently developed adisposable bioassay device that immobilizes humanhepatocarcinoma cells in a small micropipette tip. Thisenables very quick (within 2 h) evaluation of acute lethaltoxicity to humans. For bioassay-based environmentalmanagement, 2 promising approaches have been demonstrated bythe US-EPA: toxicity identification evaluation (TIE) andtoxicity reduction evaluation (TRE). The Japanese Ministryof Environment has been supporting a multi-center validationproject, aimed at assembling a bioassay database. To makefull use of these resources, we present a numerical modelthat describes contribution of individual chemical toobserved toxicity. This will allow the selection of the mosteffective countermeasure to reduce the toxicity. Bioassay-based environmental risk management works retrospectively,whereas impact assessment using substance flow models andtoxicity databases works prospective. We expect that these 2approaches will exchange information, act complementarily,and work effectively in keeping our environment healthy inthe 21st century.     

Monitoring of a Coastal Mediterranean Area: Culturable Bacteria, Phytoplankton, Environmental Factors and their Relationships in the Southern Adriatic Sea

Culturable heterotrophic bacterial and phytoplanktonic densities were investigated at four sites in the Southern Adriatic Sea (Brindisi, S. Cataldo, Otranto and S. M. di Leuca) over an annual cycle. The main phytoplankton groups, the bacterial biodiversity, as well as the faecal contamination indicators were determined. Culturable bacterial numbers averaged 4.8 ± 0.2 log CFU ml⁻¹ whereas phytoplankton numbers averaged 2.1 ± 0.4 log cells ml⁻¹. Relationships between culturable bacteria, phytoplankton and the environmental factors were established. Bacterial and phytoplankton densities usually depended significantly on temperature, dissolved oxygen, phosphate and nitrite only in the S. Cataldo transect. In all the examined transects phytoplankton showed a bloom during the January–February period followed by a bacterial peak during the February–March period. Thus we can suppose that the phytoplankton winter bloom is responsible for the availabily of organic matter for bacterial populations in the following months in this oligotrophic ecosystem.