The case against free market environmentalism

Free market environmentalists believe that the extension of private property rights and market transactions is sufficient to address environmental difficulties. But there is no invisible hand operating in markets that ensures that environmentally sound practices will be employed just because property rights are in private hands. Also, liability laws and the court systems cannot be relied upon to force polluters to internalize the social costs of pollution. Third, market prices do not provide an objective measure of environmental matters. Finally, there is a right to a livable environment that justifies regulations protecting the public from unreasonable environmental risks.     

“十三五”国家自然科学基金对能源环境管理领域的资助状况和趋势

能源环境管理是各界关注的热点话题,也是科学研究的重要方向.以国家自然科学基金资助能源环境管理领域的科研项目为基础数据信息,本文重点分析了\"十三五\"期间国家自然科学基金在该领域资助项目的总体特征、研究主题和热点变化,并结合新时代科学基金资助导向提出了可能的发展趋势.主要结论包括:①能源环境管理领域面上、青年、地区等自由探索类项目的立项绝对数和学科占比均呈上升趋势,并更多向青年学者倾斜,资助强度保持稳定;②碳、能源和环境是自由探索项目中出现频率最高的热词,与之相关的研究主题随着政策等调整具有动态变化特征;③能源环境管理领域重点、重大等引导类项目和优青、杰青、创新研究群体等人才类项目不断实现突破,增速明显,学科占比优势突出;④问题导向与本土情景、理论体系和一般规律、学科交叉融合,以及市场和微观主体作用是研究选题确立与项目申请时可能需要重点关注的方向.     

Design principles and common pool resource management: an institutional approach to evaluating community management in semi-arid Tanzania

This paper analyses the role of institutions in the management of common pool resources (CPRs) in semi-arid Tanzania. Common property regimes have often been considered inadequate for the management of CPRs because of the problems of excludability, but they are becoming more widely supported as the way forward to overcome the problems of resource use and degradation in developing countries. A series of design principles for long enduring common property institutions have been proposed by Ostrom, but there is concern that they are not applicable to a wide range of real life situations or that they may be specific to certain types of CPR. Here, we compare these principles to the situation prevailing in 12 villages in six districts in semi-arid Tanzania. Data on management institutions were collected through semi-structured interviews and meetings at district and village level. The combined information was used to make a qualitative assessment of the strength with which each design principle appeared to operate in the management of forest, pasture and water resources. Boundaries, conflict and negotiation in CPR management are of key importance in semi-arid regions. However, the need for flexibility in order to deal with ecological uncertainty means that many management institutions would be considered weak or absent according to the design principle approach. This supports the view that the design principles should not be used as a 'blueprint to be imposed on resource management regimes' rather that they provide a framework for investigating common property regimes with the proviso that, certainly for semi-arid regions, they may highlight where management cannot be explained by institutional theory alone.     

AN ECONOMIC OVERVIEW OF HAWAII'S WATER INSTITUTIONS1

ABSTRACT: The problem of allocating scarce water resources among competing uses and users over time in Hawaii is addressed within the context of analytical institutional economics. The nature of this problem has been, in recent years, highly complicated by important institutional changes that control operating decisions for water supply and water pollution. Whereas the imbalance in governmental initiatives regarding changes in the system of water rights (predominantly state) and environmental laws (predominantly federal) are based on U.S. constitutional provisions, the more fundamental roots of the crucial legal doctrines involved have been traced back to the common property concept. This suggests that the more promising opportunities for meeting the water policy challenges of the state are to be found in the historical common property system (ahupua'a) of Hawaii.     

秦皇岛市自然生态问题及保护对策

良好的生态环境是人类生存和发展的基础,是经济社会发展的物质条件。保护和管理好自然生态环境,是实施可持续发展的关键,同时也是实现跨世纪绿色工程的重要方略。本文论述了秦皇岛市自然资源概况和污染现状,提出了保护秦皇岛市自然生态环境的措施和对策,指出将秦皇岛建设成为生态城市是秦皇岛环境保护的发展方向。     

新农村建设中的经济发展与环境保护协同研究——基于环境群体性事件治理的视角

在分析我国环境群体性事件背景的基础上,指出农村地区已成为环境群体性事件的易发地和多发地,对其进行防范和疏导成为我国新农村建设面临的一个现实问题.以浙江的三个典型事件为例,对该问题进行了案例剖析,从法律保障体系、公众参与机制、信息公开制度、生态补偿机制和法律救济制度五个方面提出了新农村环境群体性事件的治理对策.     

GM Crops: Patently Wrong?

This paper focuses on the ethical justifiability of patents on Genetically Modified (GM) crops. I argue that there are three distinguishing features of GM crops that make it unethical to grant patents on GM crops, even if we assume that the patent system is in general justified. The first half of the paper critiques David Resnik’s recent arguments in favor of patents on GM crops. Resnik argues that we should take a consequentialist approach to the issue, and that the best way to do so is to apply the Precautionary Principle, and that the Precautionary Principle, in this case, supports patents on GM crops. I argue that his argument in favor of a consequentialist treatment is invalid; his Precautionary Principle in any case appears to be incompatible with consequentialism; and his conception of reasonable precautions is too ill-defined to have any argumentative purchase. In the second half of the paper, I argue against GM crop patents, on three grounds. First, there is insufficient evidence to say whether allowing patents on GM crops will make research go faster than not having patents, whilst there is a good reason to think that, other things being equal, a society that allows patents on GM crops will be less just than one that does not. Second, even assuming that patents on GM crops will increase the pace of GM crop research, there is no social need to do so. Third, patents on GM crops will frequently have ethically unacceptable side effects.     

Economic and Ecological Transformation Processes in East German Water Management Regimes: The Role of Property Rights and Governance Structures

As in many fen land regions in East Germany, long-standing intensive arable farming—enabled by reclamation—has caused soil deterioration and high water runoff in the Schraden region. The more than ten years of economic and political transformation that followed the breakdown of the socialist regime has worsened the situation and even added new problems. The visible consequences are droughts in the summer, waterlogged plots in the spring, and worn-down water management facilities that operate in an uncoordinated or even unauthorized way. Given the local public-good character of some features of the fen land, the common-pool character of the ecosystems intermittently scarce resource water, and the conflicting interests of regional stakeholders, it is argued that the reallocation of property rights over reclamation systems, together with ineffective coordination mechanisms, have caused the physical and institutional failure of the water management system and so impeded appropriate land use. Note: This version was published online in June 2005 with the cover date of August 2004.     

水资源的可持续开发与利用

水是一切生物生存环境的最重要支撑,只有可持续地开发利用水资源,才能创造一个可持续发展的社会和生存环境。针对日趋严重的淡水资源危机,本文以水资源的可持续存在为基础,从整体的角度出发,而不是就水论水,探讨了可持续开发、利用水资源的五个途径:经济向生态效益型转向、可持续开发水资源、建立水资源核算体系、建立水资源政策分析机制、人人参与水资源管理,从而实现环境完整性、经济效率和平衡三个基本目标。     

新型城镇化发展下的生态环境管治策略探析

与传统城镇化相比,新型城镇化具有\"以人为本、四化同步、优化布局、生态文明、文化传承\"的特点。在生态文明、新型城镇化建设全面推进的背景下,如何解决城镇化建设过程中的城市生态环境问题,优化空间布局,促进区域可持续发展,成为亟需解决的重大问题。本文基于城乡耦合系统理论,提出通过城镇规模和空间优化、功能完善提升生态环境管治。针对我国城镇化发展现状,本文认为新型城镇体系下的生态环境管治应基于城镇的资源环境承载能力,在新型城镇化建设中努力夯实生态环境的基础性地位,充分发挥生态环境约束的先导作用,并通过实施有效的城镇生态环境功能分区管治策略、提升生态环境空间管治效率、构建政企民共同参与的新型城镇生态环境治理体系等措施来提升生态环境管治能力。     

Sustainable development: Scientific and ethical assessments

The problem of assessing the sustainability of human development is discussed in theoretical and practical terms.In Part I, two theoretical tools for describing the challenge of assessing sustainable development are introduced and briefly discussed: (i) the use of an energetic model to describe the dynamic interaction between the human and the biophysical compartment; (ii) basic concepts derived from the hierarchy theory applied to the development of human society. Sustainable and ethical development of human society requires the consideration of three hierarchical levels: the biosphere, the societal and the individual level. Such a holistic assessment can be obtained by integrating scientific and ethical considerations.In Part II, data illustrating the current terms of the dilemma of human development are presented and discussed within the theoretical frame provided in Part I. It is argued that even if we had a better understanding of the consequeces of human activity on the biosphere, current modes of organization of human society and its economic activity do not readily enable adequate planning for the sustainable development of mankind. Ideologies that can bias the discussion and the assessment of sustainable and ethical development are discussed. No solution is at hand; therefore, when we consider human development today, we are facing a high level of uncertainty.     

德国水法发展对我国治水的借鉴意义

本文从深受欧盟水政策影响的德国水治理的历史发展和基础理念出发,对德国《水平衡管理法》的法规框架和总则进行了阐述、分析与比较。德国经验表明,在法治框架下,依可根据持续性原则,对水事进行综合治理。只有根据可持续性原则和通过法治,才能长期确保水安全,维护人与自然的和谐,保持水体清洁和维护生态平衡,确保当代及后代人的环境与发展权。水事综合治理原则不仅要通过协调水体使用与保护之间的关系,来调整环保在相对于经济和社会的传统不平衡地位,更要遵循自然水循环的本质特征。建议我国在《水污染防治法》的修订中,需要基于我国现实技术支撑的易操作制度,来实践可持续性原则和水事综合治理原则,强化法律间的协调。同时,还在立法技术上提出了若干建议。     

西北地区水资源态势及可持续发展途径分析

对我国西北地区水资源的现状进行了概述,阐述了在水资源利用中存在的各种问题,如水土流失严重、河道断流、水质污染严重、农用灌溉水大量浪费,等等.并从自然、人为两方面因素进行了原因分析.在此基础上,对西北地区水资源的可持续发展途径进行了探讨.