Regulatory resistance to environmental law in rural Australia: land clearing,murder and the media

ABSTRACT

In 2014 an Australia public servant was killed in a confrontation over illegal land clearing. The perpetrator was a land holder with a history of non-compliance with environmental regulations and had been subject to a series of prosecutions. Political suggestions that the crime was somehow justified drew attention to the growing prevalence of law breaking linked to environmental law and policy in rural Australia. This paper investigated the social construction of both the crime and the community response through a qualitative media content analysis. Utilising the “Recipe for Criminalisation” framework developed by Amnesty International, the analysis identified a contest between media discourses of legitimacy in regards to the actions taken by the perpetrator, the public servant and ultimately, the regulatory framework itself. The analysis revealed that the link between media references to illegitimate legislation, excessive regulation, over-zealous compliance and strong social norms of rural independence and economic survival created a persuasive story of justified resistance to unwelcome environmental legislation in this case. Understanding how affected communities respond to instances of policy failure, civil and criminal law breaking and environmental compliance is a crucial factor in designing more legitimate and effective governance regimes. How media narratives are constructed, by whom and in whose interests remains an important analytic question for the study of resistance to environmental law and policy around the world.     

Pragmatic ethics and the new consultant

Ethical, social, and environmental concerns are beginning to take hold in many businesses, often as an extension of total quality management. Many professional firms have eluded the global trend, but social and ecological realities are catching up. What will the new professional firm look like? This article looks at how firms are finding competitive advantage in old-fashioned integrity, combined with management techniques and a new scientific understanding of what it takes to successfully adapt in a world of limited resources. “Ethics is awareness of interdependence…” Aldo Leopold.     

Application of the ERICA Integrated Approach to the Drigg coastal sand dunes

The EC-funded project 'Environmental Risks from Ionising Contaminants: Assessment and Management' (ERICA) developed an 'Integrated Approach' for assessing the impact of ionising radiation on ecosystems. This paper presents the application of the ERICA Integrated Approach, supported by a software programme (the ERICA Tool) and guidance documentation, to an assessment of the Drigg coastal sand dunes (Cumbria, UK). Targeted sampling provided site-specific data for sand dune biota, including amphibians and reptiles. Radionuclides reported included (90)Sr, (99)Tc, (137)Cs, (238)Pu, (239+240)Pu and (241)Am. Site-specific data were compared to predictions derived using the ERICA Tool. Some under- and over-predictions of biota activity concentrations were identified but can be explained by the specific ecological characteristics and contamination mechanism of the dunes. Overall, the results indicated no significant impact of ionising radiation on the sand dune biota and the Integrated Approach was found to be a flexible and effective means of conducting a radiation impact assessment.     

Modelling radioiodine transport across a capillary fringe

Due to its long radioactive half-life, iodine-129 is considered to be an important radionuclide in the context of underground radioactive waste disposal safety assessment. Iodine speciates as iodide (I-) in reducing conditions and iodate (IO3-) in oxidizing conditions. As iodate is more reactive, it is much less mobile than iodide. Consequently, in considering vertically upward transport within a soil profile, iodine will tend to accumulate at the top of the capillary fringe. In this paper, a model of iodine transport across a capillary fringe is developed by coupling equations for variably saturated flow, oxygen dynamics and rate-limited sorption. Model parameters are obtained by consideration of literature values, calibration on soil column data and other supporting laboratory experiments. The results demonstrate the importance of rate kinetics on the migration and bioavailability of radioiodine in the near-surface environment.     

Reproductive success in the Caribbean octocoral Briareum asbestinum

For most sessile marine invertebrates the number of offspring produced by an individual is often determined indirectly from counts of eggs present, with the assumption that all or most become viable offspring. Few field data on the actual number of offspring produced per individual (reproductive success) have been reported. We examined reproductive success in the octocoral, Briareum asbestinum (Pallas), by measuring embryo densities on 40 female colonies on two reefs (Pinnacles and House reefs) in the San Blas Islands, Panama from 1986 to 1988. The percentage of female colonies with mature eggs which subsequently released embryos was low, ranging from 46.6% in 1986 to 5.0% in 1988. Reproductive success was significantly different between reefs. Pinnacles reef had significantly more successful colonies (those releasing embryos) than House reef in all three years and significantly higher embryo densities in 1986 and 1987. There was a significant positive correlation between female reproductive success and the density and proximity of nearby males in both 1986 and 1987. In addition, fertile female branches placed 25 cm away from male branches produced significantly more embryos than female branches placed 50 cm away. In 1988 two groups of female branches were placed at distances of <50 cm and 5 m from four large male colonies at Pinnacles reef. Of the 20 female branches placed 5 m from the males none released embryos while 35% (7 of 20 branches) of the branches <50cm from males released embryos. These data indicate that simple counts of mature eggs present within female colonics prior to the reproductive season provide a poor estimate of reproductive success in B. ashestinum and that female reproductive success is positively influenced by the close proximity of males.     

Effect of bombardier beetle spray on a wolf spider: repellency and leg autotomy

Summary. Data are presented on the repellency of the spray of a bombardier beetle (Pheropsophus aequinoctialis) to a lycosid spider (Lycosa ceratiola). The secretion is shown to cause the spider to desist from its assault on the beetle within, on average, 58 ms of onset of the beetle’s secretory emission, a reaction time that is at a par with latencies previously reported for startle, escape, and avoidance reactions of cockroaches, flies, and moths. Spray ejections by the beetle, are shorter in duration (43 ms, on average) than the response time of the spider, an indication that the beetle does indeed pack a formidable “punch” into its ejection. After being hit by a beetle’s spray, L. ceratiola were found occasionally to autotomize one or two of their legs. It is argued, but not proven, that this unusually severe effect from exposure to an arthropodan defensive secretion may be caused by the high temperature of the bombardier beetle spray.     

The effect of colony size and starvation on food flow in the fire ant,Solenopsis invicta (Hymenoptera: Formicidae)

Summary Food-sharing experiments were performed with laboratory colonies of Solenopsis invicta containing 1000, 10,000, or 20,000 workers and starved for 0, 3, 7, or 14 days. The effect of these variables was measured on the uptake of radioactive sugar water (1 M) by 1% of the colony's workers and on the trophallactic flow of food from these foragers to the remainder of the colony.Patterns of food distribution in small colonies differed significantly from those in larger nests. In 1000-ant nests, small workers more frequently received food than large workers, but in bigger colonies the opposite occurred.Fire ants were adept at distributing sugar water, with food from a few workers rapidly reaching the majority of the colony as foragers donate their crop contents to groups of recipients and these recipients may themselves act as donors.Foragers respond to colony starvation by individually taking up more food and sharing this fluid with a greater proportion of nestmates. Even foragers from satiated colonies can retrieve at least small amounts of liquid.The forager's state of hunger plays an important role in regulating food distribution. In sugar-satiated nests, previously starved foragers are highly successful at passing on labelled sugar whereas prviously fed foragers are not.