Greenhouse Gas Fluxes in Tropical and Temperate Agriculture: The need for a Full-Cost accounting of Global Warming Potentials

Agriculture's contribution to radiative forcing is principally through its historical release of carbon in soil and vegetation to the atmosphere and through its contemporary release of nitrous oxide (N_2O) and methane (CHM₄). The sequestration of soil carbon in soils now depleted in soil organic matter is a well-known strategy for mitigating the buildup of CO₂ in the atmosphere. Less well-recognized are other mitigation potentials. A full-cost accounting of the effects of agriculture on greenhouse gas emissions is necessary to quantify the relative importance of all mitigation options. Such an analysis shows nitrogen fertilizer, agricultural liming, fuel use, N_2O emissions, and CH₄ fluxes to have additional significant potential for mitigation. By evaluating all sources in terms of their global warming potential it becomes possible to directly evaluate greenhouse policy options for agriculture. A comparison of temperate and tropical systems illustrates some of these options.     

A proposal for design-based auto industry environmental regulation

As the U.S. auto industry tries to remain competitive in the face of evolving environmental rules, the new administration is presented with the opportunity to achieve environmental and economic goals through an industry-government partnership. The authors suggest a policy of total environmental quality as a starting point.     

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The State of Washington's Model Toxics Control Act cleanup standards, argues the author, provide the best available strategy for setting and achieving cleanup goals. Besides Protecting human health and the natural environnment, Washington's guidelines, which took effect March 1, 1991, incorporate enough flexibility to handle site-specific, finaical, and tehnological considerations. This column outlines the law's three approaches for defining cleanup levels for groundwater, surface water, air, industrial soils, and nonindustrial soils, comparing these methods with related methods in California, New Jersey, and New York.     

‘Work’ or ‘leisure’? The protestant work ethic and participation in an employee fitness program

Is a company's in-house fitness center perceived as a place to engage in ‘leisure ’activities that are distinct from ‘work’, or as an extension of normal ‘work ’activities? This exploratory study examined the possibility that Protestant Work Ethic (PWE) beliefs might influence the frequency with which employees use their company's exercise programs and facilities. If exercise programs are regarded as ‘leisure’, then PWE endorsers would likely not participate, but the reverse might be true to the extent that such programs are seen as ‘work’. A short survey was completed by 335 employees of a large Canadian corporation which maintained an in-house fitness center that had been in operation for 16 months. The sample was almost evenly divided between users and non-users of the facilities. Results indicated that PWE endorsement was positively related both to the frequency with which respondents visited their company's fitness center, and to the perception that exercise provided work-related benefits, and these findings suggest that on-the-job fitness is regarded more as a component of ‘work ’than of ‘leisure’. ‘A corporate fitness program is the hottest perk since the executive washroom ’(Hoffman and Hobson, 1984, p. 110).     

Environmental care in agricultural catchments: Toward the communicative catchment

Substantial land degradation of agricultural catchments in Australia has resulted from the importation of European farming methods and the large-scale clearing of land. Rural communities are now being encouraged by government to take responsibility for environmental care. The importance of community involvement is supported by the view that environmental problems are a function of interactions between people and their environment. It is suggested that the commonly held view that community groups cannot care for their resources is due to inappropriate social institutions rather that any inherent disability in people. The communicative catchment is developed as a vision for environmental care into the future. This concept emerges from a critique of resource management through the catchment metaphors of the reduced, mechanical, and the complex, evolving catchment, which reflect the development of systemic and people-centered approaches to environmental care. The communicative catchment is one where both community and resource managers participate collaboratively in environmental care. A methodology based on action research and systemic thinking (systemic action research) is proposed as a way of moving towards the communicative catchment of the future. Action research is a way of taking action in organizations and communities that is participative and informed by theory, while systemic thinking takes into account the interconnections and relationships between social and natural worlds. The proposed vision, methodology, and practical operating principles stem from involvement in an action research project looking at extension strategies for the implementation of total catchment management in the Hunter Valley, New South Wales.