The transatlantic rift in genetically modified food policy

The regulatory structures underlying United States and European Union policies regarding genetically modified (GM) food and crops are fundamentally different. The US regulates GM foods and crops as end products, applying roughly the same regulatory framework that it does to non GM foods or crops. The EU, on the other hand, regulates products of agricultural biotechnology as the result of a specific production process. Accordingly, it has developed a network of rules that regulate GM foods and crops specifically. As a result, US regulation of GM foods and crops is relatively permissive, whereas EU regulation is relatively restrictive. Why are genetically modified food policies in the United States and the European Union so strikingly different? In the light of the recent World Trade Organization dispute on agricultural biotechnology, it may seem that economic interests are the driving force behind policies. While they are certainly part of the picture, the issue is far more complex. This paper argues that three different elements help explain differences between US and EU GM food policies. First, an investigation of US and European policies of the 1970s and 1980s on recombinant DNA research and of events leading up to early GM food and crop regulation allows a deeper understanding of current policy. Second, scrutinizing underlying values and norms can uncover the beliefs that condition current GM food and crop policy. Third, an analysis of involved actors’ views and levels of success in influencing policy is essential to understanding US and EU policies.     

The Role of Science in Public Policy: Higher Reason,or Reason for Hire?

The traditional vision of the role science should play in policy making is of a two stage process of scientists first finding out the facts, and then policy makers making a decision about what to do about them. We argue that this two stage process is a fiction and that a distinction must be drawn between pure science and science in the service of public policy. When science is transferred into the policy realm, its claims to truth get undermined because we must abandon the open-ended nature of scientific inquiry. When we move from the sphere of science to the sphere of policy, we pick an arbitrary point in the open-ended scientific process, and ask our experts to give us the answer. The choice of the endpoint, however, must always be arbitrary and determined by non-scientific factors. Thus, the two stages in the model of first finding the facts, and then making a decision about what to do, cannot be clearly separated. The second stage clearly affects the first. This conclusion will have implications about existing scientific policy institutions. For example, we advocate that the environmental assessment process be radically overhauled, or perhaps even let go. It will be our position that ultimately a better model for the involvement of scientists in public policy debates is that of being participants in particular interest groups (“hired guns”), rather than as supposedly unbiased consultants to decision-makers.     

论服务理念在环境执法中的确立

在我国，环境执法主要是在强制理念的指导下进行，但是从执法效果来看，缺乏长期性、稳定性，因此，有必要借鉴新兴的环境管理理念和美国环境执法的经验，建立起以服务为理念的环境执法体系。首先应该确定服务对象，其次应当明确服务内容，最后应该建立环境执法中的服务体系，从而通过服务使得环境执法机关与企业、公民获得环保共识，减少环保执法压力，促进社会和谐发展。     

高职高专院校公共选修课程体系探究

针对一些高职高专院校重技能、轻人文而导致公共选修课建设甚至缺失的现象，对公共选修课程体系建构在目标、内容方面作了详细阐述，并对课程类型的设置、开设年级和课时比例设置提出了建议。     

江淮地区极端气候事件的时空变化特征

利用1951—2003年的温度和降水资料，研究了江淮地区极端气候事件的空间结构及年代际变化特征。结果发现：（1）气候变暖影响了极端气候事件的变化，这种影响是由气候平均值和方差的共同变化引起的。（2）气候变暖加速了水分的循环过程，导致20世纪90年代以来江淮地区旱涝频率和强度加大，强降水事件增加；冬季极端最低温度升高，低温日数减少；夏季极端最高温度和高温日数开始回升。（3）从极端事件分布的区域变化来看，气候变暖对淮北的影响最大，使这个脆弱性本来就很严重的区域变得更加脆弱。     

The Mixed Mechanism in the Management of Water Resources in China

1 INTRODUCTION As an irreplaceable resource for the subsistence and development of mankind, water is essential to sustainable economic and social development. As a resource-poor and the biggest developing country in the world, China is facing the challenge from water resources.2 THE MAIN PROBLEMS OF CHINA'S WATER RESOURCES In China, the problems of water resources involve four aspects: drought and water shortage, serious threats of flooding, water pollution, soil erosion an…     

公用事业民营化及其环境行为政府管制的研究

公用事业民营化的目的是在公用事业行业引入民间资本和市场竞争模式,提高公共产品服务的产出质量和效率。以电力行业的民营化为例,电力市场对于民营企业的开放能够在很大程度上提高我国电力生产水平．解决当前电力供求关系紧张的问题。但是,大量民营企业介入电力生产,由于其技术落后而导致的资源浪费以及污染物的无序排放给我国的环境保护带来了新的困扰。我们应该在科学发展观和构建社会主义和谐社会的目标指引下,加强政府对于电力企业等公用事业民营化企业生产经营活动的法律管制,同时加强和完善相关的环境立法,达到公用事业积极发展和环境保护目标实现的双赢目标。     

城市公共危机管理框架及系统平台研究

在分析公共危机特点和危机管理的关键问题的基础上,归纳了城市公共危机管理的9个主题,从组织结构、信息系统、应急计划、社会应对能力4个层面提炼出较为完整的、针对城市的公共危机管理框架。基于该框架,按照日常管理与应急管理相结合的要求,设计了城市公共危机管理系统平台概念模型,详细分析了系统各个模块之间的关系;并从危机监测分析和危机应急指挥两个层面具体研究了系统平台技术体系和建设方法。最后,对公共危机管理系统建设现状和未来研究重点进行了讨论。     

如何强化森林公安派出所的消防监督

依据消防法律法规赋予森林公安派出所的消防监督职能,结合林区实际,对派出所实施消防监督检查、火灾案件调查、消防宣传提出了建设性意见.