德国环境设备责任制度初探

德国《民法典》确定了一般环境侵权的规则——行为责任,再以《环境责任法》确立了特殊的环境侵权的规则——设备责任。设备侵权是危险责任的一种,其构成要件有两个：设备运营对环境产生不良影响进而导致损害;人身、财产受侵害。设备责任的承担不要求设备运营人的过错。设备责任归责采用因果关系推定原则。     

泉州市规划区大气污染物总量控制及分配

合理的污染排放总量控制及分配是保证城市发展和环境保护和相协调的重要条件。ＣＯＺＥＥ－中国沿海环境保护增强工作以泉州市为试点开展ＩＥＭＰ示范项目,通过将国外先进经验,计算方法与当地实际相结合,制定出泉州市规划区大气污染物总量控制及分配方案,本文介绍ＩＥＭＰ项目大气污染总量控制,分配的基本思路及方法,这对我国沿海经济快速发展地区的总量控制具有一定的借鉴作用。     

基于多因素信息融合的城市供水安全评价系统

为了确定城市供水安全状态,提出1种基于多因素信息融合思想的城市供水安全评价方法。以城市供水安全指标体系为基础,建立供水安全指标与基本概率指派函数焦元的对应关系;采用组合权重确定各评价指标的权重值作为对指标证据的支持程度,通过加权合成方法得到各因素定量、定性信息的基本概率指派函数值,利用证据理论的Dempster组合规则进行因素融合。研究结果表明:以郑州市供水安全指标体系为例,在进行多指标信息融合时与解决证据冲突的融合方法计算结果相同,郑州市2006——2008年城市供水处于不安全状态,2008年以后安全等级逐步升高且趋于稳定状态,可以预测出在未来一段时间郑州市的供水处于安全状态。     

基于水电梯级开发的河流生态健康研究

为进一步了解水电开发对河流健康的影响,本文以雅砻江下游水电梯级开发为例,构建河流健康评价指标体系,选择无人为干扰和干扰较小的河流为参照,以指标变化率衡量水电梯级开发前后河流受扰动程度,分别采用综合评价法和赋值评分法进行了定量评价。综合评价结果显示,雅砻江下游河段的综合健康指数为0.71,该研究区域在丰水期、平水期和枯水期的综合健康指数分别为0.74、0.70和0.69,均处于亚健康状态;赋值评分法结果显示建库前的河流健康指数(River health index,RHI)为19.1,等级为健康,建库后为14.3,等级为亚健康,两种方法评价结果基本一致。本文以期完善河流健康评价体系,并为生态修复提供依据。     

Addressing global responsibility for conservation through cross-cultural collaboration: <Emphasis Type="Italic">Kodama Forest,a forest of tree spirits</Emphasis>

A commitment to conservation of a place is based on the sense of place expressed by its “conceptual community”, including those who are not its residents in the geographical sense, but who nonetheless identify with it for various reasons. With the global nature of environmental issues being clearly recognized, such communities form a “terrain of consciousness” (Berg and Dasmann 1978), extending responsibility for conservation across cultures, time and space. Although the social mobility and diversity brought about by today’s technology often work against the development of a sense of place, they also allow the formation of such conceptual communities, who can highlight local distinctiveness while at the same time positioning local issues in a global context, so generating a sense of global responsibility. In the case of Tasmania, Australia, recent international interest in its ecologically and culturally significant places, such as Recherche Bay and the Styx Valley, has intensified the focus on forest issues, building on Tasmania’s already well-recognized history of environmentalism. It is important that these issues be recognized in Japan in particular, where a rising awareness about climate change and mass consumerism has alerted the public to the problem of deforestation; however the fact that Tasmania is one of the major sources of woodchips for paper production is not widely known. Awareness by the consumer, it is argued, is a foundation for forming a sense of global responsibility and it is necessary to form a conceptual community of those committed to the same issue. Cross-cultural collaboration is therefore necessary, and creativity can be an effective facilitating agent for this. This paper illustrates this point, through the example of the Kodama Forest, a forest of tree spirits, in North East Tasmania, that arose from such a collaboration between a group of Japanese students and a local community group. The collaboration also facilitated meaningful learning opportunities for the students, who chose to study in Tasmania because of its natural environment. The forest now provides a cultural heritage that also defines the evolution of this conceptual community through on-going collaboration. The importance of human connection at all levels, local, regional and global, in promoting environmental sustainability is addressed through the example of this forest.     

Tracing the geographic origin of traded leopard body parts in the indian subcontinent with DNA‐based assignment tests

Illicit trade in wildlife products is rapidly decimating many species across the globe. Such trade is often underestimated for wide‐ranging species until it is too late for the survival of their remaining populations. Policing this trade could be vastly improved if one could reliably determine geographic origins of illegal wildlife products and identify areas where greater enforcement is needed. Using DNA‐based assignment tests (i.e., samples are assigned to geographic locations), we addressed these factors for leopards (Panthera pardus) on the Indian subcontinent. We created geography‐specific allele frequencies from a genetic reference database of 173 leopards across India to infer geographic origins of DNA samples from 40 seized leopard skins. Sensitivity analyses of samples of known geographic origins and assignments of seized skins demonstrated robust assignments for Indian leopards. We found that confiscated pelts seized in small numbers were not necessarily from local leopards. The geographic footprint of large seizures appeared to be bigger than the cumulative footprint of several smaller seizures, indicating widespread leopard poaching across the subcontinent. Our seized samples had male‐biased sex ratios, especially the large seizures. From multiple seized sample assignments, we identified central India as a poaching hotspot for leopards. The techniques we applied can be used to identify origins of seized illegal wildlife products and trade routes at the subcontinent scale and beyond.     

欧盟重金属污染防治历程及启示

通过综合学习借鉴发达国家不同历史阶段污染防治的历程与积累的经验,有助于我国在比较的视野中正确认识我国重金属污染防治中存在的问题,以及学习借鉴他国的经验教训,探索属于自己的跨越式发展道路,包括污染防治政策制度设计、环境管理经验、各国的协调合作等。     

Combating the Illegal Trade in African Elephant Ivory with DNA Forensics

Abstract:  International wildlife crime is burgeoning in this climate of global trade. We contend that the most effective way to contain this illegal trade is to determine where the wildlife is being removed. This allows authorities to direct law enforcement to poaching hot spots, potentially stops trade before the wildlife is actually killed, prevents countries from denying their poaching problems at home, and thwarts trade before it enters into an increasingly complex web of international criminal activity. Forensic tools have been limited in their ability to determine product origin because the information they can provide typically begins only at the point of shipment. DNA assignment analyses can determine product origin, but its use has been limited by the inability to assign samples to locations where reference samples do not exist. We applied new DNA assignment methods that can determine the geographic origin(s) of wildlife products from anywhere within its range. We used these methods to examine the geographic origin(s) of 2 strings of seizures involving large volumes of elephant ivory, 1 string seized in Singapore and Malawi and the other in Hong Kong and Cameroon. These ivory traffickers may comprise 2 of the largest poaching rings in Africa. In both cases all ivory seized in the string had common origins, which indicates that crime syndicates are targeting specific populations for intense exploitation. This result contradicts the dominant belief that dealers are using a decentralized plan of procuring ivory stocks as they became available across Africa. Large quantities of ivory were then moved, in multiple shipments, through an intermediate country prior to shipment to Asia, as a risk-reduction strategy that distances the dealer from the poaching locale. These smuggling strategies could not have been detected by forensic information, which typically begins only at the shipping source.     

It's Not Easy Being Green … Or Is It? A Content Analysis of Environmental Claims in Magazine Advertisements from the United States and United Kingdom

As corporations seek to appeal to environmentally conscious stakeholders, advertisements containing environmental claims have become increasingly prominent. A corporation's desire for an enhanced corporate reputation, combined with lenient environmental advertising regulation, has created the perfect environment for corporations to use—and misuse—environmental claims, resulting in “greenwashing.” Defined as the act of disseminating disinformation to consumers regarding the environmental practices of a company or the environmental benefits of a product or service, greenwashing occurs around the world. This study is a cross-national content analysis of 247 print ads from 84 issues of mainstream magazines from the United States and United Kingdom. Three-fourths (75%) of the ads analyzed contained one or more aspects of greenwashing. Firms advertising in US magazines were significantly more likely to employ misleading/deceptive environmental claims than UK firms and magazines. These findings suggest that without increased environmental advertisement regulation, greenwashing will persist as a disingenuous means for corporate reputation enhancement.     

Issues with using police citations to assign responsibility in quasi-induced exposure

Crash fault determination is one of the most critical issues in applications of quasi-induced exposure. Traditionally, the driver citation issued by the investigating police officer is the primary source to assign responsibility for motor vehicle crashes. Such citations are based on the “evidence” or observation of a moving violation (such as engaged hazardous actions) in combination with non-moving violations (such as suspended driver license) prior to the crash. The objective here is to identify the contributing factors that may lead to driver citations in two-vehicle crashes in addition to the hazardous action. Multivariate binary logistic regression modeling is employed to explore the behavior of the investigating police officer in terms of issuing citation at the crash scene. A series of explanatory parameters including roadway characteristics, environmental factors, and driver and vehicle attributes is assessed. The results show that whether the crash type was a hit-and-run, alcohol and illegal drug use, driver gender, driver age, and injury severity all appear to have significant impacts on the investigating officer’s decision-making. Specific examples are given to demonstrate how two factors hit-and-run and drinking status can skew the exposure estimates in the context of quasi-induced exposure. The findings will help to serve as a basis to select appropriate parameters in assigning crash responsibility in quasi-induced exposure applications; and we make recommendations to modify existing crash database for better safety research in the future.