Sustainability: a Dissent

Abstract:  Broadly conceived and considered in its many usages, sustainability has grave defects as a planning goal, particularly when used by conservationists: it confuses means and ends; it is vague about what is being sustained and who or what is doing the sustaining; it is uninspiring; it is little more than Pinchot-era conservation (and thus ignores the many lessons learned since then); it need not be linked to land, to the land's functioning, or to any ecological science; it need not include a moral component; it is consistent with the view of humans as all-powerful manipulators of the planet; and, in general, it is such a malleable term that its popularity provides only a facade of consensus. When sustainability is defined broadly to include the full range of economic and social aspirations, it poses the particular risk that ecological and biodiversity concerns will be cast aside in favor of more pressing human wants. Given these many defects, the conservation movement should discard the term in favor of a more alluring goal, attentive to nature and its ecological functioning. A sound goal would incorporate and distill the considerable ecological and moral wisdom accumulated since Pinchot's day while giving conservationists the rhetorical tools needed to defend the land against competing pressures. In our view, conservation would be well served by an updated variant of "land health," Aldo Leopold's ecologically grounded goal from the 1940s. Land health as an independent understanding should set the essential terms of how we live and enjoy the earth, providing the framework within which we pursue our many social and economic aims.     

evaluation of a measurement method for forest vegetation in a large-scale ecological survey

We evaluate a field method for determining species richness andcanopy cover of vascular plants for the Forest Health MonitoringProgram (FHM), an ecological survey of U.S. forests. Measurementsare taken within 12 1-m² quadrats on 1/15 ha plots in FHM.Species richness and cover are determined for four height classes(strata) within each quadrat and aggregated by stratum over the entireplot. We estimated (1) the agreement between experienced trainers andinexperienced technicians who collected the data on this survey(accuracy) and (2) the agreement among the technicians (precision) forresults on species richness and cover from 3 test plots at 3 timeintervals. The methods appear to be highly precise, although somediscrepancies with the values obtained by the trainers were found.Trainers found significantly more species in the ground stratum (0–0.6 m) and measured significantly more cover in the uppermost stratum(>4.9 m). The proportion of variation due to measurement error andtemporal variability was less than 13% for species richness (all strata)and cover (all but one stratum). This indicates that the method issuitable for monitoring changes in species richness and canopy coverfor a large-scale synoptic monitoring project such as FHM.     

综合福利视角下中国生态文明建设绩效评价及国际比较

基于强可持续研究范式,以生态经济学和可持续发展理论为基础,运用两阶段网络Super-EBM模型进行绩效测算和评价,打开生态福利转化过程的“黑箱”,基于综合福利视角将生态文明建设绩效进一步分解为生态经济效率和经济福利效率,实证研究部分选取2006-2015年的时间序列数据对中国“十一五”和“十二五”期间的生态文明建设绩效水平进行纵向分析,与此同时,选取42个国家2014年的截面数据进行横向的国际对比研究。研究表明：（1）“十一五”到“十二五”期间,中国生态文明建设绩效（0.986）整体水平一般,均未实现DEA有效,但“十二五”期间已呈现出逐年改善的利好趋势。国际比较层面,瑞士（1.647）、印度尼西亚（1.365）、爱尔兰（1.039）依次排名前三位,中国（0.297）排名相对靠后,位列倒数第二。各国之间差异较大,总体上呈现出“OECD国家（0.677）最高、G20国家（0.611）次之、金砖国家（0.417）最低”的态势。（2）从分阶段效率来看,无论是纵向分析还是横向对比,均发现第一阶段的生态经济效率明显低于第二阶段的经济福利效率,生态经济效率偏低是导致生态文明建设绩效总体水平偏低的主要原因。（3）与传统的单阶段、径向或非径向DEA模型相比,两阶段网络Super-EBM模型综合考虑了径向和松弛变量问题,测算出来的效率值更为精确,能够更为客观地反映现实。同时,对于其他领域涉及两阶段或多阶段生产系统的效率或绩效评估具有较好的借鉴价值。最后,根据上述结论提出相应的政策建议。     

构建云南省新型生态工业园区的思考

论述了构建云南新型生态工业园区的必要性,对构建云南生态工业园提出了设想和初步设计,并分析了存在问题,提出了保证措施。     

小城镇的生态环境保护

在城镇化不断发展的进程中，小城镇的生态环境日益恶化。分析了小城镇生态环境存在的问题，提出了应采取的生态环境保护规划与对策。     

"农家乐"与生态环境建设

农业是我国国民经济的基础,农村生态经济是我国整个生态经济协调发展的关键和核心."农家乐"的生态建设问题在农村具有以点带面的典型意义.从生态的角度来研究"农家乐"的开发、利用、建设方面的问题,促进农村生态经济的建设和发展.     

云南省主要风景区生态环境现状研究

对云南省主要风景区所在４４个县，市的生态环境质量评价表明，优，良，中的县、市占总数的８８．６４％，总体良好。４４个县中有２７个，１０个国家的风景区中有６个均在两个旅游资源区内， 局相对合理。但１０个湖泊中已 有７个水质达不到水质的功能标准，相关的１４个城镇中也９个的空气质量达不到三级标准。     

微藻对水网藻在水体修复中的胁迫作用研究

通过单独与混合培养实验,结果显示在适宜营养水平下,水网藻对氮、磷有较强的富集吸收能力;而来自微藻生长竞争的压力会促使水网藻对营养物的生态幅变窄,满足其最佳生长所需要的PO43-P从0.085mg/L降低为0.024mg/L;并且其富集磷的能力也大为降低。在利用水网藻进行富营养化水体修复或净化水质时,这种生物之间的抑制现象必须引起重视。     

洱海轮虫及其与生态环境的关系

报道了洱海轮虫的种类组成、区系特点、数量、生物量及其分布规律,分析了轮虫的分布与生态环境的关系,揭示出洱海轮虫的分布特征及其影响其动态的主要因子.     

Concurrency: a system design approach to environmental management and sustainability

The lessons of history indicate that mismanagement of natural resources and the environment often leads to potentially adverse consequences.The increasing interest in economic development,particularly in the developing countries of the world coupled with increasing population pressures and the globalization of economic activity is placing noticeable stresses on the ultimate sustainability of both human and environmental systems.Sustainable development is not a new concept.It has been an area of concern for different elements of society for some time.Yet efforts to understand the implications of sustainable development have not,until recently,been formalized.We have focused singularly on economic development and environmental quality as if they were mutually exclusive.This paper focuses on the concept of concurrency as both a conceptual framework and practicable method of understanding and implementing the ecology and economy of sustainability.