中国民航的安全文化建设(之一)

安全是民航永恒的主题 ,民航安全的重要基础是民航安全文化。首先 ,笔者论述了安全文化建设对民航安全的决定性作用 ;回顾了中国民航 5 0年安全思想的发展历程 ,揭示了中国民航安全形势的长期、中期和短期趋势与安全文化建设波动的对应关系。又从现代系统科学的角度 ,对中国民航安全文化建设的实践作了进一步的理论概括。最后 ,针对中国民航当前存在的认识问题 ,论述了东、西方文化特征在民航安全文化中的体现 ,并提出了大力弘扬东方文化传统 ,积极吸取西方安全科学技术成果 ,推进民航安全文化建设的原则建议。     

What Makes Them Pay? Values of Volunteer Tourists Working for Sea Turtle Conservation

As charismatic mega-fauna, sea turtles attract many volunteers to conservation programs. This article examines the ways in which volunteers value sea turtles, in the specific context of volunteers working with the Caribbean Conservation Corporation, at Tortuguero, Costa Rica. The complexity of volunteer values is explored using a qualitative approach. In-depth interviews with 31 volunteers were conducted in July of 1999 and 2000. Interviews probed, among other things, interest in sea turtles and their conservation, motives for participating, and the most gratifying parts of their volunteer experience. Results show that volunteers hold multiple and complex values for sea turtles, but particular values dominate. Results have implications for understanding human–environment relations and the emerging study of volunteer tourism. There are also management implications for volunteer programs hoping to attract participants.     

山岳景区依托型乡村旅游就业吸附的空间特征

乡村振兴战略和乡村产业转型发展背景下,休闲旅游产业在乡村地域的兴起扰动了当前就业人口由乡村向城镇流动的宏观趋势,乡村旅游就业吸附正从微观上改变着城乡间劳动力空间流动的格局和过程。为科学理解乡村旅游就业吸附引起城乡劳动力空间流动发生变化的特征与机制,文章基于在浙晋山岳景区依托型乡村旅游地深度访谈的一手数据,分析了乡村旅游就业人口流动的空间分布特征、就业吸附的空间模式和过程机制。结果表明:①山岳景区依托型乡村旅游就业吸附呈现距离衰减和空间层级结构的特征,0~4 km为核心层、4~12 km为过渡层、12 km以上为外缘层;但在不同社会经济发展环境下该特征存在区域差异,欠发达地区乡村旅游就业吸附的空间集中性,比发达地区更加明显。②研究从城乡地域空间系统的视角,基于人口转移“推—拉”理论对乡村旅游就业人口空间流动特征和影响机制进行分析,发现山岳景区依托型乡村旅游就业吸附呈现以城镇、乡村为就业吸附极,以城乡接合部为吸附效用“分水岭”的空间模式;其中,连接城乡间的便捷交通是乡村旅游就业吸附实现的关键介质。③基于乡村旅游就业吸附空间适用性,文章针对性提出了“空间围栏效应”的概念。文章不仅从微观尺度上丰富了乡村旅游就业人口空间流动特征、过程、模式等的理论认识,而且对切实指导乡村地域在乡村旅游开发实践中理性理解乡村旅游的就业促进作用,提升乡村旅游开发规划和投资的效率具有积极意义。     

对新疆某铀伴生煤矿辐射环境影响分析及污染防治探讨

通过对新疆某煤矿辐射环境影响问题的调查与分析,阐明铀伴生煤矿对周围环境存在着不同程度的放射性影响,并在调查与分析的基础上,针对调查煤矿日前存在的问题提出了一些污染防治的对策和措施,以期为今后伴生放射性煤矿的环境管理决策提供有力依据。     

论环境科学的分科体系

本文对环境科学的综合性、整体性和跨学科性等特点进行了系统的深入的分析,并以其综合方式和程度为依据,对环境科学的学科划分提出了具体的意见。在本文提出的分科系统中,环境科学被划分成建立在三大传统科学基础之上,由三个层次的学科群组成的有机体系。     

A Systems Approach to Biodiversity Conservation Planning

With a recent media-fueled transition from a scientific to a political perspective, biodiversity has become an issue of ethics and ensuing values, beyond its traditional ecological roots. More fundamentally, the traditional perspective of biodiversity is being challenged by the emergence of a post-normal or systems-based approach to science. A systems-based perspective of living systems rests on the central tenets of complexity and uncertainty, and necessitates flexibility, anticipation and adaptation rather than prediction and control in conservation planning and management. What are the implications of this new perspective? This paper examines these challenges in the context of biodiversity conservation planning. The new perspectives of biodiversity are identified and explored, and the emergence of a new ecological context for biodiversity conservation is discussed. From the analysis, the challenges and implications for conservation planning are considered, and a systems-based or post-normal approach to conservation planning and management is proposed. In light of the new perspectives for biodiversity, conservation planning and management approaches should ultimately reflect the essence of living systems: they should be diverse, adaptive, and self-organizing, accepting the ecological realities of change.     

Foundations of indigenous knowledge on disasters due to natural hazards: lessons from the outlook on floods among the Bayira of the Rwenzori region

The role of indigenous knowledge in increasing context specificity and exposing blind spots in scientific understanding is widely evidenced in disaster studies. This paper aims to structure the processes that shape indigenous knowledge production and its optimisation using the case of floods. An inductive analytical approach is applied among riparian indigenous communities (focus on the Bayira) of the Rwenzori region of Uganda where plenty of indigenous flood practices have been recorded. Indigenous knowledge of floods is found to be based on intimate comprehension of local hydrometeorological regularities. Insofar as these regularities follow natural dynamics, indigenous socio-epistemic processes are noted to be consistent with the laws of nature. Coupled with regular open sociocultural deliberations, the conceptualisation of hydrometeorological regularities induces an indigenous ontology and empiricist epistemology. This, together with the techniques used, is the driver of crucial epistemic virtues which enable indigenous knowledge to provide disaster solutions that are adapted, pragmatic, and holistic.     

Bearing Witness? Polar Bears as Icons for Climate Change Communication in National Geographic

This article investigates how polar bears were established as icons of climate change in the popular science magazine National Geographic. In a multistep process, anthropomorphized depictions first established polar bears as subjects of identification. Then, polar bears were visually connected to the endangered Arctic. Finally, they emerged as ambassadors of a threatened ecosystem and icons of climate change. I highlight the wider political contexts of this process of iconization and the semiotic and cultural resources on which it draws, showing what kind of climate change communication the polar bear icon enables or inhibits. The icon lends itself to being deployed in visual communication strategies creating personal concern and public awareness for climate change. At the same time, the icon fosters an individualized, emotionalized, and localized account of climate change but does not make its wider causes visible.     

Divergent Perspectives on Expert Disagreement: Preliminary Evidence from Climate Science,Climate Policy,Astrophysics, and Public Opinion

We report the results of an exploratory study that examines the judgments of climate scientists, climate policy experts, astrophysicists, and non-experts (N?=?3367) about the factors that contribute to the creation and persistence of disagreement within climate science and astrophysics and about how one should respond to expert disagreement. We found that, as compared to non-experts, climate experts believe that within climate science (i) there is less disagreement about climate change, (ii) methodological factors play less of a role in generating disagreements, (iii) fewer personal or institutional biases influence climate research, and (iv) there is more agreement about which methods should be used to examine relevant phenomena we also observed that the uniquely American political context predicted experts’ judgments about some of these factors. We also found that, in regard to disagreements concerning cosmic ray physics, and commensurate with the greater inherent uncertainty and data lacunae in their field, astrophysicists working on cosmic rays were generally more willing to acknowledge expert disagreement, more open to the idea that a set of data can have multiple valid interpretations, and generally less quick to dismiss someone articulating a non-standard view as non-expert, than climate scientists were in regard to climate science.     

Climate Change and Energy Technologies in Undergraduate Introductory Science Textbooks

Global climate change and the implementation of energy technologies are among the most pressing issues facing society and the environment today. Related educational content spans the science disciplines. Through an analysis of introductory-level university textbooks from four major US publishers in Biology, Chemistry, and Physics, this study presents trends in terminology and content. As the defining terms, “global warming” and “climate change” are used nearly equally. However, the first location of a working definition for climate change appears earlier. Energy technologies, climate change, and related environmental issues are found, on average, on ≤4% of textbook pages, and variation is large among individual textbooks. Discipline-based trends exist, especially for the energy technologies presented. Addressed separately as a non-renewable, non-fossil fuel, nuclear energy is found on ≤1% of textbook pages and unfavorably represented. The discussion within these science disciplines has implications on introductory-level education, public perception of science, and informed citizenship.