People's Perception About Participatory Developmental Programs: Lessons from the Mountain Risk Engineering Program in the Indian Central Himalaya

The Indian Himalayan Region (IHR) is suffering from environmental degradation due to population pressure and infra-structural needs. This is coupled with a natural setting, which creates problems of accelerated soil erosion and mass wasting. In view of these environmental difficulties and the growing concern for effective restoration, there has become an urgent need for multi-disciplinary coordinated improvement schemes. The mitigation of risk arising from hazardous mass wasting processes, through a careful and systematic approach, has helped in the development of the concept of Mountain Risk Engineering (MRE). The MRE practices involve an integrated approach to solving the infra-structural engineering problems of hilly and mountainous areas through environmentally conscious cost-effective and site-specific designs. However, the role of people's participation is extremely crucial for the success of such programs. This paper analyzes the perception of the local people about the approaches adopted in MRE participatory developmental programs and throws light on the intricacies of peoples' participation.     

Ethics of Sustainable Development – a Study of Swedish Regulations for Genetically Modified Organisms

In spite of stricter provisions inthe new EU directive on deliberate release ofgenetically modified organisms (GMOs), criticsstill advocate a moratorium on permits forcultivation of GMOs. However, in an attempt tomeet concerns raised by the public, thedirective explicitly gives Member States thepossibility to take into consideration ethicalaspects of GMOs in the decision-making. Thisarticle investigates the potential effects ofsuch formulation by means of an empiricalanalysis of experiences gained the last yearsfrom similar Swedish regulations for GMOs,aiming at promoting sustainable development.The faulty implementation shown in the Swedishcase indicates that legal stipulations forethics as such have limited importance. It issuggested that public participation is animportant factor for successful implementationof the ethics of sustainable development.     

Genetically Modified (GM) Crops: Precautionary Science and Conflicts of Interests

Risk governance of GM plants and GMfood products is presently subject to heatedscientific and public controversies. Scientistsand representatives of the biotechnologyindustry have dominated debates concerningsafety issues. The public is suspicious withregard to the motives of scientists, companies,and political institutions involved. Thedilemmas posed are nested, embracing valuequestions, scientific uncertainty, andcontextual issues. The obvious lack of data andinsufficient information concerning ecologicaleffects call for application of thePrecautionary Principle (PP). There are,however, divergent opinions among scientistsabout the relevance of putative hazards,definition of potential ``adverse effects,' andwhether actions should be taken to preventharm. The reliance on the concept ofsubstantial equivalence in safety evaluation ofGM food is equally controversial. Consequently,value assumptions embedded in a scientificframework may be a barrier for employment ofthe PP. One of our major conclusions is thatprecautionary GMP usage requires riskassessment criteria yet undeveloped, as well asbroader and more long-term conceptions of risk,uncertainty, and ignorance. Conflicts ofinterest and public participation are otherissues that need to be taken intoconsideration. GMP governance regimes that arejustifiable from a precautionary and ethicalpoint of view must transcend traditionalscientific boundaries to include alternativescientific perspectives as well as publicinvolvement.     

环境保护要依靠公众参与——关于环境保护主要依靠力量的市民调查

环境问题和环境保护已日益深入到社会政治、经济、文化、生活各个领域。在呼吁公众参与的条件下，依靠谁去搞好环境保护？公众是如何看待自己在环境保护中的作用的呢？对这些问题的回答将有助于了解公众关于环境保护的心态，有助于环境保护公众参与政策更具有针对性的实施。本文就这一话题进行了城市居民的抽样调查。调查表明，公众普遍认为，政府和公众参与是搞好环保的主要依靠力量；而公众对环境宣传教育和污染企业的治理以及技术进步的期望较低。本文进一步分析了不同年龄、文化程度、职业和人均月收入带来的影响，以期把握不同层次公众的心态。在此基础上本文就环境宣传教育如何促进公众参与提出了一些思考。     

Changes in risk perception among North Sea offshore personnel in the period 1990 to 1994

A self-completion questionnaire survey was carried out among employees on offshore oil platforms in the Norwegian part of the North Sea in February 1990 and repeated in February 1994. A total of 915 employees on eight platforms (five oil companies) answered the questionnaire in 1990 and the response rate was 92%. In 1994, 1138 respondents on twelve platforms and nine companies filled in the questionnaire. The response rate was 87%. Significantly fewer of the personnel felt at risk in 1994 compared to 1990. Likewise, a greater percentage of the employees were satisfied with safety and contingency measures, and experienced job stress to a lesser extent in 1994 than they did in 1990.     

电子商务安全的探讨

介绍电子商务的发展规模以及可能会遇到的安全问题,分析电子商务安全的基本技术加密算法。根据对称加密算法和非对称加密算法的安全特点进行组合,从而提出电子商务交易的一般安全控制结构图,针对各个环节的优缺点,提出有效解决安全问题的方案,同时重点突出了各种相关新技术的特点;电子商务交易的发展,互联网的普及,网络上交易及其信息的安全性已经对人们的经济活动及日常生活产生了重要的影响,为此,提出的电子商务安全方案最大限度地降低了人们的风险;进一步探讨和展望电子商务的前景:随着电子商务的发展,电子交易的手段也更加多样化,安全问题也会变得重要和突出;同时,电子商务又是一个复杂的系统工程,它的安全还要依赖许多社会问题的解决。     

我国公共场所禁烟现状及对策分析

分析目前我国公共场所禁烟现状，探讨进一步加强公共场所禁烟工作的对策。方法：对四川、贵州、浙江、广西等地区的疾病控制中心、卫生监督所以及健康教育所的工作人员进行定性访谈，并结合文献综述。结果：尽管我国公共场所的禁烟工作取得了一些成绩，但仍存在很多不足之处。结论：公共场所彻底禁烟不仅需要烟民的自觉禁烟，也需要政府有关法令的力行实施，更需要全社会广大群众的共同参与。     

Environmental Ethics Beyond Principle? The Case for a Pragmatic Contextualism

Many nonanthropocentric environmental ethicists subscribe to a ``principle-ist' approach to moral argument, whereby specific natural resource and environmental policy judgments are deduced from the prior articulation of a general moral principle. More often than not, this principle is one requiring the promotion of the intrinsic value of nonhuman nature. Yet there are several problems with this method of moral reasoning, including the short-circuiting of reflective inquiry and the disregard of the complex nature of specific environmental problems and policy arguments. In the present paper, we advance an alternative, pragmatic contextualist approach to environmental ethics, one grounded in the moral theory of John Dewey. We present the results of an empirical study of public environmental ethics and natural resource management attitudes to support our position, and we conclude with a few recommendations for future inquiry in the field of environmental ethics.     

大型公共场所人员疏散模型研究--考虑个体特性和从众行为

在引入元胞自动机概念的基础上,模拟分析了紧急情况下人员的疏散行为,并提出了一个新的疏散模型.该模型考虑了人员的个体差异和从众行为,并重点分析了各种情况下从众行为对疏散行为和疏散时间的影响.结果表明,从众行为与疏散场所中的人员密度、视野范围大小等都有很大关系,一般而言,从众行为将延缓人员疏散的时间.     

Literary and economic impact of the Bhopal gas tragedy

The 1984 Bhopal disaster is widely regarded as a watershed event in the field of process-safety and has been largely responsible for a paradigm shift in the outlook of both industry and the public towards risk management within the processing industries. The Bhopal disaster has led to increased regulations and awareness for process-safety related activities across the globe. This paper reports the effect of the infamous Bhopal incident on the research community and examines the performance of manufacturing industries following the disaster.

For this paper, databases of scientific publications were used to investigate research trends in the safety area following the 1984 Bhopal disaster. Our analysis focuses on prominent safety-related research fields that have emerged following the gas tragedy as well as economic indicators of the processing industries. The study reveals that the process industry has consistently progressed over the years, in spite of added regulations and a worsened public image following the Bhopal disaster, and promises to be a stable economy in the future.