Voluntary corporate environmental initiatives and shareholder wealth

Researchers debate whether environmental investments reduce firm value or actually improve financial performance. We provide some compelling evidence on shareholder wealth effects of membership in voluntary environmental programs (VEPs). Companies announcing membership in EPA's Climate Leaders, a program targeting reductions in greenhouse gas emissions, experience significantly negative abnormal stock returns. The price decline is larger in firms with poor corporate governance structures, and for high market-to-book (i.e., high growth) firms. However, firms joining Ceres, a program involving more general environmental commitments, have insignificant announcement returns, as do portfolios of industry rivals. Overall, corporate commitments to reduce greenhouse gas emissions appear to conflict with firm value maximization. This has important implications for policies that rely on voluntary initiatives to address climate change. Further, we find that firms facing climate-related shareholder resolutions or firms with weak corporate governance standards – giving managers the discretion to make such voluntary environmentally responsible investment decisions – are more likely to join Climate Leaders; decisions that may result in lower firm value.     

Integrating spatial support tools into strategic planning—SEA of the GMS North–South Economic Corridor Strategy and Action Plan

The GMS countries, supported by the Asian Development Bank, have adopted a holistic, multidimensional approach to strengthen infrastructural linkages and facilitate cross border trade through (i) the establishment of a trans-boundary road connecting two economic nodes across marginalised areas, followed by 2) facilitation of environmentally and socially sound investments in these newly connected areas as a means to develop livelihoods. The North–South Economic Corridor is currently in its second phase of development, with investment opportunities to be laid out in the NSEC Strategy and Action Plan (SAP). It targets the ecologically and culturally sensitive border area between PR China's Yunnan Province, Northern Lao PDR, and Thailand. A trans-boundary, cross-sectoral Strategic Environmental Assessment was conducted to support the respective governments in assessing potential environmental and social impacts, developing alternatives and mitigation options, and feeding the findings back into the SAP writing process. Given the spatial dimension of corridor development—both with regard to opportunities and risks—particular emphasis was put in the application of spatial modelling tools to help geographically locate and quantify impacts as a means to guide interventions and set priorities.     

灾害救助网络动员模式研究

网络动员作为一种新兴的动员方式,在灾害救助中发挥着重要的作用。深入分析了现阶段我国网络动员模式中公众信息素养提升与政府监管力度不足并存,网络舆论动员与网络行动动员共举的现状,提出建构灾害救助网络动员的理想模式需要培养多元化与权威性的网络动员主体,把握网络动员主体也是监管者的双重身份,建立法律依据、政策监管、公众监督和媒体干预的立体保障。     

‘You fix my community,you have fixed my life’: the disruption and rebuilding of ontological security in New Orleans

Using the concept of ontological security, this paper examines the physical and psychological loss of home and community following Hurricane Katrina. This qualitative longitudinal study includes 40 heads of households with school‐age children who lived in New Orleans during Hurricane Katrina. Participants describe a breakdown in their social fabric at the individual and structural/community levels that contributes to a sense of community loss and social displacement, disrupting their ontological security—their notion of safety, routine and trust in a stable environment. Three interrelated reactions were common: 1) experiencing nostalgia for their old neighbourhoods specifically and New Orleans in general; 2) experiencing a sense of loss of people and things that represented a level of security or constancy; 3) initiation of a process for re‐establishing ontological security whether or not they returned to New Orleans. The paper concludes that intangible losses have an important psychological effect on community redevelopment and recovery from trauma.     

Escaping to and being active in neighbourhood parks: park use in a post-disaster setting

Neighbourhood parks may serve as a coping resource in post-disaster communities, yet little is known about the impact of large-scale disasters on park use. The objective of this study is to explore the impact of Hurricane Katrina (August 2005) on park use by visitors from flooded areas of New Orleans, Louisiana, compared to visitors from non-flooded areas. In 2006 and 2007, following Hurricane Katrina, 201 adults who visited 27 New Orleans parks were interviewed. Visitors from flooded neighbourhoods used their parks less often and were less likely to engage in animal interaction than visitors from non-flooded neighbourhoods. They placed more importance on escape and physically-active motivations than visitors from non-flooded areas. Social reasons were also more important to visitors from flooded areas, but these differences disappeared after adjusting for race. Neighbourhood parks are a community asset that may play a role in the post-disaster recovery process by providing opportunities for escape and physical activity.     

基于IAHP的城域突发事故灾害社会风险定量评估

通过对城域突发事故灾害社会损失的分析,建立了社会损失评估指标体系.突破传统仅针对人员死亡概率定量计算的区域风险评价方法,从可能性和社会损失两个方面构建了能够综合反映人员伤亡、财产损失、环境破坏的社会风险定量评估模型,并对事故灾害社会风险实施等级划分.通过对AHP方法优缺点的分析,建议综合运用IAHP来确立社会损失指标的...     

New tools for emergency managers: an assessment of obstacles to use and implementation

This paper focuses on the role of the formal response community's use of social media and crowdsourcing for emergency managers (EMs) in disaster planning, response and recovery in the United States. In‐depth qualitative interviews with EMs on the Eastern seaboard at the local, state and federal level demonstrate that emergency management tools are in a state of transition—from formal, internally regulated tools for crisis response to an incorporation of new social media and crowdsourcing tools. The first set of findings provides insight into why many EMs are not using social media, and describes their concerns that result in fear, uncertainty and doubt. Second, this research demonstrates how internal functioning and staffing issues within these agencies present challenges. This research seeks to examine the dynamics of this transition and offer lessons for how to improve its outcomes—critical to millions of people across the United States.     

Cultural issues in post‐disaster reconstruction: the case of Typhoon Morakot in Taiwan

Most members of Taiwan's indigenous communities live in areas that are prone to natural disasters. Yet, due to their marginalised cultural, economic and political status, each time such calamities strike, any assistance they receive is usually provided without considering their actual needs. The areas hardest hit by Typhoon Morakot in August 2009 were the indigenous villages in the southern and eastern parts of the island. After the initial emergency relief efforts had been completed, there remained the highly challenging task of reconstruction and the resettlement of those who lost their homes and livelihoods. This paper examines the cultural conflicts that arose during the reconstruction process, with special emphasis on the participation of Taiwan's indigenous communities and their capacity for resilience. It was found that community participation and identification are key issues in effective disaster governance.     

Protest,politics and produce: a resource account of anti-genetically modified organism activism

Activism research is over-reliant on social psychological frameworks emphasising framing or ideological-based explanations. The current underdevelopment of resource-based accounts requires urgent attention from social movement scholars. Stressing the rationality of social movement actors, resource mobilisation theory is used to assess and understand the empirical validity of resource-driven social mobilisation. Anti-genetically modified organism (GMO) activism in France is selected as a uniquely ripe context for exploring resource mobilisation. A resource-based examination reveals why, when and how key anti-GMO movement actors differentiated their strategies on the basis of protest, politics and produce. A new framework is proposed to encompass key variables around material, human and network-based resources. It is argued that resource mobilisation research designs need to move beyond financially driven causal arguments.     

论环境教育法制建设与环境保护社会治理

加强环境法制教育有利于提升公众的环境保护理念,促进环保社会治理。日本和我国台湾地区在环境教育法律依据、教育内容、教育职责、教育制度等方面的经验可供我们借鉴。在我国大陆开展环境教育法制建设,须强调政府的主导作用,强调党、政府、社会、公民和市场关系的制度化,解决组织主体、参与主体和经费保障等关键问题,符合实际并发挥实际作用。在党内法规方面,要制定与国家立法相衔接的环境保护党内法规和其他规范性文件;在国家立法的建设方面,制定专门了《环境教育法》或者《环境教育条例》,按照十八届四中全会决定要求,把全民普法和守法作为依法治国的长期基础性工作,明确中央和地方政府、企业、学校、社会组织和公民个体的环境宣传教育权利和义务,把环境宣传教育作为基础性工作纳入国民经济和社会发展计划,完善环境信息公开、社会监督、行政监督和司法监督等制度和机制,采取有针对性和可接受的宣教方法与机制,促进环境保护宣传教育制度得以运行。