Seven suppositions about energy security in the United States

Changing the patterns of energy use requires investigating how energy consumers - not experts - conceive of energy challenges. This article explores the varying beliefs, attitudes, and views on energy security in the United States among experts and residents. Based primarily on an academic literature review to distill expert views, and a survey distributed to hundreds of residents in the U.S. to capture consumer views, the study begins by explaining its methodology before identifying seven suppositions related to energy security. These suppositions involve security of fuel supply, energy democracy, energy research and development, affordability of energy services, environmental pollution, and climate change adaptation and mitigation. The second section of the study tests these suppositions with a survey distributed to 427 respondents in the United States. Three suppositions are supported, two are unsupported, and two are neither supported nor unsupported. The final section of the study offers implications for U.S. energy policy and scholarship.     

宁夏环境问题与可持续发展

环境问题的实质，就是人类从环境中索取资源的速度超过了资源本身及其替代品的再生速度，即向环境排放废弃物的速度超过了环境的自净能力，自然和人文景观受到破坏，环境对废弃物的消纳同化能力越来越弱，环境功能发生退化，环境资源失去了可持续性。     

基于能值的哈萨克斯坦可持续发展评价

运用能值方法分析2014—2018年哈萨克斯坦的资源利用和可持续发展状况。结果表明:哈萨克斯坦的总能值使用量约有89.94%依赖于本土不可更新资源,且直接出口大量粗加工原材料(如石油、矿产、金属等)。该国能值货币比率较低(9.50×10¹¹～1.22×10¹²sej/$),单位货币所购买能值量较小;能值产出率在16.87～26.11范围内波动,从基于能值的可持续发展指数来看,2014年该指数为0.90,系统发展缺乏可持续性;2015—2018年,该指数高于1,系统发展是可持续的。此外,哈萨克斯坦环境负荷较高,主要由于对本土不可更新资源的开采及利用效率较低。对此,提出了加强可再生资源开发力度、提升资源利用效率、改善对外贸易结构等建议,以期为促进哈萨克斯坦的可持续发展提供科学依据。     

Developing Canada's National Forest Carbon Monitoring, Accounting and Reporting System to Meet the Reporting Requirements of the Kyoto Protocol

The rate of carbon accumulation in the atmosphere can be reduced by decreasing emissions from the burning of fossil fuels and by increasing the net uptake (or reducing the net loss) of carbon in terrestrial (and aquatic) ecosystems. The Kyoto Protocol addresses both the release and uptake of carbon. Canada is developing a National Forest Carbon Monitoring, Accounting and Reporting System in support of its international obligations to report greenhouse gas sources and sinks. This system employs forest-inventory data, growth and yield information, and statistics on natural disturbances, management actions and land-use change to estimate forest carbon stocks, changes in carbon stocks, and emissions of non-CO₂ greenhouse gases. A key component of the system is the Carbon Budget Model of the Canadian Forest Sector (CBM-CFS). The model is undergoing extensive revisions to enable analyses at four spatial scales (national, provincial, forest management unit and stand) and in annual time steps. The model and the supporting databases can be used to assess carbon-stock changes between 1990 and the present, and to predict future carbon-stock changes based on scenarios of future disturbance rates and management actions.     

基于能值理论的农田—畜禽生产系统可持续动态

为了解我国东南丘陵山区农业生产动态及其可持续性,以福建典型山区德化县为例,构建废弃物能值比例、环境污染能值负产出等指标,运用能值理论定量分析德化县2007—2016年农田—畜禽生产系统投入产出、环境负荷及可持续性的变化。结果表明：德化县农田—畜禽生产系统能值投入以购买能值为主,占能值总投入的68%~79%,水资源能值约占21%~31%;畜禽子系统能值产出占72%以上;能值密度在2.68×10¹²~3.33×10¹² sej·m^-2之间波动上升,净能值产出率下降40%,环境负荷明显加重,2015年以来有所减轻;可持续发展指数在2007—2010年短暂上升后快速下降,由1.14降至0.42。从构建的指标来看,系统废弃物能值比例有所下降,环境污染能值产出减少约22%,综合经济效益和废弃物利用情况,近年来可持续发展状况逐渐好转。德化县目前正处于农田—畜禽系统产出结构调整期,应增加系统内部反馈能值用量,控制化肥、饲料投入,提高废弃物利用率,以实现可持续发展。     

Geological CO2 Storage as a Climate Change Mitigation Option

Carbon dioxide (CO₂₎ capture and storage is increasingly being considered as an important climate change mitigation option. This paper explores provisions for including geological CO₂ storage in climate policy. The storage capacity of Norway's Continental Shelf is alone sufficient to store a large share of European CO₂ emissions for many decades. If CO₂ is injected into oil reservoirs there is an additional benefit in terms of enhanced oil recovery. However, there are significant technical and economic challenges, including the large investment in infrastructure required, with related economies of scale properties. Thus CO₂ capture, transportation and storage projects are likely to be more economically attractive if developed on a large scale, which could mean involving two or more nations. An additional challenge is the risk of future leakages from storage sites, where the government must take on a major responsibility. In institutional and policy terms, important challenges are the unsettled status of geological CO₂ storage as a policy measure in the Kyoto Protocol, lack of relevant reporting and verification procedures, and lack of decisions on how the option should be linked to the flexibility mechanisms under the Kyoto Protocol. In terms of competitiveness with expected prices for CO₂ permits under Kyoto Protocol trading, the relatively high costs per tonne of CO₂ stored means that geological CO₂ storage is primarily of interest where enhanced oil recovery is possible. These shortcomings and uncertainties mean that companies and governments today only have weak incentives to venture into geological CO₂ storage.     

Phosphorous cycling and biogeochemistry in a Venezuelan-flooded savanna

In 1970, a programme of land recuperation started in Venezuelan savannas, strongly affected by the seasonality of precipitation; therefore, a network of dykes has been built to alleviate the floods and retain water throughout the dry period. Under the dyked system, the environment has been altered, allowing a change in the herbaceous vegetation towards aquatic species and an increase in primary production. It is assumed that a considerable quantity of nutrients is lost from the ecosystem through the floodgates, a situation that could be worsened with the climate change. This contribution describes the atmospheric input and total output in stream run-off of phosphorous (P) in a flooded savanna. Internal pools of the biogeochemical cycle of P associated with terrestrial compartments are described. In the flooded savanna, a large amount of P is immobilised (29.6?kg?ha^?1) in their above ground biomass by grasses, and in soil microbial biomass. The P budget was nearly balanced, as measured losses were cancelled out by the inputs in rainfall. Soils act as a sink, retaining P coming either from precipitation or from desorption/mineralisation processes. That interruption can be maximised, and losses of P and other nutrients can be minimised with an adequate management of the floodgate.     

A regional-scale sustainable development index: the case of Baja California Sur,Mexico

Sustainable development, as a multi-dimensional concept, is difficult to measure. Some efforts using indicators and indices have appeared in recent years, but most were developed on a national scale. Use of sustainability indicators has proven valuable for attaining better management of the environment by minimizing information gaps and maximizing community capabilities in terms of economic, social, environmental, and institutional sustainability dimensions. However, at least in the case of developing countries, the potential exists that national sustainability measures, based on national level indicators, may mask problems in sub-national zones with highly unsustainable conditions. This paper proposes a methodology to evaluate sustainable development at a local level, the use of which could be helpful in comparing different regions within a country or even among different countries. National sustainability indicators should result from a combination (whether additive or proportional) of regional sustainability indicators, as developed in this paper.     

The political ecology of Yukon forestry: managing the forest as if people mattered

Over the past several decades a growing interest has emerged in the relationship between forest dependent communities and their use of non-timber forest resources (NTFR—i.e. berries, roots, barks). Motivated in large part by international concerns over the loss of biological and cultural diversity, efforts are now being made to conserve the world's remaining forests by repositioning NTFR to the forefront of the forest management process. Together with the Little Salmon Carmacks First Nation, we have undertaken an assessment that: 1) addresses the role of NTFR in fulfilling basic human necessities and well-being of community members, and 2) identifies the perceptual differences that exist among First Nation and non-First Nation community members regarding the security and future availability of forest resources. Based on our findings, we argue that if the true value of the forest is to be understood, and thus sustained, those involved in management must consider the full array of products and services the forest provides. Thus the conventional and over-simplified view that the forest is to provide primarily for commercial timber must be challenged in light of the multiplicity of values community members gain from forest use.     

Constructing change: The evolution of land and resource management in Alberta,Canada

Recognizing the limitations common to both centralized and privatized management regimes, institutionalized resource management is beginning to incorporate the knowledge and skills of local resource users, coupled with the enabling policies and legislation of state systems, to arrive at cooperative approaches to resource management. These varying and dynamic approaches to resource management have been compelled largely through the recognition of the limited capabilities of existing management systems to adapt effectively to ecosystem change and the evolving needs of resource users. These cooperative approaches to management should not, however, be considered an institutional end-point, but rather a phase in the perpetual transition of a social system; each unique in character and individually variable depending on the resource being managed, the political climate in which management occurs, as well as the differing strategies employed by resource users to enact institutional change. Drawing from the experiences of the Whitefish Lake First Nation of Alberta, Canada, this paper presents a brief overview of the evolution of resource management theory, grounded in the real-world formation of the Whitefish Lake First Nation — Province of Alberta Cooperative Management Agreement.