A Successful Pilot Project of Decentralized Household Waste Management in Brazil

Summary Present municipal waste management paradigms in Brazil do not allow for flexible approaches to solving an extremely dynamic problem. This paper discusses the basic flaws in present thinking models of residents and municipal administrators. Fundamental arguments presented on municipal solid waste relate to nomenclature, destinations, definitions, logistics, social dynamics, social assistance programs, education and employment philosophies. In each case, the consequences of the stalemate are explained in terms of the unsustainable situation of constantly growing landfills. In sequence, a proactive thinking model is presented and explained that has the potential of drastically reducing landfill size. It is called Municipal Transit Material Processing. The model has been tested successfully in small communities and is now available for scale-up. The landfill diversion achieved stands at 62% of household waste in comparison with 15% theoretically possible in Brazil with selective collection models. Although of necessity the arguments apply directly to Brazil, the basic ideas behind the reasoning may be extrapolated to other Southern countries. The following simple example will illustrate to the reader the type of paradigm inversion the paper proposes to convey. The classical political slogan in Brazil is “get children out of garbage dumps”. The inversion proposed and explained is “do away with garbage dumps”.     

中国环境管理体系剖析和创新的思路

中国现有的环境管理法律体系十分庞大，但因系统的目的性、外适应性和内协调性都存在着许多不足，配套的管理制度滞后，在环境问题日趋复杂和多样的条件下，社会要求对环境管理体制改革的呼声十分强烈。文章根据中国环境管理体系现状，通过对现有法律体系的地位、效力、目的性、适用性和8项管理制度的管理模式、权限、手段等方面进行剖析，并从环境法律和管理的制度、机制、模式和权属设置等方面提出了环境管理体系创新的思路。     

我国加入WTO对农业综合开发的影响及对策

本文首先分析了加入WTO对我国农业综合开发的不利影响和有利影响,不利影响主要在于国内市场分额被挤占、农产品质量差距明显等;有利影响主要是开拓国外市场、引进技术和资金等,文章结合我国的国情,提出我国农业综合开发在WTO框架下的应对措施。     

Using Strategic Foresight to Assess Conservation Opportunity

The nature of conservation challenges can foster a reactive, rather than proactive approach to decision making. Failure to anticipate problems before they escalate results in the need for more costly and time‐consuming solutions. Proactive conservation requires forward‐looking approaches to decision making that consider possible futures without being overly constrained by the past. Strategic foresight provides a structured process for considering the most desirable future and for mapping the most efficient and effective approaches to promoting that future with tools that facilitate creative thinking. The process involves 6 steps: setting the scope, collecting inputs, analyzing signals, interpreting the information, determining how to act, and implementing the outcomes. Strategic foresight is ideal for seeking, recognizing, and realizing conservation opportunities because it explicitly encourages a broad‐minded, forward‐looking perspective on an issue. Despite its potential value, the foresight process is rarely used to address conservation issues, and previous attempts have generally failed to influence policy. We present the strategic foresight process as it can be used for proactive conservation planning, describing some of the key tools in the foresight tool kit and how they can be used to identify and exploit different types of conservation opportunities. Scanning is an important tool for collecting and organizing diverse streams of information and can be used to recognize new opportunities and those that could be created. Scenario planning explores how current trends, drivers of change, and key uncertainties might influence the future and can be used to identify barriers to opportunities. Backcasting is used to map out a path to a goal and can determine how to remove barriers to opportunities. We highlight how the foresight process was used to identify conservation opportunities during the development of a strategic plan to address climate change in New York State. The plan identified solutions that should be effective across a range of possible futures. Illustrating the application of strategic foresight to identify conservation opportunities should provide the impetus for decision makers to explore strategic foresight as a way to support more proactive conservation policy, planning, and management.     

环境NGO在推进可持续发展中的作用——对日本环境NGO的案例分析

文章主要通过对环境NGO的案例考察分析 ,介绍日本NGO的运作方式和成功经验 ,并对我国NGO发展进行若干思考     

关于钢铁企业建设生态工业园的思考与建议

生态工业园是一种新型工业组织形态,是根据循环经济理论和工业生态学原理建立的一种与生态环境和谐共存的新型工业园区。论述了钢铁企业在搞好企业内部循环经济的基础上,向生态工业园发展的必要性;提出建设以钢铁企业为核心的生态工业园的三种模式;并对钢铁企业如何适时有效地发展生态工业园提出建议。     

对少数民族地区中学生环境教育的静思——以贵州铜仁为例

通过对贵州铜仁地区部分中学环境教育的问卷调查,了解到人们一直把课堂渗透作为其主要途径;部分领导和教师对环境教育不够重视,在课时分配、教学计划、教学过程中缺乏加强环境教育内容的意识;现行的课程设置,有关环境知识的内容比较零散、肤浅,不能使学生形成完整的环境概念,影响了学校环境教育目的的实现。因此,提高教育者的环境教育意识、健全评价培训制度、拓宽教育途径、创新教学方法,开发有利于环境教育的课程教材是促使中学生环境意识与环保行动得到协调一致发展的有效策略。     

Safer alternatives assessment: the Massachusetts process as a model for state governments

In 2006 the Massachusetts Toxics Use Reduction Institute conducted a study to determine if states could identify safer alternatives to five chemicals of concern. The chemicals investigated included di (2-ethylhexyl) phthalate (DEHP), formaldehyde, hexavalent chromium, lead and perchloroethylene. First, the Institute developed a methodology for assessing alternatives to these five chemicals that allowed it to quickly determine priority uses and alternatives to assess and to research the pertinent decision criteria, which included performance, technical, financial environmental and human health parameters. The methodology included important feedback from stakeholders in the state, which helped to focus and enhance the value of the work. Second, the Institute implemented the methodology over a ten month period. Based on the activities conducted by the Institute, safer alternatives were identified for each of the priority uses associated with the five chemicals studied. This report summarizes the methodology employed and provides examples of the results for one of the five chemicals, namely DEHP. The experience of the Institute and the information contained in this report indicates that alternatives assessment was a useful approach to organizing and evaluating information about chemicals and alternatives.     

关于修改我国《环境保护法》的法律思考

建立良好的、和谐一致的环境法律体系是我国环境法制建设的重要基础。我国现行《环境保护法》在诸多方面已不能适应新的市场经济体制和科学发展观要求,需要完善与创新。该法修订的紧迫性目前已取得有关部门和广大学者的共识,对该法存在的主要问题进行全方位、多角度和多层次的分析,并探讨相应的修改对策是非常必要的。基于课题调研和法理思考,提出关于修改现行《环境保护法》的几点建议,以期为《环境保护法》的修改提供参考。     

睢宁县农作物秸秆综合利用的现状及对策

简述了睢宁县农作物秸秆综合利用现状,分析了焚烧或废弃农作物秸秆的原因和存在问题,阐述了农作物秸秆综合利用的途径,提出了推进秸秆综合利用的对策与建议。