简论灾害报警

本文运用信息论、系统论、控制论的原理，分析研究我国人民同灾害斗争的经验和教训，论述了灾害报警与人类安全的关系，灾害报警为人类安全服务的光辉历史，现代社会对灾害报警的要求，以及如何搞好灾害报警。为了防灾害于未然，达到及时报警，灾害报警的最终目标是把传感、通信和计算机联接成网，融为一体，建立现代的灾害报警网络，更好地为人类的安全服务．     

当代世界50起重大毒性灾害初析

本文对当代世界１９３０～１９９２年５０起重大毒性灾害进行了分析。其中药物中毒６起，食物中毒７起，环境污染８起，毒气泄漏５起，有毒化学品与有毒气体爆炸９起，核爆炸与核辐射６起，恐怖行为２起，其它毒性灾害７起。本文还对减轻毒性灾害的基本对策进行了探讨。     

对提高环境影响评价质量的几点意见

本文从法制与技术两个方面的观点提出如何提高环境影响评价质量的几点意见。     

日本的环境保护

本文介绍了日本的环境污染与环境保护发展概况，阐述了各发展阶段的特征和所采取的环境保护政策，措施及成功的经验，扼要地探讨了我国与日本在环境保护方面在的差距及其原因。     

Better environmental future in Europe through environmental auditing?

environmental auditing must be rejected if the aim is to make companies introduce a specific management concept. Rather, it is preferable to leave the search for effective environmental protection strategies to the competitive system, especially since the criteria for environment-oriented management in the European Community audit proposal are without substance. Environmental auditing can, however, assume a complementary function in the framework of an overall environmental policy if it is designed as an information tool with which companies provide information on the development of environmental problems deriving from their manufacturing processes and products. However, the model required to establish a framework of quantity and evaluation criteria is not available. Further, auditing does not cover products. Similarly, there are no proposals defining the evaluation procedure for ecological resource scarcity. Thus, the attempt of the Commission of the European Communities to create the elementary prerequisites for consistent and verifiable environmental auditing in the corporate sector has failed.     

Regulation for environmental protection: The Nanticoke industrial complex,Ontario, Canada

This assessment of the environmental protection regulatory system for the $2.2 billion iron and steel plant, oil refinery, and thermal generating station composing the core of the greenfield Nanticoke industrial complex is based upon: the use of governmental and industrial research in project management; technology and institutional arrangements for environmental protection; evidence of environmental changes to date; analysis of government and industrial approval files; and interviews with government, industry, and interest group representatives. Planning, regulation, and management have been reasonably efficient and effective to the beginning of the operational stage for all three major industries as of spring 1980. Of major future concern, however, is management of the cumulative and synergistic impacts of the industries and associated development on air quality as well as the lands, waters, and sensitive ecosystems of the nearby Lake Erie coast. Continuous monitoring, more comprehensive research, and better overall coordination of government, industrial, and public interests are required if Nanticoke benefits are to be achieved without undue cost to pre-project resource users within and outside the Haldimand-Norfolk region.     

SEARCHING THE WATER RESOURCES LITERATURE: INDEXING/ABSTRACTING COVERAGE FOR LEADING WATER RESOURCES JOURNALS1

ABSTRACT: The Water Resources Scientific Information Center (WRSIC) provides comprehensive indexing/abstracting for the water resources literature. To determine in one objective way the coverage of this information service from a user's point of view, an extensive sampling of the journal literature was used to determine extent to which 10 leading water resources journals are indexed and abstracted by the system. Coverage is so high that some users will want to change toward greater use of the system.     

On averting the tragedy of the commons

One of the enduring facts of the human condition is that the earth's resources are finite and its environment fragile. It is also evident that human behavior is rarely based on an appreciation of these facts. While the outlook may be bleak, so are some of the proposed solutions. Reasonable people have suggested that, to survive, an environmentally enlightened authoritarian government must be adopted. This article suggests that such a solution is unworkable, in part because it fails to consider critical aspects of human nature. A framework is proposed for developing solutions compatible with human capabilities.     

Mapping pesticide contamination potential

Groundwater contamination by agricultural chemicals is a major environmental pollution issue nation-wide. The regulatory agencies of towns and counties face the problem of finding a methodology for assessing the ground-water contamination potential of a large number of agricultural pesticides. Because of the spatial nature of the problem and the limited data availability for comprehensive pesticide movement models, a contamination potential index was employed for preliminary assessment. A specially designed geographic information system was used to create ground-water contamination likelihood maps for a 1500 km² area. The results suggest that this methodology can be used successfully for evaluating the relative contamination potential of a large number of pesticides over large areas with limited input data. A tentative approach for using this method for monitoring and registration of pesticides is also discussed.     

Culture and the environment in the United States

The beliefs of Americans about the proper relationship between humans and their environment were profoundly affected by waves of immigration from Europe. Immigrants valued ownership of land, individuality, freedom, domination of nature, and technological development. These themes remain strong today as centerpieces of the American dominant social paradigm (DSP).That DSP has been reexamined and found wanting by an increasing proportion of Americans. This departure from the old DSP has progressed further among the public than among the elite who have a greater stake in preserving the status quo. Environmentalists constitute a vanguard trying to lead the people to a new, more environmentally oriented social paradigm. The beliefs of the old DSP and the new environmental paradigm (NEP) are contrasted in Table 2. Briefly, the NEP advocates stress love of nature rather than domination of it; compassion for other peoples, future generations, and other species; planning to avoid risk; limits to growth; fundamental social change; and a new structuring of politics.These two worldviews are likely to be in vigorous conflict for several decades in the USA. Social learning, spurred by deterioration of the old ways, is likely to lead Americans to a new perspective on their relationship to nature.With the advice and assistance of Barbara V. Fisher.