Environmental Damage,Abandoned Treaties,and Fossil-Fuel Dependence: The Coming Costs of Oil-and-Gas Exploration in the “1002 Area” of the Arctic National Wildlife Refuge

Contrary to claims from American politicians, lobbyists, and oil and gas executives, allowing energy development in the Alaskan Arctic National Wildlife Refuge (ANWR) will harm the environment, compromise international law, erode the social significance of wilderness protection, and ultimately fail to␣increase the energy security of the United States. After exploring a brief history of the ANWR controversy, this piece argues that the operation of oil and gas refineries in ANWR will release discharged solids, drilling waste, and dirty diesel fuel into the ecosystem’s food-chain, as they have from oil operations in Prudhoe Bay. Less obvious but equally important, oil and gas exploration in ANWR will violate a number of international treaties on biodiversity protection. In the end, development in ANWR will threaten the concept of wilderness protection, and will do little to end US dependence on foreign sources of energy. About the Author: Benjamin K. Sovacool is a doctoral candidate in the Department of Science and Technology Studies at the Virginia Polytechnic Institute & State University in Blacksburg, Virginia. He works as a research analyst for the Consortium on Energy Restructuring and is a Senior Research Fellow for the Virginia Center for Coal and Energy Research. He also just completed a Graduate Fellowship in Energy Policy at the Oak Ridge National Laboratory in Oak Ridge, Tennessee. Readers should send their comments on this paper to: BhaskarNath@aol.com within 3 months of publication of this issue.     

自然资源二元价值论及其稀缺价格研究

本文提出了自然资源二元价值论,即认为自然资源物质无价值,自然资源资本具有虚假的社会价值,并据此提出了自然资源稀缺价格理论,同时对现行自然资源价格评估方法作了分析,认为影子价格法是目前最适合的自然资源价格评估方法。     

Institutions, Forest Management, and Sustainable Human Development – Experiences from India

New institutional economists have argued that there are many categories of institutions, including market and non-market institutions, which may prove economically efficient, specifically for public goods and common pool goods. The Government of India introduced a non-market community-based institution, known as Joint Forest Management (JFM), for forest management and protection in 1990. JFM is a sharing mechanism for forest planning and management based on sharing of rights and duties, control and decision-making authority over forestlands, between forest departments and local user groups. By 2001, 42 000 Village Forest Committees established under JFM were managing over 11.5 million ha forestland. These institutions have proved very useful, and have contributed to forest management as well as four aspects of sustainable human development (SHD) – ecological output, income generation, village infrastructure development, and community empowerment. In the long-term, community-based institutions will prove to be a foundation of SHD and participatory democracy.     

It’s All in the Numbers: Acreage Tallies and Environmental Program Evaluation

Increasingly, performance measurement is being used to hold federal agencies accountable, represent environmental progress, and evaluate the effectiveness of environmental programs. The need to track measurable outputs has created a tendency to present programmatic progress solely by quantifiable data, despite the inherent complexity of natural resource management. Wetlands and fire management programs are two specific environmental arenas that have come to overemphasize the tracking of acreage numbers to validate existing policy direction. In both of these arenas, we find the definition and categorization of "countable" acres to be inconsistent and unreliable. We explore this systemic flaw for both wetlands and fire programs and describe its implications for environmental policy and natural resource management more broadly. We conclude with recommendations for improved performance measurement in these arenas.     

防灾减灾：西海固地区可持续发展的基础

根据调查和有关资料,本文研究了西海固地区自然灾害的基本特征,分析了自然灾害对可持续发展的影响和制约作用,探讨了防治自然灾害,实现可持续发展的基本对策。     

北京兰天热能系统工程探讨

文章通过综合分析、计算 ,提出用天然气代替煤作主要能源 ,走燃机热电联供道路 ,解决北京市大气环境恶化的问题 ,并对这一工程方案实施的可能性和优越性作了阐述 ,最后提出了多项实施建议。     

可持续发展观的化学发展目标:生态化学

通过阐述化学发展与自然和人的关系,认为追求人与自然的和谐是整个世界的自然观的最高目标。从生态学角度研究了化学发展史,认为化学发展过程可分为原始生态化学时期、非生态化学时期和生态化学时期,提出了生态化学的新概念,认为生态化学针对传统化学的资源利用率低、环境污染严重的缺陷,提出了废物的减量化、无害化和资源化,并使原料利用率最大化;生态化学是站在对环境友好的高度,使环境资源的化学变换体系成为一种更有效的运行模式,对环境系统有更小的破坏作用,进而对改善环境质量做出贡献。因此,生态化学融被动处理污染的环境化学及主动出击的绿色化学为一体,是更加关注生态的先进理论。     

天然气管道完整性管理探析

通过对国内外天然气管道事故的统计和分析,指出了对天然气管道进行完整性管理的重要性;在此基础上,简要介绍了管道完整性管理方法,着重探讨了天然气管道完整性管理的流程和环节,包括管道潜在危害辨识、管道数据信息搜集与分析、管道风险评价、管道完整性评价、完整性评价响应和减缓措施,并进一步说明了天然气管道完整性管理的实施方法;最后,给出了在我国开展天然气管道完整性管理的必要性和建议.     

基于多媒体技术的<中国自然灾害>教育软件开发

根据社会公众对中国自然灾害信息的需求，开发了《中国自然灾害》多媒体教育软件。软件以区域灾害系统理论为指导，设计了内容框架、基本体系。通过声音、影像、动画和文本等媒体形式可向社会深层次、多角度地介绍中国自然灾害信息，普及减灾知识，增强社会防灾减灾意识。     

重大自然灾害后遗体处置应急预案研究

重大自然灾害发生后一般都会伴随着大量人员的遇难,及时妥善处置灾后众多遇难者遗体,是许多国家面临的棘手问题。借鉴我国唐山7.8级地震和汶川8.0级地震中遗体应急处置的经验与教训,从遗体的搜集、存放、运输、消毒、防腐、保存、火化、掩埋等方面,探索遗体处理应急预案的程序与内容,从而提高政府应对重大自然灾害后大量遗体的应急处置能力,全面保障灾区群众的身心健康。