Environmental Comedy: No Impact Man and the Performance of Green Identity

“No Impact Man” (NIM) Colin Beavan attracted international media attention and a good deal of criticism for his year-long experiment attempting to live making zero net impact on the environment. Whereas Beavan's critics dismissed the project as a mere publicity stunt, this essay reads the NIM blog, book, and documentary film as a compelling performance of green identity in the comic frame. This performance—which links private consumption to ecology and community, and emphasizes flaws, foibles, humor and humility—offers an appealing invitation to engage in both individual and collective action. I argue that comedy is a useful rhetorical tool for addressing global warming, as it enables us to see ourselves not as helpless victims in a tragic doomsday scenario, but as imperfect actors who are both guilty contributors to the problem and agents responsible for its amelioration.     

Fungicide sensitivity of Trichoderma spp. from Agaricus bisporus farms in Serbia

Trichoderma species, the causal agents of green mould disease, induce great losses in Agaricus bisporus farms. Fungicides are widely used to control mushroom diseases although green mould control is encumbered with difficulties. The aims of this study were, therefore, to research in vitro toxicity of several commercial fungicides to Trichoderma isolates originating from Serbian and Bosnia-Herzegovina farms, and to evaluate the effects of pH and light on their growth. The majority of isolates demonstrated optimal growth at pH 5.0, and the rest at pH 6.0. A few isolates also grew well at pH 7. The weakest mycelial growth was noted at pH 8.0–9.0. Generally, light had an inhibitory effect on the growth of tested isolates. The isolates showed the highest susceptibility to chlorothalonil and carbendazim (ED₅₀ less than 1 mg L^?1), and were less sensitive to iprodione (ED₅₀ ranged 0.84–6.72 mg L^?1), weakly resistant to thiophanate-methyl (ED₅₀ = 3.75–24.13 mg L^?1), and resistant to trifloxystrobin (ED₅₀ = 10.25–178.23 mg L^?1). Considering the toxicity of fungicides to A. bisporus, carbendazim showed the best selective toxicity (0.02), iprodione and chlorothalonil moderate (0.16), and thiophanate-methyl the lowest (1.24), while trifloxystrobin toxicity to A. bisporus was not tested because of its inefficiency against Trichoderma isolates.     

紫坪铺水库在振兴成都平原经济中的战略地位

紫坪铺水库集农业灌溉、城市生活及工业供水、防洪、发电、漂木、水产、航运、环保、旅游等综合效益于一身,经济指标优越,建设条件较好,无重大技术难题所扰,投资回收年限不足4年,因此,兴利除害,综合利用,费省效宏是紫坪铺水库的自身优势.成都平原灌区及成都市的经济振兴离不开水和电,因此,需要修建紫坪铺水库。紫坪铺水库自身的综合利用优势又因成都平原灌区及成都市的经济振兴而存在,两者结合将产生出巨大的经济效益和社会效益.     

The world agricultural system and ethical considerations relating to the rural environment: Some perspectives on cause and effect in underdeveloped countries

Food is a basic human need and therefore a basic human right. While food output has increased to a level where there is enough food produced to feed the world, still millions starve. Using the concept of capitalist world economy as a framework, this paper provides a structural analysis of the food production and distribution system within monopoly capitalism and its implications for countries of the underdeveloped world. Focusing on the impact of a dominant world food supply system on indigenous systems (particularly through the rise of science, technology, and monopoly capital), considerations relating to environmental use and food production and distribution are raised. Finally a call is made for a new agricultural ethic.     

Environmental protection in Hong Kong amidst transition: Is Hong Kong ready to manage its environment by law?

Within the context of political democratization, this article explores environmental protection in Hong Kong since the government lauched a ten-year program to “save the environment” in 1989. Examining environmental management by law from a social-choice perspective, it argues that the government has yet to reach an integrative policy orocess. Hence the preconditions for an integrative set of environmental legislation are absent. Institutionally, without a comprehensive green policy, the current arrangements lack a vision as an integrative force to promote effective coordination among various sectoral environmental coordination among various sectoral environmental programs. The dominant approach of policy and law enforcement through consultation has rendered impossible strict enforcement of environmental rules and regulations as local economic growth enjoys a priority over environmental protection. At a time of environmental awakening, the people of Hong Kong are not yet prepared awakening, the people of Hong Kong are not yet prepared to participate in environmental management in a strict legal manner. The overall observation is that Hong Kong has yet to see more mature political, legal, administrative, and social conditions for managing its environment within a legal framework.     

干旱对电力生产的影响

本文以１９９４年～１９９５年干旱对陕西省电力生产的影响为例，论述了干旱对电力生产的影响，在此基础上提出了相应的减灾对策．     

HYDROLOGIC MODELING OF A BIOINFILTRATION BEST MANAGEMENT PRACTICE1

ABSTRACT: The goal of this research was to develop a methodology for modeling a bioinfiltration best management practice (BMP) built in a dormitory area on the campus of Villanova University in Pennsylvania. The objectives were to quantify the behavior of the BMP through the different seasons and rainfall events; better understand the physical processes governing the system's behavior; and develop design criteria. The BMP was constructed in 2001 by excavating within an existing traffic island, backfilling with a sand/soil mixture, and planting with salt tolerant grasses and shrubs native to the Atlantic shore. It receives runoff from the asphalt (0.26 hectare) and turf (0.27 hectare) surfaces of the watershed. Monitoring supported by the hydrologic model shows that the facility infiltrates a significant fraction of the annual precipitation, substantially reducing the delivery of nonpoint source pollution and erosive surges downstream. A hydrologic model was developed using HEC‐HMS to represent the site and the BMP using Green‐Ampt and kinematic wave methods. Instruments allow comparison of the modeled and measured water budget parameters. The model, incorporating seasonally variable parameters, predicts the volumes infiltrated and bypassed by the BMP, confirming the applicability of the selected methods for the analysis of bioinfiltration BMPs.     

我国可持续发展中的绿色技术体系

本文在剖析绿色技术的概念内涵与特征的基础上,构建了由清洁生产技术、资源化技术、末端治理技术、生态农业技术、绿色食品技术、清洁消费技术与生态恢复技术等为主要内容的我国绿色技术体系,并从行政、经济、法律、教育及科研等五个方面阐述了促进我国可持续发展的绿色技术实施策略。     

Fuzzy multiple-criteria decision-making approach for industrial green engineering

This paper describes a fuzzy hierarchical analytic approach to determine the weighting of subjective judgments. In addition, it presents a nonadditive fuzzy integral technique to evaluate a green engineering industry case as a fuzzy multicriteria decision-making (FMCDM) problem. When the investment strategies are evaluated from various aspects, such as economic effectiveness, technical feasibility, and environmental regulation, it can be regarded as an FMCDM problem. Since stakeholders cannot clearly estimate each considered criterion in terms of numerical values for the anticipated alternatives/strategies, fuzziness is considered to be applicable. Consequently, this paper uses triangular fuzzy numbers to establish weights and anticipated achievement values. By ranking fuzzy weights and fuzzy synthetic utility values, we can determine the relative importance of criteria and decide the best strategies. This paper applies what is called a λ fuzzy measure and nonadditive fuzzy integral technique to evaluate the synthetic performance of green engineering strategies for aquatic products processors in Taiwan. In addition, we demonstrate that the nonadditive fuzzy integral is an effective evaluation and appears to be appropriate, especially when the criteria are not independent.     

发电设备可靠性研究现状与发展

通过对国内外发电设备可靠性研究的分析,提出了我国发电设备可靠性研究大体经历了可靠性指标统计分析、传统可靠性模型分析以及电力市场下可靠性分析3个阶段。在比较各阶段研究特点的基础上,指出了建立发电设备可靠性成本与可靠性效益之间的平衡,设定反映二者关系的新的可靠性指标是电力市场下发电设备可靠性研究的新特点。笔者认为,所提出了数据挖掘技术,是发电设备可靠性管理实现实时化、智能化与预测化的一种有效方法。