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.     

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.     

Weed manipulation for insect pest management in corn

Populations of insect pests and associated predaceous arthropods were sampled by direct observation and other relative methods in simple and diversified corn habitats at two sites in north Florida during 1978 and 1979. Through various cultural manipulations, characteristic weed communities were established selectively in alternate rows within corn plots.Fall armyworm (Spodoptera frugiperda J. E. Smith) incidence was consistently higher in the weed-free habitats than in the corn habitats containing natural weed complexes or selected weed associations. Corn earworm (Heliothis zea Boddie) damage was similar in all weed-free and weedy treatments, suggesting that this insect is not affected greatly by weed diversity. Only the diversification of corn with a strip of soybean significantly reduced corn earworm damage.In one site, distance between plots was reduced. Because predators moved freely between habitats, it was difficult to identify between-treatment differences in the composition of predator communities. In the other site, increased distances between plots minimized such migrations, resulting in greater population densities and diversity of common foliage insect predators in the weed-manipulated corn systems than in the weed-free plots. Trophic relationships in the weedy habitats were more complex than food webs in monocultures.Predator diversity (measured as mean number of species per area) and predator density was higher in com plots surrounded by mature, complex vegetation than at those surrounded by annual crops. This suggests that diverse adjacent areas to crops provide refuge for predators, thus acting as colonization sources.     

《京都》15年后:分阶段减排政策与“绿色悖论”问题

低碳经济的政策分析,通常囿于单一国家层面的局部均衡结果,较少考虑到全球整体行动的外部影响,但从《联合国气候变化框架公约》建立以来的全球一致减排行动,却产生了一些意料之外的负面效果。本文通过梳理《京都议定书》签订以来,全球低碳经济合作中遇到的新挑战,以及碳交易市场的建设状况,采用制度分析与新古典框架下的市场均衡分析方法,讨论了全球一致减排行动所触发的"绿色悖论"问题。研究发现,造成"绿色悖论"的主要原因,一方面是由于国际合作存在制度设计上的缺陷,《京都议定书》及其关键性的附件一,将重点放在如何限制发达工业国的减排设计上,但却忽视了发展中国家在协议期内有可能出现的增排问题,以及发达国家向发展中国家污染转移的碳泄漏等问题;另一方面,当对不可再生资源的使用征税、以及对其替代品进行补贴时,将会导致在当前期对于化石能源的加速开采,并可能导致对同时期的化石燃料替代品的其他可再生资源的开采速度也大幅度加快,造成了在双重加速开采下的全球绿色福利损失以及CO2排放量的急剧升高,化石能源消费与温室气体排放面临到比协议签署前更为严峻,甚至与全球合作减排框架的设计初衷相悖的结果。研究结果表明,非全局性的减排公约和分阶段的减排政策,是造成"绿色悖论"现象的重要条件,缺少了大量发展中国家和一些重要工业国的缔约,使得负面的环境外部性难以克服;同时,减排任务和责任有所区别的分阶段设计,会把在未来行动期内可预见到的更高地化石能源使用成本转嫁到当前的行动期,造成短时间内资源与环境的迅速破坏。但本文的研究也表明,社会最优经济与对可再生能源进行补贴是克服"绿色悖论"现象的两条可行路径,且需要有与其相匹配的政府政策的支持。由此,本文的主要政策建议是,中国需要加强在国际气候公约中的影响力,提升自身话语权;以碳税政策作为发展低碳经济制度设计的主要政策工具;加快技术进步、提高能源使用效率,对于可再生能源研发进行补贴;根据国情不断优化碳税税率,并适时调整与其相匹配的新能源补贴等相关政策。     

基于低碳经济理论视角的现代循环农业发展战略与对策

随着资源的紧张和环境的恶化,发展现代循环农业对提高资源利用率和环境保护具有至关重要的意义。因此本文从低碳经济理论的内涵与发展、现代循环农业与主要技术对策、绿色农业视野三个层面的资源循环利用来综合分析如何发展现代农业。     

SMART-SREC: A stochastic model of the New Jersey solar renewable energy certificate market

Markets for solar renewable energy certificates (SRECs) are gaining in prominence in many states, stimulating growth of the US solar industry. However, SREC market prices have been extremely volatile, causing high risk to participants and potentially less investment in solar power generation. Such concerns necessitate the development of realistic, flexible and tractable models of SREC prices that capture the behavior of participants given the rules that govern the market. We propose an original stochastic model called SMART-SREC to fill this role, building on established ideas from the carbon pricing literature, and including a feedback mechanism for generation response to prices. We calibrate the model to the New Jersey market and backtest it, analyzing parameter sensitivity and demonstrating its ability to reproduce historical dynamics. Finally, we run simulations to investigate the role and impact of regulatory parameters, thus providing insight into the crucial role played by market design.