Perceptions toward stewardship among residents living near U.S. Department of Energy Nuclear Facilities

Although stewardship has been widely defined and used in environmental management and planning, there is a dearth of studies that describe how the lay public perceives this concept. A national sample of residents in 14 states who live near DOE nuclear facilities were interviewed to delineate public understanding and awareness of the stewardship program of the U.S. Department of Energy (DOE). This study discusses the findings of the survey and discusses how institutional trust influences public participation and resident’s choices of potential stewards. Almost 40% of the respondents could not define stewardship; those who did, believed that ‘responsibility,’ ‘management,’ and ‘accountability’ are key elements of stewardship. In addition, about a third of the respondents identified Federal groups and the DOE as potential stewards. Readers should send their comments on this paper to: BhaskarNath@aol.com within 3 months of publication of this issue     

Genetically Modified (GM) Crops: Precautionary Science and Conflicts of Interests

Risk governance of GM plants and GMfood products is presently subject to heatedscientific and public controversies. Scientistsand representatives of the biotechnologyindustry have dominated debates concerningsafety issues. The public is suspicious withregard to the motives of scientists, companies,and political institutions involved. Thedilemmas posed are nested, embracing valuequestions, scientific uncertainty, andcontextual issues. The obvious lack of data andinsufficient information concerning ecologicaleffects call for application of thePrecautionary Principle (PP). There are,however, divergent opinions among scientistsabout the relevance of putative hazards,definition of potential ``adverse effects,' andwhether actions should be taken to preventharm. The reliance on the concept ofsubstantial equivalence in safety evaluation ofGM food is equally controversial. Consequently,value assumptions embedded in a scientificframework may be a barrier for employment ofthe PP. One of our major conclusions is thatprecautionary GMP usage requires riskassessment criteria yet undeveloped, as well asbroader and more long-term conceptions of risk,uncertainty, and ignorance. Conflicts ofinterest and public participation are otherissues that need to be taken intoconsideration. GMP governance regimes that arejustifiable from a precautionary and ethicalpoint of view must transcend traditionalscientific boundaries to include alternativescientific perspectives as well as publicinvolvement.     

BSE in the UK: Why the Risk Communication Strategy Failed

The 2000 BSE Inquiry report points out that the most serious failure of the UK Government was one of risk communication. This paper argues that the government's failure to communicate the risks BSE posed to humans to a large degree can be traced back to a lack of transparency in the first risk assessment by the Southwood Working Party. This lack of transparency ensured that the working party's risk characterization and recommendations were ambiguous and thus hard to interpret. It also meant that uncertainties were not addressed in a satisfactory way. In the recommendations, the attitude to uncertainty was implicit rather than explicit.The risk communication based on the report amplified these flaws. Most importantly, it did not address the uncertainty at all. Apparently, the reason for this was fear of overreaction by the public. However, the result was counter-productive, because the risk communication did not then appear trustworthy. Later risk assessments and risk communication omitted to correct these flaws. Indeed, the fact that, following receipt of new information, advisory experts and policy makers had changed their views of the risk to humans was never clearly communicated to the public. There seemed to be little faith in the public's ability to reach a balanced judgment regarding the uncertainties.In the concluding section of the paper, this analysis is compared with the food standards agency's (FSA's) approach to BSE. The intervention of this agency was seen as one of the more important efforts to restore consumer confidence in British beef. And the agency certainly appears to be committed to openness and to addressing scientific uncertainty. However, using the risk of BSE in sheep as a case study, the paper shows that transparency – i.e., the clear presentation of factual and normative claims and assumptions underlying advice, and openness about the reasoning based on these claims and assumptions – is less than fully achieved in the FSA's work.     

城市环境基础设施信托投资模式分析

本文分析了利用产业信托投资城市环境基础设施的可行性和现实性，并做出一个环境基础设施信托投资方案的结构设计。     

Europe’s energy deficit: a population dilemma

Europe’s growing energy deficit and destabilising climate may lead the EU and its constituent member states to change its attitude to population size and growth.     

C/YAG复合材料的抗烧蚀性能研究

目的对C/YAG复合材料的烧蚀性能和烧蚀机理进行研究。方法以高固相含量Y_2O_3-Al_2O_3溶胶为原料,低成本的碳纤维针刺毡为增强体,通过浸渍-干燥-热处理工艺制备C/YAG复合材料,利用SEM和XRD对烧蚀后材料的微观结构和物相组成进行分析。结果复合材料的质量烧蚀率和线烧蚀率分别为0.05g/s和0.12 mm/s。结论 C/YAG复合材料高的质量烧蚀率和线烧蚀率主要归因于氧乙炔焰高热流和强剪切力作用。烧蚀后材料的微观形貌可以分为中心区、过渡区和边缘区三个区域。其中烧蚀中心区主要受到热化学腐蚀和机械剥蚀的作用,而过渡区和边缘区主要受到热化学腐蚀和热物理侵蚀的作用。     

高盐条件下染料酸性橙7的生物降解特性

对偶氮染料废水厌氧-好氧生物处理中的高盐度抑制生物活性和芳香胺自氧化问题,通过多种强化策略,考察了NaCl为100g/L时酸性橙7(AO7)的生物降解特性.结果表明,加入葡萄糖(0.5g/L)、蛋白胨(1g/L)和酵母粉(0.5g/L)有利于高盐条件下AO7的生物降解.进水中加入酸性红B对AO7的脱色有加速作用.耐盐污泥中加入蒽醌形成的蒽醌-污泥自固定化体系可以促进AO7脱色,当蒽醌浓度为100mg/L时,AO7最大脱色率约为92%.以活性炭毡作为生物载体,厌氧和好氧体系均可实现稳定运行,且体系污泥沉降性良好,脱色速率达26.67mg/(L×h),且可有效抑制脱色中间产物1-氨基-2-萘酚的好氧自氧化,使COD去除率始终保持在90%以上.     

钢铁企业用涤纶滤料的性能试验研究

选取钢铁企业用覆膜和未覆膜涤纶针刺毡滤料进行实验研究,测试了两种滤料的力学特性、耐腐蚀特性和过滤性能。结果表明:清洁的覆膜涤纶针刺毡过滤阻力比未覆膜涤纶针刺毡的阻力高8~10倍,但是覆膜涤纶针刺毡的最低过滤效率比未覆膜涤纶针刺毡的高49.9%;在20%、40%的H_2SO_4中浸泡24 h后经、纬向断裂强力和伸长保持率均维持在80%以上,在40%的NaOH溶液中浸泡24 h后的断裂强力保持率在8%以下,因此两种滤料具有良好的耐酸腐蚀性,但不适合在强碱条件下长期使用。     

The social impact of natural hazards: a multi‐level analysis of disasters and forms of trust in mainland China

This study aimed to assess the multi‐level effects of natural hazards on trust in Chinese society. Drawing on the Chinese General Social Survey conducted in 2012 and provincial disaster damage records, it examined the association between individuals’ past experiences of disasters and province‐level damage (measured by the number of affected people, deaths, and economic loss) and various forms of trust: in‐group; out‐group; generalised; and political. The findings indicate that Chinese individuals with experience of disasters have higher levels of out‐group trust but lower levels of political trust. Similarly, at the province level, damage owing to disasters over the past three years (2009–11) positively impacted on residents’ out‐group trust while negatively affecting their political trust. However, when provincial damage was aggregated for disasters over the past five years (2007–11), which included the devastating Sichuan earthquake on 12 May 2008, only total deaths had a positive effect on generalised trust.     

社会减灾能力信任及水灾风险感知的区域对比——基于江西九江和宜春公众的调查

研究公众对社会减灾能力及灾害风险的认识,有助于从公众视角揭示风险潜在因素,不仅是进行风险沟通的必备环节,还可以为开展有效的减灾宣传教育、提高公众减灾意识提供决策依据。通过社会调查（221份样本）和统计分析方法,比较了江西九江、宜春公众对于社会减灾能力的信任及水灾风险感知。结果表明,公众对于社会减灾能力基本持信任态度,信任度高低排序为：灾害监测预报>政府应急>防灾工程>预警传播,其中宜春公众的信任度较高;公众对于水灾的风险感知较弱,尤其是宜春公众认为水灾发生、受灾的可能性很小;公众的信任与对区域减灾能力的了解无关,主要是受到受灾经历（受灾次数、灾情损失、灾后救援）的影响,即区域本底灾害风险的高低导致公众认知的差异,风险较高区域（九江）的公众具有更为明确的降低风险的行为倾向及意愿。