Problems of ratifying international environmental agreements: Overcoming initial obstacles in the post-agreement negotiation process

The post-agreement period typically is characterized by negotiations between various stakeholders to reach mutually beneficial and acceptable means to achieve national implementation of, and compliance with, treaty provisions. National ratification of international environmental agreements is often the first subprocess of these ‘postagreement negotiations’. This article places ratification negotiations within the larger conceptual context of postagreement negotiations, with the goal of understanding and explaining problems of treaty Implementation. An empirical analysis reveals that delay in national ratification of environmental agreements is a chronic problem, but is worse for complex, multi-issue treaties. Strong public concern over local environmental issues, low quality of life, low national wealth, and low public research and development expenditures for environmental protection contribute to ratification delay. Ultimately, the authors are interested in identifying ways of improving the international negotiation process that initiated these later problems in implementation. Recommendations are offered in this regard.     

Die thermische Emission der Atmosphäre im Spektralbereich zwischen 3.1 und 4.2 μm

Zusammenfassung Es werden Spektren der Himmelsstrahlung im Wellenlängenbereich zwischen 3.1 und 4.2 m mitgeteilt, die mit einem Gitterspektrograph zur Tages- und zur Nachtzeit in der Nähe von München aufgenommen worden sind. Die spektrale Spaltbreite betrug bis zu 0.005 m. Berechnungen der nächtlichen Wärmestrahlung von Wasserdampf und CO₂ bei 3.8 m ergeben zu kleine Strahldichten. Die Diskrepanz zu den Meßergebnissen wird durch thermische Emission der Aerolteilchen erklärt und führt zu einem Aerosol-Absorptionskoeffizient von 3 bis 10% der Aerosol-Extinktion. Eine Berechnung der N₂O-Bande bei 3.9 m zeigt eine Diskrepanz zu den Meßergebnissen, deren Erklärung offen bleibt.

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Summary The spectral interval between 3.1 and 4.2 microns of the sky radiation has been measured with a grating spectrometer during night- and daytime from a ground station near Munich. The minimum spectral slitwidths used were .005 microns. Calculated nighttime thermal emission of water vapor and carbon dioxide near 3.8 microns gives too small radiances. The discrepancy with regard to the results of the measurements is explained by thermal emission of the aerosol particles. An aerosol absorption coefficient of 3 to 10% of the total extinction by the aerosol has been deduced. Calculation of the nitrous oxide band emission near 3.9 microns leads to a discrepancy with regard to measurements, which can not yet be explained.

     

Numerical prognosis for salinity profiles of future lakes in the opencast mine Merseburg-Ost

Salt-laden groundwater inflows have formed monimolimnia in developing lakes of the abandoned opencast lignite mine Merseburg-Ost, Central Germany. Water-levels are still rising. To predict the future status of the lakes, two numerical models were developed. One was designed to predict groundwater flows, the second included limnophysical processes. The models were run in parallel and data exchange between them was performed every 1 to 10 years of model time. A trial of a 100-years prognosis was done. The results of surface salinity, mixing depth, and salinity profile are given. A sensitivity analysis yielded indications for the accuracy of the prediction.     

Double transformation at the eastern border of the EU: the case of the Euroregion pro Europa Viadrina

One of the major means to foster European integration is the establishment of border spanning regions (‘Euroregions’). This is particularly important on the Eastern borders of the EU, e.g. in Eastern Germany. There, however, a double transformation to post-socialist society is taking place, both inside and outside the EU. Tensions arise between objectives on local and higher political levels, intensified by totally different economic structures and access to EU funds on both sides of the border. This is particularly true for the case of the emerging Euroregion Viadrina. Problems in preserving old industrialised localities in East Germany (e.g. steel) and attempts to resurrect the urban fair place Frankfurt/Oder, clash with transition in agriculture and consumer industries and with new concepts in tourism development and environmental protection in the Polish border zone. In region building, political, economic and ideological goals compete with each other. Local initiatives and higher political governance may both support and hamper each other. The same holds true for the interdependence of cultural integration and economic development. The paper concludes that regional economic development can only be expected if, via the building of the Euroregion, the interplay of these factors leads to compromise and harmonization between the different parties involved. This revised version was published online in August 2006 with corrections to the Cover Date.     

Remarks on a vibronic origin for the diffuse band spectrum

We have demonstrated that the diffuse band spectrum could not originate as a series of vibronic transitions from atomic impurities in interstellar MgO grains as has recently been proposed since laboratory spectra of such materials show no evidence for such complex structure. Furthermore, recent observational evidence indicates that the extinction feature at 160 nm in the standard interstellar extinction curve upon which the identification of interstellar MgO was founded is actually the result of a calibration error in the original observational data.     

Feeding Monsters – A Study of Active Galaxies

We present new interferometric observations of the molecular gas distribution and kinematics in the nuclei of different active galaxies at high angular resolution and high sensitivity carried out with the IRAM Plateau de Bure interferometer (PdBI). The observations cover galaxies in a redshift range of 0.03–1.4. We have so far observed five different active galaxies: NGC3718, NGC1068, HE1029–1831, 3C48 and Q0957+561. The first two objects belong to the NUGA (NUclei of GAlaxies) project – an international collaboration mainly between Spain, France and Germany – containing about 30 Seyfert and LINER galaxies. Both are at the same distance of 14Mpc and show a warped gas and dust disk. The new mosaic map of NGC3718 corrected for short-spacing effects with IRAM 30 m observations well demonstrates the existence of the warped gas disk with several secondary maxima in the projected gas distribution caused by orbit crowding effects. Based on these new data we have improved recent simulations of the warped disk in NGC3718. HE1029–1831 and 3C48 are nearby QSOs. HE1029–1831 is taken out of the Cologne nearby QSO sample. The maps of the integrated CO(1–0) and CO(2–1) emission clearly show that the molecular gas is mostly related to the central bulge with a non-negligible fraction distributed along the bar known from optical observations. Our new CO data of 3C48 unveil new information about the kinematics of its molecular gas complementing and improving further studies based on previous infrared observations and detailed multi-particle simulations. Finally, new measurements of the CO(1–0) line in Q0957+561 – a highly-red-shifted, gravitationally lensed quasar – will be presented as a link to earlier evolutionary stages of active galaxies and their hosts.     

Flood effects on phosphorus immobilisation in a river water filled pit lake—Case study Lake Goitsche (Germany)

Between 1999 and 2002, a former open-cast mine was filled with river water forming the recent Lake Goitsche. During filling initially acid water was neutralised. Phosphorus (P) imported from Mulde River was nearly completely removed from the water column by co-precipitation with iron (Fe) and aluminium (Al) and deposited in the sediment.During extremely high waters of the Mulde River in 2002, a dike breach facilitated a second high import of P into Lake Goitsche with suspended and dissolved matter. The analysis of total phosphorus (TP), however, showed that P again had been eliminated from the water body a few months after the flood event. Sediment investigations before filling with river water, during filling, and after the flood event were used to analyse the process of P immobilisation in a lake with acid mine drainage history.The ratios of Fe to soluble reactive P (SRP) of sediment pore water were up to three orders of magnitudes higher than in natural lakes and can serve as an indicator for potential internal P loading from sediments. The SRP concentrations at the oxic/anoxic boundary were near or below the limit of quantification (< 0.2 μmol/L). Fe and manganese (Mn) redox cycling were responsible for hindering P dissolution from sediment to lake water.Finally it can be stated, that the risk of eutrophication for such a lake seems to be low.     

High accuracy measurements of water storage change in Mining Lake 111, Germany

Several pressure sensors were deployed in a small lake to determine its storage change. It could be shown that a deep enough deployment and an averaging over a time interval of 1 hour and 5 measuring points allowed for a measurement of 1 or 2 kg/m² (i.e. 2 mm of water column) of changes in the storage on the scale of the lake size. This accuracy for the lake storage could not be achieved by other methods, especially if conditions were difficult, e.g. snowfall, or in cases when precipitation was small. Finally, the pressure measurement - originally intended to roughly determine the water level - turned out to be a direct measurement of water mass in the lake, which was the proper magnitude for exchanges between atmosphere and lake. Hence the measurement of lake storage could become an interesting approach even for meteorological measurements, such as precipitation and evaporation on a water surface.     

Local variability of sedimentation rate in Lake Arendsee, Germany

We measured the thickness and the dry weight of recently deposited sediment along several transects across Lake Arendsee in order to quantify the sedimentation rate and its local variability. As a time marker, we used an artificial marl layer that was deposited by a remediation program in the year 1995. A portion of the sediment deposited during the year was transported from the littoral and the top of the submerged hills to the foot of the slope, where we found the greatest deposition. Within the same lake, the deposited sediment layer varied by a factor of 4 between minimal and maximal values over the same time periods. Lake Arendsee is a holomictic and eutrophic lake with depletion of oxygen in summer time.     

Geomicrobial transformation of manganese in Gorda Ridge event plumes

Event plumes form as episodic discharges of large volumes of hydrothermal solutions in response to magmatic diking/eruptive events. In consequence, event plumes represent the sudden injection of exploitable reduced chemical substrates, as well as inhibitory constituents, and likely induce successional changes in the microbial community structure and activity within event plume waters. In response to a major seismic event detected beginning 28 February 1996 at the northern Gorda Ridge, a series of three rapid response and follow-up cruises (GREAT 1, 2 and 3) were mounted over a period of three months. This report focuses on time-series measurements of manganese geomicrobial parameters in the two event plumes found in association with this seismic event.Scanning transmission electron microscopy, elemental microanalysis, and radioisotope (⁵⁴Mn) uptake experiments were employed on samples collected from vertical and tow-yo casts from the three cruises. Numbers of bacteria and ratios of metal precipitating capsuled bacteria to total bacteria were greatest in the youngest (days old) plume, EP96A, found during GREAT 1; however, when normalized to the hydrothermal temperature anomaly, the greatest values were found in a second event plume, EP96B, discovered during GREAT 2 (up to 1 month old). Early capsule bacteria and particulate Mn distributions may have been influenced by entrainment of resuspended sediment, while those of the oldest (2–3 months) plume sample may have been subjected to preferential aggregation and particle settling.