Contested carbon: Carbon forestry as a speculatively virtual,falteringly material and disputed territorial assemblage

Assemblage approaches are increasingly being used to understand new socio-natural formations arising in relation to the multiple crises of capitalism, climate change and environmental degradation. The valuation of nature is key to these new formations, which the creation of new ‘valued entities’, through calculative practices, that can be accounted for, costed and circulated in monetised and financialised forms in order to ostensibly ‘fix’ certain environmental outcomes in relation to contemporary global crisis. This paper uses an assemblage approach in relation to the global’ transnational project of carbon forestry offsetting and REDD+ in a particular place, Uganda, arguing that it has utility in this respect. While Uganda has been named by Lang and Byakola (2005) as a ‘funny place to store carbon’ due to its contested land politics and history of violence its weak governance context paradoxically re-enforces the imperative for intervention. The paper argues that carbon forestry assemblages are inherently ephemeral and fundamentally contested in three ways: exhibiting a speculative virtuality, faltering materiality and disputed territoriality. Such analysis has the ability to go beyond technical and managerial, or solely pollical economic critiques of carbon forestry, to point at openings for alternatives.     

Securing forests from the scourge of chestnut blight: The biopolitics of nature and nation

Bringing a biopolitical framework to bear on historical geographies of nature, this article traces the recent history of the American chestnut, with a focus on the pivotal time period in the early 20th century (1905–1925) during which the tree’s ecological, economic, and cultural roles changed dramatically. Once an ecologically dominant and culturally important forest tree in eastern North America, the American chestnut was rendered functionally extinct following the accidental introduction of a fungal pathogen, known as the chestnut blight, at the turn of the 20th century. Calling attention to the historical ties between nature and nation, I demonstrate how blight control, chestnut breeding, and restoration efforts were formulated in conversation with broader anxieties about the fate of the American nation in the wake of social, environmental, economic, and racial change. Through an exploration of three themes distilled from archival research—chestnut blight as national threat, fear and desire for exotic nature, and the shared histories of plant breeding and racial improvement—this paper illustrates the role that nature has played in the construction and circulation of biopolitical discourses, nationalist sensibilities, and gendered and racial logics.     

After a decade of critique: neoliberal environmentalism,discourse analysis and the promotion of climate-protecting behaviour in the workplace

In a 2004 special issue of Geoforum, McCarthy and Prudham argued that the connections between neoliberalism and the environment had been underexplored in critical scholarship. In an attempt to address this gap, the special issue reflected on a number of different case studies and set the stage for a decade of analysis and critique. This paper aims to contribute to the increasing body of literature by presenting a detailed theoretical analysis of neoliberal environmentalism and its role in modern society. Specifically, the paper focuses on one particular environmental issue – climate change – and uses it to categorise six discourses that either conform to the principles of neoliberalism (reformist) or reject neoliberal ideas (revolutionary). Drawing on interviews with designated ‘climate champions’ (individuals who are given responsibility for promoting climate protecting behaviour) in large corporations, the paper then demonstrates how this kind of typological framework might be applied to the analysis of neoliberal environmentalism in the ‘real world’. The paper finds that neoliberalism played a very influential role in the promotion of climate protecting behaviour in the workplace. However, there was also some limited evidence of resistance in the form of revolutionary discourses and ideas. Going forwards, the typological framework may provide a valuable analytical tool to assess the dominance and resistance of neoliberal environmentalism in the modern world.     

The neoliberalization of ecosystem services: wetland mitigation banking and problems in environmental governance

Wetland mitigation banking is an American neoliberal environmental policy that has created a functioning market in `ecosystem services', commodities defined using the holistic measures of ecological science. The development of this market is discussed as a project of environmental governance, defined as the nation-state's regulation of ecological relations within its territory towards stabilizing capitalist relations of power and accumulation. I argue that the wetland banking industry serves as a bellwether that presages problems that other strategies of neoliberal environmental governance will experience. Ethnographic, economic and ecological data from the Chicago-area wetland banking industry inform a discussion of two major obstacles to neoliberal strategy: the problem of relying on ecological science to define the unit of trade, and the problem of aligning the somewhat independent relations of law, politics, markets and ecosystems across an array of spatial scales. Theoretical guidance is sought from recent work on `social natures' and from the Regulationist approach to institutional political economics.     

Intrusions and exclusions: Democratization in Thailand in the context of environmental discourses and resource conflicts*

This article sketches the process of democratization in Thailand, focusing on shifting relations between civil society and state actors. Environmental discourse and conflicts about natural resources, specifically forests, during the last two decades, have been one of the main fields of social controversy and change. In the context of these controversies, civil society actors, in resistance to and alliance with state agencies, drove forward democratization by intruding into power domains of the state. State agents, increasingly forced to justify their actions according to democratic norms in the expanding space of public debate, had to search for allies and majorities within civil society. The successful establishment of public debate as an integral part of political decision making, on the one hand, resulted in a diversification of civil society, on the other hand, forced powerful segments of society to organize and defend their interests within the new public political space. Strategies of exclusion, referring to nationalism and ethnicism, have become an important instrument to secure positions and power, threatened in the process of democratization and emancipation of discriminated social groups.     

Abandoned bodies and spaces of sacrifice: Pesticide drift activism and the contestation of neoliberal environmental politics in California

Recent research suggests that many key strands of California’s agrofood activism appear to accommodate, rather than confront, the neoliberalization of environmental governance, and that such accommodations might problematically constrain the transformative potential of activists’ work. In this paper, I examine the case of pesticide drift activism in California, which, as an exception to this trend, provides a provocative and useful case study for interrogating the influence of neoliberalization on social/environmental activism. I argue that California’s pesticide drift activism can be understood as a reaction to the spaces of sacrifice created and exacerbated by the failure of unionization-based pesticide reform efforts, a promising but compromised regulatory apparatus, longstanding farmworker powerlessness, neoliberal regulatory rollback, and neoliberalized pesticide politics – a mosaic of factors that have worked together to produce a regulatory structure that has always been better at registering pesticides than at reducing pollution. I show that pesticide drift activists’ reliance on confrontational practice, collective action, and strategic alliances have been crucial to the movement’s success with bringing visibility to this issue and with gaining traction in the political arena. Thus, at the same time that neoliberalization can exacerbate physical spaces of sacrifice, this case study illustrates that it can also, unexpectedly perhaps, generate new, non-neoliberal political spaces for social change.     

基于Markov chain理论的科技成果转化的市场预测

科技成果成功转化的主要标志是其产品的市场畅销度。产品的畅销度由于受各种内外部不确定因素影响，具有随机不确定性。基于这种随机不确定性，运用Markov chain对其产品进行市场预测，并通过实证分析说明其有效性，为科技成果的转化提供具体可行的定量依据。     

Role of nuclear energy,geothermal energy,agriculture, and urbanization in environmental stewardship

The global issue of atmospheric variations and global warming caused by diverse anthropogenic behaviors is a global concern. There is apprehension about preserving an uncontaminated atmosphere and attaining optimal nuclear and geothermal energy utilization with agriculture sector development. In this regard, this paper investigates the influence of nuclear energy, geothermal energy, agriculture development, and urbanization on carbon emissions and ecological footprint from 1990Q1 to 2019Q4 in the case of China. The findings of unit root tests reveal that all variables are stationary at first integration order, and cointegration test findings confirm the presence of long-run relationships among series. The quantile autoregressive distributive lag (QARDL) method findings demonstrate that nuclear energy, geothermal energy, and urbanization statistically correlate with CO2 emissions and ecological footprint across all quantiles, indicating that these determinants have contributed to environmental degradation. Whereas agricultural development has a statistically significant and negative influence on the environment, implying that agriculture has a pollution-mitigation impact. Based on these empirical findings, several policy implications are presented to preserve environmental quality to achieve the 2030 Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) target.     

Policy mobilities,territorial knowledge dynamics and the role of KIBS: Exploring conceptual synergies of formerly discrete approaches

Although contemporary policy making is substantially affected by consultants, little is known about the interconnection of their role inside policy making networks and their key product – knowledge. This paper matches the approaches on Policy Mobilities (PM) and Territorial Knowledge Dynamics (TKD) to fill this theoretical gap. By exploring the synergies of both concepts, a research agenda is suggested that enables to investigate the multi-facetted entanglements of knowledge and policy making dynamics as well as what stake consultants have in this complex assemblage. Accordingly, this paper claims appreciation of ‘variegated consultocracies’ rather than global homogeneity of consultants’ engagement in policy making processes by explicating better integration of ‘scale, ‘time’, and actors’ embeddedness into PM. The paper thus primarily aims to provide a solid theoretical and methodological basis for exploring the complex dynamics consultants take part in, and how they in turn impact policy making processes.     

美国海岸带自然资源与生态损害评估及修复工作对中国的启示

海岸带是位于海陆结合部的复杂环境系统,是人类活动最集中的地区。中国大陆海岸线约18000km,涉及沿海11个省,由于经济社会高速发展,海岸带地区的人口、资源、环境矛盾日益突出,面临海岸带资源无序开发、水土污染、滨海湿地退化、海岸侵蚀、地面沉降等一系列生态环境与灾害地质问题,已成为影响生态文明建设的主要问题之一。因此中国持续加大海岸带生态环境保护力度,并提出实施重要生态系统保护和修复重大工程、强化湿地保护和修复等政策措施。美国国家海洋和大气管理局主导的海岸带损害评估及修复计划已实施了近30年,并取得了显著效果,其完善的法律制度体系、规范的损害评估和修复程序、数据集成管理和共享应用等成功经验值得学习借鉴。建议加快完善中国海岸带生态环境损害评估与修复的技术方法体系和制度体系、有序开展海岸带自然资源和生态环境调查、加强海岸带及滨海湿地等重要生态系统的演化和修复技术研究与示范,并构建统一的海岸带基础调查数据库、建立海岸带监测预警体系。     

The state and the regulation of biodiversity: International biopolitics and the case of Mexico

In this article, the evolving forms of biodiversity politics are examined in the light of regulation theory and in the tradition of materialistic state theory (Gramsci, Poulantzas, etc.). Biodiversity politics is not so much oriented toward the conservation of biodiversity as towards the creation of a stable political-institutional framework for its commercialization. In this contested and contradictory process, the nation state plays a crucial role. After a few remarks on the theoretical assumptions, some basic elements of the international regulation system of genetic resources are presented. The main topics of international biodiversity politics beside conservation are: access to biodiversity and its genetic resources, benefit sharing from its use and intellectual property rights. A major problem of this system is the relationship between varying negotiation processes in different fora. Another closely connected problem is the contradictory relationship between different regulatory levels at different spatial scales (international, regional, local). These contradictions are analyzed for the case of Mexico. Central issues of Mexican biodiversity politics, and the different actors, forces and interests are outlined and discussed against our initial theoretical reflections. Bioprospecting projects in the south of Mexico have raised questions of legal and legitimate forms of access, which have generated growing concern and significant disputes within Mexico. Finally, some conclusions are drawn, binding together the theoretical with the empirical results of our study.     

The influence of hydrology and climate on the isotope geochemistry of playa carbonates: a study from Pilot Valley, NV, USA

Carbonates often accompany lake and lake‐margin deposits in both modern and ancient geological settings. If these carbonates are formed in standing water, their stable isotope values reflect the aquatic chemistry at the time of precipitation and may provide a proxy for determining regional hydrologic conditions. Carbonate rhizoliths and water samples were collected from a playa lake in eastern Nevada. Pilot Valley (～43°N) is a closed‐basin, remnant playa from the Quaternary desiccation of palaeo‐Lake Bonneville. Water is added to the playa margin by free convection of dense brines to the east and forced convection of freshwater off the alluvial fan to the west. Both freshwater and saline springs dot the playa margin at the base of an alluvial fan. Water samples collected from seven springs show a range from ?16 to ?0·2‰ (Vienna Standard Mean Ocean Water), and are consistent with published values. The δ¹⁸O_calcite values from rhizolith samples range from ?18·3 to ?6·7‰ (Vienna Pee Dee Belemnite), and the average is ?12‰ V‐PDB (1 ? σ SD 2‰). With the exception of samples from Little Salt Spring, the range in the δ¹⁸O_calcite values collected from the rhizoliths confirms that they form in equilibrium with ambient water conditions on the playa. The initial geochemical conditions for the spring waters are dictated by local hydrology: freshwater springs emerge in the northern part of the basin to the east of a broad alluvial fan, and more saline springs emerge to the south where the influence of the alluvial fan diminishes. Rhizoliths are only found near the southern saline springs and their δ¹³C_calcite values, along with their morphology, indicate that they only form around saltgrass (Distichlis sp.). As the residence time of water on the playa increases, evaporation, temperature change and biological processes alter the aquatic chemistry and initiate calcite precipitation around the plant stems. The range in δ¹⁸O_calcite values from each location reflects environmental controls (e.g. evaporation and temperature change). These rhizoliths faithfully record ambient aquatic conditions during formation (e.g. geochemistry and water depth), but only record a partial annual signal that is constrained by saltgrass growth and the presence of standing water on the playa margin.     

The Cherty Rock,Elgin: A petrographic and isotopic study of a Permo-Triassic calcrete

The Cherty Rock is a laterally persistent horizon that extends across the Inner Moray Firth Basin, northeastern Scotland. The southern exposures of the Cherty Rock near Elgin reveal an indurated carbonate and silica-rich horizon (0·75-10m thick) developed in the uppermost part of the largely aeolian Lossiemouth Sandstone Formation. Laminated, pisolitic, and brecciated textures within the Cherty Rock confirm that the horizon represents an analogue to Recent calcretes of semiarid areas. Textures characteristic of silcretes are widespread in the Cherty Rock but these originate from silica replacement of calcite. The carbon and oxygen stable isotopic composition of micrite in the Cherty Rock (mean σ ¹³C = -6·9%°, mean σ ¹⁸O = -5·7%°, both relative to PDB) is comparable to that of other Permo-Triassic calcretes and modern soil carbonate, suggesting that similar processes were responsible for their formation. The σ ¹³C and σ ¹⁸O values for calcite in the Cherty Rock may indicate that evaporative processes contributed to its development. σ ¹⁸O data from spar (mean σ ¹⁸O = -9·8%° PDB) and macroquartz (mean σ ¹⁸O = 19·7% SMOW) indicate that these are later (burial) cements. The Cherty Rock is a useful stratigraphical and palaeoclimatic indicator, and its presence in the Inner Moray Firth basin suggests a period of tectonic stability in the basin during late Triassic times.     

Bounding difference: Intersectionality and the material production of gender, caste, class and environment in Nepal

Current theorising in human geography draws attention to the relational emergence of space and society, challenging ideas of difference that rely on fixed identities and emphasising the importance of the everyday in the production of social inequalities. Similarly, feminist political ecology has emphasised the role of ‘nature’ or ‘environment’ in the production of subjectivities such that ideas of gender and nature arise in relation to each other. In this paper I build from these insights to explore the ways in which the embodied performance of gender, caste and other aspects of social difference collapse the distinction between the material and the symbolic. Symbolic ideas of difference are produced and expressed through embodied interactions that are firmly material. Through this kind of conceptualisation, I hope to push forward debates in geography on nature and feminist political ecology on how to understand the intersectional emergence of subjectivities, difference and socio-natures. Importantly, it is the symbolic meanings of particular spaces, practices and bodies that are (re)produced through everyday activities including forest harvesting, agricultural work, food preparation and consumption, all of which have consequences for both ecological processes and social difference. Through the performance of everyday tasks, not only are ideas of gender, caste and social difference brought into view, but the embodied nature of difference that extends beyond the body and into the spaces of everyday life is evident. I use ethnographic evidence from rural Nepal to explore the ways in which boundaries between bodies, spaces, ecologies and symbolic meanings of difference are produced and maintained relationally through practices of work and ritual.     

The hydromagnesite playas of Atlin, British Columbia, Canada: A biogeochemical model for CO2 sequestration

Anthropogenic greenhouse gas emissions may be offset by sequestering carbon dioxide (CO₂) through the carbonation of magnesium silicate minerals to form magnesium carbonate minerals. The hydromagnesite [Mg₅(CO₃)₄(OH)₂·4H₂O] playas of Atlin, British Columbia, Canada provide a natural model to examine mineral carbonation on a watershed scale. At near surface conditions, CO₂ is biogeochemically sequestered by microorganisms that are involved in weathering of bedrock and precipitation of carbonate minerals. The purpose of this study was to characterize the weathering regime in a groundwater recharge zone and the depositional environments in the playas in the context of a biogeochemical model for CO₂ sequestration with emphasis on microbial processes that accelerate mineral carbonation.Regions with ultramafic bedrock, such as Atlin, represent the best potential sources of feedstocks for mineral carbonation. Elemental compositions of a soil profile show significant depletion of MgO and enrichment of SiO₂ in comparison to underlying ultramafic parent material. Polished serpentinite cubes were placed in the organic horizon of a coniferous forest soil in a groundwater recharge zone for three years. Upon retrieval, the cube surfaces, as seen using scanning electron microscopy, had been colonized by bacteria that were associated with surface pitting. Degradation of organic matter in the soil produced chelating agents and acids that contributed to the chemical weathering of the serpentinite and would be expected to have a similar effect on the magnesium-rich bedrock at Atlin. Stable carbon isotopes of groundwater from a well, situated near a wetland in the southeastern playa, indicate that  12% of the dissolved inorganic carbon has a modern origin from soil CO₂.The mineralogy and isotope geochemistry of the hydromagnesite playas suggest that there are three distinct depositional environments: (1) the wetland, characterized by biologically-aided precipitation of carbonate minerals from waters concentrated by evaporation, (2) isolated wetland sections that lead to the formation of consolidated aragonite sediments, and (3) the emerged grassland environment where evaporation produces mounds of hydromagnesite. Examination of sediments within the southeastern playa–wetland suggests that cyanobacteria, sulphate reducing bacteria, and diatoms aid in producing favourable geochemical conditions for precipitation of carbonate minerals.The Atlin site, as a biogeochemical model, has implications for creating carbon sinks that utilize passive microbial, geochemical and physical processes that aid in mineral carbonation of magnesium silicates. These processes could be exploited for the purposes of CO₂ sequestration by creating conditions similar to those of the Atlin site in environments, artificial or natural, where the precipitation of magnesium carbonates would be suitable. Given the vast quantities of Mg-rich bedrock that exist throughout the world, this study has significant implications for reducing atmospheric CO₂ concentrations and combating global climate change.     

地表移动与变形的环境影响与预测

矿山开采会引发地表移动与变形。应用概率积分法对吉林省汪清县罗子沟油页岩矿区进行在矿区服务期满43年内有关地表下沉、倾斜、曲率、水平移动和水平变形的预测,以便在采矿过程中有所依据,以避免造成地表的破坏。     

碳酸盐岩断裂破碎带结构、分布与发育机制

断裂带通常包括狭窄的断层核与宽阔的破碎带,并对岩石物理及其水力学、流体与渗透性具有重要作用。根据断裂破碎带结构的差异,将碳酸盐岩断层核划分为颗粒支撑、基质支撑与胶结支撑等3种类型,将碳酸盐岩破碎带划分碎裂带与裂缝带。不同类型碳酸盐岩断层核与破碎带形成多种类型组合,并造成断裂破碎带多种复杂的渗流结构。通过井—震资料的结合,可以判识沉积盆地内部较宽的碳酸盐岩断裂破碎带,其宽度—位移关系可以指示断裂破碎带的不同生长方式与机制。复杂内部结构、多期构造成岩作用与non-Andersonian破裂机制可能导致碳酸盐岩断裂破碎带的异常生长,也是碳酸盐岩断裂破碎带机理研究的重要方向。     

The Bangudae Petroglyph in Ulsan, Korea: studies on weathering damage and risk prognosis

The prehistoric Bangudae Petroglyph in the Ulsan area represents an outstanding National Treasure of the Republic of Korea. Since the construction of the Sayeon dam, the petroglyph with about two hundred carvings is periodically submerged by the Sayeon reservoir. The danger of increasing damage has resulted in intensive efforts to protect this cultural heritage. Diagnosis and risk prognosis studies were carried out. Results of petrographical studies, monument mapping and in situ measurements are presented. Types, degree and zonation of damage are evaluated. The risk estimation derived from the studies confirms the necessity of preservation measures.     

Exile and exclusion: The legacy of soviet forestry for villages in the north of Perm oblast

This paper explores the relationship between the forestry enterprises (leskhozi) and the inhabitants of forestry villages in the northern rayony of Perm oblast, Russian Federation in the context of the `new regional geography'. These relationships are compared with those identified between peasant farmers and collective and state farms post-1991, and a theory of the cultivation of these relationships as a coping mechanism for both households and enterprises facing difficult economic circumstances is advanced. The situation in the northern rayony is contextualised through discussion of the settlement and development history of the region, which was a recipient of forced and voluntary labour migration during the Soviet period. The paper concludes that in accordance with recent theories of post-communist regional development, the experience of transition in the northern rayony of Perm oblast is determined at least in part by its social and economic context. This revised version was published online in July 2006 with corrections to the Cover Date.