Going green or going away: Environmental regulation,economic geography and firms’ strategies in China’s pollution-intensive industries

The high-growth, resource- and pollution-intensive industrialization model that China has pursued has caused severe environmental pollution and deterioration, particularly in a number of clusters in the coastal regions of East and Southeast China, where the Reform and Opening-up policies first started. The lack of uptake of environmental norms/values, deficit of regulatory enforcement of environmental policies, and insufficient institutional capacity have been compounding factors. As environmental standards were raised by China’s central government, the enforcement of environmental regulation has been compromised more in inland China than in coastal regions, due to China’s “decentralized governance structure” and regional disparity in terms of both economic development and environmental pollution. This paper therefore argues that rising environmental regulations, as well as firm characteristics, regional hub effect and political environment, have all been particularly important in forcing China’s pollution-intensive enterprises to restructure their production, through innovation, upgrading, geographical relocation, outsourcing and plant closure, especially in China’s coastal regions. It contributes to recent studies by developing a heuristic analytical framework that aims to be sensitive to the impacts of environmental regulation, political environment and regional hub effect over firm restructuring, but which does so by stressing these impacts are simultaneously inflected by the nature and attributes of firms. The empirical analysis suggests a roughly inverted “U”-shaped relationship between firm relocation tendency and firm size (or firm capability), resulting from complex interactions between political environment, regional hub effect and environmental regulation.     

The new politics of pastoralism: Identity,justice and global activism

Concerns with the politics and practices of resource rights and access are integral to contemporary debates over environmental justice. Struggles over identity politics, especially the strategic articulation and deployment of particular identities at diverse geographical scales, have recently emerged as important mediators of justice claims in respect of resources rights, but also of recognition and procedural justice. To date, critical, multi-scalar analyses of identity-based claims for environmental justice have focused largely on the indigenous peoples’ movement. In doing so, they have failed to embrace an emergent dimension of identity-based, trans-scalar justice, namely the fledgling global pastoralists’ movement, the empirical focus for this paper. In the early years of the 21st century mobile pastoralists have begun to carve out new global spaces, through which diverse groups have attempted to negotiate common ground and forge common identities in their struggles for justice. In particular, mobile pastoralists have become increasingly visible in conservation politics and contests over land rights as they lay claim to both discursive and material ground as ‘custodians of the commons’ in an era of global climatic change. This paper draws on empirical work amongst pastoralists, NGOs and activists from Kenya, Mongolia and Spain to explore these identities, their implications for resource rights and access and the multi-scalar chains of accountability and legitimacy between global activists and their local constituents.     

The impact of anoxia on pelagic macrofauna during the Toarcian Oceanic Anoxic Event (Early Jurassic)

Extreme environmental change during the Toarcian Oceanic Anoxic Event had widespread impacts on marine biota. This study provides new evidence, from the Yorkshire coast sections, UK, that the event was associated with periods of elevated fish and ammonite mortality. Using a synthesis of pelagic macrofaunal changes, benthic macrofaunal data and geochemical proxies we show that there are stratigraphical correlations between: (1) pelagic macrofaunal ranges and abundance, (2) benthic macrofaunal abundance, and (3) geochemical proxies that indicate deoxygenation. We identify eight stratigraphical intervals of differing character. Results suggest two major phases of relatively persistent deoxygenation with photic zone euxinia. The cyclostratigraphic timescale indicates that each phase lasted at least tens of thousands of years. Belemnite migration during the event probably resulted from increased seawater temperatures and low food supply similar to that observed for many marine taxa, including squid, within the present-day oceans.     

环境同位素记录中共生碳酸盐氧同位素分馏差值的影响

湖泊化学沉积碳酸盐δ18O是研究区域气候演变的重要环境指标之一。青海湖等闭流湖泊的研究结果证实,在对δ18O环境记录进行共生碳酸盐氧同位素分馏效应校正时,应依据具体情况,采用0-1‰的分馏差值。由高温实验结果推断出的常温分馏差值(4‰-7‰)不能被应用到自然条件下湖泊共生碳酸盐氧同位素分馏效应的校正。     

Modeling fish growth and reproduction in the context of the Dynamic Energy Budget theory to predict environmental impact on anchovy spawning duration

Spawning location and timing are critical for understanding fish larval survival. The impact of a changing environment on spawning patterns is, however, poorly understood. A novel approach is to consider the impact of the environment on individual life histories and subsequent spawnings. In the present work, we extend the Dynamic Energy Budget (DEB) theory to investigate how environment variability impacts the spawning timing and duration of a multiple-batch spawning species. The model is successfully applied to reproduce the growth and reproduction of anchovy (Engraulis encrasicolus) in the Bay of Biscay. The model captures realistically the start and ending of the spawning season, including the timing of the spawning events, and the change in egg number per batch. Using a realistic seasonal forcing of temperature and food availability derived from a bio-physical model, our simulation results show that two thirds of the total spawned mass already accumulates before the start of the spawning season and that the condition factor increases with body length. These simulation results are in accordance with previous estimations and observations on growth and reproduction of anchovy. Furthermore, we show how individuals of equal length can differ in reproductive performance according to the environmental conditions they encounter prior to the spawning season. Hatch date turns out to be key for fecundity at age-1 as it partly controls the ability to build up reserves allocated to reproduction. We suggest the model can be used to realistically predict spawning in spatially and temporally varying environments and provide initial conditions for bio-physical models used to predict larval survival.     

环境规制对海洋经济绿色全要素生产率的影响

文章基于2006—2018年中国11个沿海省(自治区、直辖市)的数据,综合政府主导与市场激励型环境规制,利用熵权法得到海洋环境规制强度;结合SBM模型和Malmquist-Luenberger指数,测度了沿海省(自治区、直辖市)海洋经济绿色全要素生产率;在此基础上实证分析环境规制对海洋经济绿色全要素生产率的影响,并对技术创新的中介效应进行检验。结果表明：环境规制能够促进海洋经济绿色全要素生产率的增长,但在长江流域以南、长江流域以北沿海地区之间存在异质性;环境规制通过影响海洋科技创新投入和产出,可以影响海洋经济绿色全要素生产率。并从深化环境规制改革和强化技术创新两方面提出促进海洋经济绿色发展的政策建议。     

Neoliberalizing environmental governance? Land trusts, private conservation and nature on the Oak Ridges Moraine

With recent changes in the ways that state agencies are implementing their environmental policies, the line between public and private is becoming increasingly blurred. This includes shifts from state-led implementation of environmental policies to conservation plans that are implemented and managed by multi-sectoral networks of governments, the private sector and environmental non-governmental organizations (ENGOs). This paper examines land trusts as private conservation initiatives that become part of neoliberal governance arrangements and partnerships that challenge our conceptions of environmental preservation and democratic participation. The paper starts with an examination of the concept of neoliberalized environmental governance. Next, it addresses the shifting social constructions of property and land in the context of protecting large scale ecosystems. Through a case study of the extension of new environmental governance arrangements on the Oak Ridges Moraine in Ontario, we examine the relationships that have formed between different levels of the state and environmental non-governmental organizations. Finally, we analyze the expansion of land trusts and private conservation initiatives that are predicated on private land ownership and the commodification of nature, the emerging discourses and practices of private conservation, and how these are implicated in the privatization and neoliberalization of nature.     

苏北王港近岸表层沉积物元素地球化学特征与环境意义

对王港河河道及河口附近潮滩典型地貌部位表层沉积物粒度、常量和微量元素进行分析,结果表明：潮滩和河道近岸沉积物为粘土质粉砂,粒度分布频率曲线在平均高潮线附近的沉积物为双峰态外,其余为单峰态。互花米草滩沉积物中常量和微量元素(Al2O3,TiO2,CaO,Fe2O3,K2O,MgO,MnO和Cu,Rb,Pb,As,Zn)均表现出相对富积的特征,盐蒿滩次之,反映海岸带互花米草在削浪促淤的过程中,对重金属污染有效吸附作用比盐蒿潮滩滩大。SiO2化学性质比较稳定,对沉积地貌动力的响应比较显著,近岸高潮线附近和河道中主洪道沉积物SiO2含量明显偏高。河闸上游河道沉积物中烧失量、磷(P2O5)、硫(稳定态SO3)的含量最高,反映流域营养盐在水闸以上河段沉积物中富积,重金属元素Rb,Pb,As,Ba在河道沉积物中与地壳风度相比表现为富集。王港附近潮滩表层沉积物物质组成不仅与王港河、黄河及长江的物质来源有关,而且与古潮滩沉积再搬运、再沉积以及人类围垦及排放污染活动有关。As,S是该区主要的污染元素。     

北京地区一次强对流大暴雨的环境条件及动力触发机制分析

通过对1998年6月29日北京地区发生在天气尺度脊中的强对流大暴雨过程分析, 得出该过程是由中层的高压脊和低层的辐合系统、近地面的冷空气之间的相互作用形成了具有聚能机制的中低空经向环流圈, 维持了暴雨区中低空的上升运动, 形成了近地面的动力锋生, 使中低层的潜在不稳定加剧.而对流层高层短波扰动的正涡度平流通过非地转平衡过程, 引发中高层产生的上升运动, 触发了潜在不稳定的释放.该短波扰动与风场的波动不相匹配, 其位相传播特征与重力波相似.     

城市雨水利用在区域规划环评中的可行性分析

我国目前正处于城市化快速发展阶段,随之而来的城市雨水资源的大量流失和污染严重的雨水径流及由此引起的城市洪灾和生态环境破坏等问题引起了人们的高度关注。对开发区雨水利用可行性分析结果表明:开发区雨水收集量可占总用水量的2.5%—8.0%,可节约用水费用12%—20%;与污水回用相比,在污水量小于5 000 m3/d时,采用雨水收集利用更加经济可行。因此,提出在区域规划层次上,应提高对城市雨水利用对策的重视,充分发挥区域规划环境影响评价宏观控制、协调的作用。