King Canute muses in the South Seas: Why aren’t Pacific Islands transitioning to low carbon sea transport futures?

Transition to low carbon sea transport is a logical response to the extreme dependency of the Pacific Islands region on imported fossil fuel, its significant vulnerability to the effects of climate change and the critical shipping needs of Pacific Island countries (PICs). Building on previous work in low carbon sea transport in the Pacific, this paper further considers the barriers to achieving such transition by assessing, through a ‘post-Paris Agreement’ lens, the Intended Nationally Determined Contributions (INDCs) submitted by PICs and contrasting these to the near total lack of investment and planning for low carbon transition in the transport sector with the parallel occurrence in the electricity sector where ~USD 2 billion of donor investment is deployed or queued despite electricity using only ~20% of fossil fuel across the region. Consistent with recent international studies, inadequate and inappropriate financing and policy have been identified as dominant transition barriers for low carbon sea transport development in PICs. This paper further examines the regional level barriers to policy development, and finds them inhibited by the silo nature of the major regional actors. The implications that the Paris Agreement has for climate financing to support the essential research and capacity development needed to underpin a successful low carbon sea transport transition strategy at any useful scale and speed are also considered in this paper.     

欧盟减排《责任分担条例》修正案分析与启示

欧盟自1997年起就如何通过市场和行政手段“双轮驱动”控制碳排放总量进行不断探索,并逐步建立了较为成熟的碳排放交易体系及减排责任分担机制,已经取得了良好的减排效果。文中梳理分析《责任分担条例》修正案中关于成员国减排目标更新的内容、目标分配的原则与方法、灵活性机制,归纳了欧盟采用行政手段控制碳排放交易系统未涉及部门的温室气体排放的经验,并对中国如何构建充分考虑市场手段和行政手段的CO₂排放总量控制制度提出政策建议。     

《国际汉语能力标准》中值得商榷的地方——兼与《欧洲语言共同参考框架:学习、教学、评估》比较

通过对《国际汉语能力标准》的考察,同时与《欧洲语言共同参考框架:学习、教学、评估》比较,发现《国际汉语能力标准》存在三个方面的问题:结构不合理、内容有缺失以及评级等级标准不科学,以此研究结果为《国际汉语能力标准》的修订提供参考。     

基于卫星遥感数据的森林病虫害监测与评价

森林病虫害由于在森林资源中造成的重大破坏而被人们称为“不冒烟的火灾”,其对生态系统的研究具有重要意义。现有基于遥感数据的病虫害研究多集中在森林病虫害的监测、爆发原因以及发病区域内生产力的变化情况,而对于森林病虫害发生后森林中植被指数与叶面积指数之间的相关性的变化情况还相对较少,处于需要持续性深入探讨的阶段。以加拿大不列颠哥伦比亚地区2002—2012年森林病虫害数据为基础,分析不同严重程度的病虫害对叶面积指数（LAI）与归一化植被指数（NDVI）和增强型植被指数（EVI）的影响。结果表明：① 受病虫害感染的像元在轻度（Light）、中度（Moderate）和重度（Severe）三个严重级别中,NDVI与LAI之间的相关性由弱变强,又由强变弱;② EVI与LAI之间的相关性,在轻度（Light）、中度（Moderate）和重度（Severe）三个严重级别的像元中则依次变强。这一研究将为今后利用遥感数据识别病虫害、评价生态系统影响提供基础。     

Brexit geopolitics

In this review we bring together a line of comments and arguments on the Brexit vote that revolve around five key terms: populism, nationalism, imperialism, fragmentation and inequality. We argue that Brexit is caught up with right-populism, racism, ultra-nationalism, socio-economic inequalities and outright misery across Europe. While these trends are across the entire continent, we will focus on the UK - as the place where, in form of the Brexit vote, populism has now left the biggest mark. We contextualize Brexit in British imperial geography and argue that factors leading to the rise of nationalism(s) and populism in the UK hinge on geopolitical decline and heightened uneven development and inequality. We view these fragmentations in British society through the lens of wider debates around territorial, relational and multi-scalar conceptions of EU space.     

BOOK REVIEWS

Book Reviewed in this article: Unfairly Structured Cities . Blair Badcock Religion and Rural Revolt . Janos M. Bak and Gerhard Benecke The Industrial Geography of Canada . Anthony Blackbourn and Robert G. Putnam The Cuban-American Experience, Culture, Images, and Perspectives. Thomas D. Boswell and James R. Curtis Quaternary Paleoclimatology . R. S. Bradley Development and Crisis in Brazil, 1930–1983 . Luiz Bresser Pereiras Centres of Origin in Biogeography . John C. Briggs Analytical Urban Geography . Martin Cadwallader Geomorphology . Richard J. Chorley , Stanley A. Schumm, and David E. Sugden South Africa: The Impact of Past Geographies . A. J. Christopher The Geography of Underdevelopment. A Critical Survey . D. K. Forbes Health Care in Developing Countries . Wilbert M. Gesler Place to Grow Old: The Meaning of Environment in Old Age . Stephen M. Golant The Emerging Marine Economy of the Pacific . Chennat Gopalakrishnan An Introduction to Agricultural Geography . David B. Grigg The Soviet Union: A Geographical Study . G. Melvyn Howe Geographical Aspects of Health: Essays in Honour of Andrew Learmonth . N. D. Mc Glashan and J. R. Blunden Physical Geography: A Landscape Appreciation . Tom L. Mc Knight Mountain Experience. The Psychology and Sociology of Adventure. Richard G. Mitchell Jr . Systematic and Regional Biogeography. Stanley A. Morain The Economic Transformation of American Cities. T. J. Noyelle and T. M. Stanback , Jr . Normal Accidents: Living With High-Risk Technologies. Charles Perrow Vanishing Farmland: A Legal Solution for the States. Sarah E. Redfield Applied Methods of Regional Analysis: The Spatial Dimensions of Development Policy. Dennis A. Rondinelli Urbanization in Romania. A Geography of Social and Economic Change Since Independence. Per Ronnas Statistical Techniques in Geographical Analysis. Gareth Shaw and Dennis Wheeler The Granite Garden: Urban Nature and Human Design. Anne Whiston Spirn Political Geography: Recent Advances and Future Directions. Peter Taylor and John House Geographia y Medio Ambiente. Manuel Valenzuela -Rubío Nãgara and Commandery: Origins of the Southeast Asian Urban Traditions. Paul Wheatley The Common Fisheries Policy of the European Community. Mark Wise Geography and Gender. Women and Geography Study Group of the IBG Technological Hazards. D. J. Zeigler , J. H. Johnson , S. D. Brunn