BOOK REVIEWS

Book Reviewed in this article: The Vanishing Farmland Crisis, Critical Views of the Movement to Preserve Agricultural Land . John Baden Protecting Farmlands . Frederick R. Steiner and John E. Theilacker Ecological Effects of Fire in South African Ecosystems . Peter de V. Booysen and Neil M. Tainton Geography in China . Wu Chuanjun , Wang Nailiang , Lin Chao and Zhao Songqiao Resource Inventory and Baseline Study Methods for Developing Countries . Francis Conant , Peter Rogers , Marion Baumgardner , Cyrus Mc Kell , Raymond Dasmann, and Priscilla Reining Principles of Remote Sensing . Paul J. Curran Famine As A Geographical Phenomenon . Bruce Currey and Graeme Hugo The Suburban Squeeze: Land Conversion and Regulation in the San Francisco Bay Area . David E. Dowall Senses of Place . John Eyles Uneven Development and the Geographical Transfer of Value . D. K. Forbes and P. J. Rimmer Issues in Wilderness Management . Michael Frome Land-use and Prehistory in South-east Spain , The London Research Series in Geography 8. Antonio Gilman and John B. Thornes with Stephen Wise Regions in Question, Space, Development Theory and Regional Policy . Charles Gore The Colorado River: Instability and Basin Management . William L. Graf Hazardous Waste Sites: The Credibility Gap . Michael R. Greenberg and Richard F. Anderson Peasants, Subsistence Ecology, and Development in the Highlands of Papua New Guinea . Lawrence S. Grossman Silver Cities: The Photography of American Urbanization, 1839-1915 Peter B. Hales Silicon Landscapes . Peter Hall and Ann Markusen Remaking Ibieca: Rural Life in Aragon under Franco . Susan F. Harding The European Energy Challenge: East and West . George W. Hoffman The Global Climate . John T. Houghton The Urban Jobless in Eastern Africa . Abel G. M. Ishumi . The Tourist: Travel in Twentieth-Century North America . John A. Jakle City and Society: An Outline for Urban Geography . R. J. Johnston Residential Segregation, The State and Constitutional Conflict in American Urban Areas . R. J. Johnston Accessibility and Utilization: Geographical Perspectives on Health Care Delivery . Alun E. Joseph and David R. Phillips To the Heart of Asia: The Life of Sven Hedin . George Kish North American Culture , Vol 1. Ary J. Lamme III Past and Present in the Americas: A Compendium of Recent Studies . John Lynch Ethnicity in Contemporary America: A Geographical Appraisal . Jesse O. Mc Kee The Shell Countryside Book . Richard Muir and Eric Duffey 1990 Planning Conference Series. Proceedings of the National Geographic Areas Conference . Proceedings of the Regional Geographic Areas Conferences Wood, Brick, and Stone: The North American Settlement Landscape . Vol. 2: Barns and Farm Structures . Allen G. Noble Bangladesh: Biography of a Muslim Nation . Charles Peter O'donnell     

HUMAN SPACEFLIGHT: ACHIEVEMENTS, BENEFITS AND FUTURE OPPORTUNITIES FROM A EUROPEAN PERSPECTIVE

The past achievements, benefits and future opportunities of human spaceflight are discussed from a European perspective. Earlier work performed on the Skylab, Salyut, Shuttle, Spacelab, and Mir orbital facilities is reviewed, together with the prospects for new research on the International Space Station (ISS). Major scientific benefits are expected from the ISS in the areas of life science research (including human physiology and medicine) physical sciences, and fundamental physics.     

机场周边地区生产性服务业与制造业空间布局特征——以首都机场为例

空港经济对推动城市产业空间调整和城市经济转型具有重要意义。以首都机场为例,运用Ripley’s K函数及核密度估计法分析机场周边地区生产性服务业与制造业的空间布局特征。生产性服务业和制造业的区位布局均呈现出明显的向心性,其中,物流业、制造业和金融业的向心性最强。生产性服务业和制造业空间集聚强度呈先增后减的倒"U"型特征,生产性服务业企业集聚强度明显高于制造业企业集聚强度,不同行业企业空间区位选择距离阈值存在差异。不同行业空间分异特征显著,集聚模式不同。制造业呈"大分散、大集聚"模式;商务服务业、科技服务业、信息服务业及物流业呈"小分散、大集聚"模式;金融业呈"大分散、小集聚"模式。城市主要交通干线附近及成熟的产业园区是生产性服务业与制造业主要集聚地,信息服务业、商务服务业以及科技服务业的区位选择具有较强一致性。     

Mundane diplomacies for the practice of European geopolitics

This paper offers a practice-based account of diplomacy given that diplomats are central to the production and circulation of geopolitics. We contend that there is a changing geography of diplomacy underway from state-centred to “integrative diplomacy”, prompting the need for reorganisation of the modalities that shape and regulate state presence. Such reorganisation brings with it the challenge of fashioning new pathways of diplomatic engagement to counter the disordering of routinized mundane diplomatic practices, alongside new possibilities for diplomatic space to be used by various actors and interests. In sum, the move to integrative diplomacy commands closer academic attention to the contemporary geographies of diplomatic practice, and how these practices are transacted in diverse spatial settings, sites and domains, under conditions of multiple contestation of state authority and legitimacy. Using extensive European empirical materials, we argue that the ways in which diplomats devise, trial, make claims and counter-claims about geopolitical representations are ripe for practice-based analysis. We do this through an exploration of diplomacy’s geographical dimensions, that is, its everyday spaces and places, orderings and transactions and show how practices can go awry in the move to integrative diplomacy.     

Institutional interaction to address greenhouse gas emissions from international transport: ICAO,IMO and the Kyoto Protocol

Abstract

In response to Article 2.2 of the Kyoto Protocol, the International Maritime Organisation (IMO) and the International Civil Aviation Organisation (ICAO) have begun to consider greenhouse gas (GHG) emissions from international aviation and shipping. However, neither ICAO nor IMO have taken any effective action on the issue yet and progress can be characterised as slow. The lack of action has so far not been made up for by measures within the climate change regime or by individual countries. An important motivation for the efforts of ICAO and IMO so far has been the potential regulatory competition with the climate change regime. However, given the lack of political will to act on the issue within the latter, this motivation has not been very forceful. Against this backdrop, I argue that there are in particular three options for furthering progress within ICAO and IMO, namely (1) enhancing the threat of regulation of GHG emissions from international transport under the climate change regime; (2) undertaking unilateral domestic action by various countries (in particular the EU); and (3) furthering a learning process within ICAO and IMO. Furthermore, a closer coordination of efforts under ICAO, IMO and the climate change regime could facilitate and accelerate progress.     

An emission intensity protocol for climate change: an application of FUND

Abstract

An emission intensity protocol to govern long-term international greenhouse gas emission reduction is proposed. The protocol may also be interpreted as a technology protocol. The protocol consists of three parameters: a graduation income, below which countries have no emission reduction obligations; a convergence rate, at which emission intensities should approach that of the most carbon-extensive countries; and an acceleration rate, at which the most carbon-extensive countries should improve their technology over and above the business-asusual scenario. Depending on the parameter values, emission reduction ranges from draconian to almost nil. The graduation income and acceleration rate have the expected effects. The effect of the convergence rate is strongly scenario-dependent; some scenarios, perhaps unrealistically, assume strong technological convergence in the nopolicy case; in other scenarios, adopting ‘best commercial technology in the whole world’ would lead to substantial emission reduction. Not surprisingly, different regions prefer different parameters in the emission intensity protocol. Adopting the opinion of the median voter, atmospheric concentrations of carbon dioxide in the year 2200 would be reduced from 1650 to 950 ppm. This reduction is relatively robust to changes in crucial model parameters. The costs of complying with the emission intensity protocol can be reduced substantially through international trade in emission permits and, in particular, by banking and borrowing.     

Common but differentiated convergence (CDC): a new conceptual approach to long-term climate policy

Abstract

This article describes a new concept for an international climate regime for differentiation of future commitments: the ‘common but differentiated convergence’ approach (CDC). Under CDC, Annex-I countries' per-capita emission allowances converge within a convergence period to a low level. Individual non-Annex-I countries' allowances converge to the same level also within the same period (‘common convergence’), but starting when their per-capita emissions are a certain percentage above global average (‘differentiated’). Until then they may voluntarily take on ‘positively binding’ targets. This approach eliminates two concerns often voiced in relation to gradually converging per-capita emissions: (i) advanced developing countries have their commitment to reduce emissions delayed and their targets are not the same as Annex-I countries with equal per-capita emissions; (ii) CDC does not provide excess emission allowances to the least developing countries. Under CDC, stabilizing greenhouse gas concentrations at 550 and 650 ppm CO₂-equivalent can be reached with participation at roughly 0% and 50% above global average and convergence to around 3 and 4.5 tCO₂-eq/cap within 40 years. Even if the CDC approach is not implemented in its entirety, it is possible that the step-by-step decisions on the international climate regime can be guided by the principles provided in the CDC approach.     

Influences of international agricultural trade on the global phosphorus cycle and its associated issues

Industrial phosphorus (P) fertilizer has substantially improved global food production, but has also led to environmental impacts. Intensive global agricultural trade has increased and the impacts of trade on aggravating or alleviating future P scarcity must be examined, especially for the most vulnerable countries. We combined data to estimate the global P trade among countries and its impacts on global P flows, based on global agricultural trade, cropland soil P budgets and crop P fertilizer footprints (the amount of industrial P fertilizer applied for producing one unit of P in the harvested crop). The global agricultural P trade represented a fraction of 16% of P in harvested crops in 2014, half of which was exported from the United States of America, Brazil and the European Union and one fifth imported by China. Virtual P fertilizer flows (about 2.60 Tg P y^-1) referred to industrial P fertilizers applied to traded crops by exporting countries; thus, 1/3 of global virtual P fertilizer flows were associated with the international soybean trade. P use efficiency (PUE), the ratio of the harvested crop-P to the total external P inputs, is a larger problem for tropical than temperate countries. Global crop trade had brought in a net 0.2 Tg P y^-1 savings of industrial P fertilizers globally, compared to crop production in export and import countries. >0.50 Tg y^-1 of the gross global accumulation of soil P and P in freshwater were associated with global agricultural trade. Global PUE, however, could be improved considerably, and thus global cooperation and improving PUE could help to solve the problem of future P scarcity. Vulnerable countries should also propose urgent national plans to address their own situations of P scarcity or low PUE.