Web Use in Geographical and Environmental Education: An International Survey at the Primary and Secondary Level

This article aims to study Web use and Web-based co-operation and collaboration in geographical and environmental education at the primary and secondary level around the world. Recent trends and future opportunities and challenges are taken into account. The theoretical part of the study considers Web use and different forms of Web-based co-operation. Web use and co-operation in education are classified as co-operative learning, collaborative learning or communal learning. Web use in geographical and environmental education is noted to be growing in significance. Web-based co-operation at any level of intensity is associated with many opportunities and challenges. The empirical part of this study involves a survey of geographical and environmental education researchers in various countries about their views of Web use in education. The results of this survey indicate that the Web in general finds minimal use in geographical and environmental education. As access to the Web is limited and only some pupils can use it, co-operation, particularly collaborative learning on the Web, is still rare in geographical and environmental education. The most often used application is e-mail. Researchers recognise the potential of the Web to enhance local, national and international co-operation, and to facilitate a better understanding of geographical and environmental issues at the grass-root level. Web-based learning can also help to increase and deepen the pupils' cultural understanding. Before that, however, problems in access, costs and teacher training must be solved. This revised version was published online in August 2006 with corrections to the Cover Date.     

Integrating Environmental Education Into Business Schools' Educational Plans in Finland

Environmental education in business school context has a significant effect on the way companies view environmental problems. Business schools train the future decision makers who can, with their own attitudes and practical actions, influence the contribution of business to the process of ecologically sustainable development. However, several studies show that no systematic thinking has been undertaken within business education as to what the educational prerequisites of the process of ecologically sustainable development are. In this article, I will firstly analyze by means of environmental education how business polytechnics in Finland have taken into consideration ecologically sustainable development. Secondly, I will raise the starting points for the development of the implementation of environmental education as part of the business schools▪ educational plans. Integrating environmental education into the vocational courses is identified as being one of the most effective ways of increasing the effectiveness of environmental education. Thirdly, the emphasis is on identification of barriers of integrating environmental education into the educational plans of business polytechnics. Theoretically, the article is attached to the objectives and learning concepts of environmental education and to educational planning theory in general. The empirical data are based on interviews I conducted 1999–2000 in all Finnish polytechnics offering business education. My article increases theoretical and practical understanding of how environmental education should be implemented in business education and how the current situation could be developed. This revised version was published online in August 2006 with corrections to the Cover Date.     

青海湖南岸全新世黄土地球化学特征及气候环境意义

位于青藏高原东北部的青海湖是我国最大的内陆湖泊，通过湖相沉积进行湖区全新世环境演变研究已取得诸多成果。作者选择青海湖南岸黑马河有绝对年代控制的全新世黄土剖面，利用CaCO2、CaO、MgO和Sr元素组分以及氧、碳同位素等较为可靠的地球化学指标，尝试进行了湖区全新世黄土的分层，探讨了黄土堆积过程中的气候环境演变。结果表明，青海湖南岸的黄土按成土作用强度的不同可分为两层：上部为成土化较弱的黄土层；下部为成土化较高的古土壤层，其仍可进一步分为两个亚层。全新世湖区气候环境的波动在地球化学分布特征中有较强表现。     

塔里木盆地南缘历史时期气候环境变化的过程与特征

根据塔里木盆地南缘具较高分辨率的湖沼相沉积物碳酸盐δ^13C和粒度等记录，恢复出2162-850BC期间为一相对稳定的温暖干旱时期，之后迅速转冷湿，湿润程度呈持续、阶段式增加，50 BC至500 AD期间呈现的显著冷湿特征于550 AD之后突变转暖干而结束。550 AD和1000 AD前后的具突变性质的气候事件在南疆地区近2．0ka的气候变化中具有重要意义，反映气候状况有过重大调整。850—1300AD期间(相当于中世纪温暖期)冷暖、干湿多变，但温暖特征并不明显。特别是1100—1200AD期间气候快速、频繁变化之后，奠定了本地区现代稳定干旱环境特征。区域对比表明，尼雅剖面记录的气候变化具有广泛的区域一致性。     

渭干河-库车河三角洲绿洲50 a来农业开发及所引发的生态问题探析

从渭干河-库车河三角洲绿洲50a来农业开发与生态建设的过程看，人工绿洲耕作农业的生产力水平有较显著的提高，人工绿洲生态也得到了改善。主要表现是单位面积生产力水平提高，农田防护林体系初步建立，水利工程建设得到加强，生活能源的短缺得到改进。但从流域的绿洲农业经济发展与生态环境建设仍存在一些不协调的问题。主要是农田施肥重化肥轻有机肥，土壤肥力不高；灌区中游重灌轻排，灌排不协调，盐渍化面积有所扩大；流域下游由于缺水和人为等因素使天然绿洲的稳定性受到威胁，天然林的绿色屏障作用大为削弱等。对此必须引起足够重视，逐步加以协调，才能实现绿洲农业经济的可持续发展。     

乌拉苔草光合速率日变化及日同化量

乌拉苔草沼泽是长白山沟谷湿地的重要类型 ,对其光合速率研究的结果表明 ,乌拉苔草光合速率日变化呈单峰曲线 ,最高峰出现在 1 0时 ,最大值是 1 8.0 7μmol(CO2 ) / (m2 ·s) ;与其该群落伴生的修氏苔草光合速率日变化出现“午休”现象。影响光合速率最大的环境因素是光量子通量密度和叶温 ,呈极显著的正相关 ,其他因素亦多呈正相关 ,环境因子综合影响了乌拉苔草的光合日进程。乌拉苔草光合作用的日总同化量为 1 896 0 1 .2 μmol(CO2 ) /m2 ,是光合能力较强的一种沼泽植物     

铁路缓和曲线的等间隔放样方法

介绍了铁路缓和曲线设置的目的、作用、基本原则和重要意义，阐述了等间隔放样缓和曲线的基本原理，给出了等间隔放样缓和曲线放样要素采集的基本方法，叙述了缓和曲线等间隔放样的工作过程。     

The causes and environmental effects of land use conversion during agricultural restructuring in Northeast China

During the last decade of the 20th century, extensive conversion in agricultural land use took place in Northeast China. The goal of this study is to ascertain its spatial distribution and regional differentiation, determine its causes, and analyze its environmental impact. Especially we attempt to elucidate how institutional constraints have facilitated the change at a time of agrarian restructuring when newly emerging free market was hybridized with the former planned economy. Information on six categories of land use was mapped from interpretation of Landsat TM images recorded in 1990, 1995 and 2000. Most of land use changes took place during the first half of the decade, coinciding with abrupt and chaotic changes in government directives. Farmland was changed mainly to woodland, water body and built-up areas while woodland and grassland were converted chiefly to farmland. Spatially, the change from farmland to woodland was restricted to the west of the study area. The change from grassland to farmland took place in the grazing and farming interlocked west. These chaotic and occasionally conflicting changes were largely caused by lack of stability and consistency in agricultural land use policies promulgated. They have exerted adverse impacts on the local environment, including land degradation, increased flooding, and modified climate regime.     

Doing groups: Situating knowledge and creating stories

This paper presents group research as a potentially powerful research tool for cultural geographers interested in the ways knowledge is produced at the interpersonal level. I argue that groups can create unique research spaces that incorporate 'sociality', the everyday social norms, logics and languages that guide ordinary conversations, into the research agenda. By concentrating on these discursive norms, insights can be obtained into the ways that knowledge is negotiated, produced and constrained in different places. To demonstrate the value of group research, a case study involving Australian environmentalists is analysed, to show how forests are constructed, contested and naturalised within this particular subculture. The article concludes by emphasising the importance of group research to critical geographers interested in social empowerment and change.     

The Victorian Bushfires of 2002–03 and the Politics of Blame: a Discourse Analysis

This paper identifies contrasting environmental discourses on bushfire from the public debate that followed the Victorian fires of 2002–03. Submissions to the inquiry into the 2002–03 Victorian bushfires provide a particularly rich source of documentation. It is argued that environmental events such as bushfire only become political issues, or problems, when they are constituted as such through environmental discourse. Through the analysis, three contrasting discourses on bushfire are identified—here labelled the ‘conservationist’, ‘ruralist’ and ‘wise use’ discourses. In examining how different ‘constructions’ of bushfire have led to conflict, each discourse is shown to consist of a range of actors who draw on shared storylines. Having established a better understanding of the different attitudes, beliefs, interests and values that underpin debates about bushfire, the paper concludes with a brief discussion of the prospects for compromise among the discourses and the potential for improved land and fire management outcomes.