Performing environmental governance

This essay reflects on issues of researcher positionality within participant observation and action research, and the specific methodological issues surrounding research on neoliberal governance strategies, using my experience at the US Environmental Protection Agency as case material. Although I was initially concerned about participating with the anti-progressive Bush Administration, I attempted to adopt the interests and subjectivity of an environmental bureaucrat. Doing so proved to be an extremely effective way of exploring the multi-vocality and cross-cutting interests constituting the state, which often appears from the outside to be a policy monolith. Participant research among elites in the neoliberal state is an effective way to observe such complexity. It became apparent that, because mainstream economics tends to adopt a totalizing epistemology, both its casual and dogmatic adherents usually do not conceive of a coherent external critique. This often means that researchers of any theoretical background can be quite frank concerning their purposes, background, and interests, even as participants.     

Natural disasters as the end of the insurance industry? Scalar competitive strategies, Alternative Risk Transfers, and the economic crisis

The aftermath of Hurricane Katrina has piqued interest in the insurance industry, and this scrutiny has led to assumptions that the industry has become unstable and unprofitable with the increased incidence of disasters in highly-insured regions of the world. This paper challenges that assumption by arguing that the insurance industry has responded by spreading risk through scaled and networked recovery schemes. We found that because of competitive strategies of risk-spreading and displacement arrangements, the industry has actually profited as a whole. Regional insurance companies have always relied on the higher financial scales of the reinsurance industry in Munich, Zurich, and London. But with claims reaching into the billions of dollars, the reinsurance industry itself has raised premiums, spread risk farther afield, and jumped scale by spreading risk to futures markets called Alternative Risk Transfers (ARTs). However, the recession beginning in 2008 has called into question the viability of using futures markets as insurance. It is shown through a media analysis of four major business publications (The Economist, The New York Times, The Financial Times and The Wall Street Journal) how the industry responded to the costs of the 2004, 2005, and 2006 hurricane seasons. Because geography is rather new to this literature, this paper also offers a broad review of the insurance industry.     

Paper trails: The Outdoor Recreation Resource Review Commission and the rationalization of recreational resources

This article examines the history of the Outdoor Recreation Resource Review Commission (ORRRC) in the United States between 1955 and 1963 and efforts to make recreational resources legible for federal governance. By drawing on insights from Critical Resource Geography, I highlight the ways that the ORRRC systematically accounted for and categorized recreational resources, creating a “patchwork landscape” that zoned outdoor recreational resources and promoted efficient use and rational resource conservation. I argue that these efforts required a negotiation between abstraction and an awareness of the situated nature of recreational landscapes.     

云南东川新山含金剪切带型金矿

新山金矿属构造剪切带控制的典型金矿床,产于中元古界昆阳群美党组(Pt2m)中部变质石英砂板岩中。规模大、品位富、易采易选。矿区构造——含金剪切带与土壤地球化学金异常,是寻找该类金矿的重要标志。     

东营市沿海地区农业地质特征

通过对东营市沿海地区农业地质的调查研究,该区土壤贫N、P、Mo、有机质,富K,富微量元素Cu、Zn、Fe、Mn、B等,土壤除盐化程度高外,未受到其它元素的污染,仍保持良好的自然环境。初步将土壤分为四个土壤类型:潮土、盐化潮土、滨海盐土、滨海潮滩盐土,土体构型以均质砂壤型分布面积最广。     

Socio-economic drivers of deforestation in Roghani Valley,Hindu-Raj Mountains,Northern Pakistan

Deforestation and associated ecological disturbances are the issues of global concern.Researchers have investigated a number of driving forces which accelerate the rate of deforestation at local and regional levels.These include poverty,population growth,market demand and prices,political instability,agricultural expansion and changes in property right and ownership regimes.This paper seeks to explore the impacts of population growth,changing tenure system and other socioeconomic factors on the forest cover of Roghani Valley,located in Hindu Raj Mountains,Northern Pakistan.The present study is mainly based on information collected through participatory observation,selfadministered interviews and questionnaire survey.Geographical Information System（GIS） database is also used for mapping and quantification.The results reveal that in the past three to four decades the study area has been subjected to severe deforestation and about half of the forest area has been converted into barren land.Thus,the area under natural forests decreased from 2099 to 1444 hectares in four decades.This large-scale deforestation is attributed to both proximate and under lying causes particularly traditional land tenure system and demographic development.Consequently,forest resources have been degraded and a number of plant species have disappeared from the forests of the study area while several others are in the process of disappearance.     

Mineral occurrence for Dachang gold deposit and its impact on gold recovery rate in Qumarleb County,Qinghai

Based on X-ray diffraction, optical microscopy and scanning electron microscopy analysis of the Dachang gold ore, it is showed that the sulfide of ore is the main carrier minerals of gold. A majority of gold is embedded in pyrite and tetrahedrite as the form of inclusion and a small amount intergrowth with pyrite and gangue mineral, occasionally the presence is in form of monomer natural gold. The main factors which influence the recovery rate are sulfide mineral particle size, and the fine grained sulfide is beneficial for the dissociation and flotation of gold bearing minerals. The monomer dissociation degree of gold bearing minerals can reach 91.3% , when the grinding fineness is less than 0. 074 mm and grain level accounts as 80%. It is not conducive to the flotation of sulfide if the grinding fineness is low or high. It is difficult to completely dissociate the monomer if there is a small amount of pyrite and arsenopyrite in the ore. Therefore, before leaching the gold, it must conduct pretreatment to reach the ideal recovery rate of the gold, like roasting oxidation, pressure oxidation and biological oxidation. The fine microscopic gold has little influence on the gold recovery rate.     

基于双视角竞争态与亲景度中国入境旅游客源市场分析

利用市场竞争态与亲景度构建综合评价模型,分析1998~2000年和2009~2011年两个时段中国入境旅游客源市场及其变化。结果发现：（1）1998~2000年美国等为明星市场,日本为金牛市场,印度等为幼童市场,英国等为瘦狗市场。（2）2009~2011年新加坡等为明星市场,韩国等为金牛市场,印度等为幼童市场,瑞典等为瘦狗市场。（3）受空间距离的影响,强亲景市场比较稳定,弱亲景、弱疏景、强疏景3种市场则有可能发生较大变化。（4）经过10年的发展明星市场和幼童市场数量保持不变,金牛市场增加到3个,瘦狗市场减少到3个,客源市场逐步壮大,入境旅游市场发展良好。     

Effect of Decadal Changes in Air-Sea Interaction on the Climate Mean State over the Tropical Pacific

Collaboration of interannual variabilities and the climate mean state determines the type of E1 Nifio. Recent studies highlight the impact of a La Nifia-like mean state change, which acts to suppress the convection and low-level convergence over the central Pacific, on the predominance of central Pacific （CP） E1 Nifio in the most recent decade. However, how interannual variabilities affect the climate mean state has been less thoroughly investigated. Using a linear shallow-water model, the ef- fect of decadal changes of air-sea interaction on the two types of El Nifio and the climate mean state over the tropical Pacific is examined. It is demonstrated that the predominance of the eastem Pacific （EP） and CP E1 Nino is dominated mainly by relationships between anomalous wind stresses and sea surface temperature （SST）. Furthermore, changes between air-sea interactions from 1980-98 to 1999-2011 prompted the generation of the La Ninalike pattern, which is similar to the background change in the most recent decade.     

迁徙季节水鸟对滨海不同类型湿地的利用——以广西山口红树林自然保护区为例

为了解迁徙季节水鸟在不同滨海湿地中的结构组成和行为特征,于2010年3月、4月、9月、11月和2011年3月,在山口自然保护区及其周边地区对不同滨海湿地类型的水鸟展开调查。结果显示:迁徙季节天然湿地共记录到水鸟6目8科39种,人工湿地有6目9科50种。天然湿地比人工湿地的物种数少,整体数量上,春季人工湿地大于天然湿地,秋季则为天然湿地水鸟数量更多。鹬鸻类在不同滨海湿地类型中觅食行为比例差异显著,在天然湿地中觅食比例达到76.67%,而在人工湿地中则以休息和睡眠等非觅食行为为主。天然湿地是鹬鸻类的重要觅食地,而人工湿地则是鹭类和鹬鸻类的主要休息地。鹭类在两种滨海湿地类型中觅食个体的数量不随潮汐的涨落而相应增减。鹬鸻类随潮汐高度上升,在两种滨海湿地类型中觅食的个体数量减少。山口地区的滨海人工湿地是水鸟在高潮期间天然湿地良好的替代栖息地。