人工增雨的社会效应和应采取的对策与措施

在分析 2000年人工增雨作业实践和所产生的社会、经济效益的基础上，提出我省人工影响天气减灾对策和应采取的服务措施，使人工影响天气科学能为城乡减灾作出更多的贡献。     

Bio-cultural refugia—Safeguarding diversity of practices for food security and biodiversity

Food security for a growing world population is high on the list of grand sustainability challenges, as is reducing the pace of biodiversity loss in landscapes of food production. Here we shed new insights on areas that harbor place specific social memories related to food security and stewardship of biodiversity. We call them bio-cultural refugia. Our goals are to illuminate how bio-cultural refugia store, revive and transmit memory of agricultural biodiversity and ecosystem services, and how such social memories are carried forward between people and across cohorts. We discuss the functions of such refugia for addressing the twin goals of food security and biodiversity conservation in landscapes of food production. The methodological approach is first of its kind in combining the discourses on food security, social memory and biodiversity management. We find that the rich biodiversity of many regionally distinct cultural landscapes has been maintained through a mosaic of management practices that have co-evolved in relation to local environmental fluctuations, and that such practices are carried forward by both biophysical and social features in bio-cultural refugia including; genotypes, artifacts, written accounts, as well as embodied rituals, art, oral traditions and self-organized systems of rules. Combined these structure a diverse portfolio of practices that result in genetic reservoirs—source areas—for the wide array of species, which in interplay produce vital ecosystem services, needed for future food security related to environmental uncertainties, volatile financial markets and large scale conflicts. In Europe, processes related to the large-scale industrialization of agriculture threaten such bio-cultural refugia. The paper highlights that the dual goals to reduce pressures from modern agriculture on biodiversity, while maintaining food security, entails more extensive collaboration with farmers oriented toward ecologically sound practices.     

Exploratory analyses of local institutions for climate change adaptation in the Mongolian grasslands: An agent-based modeling approach

There has been a decrease in grazing mobility in the Mongolian grasslands over the past decades. Sedentary grazing with substantial external inputs has increased the cost of livestock production. As a result, the livelihoods of herders have become more vulnerable to climate variability and change. Sedentary grazing is the formal institutional arrangement in Inner Mongolia, China. However, this may not be an efficient institutional arrangement for climate change adaptation. Self-organized local institutions for climate change adaptation have emerged and are under development in the study area. In this study, we did exploratory analyses of multiple local institutions for climate change adaptation in the Mongolian grasslands, using an agent-based modeling approach. Empirical studies from literature and our field work show that sedentary grazing, pasture rental markets, and reciprocal pasture-use groups are three popular institutional arrangements in the study area. First, we modeled the social–ecological performance (i.e., livelihood benefits to herders and grassland quality) of these institutions and their combinations under different climate conditions. Second, we did exploratory analyses of multiple social mechanisms for facilitating and maintaining cooperative use of pastures among herders. The modeling results show that in certain value-ranges of some model parameters with assumed values, reciprocal pasture-use groups had better performance than pasture rental markets; and the comparative advantage of cooperative use of pastures over sedentary grazing without cooperation becomes more evident with the increase in drought probability. Agent diversity and social norms were effective for facilitating the development of reciprocal pasture-use groups. Kin selection and punishments on free-riders were useful for maintaining cooperation among herders.     

Assisted network governance: An inclusive innovation to mitigate extreme water scarcity

We study a local innovation of natural resource governance in Chile in times of extreme water scarcity. Through the issuance of a scarcity decree, the government obliges local water user associations (WUAs) to reach viable water redistribution agreements in order to avoid being overruled by the state. In the Aconcagua River, the government together with the WUAs created the Executive Committee, where only the WUAs have a vote, but private and public stakeholders participate in the process of negotiating water use agreements. Grounded on thematic coding of the detailed minutes of over 80 committee meetings since its inception, we examine the workings of a new local model of Assisted Network Governance (ANG). Based on content and social network analysis of over 1,000 directed interactions among committee members, we find that ANG, as an element of broader hybrid governance, has not only produced viable agreements for immediate water redistribution, but has also facilitated longer-term system improvements by building mutual understanding, resolving conflicts, and mobilizing external resources to improve infrastructure. We conclude that ANG helps accomplish common objectives in the field of natural resources under conditions of extreme water scarcity.     

Water and the entrepreneurial city: The territorial expansion of public utility companies from Colombia and the Netherlands

Since the mid-1980s, liberalization has motivated numerous water supply reforms. Among these, privatization has received the most attention. Yet, its actual scope has been limited. Beyond privatization, the territorial expansion of municipally owned water corporations into new service areas can be witnessed in countries as diverse as Italy, South Africa, Canada, Colombia and the Netherlands. Generally, the activities of public water corporations are analyzed through the lens of commercialization. This framework is central to understanding recent shifts in water supply. Yet, while it addresses the effects of commercialization on service quality and access, it rarely integrates the influence of shifts in social reproduction and collective consumption in structuring reform. Drawing on theories of urban entrepreneurialism, I attempt to advance a broader analytical framework that is more amenable to integrating the diversity of processes involved, including but not limited to commercialization. At the same time, the territorial expansion of municipally owned water corporations suggests ways to rethink urban entrepreneurialism: it is not only commercial, it is also social, and it is Schumpeterian. To make these points, this article examines the efforts of two public water corporations to go international: EPM of Medellín, Colombia and WMD of Drenthe, the Netherlands.     

Sex offenders,housing and spatial restriction zones

Sex offenders are currently a major focus of crime control policies at the local, regional, state and federal levels throughout the United States. In part, the perceived threat of offender recidivism has motivated legislators to launch stringent community notification programs and to establish spatial restriction zones (SRZs) around schools, daycare facilities and public parks. The purpose of these restriction zones is to help protect children and minimize their exposure to convicted sex offenders living in the community. In addition to the concern that the implementation of SRZs dramatically reduces viable housing options for registered sex offenders, there are concerns that offenders will be forced to reside in socially disorganized areas that may encourage recidivism. The purpose of this paper is to explore the demographic and socioeconomic differences between areas inside and outside SRZs. Implications of these results for sex offender policies are discussed.

Littering dynamics in a coastal industrial setting: The influence of non-resident populations

We examined if there is truth to the preconceptions that non-resident workers (including FIFO/DIDO’s) detract from communities. We used marine debris to test this, specifically focussing on littering behaviour and evidence of awareness of local environmental programs that focus on marine debris. Littering was most common at recreational areas, then beaches and whilst boating. Twenty-five percent of respondents that admit to littering, reported no associated guilt with their actions. Younger respondents litter more frequently. Thus, non-resident workers litter at the same rate as permanent residents, visitors and tourists in this region, within this study. Few respondents are aware of the environmental programs that operate in their local region. Awareness was influenced by a respondent’s residency (non-residents are less aware), age, and level of education. To address this failure we recommend that industries, that use non-resident workers, should develop inductions that expose new workers to the environmental programs in their region.     

Environmental conflicts and defenders: A global overview

Recent research and policies recognize the importance of environmental defenders for global sustainability and emphasize their need for protection against violence and repression. However, effective support may benefit from a more systematic understanding of the underlying environmental conflicts, as well as from better knowledge on the factors that enable environmental defenders to mobilize successfully. We have created the global Environmental Justice Atlas to address this knowledge gap. Here we present a large-n analysis of 2743 cases that sheds light on the characteristics of environmental conflicts and the environmental defenders involved, as well as on successful mobilization strategies. We find that bottom-up mobilizations for more sustainable and socially just uses of the environment occur worldwide across all income groups, testifying to the global existence of various forms of grassroots environmentalism as a promising force for sustainability. Environmental defenders are frequently members of vulnerable groups who employ largely non-violent protest forms. In 11% of cases globally, they contributed to halt environmentally destructive and socially conflictive projects, defending the environment and livelihoods. Combining strategies of preventive mobilization, protest diversification and litigation can increase this success rate significantly to up to 27%. However, defenders face globally also high rates of criminalization (20% of cases), physical violence (18%), and assassinations (13%), which significantly increase when Indigenous people are involved. Our results call for targeted actions to enhance the conditions enabling successful mobilizations, and for specific support for Indigenous environmental defenders.     

Nature unsettled: How knowledge and power shape ‘nature-based’ approaches to societal challenges

Nature-based solutions (NbS) are gaining traction in high-level, decision-making arenas as a response to global policy challenges. Claiming to be transformative and pluralistic, NbS aim to resolve societal problems through a focus on nature, which is understood to be a benign ally. This uncritical framing of nature may have unintended and inequitable consequences that undermine the emancipatory potential of NbS.In this paper, we highlight the need to pay attention to epistemic and power dimensions that tend to be hidden in NbS. We assume that nature is neither passive nor external to human society, but is instead expressed in frames (reifying modes of expression) that reflect both knowledge and power in social encounters where NbS are used. Drawing upon five cases, we analyse how particular ways of framing nature express and reinforce the power relations that structure people’s interactions. Each of the five cases relies on a nature-based frame to produce knowledge on climate adaptation, peacebuilding and justice.The analysis reveals how frames of nature are enacted in particular contexts, and how this conditions the potential for societal transformation towards sustainability and pluralistic knowledge. We demonstrate how frames of nature can constrain or enable opportunities for various groups to respond to environmental change. We discuss how the NbS paradigm might better incorporate diverse, situated knowledge and subjectivities, and conclude that this will require a more critical evaluation of NbS practice and research.     

Contextualizing climate justice activism: Knowledge,emotions, motivations,and actions among climate strikers in six cities

In August 2018, Swedish teenager Greta Thunberg started to strike from school on Fridays to protest against a lack of action on the climate crisis. Her actions sparked a historically large youth movement, leading to a series of school strikes across the world. Over the course of one week in September 2019, striking school children, students and other grassroots movements, such as Extinction Rebellion, called for everyone to participate in a global Climate Strike. This paper is based on comparative research with climate protesters in six cities: Brighton and London (United Kingdom), Montreal (Canada), New Haven and New York (USA), and Stavanger (Norway). Based on original interviews with 64 protesters, the study examines their knowledge, emotions, motivations, and actions in relation to climate change, including any lifestyle changes they have undertaken before or after their protests. Our findings show that protesters have varying degrees of knowledge about climate change, and have taken a range of actions in their own lives to address climate change. They also manifest a wide spectrum of emotions about climate change, and different motivations for taking part in climate strikes. These features are under-studied and dynamically evolving at the present conjuncture. On this basis, we call for expanded academic attention to human, emotional, epistemic, and seemingly mundane aspects of climate protests, their structural tendencies and relational expressions, and the implications for our ability to address underlying drivers.