环境规制、地方保护与中国污染密集型产业布局

污染密集型产业在促进区域经济增长的同时会对区域生态环境带来巨大威胁,其发展布局会受到地方保护和环境规制的双重影响。1980-2014年中国污染密集型产业的发展经历了缓慢增长、快速扩张和结构转型3个阶段,总体呈现“分散—集中—分散”的空间特征,中部省份是现阶段承接污染密集型产业转移的主要地区。通过建立区域属性模型、区域—产业交互项模型,定量分析环境规制、地方保护对污染密集型产业布局空间变化的影响,检验“污染避难所假说”和“波特假说”,发现环境规制和地方保护已成为污染密集型产业布局的重要影响因素,但存在显著的产业异质性和区域差异性;污染程度高的产业易受到环境规制的影响;相比高税收产业,高国有比重的产业更易受到地方的保护;环境规制和地方保护作为两种相反的力量,彼此之间相互抑制;环境规制的作用在东部地区比较突出,而中、西部地区地方保护的作用更为明显。为防止中西部地区成为污染密集型产业的“避难所”,应因地因时制宜制定差异化政策,促进经济与环境保护的协调发展。     

‘Borehole Race’ and the Dilemma of Governing the ‘Ungoverned’: Understanding the Urban Political Ecology of Groundwater Exploitation in Nigeria

Groundwater exploitation is an essential aspect of the numerous processes of transforming the urban natural environment for human gains. We use the political ecology of borehole exploitation in Nigeria’s urban environment to understand the micro-and macro-level processes mediating the transformation and changes in urban “groundwater scape”. The fieldwork processes depend on field counting of borehole distribution, in-depth and semi-structured interviews, and a review of secondary literatures. We argue that the social and environmental changes arising from the exploitation of groundwater bespeak the active and continual manifestation of the interplay of combustible interests and power friction among institutional agents within the permissible range of the natural environment. Such dynamic power relations engender a pattern of socio-natural transformation consistent with Swyngedouw’s notion of urban metabolism- “a series of interconnected heterogeneous and dynamic but contested and contestable processes of continuous quantitative and qualitative transformations that re-arranges humans and non-humans in new and often unexpected ways”.     

Looking for a White Male Effect in Generation Z: Race,Gender, and Political Effects on Environmental Concern and Ambivalence

The “White male effect” has been presented in past literature as a way to explain the tendency for White males to have lower environmental concern and risk perceptions than female and non-White individuals. Recently, research has proposed the “White male effect” may be a “conservative White male effect,” due to findings that political ideology impacts environmental concern. This study used a sample of young college-educated adults from Generation Z to test whether the conservative White male effect is present for environmental concern and ambivalence toward a proenvironmental worldview in this younger generation. Online surveys were distributed to undergraduate students at a large northeastern university in spring of 2016. A total of 1,940 surveys were returned. Results showed a lack of a unique White male, or conservative White male, effect above and beyond differences explained by gender, Whiteness, and political affiliation. The implications of this effect’s absence are discussed.     

Robustness and the Paradox of Bridging Organizations: The Exit Problem in Regional Water Governance Networks in Central America

Bridging organizations facilitate a range of governance processes, including cooperation and social learning, and are theorized to be a key component of robust governance systems. In this article, we use node removal simulations to test structural hypotheses of robustness in a regional water governance network in Central America. We investigate the response of network measures supporting core governance processes to the targeted removal of bridging organizations and other actors, which we compare to random and centrality-based simulations. The results indicate removing bridging organizations has a greater impact on the network than any other type of actor, suggesting bridging organizations are critical to the robustness of the governance system. Furthermore, network structures supporting cooperation may be less robust than structures facilitating social learning. We conclude with policy implications of the research findings as they relate to the exit problem in governance systems with a large presence of international development actors.     

Indigenous Land Management in Peri-Urban Landscapes: An Australian Example

This article examines roles, opportunities, and challenges for Indigenous land management in rapidly developing landscapes through a case study of Bunya Bunya Country Aboriginal Corporation, a not-for-profit organization on the Sunshine Coast, Queensland, Australia. An analysis of data collected through semistructured interviews, participant observation, and analysis of secondary sources reveals that Aboriginal land managers work in a variety of roles to manage issues affecting the local environment and cultural heritage sites. These efforts are challenged by the absence of Native Title and colonial land management policies, which restrict Aboriginal involvement in land management. We conclude that there is a need for alternative pathways to engage with Aboriginal land managers who cannot, or choose not to, proceed with Native Title. Decolonized decision-making tools and sustainable enterprises are viable opportunities that partially address these challenges and could deliver tangible socio-economic and cultural benefits to local Aboriginal and non-Aboriginal people.     

基于消费责任制的碳排放核算及全球环境压力

因区域间贸易而转移的碳排放对于全球各个国家或者地区的碳排放核算及其减排责任划分具有重要而深远的影响。通过构建多区域投入产出分析模型和基于扩展的STIRPAT模型,本文核算了全球39个主要国家基于消费责任制的碳排放,并在此基础上深入探讨了全球环境压力的影响因素问题。研究发现：首先,从以净流出为主的中国和俄罗斯来看,尽管贸易给这些地区带来了大量的资源,但随之会产生严重的区域生态环境问题。而对于美国和欧盟等地区来说,这些国家或者地区通过全球贸易规避了大量的碳减排责任。此外,在全球贸易中,区域净流出的贸易隐含碳排放越小,基于消费责任制核算的区域碳排放量就越大,故而在全球减排目标分配中承担的减排任务也需相应地增加。全球贸易隐含碳排放净流出量较大的地区主要位于亚洲和东欧等地,而净流出量最小的地区主要是以西欧和北美等高度发达的经济体为主。其次,就基于消费责任制核算下的全球环境压力而言,人口因素和富裕程度是导致全球环境压力不断增加的两个重要因素,而提高生产技术水平以及逐渐提高清洁能源在总能源消费中的比重是推动全球节能减排、缓解全球环境压力的有效途径。     

变化背景下的当代中国自然地理学——2017全国自然地理学大会述评

面对变化中的全球环境以及变化中的学科热点,以“变化背景下自然地理学新发展与新挑战”为主题的第一届全国自然地理学大会于2017年11月20-22日在南京召开。聚焦地理学与可持续发展、自然地理要素与过程集成、空间数据挖掘与系统决策等当代自然地理学研究的前沿内容,通过学科前沿理论的凝练,引导自然地理过程研究的继续深化;依托理论与方法创新;在典型流域、区域实现了自然地理过程的初步集成,切实服务于人地耦合视角下的可持续社会决策。深化自然地理学分支学科的过程研究、推进综合自然地理学的发展、提升陆地表层系统观测和模拟水平,将有助于进一步巩固自然地理学在地理科学学科体系中的基础学科地位,为满足国家重大战略需求和全球可持续发展作出重要的学科贡献。     

Geographical Environment for the Safe Production of Food

Food is essential for human survival, but harmful, toxic substances in food damage and threaten human health. Food production is inseparable from the place where the food is produced; that is, from the geographical environment that consists of natural and human environments, two parts of a unified whole. China’s territory is vast and its geographical environment is complex and diverse. Food production patterns in different parts of the country vary significantly, as do local socio-economic and cultural conditions. Such differences have an enormous impact on food safety. Based on the geographical area where food is produced in China, this paper reveals the main environmental problems arising from industrial and agricultural production activities, and related risks for food safety and health. In concluding, we make some recommendations for countermeasures. The main food safety related environmental problems include the excessive application of chemical fertilizers and pesticides; high background levels of heavy metals; discharge of wastewater and heavy metals; and excessive use of additives and antibiotics in livestock and poultry breeding and aquatic products. All these issues can lead to huge risks for food safety and thus health. These are not simply scientific issues, but also political, economic and legal issues, as well as social problems that differ from region to region. Therefore, comprehensive studies are needed to identify risks to food safety and health hazards in different areas. Systematic and comprehensive risk assessments of health problems caused by changing ecosystems, environmental pollution, nutrition problems and lifestyle, and especially comprehensive risk assessments of regional environmental changes and health risks are needed. Measures based on an understanding of local conditions must be put forward to protect food safety and health, to strengthen multi-sectoral management, and to improve environmental quality     

When does economic development promote mitigation and why?

Is economic development compatible with mitigation? On the one hand, development should promote effective climate policy by enhancing states’ capacities for mitigation. On the other hand, economic growth creates more demand for production, thereby inhibiting emissions reduction. These arguments are often reconciled in the environmental Kuznets curve (EKC) thesis. According to this approach, development initially increases emissions in poor economies, but begins to lower emissions after a country has attained a certain level of development.

The aim of this article is to determine empirically whether the EKC hypothesis seems plausible in light of emissions trends over the birth and implementation of the Kyoto Protocol. Drawing on data from the World Bank World Development Indicators and World Resources Institute Climate Data Explorer, it conducts a large-N investigation of the emissions behaviour of 120 countries from 1990 to 2012. While several quantitative studies have found that economic factors influence emissions activity, this article goes beyond existing research by employing a more sophisticated – multilevel – research design to determine whether economic development: (a) continues to be a significant driver once country-level clustering is accounted for and (b) has different effects on different countries. The results of this article indicate that, even after we account for country-level clustering and hold constant the other main putative drivers of emissions activity, economic development tends to inhibit emissions reduction. They also provide strong evidence that emissions trends resemble the EKC, with development significantly constraining emissions reduction in the South and promoting it in the North.

POLICY RELEVANCE

This article contributes to the understanding of the (changing) role of economic development in shaping emissions activity. It demonstrates the need for a contextualized, country-specific approach for evaluating the effectiveness of economic development in promoting emissions reduction and uncovers new evidence in support of the EKC hypothesis.     

Evolution and changes of permafrost on the Qinghai-Tibet Plateau during the Late Quaternary

Due to the uplift of Qinghai-Tibet Plateau(QTP), the cryosphere gradually developed on the higher mountain summits after the Neocene, becoming widespread during the Late Quaternary. During this time, permafrost on the QTP experienced repeated expansion and degradation. Based on the remains and cross-correlation with other proxy records such as those from glacial landforms, ice-core and paleogeography, the evolution and changes of permafrost and environmental changes on the QTP during the past 150,000 years were deduced and are presented in this paper. At least four obvious cycles of the extensive and intensive development, expansion and decay of permafrost occurred during the periods of 150–130, 80–50, 30–14 and after 10.8 ka B.P.. During the Holocene, fluctuating climatic environments affected the permafrost on the QTP, and the peripheral mountains experienced six periods of discernible permafrost changes:(1) Stable development of permafrost in the early Holocene(10.8 to 8.5–7.0 ka B.P.);(2) Intensive permafrost degradation during the Holocene Megathermal Period(HMP, from 8.5–7.0 to 4.0–3.0 ka B.P.);(3) Permafrost expansion during the early Neoglacial period(ca. 4,000–3,000 to 1,000 a B.P.);(4) Relative degradation during the Medieval Warm Period(MWP, from 1,000 to 500 a B.P.);(5) Expansion of permafrost during the Little Ice Age(LIA, from 500 to 100 a B.P.);(6) Observed and predicted degradation of permafrost during the 20 th and 21 st century. Each period differed greatly in paleoclimate, paleoenvironment, and permafrost distribution, thickness, areal extent, and ground temperatures, as well as in the development of periglacial phenomena. Statistically, closer dating of the onset permafrost formation, more identification of permafrost remains with richer proxy information about paleoenvironment, and more dating information enable higher resolution for paleo-permafrost reconstruction. Based on the scenarios of persistent climate warming of 2.2～2.6 °C in the next 50 years, and in combination of the monitored trends of climate and permafrost changes, and model predictions suggest an accelerated regional degradation of plateau permafrost. Therefore, during the first half of the 21 st century, profound changes in the stability of alpine ecosystems and hydro(geo)logical environments in the source regions of the Yangtze and Yellow rivers may occur. The foundation stability of key engineering infrastructures and sustainable economic development in cold regions on the QTP may be affected.