Intergenerational and International Discounting

A discount rate for the consumption of future generations is typically composed of two parts. One is a "pure" time preference for immediate over postponed consumption, the other a declining marginal utility as consumption increases. The costs of greenhouse abatement, however, for at least the first 50 years, will be borne by the developed countries; the benefits will accrue to the presently undeveloped. Pure time preference always relates to one's own consumption; it has no relevance here. Consumption transfers over time will be from richer to poorer, from lower to higher marginal utility. It is a foreign aid program and it ought to have to compete with more direct foreign aid, which can benefit the very poor rather than their much-better-off descendants.     

The energy and mass balance of Los Angeles County

We conducted an urban “metabolic” study of inputs and outputs of food, water, energy, and pollutants from Los Angeles County, USA. This region has been the subject of recent debate about the nature of population density and distribution as it relates to urban form and associated environmental impacts. We found that with the exception of food imports and wastewater outputs, inputs of resources and outputs of pollutants generally declined on a per capita basis from 1990 to 2000. Reductions likely reflected a combination of changes in public policy, improvements in technology and public infrastructure, and impacts of increases in population density. However, in comparison to other municipalities and urban regions, resource consumption per capita was still relatively high in some categories, particularly inputs of water and transportation energy. Per capita greenhouse gas emissions were lower in Los Angeles County than for the average of the USA as a whole but higher than previous analyses of urban areas internationally, largely due to comparatively high emissions from the transportation sector. Wastewater discharge accounted for less than 40% of water inputs excluding precipitation; however the partitioning of water outputs through other potential losses, specifically evapotranspiration, runoff, and groundwater recharge, remains highly uncertain. We suggest that more detailed information about water losses will greatly improve future mass and energy accounting for analyses of urban environmental sustainability in this semi-arid region.     

温室养鳖水质监测及调控初探

本文对温室养鳖水质变化和浮游生物变化进行了分析,结果表明:随着换水时间的延长,溶氧迅速降低,化学耗氧量和铵态氮浓度迅速增高,浮游植物、轮虫和桡足类的数量逐渐减少,原生动物和枝角类数量急剧增加。水质调控的基本方法是增加温室水体浮游植物的数量,使其保持较高的密度,以生物增氧的方式净化水体。     

The sociology of ecologically unequal exchange and carbon dioxide emissions, 1960-2005

The author engages the sociological theory of ecologically unequal exchange to assess the extent to which levels of per capita anthropogenic carbon dioxide emissions are a function of the “vertical flow” of exports to high-income nations. Results of cross-national fixed effects panel model estimates indicate that levels of such emissions are positively associated with the vertical flow of exports, and the relationship is much more pronounced for lower-income countries than for high-income countries. Additional findings suggest that the observed relationship for lower-income nations has grown in magnitude through time, indicating that structural associations between high-income and lower-income countries have become increasingly ecologically unequal, at least in the context of greenhouse gas emissions. These results hold, net of various important controls.     

亲鳖越冬温室水质的初步分析

本文对生态温室池中亲鳖越冬后期的部分水化指标和浮游生物进行r初步分析。讨论了影响水质的主要因素,并提出亲鳖越冬期适宜的换水周期应为3个月。     

Stakeholders and voluntary climate reduction goals at large U.S. firms: An institutional analysis

What leads firms to develop voluntary greenhouse gas reduction goals? This paper discusses the results of interviews conducted with vice presidents and managers responsible for environmental sustainability initiatives at large U.S. firms. To situate the analysis, it develops a theoretical framework that sees the firm as a socially embedded creation, where stakeholder groups exert varying levels of influence and provide the context in which the firm responds to outside information in the face of uncertainty. By understanding the firm as socially embedded, the influence and power of groups that have strong preferences for or against environmental protection can be understood. The interviews provide empirical support for this model. Subjects discuss the role of stakeholder groups such as activists, shareholders, consumers, and workers in the development of the firm’s environmental policy. Groups can prompt the firm to set greenhouse gas or energy use reduction goals, and they encourage the firm to reexamine production processes to find new ways to both reduce costs and emissions. This suggests that policies to regulate industrial greenhouse gas emissions may be less costly than some projections indicate.     

Environmental consequences of exurban expansion in an agricultural area: the case of the Argentinian Pampas ecoregion

Exurban land use growth has been documented for at least thirty years in various regions around the world. Land use planners and land use/land cover change researchers have been concerned about the low-density residential developments scattered on a natural or agricultural matrix, due to their ecological and environmental impacts. In this paper, exurban sprawl in the Pampas ecoregion (Buenos Aires province, Argentina), is characterized and assessments are taken of the magnitude of two important consequences: agricultural land conversion, and excess CO₂ emission resulting from commute. The exurban developments concentrate between 50 and 70 km from Buenos Aires city, mainly at walking distances from compact towns, from 1 to 6 km of main roads, and no further than 25 km from them. Most of the exurban developments are located on the higher elevations in the study area (25 to 30 m above sea level). Even though exurban land use covers a very small proportion of land, the results show a tendency for conversion of land in the highest soil productivity capacity classes. While the best agricultural lands accounted for 29% of the land in the study area, it accounted for 54% of the exurban development. Preference of exurban land use conversion for good quality agricultural soils is observed even in those counties with a scarcity of good soils. However, there are great differences among counties in the relative proportion of land converted to exurban land use in each soil productivity capacity class. At the county level, from 0 to 100% of the highest production capacity lands have been converted to exurban uses, regardless of the proportion of land in each soil productivity capacity class for individual counties. Excess CO₂ equivalents emission was calculated for both the actual and the potencial number of households in the exurban developments. According to the automobile marque, range and fuel type, the actual emission ranges from 81,065 to 190,446 tons/year, and the potential from 296,643 to 696,908 tons/year. The excess emission per household is higher than that produced by domestic energy consumption within the Buenos Aires city during the same time period. The amount of CO₂ emitted in a year by personal vehicle transportation, in the study area, is equivalent to that captured by 16,000 ha of temperate forests or 27,600 ha of temperate grasslands during the same time period.

基于低碳要素支付意愿视角的绿色补贴政策效果评价———以生猪养殖业为例

基于江苏省545份生猪养殖户问卷调查,通过CVM方法实证分析了散户、小规模农户、中大规模农户对沼气池建设的支付意愿及其影响因素,并结合了碳减排压力指数,分析了补贴政策的未来导向.结论表明:沼气池普及率并不高,养殖户的支付意愿与现有补贴下的预期支出水平有一定差距,现行补贴政策与农户碳减排压力之间存在结构性差异,小规模农户的支付意愿最低,受到补贴最少,碳减排压力却最高.补贴政策的未来走向应该大力补贴小规模农户,适度追加补贴中大规模农户,大幅削减对散户的沼气池补贴.     

大棚黄瓜施二氧化碳气肥试验研究

用硫酸与碳酸氢铵产生二氧化碳法，研究了不同浓度的二氧化碳对黄瓜产量的影响。结果表明，二氧化碳浓度为1000毫克／千克时，增产达30-34％，经济效益明显。     

温室效应:人口要负多大责任?

由于各国经济利益不一致,气候变化谈判博弈艰难。在这种形势下,人口控制对减少温室气体排放的意义,近来被国际社会部分人士及中国政府重新提及,值得关注。自1972年世界环境大会以来,发达国家对世界人口问题的看法发生过180度的转变,否认发展中国家人口快速增长对经济的不利作用,否认人口与环境问题相关的观点,渐成西方学术界主流,由学术界蔓延到西方政府,并深刻影响着发展中国家许多学者的认识。文章论述了人口规模对温室气体排放的影响,试分析了上述西方主流观点在研究方法上存在的问题。目前,中国正进入快速工业化阶段,对庞大人口不断放大的经济、资源、环境影响,本文认为必须有极为清醒的认识。