THE ENVIRONMENTAL IMPACT OF MINERAL INDUSTRIES

A research design for the study of environmental pollution by mineral industries is proposed, with particular reference to oil and gas extraction in the Volga region. In evaluating the environmental impact, three basic stages need to be distinguished: the impact proper, the environmental reaction and the longer-term consequences for the environment and for human activity. Pollution by mineral industries involves aspects common to most such industries and specific aspects associated with a particular mineral industry. Impacts may be examined from a quantitative and qualitative point of view and in the space-time perspective. Various productive facilities of a mineral industry (production wells, strip mines, deep mines, spoil banks, pipelines, railroads, highways) may have specific impacts on particular environmental components (land, air, water, biological communities). The specific impacts of the oil industry and the coal industry are compared.     

THE IMPACT OF ENVIRONMENTAL FACTORS ON THE INCIDENCE OF LUNG CANCER AMONG RURAL RESIDENTS

Lung cancer mortality in the rural areas of Moscow Oblast is found to be virtually identical with data for urban areas. In an effort to establish a set of potential causative factors in rural areas, selected factors are correlated with lung cancer mortality by Moscow Oblast rayons. The highest positive correlation is found for the use of farm pesticides from the carcinogenic dithiocarbamate group, followed by the percentage of workers employed in agriculture, the amount of smoking per capita, the amount of dust-causing plowing, the use of farm machinery (producing exhaust gases) and the use of kerosene (producing household soot). A negative correlation is found between lung cancer and the percentage of white-collar workers employed in rural areas. The selected set of factors accounts for 45 percent of the variance in lung-cancer incidence, but no single specific factor can be isolated to explain the high mortality in rural areas, which evidently stems from a combination of causes.     

ALMA-ATA CONFERENCE ON THE ENVIRONMENTAL IMPACT OF A DROP IN THE LEVEL OF THE ARAL SEA

A large body of empirical data on the dynamics of local travel in the USSR is surveyed to illustrate the influence of commuter movement on the formation and spatial interaction of settlement systems. Correlations are established between commuting patterns and the population levels of cities of different size cateogries. (Translated by Marcia Levenson, University of California, Berkeley, CA 94720.)     

ENVIRONMENTAL PROTECTION ISSUES AND THE SOUTHWARD DIVERSION OF SIBERIAN RIVERS

The author reviews the disputed question of an acceptable intercontinental boundary between Europe and Asia and proposes his own two versions: a preferred alternative following political-administrative borders within the USSR and a second alternative along established physical boundaries. He urges that “authoritative organs” hand down a final decision to be submitted for general acceptance at the 20th International Geographical Congress in 1964.     

PARTISANSHIP, IDEOLOGY, AND CONSTITUENCY DIFFERENCES ON ENVIRONMENTAL ISSUES IN THE U.S. HOUSE OF REPRESENTATIVES: 1973–78

Three cross-sectional data sets for the U.S. House of Representatives are analyzed for 1973 to 1978. The conclusions are: (1) Political support for environmental legislation has remained stable and has not diminished in the face of economic problems and energy shortages. (2) The East is the region most supportive of environmental issues while the South is by far the least supportive. (3) Clear partisan differences exist with the Democrats consistently more pro-environmental than Republicans. (4) The most important factor associated with environmental support is ideology. Although interrelated with party, it is more salient than either party or constituency factors. (5) Support for pro-environmental voting is strongest in urban and suburban constituencies and weakest in rural and mixed districts.     

LHASA SEMINAR ON POVERTY RELIEF AND ENVIRONMENTAL PROTECTION

From May 1-6 this year, the China Council for the Promotion of the Bright Cause Project (CCPBCP), the government of the Tibet autonomous Region, and the Economic and Social Council (ECOSO) of the United Nations conferred at the International Seminar on Poverty Relief and Environmental Protection in Lhasa. Some 40 people attended the seminar; including ESOCO officials, CCPBCP members, staff of Tibetan government institutions, as well as 22 specialists and scholars from 11 count…     

THE MANAGEMENT OF ENVIRONMENTAL PROBLEMS ON THE MANITOBA ESCARPMENT

The Manitoba Escarpment is an area of severe environmental problems caused by a combination of adverse physical characteristics and inappropriate land use. Government programmes to solve these problems have emphasized, in succession, water control, land acquisition and use, and a combination of the two. Evaluation of these activities is difficult because of a lack of basic data on precipitation, runoff, and rates of erosion. Work is currently being done to provide the required information and to use it as a basis for land and water management programmes in conservation districts.
L'escarpement du Manitoba est une région de grands problèmes du milieu, du fait des traits physiques et contraires combinés avec le mésusage de la terre. A fin dé resoudre ces problèmes, des programmes gouvernementaux ont souligné d'abord la réglementation de l'eau, ensuite l'obtention et l'usage de la terre, et enfin une combinaison des deux. Aucune évaluation de ces projets est difficile à cause d'une manque de données véritables du milieu, y compris dés détails de précipitation, de l'écoulement de l'eau, et du dégre d'érosion. On essaie actuellement de fournir les détails nécessaires pour s'en servir comme base des programmes de l'entretien de l'eau et de la terre dans les régions de conservation.     

THE IMPACT OF THE SYSTEM OF MINOR CIVIL DIVISIONS ON AGRICULTURE

Mathematical techniques are used to test the hypothesis that Soviet farm efficiency, as reflected in farm profit rates, is higher in areas where the boundaries of collective and state farms coincide with the boundaries of rural soviets, the lowest local government areas. Conversely, farm performance suffers when farm territories are broken up among two or more rural soviets. The use of Karl Pearson's coefficient of contingency, which may be used to measure the strength of a relationship between qualitative variables, shows a positive relationship between farm profit rates and boundary coincidence. The authors therefore urge frequent review of local government areas to insure that they correspond to the boundaries of agricultural operating units.     

NESTED FISCAL IMPACT MEASURES USING THE NEW THEORY OF LOCAL PUBLIC GOODS*

In this paper, we use recent advances in the theory of local public goods to develop more-complete measures of the fiscal impacts of population change. Each fiscal impact measure extends the average-cost-based simple multiplier. The service-based impact measure accounts for the public service production function. The local welfare measure further allows the size of the public budget to vary. The global welfare measure additionally introduces interneighborhood substitution of public services. These four nested measures are calculated for police servims in Vancouver. We demonstrate that the commonly used simple multiplier is an unreliable estimator of fiscal impacts.     

基于“推—拉”理论的美国旅游者旅华流动影响因素研究

"推—拉"理论是研究人口流动的一种基础理论,可以有效地解释游客流动。本文从推—拉理论的视角,运用因子分析、单因素方差分析和皮尔逊相关分析等方法对美国来华旅游者的流动影响因素进行研究,得到的主要结论有:(1)明确了美国来华旅游者推力维度和拉力维度的各个因子;(2)检测了推拉维度的各因子受社会人口统计学变量的影响;(3)测度了推拉维度各因子之间的相互关联性及影响因素。研究成果对指导我国针对主要入境旅游客源国进行的产品开发和市场营销具有一定的实践价值,同时也拓展了对影响旅游流流动各因素之间关系研究的范畴。