Is Greener Whiter Yet? The Sustainable Slopes Program after Five Years

This study focuses on two basic questions: Are voluntary programs effective in promoting higher environmental performance by participant firms? If so, which distinct areas of environmental performance are more likely to be improved by firms joining a voluntary environmental program? We address these questions by assessing the environmental effectiveness of the ski industry’s Sustainable Slopes Program in the western United States between 2001 and 2005. We found no evidence in our five-year analysis to conclude that ski areas adopting the SSP displayed superior performance levels than nonparticipants for the following areas of environmental protection: overall environmental performance, expansion management, pollution management, and wildlife and habitat management. SSP participants only appear to show a statistically significant correlation with higher natural resource conservation performance rates. For policymakers, these results suggest that caution is needed before a priori assuming that strictly voluntary programs can be effective in promoting comprehensive superior environmental performance.     

"Hopelessly entangled in Nordic pre-suppositions": Catholic participation in the American Eugenics Society in the 1920s

While American Catholics stand out as some of the few voices of cultural opposition to the eugenics movement in the United States, Catholics and eugenicists actively engaged in conversational exchanges during the late 1920s. In association with the Committee on Cooperation with Clergymen of the American Eugenics Society, John A. Ryan and John Montgomery Cooper engaged in a process that Sander Gilman and Nancy Leys Stepan call "recontextualization," whereby they challenged the social and scientific basis for eugenics policy initiatives while constantly urging American eugenicists to rid their movement of racial and class prejudice. In the process, they participated in a revealing debate on immigration restriction, charity, racial hierarchies, feminism, birth control, and sterilization that points to both the instances of convergence and divergence of Catholic and eugenic visions for the national community.     

THE PROBLEM OF HIGH UNEMPLOYMENT: RESULT OF MUDDLED NATIONAL ECONOMIC POLICIES

During 1953 through 1979 estimated, the U.S. economy has exhibited a roller-coaster economic performance–six periods of inadequate upturn, stagnation, and recession, with a chronic rise in unemployment because each upturn at its peak has tended to leave us with more unemployment than the previous one. During the period as a whole, we have forfeited 7.1 trillion 1978 dollars in GNP and 80.8 million years of civilian employment opportunities, and consequently lost about 1.8 trillion dollars in public revenues at all levels, with severe neglect of national priorities, and chronically rising Federal Budget deficits. This sorry record is due primarily to reliance upon a “trade-off” between unemployment and inflation. But empirical evidence for more than a quarter century has demonstrated that inflation rises as unused capabilities increase and vice versa. The annual inflation rate during the first half of 1979 exceeded 13 percent despite recession; it ranged from 1.6–3.0 percent during periods close to full employment. We now need thorough reconstruction of national economic policies, including abandonment of (1) the unemployment-inflation “trade-off,” (2) attempts to balance the federal budget at the expense of the economy and the people, (3) the prevalent monetary policy with soaring interest rates, and (4) excessive reliance on tax reductions in lieu of increased public outlays or investment. These changes would replace improvised and frequently conflicting national economic policies with comprehensive and coherent efforts. All this is in accord with the Humphrey-Hawkins Full Employment and Balanced Growth Act of 1978     

Instagram photography and the geography field course: snapshots from Berlin

Although geography has long associated itself with photography, the rapid advancement of technology has created a clear divide between the visual practices regularly used in wider society and the way photography is utilized by critical geographers in their teaching. We suggest the door is ajar for new modes of (geo)photographic thinking, and one visual tool at our disposal is social media applications that allow images to be instantly shared, analysed, and discussed. This article critically reflects on the use of Instagram to enhance student participation, engagement, and learning on a geography field course in Berlin. Based on interviews with students, their field journals, and our own critical reflections, this paper looks at some advantages of using Instagram in teaching geography, but also promotes caution and presents drawbacks to relying on instant visual digital methods.     

去南方挥杆

三月,南方大部分高尔夫球场已是春色满园。品着新出的茶叶、赏着春日美景、泡着火山温泉,这样的高尔夫假期最是闲适自在。     

Is Greener Whiter? Voluntary Environmental Performance of Western Ski Areas

This study analyzes the initial implementation of the Sustainable Slopes Program a voluntary environmental initiative established by the U.S. National Ski Areas Association in partnership with federal and state government agencies. Our findings indicate that participation of western ski areas in the Sustainable Slopes Program is related to institutional pressures in the form of enhanced federal oversight and higher state environmental demands exerted by state agencies, local environmental groups and public opinion. The analysis also suggests that, despite these institutional pressures, participant ski areas appear to be correlated with lower third-party environmental performance ratings. This behavior seems to reflect the lack of specific institutional mechanisms to prevent opportunism in the current design of the Sustainable Slopes Program. That is, the program does not involve specific environmental standards, lacks third-party oversight, and does not have sanctions for poor performance.