Science in Dispute: Debating the Authority of Knowledge in an Environmental Contestation

This paper is an examination of science, as it is understood and contested between conservationists and developers in an application to construct a salt mine in Western Australia. If the salt mine were to go ahead, it would have become the largest salt mine in the world, adjacent to a World Heritage Area. Thus, the application triggered significant local interest in the potential environmental impacts on surrounding ecological systems. As the only means for the public to have an impact on decision‐making is through the environmental approvals process, much of the debate revolved around the validity and legitimacy of knowledge gained through ecological science. This paper focuses on the ways in which the conservationists and developers moulded and shaped scientific knowledge to fit their opposing beliefs, values, and aims. However, rather than focus on the overtly political manipulation of science, I examine why particular interpretations of science are considered legitimate by some participants in the dispute, while others are not. In particular, I ask, what does it take for particular scientific ‘facts' to be considered legitimate? To do so, I examine how the conservationists and developers came to conceptualise and frame science within the dispute. I argue that for members of either group to consider any scientific knowledge legitimate, it is first judged on its ability to resonate with their own worldviews, experiences, and aim.     

《归侨侨眷权益保护法》法律责任设置论析

论文针对《中华人民共和国归侨侨眷权益保护法》（简称《归侨法》）＂法律责任条款＂的制定及实施情况进行全面考察,认为法律责任条款设置与法律文本中的＂义务性条款＂设置应相对应,并且还要考虑与相关法律的协调。《归侨法》的法律责任条款设置存在一些技术缺陷,如与《归侨法》中义务性条款不对称、设置的重复性、与相关部门法脱节以及其他相关问题,在此基础上,对法律责任条款的修改与完善提出了具体的建议。     

安徽淮河流域自然人文环境对地名历史文化资源的影响

文章主要从地理环境、政治环境、经济环境、文化环境四个方面,论述了安徽淮河流域自然人文环境对地名历史文化资源形成、变迁、传承和内涵的影响,并着重论述了自然人文环境对各种类型地名的语言和实体内涵的影响。作者认为自然人文环境对地名历史文化资源的影响带有普遍意义,因此在全国地名普查、规划、管理和保护等工作中,应该高度重视自然人文环境因素的作用和影响。     

An Unsettled “Stranded Asset Debt”? Proposing a Supply-Side Counterpart to the “Climate Debt” in a Bid to Guide a Just Transition from Fossil Fuels in South Africa and Beyond

The reign of the fossil fuel empire must come to an end if the average global temperature rise is to be meaningfully capped. Accordingly, a myriad of financial and non-financial stranded assets will be generated in the process. Ample research has explored the implications for a South African fossil transition from a domestic perspective, but a lacuna persists in linking South Africa’s fossil regime to broader international finance flows, and particularly the role that actors from the “global North” should play in phasing out South African fossil fuels. This research finds that such institutions have exacerbated South Africa’s prospective stranded asset exposure, and by doing so, have accrued a Stranded Asset Debt (SAD)—as a supply-side counterpart to the demand-side climate debt, which they have also accumulated—perhaps to the tune of at least several dozens of billions of dollars. Although the Paris Agreement is flawed, it embodies language that can be leveraged to settle the SAD “bill”.     

自然保护区旅游高峰期时空分流导航管理的模型构建与分析

为了在一定程度上缓解生态旅游发展与保护生态环境的尖锐矛盾,必须而且可能实施旅游高峰期时空分流导航管理。本文讨论了最小Hamilton回路和最优旅行商问题的关系,分析如何将旅行商问题（TSP）转化为Hamilton回路问题,本文通过在TSP中引入虚拟点,使单旅行商问题转化为多旅行商问题（MTSP）,从而更合乎实际情况,并给出了它们的一般数学模型和精确求解方法。在此基础上构建优化的游览导航路径管理,在信息综合集成技术支持下,实现时空分流导航管理,能达到消除安全隐患,扩大旅游规模,保护生态环境的目的。本文虽然主要讨论的是利用旅行商问题来解决景区旅游的时空分流的管理问题,但事实上我们可以借鉴这种方法和思路,去解决交通运输、物流配送、车辆调度等的路线优化问题。     

Benchmark Standards for Geography: A personal review

The Human–Environment Research Observatory (HERO) Research Experience for Undergraduates (REU) program aimed to develop the next generation of researchers working on place-based human–environment problems. The program followed a cooperative learning model to foster an integrated approach to geographic research and to build collaborative research skills. The program hosted 12–16 students annually, who first engaged in an intensive short course and then formed three- or four-person teams to conduct research in four biophysically and socioeconomically diverse places. The teams used cyberinfrastructure to collaborate and integrate their research and findings. Most of the REU students have opted to attend graduate school and specialize in human–environment research.