Resisting and Reconciling Big Wind: Middle Landscape Politics in the New American West

Abstract: While critical geographers have addressed how place politics impacts rural landscapes, less attention has been paid to the particular ways in which rural landscape identities are being impacted by the new energy economy. The nascent US wind energy opposition movement is evidence of broad, organized resistance to the landscape impacts associated with the re‐sculpting of rural energy geographies. Drawing from cultural landscape and place theory, this article examines the shifting terrain of wind opposition in the “New American West”. The article argues that wind energy opposition is fundamentally about who speaks for and negotiates conflicting social commitments to technology, economic values and an imagined American pastoral identity. By examining a case study of wind development in Nevada, this article considers how renewable energy development can constructively acknowledge the important role the “middle landscape” continues to play in American constructions of rural space.     

Renewable Energy Politics: Policy Typologies,Policy Tools,and State Deployment of Renewables

This paper investigates the competing forces driving the development of renewable energy in the American states. We formulate a framework of state renewable energy politics and develop a set of hypotheses regarding the role of politics, policies, and prices in renewable energy development. We test these hypotheses with a fixed effect vector decomposition model using a panel data set for the U.S. states from 1990 to 2008. The results indicate that renewable energy development is influenced by regulatory institutions, the party affiliations of the governor and legislators, and the professionalism of the legislature, accompanied by the effects of various policy instruments.     

‘Lend me your ears’: social policy and the hearing body

Recent developments in music regulation policy in some European countries show a recognition of changes in the built environment, contemporary demographics and the sonic profile of popular music. These initiatives have not been echoed in Australian music policy, where the primary focus is on the cultural and economic conditions of production and consumption, with little interest in the mechanics and biology of sound production and circulation, and their social welfare implications. Within the general category of noise pollution, it appears that the proliferation of low-frequency noise (LFN) is the fastest growing problem, in which contemporary popular music is increasingly implicated. This paper explores why LFN should suddenly become so pervasive that it has begun to attract specific social policy and legislative measures, its own scientific journals, and attempts to establish standards of its measurement specific to a profile that evades traditional sound pollution analysis.     

Wrap a Wreck! In Situ Conservation of a Ship on Land Suffering from Fungal Decay

Many sixteenth- to eighteenth-century shipwrecks have been found after land reclamation in parts of the former Zuiderzee, one of the busiest waterways in Dutch history. After the land fell dry, some shipwrecks were excavated, destroyed, reburied, or covered with sand or clay. In the late 1970s a method was developed to mitigate degradation processes of some of the wrecks remaining in good condition by wrapping them in plastic foil. The idea was that the plastic would prevent evaporation and lateral subsurface flow. Wet conditions prevent decomposing of wood by especially soft rot fungi. Oxygen will be rapidly depleted by decomposition of organic matter.

Recent monitoring of wrapped shipwrecks has shown that this method of preventing rot worked exceptionally well. We adapted wrapping using new technology nowadays applied for sealing tunnels and landfills. We will present the implementation requirements, materials and new adapted method for wrapping shipwrecks.     

Italy and the development of European energy policy: from the dawn of the integration process to the 1973 oil crisis

This article analyses the history of Italian energy policy as well as that of Europe from the beginnings of co-operation until the bust of the first oil crisis. The difficulties in realising a united policy as well as the energy status of Italy and Europe until the eve of the 1973 oil shock are underlined. Then, the answers to the crisis as well as the attempts to address the energy difficulties in a united way are analysed.     

RHX Dating: measurement of the Activation Energy of Rehydroxylation for Fired‐Clay Ceramics

In rehydroxylation (RHX) dating, the activation energy of the rehydroxylation reaction is required first in the estimate of a material's effective lifetime temperature (ELT), and second to correct the RHX rate constant obtained at a given measurement temperature to that at the ELT. Measurement of the activation energy is thus integral to the RHX methodology. In this paper, we report a temperature‐step method for the measurement of activation energy and develop fully the underlying theoretical basis. In contrast to obtaining the activation energy from a series of separate experiments (each of which requires the sample to be dehydroxylated prior to measuring the RHX rate constant), the temperature‐step method not only requires a single dehydroxylation at 500°C but also eliminates repeated acquisition of Stage I data, which are not required for dating purposes. Since the first temperature step is set to correspond to the temperature at which a dating determination is carried out, the measurement of rate constants at higher temperatures simply becomes an extension of dating. Consequently, the logistics of obtaining the activation energy of rehydroxylation are greatly simplified.     

Russian nuclear energy diplomacy in Finland and Hungary

We compare Russian nuclear energy diplomacy toward Finland and Hungary, where the Russian state corporation Rosatom intends to build nuclear power plants by the 2020s. Russian nuclear energy diplomacy features Rosatom working with other state institutions, its own subsidiaries, and an extensive network of companies and R&D actors to support Russian nuclear power projects abroad. Using the structuration approach, we find three interests driving such diplomacy: energy business and associated profits; modernization of the Russian economy, including the diversification of its export structure; while foreign policy interests are also involved, considering the constraints emerging in EU–Russia energy diplomacy in the oil and gas sectors, including the sanctions since 2014. Some domestic actors in Finland and Hungary make the linkage between nuclear energy and foreign policy as explicit as do some Western commentators. Seeking to pursue these interests, Russian actors must accommodate their considerable assets to the structural constraints they encounter in the target countries. We identify four structural dimensions: the Russian actors are well endowed as regards the resources, technology, and infrastructure dimension; and the dimension of finance, business models, and markets. However, on the institutional dimension, they face a less controllable environment. Regarding the ecological dimension, they must conform to local safety requirements. In both cases, Russian actors were able to strengthen perceptions of joint interests with actors in the target country facilitating the nuclear power plant projects, thereby paving the way for the use of soft power.     

浅谈生物塑化技术在考古学和人类学中的应用

虽然现在将生物塑化技术普及到文物资料保存工作当中的难度还很大,但这种技术在考古学和人类学领域的应用将具有广阔的前景。     

日本的节能措施、成效与启示

以能源资源在全社会的最优配置和能源利用效率的提高为主要目标,日本实施了以节能技术创新为核心的“规范-服务-鼓励”三位一体的节能措施体系,成效显著。日本节能的做法,对当前我国做好节能减排工作很有借鉴意义。     

Solar Radiation Potential and Site Modelling for Photovoltaic Modules in the Daintree Lowlands of Northeastern Australia

A regression model is developed which estimates monthly averages of daily peak sun hours for the Daintree region of North Queensland using 26 years of record. A mean daily peak sun hours of 4.32 ± 0.03 (n = 312) was obtained for the region. Simulations of solar energy potential for electricity generating purposes were made for clearings and treefall gaps at two different heights with four cloud conditions. Gaps in the rainforest of 40 metres or more with a solar array mounted at 7 metres above the ground were found to be optimal for electricity generating purposes under normal cloud conditions.