Environmental Sustainability Research Papers - Academia.edu (original) (raw)

The opportunities to grow the ‘organic pie’ are substantial for both China and Australia. However the challenges and the opportunities are far from identical, although the goals of growing the production area, increasing the market... more

The opportunities to grow the ‘organic pie’ are substantial for both China and Australia. However the challenges and the opportunities are far from identical, although the goals of growing the production area, increasing the market awareness, fostering consumer confidence in certification and labeling, broadening the product offering and availability, and increasing sales are shared issues. Some of the aspects of organics opportunity and challenge are examined in this book chapter. Comparative statistics between Australia and China are presented in Table 3.1.

In 2015, the General Assembly of States Parties to the World Heritage Convention passed a ground-breaking Sustainable Development policy that seeks to bring the World Heritage system into line with the UN’s sustainable development agenda.... more

In 2015, the General Assembly of States Parties to the World Heritage
Convention passed a ground-breaking Sustainable Development
policy that seeks to bring the World Heritage system into line with the
UN’s sustainable development agenda. World Heritage and
Sustainable Development provides a broad overview of the process
that brought about the new policy, and the implications of its
enactment.
Divided into four parts, Part I puts the policy in its historical and
theoretical context, and Part II offers an analysis of the four policy
dimensions - environmental sustainability, inclusive social
development, inclusive economic development, and the fostering of
peace and security – on which the policy is based. Part III presents the
views of IUCN, ICOMOS, and ICCROM - the three Advisory Bodies to the
World Heritage Committee, and Part IV offers ‘case study’ perspectives
on the practical implications of the policy. Contributions come from a
wide range of experienced heritage professionals and practitioners
who offer both ‘inside’ perspectives on the evolution of the policy and
‘outside’ perspectives on its implications. Combined, they present and
analyse the main ideas, debates, and implications of the policy change.

This working paper examines the concept of metabolism and its potential as a critical analytical lens to study the contemporary city from a political perspective. The paper illustrates how the metabolism concept has been used... more

This working paper examines the concept of metabolism and its potential as a critical analytical lens to study the contemporary city from a political perspective. The paper illustrates how the metabolism concept has been used historically, both as a metaphor to describe the technological, social, political and economic dimensions of human-environment relations, and as a concrete analytical tool to quantify and better understand how flows of matter and energy shape the territorial and spatial configurations of cityscapes. Drawing on the example of the urban water metabolism of the Greater Accra Metropolitan Area (GAMA), the paper shows how the metabolism concept can be applied to study the politics of water in the city.

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Rudolf Steiner's Agriculture Course at Koberwitz (now Kobierzyce), in the summer of 1924, was the gateway event that led to the development of biodynamic agriculture and, subsequently, organic agriculture. The present paper identifies for... more

Rudolf Steiner's Agriculture Course at Koberwitz (now Kobierzyce), in the summer of 1924, was the gateway event that led to the development of biodynamic agriculture and, subsequently, organic agriculture. The present paper identifies for the first time the 111 attendees of that course. The list reveals that 'Koberwitzers', as they called themselves, were a well credentialed and capable group of individuals, some of whom went on to champion and develop Rudolf Steiner's ideas about agriculture and other fields. The present paper revises a prior analysis of the Koberwitzers. For each Koberwitzer, the list reveals, the name, hometown, occupation, and accommodation during the course. Thirty one percent of Koberwitzers were women. Thirty eight percent were associated directly with agriculture (including farmer, estate manager, and estate owner), 6% of attendees were creatives (including writer, author, artist and editor), and a further 6% were priests. These three occupational categories, viz. Agriculture, Creative and Priest, together account for 50% of Koberwitzer occupations (and 72% of the known occupations). There remains for further scholarship to populate gaps in the listing: the gender of one Koberwitzer remains unidentified; one hometown (and country) remains unidentified; 33 occupations remain unidentified; and 51 accommodations remain unidentified. At the time of the Koberwitz course, Rudolf Steiner (1861-1925) was mortally ill. The course was never repeated,. It was up to the Koberwitzers to progress Rudolf Steiner's call for the development of a differentiated natural agriculture without synthetic chemicals. The Koberwitzers met the call. There are now 251,842 certified biodynamic hectares in 55 countries, included in the 71,514,583 certified organic hectares in 186 countries.

Social scientists commonly know that time is a social construct and a tool for governing by those holding power. Yet, how exactly is time used for governing? This article examines how timescape (embodiment of approaches to time) works in... more

Social scientists commonly know that time is a social construct and a tool for governing by those holding power. Yet, how exactly is time used for governing? This article examines how timescape (embodiment of approaches to time) works in practice as a tool of power by considering multiple networks of time that manifest in al-Batuf/Beit Netofa Valley planning policy. This valley's agriculture, mostly owned by Palestinian-Arab citizens of Israel, is considered by ecologists and officials a unique traditional agriculture landscape and wetland habitat that has become scarce in Israel due to its development and wetland drainage. Assembling separate modes of anthropological inquiry that attend to time as a technique, I show that knowledge, ethics, and time management are not separate spheres of governance but rather interwoven as one timescape tool of governing. Thus, the case of al-Batuf/Beit Netofa elucidates the ways in which time is used for governing in the context of an agricultural-environmental development policy and plan.

The limits of the planet and of natural resources impede pursuing the modern project based on permanent growth and represent a major challenge for humanity. Drawing on an agency-centred approach, this paper... more

The limits of the planet and of natural resources impede pursuing the modern project based on permanent
growth and represent a major challenge for humanity. Drawing on an agency-centred approach, this paper addresses two two major questions:
‘Who are the social actors who challenge the normative orientation at the core of modernization and promote alternative values and practices that may contribute to the rise of a global age, or may embody glimpses of a global age society?’ and ‘Can we grasp some dimensions of life and society in the global age by studying current social movements? ’

Inspired by the commercial desires of global brands and retailers to access the lucrative green consumer market, carbon is increasingly being counted and made knowable at the mundane sites of everyday production and consumption, from the... more

Inspired by the commercial desires of global brands and retailers to access the lucrative green consumer market, carbon is increasingly being counted and made knowable at the mundane sites of everyday production and consumption, from the carbon footprint of a plastic kitchen fork to that of an online bank account. Despite the challenges of counting and making commensurable the global warming impact of a myriad of biophysical and societal activities, this desire to communicate a product or service's carbon footprint has sparked complicated carbon calculative practices and enrolled actors at literally every node of multi-scaled and vastly complex global supply chains. Against this landscape, this paper critically analyses the counting practices that create the 'e' in 'CO2e'. It is shown that, central to these practices are a series of tools, models and databases which, in building upon previous work (Eden 2012; Star and Griesemer 1989) we conceptualize here as 'boundary objects'. By enrolling everyday actors from farmers to consumers, these objects abstract and stabilize greenhouse gas emissions from their messy material and social contexts into units of CO2e which can then be translated along a product's supply chain, thereby establishing a new currency of 'everyday supply chain carbon'. However, in making all greenhouse gas-related practices commensurable in enrolling and stabilizing the transfer of information between multiple actors these objects oversee a process of simplification reliant upon, and subject to, a multiplicity of approximations, assumptions, errors, discrepancies and/or omissions. Further the outcomes of these tools are subject to the politicized and commercial agendas of the worlds they attempt to link, with each boundary actor inscribing different meanings to a product’s carbon footprint in accordance with their specific subjectivities, commercial desires and epistemic framings. It is therefore shown that how a boundary object transforms greenhouse gas emissions into units of CO2e, the outcome is of distinct ideologies regarding ‘what’ a product's carbon footprint is and how it should be made legible. These politicized decisions, in turn inform specific reduction activities and ultimately advance distinct, specific and increasingly durable transition pathways to a low carbon society.

Not-guilty verdicts, mistrials, and impunity for the Bundy family and many of their supporters in the armed confrontations over public land use in Nevada and Oregon. Expanded access for private oil, gas, mining, and logging industries and... more

Not-guilty verdicts, mistrials, and impunity for the Bundy family and many of their supporters in the armed confrontations over public land use in Nevada and Oregon. Expanded access for private oil, gas, mining, and logging industries and the downsizing of national monuments such as Bears Ears lead by Secretary of the Interior Ryan Zinke. A number of highly contentious debates and sensationalized events have again focused attention on land held in the public domain by the United States. This essay argues that federal land policy as a form of colonial administration has been constitutive for the logic of expectation as property in what is now the United States. From the state land cessions negotiated on behalf of the Articles of Confederation to the preemption acts (1830–1841) to the homestead acts (1862–1916) to present-day demands for land transfer, the acquisition and disposal of the so-called public domain have been central to westward colonization, the consolidation of the nation-state, and the promise of land ownership as the ostensible foundation of individual liberty. These dynamics are evident in contemporary conflicts over public lands and arguments for the transfer of public lands to either state or private ownership. Approaching the Bundy occupations as flashpoints that illuminate competing interpretations and claims to land within the history of westward colonization, this essay seeks to demonstrate the ways in which expectation emerges from particular economies of dispossession of indigenous peoples that have historically worked through and across the division of public and private property.

To consider small islands as places for sustainable tourism or sustainable anything, for that matter, must surely be cause for critical deliberation. Small islands as sanctuaries, or rare citadels for ecological safekeeping and tight-knit... more

To consider small islands as places for sustainable tourism or sustainable anything, for that matter, must surely be cause for critical deliberation. Small islands as sanctuaries, or rare citadels for ecological safekeeping and tight-knit communities, runs counter to islands as sites for extraction and development, yet increasingly the latter prevails. However, the former are the precise reasons that small islands are aligned with the global travel supply chain. Consuming small islands abides with the tropical idyll narrative and, within such invocations, the exposure of small islands to externalities renders its utility to purposes that run counter to benign and constructive outcomes. Herein is the dilemma for small islands and their entanglements with tourism expansion.
See full report here: http://projects.upei.ca/unescochair/files/2020/07/Annual-Report-on-Global-Islands-2019.pdf

Information and Communication Technologies are usually presented as neutral in environmental terms, highlighting their benefits in comparison with other energy sources very frequently. However, its material impact increases due to the... more

Information and Communication Technologies are usually presented as neutral in environmental terms, highlighting their benefits in comparison with other energy sources very frequently. However, its material impact increases due to the exponential growth observed both in the populations incorporated to its daily consumption and in the intensity with which they are used. This article departs from this fact aiming to identify and analyze various experiences that, from the fields of Education and Communication, try to counteract the negative and invisible effects of its wide generalization. To achieve this, more than twenty projects, with different depth and territorial scope, were identified to present good practices and solutions to face our current crossroads. With this purpose, a case study focused on the GreenTIC project is also completed. Findings show the excessive dispersion and the scarce coordination between initiatives that are developed autonomously to deal with a common problem. // Las Tecnologías de la Información y de la Comunicación se presentan habitualmente como neutras en términos medioambientales, resaltándose con frecuencia su ganancia en comparación con otras fuentes de energía. Sin embargo, su impacto material aumenta debido al crecimiento exponencial que se observa tanto en las poblaciones que se incorporan a su consumo como en la intensidad con las que se emplean. Este artículo parte de esta constatación para, a continuación, identificar y analizar diversas experiencias que, desde los campos de la Educación y de la Comunicación, intentan contrarrestar los efectos negativos e invisibilizados de su generalización. Para ello, se han localizado una veintena de proyectos, de diferente calado y alcance territorial, para exponer buenas prácticas y soluciones a la encrucijada que enfrentamos como sociedad. Con este propósito, se ofrece adicionalmente un estudio de caso centrado en el proyecto GreenTIC. Los resultados evidencian la excesiva dispersión y la escasa coordinación existente entre iniciativas que se desarrollan de forma autónoma para afrontar un problema común. Palabras clave

The disadvantages of over-reliance on the private car become more apparent as congestion increases and transportation emissions rise. The literature suggests that cycling may support the development of sustainable cities, and needs to be... more

The disadvantages of over-reliance on the private car become more apparent as congestion increases and transportation emissions rise. The literature suggests that cycling may support the development of sustainable cities, and needs to be more vigorously promoted as a widespread form of contemporary urban transport than currently evident. This research project will interrogate cycling policy and its practice in Western Australia. The original empirical contribution will utilise a primarily qualitative approach. The proposed methodology for this study consists of; 1) content analysis of key cycling policy documents; 2) case studies of local cycling implementation, and 3) focus groups with participants from a variety of transport mode preferences. The research will develop a broad theoretical framework informed by critical political economy and the cycling-related mobility, anthropology, public health, planning, and transportation literature. I review the regime of automobility (the private car and the infrastructure that supports it). Thirdly, I discuss aspects of cycling, and the politicisation of transportation choice. Overall, the proposed research will investigate variations in, and understandings of cycling culture, with a specific focus on the barriers to, and opportunities for increased cycling in Perth.

Il problema dell’invasività e dei rischi dei campi elettromagnetici ad alta frequenza è già stato trattato dalle nostre Associazioni. Nel corso degli anni si sono accumulate numerose evidenze sull’effetto nefasto di questa forma di... more

Il problema dell’invasività e dei rischi dei campi elettromagnetici ad alta frequenza è già stato trattato dalle nostre Associazioni. Nel corso degli anni si sono accumulate numerose evidenze sull’effetto nefasto di questa forma di inquinamento sulla salute umana e sull’ambiente.
Nell’ultimo decennio sono state diffuse risoluzioni scientifiche e governative, consensi scientifici e documenti di posizione, rapporti di gruppi di scienziati indipendenti e appelli ai governi per invitare a limitare la diffusione dell’uso di tecnologie di comunicazione promuovendo standard di sicurezza per i campi elettromagnetici basati su evidenze biologiche.
Alle raccomandazioni provenienti dal mondo scientifico, purtroppo, come nel caso dei pesticidi, delle emissioni in atmosfera e degli inquinanti organici persistenti (POP), è generalmente seguita una notevole inerzia normativa sia a livello europeo che nazionale. Ancora di più è trascurato, a livello politico e amministrativo, l’effetto sinergico di queste fonti di inquinamento, così come il Principio di Precauzione che dovrebbe guidare qualsiasi scelta in ambito gestionale.
Nel frattempo i campi elettromagnetici artificiali e l’inquinamento diffuso hanno continuato ad aumentare significativamente per motivazioni più legate a interessi economici privati che a effettive necessità o al concreto interesse per la salute pubblica e la tutela ambientale.
Negli ultimi tempi una notevole inquietudine si è diffusa anche presso i non addetti ai lavori per la nuova tecnologia 5G che minaccia, in un quadro già pericoloso almeno a livello locale, un ulteriore incremento dei campi elettromagnetici artificiali e l’utilizzo di frequenze mai utilizzate su così ampia scala in assenza di regole adeguate e di efficaci sistemi di monitoraggio dell’esposizione pubblica.
Per questi motivi e per porre, ancora una volta, all’attenzione pubblica e ai mass media i rischi correlati a queste tecnologie abbiamo trattato in maniera per quanto possibile sintetica le informazioni provenienti dalla ricerca scientifica, offrendo al lettore una notevole bibliografia con la quale aumentare la propria conoscenza e farsi una propria idea della situazione presente, a nostro parere già inquietante.
Le conclusioni a cui siamo giunti è che, se è vero che non si possono bloccare le innovazioni tecnologiche, esse devono essere tuttavia impiegate su larga scala solo dopo averne compiutamente considerato i possibili impatti ambientali e sanitari e solo dopo un efficace adeguamento delle normative in relazione alle conoscenze scientifiche, privilegiando la salute e l’ambiente prima di qualsiasi interesse economico.
Per tutelare la salute pubblica si rende indispensabile recepire gli studi scientifici più recenti ed attuare quanto indicato dalla Raccomandazione 1815 dell’Assemblea Plenaria del Consiglio d’Europa del 2011, volta ad abbassare i limiti di esposizione alle radiofrequenza in relazione all’uso privato di telefoni mobili, telefoni DECT (cordless), WiFi, WLAN e WIMAX per computer, Baby Phones a 0,2 V/m sul “lungo termine”, mentre secondo il rapporto Bionitiative 2012 sulla base delle evidenze sperimentali e del principio di precauzione deve essere portato a 0,6 V/m nell’immediato.
In relazione al 5G, fermi restando i presupposti di cui sopra, è necessaria una moratoria per valutare adeguatamente gli effetti sulla salute e sull’ambiente delle frequenze utilizzate, anche in relazione alla loro prevista onni-pervadenza. Vanno inoltre valutati i possibili effetti sulla sempre più folta comunità degli Elettrosensibili e sui soggetti potenzialmente più vulnerabili, come i bambini.
Riteniamo inoltre doveroso, sulla base delle evidenze disponibili, il divieto di installazione di reti Wi-Fi negli asili e nelle scuole frequentate da bambini e ragazzi al di sotto dei 16 anni e il divieto di posizionamento di ripetitori di radiotelefonia in prossimità degli stessi luoghi..
Vi deve essere obbligo, per le Agenzie di Salute Pubblica, di valutare i rischi per la salute connessi alle radiofrequenze, selezionando studi scientifici indipendenti ed escludendo quelli finanziati dall’industria delle telecomunicazioni o da fondazioni ed enti finanziati dalla stessa.
Riteniamo che debba essere sottoposto a Valutazione Ambientale Strategica l’intera Strategia per le Telecomunicazioni. Ricordiamo che il processo di VAS impone criteri ampi di partecipazione, tutela degli interessi legittimi e trasparenza del processo decisionale, attraverso il coinvolgimento e la consultazione dei soggetti competenti in materia ambientale e del pubblico che in interessato dall’iter decisionale.
Auspichiamo la promozione di investimenti pubblici e detassazione per la connettività in fibra ottica e via cavo, che è la tecnologia più efficiente e sicura per la salute e per l’ambiente.
Su questi presupposti siamo lieti di offrire al pubblico il nostro rapporto, svolto in modo del tutto indipendente.
Gradiamo costruttivi feedback per migliorare ulteriormente la conoscenza di base e la divulgazione delle problematiche correlate all’incremento dei campi elettromagnetici artificiali e alla necessità di un adeguata normativa e di processi per quanto possibile trasparenti e partecipati di valutazione degli impatti delle nuove tecnologie.

In this paper a critical analysis of how to passively cool residential buildings in Northern Nigeria was made.in particular passive design and some passive cooling strategies were analyzed. The physical properties permitting to achieve... more

In this paper a critical analysis of how to passively cool residential buildings in Northern Nigeria was made.in particular passive design and some passive cooling strategies were analyzed. The physical properties permitting to achieve these benefits is presented as well as ways by which they can be applied. Energy in Nigeria has been a major challenging issue as the government has been struggling to increase the national grid. This paper identifies passive design strategies that can be adopted in this climatic region to minimize the use of energy for cooling, greatly boost thermal comfort and embroider passive architecture. It is most important to achieve thermal comfort through natural means or energy efficient means. The paper discusses methods by which the cooling load of buildings can be reduced tremendously and to maximize the use of natural ways to achieve thermal comfort in buildings, it also shows the ways these passive design and cooling strategies can be adopted. The paper concludes that the application of these techniques will reduce energy demand and provide a more comfortable living environment and low carbon emitting buildings that are environmentally conscious and energy efficient.

Economic mineral resources lying in the earth are necessary ingredients of all our modern conveniences. Its mining yields huge profits for the companies that own them, a source of revenue for the government, and provides employment to a... more

Economic mineral resources lying in the earth are necessary ingredients of all our modern conveniences. Its mining yields huge profits for the companies that own them, a source of revenue for the government, and provides employment to a large number of people. Nevertheless, getting at them comes at a price on the environment with externalities such as pollution, erosion, destruction of natural ecosystem etc. Mining affects all the components of environment and the impacts are permanent/temporary, beneficial/harmful, repairable/irreparable, but irreversible.

Book Review of Harriet Washington's A Terrible Thing to Waste.

ʻAuwai are the irrigation ditches Kānaka Maoli developed to allow for sustainable, prolific wetland taro cultivation. This article traces the decline of ‘auwai and lo‘i kalo alongside the loss of Kanaka Maoli control of our national... more

ʻAuwai are the irrigation ditches Kānaka Maoli developed to allow for sustainable, prolific wetland taro cultivation. This article traces the decline of ‘auwai and lo‘i kalo alongside the loss of Kanaka Maoli control of our national school system, both driven by a shift in the dominant economic system and sealed by the shock of US occupation. Drawing on oral history interviews with teachers and drawing on Corntassel’s notion of ‘sustainable self-determination’ (2008), I tell the story of current efforts of to rebuild ʻauwai and loʻi through a partnership between a Hawaiian culture-based public charter school and the nearby state university. This work provides a metaphor for educators’ efforts to restore pathways of cultural knowledge transmission against continued imperialism. I argue for simultaneous, overlapping efforts to reform education and to rehabilitate the economic and ecological systems that will again allow us to feed ourselves and our ʻāina. Indigenous education must engage in transformation of the larger political economic structures that organise our relations with the natural resources.

Indigenous ethics and feminist care ethics offer a range of related ideas and tools for environmental ethics. These ethics delve into deep connections and moral commitments between nonhumans and humans to guide ethical forms of... more

Indigenous ethics and feminist care ethics offer a range of related ideas and tools for environmental ethics. These ethics delve into deep connections and moral commitments between nonhumans and humans to guide ethical forms of environmental decision making and environmental science. Indigenous and feminist movements such as the Mother Earth Water Walk and the Green Belt Movement are ongoing examples of the effectiveness of on-the-ground environmental care ethics. Indigenous ethics highlight attentive caring for the intertwined needs of humans and nonhumans within interdependent communities. Feminist environmental care ethics emphasize the importance of empowering communities to care for themselves and the social and ecological communities in which their lives and interests are interwoven. The gendered, feminist, historical, and anticolonial dimensions of care ethics, indigenous ethics, and other related approaches provide rich ground for rethinking and reclaiming the nature and depth of diverse relationships as the fabric of social and ecological being.

The focus of this thesis is on whether or not it is possible to decouple economic growth from the physical growth of the economy and its associated negative environmental pressures and pollution. The thesis demonstrates that it is... more

A B S T R A C T The burgeoning energy justice scholarship highlights the importance of justice and equity concerns in the context of global decarbonization and the transition to a green economy. This paper seeks to extend current... more

A B S T R A C T The burgeoning energy justice scholarship highlights the importance of justice and equity concerns in the context of global decarbonization and the transition to a green economy. This paper seeks to extend current conceptualizations of energy justice across entire energy lifecycles, from extraction to final use, to offer an analytically richer and more accurate picture of the (in)justice impacts of energy policy decisions. We identify two key areas that require greater attention and scrutiny in order to enact energy justice within a more democratized energy system. First, we call for greater recognition of the politics, power dynamics and political economy of socio-technical energy transitions. We use the example of the fossil fuel divestment movement as a way to shift energy justice policy attention upstream to focus on the under-researched injustices relating to supply-side climate policy analysis and decisions. Second, the idea of a " just transition " and the distributional impacts on " and the role of " labor in low-carbon transitions must be addressed more systematically. This focus produces a more directly political and politicizing framing of energy (in)justice and a just energy transition.

This article examines the productivity of agriculture at the Postclassic polity of Xaltocan, Mexico. Employing multiple lines of data (remote sensing, artifactual, ecofactual, chronological, demographic, historic, ethnographic, and... more

This article examines the productivity of agriculture at the Postclassic polity of Xaltocan, Mexico. Employing multiple lines of data (remote sensing, artifactual, ecofactual, chronological, demographic, historic, ethnographic, and environmental), it reconstructs the potential productivity of an integrated raised field, chinampa system that surrounded the polity. This exercise reveals that the system was capable of producing a sizeable caloric surplus above the needs of the kingdom's estimated total population and the number of laborers necessary to maintain full production. To situate the processes related to agricultural production, the paper considers how farmers' strategies were articulated with multiple institutions. Increased integration between political, social, and household institutions possibly fostered residents' incorporation into the body politic and provided mechanisms to finance the political economy. Such integration and dependency fractured, however, when Xaltocan was conquered.

The world is experiencing unprecedented demographic transformation. In the second half of the 20th century human populations expanded more rapidly than at any time in our history – from approximately 2.6 billion people in 1950 to 6.1... more

The world is experiencing unprecedented demographic transformation. In the second half of the 20th century human populations expanded more rapidly than at any time in our history – from approximately 2.6 billion people in 1950 to 6.1 billion by 2000. Current estimates project that by the close of the 21st century there may be around 11 billion people alive on Earth (UNPD, 2017). Nevertheless, there is another story taking place behind this extraordinary growth. In 2018 nearly half of the world’s countries show lower than replacement human fertility, and 33 countries are experiencing decreasing populations (GBD 2017 Collaborators, 2018). This turnaround is mainly associated with a combination of higher levels of development and increasing urbanisation. In Asia, Japan is in the vanguard. Its Total Fertility Rate (TFR) has remained below population replacement since 1974 (MIC, 2019). Demographers knew then that, if conditions persisted and without replacement migration, Japan would experience ageing and, eventually, population decrease. Conditions have persisted and, sure enough, in 2008 Japan’s population began to decrease. Currently Japan is the only shrinking country in Asia, but others are following, including China and South Korea. Beyond Asia, much of Eastern Europe is shrinking, and the European Union is ageing and, cumulatively, anticipated to start shrinking before mid-century. Even immigration friendly countries such as New Zealand and Canada are experiencing sub-national processes of ageing and shrinkage (Jackson & Cameron, 2018; Sims & Ward, 2017) and some Latin American countries – Costa Rica, Chile and Cuba – now report below replacement fertility (UNPD, 2017).

This paper identifies some of the key intersections between trade policy and water management, in areas such as agriculture, hydropower generation, water services and wastewater management. From a trade policy perspective, the main... more

This paper identifies some of the key intersections between trade policy and water management, in areas such as agriculture, hydropower generation, water services and wastewater management.
From a trade policy perspective, the main immediate concern is to ensure that international trade rules and disciplines do not unduly affect countries’ ability to manage their water resources sustainably and according to their respective social preferences. While the local nature of water systems and the diversity of water management objectives is not conducive to the application of trade instruments to enforce a prescriptive, one-size-fits-all approach to water management, there
is also a range of areas in which trade policy could support the sustainable management of water
and related SDG objectives.

Alors que le gaspillage alimentaire est estimé à plus de 20 Kg par habitant et par an en France, de plus en plus d'individus adoptent des pratiques « zéro gaspillage » ou « zéro déchet ». En 2016, l'Agence de l'environnement et de la... more

Alors que le gaspillage alimentaire est estimé à plus de 20 Kg par habitant et par an en France, de plus en plus d'individus adoptent des pratiques « zéro gaspillage » ou « zéro déchet ». En 2016, l'Agence de l'environnement et de la maîtrise de l'énergie a mené l'enquête « Bien vivre en zéro déchet » pour montrer qu'une consommation sans gaspillage est compatible avec un haut niveau de bien-être et de bonheur exprimés. À partir des observations et des entretiens menés auprès d'une sélection de foyers pour cette enquête, nous faisons apparaître comment les pratiques de réduction des déchets alimentaires et d'emballages-des achats en vrac à la fabrication de ses propres yaourts-s'inscrivent dans une recherche de bien-manger et de bien-vivre. Que les foyers entrent dans la démarche pour faire des économies, protéger leur santé ou l'environnement, ils y rencontrent souvent de la satisfaction liée à la nature des produits ou au fait de cuisiner soi-même ou en famille. Surtout, ils trouvent du sens dans leur engagement qu'ils associent à une forme de simplicité volontaire. Ces résultats interrogent le rôle de l'action publique dans la promotion de la sobriété dans l'alimentation.