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The 1987-88 strike at International Paper's Androscoggin Mill in Jay, Maine severed a longstanding 'social contract' where workers and community residents tolerated the mill's air and water pollution in return for good-paying jobs and a robust local economy. This article traces the development of environmental consciousness among union workers and community residents during the strike and their efforts to protect the environment from the pollution of the mill. The union publicized environmental problems at the mill and the state's failures to regulate pollution when the strike began. After a series of environmental accidents during the strike, including a massive chlorine dioxide gas leak that threatened the safety of the town, Jay residents formed a community environmental organization and pressured the company and the state to close the mill. The environment remained an important issue after the strike, as labor and environmental activists joined forces to uphold a municipal ordinance that allowed the town to enforce state and federal environmental laws. This article studies how labor and environmental politics converged on a local level and also explores the broader themes of the conflict between job prosperity and environmental protection in industrial communities, labor and environmental movement alliances, and the current issues surrounding the 'green economy'. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This study evaluates the impact of pollution performance by pulp and paper firms on their economic and market performance. Pollution performance measurement is based on a pollution index developed from pollution emission reports filed with the regional offices of the Environmental Protection Agency by pulp and paper firms for their individual plants. Economic performance is measured by Net Income, ROE, ROA, Cashflow/Equity and Cashflow/Assets; market performance is measured by the PE ratio and systematic risk. The association between the pollution index and economic and market performance variables is tested by the Pearson Correlation coefficients. The results of this study indicate that, in the short run, pollution performance is negatively associated with economic performance and that the markets do not reward good pollution performance. Strict pollution standards may be desirable for forcing management to undertake pollution abatement activities to achieve a cleaner environment. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The article focuses on the move for an environmental sustainability by the printing industry in the U.S. The move had encountered several challenges along the way to its implementation due to workflow technology issues of business establishments. According to the author, many printing companies have received the certification of Forestry Stewardship Council (FSC), an internationally known chain of custody verification on the used of fiber from the managed forest. It had also become the qualification criterion for suppliers of paper and printing to major corporations such as Wal-Mart, Goldman Sachs and Bank of America.

This section offers news briefs related to environmental protection and sustainable energy resources in the U.S. The Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) has finalized the rulings to the Clean Air Act which focused on smokestack emissions that travel long distances through the air. Ford Motor Co. has partnered with Recycled Polymeric Materials (RPM) to recycle used tires into sustainable gaskets and seals. The paper industry has shown strong recovery rates from 2000 to 2009.

Offers news briefs related to the environment. Coral reefs along the Florida Keys that are endangered by southbound vessels that hug the coast to avoid the Gulf Stream; The risk of dying from solid cancers caused by radiation exposure; New technologies that have allowed Swedish pulp-and-paper mills to cut their use of chlorine in bleaching paper; Others.

This study identifies adoption determinants of selected cleaner technologies used in bleached kraft pulp production, with emphasis on incentives for voluntary environmental management. A double-hurdle model consistent with the theory of irreversible investment under uncertainty outperformed a probit specification, indieating the importance of option values as an adoption deterrent. Measures of public pressure for environmental performance, such as Toxics Release Inventory data and environmental group membership, were positively associated with cleaner technology adoption. The results suggest a role for environmetal policy designs that accommodate the industry's private incentives while minimizing the value of waiting to adopt cleaner technologies. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Discusses the impact of the Maximum Achievable Control Technology (MACT) regulation on the wood and paper products industry in the U.S. Compliance of the volatile organic chemical (VOC) and hazardous air pollutant (HAP) regulations; Goal of improving forest products economics; Issuance of the MACT by the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency.

The article reports on the issues concerning the white paper titled "Safety Implications of Greening," produced by the American Society of Safety Engineers' (ASSE) Hospitality Branch. According to the author, the report examines how safety, health and environmental (SH&E) professionals are working to reduce or eliminate risks related to greening efforts in the hospitality industry. The white paper includes a history of greening in the industry, examples of greening programs, and information on the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency's (EPA) "Top Green Power Purchasers" list.

This article examines the most comprehensive databases that measure US corporate environmental performance that have become available during the 1990s. These include the US Environmental Protection Agency's Toxics Release Inventory (TRI) and databases maintained by Kinder, Lydenberg, Domini, and Co., the Council on Economic Priorities and the Investor Responsibility Research Center. We describe these databases and identify the significant studies on environmental performance in the field of management that use these databases. We indicate three trends that should improve the quality and quantity of publicly available environmental performance data. Copyright © 2001 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd and ERP Environment [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper examines inflation dynamics in the United States since 2000. The basic aims of this paper are: firstly, to provide a relatively simple chaotic inflation rate growth model that is capable of generating stable equilibria, cycles, or chaos, and secondly, to analyze the inflation rate growth stability in the period 2000-2017 in the U.S. economy. This paper confirms the existence of the convergent fluctuations of the inflation rate in the U.S. economy in the observed period. The net export rate, the government environmental protection expenditure -- government spending ratio, the government environmental protection expenditure rate, and the investment rate are important factors of inflation rate stability. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Reports the efforts of Earthculture, an activist group in Greensboro, North Carolina, to minimize dumping of unsolicited mails. Identification of junk mails as serious environmental problems; Average number of unsolicited mails received by the United States residents every year; Encouragement for companies on the use of recycled paper.

The article offers insights on the industrial symbiosis an the field of ecology in the U.S. It introduces regional studies to industrial symbiosis and the field of ecology to which it belongs, and then summarizes each of the papers contributing to the issue. It presents conclusions about the potential overlapping between industrial symbiosis and regional development which claims that industrial symbiosis (IS) does have potential to generate regional environmental economic benefits. Nevertheless, increasing imperatives for regional sustainable economic development may dictate that IS system-scale approach to resource efficiency receive serious exploration.

This paper introduces a bibliometric, citation network-based method for assessing the social validation of novel research, and applies this method to the development of high-throughput toxicology research at the US Environmental Protection Agency. Social validation refers to the acceptance of novel research methods by a relevant scientific community; it is formally independent of the technical validation of methods, and is frequently studied in history, philosophy, and social studies of science using qualitative methods. The quantitative methods introduced here find that high-throughput toxicology methods are spread throughout a large and well-connected research community, which suggests high social validation. Further assessment of social validation involving mixed qualitative and quantitative methods are discussed in the conclusion. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Reports on awards received by paper companies in the U.S. Winners of the 2005 American Forest & Paper Association Recycling Awards; Award given to Alan Hutchinson and Mike Town for their unique appreciation of the environment, from International Paper and the Conservation Fund; Designation of Sonoco Products Co. as winner of the Abitibi-Consolidated Inc. supplier of the year award.

This article presents information on several conferences on geography, held in 1985. It is reported that the "National Speleological Society Annual Meeting" was held during June 23-29 in Frankfort, Kentucky. The Society is involved in the exploration and mapping of caves and furthering research in cave and karst science. This convention was attended by nearly 1,000 people who participated in five days of papers, nine mini-courses, sixteen workshops, and several field trips. The "Ninth World Forestry Congress," reportedly, was held during July 1-10 in Mexico City. The Congress was organized under the auspices of the Mexican Covernment through its Ministry of Agriculture and Hydraulic Resources and with collaboration of United Nations Food and Agriculture Organization. Delegates representing forestry and agricultural government agencies, private industry, research and teaching, and international organizations participated in paper sessions and field trips. The topic of this convention was "Forestry Resources in the Integral Development of Society." The article further reports that the "Twenty-first Annual American Water Resources Association Conference and Symposium" was held during August 11-16 in Tucson, Arizona. The conference theme was "Water Demand: Sharing a Limited Resource" and the symposium theme "Groundwater Contamination and Reclamation."

Flexibility and collaboration are a common prescription for complex, transboundary problems such as nonpoint source (NPS) water pollution. This paper examines the case of the United States Coastal Nonpoint Pollution Control Program (CNPCP), under which all 28 coastal states must develop comprehensive NPS management programs. The CNPCP allows states to satisfy requirements using voluntary, non-regulatory measures, and grants considerable flexibility in terms of institutional coordination and public participation. Thus, it is unclear whether compliance – which is incentivized with Federal funds – should be associated with improved environmental outcomes. Using a remotely sensed land cover census of 800 coastal counties from 1996 to 2010, this paper tests whether compliant programs – and particular participation and coordination mechanisms – are associated with different rates of forest and wetlands conversion. Approved states are associated with decreased rates of forest and wetlands conversion, but minimal differences are found with respect to specific participation and coordination strategies. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Limited awareness of environmental remote sensing's potential ability to support environmental policy development constrains the technology's utilization. This paper reviews the potential of earth observation from the perspective of environmental policy. A literature review of "remote sensing and policy" revealed that while the number of publications in this field increased almost twice as rapidly as that of remote sensing literature as a whole (15.3 versus 8.8% yr-1), there is apparently little academic interest in the societal contribution of environmental remote sensing. This is because none of the more than 300 peer reviewed papers described actual policy support. This paper describes and discusses the potential, actual support, and limitations of earth observation with respect to supporting the various stages of environmental policy development. Examples are given of the use of remote sensing in problem identification and policy formulation, policy implementation, and policy control and evaluation. While initially, remote sensing contributed primarily to the identification of environmental problems and policy implementation, more recently, interest expanded to applications in policy control and evaluation. The paper concludes that the potential of earth observation to control and evaluate, and thus assess the efficiency and effectiveness of policy, offers the possibility of strengthening governance. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The article deals with a case study discussing the opportunities and challenges of printing companies that take a strategic approach to environmental issues. The authors summarize the experiences of four environmentally proactive printing companies based in the U.S. and Germany namely . The similarities and differences across these firms are discussed. The results of the case study results indicate a transition in the printing industry away from an instant approach to environmental actions and towards a process of formulating and implementing environmental strategies.

Although substantial attention has focused on efforts by the new Administration to block environmental policies, climate politics have been contentious in the US since well before the election of Donald Trump. In this paper, we extend previous work on empirical examinations of echo chambers in US climate politics using new data collected on the federal climate policy network in summer 2016. We test for the similarity and differences at two points in time in homophily and echo chambers using Exponential Random Graph Models (ERGM) to compare new findings from 2016 to previous work on data from 2010. We show that echo chambers continue to play a significant role in the network of information exchange among policy elites working on the issue of climate change. In contrast to previous findings where echo chambers centered on a binding international commitment to emission reductions, we find that the pre-existing echo chambers have almost completely disappeared and new structures have formed around one of the main components of the Obama Administration’s national climate policy: the Clean Power Plan. These results provide empirical evidence that science communication and policymaking at the elite level shift in relation to the policy instruments under consideration. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Copyright of Problems of Sustainable Development / Problemy Ekorozwoju is the property of Faculty of Environmental Engineering and its content may not be copied or emailed to multiple sites or posted to a listserv without the copyright holder's express written permission. However, users may print, download, or email articles for individual use. This abstract may be abridged. No warranty is given about the accuracy of the copy. Users should refer to the original published version of the material for the full abstract. (Copyright applies to all Abstracts.)

Copyright of Review of Policy Research is the property of Wiley-Blackwell and its content may not be copied or emailed to multiple sites or posted to a listserv without the copyright holder's express written permission. However, users may print, download, or email articles for individual use. This abstract may be abridged. No warranty is given about the accuracy of the copy. Users should refer to the original published version of the material for the full abstract. (Copyright applies to all Abstracts.)

Copyright of Public Art is the property of Shanghai Fine Arts Publisher Ltd. co. and its content may not be copied or emailed to multiple sites or posted to a listserv without the copyright holder's express written permission. However, users may print, download, or email articles for individual use. This abstract may be abridged. No warranty is given about the accuracy of the copy. Users should refer to the original published version of the material for the full abstract. (Copyright applies to all Abstracts.)

In this paper I ask how might environmental justice studies scholarship be recast if we consider the phenomenon of environmental injustice as a form of criminalisation? In other words, since environmental injustice is frequently a product of state‐sanctioned violence against communities of colour, then what are the implications of reframing it as a practice of treating those populations as criminally suspect and as deserving of state punishment? Moreover, how are the targets and survivors of environmental injustice/racism enlisted in generative ways that resist that criminalisation and support abolition? I answer these questions through a consideration of how struggles inside and outside of carceral spaces represent urgent and timely opportunities to rethink the possibilities of environmental justice theory and politics by linking them to practices and visions of abolition ecology and critical environmental justice. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Proposals specifically aimed at environmental benefits or enhancements are often exempt from environmental assessment, despite evidence that they can be counter-productive. This is true of agri-environmental schemes where local farm-scale actions are expected to generate large-area cumulative effects on water quality, biodiversity or landscape. Evidence suggests benefits of schemes have often been assumed rather than planned for, necessitating ex-post assessment to justify continuance. This paper argues the need for the Irish Rural Environmental Protection Scheme (REPS) to be assessed using SEA. REPS promoted a range of small-scale improvements in a bottom-up approach intended to reflect several high-level policy objectives primarily concerning environmental protection. The paper is based on analysis of "landscape protection" under the REPS from inception in 1994 until its phasing out period in 2015 when all participants will have completed their plans. The paper investigates how linking SEA to REPS had potential for harmonising with other policy objectives and therefore avoiding administrative duplication. Comparison with the Water Framework Directive suggests opportunities to connect different environmental procedures. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Presents introductory comments on the papers discussing the use of background data in risk assessments. Publication of a policy statement and implementation guidance by the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency (EPA); Summary of the issues addressed in the papers like the differences in perspective of the regulatory and regulated communities with regard to its use; Conclusion of lack of consensus about the usage of background data, due to technical and political considerations.

The U.S. Environmental Protection Agency (EPA), under the authority of the Clean Air Act (CAA), is required to promulgate National Ambient Air Quality Standards (NAAQSs) for criteria air pollutants, including ozone. Each NAAQS includes a primary health-based standard and a secondary or welfare-based standard. This paper considers only the science used for revision of the primary standard for ozone in 2008. This paper summarizes deliberations of a small group of scientists who met in June 2007 to review the scientific information informing the EPA Administrator’s proposed revision of the 1997 standard. The Panel recognized that there is no scientific methodology that, in the absence of judgment, can define the precise numerical level, related averaging time, and statistical form of the NAAQS. The selection of these elements of the NAAQS involves policy judgments that should be informed by scientific information and analyses. Thus, the Panel members did not feel it appropriate to offer either their individual or collective judgment on the specific numerical level of the NAAQS for ozone. The Panel deliberations focused on the scientific data available on the health effects of exposure to ambient concentrations of ozone, controlled ozone exposure studies with human volunteers, long-term epidemiological studies, time- series epidemiological studies, human panel studies, and toxicological investigations. The deliberations also dealt with the issue of background levels of ozone of nonanthropogenic origin and issues involved with conducting formal risk assessments of the health impacts of current and prospective levels of ambient ozone. The scientific issues that were central to the EPA Administrator’s 2008 revision of the NAAQS for ozone will undoubtedly also be critical to the next review of the ozone standard. That review should begin very soon if it is to be completed within the 5-year cycle specified in the CAA. It is hoped that this Report will stimulate discussion of these scientific issues, conduct of additional research, and conduct of new analyses that will provide an improved scientific basis for the policy judgment that will have to be made by a future EPA Administrator in considering potential revision of the ozone standard. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The MOVES model was developed by the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency (U.S. EPA) to estimate emissions from on-road mobile sources and nonroad sources in the United States. Coupling high-resolution on-road vehicle activity data with appropriate MOVES emission rates further advances research efforts designed to assess the environmental impacts of transportation design and operation strategies. However, the complicated MOVES interface and slow performance makes it difficult to assess large, regional scale transportation networks and to undertake analyses of large-scale systems that are dynamic in nature. The MOVES-Matrix system develops an initial Large Matrix of MOVES outputs by running MOVES 146,853 times on the PACE high performance computing cluster to generate more than 90 billion emission rates to populate the matrix for a single area with one fuel regime and one inspection and maintenance program. A total of 117 such Large Matrices would be needed for the entire United States. The MOVES-Matrix system developed can be used to conduct the emissions modeling 200-times faster than using MOVES. The hypothetical case study shows that MOVES-Matrix is able to generate the exact same emission results as the MOVES model to ensure the validity for regulatory analysis. The resulting matrix allows users to link emission rates to big data projects and to evaluate changes in emissions for dynamic transportation systems in near-real-time. MOVES-Matrix does not currently estimate emissions from starts, hoteling or evaporative emissions, and the research team is working on MOVES-Matrix version 2 that supports incorporating off-network modeling. Implications: MOVES-Matrix should be of interest to a broad readership including those interested in vehicle emission modeling, near-road air quality modeling, transportation conformity analysis. The paper should also interest engineers who are involved in transportation regulatory and conformity analysis, state implementation plan, and who are seeking an efficient way of conducting regulatory emission modeling and air quality analysis in the United States. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Purpose - This paper aims to examine the effects of the use of environmental easements and forest certification on the output of ecosystems services from private forestlands in the USA. Design/methodology/approach - The discussion of the changes in ownership and management of private forest lands in the USA is based on a review of the literature, the degree of recent activity in the innovative changes, and an assessment of the extent of ownership and management changes. Findings - The use of environmental easements, resulting from ownership changes, and forest certification have facilitated, indeed mandated, forest management that is consistent with an increase in the provision of environmental and ecosystem services from private forests. The rapid expansion of environmental easements has been accommodated by the dramatic changes in forest ownership patterns in the USA, as traditional corporate ownerships have sold off large land areas to other private ownership types. Forest certification, which provides for improved management of ecosystem services, also has expanded rapidly in recent years. Practical implications - This study suggests forest management to provide environmental and ecosystem services can be achieve through environmental easements and forest certification. These changes can occur as the result of environmental interests entering forest land markets and affixing easements to the land. This finding suggests an alternative to the approach to establishing separate markets for ecosystem services, as is often suggested, and requires no increased governmental actions or new regulations. Rather these improvements are driven by voluntary forest certification and/or environmental groups entering the private markets for forest lands. Originality/value - This study suggests an alternative to the commonly held notion that separate markets for environmental and ecosystem services are required to increased their outputs. Rather, environmental easements and voluntary certification, in the face of changing ownership can provide the incentives for management changes that increase the outputs of environment and ecosystem services. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Prior to construction of a bridge or highway, the National Environmental Protection Act (NEPA) requires an evaluation of the effect of the project on the human environment. The purpose of NEPA is to require the head of the federal agency that is committing funds to the project to consider its actions before deciding to proceed with the project. This paper will analyze the general provisions of NEPA to remove some of the mystery related to the environmental concerns raised by bridge or highway projects and to emphasize to transportation planners that these concerns must be addressed prior to beginning a major bridge or highway project. The intent of this paper is to provide some guidance to transportation planners in light of these statutes as they begin the planning stages for highway and bridge projects. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Multistakeholder collaboration in the environmental realm has been increasing steadily over the past decade. This trend is responding to several stimuli, including dissatisfaction with current regulatory regimes, a liberal economic climate emphasizing global competitiveness and short-term returns, and the growing roles of the business and nongovernmental organization sectors in the environmental policy arena. This paper grows out of ethnographic research conducted between 1994 and 1998 with four environmental partnerships in Europe and the United States. The research found all of these partnerships to be marked by practices of conflict minimization and diffusion. Drawing upon illustrative data from one of these case studies, a European Union level initiative aimed at enabling sustainable development in Europe, the paper asks why this was the case, especially given the diverse political and economic interests at stake and the history of contentious relations between the sectors in other venues. Employing a theoretical perspective highlighting the sociohistoric factors involved in these processes, the paper suggests that this proclivity toward nonconfrontational behavior stems in part from two sources: a prominent cultural model that conceptualizes the partnership process as fundamentally nonconflictual in nature, and the promotion of the discourse of ecological modernization over other competing discourses. The paper explores some of the implications of this finding and concludes that environmental partnerships characterized by such nonconfrontational practices risk inadvertently encouraging the delegitimization of conflictual approaches to environmental action and engendering a retreat from radical thinking and innovative environmental solutions. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The Pollution Abatement Costs and Expenditures survey (PACE) is an annual survey of manufacturing establishment's operating costs and capital investment expenditures for pollution abatement purposes. This paper provides a description and evaluation of the PACE micro data available at the Center for Economic Studies (CES). This paper provides an overview of the survey, how the sample is drawn, how the survey questionnaire has changed over time, an assessment of the data quality, and suggestions for the use of the data, as well as its limitations. This paper also discusses the advantages of using the micro data for descriptive and analytic research when integrated with economic data from the US Bureau of the Census and emissions data from the US Environmental Protection Agency. Examples of recent and analytic research are cited throughout. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

EPA's rule of Risk Management Programs for Chemical Accidental Release Prevention applies to facilities that manufacture, process, use, store, or otherwise handle regulated substances at or above specified threshold quantities. EPA estimates that approximately 66,000 facilities nationwide will be regulated under the rule. This paper examines the use of a structured ISO 14000 mechanism as option-regulated facilities could elect for implementation of the rule. Under the ISO 14000 option, facilities would commit to additional obligations regarding information disclosure, discussions with potentially affected publics, and timely correction of deficiencies noted in annual ISO 14000 audits of their compliance with the Risk Management Program they submit to the EPA under the rule. In return, facilities would be granted significant relief in regard to both EPA audit frequency and the penalties that might be applied for any items of noncompliance with the rule noted during the course of implementing agency reviews of the facility. The paper concludes with a discussion of the advantages and disadvantages of this option to potentially affected stakeholders. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

National park roads and parkways is an important part of national parks in the United States. The road is integrated with national parks, which is the characteristics and brand image of national parks. National park roads and parkways is not only an important means of transportation in national parks, but also a tourist attraction and destination. For tourists, driving on the national park roads and parkways means visiting the national parks. The development of national park roads and parkways embodies the integration of road engineering and aesthetics, philosophy, recreation, ecology and other disciplines, promotes the transformation of road from a single traffic function to a complex function of recreation, landscape, culture and protection, highlights the gorgeous landscape and imaginative engineering alignment, and also shows how to provide diversified recreational opportunities in protecting priceless natural and cultural resources to achieve a balance between environmental protection and public tourists. This paper makes a thorough analysis of the development process of American national park roads and parkways in the past hundred years from the aspects of concepts, development background, construction idea, development measures, management system, financial support and construction practice, and summarizes the development experience and enlightenment. The conclusion is to grasp the law of national park roads and parkways development in essence. From this point of view, the paper puts forward some suggestions for the development of China's national park roads and parkways. These studies are of great theoretical value and practical significance to the flourishing development of China's national parks, national park roads and parkways, tourist scenic byways and tourist highways. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

THOUGH LOCAL GOVERNMENTS HAVE HISTORICALLY made most land-use decisions, the housing crisis now gripping many parts of the country has caused state legislatures in places like California, Oregon, Maryland, and Virginia to consider a more assertive role in regulating land use, "preempting" some local authority. The conflict between states and municipalities has raised an important constitutional question. Under the doctrine of "home rule," localities may be immunized against state preemption with regard to certain matters of municipal concern. So is land use immune from state preemption? After evaluating both precedent and policy, this paper concludes that land use is clearly not immune. Appellate courts have consistently held that states may preempt local land-use decisions in order to accomplish statewide objectives such as environmental protection, efficient land-use planning, and housing affordability. Undoubtedly, addressing a crippling housing crisis is a statewide interest that would justify state preemption of local land-use control. And while courts have frequently upheld local land-use regulation in sweeping terms, they have done so in cases where the question was the authority of the municipality to initiate land-use regulation without an express authorization from the state, not whether the municipality could act in the face of preempting state legislation. In short, home rule does not protect local land-use decisions against preemption. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Copyright of Journal of Natural Resources / Ziran Ziyuan Xuebao is the property of Journal of Natural Resources and its content may not be copied or emailed to multiple sites or posted to a listserv without the copyright holder's express written permission. However, users may print, download, or email articles for individual use. This abstract may be abridged. No warranty is given about the accuracy of the copy. Users should refer to the original published version of the material for the full abstract. (Copyright applies to all Abstracts.)

ABSTRACT Voluntary environmental programs (VEPs) are designed based on a win-win approach to environmental protection that reconciles environmental protection and economic performance. Despite the claims about VEPs, there has been an ongoing debate over their efficacy with regard to whether environmental goals are balanced by economic interests on both theoretical and empirical grounds. To resolve this controversy, this paper empirically investigates a public VEP by the US Environmental Protection Agency: Green Lights (GL). For this, the paper constructs a treatment effects regression model to account for the effects of non-random assignment for GL participants and non-participants. The proposed model can simultaneously estimate probit models that predict corporate participation in the GL program and linear models that test the extent to which this participation contributes to economic performance. The results indicate significant positive effects of corporate participation in the GL program on economic performance, providing support for the win-win perspective. Copyright © 2013 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd and ERP Environment [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Farming in Canada and the USA is dominated by row cropping concentrated in central regions. Using the Corn Belt of Iowa and the Lake Erie Lowlands of Ontario—sources of pollution affecting the Gulf of Mexico and Great Lakes—as exemplary regions, this paper provides a retrospective review of the landscape effects of policies and practices related to environmental stewardship and agricultural trade. Conservation policies and typical farm practices are described and compared for the two regions with an emphasis on lasting beneficial environmental outcomes. Connections among land cover changes, environmental consequences, and changes in environmental and trade policies and programs are considered along with future changes in farm management, trade liberalisation, and farm revenue sources. The paper concludes with prospective ideas of how policies and practices can maintain or enhance environmental benefits within intensively farmed landscapes as best approaches for agriculture. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The article focuses on solid waste accumulation in the U.S. and mentions that Americans generated 250 million tons of trash in 2010. It presents a photograph of an overflowing trash bin and based on it suggests various ways through which students can be taught the significance of solid waste management, recycling and conservation of environmental resources.

Context: Recent policy changes in the USA direct agencies managing federal forests to analyze the potential effects of climate change on forest productivity, water resource protection, wildlife habitat, biodiversity, and other values. Aims: This paper describes methods developed to (1) assess current risks, vulnerabilities, and gaps in knowledge; (2) engage internal agency resources and external partners in the development of options and solutions; and (3) manage forest resources for resilience, not just in terms of natural ecosystems but in affected human communities as well. Methods: We describe an approach designed to characterize certain climate change effects on forests, and estimate the effectiveness of response options ranging from resistance to a realignment of management objectives. Results: Field testing on a 6,300 km area of conifer forest in the northwestern USA shows this decision model to be useful and cost-effective in identifying the highest sensitivities relating to vegetation management, biological diversity, water resources and forest transportation systems, and building consensus for adaptive strategies and actions. Conclusions: Results suggest that this approach is an effective means for guiding management decisions to adapt to the effects of climate change, and provides an empirical basis for setting budgetary and management priorities. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Purpose Universidad San Francisco de Quito, USFQ, completed an assessment study to understand its performance in sustainability in 2012. This study aims to recognize the limitations of applying a North American rating system considering relevant criteria to a South American university and to emphasize the importance and lack of benchmarks available in the region.Design/methodology/approach Methodology used for this study is based on the Sustainability Tracking Assessment Rating System (STARS) by AASHE. In December 2013, USFQ joined the Pilot Program that included publicly documenting efforts, sharing feedback and making suggestions for system improvements.Findings Data collected by USFQ in 2012 and 2013 illustrate how the status of USFQ as a non-residential, teaching university in Ecuador in a developing country had several challenges while using an evaluation system established for universities within a North American system. The limits of assessing sustainability in South America are associated to its geographical location, the number of students and staff that commute to University and the lack of environmental services and certifications available in Ecuador. There are applicability issues with the use of STARS without performance reports from regional peers that can guide the development of relevant benchmarks for future comparability.Originality/value Little research has been conducted in the assessment and tracking of sustainability within universities in South America. This paper is one of the first to address the applicability of a North American self-reporting tool to a South American university. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Terrestrial and ocean ecosystems are increasingly under threat from an array of anthropogenic pressures. And while threats mount, how people view and value nature is changing. In the United States (U.S.) in particular, there is a shift away from viewing nature as something to 'dominate,' as evidenced in the decline in hunting. However, it is unclear if or how opinions around environmental issues and conservation need might differ when comparing ocean versus terrestrial ecosystems, especially given the prevalence and continued importance of wild capture fishing in the U.S. We employed two national parallel surveys, one focused on oceans, the other land, receiving responses from nearly every state in the U.S. (N = 1,973). While we found only slight, but statistically significant more concern for ocean habitats and animals over terrestrial ecosystems, this did not translate to increased willingness to monetarily support more ocean conservation actions. Using Random Forest models, we also found the best predictor of conservation need was feeling most impacted by environmental issues personally (self and/or community), regardless of ecosystem type. In fact, land versus sea (survey) had the lowest rank in the models, underscoring the importance of general nature-based interactions. Instead, the number of outdoor recreational activities was a highly ranked variable explaining the level of reported impact to self/community, with people who participate in 2 or more activities scoring higher levels of impact, on average. Notably, people who hunt and fish, versus only do one or the other, reported higher levels of impact and participated in more activities overall, providing a more nuanced finding regarding the nature 'dominance hypothesis.' Voting, not political affiliation, was also important in explaining responses, and governmental mechanisms to fund conservation were favored over voluntary. Overall, our results add to the strong existing literature that access and connection to nature is key, but uniquely broad connection may "float all boats," especially when diversified. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The plight of climate refugees is a global crisis that requires global cooperation and regional responses. The United States and India are important regional destination countries for climate refugees. "Climate refugees" are not recognized as a category of people entitled to protection in either country; however, legal mechanisms in both countries can be applied to cross-border displacement due to climate change. Part I of the article introduces the challenge of defining the term "climate refugees." Part II addresses legal mechanisms in India that can be used to protect people displaced across the border as refugees or protected persons, and Part III reviews these mechanisms in the United States. Part IV evaluates what the United States and India can learn from best practices in climate migration legislation in Europe and international human rights law. It also explores what these two countries can learn from each other's best practices in developing governance frameworks for climate refugees. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Streamflow predictions are critical for managing water resources and for environmental conservation, especially in the water-short Western United States. Land surface models (LSMs), such as the variable infiltration capacity (VIC) model and the Noah LSM with multiparameterization options (Noah-MP), play an essential role in providing comprehensive runoff predictions across the region. Virtually all LSMs require parameter estimation (calibration) to optimize their predictive capabilities. Here, we focus on the calibration of VIC and Noah-MP models at a 1/16 ° latitude–longitude resolution across the Western United States. We first performed global optimal calibration of parameters for both models for 263 river basins in the region. We find that the calibration significantly improves the models' performance, with the median daily streamflow Kling–Gupta efficiency (KGE) increasing from 0.37 to 0.70 for VIC, and from 0.22 to 0.54 for Noah-MP. In general, post-calibration model performance is higher for watersheds with relatively high precipitation and runoff ratios, and at lower elevations. At a second stage, we regionalize the river basin calibrations using the donor-basin method, which establishes transfer relationships for hydrologically similar basins, via which we extend our calibration parameters to 4816 hydrologic unit code (HUC)-10 basins across the region. Using the regionalized parameters, we show that the models' capabilities to simulate high and low flow conditions are substantially improved following calibration and regionalization. The refined parameter sets we developed are intended to support regional hydrological studies and hydrological assessments of climate change impacts. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The proposition put forth in this paper is that whether-and the extent to which-harm or potential harm to the environment (its natural resources, living beings, and their ecosystems) is identified, resisted, mitigated, or prevented is linked to the nature and scope of public access to information, participation in governmental decision-making, and access to justice-which are often referred to as 'environmental due process' or 'procedural environmental rights.' Using examples in the United States of attacks on law school clinics and denial of standing in court, this paper argues that restrictions on public access to information, participation in decision-making, and access to justice create legacies and 'cultures of silence' that reduce the likelihood that future generations will be willing and able to contest environmental harm. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper reevaluates the effectiveness of the EPA's voluntary 33/50 program in reducing the releases of 17 high-priority toxic chemicals for the 1988-1995 period. Contrary to previous studies that use program participation information at the firm level and find mixed evidence on the effectiveness of the program, our analysis uses participation status at the facility level and shows the importance of undertaking analysis at a disaggregated scale. We find the rate of reduction in releases was significantly higher for program participants than nonparticipants, but the effect is attenuated when estimated using firm-level participation data. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

In this paper, we construct a ranking of states based on their proclivity to inspect facilities for environmental compliance. Our measure utilizes state-level inspections data supplied by the US Environmental Protection Agency. After developing our ranking, we use it to predict state-level growth in manufacturing establishments. In doing so, we find support for the notion that enforcement intensity adversely impacts such growth. Our results offer insight into why existing studies that examine the impact of environmental regulation on location and growth produce inconsistent results. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

To improve estimates of non-dietary ingestion in probabilistic exposure modeling, a meta-analysis of children's object-to-mouth frequency was conducted using data from seven available studies representing 438 participants and ∼1500 h of behavior observation. The analysis represents the first comprehensive effort to fit object-to-mouth frequency variability and uncertainty distributions by indoor/outdoor location and by age groups recommended by the US Environmental Protection Agency for assessing childhood exposures. Weibull distributions best fit the observed data from studies with no statistical differences, and are presented by study, age group, and location. As age increases, both indoor and outdoor object-to-mouth frequencies decrease. Object-to-mouth frequency is significantly greater indoors (2–32 contacts/h) than outdoors (average 1–9 contacts/h). This paper compares results to a similar hand-to-mouth frequency meta-analysis. Children who tend to mouth hands indoors also tend to mouth hands outdoors; children who tend to mouth objects indoors tend to mouth objects outdoors. However, children who tend to mouth objects do not necessarily have a tendency to mouth hands. Unlike for hand-to-mouth frequency, a statistical difference was found among the various studies for object-to-mouth frequency. This could be due to different definitions for object mouthing across the studies considered. The analysis highlights the need for additional object-to-mouth data (indoors and especially outdoors) for various age groups using standardized collection and analysis. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Traditional sanitary sewer design uses detailed design tables that contain all the necessary information to complete the design. An alternative approach is to use modeling software, such as the EPA SWMM model. This paper details the application of the EPA SWMM model to design the sanitary sewer system of a proposed 62 lot development. Typically SWMM is thought of almost exclusively as a storm water system analysis tool, but this application shows how it can also be used for sanitary sewer analysis and design. The paper details how the SWMM model parameters were set to handle infiltration and inflow as well as base residential sanitary flows. © 2009 Wiley Periodicals, Inc. Comput Appl Eng Educ 18: 203–212, 2010; Published online in Wiley InterScience (www.interscience.wiley.com); DOI 10.1002/cae.20124 [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Communities are faced with challenges in identifying and prioritizing environmental issues, taking actions to reduce their exposures, and determining their effectiveness for reducing human health risks. Additional challenges include determining what scientific tools are available and most relevant, and understanding how to use those tools; given these barriers, community groups tend to rely more on risk perception than science. The U.S. Environmental Protection Agency's Office of Research and Development, National Exposure Research Laboratory (NERL) and collaborators are developing and applying tools (models, data, methods) for enhancing cumulative risk assessments. The NERL's “Cumulative Communities Research Program” focuses on key science questions: (1) How to systematically identify and prioritize key chemical stressors within a given community?; (2) How to develop estimates of exposure to multiple stressors for individuals in epidemiologic studies?; and (3) What tools can be used to assess community-level distributions of exposures for the development and evaluation of the effectiveness of risk reduction strategies? This paper provides community partners and scientific researchers with an understanding of the NERL research program and other efforts to address cumulative community risks; and key research needs and opportunities. Some initial findings include the following: (1) Many useful tools exist for components of risk assessment, but need to be developed collaboratively with end users and made more comprehensive and user-friendly for practical application; (2) Tools for quantifying cumulative risks and impact of community risk reduction activities are also needed; (3) More data are needed to assess community- and individual-level exposures, and to link exposure-related information with health effects; and (4) Additional research is needed to incorporate risk-modifying factors (“non-chemical stressors”) into cumulative risk assessments. The products of this research program will advance the science for cumulative risk assessments and empower communities with information so that they can make informed, cost-effective decisions to improve public health. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]