Environment and Ecology

The eight Millennium Development Goals (MDGs) – which range from halving extreme poverty to halting the spread of HIV/AIDS and providing universal primary education, all by the target date of 2015 – form a blueprint agreed to by all the world’s countries and all the world’s leading development institutions. They have galvanized unprecedented efforts to meet the needs of the world’s poorest.

GCC, how to change people's behavior from the perspective of institutional structures and policies. 

statistical model for assessing environmental impacts at virtually any scale and to a research program in structural human ecology

"Dave Dempsey's book is an important part of the effort to remind people why commercialization of Great Lakes water is a dangerous threat. It's not simply a matter of how much water in the short term is bottled and shipped away; the long-term threat is control of water and the possibility that private interests will assert ownership of the very substance of the Great Lakes. This is an issue that could determine the fate of the Great Lakes. I encourage the millions who care about the Great Lakes to read and act on this valuable book. Our Great Lakes water must always remain a public resource in public hands. It's a matter of prosperity, fairness, and survival."

The rate and extent of deforestation in Papua New Guinea

However, as pointed out in Bosshard’s report, the nature of China's current involvement in Africa is problematic for a number of reasons. Firstly, China’s investments in Africa are concentrated in sectors that are environmentally sensitive (such as oil and gas exploration, mining, hydropower and timber extraction). Secondly, China’s strategy is to access resources that have so far not been exploited by European or American companies, either because they were considered insignificant in size, geographically too remote or politically too risky. Projects are therefore being developed in remote, ecologically sensitive regions in countries with weak governance systems. Thirdly, China’s domestic policies have prioritised economic growth over environmental concerns and there is a risk that these practices will be exported to other parts of the world. Recent concerns over environmental exploitation in China itself and the setting of laws and regulations to protect its own environment may even see China’s worst polluters relocate their production to places like Africa. Fourthly, Chinese investors and financiers have not adopted the international environmental guidelines and standards that have been taken up by international financial institutions.

this was a really interesting discussion (2006).  I made one post, but got no response.  Still, it was very useful for thinking about ecology and household demographic cycle. 

Next cyber seminar in July/August 2008 on Environmentally Induced Population Displacements. 

Here's the archives -- at least I can catch up on the cyberseminar I missed in Spring of 2007

And remember that over half of the world's population are now urban -- urban environmentalism is the way to go!