169,500 research outputs found

    Population pressure and the microeconomy of land management in hills and mountains of developing countries:

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    Concerns about harmful environmental impacts are frequently raised in research and policy debates about population growth in the hills and mountains of developing countries. Although establishing wildlife corridors and biosphere reserves is important for preserving selected biodiverse habitats, for the vast majority of hilly-mountainous lands, the major ecological concerns are for the sustainability of local production systems and for watershed integrity. What matters for sustained use of those lands not only is the number of producers but also what, where and how they produce. Evidence from empirical research indicates that population growth in hills and mountains can lead to land enhancement, degradation, or aspects of both. This can be explained by extending induced innovation theory to address environmental impacts of intensification. Increases in the labor-land endowment ratios of households and in local land demand and labor supply make the opportunity cost of land relative to labor increase. As a result, people use hilly-mountainous land resources more intensively for production and consumption, thus tending to deplete resources and significantly alter habitats. But, at the same time, capital- and labor-intensive methods of replenishing or improving soil productivity may become economically more attractive, production systems that enhance the land if the expected discounted returns are greater than those of systems that degrade the land. Users will choose production systems that enhance the land if the expected discounted returns are greater than those of systems that degrade the land. In addition to population change, other factors—market conditions, local institutions and organizations, information and technology about resource management, and local ecological conditions—determine the returns from various production systems.Environmental impact analysis., Population density.,

    Paying to Put Out Fires

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    There is surprisingly little academic work on the compensation of firefighters. This may be, in part, because their wages are often set by collective bargaining agreements and that those paid as firefighters are regularly paid by seniority. But many aspects of the labor market can still be studied through this interesting occupation, including labor unions, compensation for job risk and even volunteerism. Consider the mountains of papers on Fortune 500 CEOs relative to the number (500) of employees doing this job in the US. In contrast, consider the tiny number of papers on firefighters relative to the large numbers who fill these ranks (more than 300,000 in the US alone, according to 2013 data from the US Bureau of Labor Statistics). There is also interesting work on arbitration of firefighter contracts. In an occupation where strikes are obviously extremely dangerous, folks have to consider alternative ways of setting disputes

    A livelihoods study of fishers and farmers in Thai Nguyen Province

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    This is the report of a livelihoods study team working together with members of two communes in Quang Tri Province, Vietnam. The study is based on information provided by the commune members, who shared their knowledge and spoke about real problems they face with their livelihoods. The study was conducted from 10-30 October 2001. The team worked with key informants in two communes, Dan Tien in Vo Nhia District and Phuong Tien in Dinh Hoa District, who participated in discussions and represented households in the commune. The livelihoods studies in Dan Tien and Phuong Tien communes explored existing human, labor and natural resources as well as other factors affecting people’s livelihoods. (PDF contains 32 pages

    The exploitation of women and nature in Appalachia : an analysis of labor rights and environmental issues as presented by three Appalachian women writers

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    Environmental activism in Appalachia in recent years has focused on the harm that practicessuch as mountaintop removal mining, hydraulic fracturing, and deforestation contribute to thenatural landscape of the Appalachian region. However, because of a history of outsideindustries exploiting Appalachia for its natural resources, writers in Appalachia have beengrappling with the environmental and social effects of industrial development for centuries.Wilma Dykeman’s 1962 novel The Tall Woman, Rebecca Harding Davis’s 1861 novella Life inthe Iron-Mills, and Florence Cope Bush’s 1989 biography Dorie: Woman of the Mountains arethree relatively unstudied Appalachian texts that wrestle with the economic and environmentalchanges facing Appalachia from the early days of the American Civil War to the mid-20thcentury. These texts more specifically show how marginalized populations such as women,immigrants, and the poor are disproportionately affected by decisions that are made about theenvironments in which they live—decisions often made by outsiders. As texts written by threeAppalachian women, the works studied here offer perspectives on feminism and environmentalism that too often go unnoticed in both American literature and American history.In an acknowledgement of the marginalization of women and of the silencing of Appalachianvoices overall, this thesis looks to ecofeminist theory and literary analysis in order to explorethe connections between environmentally harmful practices, increases in women’s labor, andthe suppression of women’s voices in outcry over social and environmental concerns. Inaddition, this thesis examines the ideological and economic reasons why labor exploitation andenvironmental degradation in the Appalachian Mountains are able to continue despite the farreachingecological and social consequences of such practices

    Temporary in Tennessee: CATS for Stable Jobs

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    [Excerpt] Morristown is a mid-sized town in the mountains of upper east Tennessee. Like the rest of Tennessee, Morristown has a low rate of unionization and has seen minimal organizing on workplace and fair labor issues. At the same time, Tennessee has been hard hit by plant closings and layoffs and has seen higher paying industrial jobs replaced by lower paying, part-time and service jobs and temporary and contract-labor jobs. The security of the workforce is declining dramatically. From this setting, a citizens group called Citizens Against Temporary Services, or CATS, organized last year in search of a better deal for workers in Tennessee. In little more than a year, CATS has made remarkable strides. This is the CATS story

    Appalachian Coalfield Delegation Position Paper on Sustainable Energy

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    Appalachian grassroots groups(with support provided by the DataCenter) release a scathing report on the impact of coal mining to the United Nations Commission on Sustainable Development. The Delegation created an historic moment with its powerful stories and diverse outreach. Alliances were forged and the civil society discourse on energy, particularly what is sustainable energy and who gets to define it, has been challenged. Their answer---"it comes from the people!" As most government officials continue to ignore the atrocities of mountain top removal, coal sludge impoundments, and underground injections of sludge, it is up to the people of the Appalachian coal fields to let the world know the harsh realities of an economy built on seemingly cheap electricity

    Trade Liberalization and Poverty in Nepal: an Applied General Equilibrium Analysis

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    Nepal aggressively liberalized its foreign trade during the 1990s. This paper attempts to estimate the impact of trade liberalization on household welfare and poverty in Nepal through the construction of a regional CGE model. The model disaggregates factors of production - capital, land, and labor - by region (urban, Terai and hills/mountains) in order to establish direct links between sector of activity, factor remuneration, and household income. In particular, certain activities are more intensive in factors from a given region (e.g. the manufacturing sector is more intensive in urban factors of production and the agriculture sector is more intensive in Terai factor of production). Regional factor remuneration in turn maps into regional household income. We find that trade liberalization reduces the nominal returns to urban factors of production in comparison with rural factors of production, resulting in a reduction in the relative income of urban households. Rural and urban households consume roughly the same share of industrial goods, but rural households consume relatively more agricultural goods and fewer services. As the fall in consumer prices in the latter two sectors are similar, there is little rural-urban difference in the variation in consumer price indices. Consumer prices generally fall in roughly the same proportion as nominal incomes such that there are negligible welfare changes. However, poverty falls substantially, with the greatest impact in rural Terai, followed by the rural hills and the mountain region, and least in urban areas.Computable general equilibrium modeling, international trade, poverty, Nepal

    Organizing Communities to Protect West Virginia's Natural Environment: Ohio Valley Environmental Coalition (OVEC)

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    The Ohio Valley Environmental Coalition (OVEC) is a relatively small group that effectively takes on the most powerful industrial interests in West Virginia. Since 1987 Janet Fout, Dianne Bady (and their cofounder, the late Laura Forman), have organized Appalachian communities to protect their air, water and mountains from being destroyed for oil, timber, coal and other profitable enterprises
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