Possible criteria for differentiated commitments: Fair or feasible?

This paper discusses the notion of differentiated commitments or burden sharing in the ongoing negotiations on emissions reductions of greenhouse gases. The negotiations, which takes place in the Ad Hoc Group on the Berlin Mandate (AGBM) under the Framework Convention on Climate Change (FCCC), is leading up to the third Conference of the Parties (COP-3), which is scheduled to take place in Kyoto in December later this year. The paper briefly surveys some of the main issues in the negotiations and argues that the question of differentiated commitments or burden sharing is only one among many difficult topics on the negotiating table. Based on some proposed principles of ‘fairness’, a few central indicators are identified and we provide data on these for a group of OECD countries. We outline some of the propositions for differentiated commitments in the current negotiations, and concludes that within the framework of the OECD countries, burden sharing is only possible if countries outside of the European Union (EU) can compensate USA for the additional greenhouse gas reductions needed to allow high cost countries to commit to lower abatement than the average reduction level. However, an attractive option, not explored in this paper, is for the group of countries outside EU and USA to make a deal with countries with economies in transition, as these countries generally are expected to have relatively low marginal reduction costs. Further studies of such ‘east-west’ deals are clearly warranted

Refugial origin and postglacial colonization of holarctic reindeer and caribou

The classification and colonization of reindeer and caribou (Rangifer tarandus) was assessed from analysis of both proteins, nuclear DNA and mitochondrial DNA. I demonstrate that the current subspecies designations are not compatible with the differentiation at these markers, suggesting that the morphological differences among extant subspecies did not evolve in separate glacial refugia. Thus, morphological differences among extant subspecies probably evolved as adaptive responses to post-glacial environmental changes. An exception to this is the North American woodland caribou, where all three marker systems support a subspecies-specific refugium as the ancestral origin of these animals. Three major mtDNA haplogroups reported, represent three separate origins of the species during the last glaciation. The most influential origin has contributed to the gene pool of all extant subspecies, suggesting the existence of a large and continuous glacial population ranging across extensive areas of tundra in Eurasia and Beringia. The North American tundra forms (R.t. granti and groenlandicus) and the arctic forms (R.t platyrhynchus, R.t pearyi and R.t eogroenlandicus) almost exclusively comprise haplotypes of such an origin. Another small and isolated refugium seems to have arisen in western Eurasia in close connection to the extensive ice sheet that covered Fennoscandia. The two Eurasian subspecies R.t. tarandus and R.t. fennicus appear to have a diphyletic origin as both the putatively small and isolated Eurasian refugium and the large Beringia refugium have contributed to their gene pools. A third distinct and geographically well-defined refugial area was probably located south to the extensive North American continental ice sheet from where the ancestors of the present North American woodland caribou (R.t. caribou) likely originated.Abstract in Norwegian / Sammendrag: Systematisk inndeling og kolonisering av rein (Rangifer tarandus) ble bestemt ved å analysere for variasjon i genetiske markører som proteiner, kjerneDNA og mitokondrieDNA. Dagens oppdeling av rein i underarter viser liten overensstemmelse med variasjonsmønsteret i de undersøkte markørene, noe som viser at de morfologiske forskjellene som karakteriserer dagens underarter ikke har utviklet seg i atskilte refugier i løpet av siste istid. Unntak fra dette er nordamerikansk skogsrein (woodland caribou-R.t. caribou) hvor alle tre markørsystemene indikerer at denne har utviklet seg i et refugium forskjellig fra andre underarter. De tre registrerte hovedhaplogruppene i mitokondrie-DNA representerer tre atskilte opprinnelser av rein i løpet av siste istid. Den mest innflytelsesrike av disse bidro vesentlig til genbanken til alle dagens underarter av rein, noe som tyder på at det under siste istid eksisterte en stor reinpopulasjon med kontinuerlig utbredelse gjennom store deler av tundraen i Eurasia og Beringia. De nordamerikanske tundrareintypene (R.t. granti og R.t. groenlandicus), samt de arktiske typene (R.t. platyrhunchus, R.t. pearyi og R.t. eogroenlandicus) består nærmest utelukkende av haplotyper med denne opprinnelse. Et annet lite og isolert refugium syntes å ha oppstått i Vest-Europa i nærheten av den omfattende isbreen som dekket Fennoskandia. De to europeiske underarter, R.t. tarandus og R.t. fennicus, syntes å ha en todelt opprinnelse med genetisk påvirkning fra både det antatt lille og isolerte refugiet i Eurasia samt fra det store Beringia refugiet. Et tredje geografisk distinkt refugium var antagelig lokalisert sør for den omfattende isbreen i Nord Amerika hvorfra forfedrene til dagens nordamerikanske skogsrein (R.t. caribou) har sin mest sannsynlige opprinnelse

Challenging the Installed Base: Deploying a Large Scale IS in a Global Organization

Economic theory and business strategists have pointed at the phenomenon of positive externalities and the related enabling and constraining aspects of an installed base. For instance, in the development of a standards strategy for technology products these externalities are of profound importance [11]. Likewise, deployment of large-scale IS creates interdependencies horizontally throughout the organization, and are constrained by a continuously evolving and socio-technical installed base of information, systems, artifacts, practices, and organizational structures. This paper draws from a case study of a global company and illuminates the role of an installed base in relation to the organizing visions in the deployment of a large-scale IS. The case illustrates that deployment of a large-scale IS in a global company is likely to be more similar to the development of infrastructures than traditional IS development and ITstrategy planning

Taxonomy and origin of reindeer

Reindeer and caribou was probably the key species for the human immigration and colonization in the Arctic and sub-Arctic by the retreat of the ice in the last glacial period. The close connection between human and reindeer has contributed to great interest and variation in reindeer taxonomy and origin. Through the history several both species, subspecies and types of reindeer and caribou have been described. The early taxonomy of the species is marked by comparisons of individual specimen using traits as body size, skin colour or antler formations - characteristics known to be highly variable and subjected to environmental and nutritional level. During the mid 1900s the taxonomy was more based on variation of morphological traits among populations by analysing a large series of specimens representative of the various geographic populations and a consensus of classification of several subspecies, all belonging to the same species, evolved. During late 1900 the development of modern molecular techniques procured tools for revealing genetic structure of populations reflecting different origin and isolation rather than environmental influences. The genetic structure revealed a major genetic dichotomy between American woodland caribou on the one hand and all other types of reindeer and caribou on the other which gave evidence that the ancestors of present woodland caribou had survived and evolved in ice free refugium south to the glacier in North America and the ancestors of all other types of reindeer and caribou had evolved separated from these in refugium in Eurasia and Beringia. The ancestors of present reindeer in Scandinavia appear furthermore to have evolved from different populations separated during the last glaciation period and the colonization and origin of present wild and domestic reindeer will be discussed in this perspective.Taksonomi og opprinnelse til reinAbstract in Norwegian / Sammendrag: Rein og caribou har hatt stor betydning for det moderne menneskets utvikling og kolonisering av nordlige Eurasia og Amerika etter siste istid. Den nære sammenhengen mellom mennesker og rein har bidratt til stor interesse og variasjon i oppfatningen av reinens taksonomi og opprinnelse. Et utall av både arter, underarter og raser av rein er beskrevet opp gjennom historien. Tidlig taksonomi av rein bar preg av å være basert på enkeltobservasjoner og på morfologiske karakterer som kroppsstørrelse, pelsfarge og størrelse og form på gevir, karakterer som i stor grad påvirkes av miljø og næringsforhold. Først på midten av 1900 tallet ble taksonomien i større grad basert på ulike morfologiske trekk som viste variasjon mellom bestander av rein, og en fikk bl.a. en forståelse av at alle underarter og former av rein og caribou tilhørte samme art. Med utviklingen av den moderne molekylærbiologien på slutten av 1900-tallet fikk en tilgang til verktøy som avdekket genetiske strukturer som reflekterer ulik opprinnelse og utvikling mer enn miljømessig påvirkning. Den genetiske strukturen som ble avdekket, viste liten overensstemmelse med oppdelingen i underarter som var basert på morfologiske trekk. Molekylærgenetiske struktur viser et hovedskille mellom amerikansk woodland caribou på den ene siden og all annen rein og caribou på den andre siden, noe som reflekterer at forfedrene til woodland caribou levde og utviklet seg i isfrie områder sør for iskanten i Nord-Amerika, mens forfedrene til andre typer rein levde atskilt fra disse i isfrie områder i Eurasia og Beringia. Forfedrene til dagens rein i Fennoskandia syntes også å ha utviklet seg fra atskilte bestander av rein som kan føres tilbake til slutten av siste istid. Innvandring og opprinnelse til dagens vill- og tamrein i Fennoskandia vil bli belyst i dette perspektiv

Maintaining genetic integrity of coexisting wild and domestic populations : Genetic differentiation between wild and domestic Rangifer with long traditions of intentional interbreeding

The funding for the fieldwork and laboratory work for this study was provided by the ERC Advanced Grant 295458 Arctic Domus (PI D.G. Anderson). The writing and analysis was supported by ESRC ES-M0110548-1 JPI HUMANOR (PI D.G. Anderson). The sample set for Lake Nichatka was collected and deposited under a research programme of the Norwegian Institute for Nature Research. We thank Liv Midthjell for skilful laboratory analyses, Konstantin Klokov for help sourcing statistics on Russian reindeer populations, and Jan Heggenes for useful comments on an earlier version of this paper. A full list of project participants is in Appendix 2.Peer reviewedPublisher PD

Fluid dynamics of bacterial turbulence

Self-sustained turbulent structures have been observed in a wide range of living fluids, yet no quantitative theory exists to explain their properties. We report experiments on active turbulence in highly concentrated 3D suspensions of Bacillus subtilis and compare them with a minimal fourth-order vector-field theory for incompressible bacterial dynamics. Velocimetry of bacteria and surrounding fluid, determined by imaging cells and tracking colloidal tracers, yields consistent results for velocity statistics and correlations over two orders of magnitude in kinetic energy, revealing a decrease of fluid memory with increasing swimming activity and linear scaling between energy and enstrophy. The best-fit model parameters allow for quantitative agreement with experimental data.Comment: 5 pages, 4 figure

The use of PPP or MER in the construction of emission scenarios is more than a question of "metrics"

The Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC)’s Special Report on Emissions Scenarios (SRES, IPCC, 2000) has been a matter of debate since Ian Castles and David Henderson claimed that the scenarios were based on unsound economics giving rise to improbably high emission growth. A main point in their critique was that the scenario-makers converted national GDP data to a common measure using market exchange rates (MER) rather than purchasing power parity rates (PPP). IPCC responded to the critique by claiming that the use of PPP or MER based measures is just a question of “metrics”, as important as the “switch from degrees Celsius to Fahrenheit”. This paper addresses both the critique from Castles and Henderson and the response from the IPCC. It builds on our earlier argument that the use of MER-based measures, although misleading in some respects, probably have not given rise to seriously exaggerated emission forecasts because comparing regional income levels by the use of MER has two types of implications that draw in different directions and effectively neutralize one another. Nevertheless, we argue that the choice between MER or PPP in the construction emission scenarios is far more than just a question of metrics. Finally, we discuss whether the SRES scenario with the lowest cumulative emissions is a reasonable lower limit with respect to global emission growth

The issue of competence in transforming the Norwegian welfare sector: some implications for future e-government initiatives

In this paper we argue that e-government initiatives need to take the competence involved in producing high-quality services for citizens into account. We draw on insights from a Pilot project in a Norwegian municipal aiming at radically re-structuring the Norwegian welfare sector and show how the competence to provide high-quality services rely on the collective achievement of individuals’ knowing-in-practice when dealing with particular cases and situations. Furthermore, we show how competence in terms of ‘processes of knowing’ is intrinsically related to organization structure and existing information systems (IS). Transforming the Norwegian Welfare Sector then, involves transforming a socio-technical network of heterogeneous elements, where existing processes of knowing plays an important role. Based on this, we then discuss some implications for implementing e-government in local municipals, and in particular e-government initiatives that aim at introducing all-embracing integrated IT-solutions across organizational and geographical borders. The paper concludes by sketching some implications for future research on e-government