Environmental Justice in Indian Country: Using Equity Assessments to Evaluate Impacts to Trust Resources, Watersheds and Eco-cultural Landscapes

Native American cultures, genetics, nutrition, and ways of life co-evolved with their natural systems through thousands of years. This process has resulted in seamless eco-cultural systems of humans, plants, animals, rivers, landforms, and air sheds. These eco-cultural systems have also provided its peoples with unique and valid environmental management science that has sustained the peoples and their resources for thousands of years. This resource-based perspective could form the basis of environmental justice risk assessment methodology in Indian Country. Cumulative impacts to tribal cultures are a combination of pre-existing stressors (existing conditions or co-risk factors) and any other contamination or new activity that affects environmental quality. Characterizing risks or impacts in Indian Country entails telling the cumulative story about risks to trust resources and a cultural way of life. Equity assessments could also be performed in a way that describes these systems-level cumulative risks/impacts. This requires improvements in metrics based on an understanding of the unbreakable ties between people, their cultures, and their resources. Specific recommendations are presented for performing equity assessments in Indian Country and for developing a Risk Ethics discipline

Multi-Plaintiff Litigation in Australia: A Comparative Perspective

Graphene is a single layer of carbon atoms, laid out in a hexagonal lattice. The material has remarkable properties that opened up several new research areas since its discovery in 2004. One promising field is graphene based biosensors, where researchers hope to create new devices that are smaller, cheaper and more reliable than those based on today’s technology. Among several manufacturing methods, graphene grown on silicon carbide is one of the promising ones for biosensing. A chip design has been developed in order to support research into graphene on silicon carbide as a base material for biosensors. Along with the chip, a holder for electrochemical measurements has been designed and an investigation into the requirements of a custom measurement device for the sensor has been undertaken

Globalisation and China's diplomacy: structure and process

This study is concerned with how far globalisation has affected the capacity of China, as a developing nation, to make and implement foreign policy. Chinas entry into the UN, the Nixon/Kissinger visits, and expanding membership of international institutions, meant that a quantitative expansion of diplomatic links was needed. The reform of Chinas economy reflected other reasons for diplomatic change in the face of globalisation pressures. These changes led, among other things, to increased bureaucratisation, more skilled officials and more pluralism. The states power in political relations remains, but its exercise involves increased costs for other objectives, notably modernisation. A substantial cognitive learning process has occurred in the development of Chinas diplomatic processes and structures

Does China matter? The global economic issues

In 1999, Gerry Segal, then Director of Research at the International Institute of Strategic Studies, wrote an article in Foreign Affairs entitled Does China matter?. His article ranged across economic, political and strategic issues but his overall conclusion was that Chinas importance had been greatly exaggerated. As far as economic questions were concerned, Segal saw China as a small market that matters little to the world, especially outside Asia. This paper argues that while Segal was correct in the view that there had been considerable exaggeration of Chinas economic weight, mostly outside of China, his generalisation now needs qualification. The paper considers the standard economic comparisons across countries such as GDP, trade and investment volumes and other areas of Chinas growing global economic involvement. It also deals with issues such as the accuracy of Chinas growth statistics. It concludes with the idea that China does now matter to the world both for its substance and for its evident potential

Areal Distribution of the Various Combinations of Quaternary Climates

On reconnaît maintenant que les paléoclimats ont laissé leur trace dans le sol, sur la végétation et les paysages de diverses régions du monde. De nombreuses méthodes d'analyse, discutées et discutables, permettent de découvrir quels étaient les climats du Tertiaire et du Quaternaire, leur forme, leur influence et leur extension et ainsi de connaître l'évolution et les changements des paysages

Climatic Relationships of Permafrost Zones in Areas of Low Winter Snow-Cover

In areas with under 50 cm snow cover in winter, the permafrost zones show diagnostic long term freezing indices and thawing indices. The warmer boundary of the zone of continuous permafrost traverses the mean annual air temperature (MAAT). The boundary between discontinuous and sporadic permafrost lies just on the cold side of 0° C MAAT. The sporadic permafrost zone includes the zone of ice caves and the regions with patches of ice beneath ponds and peatbogs, extending to 5° C MAAT at a thawing index of 4000 degree days per year. The relationship is applicable to Norway, Iceland, Spitzbergen, Canada and the People's Republic of Mongolia. There are some marked variations in lapse rate from one environment to another, the most marked of which occurs above tree line where the lapse rate increases markedly in winter, though not in summer. This produces a change in MAAT of 2.5° C on Plateau Mountain. The changes also occur at some points in non-permafrost areas and it appears likely that they are due to spatial and seasonal changes in albedo. Whatever the cause, the variations in lapse rate indicate that calculations of past world climate change based on data from one area may be misleading

Cold Air Drainage West of Fort Nelson, British Columbia

In the early mornings of 7, 22 and 23 January 1982, intense cold air drainage was observed in the valleys on the eastern slopes of the Rocky Mountains west of Fort Nelson, British Columbia. Temperature differences of 31 degrees C were noted, the coldest temperature recorded being -71 degrees C (a new North American record), though even colder temperatures probably occurred at other sites. These were produced by an intense cold arctic high-pressure cell which gave regionally still air and clear skies and permitted marked local cooling during the nights. Similar conditions should be expected elsewhere along the slopes of the Rocky Mountains in northern B.C. and southern Yukon Territory

Dynamics and Origin of Saline Soils on the Slims River Delta, Kluane National Park, Yukon Territory

The saline soils of the Slims River Delta have developed on land formed in the last 100 years in an area of otherwise continuous permafrost. Deep seasonal frost on the delta prevents downward leaching of salts when the snow melts. Instead the salts accumulate at the surface as the ground dries, while additional salts are added from springs at the base of the surrounding mountains. Late summer rains can leach the soils if they are sufficiently heavy, producing a three- to fourfold variation in salinity from year to year. The efflorescences are dominated by the hexahydrate of magnesium sulfate, and the high sulfate content is probably the reason that soils in depressions with the morphology of solonetzic soils remain reasonably friable. The distribution of the characteristic halophytic plant associations found on these soils appears to be controlled more by soil moisture content than by the actual salinity level.

Climatic Zonality of Periglacial Landforms in Mountain Areas

The alpine periglacial areas of the world can be divided into three distinctive landscape types dominated by one of the following: active rock glaciers, active block streams, or gelifluction landforms. These also correspond to distinct climates, the active rock glaciers occurring under cold, humid conditions; the active block streams in cold, dry climates; and gelifluction-dominated landforms occurring in warmer areas. These have distinct ranges of mean annual temperature and precipitation, which can be used in interpreting climatic changes based on distribution of fossil landforms.Key words: alpine permafrost, block streams, rock glaciers, gelifluctionOn peut diviser les régions périglaciaires alpines du globe en trois types de paysages distincts, dominés par un des éléments suivants: glaciers rocheux actifs, coulées de pierres actives ou reliefs de gélifluxion. Ces éléments correspondent aussi à des climats distincts, les glaciers rocheux existant dans des conditions de froid et d'humidité; les coulées de pierres actives sous des climats froids et secs; et les reliefs de gélifluxion dans des régions plus tempérées. Ces paysages ont des gammes différentes de moyennes annuelles de températures et de précipitations, qui peuvent servir à interpréter les changements climatiques fondés sur la distribution des reliefs fossiles.Mots clés : pergélisol alpin, coulées de pierre, glaciers rocheux, gélifluxio