The welfare costs of urban outdoor water restrictions

Outdoor water restrictions are usually implemented as bans on a particular type of watering technology (sprinklers), which allow households to substitute for labour-intensive (hand-held) watering. This paper presents a household production model approach to analysing the impact of sprinkler restrictions on consumer welfare and their efficacy as a demand management tool. Central to our empirical analysis is an experimentally derived production function which describes the relationship between irrigation and lawn quality. We demonstrate that for a typical consumer complete sprinkler bans may be little more effective than milder restrictions policies, but are substantially more costly to the household.household model, urban water demand, urban water restrictions, Resource /Energy Economics and Policy,

Unresolved Legacies: Aboriginal Food Production Landscapes, Ecosystem Recovery Strategies & Land Use Planning for Conservation of the Garry Oak Ecosystems in South-Western British Columbia

In Canada, aboriginal legacies in landscapes and their implications for land use planning for biodiversity conservation remain poorly acknowledged. Similarly, inter-cultural conversations on values about and priorities for biological resources and habitat protection remain under-developed. This essay begins with a rhetorical question. Will it be possible to forge successful ecosystem recovery strategies, to maintain all elements of local biological diversity through land use planning, without far deeper cognizance of the aboriginal legacies in Canadian landscapes? I do not think so. This discussion, from the drier enclaves on the south coast of British Columbia, centres on a federally funded ecosystem recovery team in the first four years of its operation from 1999 to 2003 and the near total lack of outreach to, and engagement with, aboriginal people and First Nations. These were the same years as the final phase of development of Canada’s relatively weak Species At Risk Act (SARA).2

Lost Landscapes and the Spatial Contextualization of Queerness

Lesbian, gay, and bisexual1 habitation of outdoor and indoor environments has become a major topic in queer2 theory and spatial issues3 have come to represent new frontiers in the politics of our various communities. Homophobia, violence, and isolation in outdoor spaces arc coming to be framed as environmental problems. A host of possibilities for new alliances around queer space is emerging. But it is first necessary to ask a number of questions before specific interventions in the condition of outdoor areas can better define and strengthen our communities and improve our lives

From hitting to tattling to gossip: An evolutionary rationale for the development of indirect aggression

Adult humans are characterized by low rates of intra-group physical aggression, relative to both human children and non-human animals. I propose that the suppression of physically aggressive tendencies has been achieved partly through the replacement of dominance hierarchies by prestige hierarchies, driven by indirect reciprocity and mediated by indirectly aggressive competition and linguistic transmission of reputations. Reviewing the developmental literature on indirect aggression and related constructs provides three pieces of evidence that evolutionarily old impulses towards physical aggression are gradually socialized into indirect aggression: (i) physical aggression falls in early childhood over the same age range during which indirect aggression increases; (ii) the same individuals engage in both physical and indirect aggression; and (iii) dominant individuals practice indirect aggression more frequently. Consideration of the developmental course of indirect aggression is complemented by analysis of similar developments in verbal behaviors that are not necessarily aggressive, namely tattling and gossip. Two developmental transitions in indirect aggression and related behaviors are postulated. The first occurs in early childhood as children become aware of norms against physical aggression. The second occurs in preadolescence with the development of increasingly covert forms of reputational competition, as children try to renegotiate their status within peer social networks

The adaptive problem of absent third-party punishment

Language is a uniquely human behaviour, which has presented unique adaptive problems. Prominent among these is the transmission of information that may affect an individual’s reputation. The possibility of punishment of those with a low reputation by absent third parties has created a selective pressure on human beings that is not shared by any other species. This has led to the evolution of unique cognitive structures that are capable of handling such a novel adaptive challenge. One of these, we argue, is the propositional theory of mind, which enables individuals to model, and potentially manipulate, their own reputation in the minds of other group members, by representing the beliefs that others have about the first party’s intentions and actions. Support for our theoretical model is provided by an observational study on tattling in two preschools, and an experimental study of giving under threat of gossip in a dictator game

Blue light regenerates functional visual pigments in mammals through a retinyl-phospholipid intermediate.

The light absorbing chromophore in opsin visual pigments is the protonated Schiff base of 11-cis-retinaldehyde (11cRAL). Absorption of a photon isomerizes 11cRAL to all-trans-retinaldehyde (atRAL), briefly activating the pigment before it dissociates. Light sensitivity is restored when apo-opsin combines with another 11cRAL to form a new visual pigment. Conversion of atRAL to 11cRAL is carried out by enzyme pathways in neighboring cells. Here we show that blue (450-nm) light converts atRAL specifically to 11cRAL through a retinyl-phospholipid intermediate in photoreceptor membranes. The quantum efficiency of this photoconversion is similar to rhodopsin. Photoreceptor membranes synthesize 11cRAL chromophore faster under blue light than in darkness. Live mice regenerate rhodopsin more rapidly in blue light. Finally, whole retinas and isolated cone cells show increased photosensitivity following exposure to blue light. These results indicate that light contributes to visual-pigment renewal in mammalian rods and cones through a non-enzymatic process involving retinyl-phospholipids.It is currently thought that visual pigments in vertebrate photoreceptors are regenerated exclusively through enzymatic cycles. Here the authors show that mammalian photoreceptors also regenerate opsin pigments in light through photoisomerization of N-ret-PE (N-retinylidene-phosphatidylethanolamine

Part 1: From Queer/Natures to Queer Ecologies

This is a portion of a roundtable discussion on queer ecologies held on 11 September 2014. The roundtable is also available as a podcast and was produced in collaboration with CoHearence, an initiative of graduate students in the Faculty of Environmental Studies suppored by NiCHE (Network in Canadian History and Environment)

Part 3: Politics, Resistance, Alliances, and Imbroglios

This is a portion of a roundtable discussion on queer ecologies held on 11 September 2014. The roundtable is also available as a podcast and was produced in collaboration with CoHearence, an initiative of graduate students in the Faculty of Environmental Studies suppored by NiCHE (Network in Canadian History and Environment)