Environmental Sociology and the Legal Calculation of Uncertainty and Precaution

In the face of perceived environmental threats, especially from climate change, environmental sociology has become increasingly focused on uncertainty and precaution. Various contributors to the sociological literature (for example, Furedi, Ewald, and Shaw) offer useful insights into the way uncertainty and precaution are being formulated in regard to environmental risk, particularly the risk of climate change. Their insights can be complemented by a different set of insights, into the nitty-gritty of the complex legal mechanisms being forged in common-law countries to guide institutional and individual actors as to how the law calculates risk, particularly by formulating a technical legal device, ‘the precautionary principle’. This paper, in addressing a small element of this lacuna in the impressive sociological literature about environmental risks, focuses on legal deliberations of the risks of climate change in one region of Australia, the Gippsland coast in Victoria

Does the use of ‘the public’ in some debates about environmental decision making properly reflect the different publics involved in the decision making process?

The focus of this paper is a distinction between the public-in-general and publics-in- particular. It first considers Mike Michael’s (2009) argument, focused on the practice of science, that the public-in-general is far too blunt an instrument, then it adopts Michael’s schema to the analysis of debates about environmental decision making, in order to argue that the different publics involved in this decision making might be better analysed and described in terms of their particularity. Secondly, it criticises some contributions to debates about the role of lay legal advocates in environmental decision making for relying too heavily upon a notion of the public-in-general. And thirdly, by way of enhancing their approach, it discusses the advantages of focusing upon particular publics of environmental governance

Distinct H3F3A and H3F3B driver mutations define chondroblastoma and giant cell tumor of bone

It is recognized that some mutated cancer genes contribute to the development of many cancer types, whereas others are cancer type specific. For genes that are mutated in multiple cancer classes, mutations are usually similar in the different affected cancer types. Here, however, we report exquisite tumor type specificity for different histone H3.3 driver alterations. In 73 of 77 cases of chondroblastoma (95%), we found p.Lys36Met alterations predominantly encoded in H3F3B, which is one of two genes for histone H3.3. In contrast, in 92% (49/53) of giant cell tumors of bone, we found histone H3.3 alterations exclusively in H3F3A, leading to p.Gly34Trp or, in one case, p.Gly34Leu alterations. The mutations were restricted to the stromal cell population and were not detected in osteoclasts or their precursors. In the context of previously reported H3F3A mutations encoding p.Lys27Met and p.Gly34Arg or p.Gly34Val alterations in childhood brain tumors, a remarkable picture of tumor type specificity for histone H3.3 driver alterations emerges, indicating that histone H3.3 residues, mutations and genes have distinct functions

Decision-making, cognitive distortions and alcohol use in adolescent problem and non-problem gamblers: an experimental study

In the psychological literature, many studies have investigated the neuropsychological and behavioral changes that occur developmentally during adolescence. These studies have consistently observed a deficit in the decision-making ability of children and adolescents. This deficit has been ascribed to incomplete brain development. The same deficit has also been observed in adult problem and pathological gamblers. However, to date, no study has examined decision-making in adolescents with and without gambling problems. Furthermore, no study has ever examined associations between problem gambling, decision-making, cognitive distortions and alcohol use in youth. To address these issues, 104 male adolescents participated in this study. They were equally divided in two groups, problem gamblers and non-problem gamblers, based on South Oaks Gambling Screen Revised for Adolescents scores. All participants performed the Iowa Gambling Task and completed the Gambling Related Cognitions Scale and the Alcohol Use Disorders Identification Test. Adolescent problem gamblers displayed impaired decision-making, reported high cognitive distortions, and had more problematic alcohol use compared to non-problem gamblers. Strong correlations between problem gambling, alcohol use, and cognitive distortions were observed. Decision-making correlated with interpretative bias. This study demonstrated that adolescent problem gamblers appear to have the same psychological profile as adult problem gamblers and that gambling involvement can negatively impact on decision-making ability that, in adolescence, is still developing. The correlations between interpretative bias and decision-making suggested that the beliefs in the ability to influence gambling outcomes may facilitate decision-making impairment

Competing understandings of the intersection between society and environment in the climate change debate

The failure of the Copenhagen Conference to produce a legally binding agreement marks an impasse. It also poses difficulties for sociology. This paper will not attempt to directly explain why no agreement could be reached in Copenhagen. Rather, it will sketch the sociological difficulties faced by this and other such mechanisms to use politics and law to facilitate the long term stability of the interface between natural environments and modern societies. In particular, the paper will indicate the role of each of science, morality, law, politics, and economy in producing competing understandings of „environment‟ and „society‟, competing understandings which are drawn on by many participants in the climate change debate. Our appreciation of how and why it presents a crisis, how it might have occurred, its consequences, and the fact that it is an environmental problem is a product of a certain type of specifically „environmental‟ thinking. Our project is to undertake a close exposition of how various understandings of the potential threat of climate change are generated

Governmentality, Law, Public Interest and the Environment

The legal regulation of the environment is exemplary of the formation, practice and challenge of modern legal discourse and governance. The latter part of the twentieth century has seen the emergence of environmentalism and the problematization of the environment in terms of the management of hazard and risk. The social authority of law to endorse and regulate governmental programmes has meant that it has been inevitably implicated in the contestation and negotiation of environmental governance. In turn, environmental governance and discourse have required a certain refiguring of legal rationality. Legal discourse has been confronted by the immanent critique of environmentalism. In this paper I reflect upon the formation and limits of legal discourse about protection of the environment

Toxic Tort and the Articulation of Environmental Risk

Ten women who work in ABC television news studios and offices in Toowong Brisbane Australia, have developed invasive breast cancer within a relatively short period of time, one of the first diagnoses being in 2002 (Swan 2007). The unhappy coincidence of ten women in the same workplace developing breast cancer is disturbingly insidious. Initial investigations were not able to identify a cause or explanation. A subsequent, very thorough inquiry led by Professor Bruce Armstrong has not been able to identify the specific cause of the breast cancer either, but it has found that the Brisbane ABC studios present an unequivocal risk to health. The incidence of breast cancer in women working at the studios was not considered random or coincidental, it was found to be ten times the expected rate (Armstrong 2006). The studios have now been abandoned, and all ten cases of breast cancer have been designated a rare ‘cancer cluster’ (Swan 2007)

Is there a need for more certainty in discretionary decision making in Australian family property law?

As family law in Australia is under consideration by the Australian Law Reform Commission, it is an opportune time to consider whether the family property regime is in need of reform, in particular to provide more certainty. This article explores, and details, the courts’ power to circumscribe the exercise of discretion in this area by making legitimate guidelines and binding rules. The article argues that insufficient attention has historically been paid to this power, resulting in a lack of clarity as to the status of statements of legal principle. The article concludes that this, alone, does not justify wholesale property law reform. It supports targeted, limited, legislative reform and greater focus by the judiciary on the classification of statements of principle