La politique internationale dans l’Arctique : une perspective américaine

The Arctic is emerging today as an international region whose importance in political, economic, and environmental terms rivals that of the world's other major regions. What remains in doubt, at this juncture, is how the Arctic states -not to mention others — will respond to this development in policy terms. Are these states likely to upgrade their capacity to handle Arctic issues by adding substantial Arctic expertise to their policy planning staffs; creating bureaux of Arctic or northern affairs in their foreign ministries; establishing effective interagency coordinating mechanisms to handle complex Arctic issues, or devising new Arctic policies to replace the policies of benign neglect they have long relied on in dealing with Arctic matters ? These are serious concerns whose resolution will take time and may differ from state to state. Just as the recognition of the Arctic as a distinctive international region has been a major development of the 1980s, the formulation of appropriate public responses to this development seems likely to become a central Arctic concern of the 1990s

Brief 2: Overcoming Fragmented Governance: The Case of Climate Change and the MDGs

Fragmented governance hampers efforts to address tightly coupled challenges, like coming to grips with climate change and fulfilling the Millennium Development Goals. The way forward is to launch programmatic initiatives focusing on adaptation to climate change and the transition to a green economy that appeal to many separate bodies as win-win opportunities

Avoiding Institutional Failure: Risk Factors and Response Strategies

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The Paris Agreement: Destined to Succeed or Doomed to Fail?

Is the 2015 Paris Agreement on climate change destined to succeed or doomed to fail? If all the pledges embedded in the intended nationally determined contributions (INDCs) are implemented fully, temperatures at the Earth’s surface are predicted to rise by 3–4 °C, far above the agreement’s goal of limiting increases to 1.5 °C. This means that the fate of the agreement will be determined by the success of efforts to strengthen or ratchet up the commitments contained in the national pledges over time. The first substantive section of this essay provides a general account of mechanisms for ratcheting up commitments and conditions determining the use of these mechanisms in international environmental agreements. The second section applies this analysis to the specific case of the Paris Agreement. The conclusion is mixed. There are plenty of reasons to doubt whether the Paris Agreement will succeed in moving from strength to strength in a fashion resembling experience with the Montreal Protocol on ozone depleting substances. Nevertheless, there is more room for hope in this regard than those who see the climate problem as unusually malign, wicked, or even diabolical are willing to acknowledge

Arctic Governance - Pathways to the Future

The Arctic has become a highly dynamic socio-ecological system due largely to the interacting forces of climate change and a suite of factors that we commonly group together under the rubric of globalization. The result is a cascade of developments that are accentuating the links between Arctic processes and global systems and generating new needs for governance to maintain sustainable human-environment relationships in the circumpolar north. This article addresses the resultant challenge of Arctic governance with particular reference to five themes: (i) the underlying drivers of change in the Arctic, (ii) the identity of legitimate stakeholders in responding to emerging issues of governance, (iii) the framing of Arctic issues for purposes of policymaking, (iv) calls for an international agreement for the Arctic Ocean, and (v) proposals for a comprehensive and legally binding treaty for the Arctic as a whole. The analysis yields negative conclusions regarding some popular proposals (e.g. calls for an Arctic Treaty). But this does not mean there is no need or no scope for innova- tive initiatives relating to Arctic governance. The conclusion sets forth a series of more modest but also more realistic recommendations aimed at enhancing good governance in this dynamic setting.Keywords: Arctic, Arctic Council, Arctic Treaty, governance, policy discourses, stakeholdersCitation: Arctic Review on Law and Politics, vol. 1, 2/2010 p. 164-185. ISSN 1891-625

Onion peel extracts ameliorate hyperglycemia and insulin resistance in high fat diet/streptozotocin-induced diabetic rats

<p>Abstract</p> <p>Background</p> <p>Quercetin derivatives in onions have been regarded as the most important flavonoids to improve diabetic status in cells and animal models. The present study was aimed to examine the hypoglycemic and insulin-sensitizing capacity of onion peel extract (OPE) containing high quercetin in high fat diet/streptozotocin-induced diabetic rats and to elucidate the mechanism of its insulin-sensitizing effect.</p> <p>Methods</p> <p>Male Sprague-Dawley rats were fed the AIN-93G diet modified to contain 41.2% fat and intraperitoneally injected with a single dose of streptozotocin (40 mg/kg body weight). One week after injection, the rats with fasting blood glucose levels above 126 mg/dL were randomly divided into 4 groups to treat with high fat diet containing 0 (diabetic control), 0.5, or 1% of OPE or 0.1% quercetin (quercetin equivalent to 1% of OPE) for 8 weeks. To investigate the mechanism for the effects of OPE, we examined biochemical parameters (insulin sensitivity and oxidative stresses) and protein and gene expressions (pro-inflammatory cytokines and receptors).</p> <p>Results</p> <p>Compared to the diabetic control, hypoglycemic and insulin-sensitizing capability of 1% OPE were demonstrated by significant improvement of glucose tolerance as expressed in incremental area under the curve (<it>P </it>= 0.0148). The insulin-sensitizing effect of OPE was further supported by increased glycogen levels in liver and skeletal muscle (<it>P </it>< 0.0001 and <it>P </it>= 0.0089, respectively). Quantitative RT-PCR analysis showed increased expression of insulin receptor (<it>P </it>= 0.0408) and GLUT4 (<it>P </it>= 0.0346) in muscle tissues. The oxidative stress, as assessed by superoxide dismutase activity and malondialdehyde formation, plasma free fatty acids, and hepatic protein expressions of IL-6 were significantly reduced by 1% OPE administration (<it>P </it>= 0.0393, 0.0237, 0.0148 and 0.0025, respectively).</p> <p>Conclusion</p> <p>OPE might improve glucose response and insulin resistance associated with type 2 diabetes by alleviating metabolic dysregulation of free fatty acids, suppressing oxidative stress, up-regulating glucose uptake at peripheral tissues, and/or down-regulating inflammatory gene expression in liver. Moreover, in most cases, OPE showed greater potency than pure quercetin equivalent. These findings provide a basis for the use of onion peel to improve insulin insensitivity in type 2 diabetes.</p

How Does the Arctic Council Support Conservation of Arctic Biodiversity?

Publisher's version (útgefin grein)The Arctic Council is an intergovernmental forum promoting cooperation, coordination and interaction among Arctic states, indigenous communities, and peoples on issues of common importance. The rising geo-political importance of the Arctic and the onset of climate change has resulted in the Council becoming a focus of increasing interest from both inside and beyond the Arctic. This has resulted in new demands placed on the Council, attracting an increasing number of participants, and instigating a period of transformation as Arctic states work to find a way to balance conflicting demands to improve the Council's effectiveness and take care of national interests. This paper considers whether, during this time of change, the Council is having an impact on the issues it was formed to address, i.e., environmental protection and sustainable development. To provide answers, it looks at how the Council reports on and evaluates progress towards the implementation of recommendations it makes regarding biodiversity, how it identifies where activities have had impacts and uncovers the mechanisms through which they were successful, to provide an insight into how the Arctic Council can be an agent of change.We thank the numerous people who took time to review this paper and provide insights and constructive comments which led to its improvement. This work is supported by, and contributes to, the NordForsk-funded Nordic Centre of Excellence project (award 76654) Arctic Climate Predictions: Pathways to Resilient, Sustainable Societies (ARCPATH).Peer Reviewe