Mandating Environmental Liability Insurance

Plant cuticles are extracellular membranes covering aerial organs of plants, whose main functions rely on the protection against water loss, mechanical injury from the environment, attack of microorganism, and also regulation of gas exchange. Among the several constituents of plant cuticles, waxes are those that play an important role in their barrier properties. In order to enhance the mechanical properties of wax, NFC was applied in. In the project, mainly two kinds of methods were used to prepare wax-NFC composites. One way was wax and NFC were dissolved in toluene and casted to be a film, another way was to prepare NFC aerogel firstly, and then, impregnated the aerogel into wax liquid. After pressing it the structure was more compact. In order to characterize the properties of samples, SEM, XRD, TGA, DSC, Contact angle testing, tensile test and oxygen permeability methods were applied in

Reaction Time Differences in Video Game and Non-Video Game Players

This study represents the first phase of a broader study investigating potential brain processing differences between video gamers and non-gamers. The purpose of the current study was to investigate reaction times to visual stimuli in individuals who regularly play action games versus individuals who do not. Stimuli used were based on the visual oddball paradigm in which participants respond to standard and rare occurring visual targets. Results indicate that the speed of decision-making and reaction are increased for those who regularly play video games, and had started playing video games at a younger age. Findings suggest an interacting effect of years experience with video games, and gamer or non-gamer identifying status as determined by the average amount of game play per week. The current results have implications for possible neural processing differences concerning working memory in individuals who have more experience with video games. For this presentation, Benjamin Richardson received a College of the Sciences Best Poster Presentation Award for 2014

A legislative and institutional framework for environmental management in Nepal : review of legislation, administrative procedures and institutional arrangements relating to land use and resource management

This report provides a comprehensive review of the existing laws in Nepal relating to land use and natural resource management with regard to their effectiveness for environmental protection. A similar evaluation is made of the associated administrative practices and institutional arrangements. General recommendations are made for more appropriate ways to achieve environmental planning and management goals

Is East Asia Industrializing Too Quickly? Environmental Regulation in its Special Economic Zones

East Asia is undergoing its own Industrial Revolution. Special economic zones (SEZs) are playing a key role in its economic transformation. However, industrialization has brought great environmental concern. Over recent decades, China, the Philippines, South Korea, and other newly industrializing economies in East Asia have designated special areas for foreign investment and export production to which have been conceded favourable investment and trade conditions, and often exemption from certain kinds of regulation. Race to the bottom and related theories of the effects of inter-jurisdictional competition for investment predict that environmental regulation would be compromised in SEZs. Contrary to such hypotheses, there is some evidence that environmental regulation in East Asia\u27s industrializing zones is stricter than in other parts of their economies, and that foreign investors are sometimes more strictly regulated than local businesses. The experience of East Asia\u27s SEZs - particularly in China - suggests we need to re-think how we conceptualise the relationships between environmental law and foreign investment in the context of rapidly industrializing developing countries. This experience also reveals persistent weaknesses in the legal systems of East Asia and the fragility of the rule of (environmental) law. To address this, further reform to the environmental regulation of SEZs should be grounded in more wide-ranging and basic improvements to administrative regimes, policy instruments and access to justice

Can Socially Responsible Investment Provide a Means of Environmental Regulation?

The seemingly rapid growth of the market for socially responsible investment (\u27SRI) in Australia and other jurisdictions promises to make financing decisions more accountable to social and environmental criteria. Indeed, the ability of financiers to withhold funds and thereby hinder development, such as the decision of the Australia and New Zealand Banking Group Ltd in 2008 to shun financing a Tasmanian pulp mill planned by Gunns Ltd, raises hopes that financial institutions could act as surrogate environmental regulators. The long-standing SRI movement arose partly as an answer to the lacunae or weaknesses of official regulation, providing a means by which ethical investors could challenge corporations partaking in socially egregious or environmentally irresponsible practices condoned by authorities. Yet, these aspirations appear to have been too ambitious. Lacking sufficient market leverage, and reliant on relatively tame voluntary codes of conduct, paradoxically the success of the SRI movement increasingly relies on the state itself SRI depends on weightier public policy reforms in such areas as economic incentives and fiduciary duties, although considerable uncertainty persists concerning which policy reforms could most effectively advance SRI. Concomitantly, reformers must justify why investment institutions should be held legally accountable to a higher standard than those firms they finance. Unless these barriers to SRI and its regulation are resolved, it is doubtful whether SRI in Australia or elsewhere can contribute significantly to environmental governance

The Ties that Bind: Indigenous Peoples and Environmental Governance

Canvassing practices in many countries, this chapter analyses the relationships between Indigenous peoples and environmental governance. It examines the environmental values and practices of Indigenous peoples, primarily in order to assess their implications for the Indigenous stake in environmental governance. It identifies at least six major theories or perspectives concerning Indigenous environmental values and practices. Secondly, the chapter reviews the legal norms and governance tools that structure Indigenous involvement in environmental management, in order to assess their relative value for Indigenous stakeholders and implications for sustainable utilisation of natural resources

Keeping Ethical Investment Ethical: Regulatory Issues for Investing for Sustainability

Regulation must target the financial sector, which often funds and profits from environmentally unsustainable development. In an era of global financial markets, the financial sector has a crucial impact on the state of the environment. The long-standing movement for ethically and socially responsible investment (SRI) has recently begun to advocate environmental standards for financiers. While this movement is gaining more adherents, it has increasingly justified responsible financing as a path to be prosperous, rather than virtuous. This trend partly owes to how financial institutions view their legal responsibilities. The business case motivations that now predominantly drive SRI are not sufficient to make the financial sector a means to sustainable development. Some modest legal reforms to improve the quality and extent of SRI have yet to make a tangible difference. A more ambitious strategy to promote SRI for environmental sustainability is possible, based on reforming the fiduciary duties of financial institutions. Such duties, tied to concrete performance standards, could make financiers invest in more ethically responsible ways. Other collateral reforms to financial markets, including improved corporate environmental reporting, are required to promote sustainability