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Issue 11.3 Abstracts

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Aldo Leopold: In Search of a Poetic Science

By Daniel Berthold

In this article, I examine Aldo Leopold's experimentation in his Sand County Almanac with a form of poetic discourse that seeks to reimagine the nature of science ¾ ultimately, which seeks the possibility of what might be called a “poetic science.” I engage a set of interconnected themes which are central to this project of reinvisioning the enterprise of science: Leopold's radical questioning of the meaning of perception, of our experience of the “other,” and of the dichotomy of “subjectivity” and “objectivity.” Finally, I offer a reading of “The Song of the Gavilan,” the Almanac essay in which Leopold makes his most extended comments about science.

Keywords: Aldo Leopold, Sand County Almanac, poetic discourse, science

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Ecological Integrity Discourses: Linking Ecology with Cultural Transformation

By David Manuel-Navarrete, James J. Kay and Dan Dolderman

Scientific discourses are rhetorical constructs for interpreting, articulating, and coordinating the bits of information and knowledge produced by science. Discourses also help scientific communities promote and advocate particular strategies for action. A review of the literature on ecological integrity has led us to identify four scientific discourses: (1) Wilderness-Normative, (2) Systemic-Normative, (3) Ecosystemic-Pluralistic, and (4) Transpersonal-Collaborative. Each of these discourses differs in the conceptual definition of ecological integrity, the role of science, and the assumptions regarding human-ecosystem relationships. The Transpersonal-Collaborative differs from the others in that it embraces the construction of personal and cultural meanings for ecological integrity. Each of the four discourses emphasizes different beliefs and worldviews, which, in turn, promote specific conservation practices. Acknowledging a diversity of discourses and recognizing personal commitments to particular discourses would increase the transparency of contextual decisions regarding the alternative conservation strategies suggested by different scientific communities.

Keywords: Ecological integrity, socio-ecological systems, global environmental crisis, collaborative learning, conservation discourses

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Business and Environmental Protection: An Introduction

By Jorge Rivera and Magali Delmas

This special issue of the Human Ecology Review introduces readers of this journal to research papers and forum opinion pieces that seek to improve the understanding of the interaction between business and the natural environment in different parts of the world. From all the research manuscripts submitted, we selected three papers for publication. We also present in the Forum section the opinion pieces of six recognized academic and industry leaders in the business and natural environmental field. Finally, we include a review of the book Corporate Environmentalism and Public Policy (Lyon and Maxwell 2004).

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How Do Public Disclosure Pollution Control Programs Work? Evidence from Indonesia

By Allen Blackman, Shakeb Afsah and Damayanti Ratunanda

Although a growing body of evidence suggests that publicly disclosing information about plants' environmental performance can motivate emissions reductions, this phenomenon remains poorly understood. To help fill this gap, this paper presents original data from a survey of plants participating in the Program for Pollution Control, Evaluation and Rating (PROPER), Indonesia 's widely acclaimed public disclosure program. The data suggest that a key means by which PROPER spurs abatement is by improving factory managers' information about their own plants' emissions and abatement opportunities. These finding contrast with the prevailing view in the literature that public disclosure enhances pressures to abate placed on firms by external agents such as community groups and shareholders. But our data also suggest that PROPER's “environmental audit” effect operates in concert with external pressures. Therefore, simply supplying new information to plant managers without making that information public may not be sufficient to motivate significant abatement.

Keywords: Public disclosure, environment, PROPER, informal regulation, Indonesia , Asia

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Two Pathways to Energy Efficiency: An Energy Star Case Study

By Bruce Paton

While many voluntary environmental initiatives have focused on interactions between firms and regulators, voluntary product-labeling programs are designed to alter the relationship between firms and their customers. By providing information that prices alone cannot, product labeling has the potential to enable customers to respond to the "green" attributes of a product, allowing the preferences of customers and other stakeholders to influence company decisions concerning energy efficiency or other environmentally desirable objectives.

Despite the potential for both producers and consumers to gain from better information, voluntary product labeling schemes addressing energy efficiency have not emerged in the absence of government intervention. Voluntary public policies to label products have shown significant potential to influence producer and consumer decisions. However, the mechanics of these programs and the industry dynamics they produce remain largely unexplored.

This paper describes two voluntary labeling programs in order to illustrate two different mechanisms that have become common archetypes in voluntary initiatives. Converging mechanisms lead all targeted firms to adopt a similar, desired behavior. Separating mechanisms drive firms to segregate into different types based on their environmental performance, allowing external audiences to reward each type differently. The government sponsors of programs choose policy instruments such as product labels, government procurement preferences, and in some instances negotiations to help determine which type of mechanism will develop.

The paper illustrates the differences between these two archetypes by describing the Energy STAR programs for office products and washing machines, and suggests circumstances in which each type of mechanism may be more feasible and more desirable to create.

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A Comparative Institutional Approach to Environmental Regulation: The Case of Environmental Degradation Along the U.S.-Mexico Border

By Brian Husted

This paper proposes a simple heuristic model of environmental regulation choice, incorporating both market failure and government failure. It relates the comparative costs of alternative forms of environmental regulation to measurement difficulty and matches appropriate regulatory responses in a discriminating way. The model is then applied to the concrete problems of transboundary environmental pollution encountered by the United States and Mexico . The implications for business, public policy, and research are developed.

Keywords : transaction costs, environment, regulation, border

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