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The winter of 2013/2014 saw a series of severe storms hit the UK, leading to widespread flooding, a major emergency response and extensive media exposure. Previous research indicates that experiencing extreme weather events has the potential to heighten engagement with climate change, however the process by which this occurs remains largely unknown, and establishing a clear causal relationship from experience to perceptions is methodologically challenging. The UK winter flooding offered a natural experiment to examine this question in detail. We compare individuals personally affected by flooding ( n = 162) to a nationally representative sample ( n = 975). We show that direct experience of flooding leads to an overall increased salience of climate change, pronounced emotional responses and greater perceived personal vulnerability and risk perceptions. We also present the first evidence that direct flooding experience can give rise to behavioural intentions beyond individual sustainability actions, including support for mitigation policies, and personal climate adaptation in matters unrelated to the direct experience. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The article does two things. First, it explores the emerging field of ecology and law through the examination of Earth Jurisprudence developed in the work of Berry, Cullinan, and Burdon. Second, it puts this Earth Jurisprudence and the emerging field of ecology and law in connection with the wide ranging philosophical work of Deleuze & Guattari. Earth Jurisprudence and the emerging field of ecology and law are introduced through the exploration of four themes that characterise the field of study: a critique of the dominant western worldview and image of thought; a new philosophy of nature widely informed by contemporary science and cosmology; a new relation to the Earth and nature in affectual intensities, image of thinking, and investment of the social field; and, the realisation of the necessity and centrality of a fundamental reconceptualization of legality and governance. The Earth Jurisprudence of Berry, Cullinan, and Burdon (particularly Cullinan's Wild Law: A Manifesto for Earth Justice) is then explored substantively in Cullinan's reconceptualization of legality, the Grand Jurisprudence that informs Earth Jurisprudence, the Earth Jurisprudence of the promotion of mutual ecocentric human-Earth enhancement, the development of Earth rights, the reconceptualization of property and land, and the Wild Law that Earth Jurisprudence produces as the outcome of its creativity. Earth Jurisprudence and the emerging field of ecology and law are a far-reaching development within legal studies, with potentially profound implications for our contemporary conceptualisation of legality and governance and the creation of a concept of law for a new Earth. When put into connection with the wide ranging philosophical joint work of Deleuze & Guattari there emerge striking commonalities, convergences, and a common jurisprudential project of the creation of a legality for a new Earth. The article concludes with the argument that the work of Deleuze & Guattari could provide a key resource for the development of Earth Jurisprudence and the emerging field of ecology and law, particularly the Deleuze & Guattari jurisprudential concept of emergent law. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Although in recent years great emphasis has been placed on global agreements and national commitments on climate change, ultimately action on mitigation and adaptation must take place at the local level. Many local authorities have to face questions of whether they should develop policies on climate change, and if so, on what evidence should policies be designed and delivered. This paper describes how academic research on the economics of low carbon cities (the 'mini-Stern review') helped create such an evidence base for the Leeds City Region and its constituent local authorities. We describe how the response to the evidence and the pathways to impact were different in the individual local authorities and what this means for our understanding of evidence in local policy making. In terms of Weiss' (Social sciences and modern states: national experiences and theoretical crossroads. Advances in political science, Cambridge University Press, Cambridge, ) classification, the study was mainly useful as an argument and idea rather than being used instrumentally. We find that the policy and political context in each authority determines to a large extent whether such an academic study is useable as evidence. The contents and timing of the study need to align with existing policy and/or political agendas: is climate change on the agenda at all, with what priority and how is it framed. We find confirmation of a relationship between the policy problem type and the role of evidence as argument, idea or data. The mini-Stern study itself was just one contribution to wide-ranging processes of informing, convincing, pressurising, etc., not just within the different councils but also within the wider communities. Other contextual factors include composition, agenda and activities of local civil society and the local business community. Finally, it depends on the expertise of policy officers in the councils what use is made of evidence. Making policy takes (much) time, translation and negotiation across levels and sectors. Policy work describes how policy officers bring their diverse forms of knowledge to bear on policy questions; how this work is done is something that is learned from practice rather than from the study. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

We employ a single-country dynamically-recursive Computable General Equilibrium model to make health-focussed macroeconomic assessments of three contingent UK Greenhouse Gas (GHG) mitigation strategies, designed to achieve 2030 emission targets as suggested by the UK Committee on Climate Change. In contrast to previous assessment studies, our main focus is on health co-benefits additional to those from reduced local air pollution. We employ a conservative cost-effectiveness methodology with a zero net cost threshold. Our urban transport strategy (with cleaner vehicles and increased active travel) brings important health co-benefits and is likely to be strongly cost-effective; our food and agriculture strategy (based on abatement technologies and reduction in livestock production) brings worthwhile health co-benefits, but is unlikely to eliminate net costs unless new technological measures are included; our household energy efficiency strategy is likely to breakeven only over the long term after the investment programme has ceased (beyond our 20 year time horizon). We conclude that UK policy makers will, most likely, have to adopt elements which involve initial net societal costs in order to achieve future emission targets and longer-term benefits from GHG reduction. Cost-effectiveness of GHG strategies is likely to require technological mitigation interventions and/or demand-constraining interventions with important health co-benefits and other efficiency-enhancing policies that promote internalization of externalities. Health co-benefits can play a crucial role in bringing down net costs, but our results also suggest the need for adopting holistic assessment methodologies which give proper consideration to welfare-improving health co-benefits with potentially negative economic repercussions (such as increased longevity). [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The article focuses on the plan of the British government to terminate or unite its scientific advisory and regulatory bodies. It says that the abolishment of Great Britain regulatory bodies could compromise independent scientific guidance. It says that Royal Commission on Environmental Pollution (RCEP) has provided independent advice since 1970 but will be abolished in March 2011. According to Susan Owens, RCEP has tremendous contribution in the development of environmental policy.

Opinion. Discusses Britain's Royal Commission on Environmental Pollution and its cautious proposals for the regulation of the release of engineered organisms into the environment. Statutory licensing procedure; Information to be publicly available; Disagreement with European Community proposals.

The article reports on British Prime Minister Gordon Brown's creation of a Department of Energy and Climate Change. The announcement was made on October 3, 2008 as part of a wider recognition of the government. The creation of the department was widely praised by environmentalists. The article reports on climate change and energy policy in Great Britain.

The article recaps facts about nature and science that were discovered previously. In June 1,1958, the Clean Air Act of 1956 was implemented. Clean Air Act bans dark smoke from any chimney in England and Wales. The ban is applicable to all buildings, railway engines and ships, however it directly affects industrial and commercial premises. 100 years ago a notable paper was read by professor W. Phillips related to children's capacity for attention. After referring to various experimental inquiries, he came up with an assumption that a child's attention declines more quickly in the afternoon and that math is the subject that demands more attention than any other subjects.

Reports on the opposition to a proposal to merge three government agencies into a single environment agency in Great Britain. Provisions under Environment Bill pending in the British Parliament; Objectives of merger; Initial funding for merged agency.

Reports on the British government's by-election defeat on legislation on combating global warming. Introduction of value-added tax (VAT) on domestic heating fuel; Cutting of emissions; 1992 Rio de Janeiro earth summit; Main strategy; Growing awareness that fiscal instruments alone is insufficient; Need for an approach that combines price signals and the ability to respond to them.

Reports on the British government's plan for closure of the Warren Spring Laboratory at Welwyn, a research center for environment technology. Plans of merging with AEA Technology in Oxfordshire; Goal of combination of complementary strengths of the two organizations; Reduction on research spending; Transfer of staff; Plans of erection of a new building to be written-off; Criticisms from opposition Labour party.

Reports that the British Ministry of Defence (MoD) is putting its resources at the disposal of environmental researchers in a new initiative intended to benefit science. Questions about why the MoD is being so generous; Details of the project called, `Joining Forces for the Environment'; Involvement of David Sutton, a botanist at the Natural History Museum; More.

Reveals that the UK government is planning to amend the Environmental Protection Bill to ensure public access to information on proposed releases of genetically engineered organisms. Pressure from environmental groups and members of the House of Lords.

Describes the British government's white paper on environmental policy, titled `This Common Inheritance.' Environmental pressure groups claim the paper has few new initiatives; Environment Secretary, Chris Patten, suggests more radical action in the future.

Opinion. Comments on Christopher Patten's (British Secretary of State for the Environment) white paper on environmental policy. Bad press unjustified; Lack of policy on strategic issues.

Reports on a three-year project being funded by the UK Department of the Environment (DoE) which will monitor the spread of the Mediterranean firethorn leaf-miner moth in southern England. The moth is expected to be used as a model for the spread of genetically engineered insects.

Reveals, briefly, that the British government is being urged to support a strong scientific base for the separate English, Welsh and Scottish conservation agencies that will replace the Nature Conservancy Council.

Reports on the British government's wide-ranging environmental protection bill that outlines a new method to measure pollution from Britain's dirtiest factories and presents new controls on the release of genetically engineered organisms. Integrated pollution control; Assessment of environmental hazards; Other inclusions of the `green bill.'

Reports on new legislation for compulsory registration and licensing for release of any genetically engineered organisms by Britain's Royal Commission on Environmental Pollution. Details of plan; European Commission proposals.

British Institution of Environmental Health Officers recommends that the radon dose at which remedial action is necessary should be halved, from 400 to 200 becquerels per m3.