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The emergence of hydraulic fracturing techniques is generating a dramatic expansion of the development of domestic natural gas resources in the United States and abroad. Fracking also poses a series of environmental protection challenges that cut across traditional medium and program boundaries. Formal constraints on federal government engagement thus far devolve considerable latitude to individual states for policy development. This provides an important test of whether recent scholarly emphasis on highly innovative state environmental and energy policies can be extended to this burgeoning area. Pennsylvania has moved to the epicenter of the fracking revolution, reflecting its vast Marcellus Shale resource and far-reaching 2012 legislation. This article examines the Pennsylvania case and notes that the state's emerging policy appears designed to maximize resource extraction while downplaying environmental considerations. The case analysis generates questions as to whether this experience constitutes an influential state early mover that is likely to diffuse widely or is instead an aberration in a rapidly diversifying state policy development process. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

1. During recent decades, the ecological corridor has become a popular concept among ecologists, politicians and nature conservationists. However, it has been criticized from a scientific point of view. In this paper we question why this concept has been accepted so readily in policy and practice. 2. We present a conceptual framework to analyse the rise of the concept, especially in the Netherlands. We have studied the Dutch literature from the period 1980–2005, including the main ecological journal Landschap ( Landscape), policy documents and reports from the leading Dutch policy-orientated ecology research centre. 3. Many actors, including politicians, stakeholders and scientists, were involved in the development of the ecological corridor and the related National Ecological Network on the national and regional levels. The involvement of these actors changed the character of the concept into the multifunctional ‘robust corridor’. 4. The ecological corridor was probably so influential because its vague and flexible character facilitated the coming together of various stakeholders and scientists. It also functions as a metaphor, applicable to well-known entities such as construction and transport. Finally, scientists from the policy-orientated research centre were able to link the concept to fundamental science, policy and practice. In some stages of the policy-defining process, however, conflicts arose between the proponents of scientific soundness and those of social robustness that reduced the role of scientists. 5. Synthesis and applications. To make ecological concepts both scientifically sound and socially robust, several changes must take place in current interactions between ecology and society. First, during concept development it requires the existence of extensive, largely interactive peer groups with clearly defined relationships between scientists and non-scientists. Secondly, the concepts should be flexible and relatable to relevant knowledge, insights, values and practices. Thirdly, several feedback loops between science and non-science should be set up during the various stages of concept development and implementation. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

1. ‘The British Ecological Society aims to promote the science of ecology through research and to use the findings of such research to educate the public and influence policy decisions which involve ecological matters.’ Yet, how successful have we been in influencing UK and EU environmental policy? 2. Many scientists hold to the ‘deficit model’ of turning science into policy, the view that if only politicians are told what the science reveals, ‘correct’ policies will automatically follow. Nothing could be further from the truth. Politicians have all kinds of reasons, some valid, some less valid, not to adopt what often seem to us to be common sense policies to protect the environment. 3. Here, I explore some of the successes and failures of ecologists to influence UK and European environmental policy, using acid deposition, the collapse of global marine fisheries, GM crops and climate change, carbon dioxide and ocean acidification as examples. I briefly review the extensive literature (largely ignored by natural scientists) on what social scientists have to say about evidence-based policy-making (or the lack of it) and why it often appears to be so difficult to persuade politicians to adopt sound environmental policies. 4. Synthesis and applications. Ecologists can, and do, influence government policy on the environment, but often via complex and iterative interactions that can be painfully slow, and may require fundamental changes in politicians’ belief systems, values and norms. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Systematic conservation assessment and conservation planning are two distinct fields of conservation science often confused as one and the same. Systematic conservation assessment is the technical, often computer-based, identification of priority areas for conservation. Conservation planning is composed of a systematic conservation assessment coupled with processes for development of an implementation strategy and stakeholder collaboration. The peer-reviewed conservation biology literature abounds with studies analyzing the performance of assessments (e.g., area-selection techniques). This information alone, however, can never deliver effective conservation action; it informs conservation planning. Examples of how to translate systematic assessment outputs into knowledge and then use them for “doing” conservation are rare. South Africa has received generous international and domestic funding for regional conservation planning since the mid-1990s. We reviewed eight South African conservation planning processes and identified key ingredients of best practice for undertaking systematic conservation assessments in a way that facilitates implementing conservation action. These key ingredients include the design of conservation planning processes, skills for conservation assessment teams, collaboration with stakeholders, and interpretation and mainstreaming of products (e.g., maps) for stakeholders. Social learning institutions are critical to the successful operationalization of assessments within broader conservation planning processes and should include not only conservation planners but also diverse interest groups, including rural landowners, politicians, and government employees. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The focus of this contribution is the Hong Kong Special Administrative Region (HKSAR) of China, and more particularly the processes of environmental reform in the region. The authors discuss developments in environmental policy over the past three decades and explore the utility of Ecological Modernization Theory as a basis for future environmental reform at the local level and as a mechanism for tackling broader regional environmental concerns. The contribution also explores linkages between technology policy and the environment in Hong Kong, arguing that while the SAR possesses certain competitive advantages, greater attention must be given to fostering and facilitating technological innovation in the environmental sector. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This article examines the use of metadiscourse in introductory sections of the new (emerging) genre of environmental reports. This is contrasted with the chairman's statement in the established genre of corporate annual reports. The texts in both corpora were issued by British companies. Four categories of metadiscourse are analysed, using terminology from Mauranen (1993). The study indicates that metadiscourse may play a significant role in new genres. The study concludes that writers of the emerging genre of corporate environmental reports use metadiscourse to guide the readers. It also shows that the use of metadiscourse may have distinctly different functions in emerging genres compared to established ones. The categoriesaction markersandpreviews(localandglobal) are particularly useful in the comparison of the textual practices of established and emerging genres. Whereas the use of previews in the new genre informs and directs the readers as to the aims and global functions of the documents, in established genres this category may mark a deviation from what the writer sees as the conventional rhetorical (Move–Step) pattern. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Discusses the role of international law in the protection of the natural environment during armed conflict. Damages incurred during the Gulf War II; Environmental treaties chosen to protect the ecosystem; Relevance of the humanitarian laws; Provisions of the United Nations Convention on the Law of the Sea; Aim of the World Heritage Convention and Ramsar Convention on Wetlands.

An empirically corroborated model of proenvironmental commitments is outlined. According to this model, willingness to contribute to the saving of global commons (atmosphere, oceans, etc.) is motivated by the awareness of global ecological risks, by perceived injustices of the distributions of benefits and costs resulting from exploiting and polluting activities, and by the conviction that many actors-ordinary citizens as well as powerful authorities in business and politics-have both effective means and responsibilities to contribute to the protection of the environment. Political implications are drawn from the typical attributional pattern of multi-responsibility for environmental protection and from the perception of distributive injustices of the current overuse and pollution of commons. Basic issues of ecological justice are discussed. Cet article presente un modele d'engagements envers l'environnement qui a ete corrobore par des donnees empiriques. Selon ce modele, la volonte de contribuer a sauver les ressources (atmosphere, oceans, etc.) est motivee par la conscience des risques ecologiques globaux, par l'injustice percue dans la distribution des couts et benefices lies a l'exploitation et a la pollution ainsique par la conviction que plusieurs intervenants-citoyens ordinaires aussi bien que les puissants de l'economie et de la politique-ont les moyens et les responsabilites pour contribuer a la protection de l'environnement. Le pattern typique d'attribution d'une responsabilite partagee pour la protection de l'environnement tout comme la perception des injustices dans la surexploitation et la pollution actuelle des ressources ont tout deux des implications politiques qui sont discutees dans ce texte. Des problemes fondamentaux de justice ecologique sont egalement abordes. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This article focuses on the problems posed during the first phase involved in implementing the Habitat directive in France, that is, the identification of sites at a national level. The approach taken consisted in drawing links, from a chronological perspective, between changes in the procedures on the one hand and the combination of players and institutions on the other, with the two exerting an influence on each other. The analysis mainly involved holding interviews with representatives concerned by the Habitats directive, consulting administrative documents and interpreting texts or declarations issued by socio-professional organizations or by associations. The system, explained in this article, is initially devised by the Ministry for the Environment. The problems of implementing the procedure, be they problems relating to administrative and scientific difficulties or disputes concerning its legitimacy is then explained. The types of dispute and the reasons why the Ministry became isolated, with a view to understanding the considerable modifications made to the system since 1996 as well as their repercussion, is also one of the issues.