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Coping styles influence levels of stress. This study examines how workers cope with hazards at work and whether unions help workers cope more effectively with those hazards. We surveyed 237 workers at a chemical plant in Louisiana and found that perceived exposure to fire and explosions at work increased workers' levels of anxiety. Problem-focused strategies to cope with those potential risks reduced anxiety and depression. Aside from supervisory or managerial authority, which is not available to most workers, we found that only one factor effectively moves workers who are in subordinate positions to actively cope with hazards: membership in an independent labor union. These findings suggest that union growth could indirectly reduce job stress by giving workers the voice to cope effectively with job hazards.

The relationship between national carbon dioxide emissions intensity (CO2 emitted per unit of Gross Domestic Product) and level of economic development has changed from essentially linear in 1962 to strongly curvilinear in 1991. The inverted-U curve reached statistical significance briefly in the early 1970s and increasingly since 1982. This is the result not of groups of countries passing through stages of development, but of efficiency improvements in a small number of wealthy countries combined with worse performance in poor and middle-income countries. The curvilinear relation is deepening and is likely to persist due to constraints on poorer countries in the world economy. Key words - carbon dioxide, development, environment, greenhouse effect, cross-national

A study was conducted on the adaptation strategies used by migrants to cope with the problems and opportunities created by the Companhia Vale do Rio Doce's use of low-wage subcontractors for its Carajas mining project. Results revealed that migrants' responses are often informal and illegal, such as dividing families to reduce costs, salary remittance, participating in squatter invasions, finding emotional gratification in prostitution and buying from informal shops. These household patterns were found to have a profound impact on regional development.

No empirical study has examined the local benefits of the World Bank-funded, US$3 billion Carajas mining project developed in the early 1980s in the Brazilian Amazon rainforest. This study is based on interviews with company and government officials, analysis of government figures, and five small systematic surveys of food marketers and households. It assesses overall local benefits and traces the origins of food consumed at Carajas. The informal sector in Carajas's satellite boom town is examined from both the supply and demand sides: it plays an important role in capturing local 'trickle down,' as does the local government. Ranchers and middlemen receive the greatest share of benefits accruing to the local area. while small farmers receive little. Otherwise, most products are imported from outside the region.

It is widely acknowledged that private finance has a key role to play in achieving low-carbon development and resilience to climate change. However, while there have been several studies that have closely examined the data on public climate finance, there have been few such studies of the private climate-related finance data. There is a political dimension to accounting for ‘private finance’ given the commitment of industrialized countries – enshrined in the Copenhagen Accord and the Cancun Agreements – to mobilize US$100 billion of public and private finance for developing countries by 2020, on an annual basis. The availability and quality of data for different types of private climate finance flows with climate benefits (investments, carbon market payments, and voluntary funding) are analysed, and these flows are assessed according to various criteria for inclusion in the $100 billion figure. While existing data suggest that private climate finance invested in developing countries and mobilized by industrialized countries might currently be in the range of $27–123 billion per year, this number is a questionable point of reference. Existing data are limited and of very poor quality: definitions of ‘private climate finance’ are missing and data are hardly verified. Therefore, policy makers will first have to clearly define ‘private climate finance’ and develop systems for measuring, reporting, and verifying it, before using private finance numbers in international climate agreements. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Inadequate funding levels are a major impediment to effective global biodiversity conservation and are likely associated with recent failures to meet United Nations biodiversity targets. Some countries are more severely underfunded than others and therefore represent urgent financial priorities. However, attempts to identify these highly underfunded countries have been hampered for decades by poor and incomplete data on actual spending, coupled with uncertainty and lack of consensus over the relative size of spending gaps. Here, we assemble a global database of annual conservation spending. We then develop a statistical model that explains 86% of variation in conservation expenditures, and use this to identify countries where funding is robustly below expected levels. The 40 most severely underfunded countries contain 32% of all threatened mammalian diversity and include neighbors in some of the world's most biodiversity-rich areas (Sundaland, Wallacea, and Near Oceania). However, very modest increases in international assistance would achieve a large improvement in the relative adequacy of global conservation finance. Our results could therefore be quickly applied to limit immediate biodiversity losses at relatively little cost. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Finance for developing countries to adapt to the adverse impacts of climate change now tops the international climate negotiation agenda. In this article, we first assess how adaptation finance came to the top of the agenda. Second, drawing upon Amartya Sen's (2010) "realization-focused comparison" theory of justice, we develop a definition of adaptation finance justice based upon the texts of the 1992 UNFCCC and its subsidiary bodies. From this perspective, we assess three main points of contention between countries on both sides of the North-South divide: The Gap in raising the funds, The Wedge in their distribution, and The Dodge in how they are governed. Overall, we argue that while some ambiguity exists, the decisions of the UNFCCC provide a strong basis for a justice-oriented approach to adaptation finance. However, in practice, adaptation finance has reflected developed country interests far more than the principles of justice adopted by Parties. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]