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Full-Text Articles in Environmental Policy

The Proposed Ban On Certain Nanomaterials For Electrical And Electronic Equipment In Europe: Global Security Implications, Thomas A. Faunce, Hitoshi Nasu Dec 2011

The Proposed Ban On Certain Nanomaterials For Electrical And Electronic Equipment In Europe: Global Security Implications, Thomas A. Faunce, Hitoshi Nasu

Thomas A Faunce

International collaboration on nanotechnology governance has so far paid little attention to security implications of regulating the use of nanotechnology. For example, the Coalition of Non-Governmental Organizations (initiated by the International Centre for Technological Assessment) developed 'Principles for the Oversight of Nanotechnologies and Nanomaterials' to provide a set of ethical standards for nanotechnology research and development (Kimbrell, 2009). Similar initiatives are observed at the national level, as has been seen in the Swiss Retailers Association Code of Conduct and the UK's Responsible NanoCode (Bowman and Hodge, 2009, pp.149-152). The Organization for Economic Co-operation and Development (OECD) has also been active …


Towards Global Artificial Photosynthesis (Global Solar Fuels): Energy, Nanochemistry And Governance, Thomas A. Faunce Dec 2011

Towards Global Artificial Photosynthesis (Global Solar Fuels): Energy, Nanochemistry And Governance, Thomas A. Faunce

Thomas A Faunce

Introduction to special open access edition of Australian Journal of Chemistry with papers from 'Towards Global Artificial Photosynthesis: Energy, Nanochemistry and Governance' conference Lord Howe Island 2011


Clean Energy In Massachusetts: Already Strong, This Emerging Sector Is Poised For Greater Growth, David Levy, David Terkla Dec 2011

Clean Energy In Massachusetts: Already Strong, This Emerging Sector Is Poised For Greater Growth, David Levy, David Terkla

David G. Terkla

This article reviews Massachusetts’ clean energy sector in the context of the industry nationally and worldwide. We also suggest policy options to enhance the sector’s potential for the Massachusetts economy.


Unanswered Questions Of A Minority People In International Law: A Comparative Study Between Southern Cameroons & South Sudan, Bernard Sama Mr Oct 2011

Unanswered Questions Of A Minority People In International Law: A Comparative Study Between Southern Cameroons & South Sudan, Bernard Sama Mr

Bernard Sama

The month July of 2011 marked the birth of another nation in the World. The distressful journey of a minority people under the watchful eyes of the international community finally paid off with a new nation called the South Sudan . As I watched the South Sudanese celebrate independence on 9 July 2011, I was filled with joy as though they have finally landed. On a promising note, I read the UN Secretary General Ban Ki-moon saying “[t]ogether, we welcome the Republic of South Sudan to the community of nations. Together, we affirm our commitment to helping it meet its …


Foucault And American Foreign Policy During 2001 Bush Era, Kyle S. Herman Feb 2011

Foucault And American Foreign Policy During 2001 Bush Era, Kyle S. Herman

Dr. Kyle S. Herman

In this paper I discuss the theory of power structures written by Michel Foucault in “Docile Bodies: Discipline”1 and relate this to George Bush’s Foreign policy agenda (roughly around 2001) in accordance with the Cheney Report described by Michael Klare in his book “Blood and Oil.”


Spatial Effects In Energy-Efficient Residential Hvac Technology Adoption, Douglas S. Noonan, Lin-Han Chiang Hsieh, Daniel Matisoff Jan 2011

Spatial Effects In Energy-Efficient Residential Hvac Technology Adoption, Douglas S. Noonan, Lin-Han Chiang Hsieh, Daniel Matisoff

Douglas S. Noonan

This study identifies the factors that affect the adoption behaviors for residential heating, ventilating, and air conditioning (HVAC) systems, including spatial effects and other contextual characteristics. This study draws on an original data source of detailed single-family house sale records in the Greater Chicago area, spanning from 1992 to 2004. The data are analyzed at the block-group level to focus on neighborhood-level adoption patterns and highlight neighbor effects. Using spatial lag regression models, we show that spatial dependence or “contagion” exists for neighborhood adoption of energy-efficient HVACs. This result has significant implications from a policy perspective. According to our estimation …


Innovation Cooperation: Energy Biosciences And Law, Prof. Elizabeth Burleson Jan 2011

Innovation Cooperation: Energy Biosciences And Law, Prof. Elizabeth Burleson

Prof. Elizabeth Burleson

This Article analyzes the development and dissemination of environmentally sound technologies that can address climate change. Climate change poses catastrophic health and security risks on a global scale. Universities, individual innovators, private firms, civil society, governments, and the United Nations can unite in the common goal to address climate change. This Article recommends means by which legal, scientific, engineering, and a host of other public and private actors can bring environmentally sound innovation into widespread use to achieve sustainable development. In particular, universities can facilitate this collaboration by fostering global innovation and diffusion networks.


Cancun Climate Negotiations, Prof. Elizabeth Burleson Jan 2011

Cancun Climate Negotiations, Prof. Elizabeth Burleson

Prof. Elizabeth Burleson

The United Nations Climate Change Conference, held from November 29 to December 11, 2010, in Cancún, Mexico, relaunched the United Nation's multilateral facilitation role.


Governing Nanotechnology For Solar Fuels: Towards A Jurisprudence Of Global Artificial Photosynthesis, Thomas A. Faunce Dec 2010

Governing Nanotechnology For Solar Fuels: Towards A Jurisprudence Of Global Artificial Photosynthesis, Thomas A. Faunce

Thomas A Faunce

The carbon-based fossil fuels (chiefly oil, coal, and natural gas) implicated in anthropogenic climate change are sequestered outcomes of millions of years of natural photosynthesis. Many emerging areas of nanotechnology research are focusing on artificial photosynthesis as a long-term planetary renewable energy and carbon management option – by providing an alternative form of energy to both fossil fuels and biofuels and as a means of stabilising atmospheric CO2. A macroscience Global Artificial Photosynthesis (GAP) Project, by allowing researchers to refine and enhance the process of photosynthesis, has the potential to become a valuable adjunct to or even supplant other bioenergy …


Artificial Photosynthesis: Feeding And Fuelling The Future, Thomas A. Faunce Dec 2010

Artificial Photosynthesis: Feeding And Fuelling The Future, Thomas A. Faunce

Thomas A Faunce

Large research teams in many nations are using nanotechnology to actively redesign photosynthetic components such as light capture antennae, artificial reaction centre proteins, organic polymers and inorganic catalysts. A major aim was to achieve low cost, localised, off-the electricity grid use of sunlight to split water and achieve hydrogen for fuel cells or compression and hyper-cooling to form a liquid fuel that when burnt produces fresh water. The first international conference dedicated to creating a Global Artificial Photosynthesis (GAP) project was held in Australia at Lord Howe Island on 14-18 August 2011. As well as having endorsement from the UNESCO …


Global Artificial Photosynthesis: A Scientific And Legal Introduction., Thomas A. Faunce Dec 2010

Global Artificial Photosynthesis: A Scientific And Legal Introduction., Thomas A. Faunce

Thomas A Faunce

With the global human population set to exceed 10 billion by 2050, its collective energy consumption to rise from 400 to over 500 EJ/yr and with the natural environment under increasing pressure from these sources as well as from anthropogenic climate change, political solutions such as the creation of an efficient carbon price and trading scheme may arrive too late. In this context, the scientific community is exploring technological remedies. Central to these options is artificial photosynthesis – the creation, particularly through nanotechnology, of devices capable to doing what plants have done for millions of years – transforming sunlight, water …


Will International Trade Law Promote Or Inhibit Global Artificial Photosynthesis, Thomas A. Faunce Dec 2010

Will International Trade Law Promote Or Inhibit Global Artificial Photosynthesis, Thomas A. Faunce

Thomas A Faunce

Artificial photosynthesis (AP) is an area of well-advanced research involving large international groups at the cutting edge of synthetic biology and nanotechnology. In simple terms it offers to produce a cheap source of hydrogen for fuel through using sunlight to split water, as well as making basic starches by a process involving absorption of carbon dioxide via the enzyme RuBisCO. As the proliferating numbers of university-based research teams working in this area begin to combine, there will be a natural escalation of the expected time for a global roll-out of AP domestic and international devices. Policy attention will then turns …


Mother Earth "Speaks": Change Yourself, Change The World, Use The Archetypal Energy "Harmony" As A Guide, Carroy U. Ferguson Jun 2010

Mother Earth "Speaks": Change Yourself, Change The World, Use The Archetypal Energy "Harmony" As A Guide, Carroy U. Ferguson

Carroy U "Cuf" Ferguson, Ph.D.

In relation to the Cosmos, we all, as human beings, live on this tiny planet we call Earth, a planet that supports and sustains life, as we know it. There are many different kinds of people, plants, and animals functioning in harmony with soil, air, and water--all linked to one another in a complex web of life to form one Earth community. Unfortunately, we often take this miracle and ecosystem of life for granted. When, however, we take the ecosystem of life too much for granted, Mother Earth "speaks," reflecting imbalances and dis-harmonies. When Mother Earth "speaks," her message is …


Heroes And Villains: Cultural Narratives, Mass Opinions, And Climate Change, Michael Jones May 2010

Heroes And Villains: Cultural Narratives, Mass Opinions, And Climate Change, Michael Jones

Michael D. Jones

Global climate change is easily identified as one of the most pressing and contentious policy problems facing not only the United States, but the human race. In a democratic society such as our own, understanding the public’s capacities and tendencies in processing information and forming opinions about climate change has serious and far-reaching policy implications. Historically quite low, public knowledge about climate change is now on the rise, as is the importance of the issue on the public agenda (Leiserowitz, 2005). Consequently, it is not unreasonable to expect the public, for better or worse, to play a larger role in …


Emerging Law Addressing Climate Change And Water, Prof. Elizabeth Burleson Jan 2010

Emerging Law Addressing Climate Change And Water, Prof. Elizabeth Burleson

Prof. Elizabeth Burleson

The World Economic Forum recognizes that while restrictions on energy affect water systems and vice versa, energy and water policy are rarely coordinated. The International Panel on Climate Change predicts that wet places will become wetter and dry places will become dryer. Transboundary water, energy and climate coordination can occur through international consensus building.


Impact Of The Australia-Us Free Trade Agreement On Australian Medicines Regulation And Prices, Thomas A. Faunce, James Bai, Duy Nguyen Dec 2009

Impact Of The Australia-Us Free Trade Agreement On Australian Medicines Regulation And Prices, Thomas A. Faunce, James Bai, Duy Nguyen

Thomas A Faunce

The Australia – United States Free Trade Agreement (AUSFTA) came into force on 1 January 2005. Before and subsequently to the AUSFTA being concluded, controversy surrounded the debate over its impact on Australia ’ s health policy, specifically on regulation of pharmaceutical patents and Australia ’ s cost-effectiveness system relating to prescription medicine prices known as the Pharmaceutical Benefits Scheme (PBS). This article examines the expectations of both parties in the pharmaceutical sector with regard to the AUSFTA, as well as how successfully they were achieved. It seeks to analyse important relevant outcomes for regulators, the public and pharmaceutical industry, …


Nanotechnology And The International Law Of Weaponry: Towards International Regulation Of Nano-Weapons., Thomas A. Faunce, Hitoshi Nasu Dec 2009

Nanotechnology And The International Law Of Weaponry: Towards International Regulation Of Nano-Weapons., Thomas A. Faunce, Hitoshi Nasu

Thomas A Faunce

The development of nanotechnology for military application is an emerging area of research and development, the pace and extent of which has not been fully anticipated by international legal regulation. Nano-weapons are referred to here as objects and devices using nanotechnology or causing effects in nano-scale that are designed or used for harming humans. Such weapons, despite their controversial human and environmental toxicity, are not comprehensively covered by specific, targeted regulation under international law. This article critically examines current international humanitarian law and arms control law regimes to determine whether significant gaps exist in the regulation of nanotechnology focused on …


Policy Challenges From The "White" Senate Inquiry Into Workplace-Related Health Impacts Of Toxic Dusts And Nanoparticles, Thomas A. Faunce, Haydn Walters, Trevor Williams, David Bryant, Martin Jennings, Bill Musk Dec 2005

Policy Challenges From The "White" Senate Inquiry Into Workplace-Related Health Impacts Of Toxic Dusts And Nanoparticles, Thomas A. Faunce, Haydn Walters, Trevor Williams, David Bryant, Martin Jennings, Bill Musk

Thomas A Faunce

On 22 June 2005 the Senate of the Commonwealth of Australia voted to establish an inquiry into workplace harm related to toxic dust and emerging technologies (including nanoparticles). The inquiry became known as the "White" Inquiry after Mr Richard White, a financially uncompensated sufferer of industrial sandblasting-induced lung disease who was instrumental in its establishment. The "White" Inquiry delivered its final report and recommendations on 31 May 2006. This paper examines whether these recommendations and their implementation may provide a unique opportunity not only to modernize relevant monitoring standards and processes, but related compensation systems for disease associated with workplace-related …