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Rights to nature: ecological, economic, cultural, and political principles of institutions for the environment Susan Hanna, Carl Folke, Karl-Göran Mäler, Beijer International Institute of Ecological Economics 0 ResenhasIsland Press, 1996 - 298 páginasProperty rights are a tool humans use in regulating their use of natural resources. Understanding how rights to resources are assigned and how they are controlled is critical to designing and implementing effective strategies for environmental management and conservation.Rights to Nature is a nontechnical, interdisciplinary introduction to the systems of rights, rules, and responsibilities that guide and control human use of the environment. Following a brief overview of the relationship between property rights and the natural environment, chapters consider: ecological systems and how they function the effects of culture, values, and social organization on the use of natural resources the design and development of property rights regimes and the costs of their operation cultural factors that affect the design and implementation of property rights systems coordination across geographic and jurisdictional boundaries The book provides a valuable synthesis of information on how property rights develop, why they develop in certain ways, and the ways in which they function. Representing a unique integration of natural and social science, it addresses the full range of ecological, economic, cultural, and political factors that affect natural resource management and use, and provides valuable insight into the role of property rights regimes in establishing societies that are equitable, efficient, and sustainable.« Menos

Nature's Coming Revolution A Review of Joel Kovel's The Enemy of Nature A Review of Joel Kovel's The Enemy of Nature by TED DACE The Enemy of Nature: The End of Capitalism or the End of the World? by Joel Kovel Zed Books For Joel Kovel the revolution is only a matter of time. Marx was right: Capitalism cannot help but prepare the stew in which it will roast. But the old man got one thing wrong. The ultimate antagonist of capital is not labor but nature. If Marx made a fetish of capital's propensity to generate too much wealth to be profitably re-invested, Kovel does the same in regard to planetary ecosystem crackup. Instead of periodic economic downturn catapulting the proletariat into History, it's the shattering of life-essential natural processes that's destined to set off socialist (make that ecosocialist) revolution. Professor Kovel, who ran to the left of Ralph Nader for the Green Party nod in 2000, wastes no time making the case that capitalism, by its very nature, cannot help but destroy the integrity and well-being of what we call "nature." No need for yet another inventory of disturbances in the environment, our bodies, and our psychic balance. The enemy of nature is not oil or pesticides or factories or bulldozers but capital, "that ubiquitous, all-powerful and greatly misunderstood dynamo that drives our society." While traditionally the marketplace is a means of exchanging goods for money so as to purchase other goods, under capitalism it becomes a way of accumulating money. Reversing the natural order, the merchant starts off with money and buys the product of someone else's labor, then turns around and sells it at a markup. As long as the laborer is poor and the buyer rich, the trader makes a profit. What gives a commodity value is not what we do with it, like using bricks to build houses or shoes to walk home in, but the price it commands in trade. In contrast to "use value," a quality that belongs to any given item intrinsically, "exc

An oft repeated myth is that Los Angeles is located in the desert. Not true I'm afraid. Las Vegas is built in a desert, as are eastern California cities such as Lancaster or Barstow, but Los Angeles was and is no desert in the strict sense of the word. With an average annual precipitation of 15 inches the city receives almost four times as much rainfall as Las Vegas. Los Angeles is semi-arid in terms of climate, but early accounts suggest many areas were even more verdant than the annual precipitation would indicate. The early Spanish and subsequent Mexican and American accounts suggest that it was anything like a desert when the region was first encountered by Europeans. This is because there were appreciable areas of the Los Angeles basin where artesian waters, sourced from the surrounding hills and mountains, fed springs or kept groundwater levels high during the dry summer months. This produced green woodlands, shrublands and grasslands described in early European accounts. Those conditions helped the region support native peoples such as the Gabrielino/Tongva, Chumash and Fernandeño/Tataviam for many millennia prior to European arrival.   The potential for productive farms and pastures was an inducement for European settlement and until the mid 1950's Los Angeles was one of the highest producing agricultural counties in the nation. El Pueblo de Nuestra Señora la Reina de los Ángeles (modern Los Angeles) was founded by the Spanish inland on the banks of the Rio Porciúncula (modern Los Angeles River) because this site in the middle of the basin provided ample permanent water fed by surrounding hills and mountains. The natural and agricultural landscapes of Los Angeles are now largely paved over or otherwise erased.   Driving through the lush precincts of Beverly Hills, Santa Monica, Las Feliz or the UCLA campus one might accept the alternative myth that the region is a lush tropical realm of fig trees, palms, citrus trees, birds of paradise plants and b

Monsanto, Bayer and Dow face trial for 'systematic human rights abuses' Matilda Lee 16th November, 2011 Permanent Peoples' Tribunal accuses biotech giants Monsanto, Dow, Bayer, Syngenta, DuPont and BASF of promoting dangerous pesticides including endosulfan, paraquat and neonicotinoids The world's major agrochemical companies, Monsanto, Dow, Bayer, Syngenta, DuPont and BASF, will face a public tribunal in early December accused of systematic human rights violations. They are accused of violating more than 20 instruments of international human rights law through promoting reliance on the sale and use of dangerous and unsafe pesticides including endosulfan, paraquat and neonicotinoids. The Permanent Peoples' Tribunal (PPT), an international opinion tribunal created in 1979, will hear expert testimony from scientists, medical doctors and lawyers to prove the charges. Victims who have been injured by these products - from farmers, farmworkers, mothers and consumers from around the world - will also testify to the causes and nature of their injuries. The cases will be heard over a four-day trial in Bangalore, India beginning December 3. While the Tribunal has no legal weight, and cannot force sanctions on companies, it aims to expose and raise awareness of large-scale human rights violations. Pesticides Action Network (PAN) International, a global network comprised of 600 organisations in 90 countries, has spent years collecting information to bring about the indictments and is seeking justice for more than 25 specific cases - such as Silvino Talavera, an 11-year-old from Paraguay who died days after breathing in a cloud of Monsanto's RoundUp herbicide sprayed by a crop duster. The trial will also hear evidence of the link between pesticide use and a decline in bees. The corporations, known as the 'Big 6' control 74 per cent of the global pesticide market, as well as dominating the global seed market. Bayer reject the allegations saying they are a 'wholesale

JOIN THE GLOBAL ALLIANCE FOR RIGHTS OF NATURE The Global Alliance is a world-wide movement of individuals and organizations creating human communities that respect and defend the rights of Nature. At the core we know that when we disrespect and harm Nature we diminish ourselves and impoverish our children. Societies that do not respect the rights of rivers to flow and forests to grow undermine us all. A human right to life and dignity is meaningless without water and wilderness.

Journal of Environmental Management Volume 91, Issue 1, October 2009, Pages 1-21 doi:10.1016/j.jenvman.2009.06.018 | How to Cite or Link Using DOI Cited By in Scopus (73)   Permissions & Reprints Review Recent developments in Life Cycle Assessment Göran Finnvedena, , , Michael Z. Hauschildb, , Tomas Ekvallc, , Jeroen Guinéed, , Reinout Heijungsd, , Stefanie Hellwege, , Annette Koehlere, , David Penningtonf, , Sangwon Suhg,  Purchase a Division of Environmental Strategies Research - fms, Department of Urban Planning and Environment, School of Architecture and the Built Environment, Royal Institute of Technology (KTH), SE-100 44 Stockholm, Sweden b Department of Management Engineering, Technical University of Denmark, Produktionstorvet 424, DK-2800 Lyngby, Denmark c IVL Swedish Environmental Research Institute, PO Box 5302, SE-400 14 Göteborg, Sweden d Institute of Environmental Sciences, Leiden University, PO Box 9518, 2300 RA, The Netherlands e ETH Zurich, Institute of Environmental Engineering, 8093 Zurich, Switzerland f European Commission, Directorate General Joint Research Centre (JRC), Institute of Environment and Sustainability (IES), Ispra, Italy g Department of Bioproducts and Biosystems Engineering, College of Agriculture, Food and Natural Resource Sciences, 1390 Eckles Avenue, St. Paul, MN 55108, USA Received 11 October 2008; revised 22 May 2009; Accepted 19 June 2009. Available online 29 August 2009. Abstract Life Cycle Assessment is a tool to assess the environmental impacts and resources used throughout a product's life cycle, i.e., from raw material acquisition, via production and use phases, to waste management. The methodological development in LCA has been strong, and LCA is broadly applied in practice. The aim of this paper is to provide a review of recent developments of LCA methods. The focus is on some areas where there has been an intense methodological development during the last years. We also highlight some