RISK-DISASTER-AND-INSURANCE

Apprivoiser les catastrophes Pourquoi consacrer un numéro aux risques quand les publications se multiplient sur cette question ? Jocelyne DuboisMaury et Claude Chaline en particulier dressent un panorama quasi exhaustif de tous les risques naturels dont l'espace urbain est menacé, et des différentes mesures légales prévues pour l'en préserver. Mais qu'a voulu dire Ulrich Beck en parlant de « société du risque », et que cherchent à évoquer ceux qui comme Anthony Giddens en GrandeBretagne ou JeanPierre Dupuy en France lui ont emboîté le pas ? De grands corps d'ingénieurs, celui des Ponts et Chaussées et celui des Mines, ont évité aux Français depuis le XVIII e siècle de se poser ce genre de question. Le corps des Ponts et Chaussées s'est constitué pour entraver tout ce qui nuisait à la circulation des personnes et des marchandises, en utilisant la main d'oeuvre au chômage dans les campagnes. D'emblée il s'est mis en travers des risques d'atteinte à l'ordre public et c'est ce qui a fait son succès. Quant au corps des Mines il s'est distingué en calculant des machines qui diminuaient le risque d'accident tout en améliorant le rendement. Dès le Siècle des lumières l'État se constitue comme gestionnaire d'une « société du risque » où la prévention des aléas joue un rôle moteur dans l'amélioration des choses. De travaux en travaux cette amélioration devient tout à fait réelle. L'évolution de la norme est éclairante à ce sujet. C'est ainsi que la circulaire Caquot en 1949 invite à dimensionner les égouts de façon que la crue centennale soit avalée en une heure. Les égouts de Paris sont capables de cette performance. La construction des villes nouvelles est l'occasion de découvrir que cette norme, inappliquée par la plupart des villes de province, est inapplicable financièrement en ÎledeFrance également. Des solutions fort élégantes sont trouvées en allant chercher des i

The environmental responsibility of business is to increase its profits (by creating value within the bounds of private property rights)\n\nPierre Desrochers\nProponents of corporate social responsibility (CSR) typically consider "business as usual" unsustainable. Building on historical evidence that long predates the modern environmental movement, the contrary case is made that the interplay of voluntary exchange, private property rights, and self-interest has generally resulted in the so-called "triple bottom line" (economic, social, and environmental) through more efficient use of materials and the continual creation of higher quality resources. However, because market processes continually eliminate less competitive firms and tend to concentrate business activities geographically, political pressure brought to bear by adversely affected vested interests often results in the creation of policies that cause greater environmental harm than would otherwise be evident. Environmental CSR proponents often misinterpret these government failures as market failures, and characteristically advocate policies that further distract firms from their core objective and resulting triple bottom line. The article concludes by arguing that the most promising path toward truly sustainable development lies in the unwavering pursuit of profitability within the bounds of well-defined and enforced private property rights

Scribd Launches Readcast, Integrates With Facebook® Social Plugins to Make Reading More Social SAN FRANCISCO, CA--(Marketwire - April 21, 2010) -   f8 Developer Conference -- Scribd, the world's largest social publishing and reading site, launches Scribd Readcast along with Facebook's new social plugins. Readcast is a set of features that enables people to automatically share what they're reading on Scribd with their friends on Facebook and other social sites. The Facebook Like button and Activity Feed are also now part of the Scribd social reading experience. "Scribd is the place where connections form around shared reading interests," said Trip Adler, CEO and co-founder Scribd. "Now, the universe of social reading suddenly opens up to include Twilight fan fiction, investigative reports about Goldman Sachs, Mary Meeker's Web 2.0 presentation, tips for using solar power. This reflects the breadth and depth of what people read on a daily basis, not just what they're reading on news sites." Readcast is a customizable feature that enables people to automatically share what they're reading on Scribd with friends on Facebook and contacts on other social media sites. People can also choose to share Scribd reading events such as scribbles, comments, ratings, downloads, and eventually mobile reading activity, printing and purchases. Visit http://blog.scribd.com for more information about Readcast. Faceboook social plugins integration enables Scribd users to "like" their favorite reading material and to see -- without leaving Scribd.com -- which Scribd books, research, presentations, illustrations and other written works their friends on Facebook friends "like," comment on, and share. "Scribd's integration with our new social plugins allows people to create social connections around written works," said Ethan Beard, director of Facebook Developer Network. "Now, it's easier to connect with friends on Facebook who are reading the same books, researching the same topics or s

Biotechnological innovations in the past 30 years have raised many questions about how we can reap the benefits of transformative science and technology through responsible and sustainable use. Biotechnology has the potential both for better or worse to enhance, undercut or change as much as 40% of the world's economy, to fundamentally alter our relationship with nature and to question our sense of self.

BELT, Henk vand den,  Biotechnology, the US-EU dispute and the Precautionary Principle

El ambiente como realidad dada a descubrir por la ciencia jurídica. Ambiente y derecho. El ambiente y el daño ambiental en el derecho internacional y en la Constitución Nacional. El daño a través del ambiente. El daño al ambiente. Modelos en el derecho comparado

El análisis económico del derecho. La eficiencia. El derecho de daños y la naturaleza recíproca del problema. Los objetivos del derecho de daños. El impacto económico de las reglas de responsabilidad extracontractual. Crítica a la naturaleza recíproca del problema como paradigma de la responsabilidad extracontractual.

Contenido: Presentación del tema:Seguros ambientales por Augusto Paz. La cuestión ambiental en los jóvenes de la Ciudad de Buenos Aires,una aproximación psicosocial por Enrique Del Acebo Ibañez y Ana María Mendes Diz. El análisis y la gestión de riesgo:Un proceso sociopolítico por Carlos Cañas. Seguros ambientales:Su contribución a la internalización de costos y a la compensación de víctimas por Martina Chidiak. Desarrollo sustentable como objeto del derecho ambiental pro Augusto Paz. Protección penal del medio ambiente por Natalia Keten. El daño ambiental y la actividad aseguradora en la Argentina por Juan Rodrigo Walsh y Ana Vidal de Lamas. Seguros ambientales desde una óptica pública por Gustavo Serafini. El seguro de responsabilidad civil por daños ambientales:La visión de los brokers por Alejandro Guerrero

What is women's relationship with the environment? Is it distinct from that of men's? The growing literature on ecofeminism in the West, and especially in the United States, conceptualizes the link between gender and the environment primarily in ideological terms. An intensifying struggle for survival in the developing world, however, highlights the material basis for this link and sets the background for an alternative formulation to ecofeminism, which I term "feminist environmentalism." In this paper I will argue that women, especially those in poor rural households in India, on the one hand, are victims of environmental degradation in quite gender-specific ways. On the other hand, they have been active agents in movements of environmental protection and regeneration, often bringing to them a gender-specific perspective and one which needs to inform our view of alternatives. To contextualize the discussion, and to examine the opposing dimensions of women as victims and women as actors in concrete terms, this essay will focus on India, although the issues are clearly relevant to other parts of the Third World as well. The discussion is divided into five sections. The first section outlines the ecofeminist debate in the United States and one prominent Ino dian variant of it, and suggests an alternative conceptualization. The next three sections respectively trace the nature and causes of environmental degradation in rural India, its class and gender implications, and the responses to it by the state and grass-roots groups. The concluding section argues for an alternative trans-formative approach to development.

Kenneth Rogoff frets over our ability to regulate complex emerging technologies:

21-2007/2 Dossier Alain Marciano et Bernard Tourrès Introduction [Texte intégral] Olivier Godard Le principe de précaution et la controverse OGM [Texte intégral] Robert Kast Calcul économique et mise en pratique du principe de précaution [Texte intégral] Dominique Bourg et Alain Papaux Des limites du principe de précaution : OGM, transhumanisme et détermination collective des fins. [Texte intégral]

seful, simple graphic showing twenty years of trends in Gulf of Mexico oil production by water depth. In the figure, shallow is 0-999 ft, deepwater is 1,000-4,999 ft, and ultra-deepwater is anything over 5,000 ft. As I've been arguing, part of what we're seeing here is the inevitable "normal accidents" from changing technology as we transition from one extraction depth regime to another.

RAFFENSPERGER, In Defense of the Precautionary Principle

CARPENTER,, J. E et al Case Study in Benefits and Risks of Agricultural Biotechnology: Roundup Ready Soybeans

he Berne Symposium invited leading scientists of risk assessment research with transgenic crops on an international level in order to enhance the discussion regulators and members of the biotech industry. The goal was to determine the status quo and also to make progress in times of a first global spread of transgenes in agrosystems about risk assessment. The dialogue between scientists, regulators and industry representatives also revealed some lacunes of risk assessment research, which will have to be filled in the future: We still lack longterm experience, for which we will have to collect data with scientific precision. The symposium concluded asking for a risk-oriented longterm monitoring system based on critical science and hard data. This volume presents the discussion sessions as well as the scientific contributions and thus

The monitoring and surveillance of genetically modified higher plants (GMHP) is an area that is still lacking an established international monitoring program. This volume presents ideas and suggestions by focusing on procedures in composing such a program and methods for detection of transgene dispersal and of environmental effects when GM plants are cultivated. Objectives and procedures for monitoring and surveying present and new types of GM plants are described, including herbicide tolerance, insect resistance and changed agronomic performance. Other issues covered in this book include: detection of GM plant dispersal and hybridisation; agricultural use and large scale effects; habitat selection and community invasibility; baseline definition and the time perspective; effects on ecosystems, vegetation and organism groups; sampling designs; data analysis and relevant statistical methods. In a final chapter, conclusions and recommendations are presented..

Globalization has made the protection of human rights and the prevention of violations of these rights more complex in recent years. This article reviews a book that challenges the current 'wisdom' of human rights obligations that almost uniquely focus on the behaviour of states in relation to their own populations. The focus of this review is the concept of 'shared responsibility' for human rights protection that is an essential topic of the book. It assesses the call for responsibility for those states with the power to influence structures in the international community that perpetrate poverty and human rights violations on a large scale

Disaster Management: Global Problems and Local Solutions Rajib Shaw, R. R. Krishnamurthy 0 Resenhas Taylor and Francis, 2009 - 608 páginas The world is becoming increasingly vulnerable to natural disasters. Disaster data in recent years shows an increase in the physical, social, and economic impacts of these tragedies. While a global perspective of disaster management is necessary, it is also important to emphasize local solutions. This volume targets some of the key issues of disaster management on the local level, focusing on innovative research and applications. An up-to-date reference book for researchers and practitioners, this text explores different types of hazards and disasters and examines the interrelated themes of risk and vulnerability, technology, education, and community.

Global warming, natural hazards, and emergency management Jane A. Bullock, George D. Haddow, Kim Haddow 0 Resenhas CRC Press, 2008 - 282 páginas Due to the damage caused by global warming, scientists predict that the frequency and severity of weather-related disaster events will increase dramatically. This book provides a clear procedural roadmap for emergency managers, policy makers, and community officials, demonstrating how to reduce the impacts of future disaster events intensified by the effects of global warming. Case studies describe past and present real-world experiences in community-based hazard mitigation and illustrate how efforts should be designed and implemented. The authors explain in detail how to develop community partnerships that include all stakeholders and identify staffing and resource requirements for successful programs.