David Leonard Downie

Still no time for complacency: evaluating the ongoing success and continued challenge of global ozone policy

This article concludes the special issue by outlining the most important indicators of the ozone regime’s success as well as issues that could slow or even prevent the complete restoration of the Earth’s protective “ozone layer” or lead to new causes of depletion in the future. Evidence for the ozone regime’s success includes the following: the declining production and consumption of ozone-depleting substance (ODS) chemicals; declining levels of ODS in the atmosphere; reduced depletion of stratospheric ozone; the projected recovery of the ozone layer during this century; reduced UV radiation and the associated environmental, human health, and economic benefits; universal participation in the regime’s treaties; the operation of regime institutions; and the regime’s ancillary success in reducing certain greenhouse gas emissions. Despite these historic successes, global ozone policy faces important challenges. These include the following: the millions of tons of ODS that remain in existing and discarded equipment and materials; the potential difficulty of completing the hydrochlorofluorocarbon (HCFC) phaseout; the broad exemptions that allow for the continued use of methyl bromide; the potential for illegal production and trade; the possibility that new ODS not covered by the regime have or will emerge; and the impacts of climate change.

Mercury concentrations and awareness in Campos dos Goytacazes, Brazil: baseline measures for examining the efficacy of the Minamata Convention

The 2013 Minamata Convention seeks to reduce anthropogenic emissions of mercury (Hg) and enhance public awareness of Hg exposure and impacts. The treaty also requires countries to increase monitoring of Hg in the environment in order to reduce human exposure and examine the efficacy of the treaty over time. Campos dos Goytacazes, Brazil, is located in a watershed with a history of significant Hg deposition from gold mining and sugarcane farming. This study provides previously unpublished data on the presence of Hg in certain fish in Campos and the awareness of mercury contamination among the local population. We analyzed Hg concentrations in five commonly consumed fish species by the residents of Campos and found concentrations to be elevated in some species, to vary significantly among species, and to correlate with trophic levels likely due to biomagnification. A sample survey of people in Campos found that education levels negatively correlated with knowledge of the presence of Hg in fish and the negative health effects of both Hg and heavy metal contamination in general. These findings have potential importance for understanding Hg levels in the environment, underscore the necessity for public awareness and education efforts regarding Hg contamination (as called for in the new Convention), and provide baseline measures for the presence of Hg in fish in Campos and public awareness related to this presence. These data can be compared to future studies to examine the efficacy of the Convention and other efforts to reduce Hg emissions and exposure to Hg in this part of Brazil.

The First Six Years of JESS: Categorizing Authors and Topics

A variety of studies note that who and what are published in academic journals can affect individual careers, gender and geographic biases, readership and impact of particular journals, how articles are assigned, and other issues. The Journal of Environmental Studies and Sciences (JESS) is an important new journal due to its foci, the growing number of environmental science and studies graduate and undergraduate programs, the journal’s stated intent to be multi- and interdisciplinary, and its link to the Association for Environmental Studies and Sciences. This short article examines the gender and institutional location of authors published in the first six volumes of JESS (2011–2016), the gender of authors of the books reviewed in the journal, the breakdown of natural science versus social science articles, and the percentage of articles that examine issues related to climate change and teaching. It does so to gather information that might assist JESS improve intellectually or instrumentally and to provide comparison data for similar studies of other journals.

Book Review: Gareau, Brian J. 2013. From Precaution to Profit: Contemporary Challenges to Environmental Protection in the Montreal Protocol. New Haven, CT: Yale University Press

less than 2 percent of the compensation they requested. Despite these challenges, however, the courts yield an occasional, important victory for pollution victims and environmental protection. And the expansion of environmental litigation is not without influence on the political system. In some cases judges, lawyers, and activists have used the legal system to push the boundaries of the politically permissible. For example, more than sixty jurisdictions have established environmental courts, some of which have allowed social organizations or the government to sue polluters on behalf of the public. Successful policy innovations or lawsuits have spurred imitation or legitimated new practices such as the increased use of rights language. While experiments such as these have not fundamentally altered the Chinese political or legal systems, or tipped the balance in favor of environmental protection over economic growth, they may plant seeds of change. The bottom line is that, while courts are not the answer to China’s environmental problems, the environmental legal system is an important arena of modest innovation and cautious experimentation.

Clapp, Jennifer, and Peter Dauvergne. 2005. Paths to a Green World: The Political Economy of the Global Environment. Cambridge, MA: MIT Press.

��� This intelligent, well-written and informative book provides a fresh analysis of global environmental politics and alls a soft spot in the literature by concentrating explicitly and exclusively on its political economy. Clapp and Dauvergne use a typology of four worldviews—Market Liberals, Institutionalists, Bioenvironmentalists, and Social Greens—as a framework to examine how forces in global political economy impact the environment. Each type will seem familiar to many readers but they are rendered here in greater detail and to better effect than in other texts. Market liberals focus on economic issues, believe in the positive power of markets, and believe that poverty, weak economic growth, and poorly designed and intrusive government policies are the primary source of environmental degradation. Environmental problems that do exist can be addressed by fostering economic growth and harnessing market-based incentives to promote new technologies and corporate responsibility. Institutionalists believe that current levels of environmental degradation and underdevelopment reoect ineffective global cooperation and weak domestic and international institutions. Globalization is not a villain. A global environmental crisis could develop, however, if we do not build stronger and more effective global institutions, build state capacity, distribute technology and wealth to developing countries through appropriate channels, and effectively harness globalization so it fulalls its potential to enhance human welfare. Bioenvironmentalists focus on ecosystems and ecological carrying capacity. They believe a global environmental crisis already exists, caused by human overpopulation, over-consumption, and excessive, unnecessary, and ultimately counter-productive economic growth. These problems are augmented by globalization, which drives unsustainable levels of natural resource consumption, pollution, debt and misplaced economic activity. With the earth’s carrying capacity at or even beyond its natural limits, addressing environmental and economic problems effectively will require strong action to reform the global economy, reduce consumption, limit population growth, and respect the value of non-human life.