What exactly is the problem
In 1982 the well known psychologist B.F. Skinner wrote Most thoughtful people agree that the world is in serious trouble. A nuclear war could mean a nuclear winter that would destroy all living things fossil fuels will not last forever, and many other critical resources are nearing exhaustion the earth grows steadily less habitable and all this is exacerbated a burgeoning population that resists control. The timetable may not be clear, but the threat is real. That many people have begun to find...
Cape Wind A Case Study in the Politics of Technology Choice
Cape Wind is a proposed commercial venture to generate electricity from 130 wind turbines mounted in a small area of Nantucket Sound in Massachusetts, USA. The project is generally supported by the environmentalist movement. However, its opponents have also based their case on environmental values, arguing that it would desecrate an area of great natural beauty. Proponents argue that it is no longer possible to preserve nature through inaction if we are to slow climate change due to greenhouse...
Analysis of references to different actor types
The list of actors identified in the structured coding were classified into an initial set of twenty-four different actor groups. These were then listed in terms of the number of respondents who mentioned them, and the number of phrases in which they were mentioned. The largest group, personal, referred to by 27 out of 30 contributors, consists largely of statements expressing personal beliefs, and will not be analysed in the present paper. The second largest category is Industrial, mentioned...
The Cape Wind Project
Cape Wind is a proposal by Energy Management, Inc., a for-profit corporation, to build 130 wind turbines on Horseshoe Shoal, a shallow area in Nantucket Sound, slightly over 5 miles off the southern coast of Cape Cod, Massachusetts.7 With average wind conditions the project, once built, would generate an average of 170 megawatts of electricity, with a maximum of 458 megawatts. The average production would be about 75 of the 258 mega-watts normally used by Cape Cod and the islands of Martha's...
Psychologicallybased responses to the problem
As evidenced above, psychological approaches offer a range of interesting insights into the issue of climate change. Similarly psychology offers a range of possible responses to the problem. It is not possible in this paper to discuss all of the ways that psychology may be able to contribute so I will just include a couple of examples that are related to the explanations that I have mentioned above. First, given what we know about human nature our response needs to work with this knowledge. In...
Regulation of Air Pollution from Diesel
Throughout the world regulatory strategies exist to address air pollution. These regulations may vary among governmental constituencies however, one common approach has been to specify that a given pollutant must not exceed an acceptable environmental concentration. The value of this concentration is generally determined by health considerations, and is a value regarded as sufficiently low to protect human and environmental health. Considerations of human health incorporate protection for the...
A case study in Puno Peru
The Andean region of Puno, known as the altiplano, is located at 3,830 meters above sea level. The terrain is prone to flooding, and thus difficult to cultivate. In order to deal with this situation, Andean indigenous populations displaced huge amounts of soil to create raised fields that were better adapted for agricultural use. Raised fields (camellones in Spanish, waru waru in Quechua, suka kollus in Aymara) are elevated platforms of earth, approximately 1 to 20 meters wide, ten to hundreds...
Notes
McKibben, The End of Nature, Random House, New York, 1989. 2Ibid, p. 54. 3See, for example, Alliance to Protect Nantucket Sound, Cape Wind Overview. Online at 4See, for example, S Economou, Cape Wind, global warming and poisoned air, Providence Journal, May 19, 2007. Online at _CC5KSDP.13993f9.html. 5J Bessette, 'The Mild Voice of Reason Deliberative Democracy and American National Government', University of Chicago Press, Chicago,1994 J Fishkin, Beyond Subjective Morality Ethical Reasoning and...
Adoption Process of GM Cotton The Case of Kadavendi Warangal
In this paper, the findings and analytical insights are drawn from interviews I conducted in Kadavendi village in 2006 as part of my larger research project. Particularly, this paper is based on interviews with fifty farmers, who adopted Bt cotton at different points in time from 2003 to 2006. I also interviewed local seed agents and agricultural extension officers to better understand their role in the diffusion process of GM seeds. I have conducted a baseline survey and divided the total...
Introduction
In recent years, several studies have examined the potential implications of genetically modified GM crops for the peasantry in developing countries in general, and India in particular, but few have focused beyond economic cost-benefit analysis. Issues related to the socio-economic and cultural aspects that influence farmers' decision on the adoption of GM seeds, and the socio-ecological implications of the information gap between laboratory and the peasant-farmer have not yet been...
