On the Plaintiff's Subject Qualification for Environmental Public Interest Litigation Instituted by People's Procuratorates

Although it is not the main duty for the People's Procuratorate to institute environmental public interest litigation proceedings, the existence of "reserve" prosecution right of plaintiff not only is beneficial to timely prevention and cure of environmental damage, but also contributes indispensable judicial supervision force to the environmental legality construction. In order to safeguard environmental public interests, many local prosecutorial organizations have practiced environmental public interests litigation. Since Chinese law has not made explicit stipulation on the function of the People's Procuratorate instituting environmental public interest litigation, the plaintiff's subject qualification for environmental public interest litigation instituted by the People's Procuratorate is still in question. In order to propel the People's Procuratorate to completely and fully exercise their power of supervision and prosecution, there shall be corresponding legislation that provides powerful guarantee for the People's Procuratorate instituting environmental public interest litigation.

Detection of Multi-dimensional Driving Forces of Public Environmental Concern in China:Based on Spatial Heterogeneity Perspectives

Public environmental concern(PEC)is an important bottom-up force in building an environmentally sustainable society.Guided by attitude theory,this paper innovatively constructed a PEC evaluation index system,while introducing entropy weighted-TOPSIS(Technique for Order Preference by Similarity to Ideal Solution)to realize the assessment of PEC.Exploratory spatial data analysis was used to portray the spatio-temporal evolution patterns of PEC in 362 Chinese cities at prefecture-level and above from 2011 to 2018.Furthermore,the Geodetector model was performed to identify the multi-dimensional determinants of PEC from the perspective of spatial heterogeneity.The results indicated that:1)PEC in China exhibited a fluctuating upward trend,consistent with the spatial distribution law of‘Heihe-Tengchong Line’and‘Bole-Taipei Line’;2)the driving effect of each factor varied dynamically,but in general,economic development level,population size,industrial wastewater,and education level were the dominant driving factors explaining the spatial variation of PEC;3)risk detection revealed that four factors,government environmental regulations,PM_(2.5),vegetation coverage,and natural resource endowment,had nonlinear effects on PEC;4)the interactions between factors all demonstrated an enhancement in explaining the spatial differentiation of PEC.PEC was driven by the comprehensive interaction of four-dimensional factors of economy,society,pollutant emissions,and ecology.Among them,population agglomeration accompanied by a high level of regional economy and information technology can explain the increase in PEC to the greatest extent.

The Impact of Central Environmental Inspections on the Perception of Respect for Human Rights and Its Empirical Analysis

To develop China’s human rights cause with a people-centered approach,we should pay close attention to the concrete experiences of the general public regarding the protection of human rights.Deepening the research on the perception of respect for human rights can contribute to a more comprehensive understanding of the practical achievements of the hu man rights cause.Public environmental rights,as a new type of human rights,have become an important aspect of the development of the human rights cause in the new era.The central envi ronmental inspection,as an authoritative and interventionist vertical governance mechanism,promotes the implementation of environmental policies by local Party committees and govern ments and strengthens environmental information disclosure and public participation in environ mental matters.As a result,it contributes to the realization of public environmental rights and stimulates public perception of respect for human rights.Among them,the“look-back inspec tion is an important component of the central environmental inspection,and its implemen tation consolidates and enhances the previous inspection work.An empirical analysis based on the World Values Survey’s data for China indicates that residents in the provinces that have underg one“look-back inspections are more inclined to believe that human rights are adequately re spected compared to residents in the provinces that have not underwent such inspections.It suggests that the advancement and improvement of the central environmental inspection system promote improvements in ecological environment quality and contribute to enhancing the public percep tion of respect for human rights.

Extreme rain event highlights the lack of governance to face climate change in the Southeastern coast of Brazil

New rainfall records were registered in the southeastern region of Brazil during February 2023.The amount of rain in the north coast region of the State of São Paulo was more than 650 mm in less than two days.Landslides and tragedies with a socioeconomically vulnerable population marked this climatic extreme.The country has a regulatory system that suggests the elaboration and implementation of municipal public policies aimed at territorial organization,environmental conservation,and the prevention of disasters induced by natural hazards.In addition,both federal and state funds earmarked for such hazard's prevention have been underutilized over the last decade.In addition to this current devastating climate episode,other events were registered in this decade,reinforcing that financial governance is a key challenge to face the climate crisis in Brazil.The predicted future extreme events in different regions of Brazil will require a different governance system to minimize social inequality,seek sustainable alternatives for urban environments and manage to adapt cities for the challenges posed by climate change.

Selection and Optimization of Path Responding to Unexpected Environmental Incidents in China

By analyzing disposal status of unexpected environmental incidents by government,public and enterprise,and combining the characteristics of unexpected environmental incidents,specific measures of responding to unexpected environmental incidents are proposed from the aspects of perfecting guarantee system of emergency nomocracy,enhancing information disclosure,encouraging public participation,enhancing the construction of emergency response capability,and enhancing post-event management,to improve the ability of defending environmental risk.

The quality of escalator signage for public safety in Malaysia:an observational study

Objective:Escalator signage could be playing a vital role to alert users for safe use of escalators.This study aimed to evaluate the availability,standardization,and content of safety information on escalator signage in the shopping malls.Methods:An observational study was conducted from November 2017 to February 2018 to assess the availability,standardization of safety information among the signage inside the shopping mall,and the content of safety information for public safety in Malaysia.A checklist was developed by adapting escalator safety guidelines from seven countries and regions including Malaysia.Data collctors identified from the selected states were required to capture three photographs at different angles of the escalator signage for each ascending and descending directions at each entrance of the mall.Descriptive analysis was performed;each criterion was presented in frequency and percentage.Results:A total of 268 escalators from 84 shopping malls in 9 states of Malaysia were assessed.Two operating escalators were not equipped with signage.More than one-ifth(23.0%)of the signage was not standardized within the mall.The majority of safety information was displayed in the form of a pictogram,a minority of signage displayed information in both pictogram and text format:"children must hold hand"(12.7%)and"be careful of long clothing"(10.8%),respectively.Nevertheless,"toddlers should be carried"(8.6%)and"take extra care with rubber shoes/tied shoes/laces"(30.2%)were found absent in most of the signage.Conclusion:Escalator signage was present in almost all of the escalators observed.However,non-standardization of the signage of escalators should warrant the attention of relevant authorities to revise the safety guideline s and improve the quality of escalator.

Promoting Public Understanding in the Science of Geology

Geology is perhaps the most fascinating of the natural sciences, due to its all-encompassing nature. Virtually all human activities that occur on planet Earth--including agriculture, energy and mineral resource exploration and extraction; environmental and public policy on natural resources management and protection; land use planning; infrastructure development; and ecological tourism--all depend on various aspects of geology and its sub-disciplines. Due to the importance of geology in the daily lives of human beings, it is imperative that all persons develop at least a basic understanding of the science. In this paper, the current efforts for promoting public understanding in geology will be examined, with offerings of alternatives and supplements to these efforts. Information from the science education sub-disciplines of HPS （history, philosophy and sociology） of science, and informal/free-choice learning will be woven into the framework of the geology-public understanding idea.

Preparing a Two Column Paper with MS Word for Windows The implications of the study on green design thought about the modem city public environment facilities

With the development of modem social productivity improvement, people＇ s material life is more and more abundant. But the social environment is getting more and more bad corresponding, haze, water pollution, dust and so on make people＇ s life quality decreased greatly. Therefore, in the design community an advocate for environmental protection design trend has been emerged, namely green design trends. There is a lot of inspiration of the green design trend to the modem city public environment facilities. It advocates the ecological principles of green design are applied to the design of urban public facilities. Insist on a full process control principle, that is, in design of the urban public environment facilities fully consider the use environmental protection material, or reduce the use of raw materials, through the design make the limited resources to achieve the processing, use, scrap, recycling and reuse of a benign cycle, and reduce the impact on the environment from.

Role of Media Coverage in Keeping Lid on Government Expenses

Information monopoly of bureaucrats helps them maximize discretionary budget. Public disclosure of budget can alleviate information asymmetry between government and the public and empower public supervision on government budget. With information intermediary function and reputational governance function, the media exert a budget intervention effect in the public disclosure of government budget, which further increases the effect of government budget disclosure. This paper investigates how media reports influence "three public expenses"(TPE) budget planning of central government departments by examining media reports on the disclosure of budget and final accounts and using TPE budget as a proxy variable for discretionary budget of bureaucrats. We have reached the following findings:(1) The higher the TPE budget implementation rate, the greater budget growth will be. But this correlation can be restrained by media attention;(2) Different stance of the media may exert different governance effects on TPE budget. Good news about TPE may motivate bureaucrats to restrain the positive impact of TPE budget implementation on budget growth. However, bad news about TPE will exert its budget intervention effect only when administrative governance mechanism intervenes. This study has broadened research on the media's governance effect from the perspective of government budget transparency and verified that under China's unique institutional background, the media may still play a positive role in public sector governance.

环境监察工作中的公众参与

文章重点谈环境执法和监察工作中的公众参与问题,公众参与已成为当前环保战线的重要课题。