Dr Ted Christie: Environmental Dispute Resolution and Sustainable Solutions

  TAGS: COVID-19; recovery; conflict; public participation; goals; Aarhus Convention; sustainable development; NIMBY. “Involving the public in decision-making processes is widely believed to improve the quality of the resulting decisions and to strengthen the credibility of the decision-making process and its outcome.”            United Nations Economic Commission for Europe (2012) . In moving from the response phase to the recovery phase for the COVID-19 global pandemic, should the goal for Government be to “ jettison red and green tape at every level of government to stimulate jobs and re-energise growth during the post COVID-19 fiscal fightback”? Or should the recovery phase f rom the COVID-19 pandemic be seen by Government as a classic sustainable development problem to resolve ? The interdependence and mutual support between effective public participation and sustainable development provides the framework for finding sustainable solutions ...

TAGS :     COVID-19; evaluation; WHO; World Health Assembly; information conflicts; scientific round-table; fact-finding; testability; objectivity; impartiality; data mediation; consensus decision-making          A Google search of the key words :  COVID - 19 evaluation science conflict resolution     turns up 150,000,000 results.  The author's article appears on Google page 1 at #1 : 10 November 2020. The article provides a road-map for a "stepwise process for an impartial,  independent and comprehensive evaluation" of the global response to the COVID-19 pandemic. READ MORE …  

TAGS : COVID-19; preparedness; risk assessment - communication; precautionary principle; epidemiological assessment; resilience; sustainable development; Sustainable Development Goal 3 1.0   A pathway to address global concerns related to the “ early warning, risk reduction and management of national and global health risks” , is outlined. 2.0 The linkage between the application of the precautionary principle and epidemiological assessment is the trigger for a risk assessment - the basis for decision-making on preparedness and the early warning of a pandemic. 3.0    Using COVID-19 as an example, decision-making under the pathway would proceed along the following sequence of steps: The Precautionary Principle - Epidemiological Assessment - Risk Assessment - Risk Communication - The Risk Management/Resilience/Sustainable Development Linkage. 4.0    The pathway can also be a relevant consideration to avoid history repeating e.g. the global controversy ov...

TAGS: COVID-19 ; sustainable development; SDG 3; Impacts: global health (environmental) – economic – social - cultural; methodology;  multi-objective analysis;  1.0  The COVID-19 pandemic has become a classic sustainable development problem to resolve against a background of one of the worst global recessions in history being reasonably foreseeable.   2.0  As the global health impacts of the global pandemic become effectively managed through preventative actions and measures taken throughout the world, increasing attention by national Governments will have to be directed at sustainable development in the recovery phase from the pandemic .   3.0  The bottom line for finding sustainable solutions requires the multiple and competing objectives of sustainable development – economic, social (including cultural) and environmental ( for COVID-19, global health risks ) - to be assessed and balanced.  Decision-making on the methodol...

TAGS: Bushfires; Australia; climate change;   hazard reduction; fuel load; window of opportunity; ecology; habitat;  threatened species;  resilience; scientific round-table; royal commission; conflict resolution 1.0   The 2019-2020 bush fire season in Australia has been one of the worst fire seasons on record. The total area of land burned during the current bushfire season now exceeds 10.7 million hectares (26.4 million acres). 2.0    All Australian mainland States have been impacted. Thousands of homes have been destroyed; 27 people have been killed . There have been significant impacts on  native fauna and their habitat. The following issues are reviewed: - (a)   Preparedness: Drought Management and Bushfire Hazard Reduction (b)  Issues That Contribute to Fuel Load And Hazard Reduction (c)   The Wider Application for Resilience in the Australian Environment (d)   Climate Change, Fuel Build-...

TAGS : Drought; Impacts: paddock level - property level - regional level – State/National Level ; Impacts: ecology – economics – social ; living area; land degradation; sustainability; resilience; risk management; preparedness; self-reliance; long-term viability; unintended outcomes A severe drought now comparable with the big droughts of the past in Australia has developed across much of eastern and inland Australia. The scope of this article is to review key issues that must be effectively addressed if new drought policies are to resonate with the needs of the pastoral industry by building on the cumulative knowledge arising from reviews of past drought policies. Policy issues such as: living area standards, corporate and foreign investment, environmental impacts, unifying principles for drought policy, preparedness , self-reliance , risk management, resilience , unintended outcomes and meaningful involvement of pastoralists . READ MORE ...

TAGS : Paris Agreement; COP25; coal; future; risk; best available science; sustainable development; equity; scientific round-table; positions; interests 1.0    Any decision on this issue requires the Paris Agreement’s obligations to be implemented “on the basis of equity” - as well as “in accordance with the best available science ”. 2.0   The results from a Google Search on “ the future of coal ” highlight the contradictory global positions held on this issue : While an international consensus is emerging for the position of a fast and orderly phasing out of coal mining and coal-generated energy, new coal supply and demand infrastructure continues to be developed . 3.0    But has clean coal technology R&D reached the stage of being the “ best available science ” for a decision to be made to resolve this controversy? 4.0   The challenge for COP25 is to promote a problem-solving pathway that counterbalances the "n eed" ...