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Farm seeds always have been bred and conserved by world wide farmers. Nowadays this seeds can resolve new issues as : adaptation of production systems to climate changes and specific conditions, biodiversity preservation, or creation of varieties adapted to non-conventional crop management and transformation. Nevertheless, farm seeds development face difficulties linked to a restrictive legislation and traditional knowledge erosion - specifically about seeds management. In Brazil, since the early 80's, farmer organizations managing these seeds free from royalty, are developing with different kinds of functioning. In order to be enriched with these Brazilian experiences, the organic agriculture development association of Dordogne, AgroBio Périgord, organized a study trip there in 2004. That is how the AgroBio Périgord's Seed House - Maison de la Semence - had been created. This present study aims to promote the collective organizations and management methods learnt through those Brazilian experiences and the AgroBio Périgord Seed House works. Thanks to interviews with representatives of these seven Brazilian organizations, and to the daily activities of AgroBio Périgord Seed House, general teachings have been identified and discussed in relation to the respective context of each structure. These organizations are not limited to a seed centralization structure and they use a wide diversity of tools to manage seeds and varieties. Seeds access and transfer modalities depend on the group objectives and the global logistic is transposable from Brazil to France. Finally, all organizations have a politic activity but just a few of them use farm variety monitoring and selection methods. ; Les semences paysannes ont depuis toujours été sélectionnées et conservées par les paysans du monde entier. Elles permettent aujourd'hui de répondre à de nouveaux enjeux tels que l'adaptation des systèmes de production aux changements climatiques ou à des terroirs spécifiques, la préservation de la biodiversité ou la création de variétés adaptées à des itinéraires techniques et/ou modes de transformation non-conventionnels. Le développement de ces semences et des pratiques associées rencontre néanmoins des difficultés liées à une législation contraignante ainsi qu'à l'érosion des savoir-faire traditionnels de gestion de cette ressource. Au Brésil, depuis le début des années 80, des organisations paysannes de gestion de ces semences libres de titre de propriété se développent selon différents modèles de fonctionnement. C'est dans le but de s'enrichir de ces expériences que l'association de développement de l'agriculture biologique de Dordogne, AgroBio Périgord, y organisa un voyage d'étude et continue à maintenir des échanges avec certaines de ces organisations. C'est ainsi que la Maison de la Semence de AgroBio Périgord a vu le jour en 2004. Cette présente étude vise à valoriser les enseignements relatifs à l'organisation collective ainsi qu'aux outils de gestion de la biodiversité issus de ces expériences brésiliennes et du travail développé par la Maison de la Semence d'AgroBio Périgord. À partir d'une série d'entretiens avec des représentants de chacune de sept organisations brésiliennes et de la participation aux activités quotidiennes de la Maison de la Semence d'AgroBio Périgord, des enseignements généraux ont été identifiés et discutés en fonction du contexte respectif de chaque structure. Ces organisations ne se limitent pas à une structure de centralisation des semences et elles utilisent une large diversité d'outils pour la gestion des semences et variétés. Les modalités d'accès et de transfert de semences dépendent des objectifs du groupe et la logistique globale est transposable d'un pays à l'autre. Enfin, toutes les organisations ont une portée politique et seulement une petite partie d'entre elles utilise des méthodes de suivi et de sélection des variétés paysannes.

You can bail out AIG, Greece, or even the United States. You can't bail out the planet. The article is adapted from "But Will the Planet Notice?" (2011) by Gernot Wagner, with permission from Farrar, Strauss & Giroux. Published in the European Financial Review on June 3rd, 2012.

National audience ; Après un siècle d'expansion continue, les surfaces en prairies permanentes ont connu une phase de régression (depuis les années 1970). La Révolution fourragère, puis l'avènement des préoccupations environnementales et les premiers effets du changement climatique ont profondément modifié le statut de ces prairies. Les points de vue des acteurs concernés (éleveurs, agronomes, écologues ou l'administration) sont ici présentés ; ils diffèrent, à commencer par la définition donnée pour la prairie permanente. Le cadre réglementaire français s'appliquant aux surfaces toujours en herbe est présenté ainsi qu'une analyse des liens entre ce cadre et les définitions de la prairie permanente.

International audience ; Both Australia and France are similarly developed countries with comparable egalitarian societies but differ in some issues such as energy generation, agricultural and mining history, GMO cultivation, immigration. Both countries have implemented Education for a Sustainable Development (ESD) in their respective education systems. This paper explores primary teachers' conceptions of the environment, and how these relate to the broader national socio-scientific differences. Using the questionnaire of the European research project Biohead-Citizen, we compared, by multivariate analyses, conceptions of 98 Australian and 272 French primary school teachers. The Australian teachers' conceptions significantly differ from those of French teachers, mainly being more pro-GMO, more anthropocentric and believing more that some animals can feel happiness. The most anthropocentric and pro-GMO conceptions are correlated with more belief in God, practising religion, and trusting more in private than in public institutions, for schools, for health services and pensions. They also agree more with the propositions: "It is for biological reasons that women more often than men take care of housekeeping", "Ethnic groups are genetically different and that is why some are superior to others" and "There are too many foreigners in my country: the government should limit immigration". Some hypotheses are proposed to interpret these differences, such as resistance to GMOs in France and Australia's immigration history. The greater endorsement in the Australian sample of values against equality between men and women, or among ethnic groups, is more difficult to explain, but may possibly relate to education or to characteristics of the local sociopolitical contexts.

International audience ; Both Australia and France are similarly developed countries with comparable egalitarian societies but differ in some issues such as energy generation, agricultural and mining history, GMO cultivation, immigration. Both countries have implemented Education for a Sustainable Development (ESD) in their respective education systems. This paper explores primary teachers' conceptions of the environment, and how these relate to the broader national socio-scientific differences. Using the questionnaire of the European research project Biohead-Citizen, we compared, by multivariate analyses, conceptions of 98 Australian and 272 French primary school teachers. The Australian teachers' conceptions significantly differ from those of French teachers, mainly being more pro-GMO, more anthropocentric and believing more that some animals can feel happiness. The most anthropocentric and pro-GMO conceptions are correlated with more belief in God, practising religion, and trusting more in private than in public institutions, for schools, for health services and pensions. They also agree more with the propositions: "It is for biological reasons that women more often than men take care of housekeeping", "Ethnic groups are genetically different and that is why some are superior to others" and "There are too many foreigners in my country: the government should limit immigration". Some hypotheses are proposed to interpret these differences, such as resistance to GMOs in France and Australia's immigration history. The greater endorsement in the Australian sample of values against equality between men and women, or among ethnic groups, is more difficult to explain, but may possibly relate to education or to characteristics of the local sociopolitical contexts.

The framework of U.S. laws governing energy efficiency and renewable energy is one of fragmentation across levels of government, regions of the country, types of energy resources, regulatory techniques, and policy objectives. Those who attempt to navigate these various laws and accomplish a substantive objective, such as building a project, must be prepared to dive into a broad range of disparate, uncoordinated provisions that apply to the specific kind of facility and location where it would be built. The framework of U.S. laws governing energy efficiency and renewable energy is one of fragmentation across levels of government, regions of the country, types of energy resources, regulatory techniques, and policy objectives. Those who attempt to navigate these various laws and accomplish a substantive objective, such as building a project, must be prepared to dive into a broad range of disparate, uncoordinated provisions that apply to the specific kind of facility and location where it would be built. The Law of Clean Energy provides a current, clearly written explanation of the laws that apply and the critical legal issues involved in the transition to a clean energy economy. Part I discusses the energy efficiency laws that exist at the federal, state, and local levels, as well as the mandates and goals written into law for renewable energy, and also considers the siting and permitting of renewable energy facilities. Part II covers tax and nontax incentives for efficiency and renewables, relevant aspects of the sale of electricity and ratemaking, the various ways that transactions for the financing of efficiency and renewables are structured, and government consumption and purchase of energy. Part III explores the use of energy in particular sectors such as agriculture and forestry, appliances, lighting, computers, buildings, motor vehicles, and distributed generation. Part IV covers different kinds of renewable energy (wind, solar, geothermal, biofuels, hydropower and tides, waves, and ocean currents) as well as energy transmission and storage. The book closes with a 50-state survey of laws on energy efficiency and renewables. ; https://scholarship.law.columbia.edu/books/1060/thumbnail.jpg

International audience ; Objective: To examine the impact of the ban on smoking in enclosed public places implemented in England in July 2007 on children's exposure to secondhand tobacco smoke. Design: Repeated cross-sectional surveys of the general population in England. Setting: The Health Survey for England Participants: Confirmed non-smoking children aged 4-15 with measured saliva cotinine participating in surveys from 1998 to 2008, a total of 10,825 children across years. Main outcome measures: The proportion of children living in homes reported to be smoke free; the proportion of children with undetectable concentrations of cotinine; geometric mean cotinine as an objective indicator of overall exposure. Results: Significantly more children with smoking parents lived in smoke-free homes in 2008 (48.1%, 95%CI 43.0-53.1) than in either 2006 (35.5%, 95% CI 29.7-41.7) or the first 6 months of 2007, immediately before the ban came into effect (30.5%, 95% CI 19.7-43.9). A total of 41.1% (95% CI 38.9-43.4) of children had undetectable cotinine in 2008, up from 34.0 % (95% CI 30.8-37.3) in 2006. Geometric mean cotinine in all children combined was 0.21ng/ml (95% CI .20-.23) in 2008, slightly lower than in 2006, 0.24ng/ml (95% CI .21-.26). Conclusions: Predictions that the2007 legislative ban on smoking in enclosed public places would adversely affect children's exposure to tobacco smoke were not confirmed. While overall exposure in children has not been greatly affected by the ban, the trend towards the adoption of smoke-free homes by parents who themselves smoke has received fresh impetus.