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"The emergence of China as a major economic power in the first decade of the millennium prompted the biggest commodity boom of modern times. Soaring prices gave rise to talk of a commodity 'super cycle' and induced a wave of resource nationalism in mineral-rich countries. It also stirred up concerns of supply shortages in mineral-consuming countries. The author, who served as chief economist at two of the world's largest mining companies during these years, describes how and why this resulted in a transformation - a 'remaking' - of the mining industry. The book tells of how the markets in which the industry operated changed, how the industry was restructured through acquisition and investment, and how a cast of new players from emerging economies arrived on the scene. With the boom now passed, the book concludes with some reflections on what the changes imply for the future of the industry and the environmental and political challenges it will face"--

Forests as public goods -- Intergovernmental panel on forests -- World Commission on Forests and Sustainable Development -- Intergovernmental forum on forests -- United Nations forum on forests -- The certification wars -- Countering illegal logging -- The World Bank's forests strategy -- The international forests regime -- The crisis of global governance

Despite the large volume of published work on Offa's Dyke there is no settled conclusion as to its original purpose. Many different and often conflicting theories exist, most of which can be put into three broad categories: defensive, political and economic. It is generally accepted that the monument's disposition relative to the adjacent topography is significant for interpretations of purpose. In this article, field survey and GIS mapping techniques are applied with respect to the comparative size and topographical disposition of a stretch of central Offa's Dyke in order to examine its utility as a defensive structure. This allows a re-evaluation of claims by Hill and Worthington (2003), among others, that the route of Offa's Dyke was designed to optimise outlook by following the west facing brow of hills, or more generally to 'command' the western landscape. Evidence reported here shows that central Offa's Dyke does not consistently prioritise western views. Instead, it was positioned in such a way as to often obscure westerly vistas, despite the opportunity to optimise such an outlook by relatively minor route adjustments. On the basis of the evidence reported, discussed in the context of the wider literature, it is concluded that central Offa's Dyke should be interpreted as a physical obstacle rather than a defensive fortification. After a brief consideration of alternative theories of purpose it is suggested that Offa's Dyke was most likely built with economic and political, rather than defensive, functions in mind. It is postulated that control of trade provides a plausible context for its construction.

Policy integration is a processes by which a particular policy, and the objectives, principles and values on which it is based, is intentionally integrated into a whole – a broader and more holistic set of policies – where the former did not previously exist. We may call this whole the integer, a term used in mathematics for a whole number. The integer denotes the broader set of policies of a polity or political system and the set of instruments used to promote and implement these policies. We may call that which is to be integrated the integrant, a term used to denote a part of a whole. The integrant may be defined as a particular policy and the set of instruments used to promote and implement that policy which, it is intended, should be integrated into an integer. So environmental policy integration is a policy process to integrate a stipulated integrant (an environmental policy) throughout an integer (a broader set of policies). Environmental policy integration is first and foremost a normative enterprise that seeks to shift the normative vector (the overall normative 'pull') of the integer on to a more sustainable basis. However, the extent to which environmental policy integration can be successful in doing this is limited when integrants are shaped and influenced ab initio by the principles and values of the integer. The paper argues that contemporary environmental policies are dominated primarily by neoliberal principles. The result is that while environmental policy integration has achieved some limited successes it is an essentially reformist approach that takes as its point of departure mainstream policies that routinely degrade the environment.

This article identifies and explores some of the political issues that will need to be addressed in the governance of geoengineering. It is argued that the diversity of different possible geoengineering techniques—encompassing solar radiation management (SRM) and carbon dioxide removal (CDR), and further divided into territorial techniques and commons-based techniques—rules out a single mode of geoengineering governance. Whereas some geoengineering techniques may be effective when implemented by a small number of countries, others would need to be implemented around the globe and involve most countries of the world, with different countries having different comparative advantages in the various geoengineering techniques. Such an enterprise would generate collective action problems related to implementation and disagreements over who should pay for the financial and nonfinancial costs of geoengineering. Nonetheless, a more coherent system of geoengineering governance is possible and is necessary if international conflict is to be avoided and the risks of unintended consequences are to be minimized. Any new international institutional design on geoengineering will need to address some pressing political and scientific questions, including the desired mean temperature of the world's climate, the possible role of CDR technologies in carbon offsets and emissions-trading schemes, and whether there should be differentiated obligations between different groups of states.