HE WORLD OF ENERGY POLICY is characterized by sharp discontinuil ties and high stakes. Responses ... more HE WORLD OF ENERGY POLICY is characterized by sharp discontinuil ties and high stakes. Responses to energy supply uncertainties and the quest for energy security vary among nations, reflecting the different decision-making systems, resource profiles, and the values and perceptions of the future which are dominant in a country at a particular time. Indeed, the energy strategies of Japan reflect its unique social decisionmaking system and position as a major actor in world energy markets, with few natural resources except for a large population and a system disciplined to pursue national economic security objectives. The importance of Japan in the energy sphere, however, is not limited to the effects of its own consumption upon short-term supply and demand for different fuels. Japan has successfully changed technologies, which, in turn, has affected world demand patterns for energy, and influenced the longer-term development of certain important global energy resources such as coal. The attributes of Japan's energy strategies in the past two decades provide an interesting model of response to a turbulent, complex environment. The Japanese model masterfully blends aggressive and defensive tactics, harmonizes competition with cooperation, and combines a longer-term assessment of domestic and international events with flexibility and a sensitive response to the current environment. In this article we analyze the development of Japanese energy policy and attempt to predict Japan's future actions to secure its energy supply.
This study outlines the role of autopsies in medical practice and health policy, details the natu... more This study outlines the role of autopsies in medical practice and health policy, details the nature and reason for declining rates, including those in Rochester, Minnesota, and suggests possible remedial measures to halt or reverse this trend. It is concluded that one of the principal impediments to reversing the declining rate of autopsies is what is referred to in Economics as "market failure." In particular, the nature of the spatial and temporal distribution of costs and benefits has precluded the existence of an incentive structure which can lead to a realization of the major net social benefits from the autopsy. Ultimately, it is only the explicit recognition by the medical profession, government agencies, corporate insurers, and the general public of the nature and significance of this market failure and foregone benefits which can lead to remediation.
Introduction "Environmental control is a luxury we cannot afford" was a frequent refrai... more Introduction "Environmental control is a luxury we cannot afford" was a frequent refrain from the developing world in the decades of the 1970s and 1980s, yet emerging evidence of the impact of unfettered growth on human health and the ecosystem has provided convincing documentation of the fallacy of environmental indifference. This volume, representing the research efforts of 21 authors from seven countries both within and outside Southeast Asia, focusses on a broad range of environmental issues, including: the effects of resource extraction in the mineral, energy, forest and fisheries sectors; the role of the state and local governments in resource development; community resource management; the role of NGOs; issues of gender; ethnic/indigenous peoples; the urban environment; biodiversity; common property rights; and climate change. Several critical lessons emerge from this and other recent studies of the environment in Southeast Asia. (1) With the possible exception of the city-state of Singapore, the rapidly developing nations of the region have not found an alternative, less environmentally destructive, path to economic development than that experienced historically by the developed world. These nations are plagued by a long list of environmental issues, including: "watershed erosion, upland degradation, deforestation, loss of biological diversity, soil and land management, air and water pollution, urban sanitation, waste disposal, environmental health, protection of cultural property, marine and coastal zone pollution and water resource management" (Seda, 1993, p. 22). (2) In many cases, the implementation and enforcement of environmental legislation already enacted is hampered by "inadequate financial, technological and administrative resources, corrupt practices, the relative lack of public consciousness and leverage of environmental groups" (Seda, 1993, p. 21), piece-meal decision-making and the absence of a coherent plan for environmental amelioration, especially in the cities, an absence of vital baseline information on which to build environmental trend analysis and assessment, and inadequate technical knowledge and managerial capabilities, pricing, and subsidy policies. (3) The effective control of environmental and other renewable resources ultimately transcends national boundaries, requiring regional and global cooperative institutions and initiatives. (4) The forest resource base is in many respects the linchpin of local and regional ecosystems, as the process of deforestation has a cascading effect on other natural resources such as soils and agriculture, lakes and rivers, as well as harvesting activities in the agricultural and fisheries sectors. (See, for example, Nemetz, 1992 and Marchak, 1995). (5) The interrelated issues of decision-making locus, community empowerment, and formal and informal structures of resource control and ownership are essential to effective resource stewardship. (6) The rapidly increasing demand for energy, accompanying the process of industrialization, poses one of the most intractable environmental problems in the region. In a sense, many of these lessons are neither new nor startling, as similar evidence has been emerging globally for some years. What is new, however, is the perspective in which these effects are viewed. A serious challenge has been provided to the traditional attitude that environmental degradation is a necessary and acceptable cost of economic development. It is in this respect that this volume is particularly persuasive as convincing documentation is provided of the extent to which environmental degradation is destroying the very resource base needed for continued economic development. For example, deforestation is eroding the agricultural land base, hampering fishing activity, threatening the continued production of traditional as well as commercial energy resources, polluting water, destroying the traditional livelihood of local communities, and providing only a transitory positive effect on export earnings at the expense of sustainable long-term revenue. …
HE WORLD OF ENERGY POLICY is characterized by sharp discontinuil ties and high stakes. Responses ... more HE WORLD OF ENERGY POLICY is characterized by sharp discontinuil ties and high stakes. Responses to energy supply uncertainties and the quest for energy security vary among nations, reflecting the different decision-making systems, resource profiles, and the values and perceptions of the future which are dominant in a country at a particular time. Indeed, the energy strategies of Japan reflect its unique social decisionmaking system and position as a major actor in world energy markets, with few natural resources except for a large population and a system disciplined to pursue national economic security objectives. The importance of Japan in the energy sphere, however, is not limited to the effects of its own consumption upon short-term supply and demand for different fuels. Japan has successfully changed technologies, which, in turn, has affected world demand patterns for energy, and influenced the longer-term development of certain important global energy resources such as coal. The attributes of Japan's energy strategies in the past two decades provide an interesting model of response to a turbulent, complex environment. The Japanese model masterfully blends aggressive and defensive tactics, harmonizes competition with cooperation, and combines a longer-term assessment of domestic and international events with flexibility and a sensitive response to the current environment. In this article we analyze the development of Japanese energy policy and attempt to predict Japan's future actions to secure its energy supply.
This study outlines the role of autopsies in medical practice and health policy, details the natu... more This study outlines the role of autopsies in medical practice and health policy, details the nature and reason for declining rates, including those in Rochester, Minnesota, and suggests possible remedial measures to halt or reverse this trend. It is concluded that one of the principal impediments to reversing the declining rate of autopsies is what is referred to in Economics as "market failure." In particular, the nature of the spatial and temporal distribution of costs and benefits has precluded the existence of an incentive structure which can lead to a realization of the major net social benefits from the autopsy. Ultimately, it is only the explicit recognition by the medical profession, government agencies, corporate insurers, and the general public of the nature and significance of this market failure and foregone benefits which can lead to remediation.
Introduction "Environmental control is a luxury we cannot afford" was a frequent refrai... more Introduction "Environmental control is a luxury we cannot afford" was a frequent refrain from the developing world in the decades of the 1970s and 1980s, yet emerging evidence of the impact of unfettered growth on human health and the ecosystem has provided convincing documentation of the fallacy of environmental indifference. This volume, representing the research efforts of 21 authors from seven countries both within and outside Southeast Asia, focusses on a broad range of environmental issues, including: the effects of resource extraction in the mineral, energy, forest and fisheries sectors; the role of the state and local governments in resource development; community resource management; the role of NGOs; issues of gender; ethnic/indigenous peoples; the urban environment; biodiversity; common property rights; and climate change. Several critical lessons emerge from this and other recent studies of the environment in Southeast Asia. (1) With the possible exception of the city-state of Singapore, the rapidly developing nations of the region have not found an alternative, less environmentally destructive, path to economic development than that experienced historically by the developed world. These nations are plagued by a long list of environmental issues, including: "watershed erosion, upland degradation, deforestation, loss of biological diversity, soil and land management, air and water pollution, urban sanitation, waste disposal, environmental health, protection of cultural property, marine and coastal zone pollution and water resource management" (Seda, 1993, p. 22). (2) In many cases, the implementation and enforcement of environmental legislation already enacted is hampered by "inadequate financial, technological and administrative resources, corrupt practices, the relative lack of public consciousness and leverage of environmental groups" (Seda, 1993, p. 21), piece-meal decision-making and the absence of a coherent plan for environmental amelioration, especially in the cities, an absence of vital baseline information on which to build environmental trend analysis and assessment, and inadequate technical knowledge and managerial capabilities, pricing, and subsidy policies. (3) The effective control of environmental and other renewable resources ultimately transcends national boundaries, requiring regional and global cooperative institutions and initiatives. (4) The forest resource base is in many respects the linchpin of local and regional ecosystems, as the process of deforestation has a cascading effect on other natural resources such as soils and agriculture, lakes and rivers, as well as harvesting activities in the agricultural and fisheries sectors. (See, for example, Nemetz, 1992 and Marchak, 1995). (5) The interrelated issues of decision-making locus, community empowerment, and formal and informal structures of resource control and ownership are essential to effective resource stewardship. (6) The rapidly increasing demand for energy, accompanying the process of industrialization, poses one of the most intractable environmental problems in the region. In a sense, many of these lessons are neither new nor startling, as similar evidence has been emerging globally for some years. What is new, however, is the perspective in which these effects are viewed. A serious challenge has been provided to the traditional attitude that environmental degradation is a necessary and acceptable cost of economic development. It is in this respect that this volume is particularly persuasive as convincing documentation is provided of the extent to which environmental degradation is destroying the very resource base needed for continued economic development. For example, deforestation is eroding the agricultural land base, hampering fishing activity, threatening the continued production of traditional as well as commercial energy resources, polluting water, destroying the traditional livelihood of local communities, and providing only a transitory positive effect on export earnings at the expense of sustainable long-term revenue. …
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Papers by Peter N Nemetz