Minamata Disease and Environmental Governance
Minamata Disease and Environmental Governance
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DOI：
10.1111/j.1475-6781.2006.00082.x
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发表时间：
2006-11
影响因子：
1.2
通讯作者：
Harutoshi Funabashi
中科院分区：
文献类型：
--
作者：
Harutoshi Funabashi
本文旨在通过对最悲惨的环境破坏案例之一--水端病的案例研究，阐明环境治理的必要条件。水稻病是一种甲基汞中毒，由摄入受污染的鱼类和贝类引起。第一例水端病发生在20世纪50年代中期的熊本县。尽管熊本的污染提供了严重的教训，但20世纪60年代中期，日本社会在新泻县经历了第二次水端病。在过去的50年里，受害者、对污染负有责任的公司以及中央和地方政府之间的冲突一直在持续。总体而言，这两起水端病事件的历史表明，日本社会缺乏环境治理。有效的环境治理是为各种环境问题提供适当解决方案的能力。为了充分解决水稻病这样的环境问题，必须完成四项任务。这些是发现原因、预防痛苦、从痛苦中恢复和吸取教训。完成这些任务的关键因素是什么？通过对水端病历史的分析，我想指出对环境问题的解决具有决定性影响的三个基本因素。它们是有效和公正的司法制度的存在，成熟的公共领域，以及关注环境问题的个人行为者的素质。以下条件对于在更具体的层面上促进环境治理很重要：社会的敏感性和制定议程的能力、研究过程和任何研究小组的自主权、反污染运动的组织、适当设计的补偿制度以及有助于应对社会放大的痛苦的各种措施。
: This article aims to clarify the conditions necessary for environmental governance through a case study of one of the most tragic examples of environmental destruction, the Minamata disease. The Minamata disease is methyl-mercury poisoning resulting from the ingestion of contaminated fish and shellfish. The first incident of the Minamata disease occurred in the mid-1950s, in Kumamoto Prefecture. In spite of the grave lesson that the pollution in Kumamoto provided, Japanese society went on to experience a second occurrence of Minamata disease in the mid-1960s, in Niigata Prefecture. Conflicts between victims, the companies responsible for contamination, and the central and prefectural governments have continued for the past 50 years. As a whole, the history of the two incidences of Minamata disease shows a lack of environmental governance in Japanese society. Effective environmental governance is the ability to produce adequate solutions to a variety of environmental problems. In order to resolve an environmental problem such as Minamata disease adequately, four tasks must be achieved. These are the discovery of the cause, the prevention of suffering, recovery from suffering and the learning of a lesson. What factors are crucial to the achievement of these tasks? Through an analysis of the history of Minamata disease, I would like to point out three fundamental factors that have a decisive influence on the solution of an environmental problem. They are the existence of an effective and just juridical system, a mature public sphere, and the quality of individual actors who are concerned with an environmental problem. The following conditions are important to the fostering of environmental governance on a more concrete level: sensitivity of the society and the ability to set an agenda, autonomy of the research process and of any research groups, organization of the antipollution movement, an adequately designed system for compensation, and various measures which help to counter socially amplified suffering.