Nature,Crisis, Risk,Science, and Society: What is Our Ethical Responsibility?

In his keynote address, Robert Cox raised key questions, many of which force us to consider the larger question of the role of academics in society. The authors respond by suggesting that environmental communication, like other communication studies, is inherently normative and that environmental communication scholarship is closely aligned to risk as a centerpiece to crisis analysis. The authors discuss the productive connections among science, communication and sound public policy that make society more fully functional, including the formation of effective public policy through science that is normative while seeking objectivity, evaluating and symbolizing motives in discourse, acknowledging uncertainty and acceptable uncertainty, and that material and symbolic dimensions of the environment are interdependent. Thus, such studies focus on the ethics of environment and must balance sound science and cultural considerations.     

Analysis on Problems during Evaluating and Compensating of Environment/Resources

The process of evaluation and compensation for environment or resources is a complex research field involving environment science, sociology, and economics. This essay mainly discusses the process from the sociological view and proposes the related paradigm. The possible problems during the process were pointed out: acceptor/donor may make an immoderate price by taking the advantage of the specialty of the environment/resources, using information asymmetry, or colluding with middleman; may cause behavioral transformation; may lead to unexpected results when the policy was not effectively making and evaluating; may result in insufficient supply of products with positive externalities being lack of enough physical or symbolic inspiration. The following methods might be helpful to improve the situation: establishing an effective supervising system, encouraging the development of cross-bencher evaluating organizations, encouraging the development of Non-Governmental Organizations, encouraging the public participation, and setting up the effective market.     

Sporting Nature(s): Wildness,the Primitive,and Naturalizing Imagery in MMA and Sports Advertisements

This essay examines two Nike commercials, a TapOut commercial, and the proliferation of mixed martial arts (MMA) t-shirt visual culture, all of which symbolically link wildness and “nature” as primitivity to their particular sport contexts. MMA in particular, it is argued, is more symbolically available to symbolic discourses of the “natural” and the “primitive” because of the sport's technological minimalism. The MMA t-shirt is posited as a safe, masculine primitive performance, functioning as an expressive personal substitute (or supplement) to the analogous tattoos “worn” by many fighters and fans. Additionally, this paper reviews and connects several disparate bodies of literature, moving from a discussion of eco-critical principles for critiquing the cultural production of nature / the natural, to an assessment of “nature” as primitivity, and finally to highlight how critical analyses of sport and MMA implicate related categories. While environmental communication has addressed the place of “nature” in advertising, little has been written about how discourses of nature, gender, and the environment intersect with the highly mediatized culture of sports. This article adds to the subfield by initiating just such a critical discussion. Finally, I contend that one of the main ideological functions of the employment of nature imagery here is to implicitly authorize notions of wildness or the “primitive” in close association with a male animal ideology, and also to symbolically reinforce existing narratives which naturalize aggression. These advertisements posit, I argue, a metaphysical rather than realist ecological discourse, enabling an unsustainable narrative of the naturalness of human-on-human violence and aggression.     

Advancing to a Circular Economy: three essential ingredients for a comprehensive policy mix

Material resources exploitation and the pressure on natural ecosystems have raised concerns over potential future resource risks and supply failures worldwide. Interest in the concept of Circular Economy has surged in recent years among policy makers and business actors. An increasing amount of literature touches upon the conceptualisation of Circular Economy, the development of ‘circular solutions’ and circular business models, and policies for a Circular Economy. However, relevant studies on resource efficiency policies mostly utilise a case-by-case or sector-by-sector approach and do not consider the systemic interdependencies of the underlying operational policy framework. In this contribution, a mapping of the existing resource policy framework in the European Union (EU) is undertaken, and used as a basis for identifying policy areas that have been less prominent in influencing material resource efficiency. Employing a life cycle approach, policies affecting material efficiency in the production and consumption stages of a product have been found to be poorly utilised so far in the EU. Taking this as a point of departure, three policy areas that can contribute to closing material loops and increasing resource efficiency are thoroughly discussed and their application challenges are highlighted. The three policy areas are: (1) policies for reuse, repair and remanufacturing; (2) green public procurement and innovation procurement; and (3) policies for improving secondary materials markets. Finally, a potential policy mix, including policy instruments from the three mentioned policy areas—together with policy mixing principles—is presented to outline a possible pathway for transitioning to Circular Economy policy making.     

Availability and plant uptake of heavy metals from contaminated dredged material placed in flooded and upland disposal environments

The availability and plant uptake of heavy metals was evaluated from contaminated dredged material placed in flooded and upland disposal environments using a solid-phase plant bioassay. The objective of the study was to verify previous dredged material research results and to develop a plant bioassay procedure that could indicate phytotoxicity and bioaccumulation of heavy metals in contaminated dredged material. The plant bioassay indicated more uptake and bioaccumulations of cadmium and, to a lesser extent, zinc when contaminated dredged material was placed in an upland environment where the sediment was allowed to air-dry. Placing the contaminated dredged material in a flooded (reduced) environment lowered the availability and plant uptake of cadmium and, to a lesser extent, zinc. Factors that influenced the availability and plant uptake of heavy metals from contaminated sediments included sediment oxidation-reduction potential, organic matter content, total sulfur content, and pH. The plant bioassay showed phytotoxicity and bioaccumulation of arsenic under a flooded environment. Placing the arsenic-contaminated sediment in an upland environment reduced both the phytotoxicity and bioaccumulation of arsenic in the freshwater marsh plant Cyperus esculentus.     

环境管制政策的局限性与变革--自愿性环境政策的兴起

我国虽然基本上避免了环境质量急剧恶化的局面。但是现行环境政策并没有从根本上遏制环境状况不断恶化的趋势，我国环境政策的效率亟待摄高。究其原因，我国环境政策以行政直控的管制政策为主。具有强烈的行政管理色彩，使得政府和企业的博弈长期锁定在非合作状态。要摆脱这种困境，必须引入第三方激励、监督机制。促使双方的博弈转变为合作博弈。20世纪90年代中期自愿性环境政策的渐渐兴起，是企业和公众在产品市场上互相影响的结果。而政府起到引导激励、信号传递作用。文章从博弈论的角度对此进行了分析，自愿性环境政策缓解了环境管制成本与效果冲突的困境，是未来环境政策的一个重要的方向。     

Culture as trigger for sustainability transition in the water domain: the case of the Spanish water policy and the Ebro river basin

There is a mounting body of literature dealing generally with the dynamics of transitions of human systems towards sustainability and specifically with the different stages and processes of transitions. However, the question of why transition processes occur in the first place remains largely unexplained. This paper explores the concept of transition triggers, such as culture or material resource scarcity, and provides a theoretical framework to explain the emergence of a transition and its relation to recent developments in Spanish water policy. We adapt the general framework provided by current transition theory and gather empirical evidence and insights from processes occurring within the Spanish policy context and the Ebro river basin in particular. Our results show that the sole existence of biophysical limits to water use or development cannot explain the start of a possible sustainability transition in this domain in Spain. Changes in the existing water policies in the direction of sustainability were not ignited by people directly affected by water scarcities but by a coalition of sensitive agents, mostly from academia, NGOs and local constituencies, who managed to articulate new identities, integrate multiple sources of policy relevant knowledge, and develop new values under the umbrella of the new water culture movement.

广义物质循环模型及对循环经济的政策内涵

在传统经济增长模式下。我国资源开采、生产、消费及消费末端各个环节的环境问题都十分突出。然而传统的物质循环并不能从根本上解决我国经济增长与生态环境之间的矛盾。在总结传统物质循环的特点与局限性的基础之上。提出了旨在提高经济系统全过程资源效率与环境绩效的广义物质循环的概念及理论模型；剖析了广义物质循环的资源与环境政策内涵，并据此提出我国资源环境的生命周期政策途径；最后以广义物质循环的内涵及基本原则为指导。深入探讨了我国循环经济发展的资源政策与环境政策。本文认为。建立与发展以广义物质循环为核心的循环经济增长模式。是我国实现经济与环境持续协调发展的根本途径。     

Negotiating Virtue and Vice: Articulations of Lay Conceptions of Health and Sustainability in Social Media Conversations around Natural Beverages

Prior studies have suggested that despite increasing sustainability awareness, many consumers are confused about the impact of green products on their health and the environment. Unlike those studies that privilege professional discourse and adopt unrealistic presumptions of rationality and morality, this article showcases consumers as active co-producers of value and meanings. Using netnography, it analyzes social media conversations around Naked Juice and Innocent smoothies—two products marketed as healthy, all-natural, and environmentally sustainable beverages. The findings reveal a baseline picture of the products' virtues of healthiness feeling (hedonic) and holistic health image (symbolic). The article illustrates how this moral conception was dynamically constructed and transformed in the course of consumers' communicative practices. It proposes three discursive strategies by which consumers negotiate the nature and boundaries of good and bad choices vis-à-vis the products: highlighting (separating virtue from vice), balancing (reconciling virtue and vice), and resisting (reconstructing virtue as vice).     

The Weyekin Principle: Toward an Embodied Critical Rhetoric

This essay offers the weyekin principle to address the symbol–material, human–nature dualisms found in much of our theory and critiqued by a growing number of environmental communication scholars. The authors see two core requirements for transforming our engagement with the nonhuman: first, a way of attending to or interpreting natural phenomena that opens our awareness to other-than-symbolic modes of experience; and second, an embodied critique that expresses the inherent tensions of the symbolic–material interface.     

Introduction: Natural Capital, Poverty and Development

Can development occur without running down natural resources in an unsustainable way? The concept of natural capital offers a way for those with divergent views (ecologists and economists for example) to discuss this difficult question. Four aspects are examined in detail. First, the role of institutions in facilitating sustainable development is discussed, with examples from forestry. Then examples from (eco)tourism illustrate the potential – and limits – of applicability of the concept. Measurement issues for natural capital are then considered in detail. Finally, the concept is applied to agricultural strategy in fragile lands, where the tradeoff between the environment and development is likely to be most severe. Some implications for future research and policy are developed.     

The risk assessment-policy gap: an example from the UK contaminated land regime

Risk-based regulation assumes that risk assessment can evaluate risks against policy objectives. However, policy goals are often ambiguous and require risk assessors to interpret them for use in risk assessment. This risk assessment-policy gap stems partly from normative and imprecise policy language but is rooted more fundamentally in society's uncertain expectations for the environment. Until this uncertainty is resolved, the democratic and regulatory effectiveness of risk regulation will be undermined by ad hoc policy decisions abdicated to risk assessors.     

The risk assessment–policy gap: An example from the UK contaminated land regime

Risk-based regulation assumes that risk assessment can evaluate risks against policy objectives. However, policy goals are often ambiguous and require risk assessors to interpret them for use in risk assessment. This risk assessment-policy gap stems partly from normative and imprecise policy language but is rooted more fundamentally in society's uncertain expectations for the environment. Until this uncertainty is resolved, the democratic and regulatory effectiveness of risk regulation will be undermined by ad hoc policy decisions abdicated to risk assessors.     

应用DEA分析农户对退耕还林政策实施的响应

退耕还林政策实施面临改善农村生态环境、调整农业生产结构和增加农民收入等多项目标,其实施过程是政府和农户水土保持行为共同作用的过程。农户水土保持行为关系到退耕还林的水土治理效果的实现程度。通过建立退耕还林政策和农户水土保持行为指标体系,以及应用DEA（Data Envelopment Analysis,数据包络分析）模型,以江西省丰城市的梅林镇、湖塘乡和尚庄镇的农户调查数据为基础,对区域退耕还林政策实施的农户水土保持行为响应进行分析。结果表明不同区域和同一区域的不同农户具有不同的特点。个体差别：梅林镇15户农户、湖塘乡14户农户、尚庄镇14户农户的水土保持行为属于积极响应型,农户兼业化水平和家庭核心化水平较高是区域的共同特点,分别占各乡镇调查农户的25.86％、24.14％、24.14％,其余旁观响应型、补偿消极型、补偿年限消极型、实施力度消极型、综合消极型,以补偿消极型为主。区域差别：梅林镇和湖塘乡补偿消极型农户明显多于尚庄镇,而尚庄镇旁观响应型比重较高,这与区域社会经济发展背景有关,梅林镇在区位上优于其他乡镇,经济较为发达,农户的非农收入水平较高,兼业化程度也高于其他乡镇。据此,提出了相关政策和水土流失治理建议。     

江苏省环境与人口、经济的协调发展分析——基于环境安全视角

协调发展既是国民经济乐观发展的客观要求,同时也是人类可持续发展不可或缺的组成部分。江苏省协调发展问题的研究有利于解决环境问题的定位,发现环境发展中的薄弱点与发展潜力,促进环境与人口、经济的协调发展。以环境安全理论为依托,以强调协调发展为出发点,建立江苏省环境与人口、经济系统的协调发展指标体系,应用改进的层次分析法（AHP）及变异系数法权重均值赋权,借鉴模糊数学中隶属度函数来计算协调系数。结果表明：2001~2010年江苏省环境与人口、经济系统的平均协调水平处于基本协调状态,并且有稳中上升的趋势,协调发展前景乐观;同时分析并提出了建立健全江苏省协调发展机制、探讨环境安全维护体系建设、制订缓解人口压力政策等建议     

Discerning the factors explaining the change in energy efficiency

Due to the high rates of energy consumption and its impact on environment over the last decades, policy decision-makers are increasingly recognising the need to take actions that allow to address problems associated with the deployment of non-renewable resources and climate changes. One field of action has been the promotion of measures that contribute to improve energy efficiency of countries. The purpose of this study is to identify the main factors explaining changes in energy efficiency applying the multiplicative Log Mean Divisia Index decomposition method for a set of countries (Portugal, UK, Brazil and China) with different socio-economic background and energy mix. The results show that overall energy efficiency trends display different patterns between countries and the same happens within each country from a sectoral perspective. Major drivers of improvements of overall energy efficiency were the intensity effect and the affluence effect, whereas the driver that hampered those improvements was the energy consumption per capita. Some policy implications derived from the results achieved are: policy decision-makers should support measures that promote the adoption of energy-saving technologies resulting from new technological developments; policy measures should be directed to raise awareness of end-users regarding energy efficiency and energy conservation efforts; policy measures promoting economic growth through the development (or expansion) of sectors of activity that consume less energy can also be implemented; finally, policy instruments may also be used to reduce the costs of implementing energy efficiency and energy-saving measures to households and firms.     

Vietnamese Uplands: Environmental and Socio-Economic Perspective of Forest Land Allocation and Deforestation Process

Vietnam, in the ongoing transition to market economies, has to cope with high rural poverty and a dramatic process of forest loss and environment degradation, particularly in the mountainous regions. The government considers rural poverty as the main cause of environment degradation, associated with slash-and-burn cultivation and to an unclear definition of property rights on forest land. In 1993, the government launched a Forest Land Allocation programme aiming to lease forest lands to individual households and, on this basis, to solve food security problems, halt the increasing environment degradation and preserve the remaining forests.To evaluate the results of this land reform policy, two upland pilot communes have been intensively monitored. The environmental and economic impacts of the forest land reform allocation in the two study areas are presented, after providing a background on the Vietnamese situation of mountain zones. On the basis of these findings, it is discussed as to whether the current forest land allocation process may actually promote local development and natural resources conservation, and under what conditions. Deforestation problems must be tackled also with new macroeconomic policies (e.g. credit programmes to support sustainable agriculture practices) and social policy (e.g. reduction of demographic pressure), together with the reform of the State institutions (e.g. State Forest Enterprises) involved in management of the forest areas.     

基于DPSIR概念模型的农业可持续发展宏观分析

DPSIR概念模型继承了PSR模型的优点，是分析评估环境系统有效工具，本文以DPISR概念模型为指导，系统分析了农业业系统的现状，塑造这一现状的驱动力和压力，探讨了农业对于互不干涉和人类健康的影响，以及实现农业可持续发展的政策响应，目的是建立农业可持续发展的指标体系和实现农业资源的优化配置，本文认为DPSIR概念模型有利于分析复杂系统的因果关系，能有效整合资源开发，环境保护和经济发展。     

A context-inclusive approach to support energy policy formulation and evaluation

Observing the many and varied reactions to the Kyoto Protocol, it becomes clear that different governments find themselves in different contexts that eventually direct them toward taking dissimilar positions on energy issues. This paper, through five integrated studies, investigates whether contextualizing energy issues is (are) relevant to support energy policy formulation and evaluation and provides insights into how to operationalize the contextualization. Instead of considering the most widely accepted tools currently used to assess and evaluate energy policy, this research proposes the utilization of a holistic framework that incorporates social, economic and environmental factors as well as their relations to the energy sector to better contextualize global, regional and national energy issues. This framework, which accounts for feedback loops, delays and non-linearity, is applied to case studies to investigate the longer-term performance of selected energy policies. Results of the study indicate the likely emergence of various unexpected side effects and elements of policy resistance over the medium and longer term due to the interrelations existing between energy and society, economy and environment. Furthermore, while side effects and unintended consequences may arise both within the energy sector and in the other sectors, they simultaneously influence society, economy and environment.     

Space-time analysis of the changing patterns of population pressure on the ecological environment in China

This paper examines the temporal change and spatial variation of population pressure on the ecological environment in China. We have collected sufficient data from the statistical yearbooks of 31 provincial administrative areas in 1990, 1995, 2000, 2005, and 2010. Using a geographic information system (GIS) and relevant models, we analyzed the trend of the population pressure on ecological environment and the change of the gravity center of ecological environment quality. We conclude that: (1) generally, population pressure on the ecological environment in China was becoming higher during 1990–2010, especially in some areas where the population and environment were in serious imbalance and the ecological environment experienced severe pollution; (2) during a certain period, population pressure on the ecological environment was becoming lower in some areas, but the ecological environment was getting worse; (3) the areas with super-high population pressure on the ecological environment were Beijing, Tianjin, and Shanghai; (4) the gravity center of population pressure on the ecological environment and the center of ecological environment quality move differently during the study time period, but the general trend was similar – both of them were moving from west to east. Based on the analysis, this paper also provides some policy suggestions on the control of ecological environment quality.