Green Screen or Smokescreen? Hollywood's Messages about Nature and the Environment

This paper examines ideologies about nature and the environment in popular, animated Hollywood films—including The Lorax, Wall-E, and Ice Age 2—through a symptomatic reading. The primary goal of the analysis is to elucidate key omissions in these texts through an assessment of the problematic—defined in this research as an a-priori answer to perceived audience concerns regarding the role of consumerism and corporate culture in environmental problems. Silences in the films revolve around: how environmental problems are defined; what the consequences are; who the responsible parties are; and what potential solutions exist to mitigate them. The significance of the research is underscored by the formation of an increasingly intimate relationship between children, consumer culture, and commercial media in the USA, as well as the increasingly dire information emerging about global environmental issues. This analysis reveals the dual, often conflicting, messages that commercial film provides for its young audiences about pivotal environmental problems and their potential resolution.     

Overcoming Environmental Challenges by Antagonizing Environmental Protesters: The Turkish Government Discourse against Anti-hydroelectric Power Plants Movements

Due to the growing public importance of environmental concerns in the contemporary world, governments that prioritize economic interests over environmental concerns may try to counter environmental challenges not by openly declaring that they do not want to consider environmental demands, but by attempting to antagonize the protesters who voice such demands. This essay explores such a governmental response by analyzing the discourse articulated by the Turkish Government against movements that oppose the construction of hydroelectric power plants (HEPPs) on environmental grounds. In particular, the analysis focuses on how HEPPs, environmental claims and demands of movements, and environmental protesters are represented within the pro-HEPP discourse, and in what ways these representations appeal to popular perceptions. It is demonstrated that the discourse of the government attempts to counter the challenges of protesters by establishing an antagonist relation between the protesters and society by representing HEPPs as crucial for the economic development and, therefore, as compatible with the interests of society as a whole. Moreover, it also attempts to achieve this through portraying the protesters as criminals and terrorists who block the economic development of the country and pose significant threats to the commonwealth, not for legitimate environmental concerns but for some dubious motives and incentives. It is concluded that, with this approach, the government has managed to gain popular consent not only for the construction of HEPPs, but also for the repression of such movements.     

Diversity of Television Exposure and its Association with the Cultivation of Concern for Environmental Risks

Cultivation theory claims that individuals who watch a greater amount of television are more likely to accept the representation of reality as presented on television. This study introduces the variable of exposure diversity and attempts to investigate if the diversity of television channels viewed plays a significant role beyond the amount of television viewed in the cultivation of concern about environmental risks. Data from the 2002 annual Life Style Study conducted by Synovate for DDB-Chicago was paired with a corresponding content analysis of environmental television coverage. Ordinary-Least-Squares regression suggests that exposure diversity is associated with concern of environmental risks above and beyond both the effects of the amount of television watched and individual differences, suggesting the variable of exposure diversity holds promise for further explicating cultivation theory.     

The risks of risk-based regulation: insights from the environmental policy domain

Risk-based regulation has become increasingly popular in recent years. Proponents argue that it facilitates robust governance, contributing to efficient and effective use of regulatory resources and delivering interventions in proportion to risk. Critics contend that the challenges of operationalising risk-based governance mitigate its potential benefits. In this paper we start by considering what we mean by risk-based governance and discuss some of the factors shaping the adoption of such strategies. We then consider the development and operation of risk-based approaches in the environmental policy domain, focusing specifically on the regulation of contaminated land and radioactive waste. We argue that whilst risk-based approaches can offer important benefits, they face a range of epistemic, institutional and normative challenges that can play an important role in shaping the way that organisations manage both risks to society and their own institutional risks. This has profound implications for achieving regulatory objectives and, for this paper, the environmental outcomes that the regulations are designed to deliver.     

The Nature of Time: How the Covers of the World's Most Widely Read Weekly News Magazine Visualize Environmental Affairs

Scholars of environmental communication acknowledge the importance of visual representations in shaping perceptions and actions in relation to environmental affairs. Unlike with other media, including newspapers, television and film, research on the visualization of nature and environmental issues in magazines is rare. This study focuses on the covers of Time magazine, one of the world's most influential news weeklies. A dataset that includes all relevant covers from 1923 to 2011 is examined using a combination of quantitative and qualitative content analysis to analyze the visual representation of nature and environmental issues. The results show that the presence of environmental issues and nature on the covers has increased over the decades. Furthermore, Time takes an advocacy position on some environmental issues, but it is a shallow one that is weakly argued through less-than-engaging imagery and fails to offer much in the way of solutions or agency to the reader.     

Exploring Environmentalism amidst the Clamor of Networks: A Social Network Analysis of Utah Environmental Organizations

Dwelling in a world awash in multiple environmental crises while science and social theory erode the last vestiges of the subject of humanism, it makes sense to imagine our world beyond the lens of humanism and turn to diverse methodologies in order to explore what is going on and how to promote changes that nurture ecological sustainability. In this essay we take on this task in relation to environmental communication. In what follows we explore the contours of the age after humanism, what we term the Age of the Animate Earth. In the wake of the theoretical and actual deconstruction of the subject, we offer networks as a key unit of analysis. From this perspective, we suggest social network analysis (SNA) as one viable method for doing environmental communication studies and perform this move through a SNA of Utah environmental groups.     

Where Technology Goes to Die: Representations of Electronic Waste in Global Television News

This article analyzes how electronic waste (e-waste) gets represented in television news stories. The main objective is to present a perspective on how a “low-frequency” emergency (i.e. a lengthy and ongoing state of environmental emergency) is presented as a newsworthy issue. Drawing on literature on televised “distant suffering,” the article engages in a multimodal text analysis of four news stories about e-waste. The findings show how on-location reports from e-waste dumping sites make use of sublime imagery in the visual representations; how e-waste dumping sites are presented as strange spaces, with no clear and comprehensible history; and finally, that the representations suggest an ambivalence and uncertainty when it comes to agency (who is responsible and what can be done?). The article ends with a discussion of the implications of this mode of representation and its effectiveness in eliciting an appropriate response to the harms caused by e-waste.     

The Cultivation,Mainstreaming, and Cognitive Processing of Environmentalists Watching Television

Cultivation theory research has found a relationship between heavier viewing of television and less concern about the natural environment. The current research delves further into this issue by exploring how environmentalists’ television viewing is related to their attitudes about the environment. The findings indicate that when overall television viewing is the independent variable, there are cultivation and mainstreaming effects for environmentalists (i.e., environmentalists who were heavy viewers of television scored lower on the new environmental paradigm (NEP) scale than lighter viewing environmentalists, and were more similar to the general public in their environmental attitudes than lighter viewers). The findings also show that the cultivation effects are related to need for cognition (NFC) and attention to television (such that those with higher NFC, and those who pay more attention to television, have lower scores on the NEP scale). When non-fiction programming is the independent variable, however, heavier television viewers score higher on the NEP, and NFC and attention to television do not relate to the cultivation effect.     

Sustainability from a Chinese cultural perspective: the implications of harmonious development in environmental management

Sustainable development has broad consensus in environmental science and policy discourse, but its implications differ in specific cultural contexts. This article articulates sustainable development from a Chinese cultural perspective by tracing ideas from Chinese traditional culture and exploring China’s concept of harmonious development with emphasis on environmental management. Ideas that resemble sustainable development are not new to Chinese culture, but have roots in ancient Chinese thoughts, which in turn influence current governance and policies. Notably, Chinese traditional philosophies such as Confucianism, Taoism, Legalism, and Yin–Yang contain philosophies fundamental to sustainable development. As a distinct local discourse, such concepts were well interpreted and understood in the ancient meaning of harmony, giving China unique sustainability perspectives with institutional implications for policies of harmonious development and environmental management. Currently, China is driven to create a new national identity of harmonious development that involves Chinese traditional philosophies and values in its modern administration. The slogans “harmonious society” and “Chinese dream” reflect this new way of responding to the world with the aspiration to achieve cleaner growth, personal prosperity, and social stability. The Chinese and Western roots of sustainable development are conceptually, ideologically, and historically different, and this paper articulates how the convergence of the two underlies contemporary international debates.     

Greenwashing Consumption: The Didactic Framing of ExxonMobil's Energy Solutions

Corporate advertising campaigns increasingly use environmental frames to promote their products and processes, many of which are neither sustainable nor environmentally friendly. This study examines ExxonMobil's recent efforts at green advertising, focusing specifically on their widely aired “Energy Solutions” television advertisements. We argue that ExxonMobil's use of a didactic, greenwashed frame stifles criticism and discourages examination of ideologies of consumption by exploiting the ethos of the scientist and highlighting technological solutions to problems that are deeply tied to a culture of consumerism. The definition of green energy is controlled by those with the power to generate persuasive public messages about the sources and production of energy. Counterframes, however, can be employed to turn a questioning eye upon the solutions advanced by ExxonMobil. We issue a call for green frames that help citizens and consumers critically examine the ecological integrity of all means of energy production, and that call attention to the ways in which the greenwashing of research and development initiatives can dissuade necessary action, including reduction of US energy consumption.     

Belligerent broadcasting,male anti-authoritarianism and anti-environmentalism: the case of Top Gear (BBC, 2002–2015)

ABSTRACT

This article considers the format and cultural politics of the hugely successful UK television program Top Gear (BBC 2002–2015). It analyzes how—through its presenting team—it constructed an informal address predicated around anti-authoritarian or contrarian banter and protest masculinity. Regular targets for Top Gear presenter’s protest—curtailed by broadcast guidelines in terms of gender and ethnicity—are deflected onto the “soft” targets of government legislation on environmental issues or various forms of regulation “red tape. Repeated references to speed cameras, central London congestion charges and “excessive” signage are all anti-authoritarian, libertarian discourses delivered through a comedic form of performance address. Thus, the BBC’s primary response to complaints made about this program was to defend the program’s political views as being part of the humor. The article draws on critical discourse analysis and conversation analysis to consider how the program licensed a particular form of engagement that helped it to deflect criticisms, and considers the limits to such discursive positioning. We conclude by examining the controversies that finally led, in 2015, to the removal of the main presenter, Jeremy Clarkson, and the ending of this version of the program through the departure of the team to an on-demand online television service.     

Environmental movement in Lebanon

The paper reviews and assesses the evolution of the environmental movement in both the public and the private sector in Lebanon. It studies the public sector involvement in the environmental movement by reviewing the commitments made by the government to the local, regional and international communities. The paper presents a summary of all the decisions, decrees, and laws pertaining to environmental protection that the Lebanese government has instituted over time, as well as all the conventions and agreements that the country has ratified and/or signed. Compared to the Arab world in the Middle East and North Africa, Lebanon is relatively more active and integrated in the world community. Using the total number of established environmental organizations and the level of reported activities aimed at spreading environmental awareness and educating people as indicators of private sector involvement in the environmental movement, the paper concludes that the post war era is characterized by a significant increase in the number of established organizations. It also concludes that there is a co-movement between economic and environmental variables. Readers should send their comments on this paper to: BhaskarNath@aol.com within 3 months of publication of this issue.     

Anthropocentric Distance in National Geographic's Environmental Aesthetic

Tourism is the way we understand the world: tourists travel in an increasingly mediated environment in which ubiquitous promotional material and other popular artifacts employ stunning images and romantic travel narratives to describe local environments. Tourist texts “sell” local landscapes to entice visitors, employing an environmental aesthetic that urges travel. With its mission to “explore the planet,” the National Geographic Society contributes to this tourist aesthetic. This essay examines three special issues on Africa simultaneously published by the National Geographic Society: its official journal, National Geographic, and its sister magazines, National Geographic Traveler, and National Geographic Adventure. The photographic images and travel narratives in these tourist texts produce an environmental aesthetic that positions the traveler at the center of these environments. This essay first analyzes how National Geographic constructs Africa's environmental landscapes. These magazines depict Africa as a vast desert plain, a wilderness theme park, and a part of the global scenery. The second part of the analysis examines how National Geographic locates the tourist in these environments. I discuss how National Geographic positions the tourist as protagonist, expert, and hero of Africa's environment. In the conclusions, I argue this environmental aesthetic renders Africa invisible through anthropocentric distance, and I discuss the need for more critical readings of tourist discourse.     

Beasts,Burgers, and Hummers: Meat and the Crisis of Masculinity in Contemporary Television Advertisements

This paper examines three recent television advertisements that symbolically link meat not only with masculinity, but specifically with the “crisis in masculinity.” Using an ecofeminist lens, I engage in an intersectional analysis of these advertisements to demonstrate how they articulate the eating of meat with primitive masculinities as a response to perceived threats to hegemonic masculinity. These advertisements demonstrate that scholars interested in the status of masculinity must pay attention to the “threats” to masculinity posed by environmental and animal rights movements, and that scholars interested in environmental movements must pay attention to the role of masculinity in resisting moves toward sustainability. This analysis demonstrates the utility of ecofeminism in understanding the relationship between hegemonic masculinity and environmentalism while also pointing to the need for ecofeminism to continue to explore the implications of intersectionality for ecofeminist theory and criticism.     

我国建材行业环境标志制度实施及意义

随着我要环境标志制度的实施。自1994年以来我要建材行业环境标志认证有了长足发展．据我国环境标志产品认证委员会秘书处数据。我国建材行业近200家企业的550多种产品获得环境标志认证．其产品涵盖了建材行业的各个方面。其中约有40多家企业近60个建筑涂料企业的产品、50家人造板材企业80多种产品、30余家粘合剂企业等建材行业产口获得环境标志产口认证。这对我国建材行业绩构调整具有十分重要的现实意义。     

A Phenomenological Perspective on Ethical Duty in Environmental Communication

This article examines the framing of environmental risks and natural disasters in factual entertainment television programs of the early 2000s, a hybrid form combining techniques from documentary with techniques such as dramatic reconstructions and computer-generated imagery from entertainment genres. Using qualitative frame analysis, it examines a range of factual entertainment television programs' framing of environmental risk and natural disasters in terms of their attitudes, representation of human participants and visual composition. The article considers the similarities and differences in the framing of natural disasters as factual entertainment compared to the framing of natural disasters in news, documentary and fiction film. It argues that such programs offer representational frames both consonant with and distinct from other media and concludes that they problematically offer a predominantly fatalistic response to environmental risk, constructing natural disasters as voyeuristic spectacles for vicarious entertainment.     

Green-Tinted Glasses: How Do Pro-Environmental Citizens Conceptualize Environmental Sustainability?

Recent research has shown that many Australians see pro-environmental behaviour as desirable and identify as being green. However when compared to other countries, Australians score poorly on pro-environmental behaviour measures, engaging mostly in tokenistic pro-environmental actions, and demonstrate low levels of concern for the environment. In this article, we examine this tension through exploring the meaning of the term sustainability to Australian participants who self-identify as pro-environmental. Twenty-six interviews were conducted and analysed using a causal layered analysis. Through the examination of participants’ environmental discourse and practices, some of the deeper socio-psychological processes influencing pro-environmental behaviour are revealed. While participants aspired to be green, their actions were bound by cultural traditions and world views that perpetuate environmental degradation. Participants struggled to define the term sustainability and held self-enhancing motives for adopting what they identify as a pro-environmental identity. These findings highlight the influence of collective cultural constructs in shaping how pro-environmental behaviours are understood and enacted.     

农业贸易政策环境影响评价的案例研究

随着国际贸易自由化程度的提高,贸易与环境问题越来越引起人们的重视。对贸易政策进行环境影响评价。指导贸易政策的制定。是解决贸易所带来的环境问题的重要途径。了解中国入世后一系列的农业政策调整会在多大程度上影响环境。对于新的政策决策具有指导意义。本文在总结贸易政策环境影响评价研究步骤和方法的基础上。对农业贸易政策环境影响评价的特点进行讨论,并以河北省迁安市小麦种植业为例,进行农业贸易政策环境影响评价的案例研究。由于农业贸易政策直接作用于农业生产经营活动。再通过农业生产经营等活动间接地影响环境质量状况。本文借助转移矩阵方法进行分析评价。     

The Green Economy: Reconceptualizing the Natural Commons as Natural Capital

The green economy is an emergent approach to sustainable development launched at Rio+20. Herein environmental decision-making is increasingly achieved through economistic processes and logic. The natural commons are quantified and managed as natural capital. This paper summarizes the trajectory of the project and its ideological framework. It examines various conceptualizations of economic approaches to the environment and considers philosophical, methodological, and political problems associated with the green economy project. In the face of very different definitions of what constitutes a green economy, environmental communicators face a situation characterized by discursive confusion as the complexity of natural capital accounting processes conceal new political configurations. Counter movements argue that the green economy program is performing ideological work that uses language of environmentalism to obscure an intensified agenda of neoliberal governance and capital accumulation. The concept now has contradictory meanings. Environmental communicators have an important role to play in exposing the contested nature of the project and in helping to define the emerging green economy.     

Environmental occurrence,analysis and human exposure to the flame retardant tetrabromobisphenol-A (TBBP-A)-A review

TBBP-A is a high production volume chemical applied widely as a flame retardant in printed circuit boards. Recent studies have raised concern over potential harmful implications of TBBP-A exposure in human and wildlife, leading to its classification under group 2A “Probably carcinogenic to humans” by the International Agency for Research on Cancer. This article provides a comprehensive review of the available literature on TBBP-A analysis, environmental levels and human exposure. Liquid chromatography-tandem mass spectrometry (LC-MS/MS) has been identified as the method of choice for robust, accurate and sensitive analysis of TBBP-A in different matrices. TBBP-A has been detected in almost all environmental compartments all over the world, rendering it a ubiquitous contaminant. Human exposure studies revealed dust ingestion and diet as the major pathways of TBBP-A exposure in the general population. Toddlers are likely to be more exposed than adults via accidental indoor dust ingestion. Moreover, exposure to TBBP-A may occur prenatally and via breast milk. There are no current restrictions on the production of TBBP-A in the EU or worldwide. However, more research is required to characterise human exposure to TBBP-A in and around production facilities, as well as in e-waste recycling regions.