Human migration,climate variability,and land degradation: hotspots of socio-ecological pressure in Ethiopia

Regional Environmental Change - In Ethiopia, human migration is known to be influenced by environmental change—and vice versa. Thus, degradation of environmental conditions can contribute to...     

Reform,Justice, and Sovereignty: A Food Systems Agenda for Environmental Communication

Food ecologies and economies are vital to the survival of communities, non-human species, and our planet. While environmental communication scholars have legitimated food as a topic of inquiry, the entangled ecological, cultural, economic, racial, colonial, and alimentary relations that sustain food systems demand greater attention. In this essay, we review literature within and beyond environmental communication, charting the landscape of critical food work in our field. We then illustrate how environmental justice commitments can invigorate interdisciplinary food systems-focused communication scholarship articulating issues of, and critical responses to, injustice and inequity across the food chain. We stake an agenda for food systems communication by mapping three orientations—food system reform, justice, and sovereignty—that can assist in our critical engagements with and interventions into the food system. Ultimately, we entreat environmental communication scholars to attend to the bends, textures, and confluences of these orientations so that we may deepen our future food-related inquiries.     

Elites, climate change and agency in a developing society: the Chilean case

Faced with global climate change, local elites are confronted with the main dilemma of a developing country: development requires economic growth, but this effort also requires consideration of environmental factors and sustainable patterns of production and consumption. Based on empirical evidence from qualitative research on businesses and political elites in Chile—a paradigmatic South American middle-income country—this paper explores the extent to which local elites are aware of the severity of challenges posed by global climate change and identify main climate change concerns in their discourse. The degree to which domestic elites are aware of the paradigm shift they must assume toward clean industrial production is a key issue of environmental governance that involves private non-governmental actors. This paper gives clues to a better understanding of what is happening with strategic actors in developing nations and their understanding of their decision-making capacity concerning environmental policy and investments for facing global climate change. The main conclusion of the research is that awareness of climate change in local elites’ discourse is relative. It is not accompanied by a full acceptance of their agency and is not leading to a paradigm shift toward a clean model of development because of domestic elites’ position within globalization processes.     

The political ecology of water metabolism: the case of the Cobre las Cruces copper mine,southern Spain

Access to extractive resources relies as much on technology and prices as it does on the power to designate ecological and economic meanings to water and other environmental goods. This paper examines the ways in which the mining industry uses scientific models to create meanings for water that in turn legitimizes their access to and control over it. To do so, this paper explores the relevance of combining biophysical analyses—in this case water metabolism—with an examination of those power relations and social constructions that coexist with and affect the flows of water. Based on empirical research, this paper analyzes the evolution of water management in the process of copper production at the Cobre las Cruces mine in southern Spain to identify present contradictions in the strategies adopted by the mining company to avoid water degradation. These contradictions are revealed by examining how water has been framed as a resource not susceptible to being used for purposes other than mining processes. We argue that those framing this environmental explanation—the regional government and the mining industry—are promoting net subtractions of water from an aquifer against current regulations.     

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.     

It's Not Easy Being Green … Or Is It? A Content Analysis of Environmental Claims in Magazine Advertisements from the United States and United Kingdom

As corporations seek to appeal to environmentally conscious stakeholders, advertisements containing environmental claims have become increasingly prominent. A corporation's desire for an enhanced corporate reputation, combined with lenient environmental advertising regulation, has created the perfect environment for corporations to use—and misuse—environmental claims, resulting in “greenwashing.” Defined as the act of disseminating disinformation to consumers regarding the environmental practices of a company or the environmental benefits of a product or service, greenwashing occurs around the world. This study is a cross-national content analysis of 247 print ads from 84 issues of mainstream magazines from the United States and United Kingdom. Three-fourths (75%) of the ads analyzed contained one or more aspects of greenwashing. Firms advertising in US magazines were significantly more likely to employ misleading/deceptive environmental claims than UK firms and magazines. These findings suggest that without increased environmental advertisement regulation, greenwashing will persist as a disingenuous means for corporate reputation enhancement.     

Environmental justice of nuclear waste policy in Taiwan: Taipower, government, and local community

This paper is an investigation into Taiwan’s policy on nuclear waste disposal, concentrating on the ways in which dumping sites have been chosen, and on the wider implications of those choices. The central aim was to examine whether this policy breached the distributive and procedural principles of environmental justice by discriminating against disadvantaged areas and minority ethnic groups. The paper first clarifies the meaning of environmental justice and then applies it to the case study of Taiwan’s decision announced in 2009 that Da-Ren (達仁鄉) in Taitung County (台東縣) and Wang-An (望安鄉) in Penghu County (澎湖縣) were its two favoured potential sites for the final disposal repository of radioactive waste. The findings of the research suggest that the Taiwan government and the nuclear power provider, Taipower, failed to fulfil the requirements of environmental justice in reaching this decision. The contribution of this case study to the literature on the environmental injustice of nuclear waste siting policies is fourfold. First, it adds to the growing number of studies that show how siting decisions systematically and deliberately disadvantage vulnerable communities. Second, it finds the basis of this discriminatory policy to lie in the wider pattern of inequality that exists in Taiwanese society—a pattern that is rooted in historical traditions of racial and tribal prejudice, reinforced by contemporary forms of corruption. Third, it suggests that a solution to the problem of environmental injustice in nuclear waste siting policy may have to wait until these broader practices of unequal treatment in Taiwan are addressed. Fourth, it speculates that the need for a solution to the nuclear waste problem may be a catalyst for dealing with these broader patterns of unequal treatment.     

Motives,opportunities, and risks for private sector investment in protected areas with international importance: evidence from German companies

What motives do companies have to make a voluntary contribution to the protection and conservation of ecosystems? Could an international market for protected area certificates (PACs)—issued for geographical areas managed in accordance with social and environmental best practices—boost private investment? What are the market opportunities and risks that influence private sector investment? These questions are evaluated based on semi-structured expert interviews conducted in 39 German companies. Triangulation is used for data analysis to combine the advantages of qualitative and quantitative methods. Qualitative interview results complemented with the exploratory factor analysis allow identifying five motives for private sector investment, of which three are key motives in the early stage of developing PACs: direct financial benefits; the social legitimacy of entrepreneurial business; and the corporate dependency on ecosystems. Opportunities for private companies arise from the high marketing potential of certificates, the international orientation of the PAC market, and the bundling of different ecosystem benefits. Identified risks include a lack of differentiation, additional costs, and green washing. Depending on the transparency of the certification scheme, companies are aware that PACs could both improve and damage their credibility and reputation.     

Typifying cities to streamline the selection of relevant environmental sustainability indicators for urban water supply and sewage handling systems: a recommendation

Measuring performance and setting targets and benchmarks for the future entail the adoption of metrics or indicators. Sustainability is a multi-pronged objective encompassing social, economic, health, cultural, governance and environmental aspects. Indicators can be grouped under these categories. The selection of environmental sustainability indicators for a water and wastewater utility in a city needs to be based on concerns specific to the utility in question. The authors, in this paper, have recommended the classification of cities into city types based on specific attributes and identification of relevant environmental sustainability indicators, from a pool of 13 indicators, for these different city types. Having selected the relevant indicators, utilities can use them as tools to improve their environmental performance. The purpose is to not facilitate inter-utility comparisons within or across city types. Every utility would compare its environmental performance at a given point in time with what it was in the past. Towards the end, the paper also applies the methodology to nine cities across four continents—Europe (Oslo, Trondheim and Turin), Asia (the National Capital Territory of Delhi, Beijing, Tel Aviv and Male), North America (Sacramento) and South America (São Paulo). In all, 13 environmental sustainability indicators have been identified. Two cities—Oslo and Trondheim (both from Norway) belong to the same city type, while the other seven are different from each other in this regard. The number of relevant indicators ranged from 4 for Trondheim to 11 for Tel Aviv. The methodology is not restricted to urban water supply and sewage handling systems. It can be extended to other infrastructure systems as well—waste management, transportation, etc.     

“Stop Blaming the Cows!”: How Livestock Production is Legitimized in Everyday Discourse on Facebook

In 2016, Swedish climate reporting declined in quantity and shifted focus somewhat from climate change as such to the harmful climate impacts of meat consumption. The latter prompted discussions in social media—an increasingly important forum for public debate but infrequently studied in environmental communication research. Despite strong evidence that a meat and dairy-based diet is harmful for the environment, meat consumption is increasing, and this qualitative study aims to—through the lens of social representation theory—contribute knowledge about how livestock production is legitimized in everyday discourse on Facebook. The article identifies representations that legitimize livestock production through polarization between (1) livestock production and other (environmental) issues, (2) environmentally “good” and “bad” countries, and (3) “reliable” and “unreliable” information. It concludes by discussing the influence of national ideology on the legitimization of livestock production and the potential of social media to counter the post-politicization of environmental issues.     

Present and future climate resources for various types of tourism in the Bay of Palma,Spain

The Bay of Palma, in Mallorca, is a leading region for beach holidays in Europe. It is based on a mass tourism model strongly modulated by seasonality and with high environmental costs. Main tourism stakeholders are currently implementing complementary activities to mitigate seasonality, regardless of climate change. But climate is—and will remain—a key resource or even a limitation for many types of tourism. Assessing the present conditions and exploring the future evolution of climate potential for these activities have become a priority in this area. To this end, the climate index for tourism (CIT)—originally designed to rate the climate resource of beach tourism—is adapted to specifically appraise cycling, cultural tourism, football, golf, motor boating, sailing and hiking. Climate resources are derived by using observed and projected daily meteorological data. Projections have been obtained from a suite of Regional Climate Models run under the A1B emissions scenario. To properly derive CITs at such local scale, we apply a statistical adjustment. Present climate potentials ratify the appropriateness of the Bay of Palma for satisfactorily practicing all the examined activities. However, optimal conditions are projected to degrade during the peak visitation period while improving in spring and autumn. That is, climate change could further exacerbate the present imbalance between the seasonal distributions of ideal climate potentials and high attendance levels. With this information at hand, policy makers and regional tourism stakeholders can respond more effectively to the great challenge of local adaptation to climate change.     

Contributions of sustainability science to the study of environmental health problems

From the ontological point of view, environmental health problems do not differ from problems of unsustainability. This leads us to think that sustainability science could contribute to resolve important questions that studies on environmental health are not resolving. A literature review was made in order to analyse the scope and limitations of studies on environmental health problems. Based on the characteristics of environmental health studies, we highlighted some examples of questions that are being ignored and analysed four contributions that sustainability science could make to solve them. These contributions come from three key components of sustainability science: (1) the unit of analysis—social–ecological systems, (2) a theory—resilience theory and, specifically, social–ecological resilience, (3) and the approaches of complex systems and transdisciplinarity. From a sustainability science perspective, four contributions could be made: environmental health problems are redefined as social–ecological systems; environmental health is assumed to be the result of adaptation processes; the environment and society are recognized as systems, not as matrices of factors; and human action acquires content and structure and, in turn, explains the behaviour of environmental health problems.     

Good Food,Good Intentions: Where Pro-sustainability Arguments Get Stale in US Food Documentaries

Focusing on recent documentaries about sustainable agriculture in the US—Food, Inc., The Garden, Fresh, and Farmageddon—this paper examines how pro-sustainable food arguments fail to merge environmentalism and environmental justice. By framing their approach to sustainable food production around the normative issue of “good food” for capitalist consumers, such documentaries ignore questions about community and cultural conceptions of farmers. In the process the films promote a problematic vision of the white family farm. As a consequence, these films limit a reimagining of alternative food systems, the roles for diverse actors within those systems, and possibilities for eaters beyond “voting with your fork.” Several exceptions, most notably The Garden, are used to suggest how cinema might radically re-envision participation in alternative forms of agriculture.     

Perceptions of American and Russian environmental scientists of today’s key environmental issues: a comparative analysis

Modern science is global. This is particularly true of environmental science, which has been guided to a considerable extent by international environmental policy. Accordingly, one might expect the standards of scientific research around the globe to have unified over the last 30 years. Yet environmental scientists from different nations and scientific schools have demonstrably dissimilar views on key environmental issues. This is the conclusion we reached after a series of in-depth interviews with prominent American and Russian environmental scientists. The greatest difference was found in the perception of two global issues—stratospheric ozone depletion and climate change.     

The sustainability of positive environments

Inspired by the emergence of the positive psychology (PP) movement, recent environmental psychology studies have identified a need for further inquiry into “positive environments” (PEs). Recognizing that PP has largely neglected the role of environmental factors in the appearance of positivity, this paper proposes the study of person–environment relations in order to explain human well-being, psychological growth, sustainable behaviors, and other psychological positive factors, in addition to studying the material and social well-being that a positive environment provides. The traditional view of environmental positivity (i.e., the environment as an inexhaustible and infinite source of resources that satisfy human needs) is contrasted against an ecological vision of PE in which the conservation of the quality of the environment is as important as the satisfaction of human needs. A definition of positive environment is presented and discussed, which conceives PE as a context that promotes individual and collective benefits and that also influences human predispositions to conserve—in the long run—the sociophysical structures on which life depends.     

Communities and change in the anthropocene: understanding social-ecological vulnerability and planning adaptations to multiple interacting exposures

The majority of vulnerability and adaptation scholarship, policies and programs focus exclusively on climate change or global environmental change. Yet, individuals, communities and sectors experience a broad array of multi-scalar and multi-temporal, social, political, economic and environmental changes to which they are vulnerable and must adapt. While extensive theoretical—and increasingly empirical—work suggests the need to explore multiple exposures, a clear conceptual framework which would facilitate analysis of vulnerability and adaptation to multiple interacting socioeconomic and biophysical changes is lacking. This review and synthesis paper aims to fill this gap through presenting a conceptual framework for integrating multiple exposures into vulnerability analysis and adaptation planning. To support applications of the framework and facilitate assessments and comparative analyses of community vulnerability, we develop a comprehensive typology of drivers and exposures experienced by coastal communities. Our results reveal essential elements of a pragmatic approach for local-scale vulnerability analysis and for planning appropriate adaptations within the context of multiple interacting exposures. We also identify methodologies for characterizing exposures and impacts, exploring interactions and identifying and prioritizing responses. This review focuses on coastal communities; however, we believe the framework, typology and approach will be useful for understanding vulnerability and planning adaptation to multiple exposures in various social-ecological contexts.     

Understanding American and Korean Students’ Support for Pro-environmental Tax Policy: The Application of the Value–Belief–Norm Theory of Environmentalism

By using the value–belief–norm theory of environmentalism, this study investigates American and Korean college students’ support for pro-environmental tax policy as a way to address global climate change. The results indicate that environmental concern and the perceived severity of climate change were significant predictors of one's tax policy support. Perceived individual responsibility for addressing climate change mediated the relationship between environmental beliefs (i.e. environmental concern and perceived severity) and tax policy support for Koreans. Such relationship was not observed among Americans. This study also examines whether political ideology functions as a predictor of tax policy support. For Americans, political ideology was a significant factor in predicting one's tax policy support and that it remained significant even after the inclusion of more proximal predictors—environmental concern and perceived severity. For Koreans, however, political ideology was not a significant factor. Theoretical and practical implications are discussed.     

Environmental sustainability practices in South Asian university campuses: an exploratory study on Bangladeshi universities

Environmental sustainability practices in universities can play an important role in helping society form a sustainable future. In this study, the roles that Bangladeshi universities play in terms of sustainability practices on their campuses are scrutinized, as well as the challenges these universities face. The existing research on campus sustainability practices in Asia is reviewed, and a new exploratory study is put forth on environmental sustainability practices in the higher education institutions of a developing country—Bangladesh. The Campus Sustainability Assessment Framework used in Canadian universities was taken as basis for determining potential environmental management indicators. Results show that environmental management practices (i.e., environmental education, research, governance and operations) are present only to a very limited extent in higher education institutions in Bangladesh.     

Concepts of human exposure to air pollution

In recent years, considerable attention has focused on the concept of “human exposure” to environmental pollutants, but different investigators seem to have developed different definitions of this concept and used different approaches for estimating it. This paper reviews a number of “exposure” studies in a single environmental medium—air pollution—to see how others have defined this concept in the literature. Many previous investigators unfortunately calculate “exposures” by relying on data from fixed air monitoring stations, and they assume that people are located in the same place, usually their residential address, throughout a 24-h period. However, a second body of literature shows that fixed air monitoring stations do not necessarily reflect human exposures, because concentrations observed indoors—in homes, offices, factories, and motor vehicles—differ from those observed at fixed stations, and people usually spend considerable time in these locations. In an effort to standardize the nomenclature dealing with exposures, a definition is proposed in which the pollutant must come into contact with the physical boundary of the person. Then, exposure of person i to pollutant concentration c is viewed as two events occurring jointly: person i is present at a particular location, and concentration c is present at the same location. Mathematical definitions for “integrated exposure,” “average exposure,” and “standardized exposure” with various averaging periods also are introduced. Finally, two different yet compatible research approaches are suggested for determining human exposures to air pollution.     

Reconnecting with nature for sustainability

Calls for humanity to ‘reconnect to nature’ have grown increasingly louder from both scholars and civil society. Yet, there is relatively little coherence about what reconnecting to nature means, why it should happen and how it can be achieved. We present a conceptual framework to organise existing literature and direct future research on human–nature connections. Five types of connections to nature are identified: material, experiential, cognitive, emotional, and philosophical. These various types have been presented as causes, consequences, or treatments of social and environmental problems. From this conceptual base, we discuss how reconnecting people with nature can function as a treatment for the global environmental crisis. Adopting a social–ecological systems perspective, we draw upon the emerging concept of ‘leverage points’—places in complex systems to intervene to generate change—and explore examples of how actions to reconnect people with nature can help transform society towards sustainability.