Selling Nature In a Resource-based Economy: Romantic/Extractive Gazes and Alberta's Bituminous Sands

Recent literature has explored the interplay between the Romantic gaze and the extractive gaze to conclude that in separating people from nature, both gazes function similarly to subordinate the land to human purposes. Such representations may be seen as part of a wider trend in which media visualizations of nature are based on an implicit ideology, tending to perpetuate and justify existing power relations; those visualizations use images which are increasingly abstract or iconic, and which by force of repetition, replace alternative representations and obscure connections to societal processes such as globalism and consumerism. This article takes up and extends that argument to a critical visual discourse analysis of an official place-branding slideshow produced by the Province of Alberta (Canada), which boasts an economy based significantly on producing non-renewable fossil fuels. In examining that slideshow in terms of Romantic/extractive gazes, this study situates Alberta's rebranding on Corbett's continuum of anthropocentric–ecocentric values; interrogates connections among Alberta's rebranding and invisible flows of power at work in broader, underlying societal processes like globalization, Neoliberalism and consumerism; and tests the commonality of the relationship between extractive and Romantic gazes in light of those processes.     

How to Discredit a Social Movement: Negative Framing of “Idle No More” in Canadian Print Media

The Idle No More (INM) movement entered public view in November 2012 as a grassroots response to Canadian federal legislation Bill C-45, an omnibus bill that reduced environmental protection of lands and waters. Backed by new media technologies, Indigenous activists and their Settler Canadian allies took a series of online and offline actions to bring public attention to Bill C-45’s devastating implications and the socio-economic sufferings of Indigenous people across Canada. This explorative study examines how INM was reported by nine Canadian print media during its initial upsurge from December 2012 to January 2013. A mixed-methods content analysis reveals that although there were numerous supportive voices discussing INM’s contributions to Indigenous self-determination and environmental protection, they were overwhelmed by anti-INM rhetoric advanced by Postmedia Network and its affiliated titles. The study thus highlights the importance of promoting communication and media alternatives for future struggles against capitalism’s appropriation of nature.     

Naming,Mourning, and the Work of Earthly Coexistence

Setting out from Jacques Derrida’s assertion that every act of naming is “a foreshadowing of mourning” ([2008. The animal that therefore I am. (M.-L. Mallet, Ed., D. Wills, Trans.). New York, NY: Fordham University Press], p. 20), this paper argues that the work of earthly coexistence is underwritten by the intertwined practices of naming and mourning. The paper demonstrates that names provide access to and shape our perceptions of earthly entities; that the act of naming prepares us for the work of mourning; that the proper names given to endlings provide poignant points of access to species on the edge of extinction; that species names disclose species as such and, thus, enable us to grieve not just particular living organisms but entire ways of life; and that the name given to the current geological epoch, the “anthropocene,” simultaneously reflects and engenders a mode of awareness which enables us to relinquish those ways of being human that no longer seem sustainable and carry forth those that promise to enrich earthly coexistence.     

Pollutant versus non-pollutant generation technologies: a CML-analogous analysis

In this work, we apply the Modern Portfolio Theory and the Capital Assets Pricing Model financial tools to a portfolio of CO₂-emitting generation technologies under diverse scenarios. We will calculate the efficient—in the sense of having the minimum risk for a given level of emissions—portfolios frontier. The Capital Market Line (CML) is the place where all the possible combinations of a specific efficient portfolio and a pollution-free portfolio—made up with nuclear and renewable generation technologies—lie. In Finance, that specific efficient portfolio is called the market portfolio but we will see that in our case it lacks an evident meaning. Therefore, we will explain which should be the reference portfolio for power generation planning analysis. Anyway, the fact is that those combinations are less pollutant than the portfolios in the efficient frontier. Thus, a policy-maker can analyse which is their effect on emissions reduction. We will start analysing the efficient pollutant generation portfolios. Then, we will introduce the CML-analogous lines (CML-A) to allow the possibility of reducing emissions by combining an efficient portfolio with a non-pollutant portfolio—this non-pollutant portfolio is free of both emissions and risk. Results support the necessity of considering the carbon capture and storage technology to achieve a less risky generation mix, with less emissions and allowing a higher diversification due to the presence of cleaner fossil fuel technologies. All of that leads to better levels of energy security.     

The Performer Metaphor: “Mother Nature Never Gives Us the Same Show Twice”

This study ethnographically identifies and examines a common-sense performer metaphor entangled within deep-rooted Western ecocultural conceptions, in which humans are perceived as separate from and audience to a spectacular nature. I illustrate the cultural cohesiveness of the performer metaphor in a Western nature tourism setting to draw attention to the term's pervasiveness, its network of metaphoric entailments, and its generally unreflected upon meaning and reverberations. I examine struggles in using alternative metaphors and demonstrate ways the performer metaphor mediates processes of involvement with/in nature.     

Indicators of deforestation in the Southern Brazilian Pre-Amazon

In recent years, Amazonian deforestation has become a question of global concern. Deforestation in Amazon is a complex phenomenon in nature and has been related to traditional agriculture expansion. In this work, land use, socioeconomic and conservation indicators, combined with statistical analysis, were used to understand forces associated with patterns of deforestation. This approach was applied in Southern Brazilian Pre-Amazon in Mato Grosso State, which represents an extensive rain forest-savanna ecotone, located in the south border of Amazon biome. Based on data from the last two agricultural censuses (1995/1996–2006), we compared agricultural expansion in this area and Mato Grosso state. Results have shown that 85 % of state deforestation was concentrated in Southern Pre-Amazon and was closely related to increase in number of cattle and pasture area. PCA results pointed that population (92 %), number of cattle (86.5 %), pastures (84.2 %) and tractors (78.4 %) were variables with highest positive correlation to deforestation. It showed that GDP contributes to an individual axis and has a low correlation to deforestation (37.8 %). Conservation units and indigenous reserves also contribute to a single axis and were negatively correlated to temporary crops area. Results revealed a significant reduction in production and commercialization of extractive products in the region, revealing that the main, almost only conservation policy in Mato Grosso remains the creation of Special Areas. We suggest that further studies are necessary to screen development alternatives to simple cutting trees down. It is important to diversify strategies for deforestation control, and development aspects must be more seriously considered to reach a sustainable deforestation control policy.     

Fort McMurray and the Canadian Oil Sands: Local Coverage of National Importance

Understanding resource-based communities (RBCs) as potential casualties of Canada's economic proclivity towards resource extraction projects may help us to generate political support for these communities at both local and national scales. The media has a critical role to play in promoting the development of this type of political discourse. This study examines how traditional print media coverage affects Canadians' perceptions of the Athabasca oil sands. A quantitative media analysis examines scope and thematic content of articles appearing in major Canadian newspapers between 2003 and 2013. We find that most coverage concerning the Athabasca oil sands over this period appears predominantly in western Canadian newspapers, with coverage primarily focusing on specific events. We argue that this geographic disparity in coverage does not provide Canadians with the adequate coverage necessary to develop an informed opinion on what the implications of ongoing oil sands development are at both a local and a national scale.     

Edward Burtynsky's Manufactured Landscapes: The Ethics and Aesthetics of Creating Moving Still Images and Stilling Moving Images of Ecological Disasters

This paper analyzes the complex relationship between photography and film in the documentary “Manufactured Landscapes,” a film about the work of Edward Burtynsky: beautiful, painterly, large format photos of scarred landscapes, dumps and industrial worksites. Combining the format of an artist portrait, showing the photographer at work, with that of a social documentary about the impact of mass industrialization and globalization worldwide, the film has the power to make us look beyond the beauty of his images and see the big picture of the issues at stake: the impact of mass production and mass consumption in which we all take part. The film also forces us to think about the role of the artist in society as either aesthete or truth teller.     

Global Journalism in Decision-Making Moments: A Case Study of Canadian and American Television Coverage of the 2009 United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change in Copenhagen

Climate change is a phenomenon with global causes but local effects, and thus global climate change decision-making moments provide ideal opportunities to examine how local and global discourses work together—or do not—through global journalism. This case study investigates the globally focused vs. culturally bound frames used in television news coverage, in Canada and the USA, of the 2009 United Nations Climate Change Conference in Copenhagen. Initial quantitative findings that Canadian media used many more culturally bound sources than did American media contradict the past findings and suggest Canadian media engaged less in producing global journalism than did American media. A follow-up qualitative analysis not only found more global framing in the American stories, but also concluded that global sources did not necessarily create global journalism; instead, a global orientation is required.     

Qualitative estimates of soil disturbance in the vicinity of CANDU stations, utilizing measurements of 137Cs and 210Pb in soil cores

Anthropogenically derived 14C has been used to trace recent carbon input in a study of carbon accumulation and turnover in Canadian soils. In order to do so, documentation of the undisturbed nature of the soil horizons sampled was of prime concern. Although all the sites chosen for coring were currently uncultivated, detailed information on long-term land usage was not available. To overcome this problem, 137Cs profiles were measured in all the cores used in the study. 210Pb measurements were also made in cases where total 137Cs deposition was lower than predicted. For some sample sites, the data obtained showed correlated losses of both radionuclides, indicating that land disturbance and/or erosion had indeed occurred in these areas over the past 50 years, hence invalidating the use of those cores for carbon cycling studies. In a few cases a marked lack of correlation between these two radionuclides has made it necessary to hypothesize that chemical, rather than physical, processes have been partially responsible for the observed anomalies. Since results of this nature raise doubts about the reliability of the 137Cs method for identification of land disturbance, further investigation is warranted.     

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.     

基于二元水循环理论的水资源承载力质量能综合评价

水资源承载力是影响社会经济可持续发展的一个重要因素,水资源承载力的合理评定对于水资源的可持续利用及社会经济的发展规划具有重要指导意义。在“二元水循环”理论的基础上,提出了承载单元的概念,认为水资源是通过承载单元来实现对社会经济和自然环境的承载能力的。承载单元具有系统响应的特点,水资源在承载单元内将经过社会的外体循环及自然的内体循环,之后其水质、水量、水能3个方面的状态都会发生改变,其承载能力也会相应地发生改变。因此,以承载单元为研究对象,建立了质量能构架下水资源承载力的评价指标体系,并对水资源承载力进行了综合评价。最后以昆明市水资源承载力的分析评价为例,说明了该方法的实际应用     

Overview of the Belgian programme for the surveillance of the territory and the implications of the international recommendations or directives on the monitoring programme

The Royal Decree of 20th July has entrusted the Federal Agency for Nuclear Control (FANC) with the task of controlling the territorial radioactivity and the doses received by the population. Within this agenda, a monitoring programme has been developed over many years, in order to follow the main potential exposure pathways of the population. In practice, several potential vectors of contamination are controlled: air (and rain), surface water (including sediments and biota), soils around nuclear installations, food chain, drinking water etc. To carry out such work, the FANC has collaborated with public or private reputable organisations: The Centre of Nuclear Energy Studies of Mol, The National Institute of Radionuclides of Fleurus, and The Louis Pasteur Public Health Institute of Brussels. A synthesis of this monitoring programme will be presented and the most important deductions will be pointed out. For many years, the tendency has been for tighter control of artificial and natural radioactivity in the environment. This has been achieved by increasingly stringent regulations, regarding environmental monitoring efforts, from international organisations (EC, OSPAR, IAEA). In this context, the FANC in Belgium, is involved in a process that will lead to the adaptation of the Belgian monitoring programme. Different aspects of these adaptations and of their consequences will be presented for illustrative purposes.     

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.     

建设项目环境影响评价公众参与模式研究

介绍了公众参与及参与内容、群体、目的和意义．公众参与的法律法规依据。从公众参与的方式、时机和参与对决策的影响三方面分析了当前公众参与存在的问题。然后按项目进程．进行了公众参与模式研究．提出了“八步工作进程．五处信息交流．四次信息公开．三项监督举报”的公众参与模式。希望对公众参与工作的开展有所帮助。     

中国农村贫困的测度与模拟:1995-2003

本文介绍了基予GQ Lorenz曲线的参数方法测度贫困的基本原理，测算了1995—2003年中国农村贫困状况，重点对贫困的变化进行模拟分析。不同贫困线的模拟分析表明：各贫困指标对贫困线较小的移动具有较商的敏感性，其政策涵义是扶贫不应当只注意贫困线以下的家庭。而且也应当注意陷入贫困风险商的家庭。贫困分解的模拟分析表明：不仅收入与贫困发生率有关，而且分配不合理却增加了贫困的深度和强度，其政策涵义是贫困问题的根本解决应将更多的注意力放在贫困人口的收入及其分配上。     

Curb Your Enthusiasm: On Media Communication of Bioenergy and the Role of the News Media in Technology Diffusion

There is widespread agreement that the mitigation of climate changes requires societies across the globe to speed up the diffusion of renewable energy technologies. This article pursues an interest in the diffusion of one such technology: bioenergy. It does so through a study of how bioenergy is covered and communicated in the news media of Norway and Sweden, countries where the diffusion of this technology looks radically different. Mobilizing a domestication perspective, it finds that the news media in the two countries ascribe diverging meaning to the technology, offering audiences clearly varied images of what bioenergy “is.” In other words, the technology is domesticated in different ways, suggesting that media coverage plays a role in systems of innovation and diffusion. How this affects the public, however, is an under analyzed element in the innovation and diffusion literature, and the article calls for further investigation into this matter.     

生态文明的内涵及其现实意义

生态文明的定义有狭义与广义之分,不加区分乱用势必会造成逻辑混乱。作为广义意义上的生态文明,作为一种崭新的文明形态,其内涵至少要从自然观、价值观、生产方式、生活方式这四个方面来把握。党的十七大首次明确提出建设生态文明的战略要求,标志着中国共产党对中国特色社会主义建设规律认识的深化,是中国特色社会主义理论体系的又一重大创新成果,它对于我国走出生态困境、构建社会主义和谐社会、落实科学发展观具有现实意义。     

基于耕作半径分析的县域农村居民点空间布局优化——以安徽省埇桥区为例

分析了安徽省埇桥区农村居民点与耕地的空间邻接特征和数量结构关系,通过“均等”和“耕聚比”的方法分别求算耕作半径并构造缓冲区,得出两种耕作压力系数的分布,对其进行比较并提出了农村居民点布局优化策略。结果表明：耕地是皖北平原地区影响农村居民点布局的主要因子,基于各乡（镇）统计的耕地与农村居民点面积存在较好的线性相关;基于“耕聚比”的计算模型较好地解决了农村居民点规模因素对耕作半径计算造成的影响;基于“耕聚比”的方法计算的耕作压力分布在评价耕地与农村居民点的分布合理性上更为实用;耕作压力系数分布对农村居民点合理布局具有一定的指导意义,布局调整中应将压力系数高的地区的拆旧和压力系数低的地区的建新相挂钩     

Environmental Communication as Nexus

This essay examines zoos as a site of struggle in the construction of meanings and memories of human–nature relations. Modern zoos are symbols of imperial power and celebrations of the domination of nature. The grafting of “tropic worlds” onto these monuments of modernity renders the meaning of zoos more ambiguous, reflecting discursive struggles over the meaning of nature, questions about the wisdom of development and progress, recognition of the need for conservation and preservation, and nostalgia for a nature that has been lost. Through a close textual reading of “The Rainforest” at the Cleveland Metroparks Zoo, this essay explores the simulation of nature in zoos and “tropic worlds” in North American cities. These hyperreal spaces contain an extraordinary amount of the history and politics of the culture that constructs them for fascination, edification, conservation, commodification, and salvation. At stake in these simulated natures is not only the constructions of nature as spectacle and animals as commodities, but also the use of knowledge to maintain certain forms of domination and the “writing” of industrial culture's historical memory of nature and human–nature relations.