Image Themes and Frames in US Print News Stories about Climate Change

Research on frames in climate change (CC) news coverage has advanced substantially over the past decade, but the emerging understanding of the framing role of visual imagery that often accompanies news texts remains fragmented. We report on a set of image frames identified through content analysis of 350 images associated with 200 news articles from 11 US newspaper and magazine sources from 1969 through late 2009. We reliably identified and quantified the occurrence of 118 image themes. We then hierarchically clustered the themes based on their co-occurrence in images to identify an integrated framework of 42 image frames. We highlight frames associated with particular types of images (e.g., photographs and maps) or geographic regions. From among the full set of frames, we identify 15 that commonly appear in US CC news imagery and discuss the ways in which image frames make salient (or render invisible) particular categories of people, geographic regions, aspects of science, and spheres of activity.     

Gatekeeping and Communities in Energy Transition: A Study of the Block Island Wind Farm

ABSTRACT

The Block Island Wind Farm (BIWF) is the first offshore wind farm in the United States. Using gatekeeping theory as a framework, this research analyzes local and regional/national newspaper coverage of the BIWF paying particular attention to the use of sources. The data suggest that the differences between newspaper source usage from 1 January 2008 to 1 July 2017 is minimal. However, business sources appeared more than any other group, including government sources, which is a new finding. The prevalence of business sources leads to important questions about the role of businesses in shaping narratives about community transitions to renewable energy systems.     

基于行业增长的省级可再生能源规划目标分解

为了有效的把国家可再生能源规划分阶段的落实到各个省市,做好二者之间衔接工作,研究考虑了我国在从发展中国家过渡到中等发达国家时所需要考虑的如何平衡公平与效率之阀关系的问题,结合中国可再生能源发展实际特征,提出一种基于行业增长曲线的可再生能源阶段目标分解模型.模型首先求解出中国不同的可再生能源行业的增长曲线.然后给出可再生能源发展阶段目标函数.结合区域发展规划,给出了各省的阶段目标,为了验证该模型的正确性,以风电、水电和太阳发电为代表能源,结合国家可再生能源整体规划和资源需求分布状况,分阶段提出了各省域的可再生能源发展目标.目标分解参照两个原则(1)可分解原则.国家总量目标可以根据一定的标准在不同地区、部门和行业进行分解,由全社会共同完成发展目标.(2)公平性和区域差异的原则.考虑资源禀赋和社会经济发展水平差距,各地总量目标有所区别.研究对于可再生能源规划的整体实施和监管具有一定的借鉴意义.     

中国农村可再生能源的发展现状分析

中国有9亿人民生活在农村地区,农村能源的利用直接影响我国经济社会的全面发展,本文首先介绍了我国的能源资源潜力及农村能源消费结构,指出现阶段正处于从传统能源消费结构向现代能源消费结构变迁的过程中。在分析我国各种可再生能源技术最新发展现状基础上,文中总结了可再生能源CDM碳交易项目的进展,最后分析了我国给与可再生能源发展的鼓励及相关保护政策并提出了了我国农村可再生能源发展的问题及建议。     

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.     

Bringing the Heat Home: Television Spots about Local Impacts Reduce Global Warming Denialism

ABSTRACT

Efforts to educate the general public about global warming and the potential policy solutions that could mitigate its effects have relied on the diffusion of facts. But, cognitive scientists have documented that psychologically distant events like global warming elicit less concern and motivation to act relative to immediate, proximal and certain events. This paper documents a quasi-experiment that tested the effect on attitudes of a television campaign that emphasized the temporally, geographically and socially proximal impacts of global warming on the ecosystems and business activity of a historically conservative area of the United States. The campaign aired on one cable provider. Subscribers of that and of competing providers in the same zip-codes were polled after the campaign. Respondents exposed to the campaign were more likely to believe that global warming is happening, to accept the scientific consensus, to be more concerned about impacts and more supportive of policy solutions.     

可再生能源发展情景设计及评价研究

通过对当前主要的情景设计及评价方法的研究,认为目前我国可再生能源发展迅速,但初期的部分基本工作尚未完成.尤其是可再生能源的供给潜力及其经济可开发性评价.基于此,提出一种基于动态成本曲线的可再生能源发展战略情景仿真模型.动态成本曲线生成的基本原理是在静态成本曲线基础上,考虑技术进步、可再生能源外部价值对静态成本曲线的影响,从而生成不同时期的可再生能源成本曲线,进而构成可再生能源动态成本曲线.考虑不同种类可再生能源技术进步水平、外部环境价值的变化,设计不同的可再生能源发展情景.基于可再生能源动态成本曲线,并对不同的可再生能源发展情景下的投资成本、能源效益、经济效益和社会效益进行了综合评价.最后通过一个案例,分四种情景,即不考虑技术进步,低环境方案情景;不考虑技术进步,高环境方案情景;考虑技术进步,低环境方案情景;考虑技术进步,高环境方案情景;分别给出了四种情景下的装机总量、投资总额、创造就业、污染物和温室气体减排量.     

Fracking and Framing: A Comparative Analysis of Media Coverage of Hydraulic Fracturing in Canadian and US Newspapers

Hydraulic fracturing, or fracking, is a controversial but popular method of extracting oil and gas in North America. There are a myriad of completing claims about the economic benefits and the environmental costs of the technology. This paper examines news media coverage of fracking in four Canadian and four American newspapers over a five-year period. A comparison is made at the national level as well as at a paired subnational level between jurisdictions where fracking is embraced and where fracking is banned. The paper demonstrates that in both countries the main storyline is about water quality, but beyond that differences emerge as Americans focus more on wildlife and public health and Canadians focus more on moratoriums and energy independence. Moreover, while there were similarities in media coverage of fracking in pro-fracking and anti-fracking jurisdictions, there were notable differences in attention to the topics of public health and economic benefits.     

Analysis of Influences between the Energy Structure Change and Energy Intensity in China

In this article, based on the data of the energy statistics from 1980 to 2004, we analyze the relationship between the primary energy structures, technique, management, and the energy use per unit of GDP based on the path analysis approach and present the degree of the direct, indirect, and the overall influences of the primary energy structures on the energy use per unit of GDP. The results show that the technical change and management level play a decisive role in the energy use per unit of GDP, and the ratio of oil consumption was the major limiting factor to energy use per unit of GDP. We then found the model of the energy use per unit of GDP and the structures of the primary energy consumption, eliminated the multicollinearity in the model with the path analysis result, and finally, analyzed the influence of the primary energy structure on the energy conservation.     

中欧可再生能源电力安全困境分析与合作路径

本文主要是为中欧可再生能源电力安全合作路径提供相关的政策建议。通过中欧双方可再生能源政策的相互比较,得到以下结论:1中国能源密度下跌的原因是节能减排政策的实施使用,不断提高能源效率和减排将是未来中国政府的核心任务;2把新能源外交与能源节约联系在一起,与欧盟之间加强中欧新能源合作,抓住机会引进新能源技术、设备和成果,以加强我们在新能源领域的竞争力;3建立战略目标和政策协调机制,以促进新能源外交政策的梳理,协同推进新能源外交战略目标的发展;4探索欧盟与中国的合作新机制,减少现有的国际机构或政府新成立的多边集团对短期商品价格冲击的影响,缓解短期的商品供应缺口和价格冲击;5在维护能源安全上,中欧双方有着共同的利益,也面临共同挑战。与欧盟在能源技术、能效管理、标准、法规、能源市场和监管等方面合作,推动中国节能和增效,对控制能源消费总量,实现能源生产和利用方式变革等都具有现实意义。     

中国农村居民可再生能源生活消费的碳排放评估

农村居民能源消费涉及能源安全、环境效应、新农村建设等多个方面,从发展趋势来看,在未来相当长的时期内,秸秆、薪柴等传统生物质能仍是我国农村居民的主要生活能源.本文在分析了我国农村居民可再生能源生活消费现状的基础上,测算了1998 -2007年农村居民可再生能源生活消费的碳排放,评估了农村居民可再生能源生活消费的环境效应.得出结论:在我国农村居民能源生活消费的过程中,碳排放的主体是秸秆和薪柴等生物质能的传统利用,其次是商品性能源的使用.在未来的发展过程中,农村居民能源消费必须依靠农村丰富的可再生资源,优化物质循环过程,变生物质能的传统利用为清洁利用,减少温室气体排放,实现改善农村环境,减缓和适应气候变化的总体发展目标.     

Research on the development and planning of renewable energy in Tibet

With the rapid social and economic development of the Tibet Autonomous Region,the situation in regard to energy supply and demand is increasingly tense.Meanwhile,the development of renewable energy in Tibet has been given considerable practical significance by its peculiar ecological environment.Given the complementarity of renewable energies in Tibet,using the method of factor analysis,we derived four major factors:level of economic development,social development,industrial development,and energy endowment,which help to evaluate development conditions in different regions of Tibet.Treating these four factors equally,we used the hierarchical clustering method to determine the order of regional development.Thus we acquire a three-stage planning project for renewable energy.In the first stage,Lhasa plays a leading role in promoting the development of renewable energy,particularly that based on solar and wind energy.There are two phases in the second stage,the first being to simultaneously develop solar and wind energy in Xigaze and Nyingchi.The second is to develop solar and wind energy in accordance with the time of year in Qamdo,Nagqu,and Ali,with 1.145billion kWh electricity to be generated.The third stage is to develop energy production in Lhoka Prefecture,with 1.369billion kWh electricity to be generated.At the end of the three-stage project,consumption of available electricity will have reached 4.045 billion kwh,with major social and economic benefits.     

Chemical Controversy: Canadian and US News Coverage of the Scientific Debate about Bisphenol A

This study analyzes how newspapers covered the scientific controversy surrounding the health effects of exposure to Bisphenol A (BPA). Specifically, it examines whether framing, sources of scientific information, and balancing of competing sides in the debate differed across national political contexts and journalistic approaches. In regard to the former, it compares coverage in Canada (represented by the Globe and Mail), which had banned BPA in baby bottles and cups, to coverage in the United States (represented by the New York Times and Washington Post), which had not. In regard to the latter, it compares coverage in two US newspapers that took a conventional journalistic approach (the New York Times and Washington Post) to coverage in a US newspaper that launched an investigative series regarding BPA (the Milwaukee Journal Sentinel). The study concludes by considering what the findings suggest about how social forces shape coverage of scientific controversies involving environmental issues.     

Energy Analysis of Sugarcane Production in Morocco

An energy analysis of sugarcane production in small and large farms was made in Morocco. Total energy expenditures were 64.90 and 47.83 GJ/ha and energy outputs were 100.80 and 85.80 GJ/ha in large and small farms, respectively. The output/input energy ratios were 1.6 and 1.8. The energy intensity lies between 0.7 and 0.8 MJ/kg and is one of the highest among sugarcane producing countries. Irrigation is the most energy consuming operation with about 50% of total energy inputs. Electricity, fertilizers, fuel, and machinery are the main energy inputs. The influence of the different inputs is discussed and practical measures for energy saving and environmental conservation based on energy analysis are discussed.     

Culture,Progress and the Media: The Shad as Synecdoche in Environmental News Coverage

This essay examined the use of synecdoche in newspaper coverage of a dispute over water rights between the Mattaponi Indians and the city of Newport News, Virginia. The Mattaponi used the shad as a rhetorical trope to explain the tribe's relationship to the river and their fears about the reservoir's impact. The reservoir proponents, however, treated the shad as a representation of the conflict surrounding the reservoir, and this construction was reflected in articles that appeared in The Daily Press, a local daily newspaper. This essay argued that, ultimately, the treatment of a single species as a synecdoche in environmental disputes undermined the Mattaponi's position. The media which are instrumental in defining environmental issues for the public, misinterpreted a rhetorical trope that was proffered as a representation for a complex set of values and instead focused attention on the species itself rather than the values that it represented.     

Rebirth,Devastation and Sickness: Analyzing the Role of Metaphor in Media Discourses of Nuclear Power

Nuclear power plays an important but controversial role in policies to ensure domestic energy security, fuel poverty reduction and the mitigation of climate change. Our article construes the problem of nuclear power in terms of social discourse, language and public choice; specifically examining the role that metaphors play in the policy domain. We empirically analyze metaphors as framing devices in nuclear energy policy debates in the UK between April 2009 and March 2013, thereby capturing the impact of the Fukushima nuclear disaster in 2011. We employ documentary analysis of major UK national broadsheet and tabloid newspapers, using electronic bibliographic tools to extract the metaphors. We then map these metaphors using a Type Hierarchy Analysis, which examines how elements of the target domain (energy technologies and policies) originate from a different source domain. Type hierarchies identify and categorize metaphors, defining the affectual and emotional responses associated with them, providing us with grounded insight into their role in shaping discourse and as a consequence influence public engagement with energy policy. Our analysis highlights three emergent domains of discourse metaphors and discusses the implications of their deployment. Metaphors were found to be classified into three different categories: Rebirth (Renaissance), Devastation (Apocalypse, Inferno, Genie and Bomb) and Sickness (Addiction and Smoking).     

中国区域能源安全供给脆弱性分析

随着经济持续快速发展,我国能源需求不断增加,能源安全,尤其是石油安全问题日益突出,而能源安全供给脆弱性是能源安全的核心问题.在对能源安全供给脆弱性概念进行界定的基础上,构建了脆弱性评估模型以及由对外依存度、能源消耗弹性指数、能源储量比、能源生产弹性指数、运输线路长度和人均GDP构成的评价指标体系.采用因子分析法确定评价指标的权重系数,并对全国30个省(市、区)十五时期的常规能源(煤炭、石油和天然气)安全供给脆弱性进行定量评估.结果表明:①我国区域能源安全供给脆弱性程度整体上处于中等偏下水平,且呈现出东高西低的特征;②能源安全供给风险的应对能力差异是区域脆弱性分异的主导因素.     

中国能耗动态增长机理和节能内涵探讨

近年来,尽管我国政府围绕一些阶段性的能源效率改进指标(例如:降低我国单位国内生产总值的能源消耗)实施了一系列政策措施,并且就此已经取得了显著的成效,但这并未从根本上消除我国当前经济社会发展过程中存在的能源浪费和不合理使用现象,以及从长远来看我国经济社会发展趋向和依赖高能耗经济社会发展路径的隐患。究其原因,关键是对符合我国现实国情的节能内涵欠缺充分的认识,从而难以制定具有前瞻性和全局性的节能发展战略。在此背景下,本文在辨析节能基本概念的基础上,结合对我国当前能源消耗动态增长特征及其形成机理的剖析,进一步归纳出我国节能的本质内涵,指出"动态节能"是我国节能的本质内涵,而我国"动态节能"的根本目的在于减少我国实现现代化(例如城镇化和工业化等)整体过程中的"集总能源消耗"。本文开展的以上定性分析工作加深了对我国节能内涵的认识,为相关决策者制定更加全面的节能政策提供必要的决策参考依据。     

Carbon neutral Biggar: calculating the community carbon footprint and renewable energy options for footprint reduction

The objective of this research was to develop a community carbon footprint model that could be used to assess the size and major components of a community’s carbon dioxide (CO₂) emissions. The town of Biggar aims to become Scotland’s first carbon neutral town. As expected for this rural community, car transport accounted for nearly half of the CO₂ emissions, with natural gas and electricity consumption resulting in a further 24% and 12% of total emissions, respectively, and air travel being the last major component at 10% of emissions. An assessment was also made of the wind and solar resources of the town. One large wind turbine would provide the town’s electricity, while three to four turbines would be needed to offset all CO₂ emissions. In contrast, offsetting by tree planting would require in the region of 2,000 ha of trees.

我国城市间客运交通能源消耗趋势的分解

随着我国城镇化水平不断提高,城市作为重要的交通网络节点,其衔接交通运输线路、产生和承担客货流转换的功能日益显著。定量地探讨城市间客运交通能源消费变化的影响因素对于我国未来城市间客运交通能源需求的研究及温室气体减排具有重要意义。本文采用终端能源需求MAED模型,对我国城市间客运交通能耗的历史基期数据进行处理,同时对未来能耗进行预测,在形成ASIF结构的数据基础上,利用对数平均迪氏指数法(Logarithmic Mean Index,LMDI)对城市间客运交通能耗的活动效应、结构效应和强度效应进行分解分析。结果表明,从历史数据来看,我国"十五"期间城市间客运交通能耗的快速增加同时取决于客运周转量的增加、客运交通模式和能耗强度的转变,若延续这一发展趋势,我国中长期城市间客运交通模式将快速增长。未来城市间轨道交通网络的发展和高效利用及交通节能减排政策的落实将是促进能源消耗增速降低的可能选择。