Environmental Risks in Newspaper Coverage: A Framing Analysis of Investigative Reports on Environmental Problems in 10 Chinese Newspapers

Economic modernization has been China's national priority since the establishment of the People's Republic. Since the authorities retain control over the media, which is also now subject to commercial influences, it might be expected that the Chinese news media would construct a discourse of assurance, endorsing economic modernization. A framing analysis of newspaper investigative reports on environmental problems in this article, however, shows that these reports have portrayed environmental problems in a manner that opposes rather than supports the national priority for economic growth. It challenges rather than reinforces the current institutional discourse of development and criticizes rather than contributes to the present structure of the capitalist mode of production in China. In this case, the prominence of the critical reflective discourse demonstrates the critical role investigative journalism potentially plays in arousing the public's awareness of risks in order to create a society in which such risks can be minimized. Factors in the wider social context contribute to our understanding of the critical discourse of environmental problems.     

Merging Duke Energy and Progress Energy: Online Public Discourse,Post-Fukushima Reactions,and the Absence of Environmental Communication

This article examines online discourse in 2011 surrounding the proposed Duke Energy and Progress Energy merger in the Carolinas. It explores how issues pertaining to the merger, including constructing new nuclear plants, are discussed in media coverage and by citizens using social media. Overall, we find that the merger discourse focuses on economic concerns rather than the environmental concerns we had anticipated. However, post-Fukushima discourse appears to have become more inclusive of environmental concerns. We conclude that environmental discussions and efforts are likely to be globally informed andlocally situated, discussing the implications for environmental communication research exploring online discourses, specifically through social media. Future research must address how to locate and delineate constellations of locally situated discourse to provide a clearer picture of environmentally focused social media communication.     

Environmental challenges in computer manufacturing

The purpose of this research is to examine the environmental policies and programs that have been instituted by four large computer manufacturers. These environmental concerns, while not highly publicized, present an extremely important challenge to computer manufacturers, as well as to our society in general. Though the environmental programs of these computer manufacturers have been in place for several years, the topic of environmental health and safety (EHS) in computer manufacturing is still a relatively new one. Four major computer manufacturers that have instituted environmental programs are selected in this research. Their environmental policies and programs are examined in detail and compared with each other to show the relative strength and weakness. The result of this research highlights that with the amazing growth of computer use for both business and in our daily life, it will only be a matter of time before the issue -- the environmental challenges in computer manufacturing -- gains prominence and exposure in our society on a large-scale basis.     

From Environmental Campaigns to Advancing the Public Dialog: Environmental Communication for Civic Engagement

This essay examines the claims of environmental identity campaigns regarding the issue of climate change. Identity campaigns are based on the idea that more effective environmental messages developed through the application of cognitive science by professional communications experts can favorably influence public opinion, and thus support legislative action to remedy this issue. Based on a review of the sociological and psychological literature regarding social change and mobilization, I argue that while this approach may offer short term advantages, it is most likely incapable of developing the large scale mobilization necessary to enact the massive social and economic changes necessary to address global warming. Specifically, theoretical and empirical research on the role of the public sphere, civil society and social movements shows that democratic civic engagement is core to successful social change efforts. However, identity campaigns focus on a communications process that centers on elite led one way communications, which falls to allow for any form of civic engagement and public dialogue. This undermines the creation of a democratic process of change and reinforces the professionalization of political discourse, leading to a weakening of the mobilization capacity over this issue of global warming. The essay concludes with the outlines of an environmental communication process that aims at enhancing civic engagement and democratic decision making.     

企业积极环境行为的层次及其政策设计

企业积极的环境行为是我国建设生态文明社会的重要着力点,使企业成为积极的环境行为主体是环境政策的重要目标.由于企业在环境治理中存在达到企业最优污染控制水平、社会最优污染控制水平及污染完全控制三个目标层次的选择,企业在不同的污染控制目标层次上,其行为是有差异的.本文针对企业不同的污染控制目标层次,提出企业积极环境行为存在循环经济、利益调配、非此即彼三个行为层次的选择.每一个行为层次和相关的目标层次相对应.不同层次的环境行为,其行为动力和政策要求是有差别的.本文指出,从循环经济层次到利益调配层次、再到非此即彼层次,企业积极环境行为的动力是逐步递减的,并针对这一特征分别设计了相关的环境经济政策,以促进企业积极的环境行为.     

The implications of new information and communication technologies for sustainability

This paper discusses the relationship of new information and communication technologies (ICTs) and sustainable development. It deconstructs popular myths about a sustainable information society. One myth is that telework has reduced the need to travel and hence environmental pollution. The reality is that teleworkers make up only a small share of the total workforce, telework can generate new social relationships and hence the need for more travelling, work-related travel produces only a small amount of the total carbon dioxide emissions, and that the total distance travelled per employee is constantly rising. Another myth is that information economy is weightless and dematerialized which reduces environmental impacts. The energy and resource intensities of the ICT sector are indeed lower than the one of the total economy. The ICT sector also emits less CO₂ than the total economy. But the ICT sector constitutes only a small portion of the total value added and fossil fuel combustion is still the dominant activity of modern industrial economies. Some stakeholders argue that virtual products allow resource, energy, and transport savings. But burning digital music on compact discs and DVDs, printing digital articles and books, etc. results in rebound effects that cause new material and energy impacts, computers have a low life span of 2–3 years, reusable and upgradeable computers and computer equipment are hardly used and might not be as profitable as non-reusable ones, computers are consuming much energy. Alternatives such as energy consumption labels on ICTs and green ICTs that consume less energy contradict dominant economic interests. A sustainable information society is a society that makes use of ICTs and knowledge for fostering a good life for all human beings of current and future generations by strengthening biological diversity, technological usability, economic wealth for all, political participation of all, and cultural wisdom. Achieving a sustainable information society costs, it demands a conscious reduction of profits by not investing in the future of capital, but the future of humans, society, and nature.     

Economics-Oriented Discourse Strategies in Environmental Advocacy

Scholars and practitioners are engaging in a fierce debate over the implications of using market-based discourse in communicating environmental problems and solutions. However, there has been less attention to exactly who is using such economic discourse and how it is combined with other discourses. Prior researchers have proposed tripartite frameworks for categorizing discursive strategies around pro-economic, anti-economic, and non-economic metaphors, which are here applied to eight U.S. environmental advocacy organizations’ press releases. An original text-analytic dictionary of pro-economic, anti-economic, and non-economic discourse is used to distinguish between the proposed discourse strategies. This analysis indicates that economics-oriented discourse strategies are more complex and varied than previously suggested. A more nuanced framework is proposed.     

中国环境污染与经济增长的实证研究

本文基于我国1981-2007年环境污染与经济增长的相关数据,利用时间序列研究方法对我国EKC进行实证研究,说明建立EKC模型可能存在的问题。为弥补EKC模型中环境不影响经济的假设与变量难以量化的不足,运用VAR模型研究二者的动态关系。EKC研究结果表明:EKC是一种客观现象,而不是一般规律;与人们生产生活关系密切的污染物更有可能出现EKC特征。VAR脉冲响应和方差分解的动态分析结果与二者相互作用机理相符:一方面我国经济增长通过规模效应、结构效应、技术效应等因素影响环境;一方面随着人们环境质量需求弹性的增加,政府对环境质量的重视,环境对企业生产行为的约束机制正逐步形成,但可能由于人们通过自身消费影响产出的作用有限和环境政策实施存在滞后性等原因,这种机制的形成存在一定滞后。     

环境管制对中国污染密集型行业企业竞争力影响的实证研究

按照经济学的分析思路,政府加强环境管制会增加企业成本,从而影响企业的竞争力。但是,著名管理学家波特却提出了一个新的假说,认为从长期和动态的角度来看,加强环境管制会促使企业寻求技术创新和管理创新,不仅不会损害企业竞争力,实际上通常还会增强企业的竞争力,实现环境管制与企业竞争力的"双赢"。本文利用1993-2009年中国污染密集型行业企业的省际面板数据对环境管制与企业竞争力的关系进行了实证研究。研究结果显示:环境管制对市场占有率、亏损率指标产生了显著的影响,环境管制增强1%,企业的市场占有率就会提高0.7%,企业的亏损面会降低0.15%;环境管制对利润率指标的影响为正,但不显著。从大多数人的长远利益出发,政府应坚定不移地加强我国的环境管制,走绿色发展之路。     

社会人口特征与环境关心:基于农村的数据

环境问题是一个可以跨越群体界分从而被全社会普遍关注的问题,还是一个只被具有某些特征的群体关注的问题?背后的机制是什么?这是环境研究领域一个广泛研究的主题.我国学者己就城市居民环境关心及其社会基础开展了一些研究,但仍缺乏基于农村的调查研究.本文利用农村环境的调查数据,就农村居民的社会人口特征对其环境关心的影响进行了回归分析.研究表明,与城市研究发现一致,在中国农村,教育对环境关心也有着积极影响.但与城市发现不同的是,在农村年龄对环境关心起着消极影响,而且尽管男性在环境知识和感知上高于女性,两性在环境态度上并无显著差异.另外,研究还发现主观社会地位对环境关心有积极影响,外出打工经历有消极影响,而主观经济地位和党员身份对环境关心都无显著影响.最后也是本研究最令人兴奋的发现是,政治价值观对环境关心各个因子都有非常显著的影响.     

企业环境信息披露的外部影响因素实证研究

本文以111家重污染行业的A股上市公司为样本,对企业环境信息披露的外部影响因素进行研究,对政府环保投入、公众环保意识、区域经济水平和社会监督水平等因素与企业环境信息披露水平之间的关系进行了理论分析和实证检验.研究结果显示:从整体上来说外部因素与企业环境信息披露水平呈负相关关系,说明现阶段企业环保工作所处的外部环境不容乐观;其中,区域经济发展水平与企业环境信息披露水平显著负相关;政府环保投入与企业环境信息披露水平显著正相关,但其影响程度随着经济发展水平的提高而减小;公众环保意识和社会监督水平对企业环境信息披露水平无显著影响.最后,提出了转变经济发展方式、加强政府宏观调控和完善企韭环境信息披露制度等政策建议.     

The Ecology of Empire: Wal-Mart's Rhetoric of Environmental Stewardship and the Constitutive Power of the Multitude

This essay provides a critical account of Wal-Mart's rhetoric of environmental stewardship. By situating this discourse within a new political economy of production and governance that Michael Hardt and Antonio Negri have termed empire, I argue that environmental communication scholars should limit the rush to deploy ideological criticism when explaining the corporation's rhetorical motives. Instead, I advocate reading Wal-Mart's rhetoric as a problem of historical conjunctures, a critical move that seeks to highlight, not only the structural interests of capital, but also the centrality of social antagonism. In the case of Wal-Mart, this means accounting for the increased significance of demand to economic production, changes in the composition of sovereignty, and the transgressive function of environmentalism at the beginning of the twenty-first century.     

The triple-bottom-line: framing of trade-offs in sustainability planning practice

Sustainability principles are at the forefront of regional planning. In Hawaii, the movement toward “sustainability” gave way to revisiting the State Plan. This paper uses a case study of the Hawaii 2050 Sustainability Plan (Hawaii 2050) to illustrate how adopting popular notions of sustainability, without critical examination of how the respective policy frames diverge or interrelate, can lead to “tautological traps.” In the case of Hawaii 2050, the “triple-bottom-line” (embedded within sustainable development) became the dominant sustainability frame during the solicitation of public input and was thus used to guide the planning discourse. The application of triple-bottom-line concepts at the level of policy and planning led to a process that polarized economic and environmental interests. While the goals of sustainable development and the use of triple-bottom-line concepts are useful for planners, we argue that they should be applied within the parameters of ecological sustainability in a US regional context, lest resulting plans continue to allow the momentum of development to override ecological concerns.     

Economic Conditions,the Policy Cycle,and Media Visibility of Environmental Organizations

The extent to which social movements have access to the news media has important implications on the capability of social movements to communicate with and garner support from the public. Factors that shape movement organizations' media visibility thus deserve scholarly attention. This article deals with news coverage of environmental movement organizations (EMOs) in Hong Kong and focuses on the impact of economic conditions, the policy cycle, and the number of EMOs in society on media visibility of EMOs. Analysis of a data-set constructed based on archival data and official statistics illustrates that all three factors influence media visibility of EMOs through media attention to environmental issues, while the number of EMOs and economic conditions also affect media visibility of EMOs directly. In-depth interview data are then used to supplement the quantitative analysis by showing how movement activists perceive and respond strategically to the structural factors. Theoretical implications of the findings are discussed.     

Relations between Environmental Right for Citizens and the Right to Use Environmental Resources owned by Company and Enterprise

Company and enterprise have to consume a certain amount of environmental resources during producing process and discharge pollutants into environment. No matter how advanced technologies for management are taken, company and enterprise will unavoidably lower quality of environmental public goods. In fact, current environmental problems and a decline in environmental quality are mainly caused by actions of company and enterprise. Whatever environmental right for citizens is, either as a right i…     

SUSTAINABILITY AT THE LOCAL LEVEL: MANAGEMENT TOOLS AND MUNICIPAL TAX INCENTIVE MODEL

The implementation of sustainable development may seem a simple concept when written on paper. However to carry-out long term actions put forward by the Agenda 21 (AG21) at the local level represents one of the main challenges as municipal governments in general do not have the capacity to effectively implement the process. Regional environmental assessment (REA) has shown to be effective in supporting decision-making not only to correct environmental problems due to past unsustainable social-economic developments but also help local governments to implement sustainable actions. However this requires long-term investments of AG21 plans and projects. The allocation of regular and consistent financial resources is one of the main ingredients for the sustainable development process. But traditional plans and projects financed by national and/or international funds may not be sustainable in the long-term because they become dependent on external funding. Research demonstrate that innovative economic instruments such as ecotaxes represent a feasible alternative to sponsor local sustainability because taxes are collected permanently by the government and could be invested in continuous actions. Ecotaxes experiences have provided important reference to structure a municipal incentive model (MIM) to sponsor AG21’s environmental plans and projects on a long-term (permanent) basis. However sustainable development cannot be solely through economic investments. A comprehensive municipal environmental management scheme (MEMS) has been established to support the incentive model. The scheme seeks not only to improve local institutional framework but also incentive continuous participation of local stakeholders at all levels of society. Participatory events and the provision of incentives (educational and financial) are key to motivate society to protect the environment and support actively the sustainable development process as emphasised in the RIO-92 Conference.     

Relations between Environmental Right for Citizens and the Right to Use Environmental Resources owned by Company and Enterprise

Abstract

From angles of administrative law and private law, the article analyzes relations between environmental right for citizens and the right to use environmental resources owned by company and enterprise and points out three principles to balancing two relations: A principle of equal protection, a principle that general interest is superior to special interest as well as taking an account for special interest, in specific circumstances, for example, in the circumstance that clashes between environmental and economic interests can not be avoided, policy makers can put an emphasis on more important social interest according after considering weight of each interest. Finally, the article reaches a conclusion that China should establish system of environmental right for citizens from legislative and administrative levels so that a harmonious society can be constructed with guarantee.     

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。     

Environment as Politics: Framing the Cerattepe Protest in Twitter

Environmental protests across the globe are often studied with a particular focus on their environmental aspects, but these protests are also embedded in a local political setting shaped by governmental policies. Recent environmental protests in Turkey, which appear to be based on ecological grievances, have developed as a response to political decisions that gave priority to economic development and national interests over environmental concerns. This study examines the political character of the environmental protest in Cerattepe, and focuses on the framing practices of its players in order to see if their motivations transcended environmental concerns. The research combines framing with network analysis, and studies the propagation of frames through Twitter. It has been found that the political economic aspects became predominant in the protest network, while the frames fostered dense connections between activist groups.     

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.