Beyond the money shot; or how framing nature matters? Locating Green at Wildscreen

ABSTRACT

Natural history films use technological mediations to frame aspects of nature so as to communicate information, in part through engendering particular viewer affects. As an entertainment industry embedded in capitalist social relations and concerned with competition for finance and ratings, natural history film-making is also a search for “the money shot” – associated with extremes including rarity, sensational behavior, and otherwise un(fore)seen views. I highlight this sensationalizing impetus through ethnographic fieldwork conducted at the biannual UK Wildscreen film festival in 2010. Here, wildlife films were frequently presented as action dramas with a rhythm of anticipation, climax and satisfaction. I argue that, through stimulating significantly disconnective affects, such framing may work against composition of a caring ecocultural ethics that entwines human with more-than-human natures and futures; and that this tendency parallels the similarly disconnecting effects documented for pornographic film. In contrast, I engage with the differently constructive frames guiding the low budget, open access, activist film Green, which, perhaps paradoxically given the thrust of much of the natural history film industry, won the prestigious WWF Gold Panda Award at Wildscreen 2010. I follow framing theorist George Lakoff to emphasize that since cognition is both embodied and embedded in diverse inter-relationships, affective registers generating mimetic connection are as significant in communicating information regarding “the environment” as the text and words by which nature might be framed. I conclude that attention to affective registers and embodied (dis)connections in natural history film may enhance a turning of capitalist spectacle against itself, so as to work more effectively in service to the composition of abundant socionatural futures.     

Sporting Nature(s): Wildness,the Primitive,and Naturalizing Imagery in MMA and Sports Advertisements

This essay examines two Nike commercials, a TapOut commercial, and the proliferation of mixed martial arts (MMA) t-shirt visual culture, all of which symbolically link wildness and “nature” as primitivity to their particular sport contexts. MMA in particular, it is argued, is more symbolically available to symbolic discourses of the “natural” and the “primitive” because of the sport's technological minimalism. The MMA t-shirt is posited as a safe, masculine primitive performance, functioning as an expressive personal substitute (or supplement) to the analogous tattoos “worn” by many fighters and fans. Additionally, this paper reviews and connects several disparate bodies of literature, moving from a discussion of eco-critical principles for critiquing the cultural production of nature / the natural, to an assessment of “nature” as primitivity, and finally to highlight how critical analyses of sport and MMA implicate related categories. While environmental communication has addressed the place of “nature” in advertising, little has been written about how discourses of nature, gender, and the environment intersect with the highly mediatized culture of sports. This article adds to the subfield by initiating just such a critical discussion. Finally, I contend that one of the main ideological functions of the employment of nature imagery here is to implicitly authorize notions of wildness or the “primitive” in close association with a male animal ideology, and also to symbolically reinforce existing narratives which naturalize aggression. These advertisements posit, I argue, a metaphysical rather than realist ecological discourse, enabling an unsustainable narrative of the naturalness of human-on-human violence and aggression.     

The Misdiagnosis: Rethinking “Nature-deficit Disorder”

This study examines and critiques “nature-deficit disorder” (NDD), Richard Louv's popular theory of how and why children are alienated from nature. Specifically, I explore NDD within the context of one forest conservation education program that aligns with and operationalizes Louv's message. Underlying Louv's and forest educators' discourses are culturally specific assumptions about human-nature relationships. Both evoke a fall-recovery narrative—that children are separated from nature and must return—and promote science and naming to reconnect. I argue that, in the absence of deeper cultural examination and alternative practices, NDD is a misdiagnosis—a problematic contemporary environmental discourse that can obscure and mistreat the problem. I call on adults to rethink human-nature disconnectedness by returning to the psyche, digging deeper to the problem's cultural roots, and using nontraditional communication practices such as emotional expression and non-naming.     

Nature's Nation: Improvisation,Democracy, and Ken Burns' National Parks

In his recurrent examination of what makes Americans “American,” documentary filmmaker Ken Burns has particularly focused on the twin themes of democracy and improvisation. The National Parks: America's Best Idea links the national park ideal with America's “democratic spirit.” Through an examination of its visual methods, I argue that the “Ken Burns gaze” is more consistent with the contemplative and magisterial visuality that shaped the origins of the national park movement—a visuality that sees nature as “out there” and a “finished product”—than it is with the improvisational spirit that both democracy and ecology demand in our time.     

Contemporary Environmental Art in China: Portraying Progress,Politics, and Ecosystems

Art has long been an important force in environmental movements. In China, environmental art is a fast-growing sector of the art scene. This new area of emphasis is expanding the function of art and aiding in China’s environmental movement by challenging both imported Western practices and Maoist era philosophy, thereby opening up new ways of considering the relationship between human “progress,” political systems, economic practices, and their repercussions on existing ecosystems. I turn to artist Xu Xiaoyan’s paintings to explore how the notion of “progress” can be challenged through art. I use Deleuze and Guattari’s theory of deterritorialization and reterritorialization to map how Xu’s art offers viewers space to think outside dominant paradigms, creates the potential for changes in human consciousness, considers the environment as a composition of relationships and interactions, and provokes discussion concerning the impact of linear notions of time on human conceptions 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.     

“三生”视角下的城市空间功能变化及调控路径——以长沙市为例

认知快速城镇化背景下城市空间生产、生活和生态功能的变化规律既是人文-经济地理学研究的重要内容，也是城市国土空间开发及其格局优化的内在依据。以长沙都市区为实证区，以遥感影像、城市土地利用调查数据等为主要数据源，选取2000、2009、2016年为研究时间节点，基于土地主体功能的差异构建“三生”功能评价体系，采用空间自相关、冷热点分析和样带分析等方法，探究长沙市“三生”功能的变化特征并提出调控路径。结果表明：（1）长沙都市区整体的生产、生活功能持续强化，但生态功能有所减弱；（2）长沙都市区内部“三生”功能强弱亦发生变化，不同功能空间重组，“三生” 功能的均衡性提高；（3）长沙都市区“三生”综合功能水平持续提升，高水平区域逐渐向城市中心集聚，呈现单核集聚→单核集聚-多核分散→网络均衡化的城市功能空间结构发展模式，但“三生”功能空间单元变化模式各异；（4）应从“三生”功能用地结构的“质”与“量”两方面对长沙都市区空间格局进行综合调控。     

基于DEA模型的西南地区耕地利用效率时空格局演变及影响因素分析

耕地作为粮食生产之基,是人类社会赖以生存和发展的根源,其利用效率的高低,深刻影响着人类文明的发展与进步。以西南地区重庆、四川、贵州、云南4省（市）2000年、2005年、2010年和2015年4个年度的相关数据为基础,利用DEA模型估算了耕地利用效率,并通过全局Moran’I、趋势面分析、G*i指数从全局和局部分析了耕地利用综合效率的时空变化特征,最后,借助GWR回归模型分析了影响耕地利用效率空间分异的主要因素。结果表明：（1）2000~2015年间,耕地利用效率高值区的城市数量在不断扩大。在空间分布上,耕地利用效率稳定高值区域主要集中分布在四川省内的达州-德阳-成都-甘孜一线。重庆市耕地利用效率逐年增加的趋势;四川省持续保持高利用效率,且变化幅度不大;而贵州有下降的趋势,云南省则保持低效率利用状态。（2）西南地区耕地利用效率主要为正向的空间自相关性,空间分布趋势呈现出从西向东递增,以及由南向北倒“U”型递增态势。耕地利用综合效率空间格局分异显著,具有相对高值（低值）耕地利用效率在空间上呈现较强的组团式集聚分布态势,冷热点空间极化现象较为明显,界线分明,层次清晰,且随着时间变化,冷热点区域在空间上的分布态势有由“组团式”向“条带式”分布转变的趋势。（3）西南地区耕地利用效率时空演变受农民人均纯收入的影响最大,其次为复种指数,耕地质量和灌溉指数的影响程度相当,人均GDP对耕地利用效率的影响在逐年增加,地形因素的影响逐年减弱。     

重庆市2000~2015年土地利用变化时空特征分析

研究区域土地利用变化及其时空特征,可以为将来的区域土地利用规划和管理提供基础。基于2000年、2005年、2010年和2015年4期土地利用遥感影像解译数据,结合GIS空间分析方法,从土地利用变化速度、转移方向、利用程度3个方面定量分析了重庆市2000~2015年土地利用变化的时空特征。结果表明：（1）研究期内,耕地、草地和未利用土地持续减少,且耕地减少速度呈增大趋势,主要减少区域分布在主城及周边区县;林地、水域和城乡建设用地面积增加。（2）区县之间各类土地利用变化的相对速率差异较大,其中草地的相对变化率相差最大,其次为水域、耕地和林地。耕地变化最大的区域主要集中在主城区,城乡建设用地在各区县均有较大变化;水域发生较大变化的区县均与大型水利工程的修建有关。（3）重庆市在2000~2005年土地利用变化最剧烈,随后朝着越来越稳定的方向发展;区县间土地利用变化剧烈程度差异明显,但这种差异朝着缩小的方向发展。（4）渝东北、东南区域耕地、林地、草地之间转换活跃,但活跃度随时间后移递减;耕地一直是其他地类最主要的转入来源之一,城乡建设用地越来越成为其他地类的主要转出方向。（5）重庆市土地利用水平总体上处于发展期,土地利用程度的区域分布格局基本上保持不变,但差异明显,越往东北、东南区域,土地利用程度越低;全市土地利用程度变化量的分布格局呈现为以渝中区为核心从内到外依次为“弱变化——剧烈变化——较强变化——较弱变化”的圈层扩展形态。     

Dividing and Uniting Through Naming: The Case of North Carolina's Sea-Level-Rise Policy

Opponents of a proposed sea-level-rise policy in North Carolina, USA, reasoned rhetorically to promote a narrative claiming that the policy supporters’ efforts had failed to meet the criteria of “good” science and the American dream expectancy of “progress.” The critics worked to hinder policy adoption by naming as “villains” scientists who provided research to support the proposed policy. In addition, the opponents named their own efforts to prevent policy based on “bad” science that would “destroy” the American dream as “heroic.” To more effectively respond to such narratives, scientists and policy proponents need to shift away from reporting just climate change “facts” in the attempt to gain stakeholder support for mitigation and adaptation initiatives. They need to move toward reasoning rhetorically to construct narratives that encourage the public to name them as the “heroes” who will achieve the American dream by their actions to mitigate climate-change outcomes.     

Drilling Is Just the Beginning: Romanticizing Rust Belt identities in the campaign for shale gas

ABSTRACT

Public apprehension over the environmental, social, and health impacts of unconventional gas drilling, or fracking, prompts various responses from oil and gas industries. Natural gas discourses operating in the Marcellus Shale Region, USA, for example, counter claims of environmental harm by emphasizing the economic growth that industry spurs. This article argues that corporate narratives operating in the Marcellus renew the jobs versus environment dichotomy by romanticizing labor identities in the region, binding Rust Belt identities to extraction in the past, present, and future of the region. The danger of this discursive move is the exclusion of alternative possibilities for working, living, and being without fossil fuel industries. I employ a critical analysis of one corporate advertising campaign, “Drilling Is Just the Beginning,” produced by the natural gas drilling company Range Resources, to demonstrate how extraction discourses construct futures that depend on shale gas development, thereby marginalizing possibilities for ecologically sensible alternatives.     

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.     

川中丘陵区植被遥感动态监测及其驱动力分析

川中丘陵区是长江上游重要的生态屏障,也是国家退耕还林还草和天然林资源保护工程重点实施区。近年来,由于气候变化与人类活动的影响,该区植被覆盖及生态发生了较大变化。利用该地区2000～2015年MODIS NDVI数据、气象和土地利用数据以及研究区统计数据,采用最大值合成法(MVC)、趋势分析法和相关系数法,分析了川中丘陵区经国家生态工程建设后的植被动态变化特征,并探讨了气候变化和人类活动对植被覆盖的影响。研究结果表明:近15年,川中丘陵区植被呈增加的趋势,增速为5. 84/10 a(P0. 01);31. 58%的区域植被NDVI显著增加,主要分布在嘉陵江中游和岷江中下游,2. 90%的区域植被NDVI显著减少,主要分布在城市中心及周边;研究区植被对降水的敏感性较气温更强,22. 08%的区域面积NDVI与降水是呈显著相关的,仅7. 69%区域面积NDVI与气温是显著的;森林、灌木和草地的NDVI增加明显,各自增加比例超过60%,而建设用地和湿地是NDVI减少最明显的土地利用类型;退耕还林还草和天然林资源保护工程的建设,对川中丘陵区植被覆盖的增长起到了积极作用。     

Revisiting the “Ozone Hole” Metaphor: From Observational Window to Global Environmental Threat

In 1985, just over 30 years ago, the “ozone hole” made its appearance in the press as a truly global environmental threat. As one of the most important environmental issues of the twentieth century, the “ozone hole” is also a remarkable metaphorical, visual, and imaginary construction. This essay examines the historical trajectory of the famous “ozone hole” from its birth within the astronomical community at the beginning of the twentieth century to its contemporary framing as a global environmental threat. The article provides evidence why metaphors constitute a valuable object of historically informed studies of scientific practice, and shows in particular how metaphorical landscapes shift over time, mapping at the same time larger social and political developments. The essay ends by showing how scientific images and metaphorical framings interact and how they shape scientific and popular discourse on nature, as well as our understanding of the global environment.     

Performing Nature/Nature Performed: A Review of Environmental Performance Praxis and Theory

Two collections of essays that originated from the 2000 conference, “Between Nature,” held in Lancaster, England are reviewed. Themes of “process vs. object” and “performance of/for activists” are tracked across several of the essays. These essays provide important insights to how performance as concept and as practice are used by theorists and performers alike to reimagine human relationships in and with the human and non-human world.     

基于MCR的建设用地扩展边界划定研究

在生态文明建设背景下,科学划定建设用地扩展边界是提高城镇化质量、协调人地关系、改善城市生态环境的关键。基于最小累计阻力模型(MCR),将建成区和生态保护用地作为两类扩展源,通过构建自然、区位、环境和政策4个阻力因子体系,采用层次分析法(AHP)获取各个因子阻力系数,得到两类用地扩展的最小累计阻力值,根据阻力差值划分适宜性分区,并利用Hydrology扩展模块确定建设用地适宜扩展路径和隔离带。结果表明：(1) 越靠近扩展源,其阻力值越小,建设用地源与生态用地源由于空间分布不一致,各阻力值之间差异较大;(2) 基于MCR模型对两类用地扩展的阻力面差值进行建设用地适宜性划分,可分为重点建设区(65 771.64 km²)、优化建设区(51 103.28 km²)、限制建设区(21 001.54 km²)、禁止建设区(17 150.01 km²)和生态恢复区(11 894.70 km²),不同适宜性分区对土地开发建设的要求不一样;(3) 应用Hydrology扩展模块得到的“谷线”可引导建设用地优化开发,避免盲目的“摊大饼”式蔓延格局; “脊线”可控制建设用地扩展的隔离带,从而打破适宜性区域集中连片的扩展态势。研究结果可为建设用地的科学规划和合理布局提供建议,促进城市建设和环境保护的协同发展。     

长三角城市群旅游场强时空异质性及演化机理

以长江三角洲城市群26个城市为研究单元,综合运用主成分因子分析、可达性分析、改进的场强模型、地理探测器模型等方法对2000～2016年长江三角洲城市群区域旅游场强时空格局的演化及其形成机理展开研究。结果表明：（1）长三角城市群城市旅游综合规模差异化显著,但趋于均衡化发展态势;（2）区域旅游场强具有明显的时空异质性,交通“轴线”扩散明显,空间结构由最初的“Z”字型发展为“网状”,最后演变为“树枝状”,旅游场强类型呈现稳定的圈层包围结构,不断地由低级向高级演变;（3）旅游场强格局演化主要由交通优势度、旅游产业发展水平、地区经济发展水平、旅游资源禀赋和政策导向等多方面因素共同作用形成的结果。     

Seeing the Wind (Farm): Applying Q-methodology to Understand the Public’s Reception of the Visuals Around a Wind Farm Development

This research investigates the reception of the visual representations of a wind farm (WF) development by local stakeholders. Using non-verbal Qmethodology, residents of Lesvos’ island, Greece, sort images according to how these images represented their opinion about the proposed Aegean Link WF project. We found three opinion types. The “Risk Averter” type is focused on the various risks of constructing and operating the Aegean Link wind development. The “Green Developer” type believes that the renewable energy project will benefit both their local community and the environment. The “Realist” type defers to expert knowledge to make decisions about project outcomes and is sceptical of media bias. While the former two types seem to form their visual opinions based on whether they are in favour or against (respectively) of the WF development, the Realist opinion is rather guided by carefully considering whether the visual stimuli are representative of the project’s actual characteristics.     

江西省农用地生态效率时空差异及影响因素分析——基于面源污染、碳排放双重视角

科学剖析农用地生态效率时空差异及影响机制,对实现农用地利用与资源环境协调发展以及制定农业可持续发展政策具有重要的理论与实践意义。将农用地面源污染、碳排放作为非期望产出纳入农用地生态效率评价指标体系,借助SBM-Undesirable模型对1990～2017年江西省农用地生态效率进行测度并对其时空差异特征进行分析,在此基础上运用Tobit模型探讨相关因素的影响机制。结果表明:(1)1990～2017年间江西省农用地生态效率呈现"先下降后上升"的变化趋势,均值为0.749,总体呈现上升的趋势;(2)各设区市农用地生态效率空间格局演变轨迹呈现先下降后上升的扁平"U"型特征,高效率地区由"连片"分布向"点状"分布再向"连片"分布变化,空间格局趋于非均衡化发展;(3)农村居民人均可支配收入、复种指数、农村劳动力文化程度和劳均播种面积对农用地生态效率产生显著正影响,城乡收入差距则产生显著负影响。最后,从优化资源要素配置、加强农业科技创新应用、健全农村土地流转制度、摒弃过度依赖资源要素投入与环境污染的粗放型发展模式、走"精耕细作"和可持续发展的农业生态文明发展道路等方面提出了提高农用地生态效率的政策建议。     

中国城乡一体化水平的时空特征与门槛效应

基于中国省域2007～2016年面板数据,重构了城乡一体化水平评价指标体系,运用熵值法对中国城乡一体化水平进行了测度,并通过趋势面分析、空间自相关、门槛模型研究了中国各个省市城乡一体化水平的时空格局演变特征与影响因素。研究发现:中国城乡一体化水平在"城乡空间、城乡经济、城乡社会、城乡文化、城乡生态"5个维度中稳步上升,区域差异呈现出"两升一降"的"N"型变化趋势;地区间发展不平衡,即在东西方向上存在较为稳定的"东高西低"的空间趋势,在南北方向上存在"两端低中间高"的空间趋势;城乡一体化水平全局上表现出空间集聚特征,局部上城乡一体化水平热点区和次热点区主要集中在中国的东部地区和东南沿海的省市,冷点区主要集中在中部和西部地区;城乡收入差距和政府行为均对城乡一体化水平具有显著的双门槛效应。