The Shaping of Environmental Information in Social Media: Affordances and Technologies of Self-control

This article studies environmental information as it circulates in social media, specifically in personal blogs and microblogs. It rests on a thematic analysis of a selection of Swedish language, personal, everyday life environment blogs active during 2011 and 2012 and the social media applications connected to these blogs. Gibson's concept of affordances and Foucault's notion of governmentality are brought together to examine how material and technological affordances of social media and the structures of governmentality work together to engender a type of information on environmentally friendly living that is rooted in the conditions of the Web, together with a view of society which is structured around choice and individual responsibility. The article argues that information is woven into the texture of the social on every level, including everyday life practices, and hence social media, as tools in such practices, contribute to shaping the way in which information on environmentally friendly living is articulated, shaped, and filled with meaning.     

Between Active Seekers and Non-Users: Segments of Science-related Media Usage in Switzerland and Germany

ABSTRACT

Citizens’ attitudes toward science are related to their use of science-related information from various sources. Evidence is scarce regarding citizens’ individual media repertoires for staying informed about science as segmentation studies so far have primarily focused on scientific attitudes. In this paper, we explore audience segments regarding their science-related information behavior and whether such segments are comparable or vary between two countries with similar information environments. Based on two surveys in Switzerland and Germany, we identify national audience segments that differ in their science-related information repertoires, and analyze their sociodemographic characteristics and science-related attitudes. In both countries, we find very comparable information user segments ranging from those who inform themselves frequently about science (“Active Seekers”/“Science Consumers”) to those who hardly get in contact with any information about science and research (“Non-Users”). Those segments which get in contact with information about science frequently show generally more positive attitudes.     

Routine Reporting of Environmental Risk: The First Traces of Micropollutants in the German Press

ABSTRACT

This article analyzes the emergence of a new environmental issue in the German press. Since the 1990s, scientists have detected traces of pharmaceuticals, hormones and chemicals in all segments of the water cycle. These micropollutants have negative effects on aquatic life and might affect human health. Their sources are manifold and include private households. Yet although micropollutants of are direct concern to media audiences, they are a challenging topic for news reporting. Although this issue is systemic and fraught with uncertainty, it does not easily translate into news stories. Our content analysis of 444 articles (1995–2015) reveals that the societal risk was rarely presented as a stand-alone topic. Instead, the issue was mostly covered as part of local routine reporting and framed as a challenge for experts to solve. Over time, the reporting became more managerial, while media framings of micropollutants gained more substance and scope. We contend that local routine reporting should receive more attention as a public forum for addressing emerging environmental concerns.     

海洋环境风险的特性及形成机理:基于扎根理论分析

随着人口向沿海区域聚集,以及海洋开发的深入,海洋环境风险徒增。要实现海洋环境风险的有效防治,需要洞悉海洋环境风险不同于一般环境风险的特性,了解其独特的形成机理。目前,海洋环境风险的概念使用更多地是基于经验而非学理。鉴于海洋环境风险概念的认知匮乏,文章采用扎根理论对其进行分析,从而挖掘了海洋环境风险的一些特有属性。研究发现,在海洋环境风险的形成机理中,自然因素、心理因素和社会因素共同作用,并呈现依次递进、不断放大的关系;人们对海洋环境风险内涵及特性的认知,是两个方面的综合:"有关海洋环境的风险",以及"因由海洋环境引发的社会风险";对于防治者而言,要有效区分民众对沿海自然项目的风险感知与民众对沿海自然项目管理状况的风险感知;要有特别注意海洋环境风险的"镜像"效应。     

Sea-Level Rise Risk Communication: Public Understanding,Risk Perception,and Attitudes about Information

We present the results of a study using a document-based evaluation method to better understand how residents in vulnerable coastal areas respond to risk communications about sea-level rise (SLR) and to determine whether communications localized for specific populations improve reception. Similar to climate change communication, SLR risk communication presents challenges involving complex science, uncertainty, invisibility, and politicization. To be comprehensible and persuasive, risk messages must be appropriately framed and visually compelling and must take into account risk perceptions and diverse viewpoints. Our approach involves assessing people's encounters with actual risk messages to determine their reactions and responses. Participants in this study had difficulty understanding information and expressed attitudes including fear, fatalism, skepticism, and loss. SLR risks were also perceived as both temporally and spatially distant, creating a challenge for communicators trying to convey a sense of urgency. We conclude by considering the implications of audience-focused research for SLR risk communication.     

中国未来20年资源与环境技术预见研究

阐述了技术预见的定义和发展,对中国科学院知识创新工程重要方向项目中国未来20年技术预见研究中资源与环境技术领域的德尔菲调查结果进行了概要介绍和系统分析,得出了一些初步结论:①深海油气与矿产资源开采技术得到广泛应用在综合重要度中名列第一;②从技术课题的预期实现时间分布来看.主要集中在2015-2020年;③我国资源与环境领域技术的总体研究水平远远低于国际水平,只有少量技术课题具有世界可比性;④普遍认为美国是当前资源与环境领域技术领先国家,美国、欧盟和日本三者基本上占据了资源与环境技术领域领先的主要领域;⑤从技术发展制约因素来看,研究开发投入因素影响最大.其后依次是技术可能性、法规、政策和标准、基础设施、人力资源和商业可行性.文章最后提出了若干政策建议.     

Interpreting Images of Fracking: How Visual Frames and Standing Attitudes Shape Perceptions of Environmental Risk and Economic Benefit

The news media’s increased reliance on visual communication to illustrate complex processes and promote learning stresses the importance of investigating how visual content impacts the understanding of scientific issues. In this paper, we investigate how members of the public interpret and make sense of differentially framed images of hydraulic fracturing (fracking) depicting environmental risk, economic benefit, or issue protest. For the analysis, a repeated measures online experiment was conducted with 250 participants to evaluate 40 photographs of fracking operations and consequences. Quantitative coding and thematic analysis of open-ended responses to the images reveal that standing attitudes, operationalized as support, opposition, or indecision about fracking, segments viewers into distinct groups and shapes interpretations of environmental risk and economic benefit. Issue opponents are more likely to indicate concern for the environment regardless of frame shown, whereas undecideds and supporters cite the impact on human health more frequently, largely in relation to job site safety. Supporters also see the least ambiguity, and most economic gains, in images about the controversial production practice.     

Portraying the Perils to Polar Bears: The Role of Empathic and Objective Perspective-taking Toward Animals in Climate Change Communication

Images of animals, particularly polar bears, harmed by climate change are often used in environmental campaigns, despite warnings of potential reactance and resultant perceived distance from the issue. As an alternative to these emotional appeals, environmental campaigns could encourage an objective (i.e., emotionally detached) perspective on climate change impacts. The present research tests the effects of a message that encourage empathic vs. objective perspectives toward polar bears harmed by climate change on emotions and subsequent support for climate change activism among 241 American adults through an online survey. Contrary to popular warnings, the present research found no reactance toward portraying harm to polar bears from climate change and no benefits of taking an objective perspective toward the polar bears. Instead, portrayals of polar bears harmed by climate change motivated both environmentalists and non-environmentalists to donate money to environmental activist groups when they took an empathic perspective toward the animals. Empathy and hope explain effects for environmentalists and empathy, hope, worry, personal guilt, and boredom explain effects for non-environmentalists.     

建筑节能对建筑能耗的直接经济和环境影响测算模型及其实证分析

当前节能减排是我国各级政府的主要工作任务.十一五建筑节能目标占社会总节能目标的21%,建筑节能是我国节能工作的重要内容.本研究采用数量经济方法,建立建筑节能对建筑能耗的直接经济和环境影响测算模型.在合理的情景假定下.应用该模型测算,得出结论:十一五建筑节能目标的各项分解任务和总的节能任务可在3年内完成.3年中每年的建筑节能量对十一五期间平均每年节能任务的贡献率分别是17.28%,34.55%,51.83%.3年中每年因建筑节能而减少的主要污染物的排放量对十一五期间平均每年减排任务的贡献率分别是76%,152%和228%.最后提出既有建筑节能改造的节能任务可以适当增加的政策建议.     

Approaches for describing and communicating overall uncertainty in toxicity characterizations: U.S. Environmental Protection Agency's Integrated Risk Information System (IRIS) as a case study

Single point estimates of human health hazard/toxicity values such as a reference dose (RfD) are generally used in chemical hazard and risk assessment programs for assessing potential risks associated with site- or use-specific exposures. The resulting point estimates are often used by risk managers for regulatory decision-making, including standard setting, determination of emission controls, and mitigation of exposures to chemical substances. Risk managers, as well as stakeholders (interested and affected parties), often have limited information regarding assumptions and uncertainty factors in numerical estimates of both hazards and risks. Further, the use of different approaches for addressing uncertainty, which vary in transparency, can lead to a lack of confidence in the scientific underpinning of regulatory decision-making. The overarching goal of this paper, which was developed from an invited participant workshop, is to offer five approaches for presenting toxicity values in a transparent manner in order to improve the understanding, consideration, and informed use of uncertainty by risk assessors, risk managers, and stakeholders. The five approaches for improving the presentation and communication of uncertainty are described using U.S. Environmental Protection Agency's (EPA's) Integrated Risk Information System (IRIS) as a case study. These approaches will ensure transparency in the documentation, development, and use of toxicity values at EPA, the Agency for Toxic Substances and Disease Registry (ATSDR), and other similar assessment programs in the public and private sector. Further empirical testing will help to inform the approaches that will work best for specific audiences and situations.     

The Structuration of Public Participation: Organizing Environmental Control

A growing body of participation literature muses over why current mechanisms of public participation persist when they so often fail; calls for expanding the conceptual boundaries of participation beyond institutional mechanisms, and highlights the role communication, and allied concepts such as discourse and rhetoric, play in participatory processes. Given these diverse calls, environmental public participation can benefit from building a mid-level theoretical terrain. In this essay, I draw upon the sociological tradition of Anthony Giddens’ structuration theory and parallel systems thinking which foreground a structure-action mode of analysis. Through this lens I articulate the basic premises of a structuration model for environmental public participation, pointing especially to issues of agency, which involves ontological security and ontological competence, social systems, and various elements within duality of structure, with an eye toward communication-centered research. This theoretical space further indicates the possibilities of connecting the material realm of action/practice with the symbolic domain of environmental self.     

The Moral Appeal of Environmental Discourses: The Implication of Ethical Rhetorics

Environmental sustainability demands civic action through both changes in individual and community behaviors in addition to national and international agreements and cooperation. In moral appeals to the environment, individuals are often called upon to behave in “good” ways—reduce, reuse, recycle—to “save the planet.” Behavior, and our attitudes about it, is therefore an important component to ongoing sustainability efforts. This pilot study, conducted in Fall 2009, brings together research methods in sociolinguistics and rhetorical studies to examine the discourses that students produce when describing issues and practices concerning sustainability. In interviews with 15 students in an earth sustainability general education core, our study found that students were knowledgeable about environmental issues and expressed intentions to engage in sustainable behaviors. Yet, students produced accommodating discourses when addressing competing demands on their time and resources. The sociolinguistic analysis of interview data shows a disassociation from environmental issues at the symbolic level of language use. The rhetorical analysis shows that this disassociation manifests as guilt, largely because when choosing between various moral appeals in their social context, students are left without tangible direction for engaging in new sustainable behaviors.     

Earth-a-lujah!: The Prophetic Environmental Discourse of Reverend Billy

Although rhetorical scholars often examine forms of prophetic discourse, such efforts have primarily focused on the jeremiad or similar rhetorical forms that place emphasis on exhorting the people to return to following the covenant or face negative consequences. However, such messages do not represent the breadth of rhetorical techniques utilized by the biblical prophets. Thus, this study will suggest a new genre of prophetic discourse that activist and performance artist Reverend Billy embodies in his environmental critique of JP Morgan Chase. Implications from this analysis concern both the importance of identifying and understanding this rhetorical form of the “imaginative prophet” and how Reverend Billy uses this approach to advance his view of environmental agenda.     

福建省“十二五”期间临港石化产业环境风险及防范对策初探

重点分析了福建省十二五期间临港石化工业发展在围填海、污染物累积、事故性排放等方面可能产生的环境风险,从加强环境跟踪评价、突出特征污染物的总量控制、环境风险应急预案设置、加强环境监管机构的设置等方面,提出十二五期间福建省石化工业环境风险防范的重点。     

The Impact of Development and Privatization on Environmental Protection: An International Perspective

The purpose of this paper is to add to the body of knowledge and understanding of the impact of development and privatization on international environmental protection with the focus on balancing social and economic performance for the affected organizations and communities. More specifically, supported by a database of worldwide, regional, and country studies from 1991 to 2000, it is proposed that the role of development and privatization in environmental administration in the international context has negative as well as positive consequences. Moreover, the negative consequences are often masked or go undetected because the effectiveness of development and privatization is based primarily on economic performance. Thus, to obtain a more accurate and realistic determination of the effectiveness of development and privatization, measures of social as well as economic performance and the overall effect on the natural environment should be considered.     

The Economic and Environmental Outcomes of Microfinance Projects: An Indian Case Study

Microfinance projects now seek to achieve improvement in environmental quality in addition to poverty alleviation. Achievement of these goals may depend upon the economic and environmental impact of microfinance businesses. This study is a quantitative analysis of these outcomes for Ecodevelopment, an Indian microfinance project, which aims to prevent forest degradation by poverty alleviation. The study divides businesses into perishable goods, non-perishable goods, simple skills, and special skills and measures their economic outcome by two indicators, repayment percentage and continuity of businesses. The study examines the effect of loan amount on the economic outcome of businesses. To quantify the environmental outcome, it analyzes the use of firewood or fodder and release of pollutants by businesses. The results show that loan amount does not affect the economic outcome, special skills have best performance, and skills cause less pressure on forest resources. These results suggest the need for development of knowledge-intensive skills, involvement of institutions in the operations of business, and inclusive policies for protected area management.     

协调贸易与环境的最佳途径——环境成本内部化

面对经济发展带来人类福利增加的同时所产生的日益严重的环境污染问题。国际贸易被指责为环境质量下降的原因之一．甚至连国际贸易自由化的原则也受到质疑。围绕贸易与环境可否协调以及如何协调的问题．由环境保护与贸易自由化在理论和实践中的冲突引出贸易与环境之间存在着复杂的相互作用；并通过进一步的经济学分析得出结论：环境问题的根源并不是国际贸易。而是环境成本的外部性造成的市场失灵，而国际贸易只是加重了这种市场失灵。二者可以协调发展。环境成本内部化是解决这一问题的最佳手段。通过环境成本内部化可以达到环境资源的合理配置并最终实现可持续发展。     

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.     

中国环境政策存在的问题和对策

本文简要回顾了自1949年新中国成立到现在中国环境政策的发展历程,分析了每一个阶段环境政策的内容和特点,探讨了当前中国环境政策存在的问题,并对如何完善环境政策,如何有效执行环境政策提出了自己的建议。     

From Frames to Resonance Machines: The Neuropolitics of Environmental Communication

George Lakoff 's work in cognitive linguistics has prompted a surge in social scientists’ interest in the cognitive and neuropsychological dimensions of political discourse. Bringing cognitive neuroscience into the study of social movements and of environmental communication, however, is not as straightforward as Lakoff 's followers suggest. Examining and comparing Lakoff's “neuropolitics” with those of political theorist William E. Connolly, this article argues that Connolly's writings on evangelical-capitalist and eco-egalitarian “resonance machines” provide a broader model for thinking about the relations between body, brain, and culture. Environmentalists, it concludes, should pluralize their “frames” and pay greater attention to the micropolitical and affective effects of their language and practices on the communities within which they act, communicate, and dwell.