Scapegoat Ecology: Blame,Exoneration, and an Emergent Genre in Environmentalist Discourse

This essay identifies and examines scapegoat ecology, an emergent genre in online environmental discourse. In scapegoat ecology, a public of environmentally minded individuals focuses attention and vitriol on a single person for being particularly harmful to the environment. This essay argues that such discourse deflects attention from more complex and systemic environmental factors and implicitly exonerates the broader community, assuring it of its own environmental commitments while excusing it from further ecological action. The essay describes the form and appeal of scapegoat ecology, then provides a series of illustrative case examples before highlighting the implications of such discourse for both environmental communication and broader social/political conversations.     

Ecosystem services assessments in local municipal decision making in South Africa: justification for the use of a business-based approach

The ecosystem services (ES) concept is being increasingly incorporated into environmental policy formulation and management approaches. The Corporate Ecosystem Services Review (ESR) is a framework used to assess the dependence and impact that a business has on ES. The success of the corporate experience of ES assessment provides an opportunity for adaption for local authority decision making. In this paper, the ESR tool was adapted to the South African setting at a local government level, and tested at two sites in the Msunduzi Municipality, KwaZulu-Natal. In testing the tool and gathering feedback from key stakeholders, it was found that there are both opportunities and challenges to this approach. Overall, however, it provides an opportunity for the systematic inclusion of ES assessment into existing regulatory frameworks for land-use planning and Integrated Environmental Management, whether in a strategic application, at a broader spatial (municipal) scale or in a specific locale within the municipality.     

The Effect of Silane Treated Fibre Loading on Mechanical Properties of Pineapple Leaf/Kenaf Fibre Filler Phenolic Composites

The aim of the present study is to investigate mechanical and morphological properties of pineapple leaf fibres (PALF) reinforced phenolic composites and its comparison with kenaf fibre (KF)/phenolic composites. Mechanical properties (tensile, flexural and impact) of untreated and treated PALF phenolic composites at different fibre loading were investigated. Tensile, flexural and impact properties of PALF and kenaf/phenolic composites were analyzed as per ASTM standard. Morphological analysis of tensile fracture samples of composites was carried out by scanning electron microscopy. Obtained results indicated that treated PALF/phenolic composites at 50% PALF loading exhibited better tensile, flexural and impact properties as compared to other untreated PALF/phenolic composites. Treated kenaf/phenolic composites at 50% fibre loading showed better tensile, flexural and impact properties than untreated kenaf/phenolic composite. It is concluded that treated 50% fibre loading kenaf and PALF/phenolic composites showed better mechanical properties than untreated kenaf and PALF/phenolic composites due to good fibre/matrix interfacial bonding. Results obtained in this study will be used for the further study on hybridization of PALF and KF based phenolic composites.