Eating Meat and Climate Change: The Media Blind Spot—A Study of Spanish and Italian Press Coverage

There is strong evidence that a meat and dairy-based diet is a very important contributor to climate change. However, the correlation between the production and consumption of livestock and anthropogenic climate change has received minimal media coverage. The literature for English-speaking countries shows a sort of media blind spot for meat in that the news media barely address, or do not address, the responsibility of individuals' dietary choices with regard to this issue. In this paper, we provide data for press coverage in Southern Europe from a sample of the top 10 Spanish and Italian newspapers for a seven-year period (2006–2013). Data from our samples correlate with findings from previous studies. However, our comparative study suggests that there are also meaningful differences between both countries studied while their alleged Mediterranean dietary background makes no difference in terms of ethical or dietary sensitivity.     

Global Journalism in Decision-Making Moments: A Case Study of Canadian and American Television Coverage of the 2009 United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change in Copenhagen

Climate change is a phenomenon with global causes but local effects, and thus global climate change decision-making moments provide ideal opportunities to examine how local and global discourses work together—or do not—through global journalism. This case study investigates the globally focused vs. culturally bound frames used in television news coverage, in Canada and the USA, of the 2009 United Nations Climate Change Conference in Copenhagen. Initial quantitative findings that Canadian media used many more culturally bound sources than did American media contradict the past findings and suggest Canadian media engaged less in producing global journalism than did American media. A follow-up qualitative analysis not only found more global framing in the American stories, but also concluded that global sources did not necessarily create global journalism; instead, a global orientation is required.     

Visual Climate Change Communication: From Iconography to Locally Framed 3D Visualization

Climate change is an urgent problem with implications registered not only globally, but also on national and local scales. It is a particularly challenging case of environmental communication because its main cause, greenhouse gas emissions, is invisible. The predominant approach of making climate change visible is the use of iconic, often affective, imagery. Literature on the iconography of climate change shows that global iconic motifs, such as polar bears, have contributed to a public perception of the problem as spatially and temporally remote. This paper proposes an alternative approach to global climate change icons by focusing on recognizable representations of local impacts within an interactive game environment. This approach was implemented and tested in a research project based on the municipality of Delta, British Columbia. A major outcome of the research is Future Delta, an interactive educational game featuring 3D visualizations and simulation tools for climate change adaptation and mitigation future scenarios. The empirical evaluation is based on quantitative pre/post-game play questionnaires with 18 students and 10 qualitative expert interviews. The findings support the assumption that interactive 3D imagery is effective in communicating climate change. The quantitative post-questionnaires particularly highlight a shift in support of more local responsibility.     

Comparative experimental analysis of the effect of convective heat losses on the performance of parabolic dish water heater

This paper reveals comparative experimental analysis of the effect of variation of natural and forced convection heat losses on the performance of prototype parabolic dish water heater with coated and non-coated receivers. With the above-described system, hot water needs in domestic applications can be fulfilled instantly. A parabolic dish collector was used for instant water heating. Design of solar parabolic dish collector consists of truncated cone-shaped helical coiled receiver made up of copper at focal point. Instantaneous efficiency of 63% and 48% has been achieved with coated and non-coated receivers. This prototype has been evaluated for its performance with water flow rate of 0.0076 kg/s during the months of April and May 2010 at Shivaji University, Kolhapur, Maharashtra, India (latitude: 16.42° North, longitude: 74.13° West).     

A new method for broad-scale modeling and projection of plant assemblages under climatic,biotic, and environmental cofiltering

There is increasing interestin broad-scale analysis, modeling, and prediction of the distribution and composition of plant species assemblages under climatic, environmental, and biotic change, particularly for conservation purposes. We devised a method to reliably predict the impact of climate change on large assemblages of plant communities, while also considering competing biotic and environmental factors. To this purpose, we first used multilabel algorithms in order to convert the task of explaining a large assemblage of plant communities into a classification framework able to capture with high cross-validated accuracy the pattern of species distributions under a composite set of biotic and abiotic factors. We applied our model to a large set of plant communities in the Swiss Alps. Our model explained presences and absences of 175 plant species in 608 plots with >87% cross-validated accuracy, predicted decreases in α, β, and γ diversity by 2040 under both moderate and extreme climate scenarios, and identified likely advantaged and disadvantaged plant species under climate change. Multilabel variable selection revealed the overriding importance of topography, soils, and temperature extremes (rather than averages) in determining the distribution of plant species in the study area and their response to climate change. Our method addressed a number of challenging research problems, such as scaling to large numbers of species, considering species relationships and rarity, and addressing an overwhelming proportion of absences in presence–absence matrices. By handling hundreds to thousands of plants and plots simultaneously over large areas, our method can inform broad-scale conservation of plant species under climate change because it allows species that require urgent conservation action (assisted migration, seed conservation, and ex situ conservation) to be detected and prioritized. Our method also increases the practicality of assisted colonization of plant species by helping to prevent ill-advised introduction of plant species with limited future survival probability.     

2000~2020年西南地区植被NDVI对气候变化和人类活动响应特征

研究植被变化及其对气候变化和人类活动的响应机制,对区域生态保护和植被恢复具有重要现实意义.利用MODIS NDVI数据、基于站点的气象数据和土地利用数据,结合Theil-Sen Median趋势分析、Mann-Kendall显著性分析、残差分析、偏相关分析和复相关分析等方法,基于不同地貌单元,分析2000～2020年中国西南地区植被覆盖时空演变特征及其对气候和土地利用变化的响应特征.结果表明,2000～2020年西南地区植被NDVI整体呈波动上升趋势,上升斜率在空间上呈东南高和西北低的分异格局.气候变化和人类活动对西南地区植被NDVI上升均以促进作用为主,且对广西丘陵植被生长的促进作用强于其他地貌单元.2000～2020年间西南地区植被NDVI与气温和降水呈正相关,与相对湿度和日照时数呈负相关,且温度是影响西南地区植被NDVI变化的气候主导因子.城市扩张在一定程度上减少了区域植被覆盖,但得益于适宜的气候条件以及林业生态工程的实施,西南地区整体植被覆盖以上升为主.研究结果可为西南地区生态保护及经济可持续发展提供科学依据.     

同质环境下不同锦鸡儿属植物根际土壤细菌群落结构差异及其影响因素

采用高通量测序技术分析同质环境下小叶锦鸡儿、中间锦鸡儿和荒漠锦鸡儿根际土壤细菌多样性及群落结构,以期探讨驱动锦鸡儿属植物根际土壤细菌群落结构构建的关键因子.结果表明,土壤样品中共检测到细菌42门55纲123目244科558属,优势菌门为变形菌门(Proteobacteria)、蓝藻门(Cyanobacteria)、放线菌门(Actinobacteria)、拟杆菌门(Bacteroidetes)、厚壁菌门(Firmicutes)和酸杆菌门(Acidobacteria)(相对丰度>1%),优势属为苯基杆菌属(Phenylobacterium)、剑菌属(Ensifer)和鞘氨醇菌属(Chitinophaga).双因素方差分析表明,物种间差异显著影响土壤细菌香农指数和辛普森指数(P<0.05),种源和物种交互作用对土壤细菌的物种数、 Chao1指数、香农指数和辛普森指数均影响显著(P<0.05).主坐标分析表明,3种锦鸡儿属植物根际土壤细菌群落结构差异显著(P<0.05),且聚类分析显示来自不同种源地的中间锦鸡儿和荒漠锦鸡儿根际土壤细菌群落结构组成不同.通过冗余分析发现...     

Climate change and adoption of sustainable land management practices in the Niger basin of Benin

Due to the important role that the agricultural sector plays in sustaining growth and reducing poverty in developing countries, the adoption of practices that have the potential to simultaneously improve agricultural productivity while minimizing environmental impacts is essential. This paper examines the determinants of farmers’ perceptions of climate change and subsequent adoption of sustainable land management practices in the Niger basin of Benin. Binary and multivariate probit models are applied in a two‐stage regression procedure to cross‐sectional data collected through a survey of 545 randomly selected farm households in 28 villages. The findings indicate that there are substitutabilities among three pairs of sustainable land management practices being used by the farmers. Climate change perception is positively related to land tenure, experience in farming, number of relatives, tractor use, and membership in farmers’ organizations, and negatively related to household size, remoteness, and plough use. Moreover, the findings reveal that the uptake of land management practices is related to assets, land tenure, education level of the household head, remoteness, social network, non‐irrigated land size, having a farm located near a river/lake/stream, tractor and plough use, being a subsistence farmer or not, and memberships in farmers’ organizations. The adoption of sustainable land management practices could be encouraged through improving access to markets, adequate roads, and technologies, as well as by promoting membership in farmers’ organizations.     

Climate variability,water levels,and fish catch in the Upper East Region of Ghana

The aim of the research was to investigate the effects of climate variability on selected water bodies in the Upper East Region of Ghana using time series decomposition and simple linear regression analyses. Data on temperature and rainfall (1960–2015), annual total fish catch (1996–2016), and the recorded water levels (1987–2015) of a major reservoir, the Tono, were used. Time series decomposition analyses were performed on the rainfall, temperature, and water level data to identify their trends. While temperature was increasing, rainfall was decreasing and resulted in a decrease in the water level in the Tono Reservoir. The decreasing water level in the reservoir made fish catch easier, which led to overfishing. Out of the other 39 dugouts studied, 8 (21%) were silted. Also, rainfall was decreasing at 4.4% per decade and minimum and maximum temperatures were increasing at 2.5% and 0.03% per decade, respectively. The minimum, maximum, and mean water levels of the Tono Reservoir were 3.7, 8.0, and 4.9 meters (m), respectively. The water level of the Tono Reservoir was decreasing by ?0.08 m per year. It is concluded that the water level in the Tono Reservoir was continually decreasing as a result of decreasing rainfall and increasing maximum and minimum temperatures. To maintain a much more stable microclimate and decrease the siltation rate of the reservoirs, farmers are advised to stop farming along the banks of water bodies and avoid clearing vegetation. Fishermen are also encouraged to adopt fish farming in enclosed areas within the reservoir to meet the growing protein demands in the Upper East Region of Ghana.