Integrating Media Studies of Climate Change into Transdisciplinary Research: Which Direction Should We Be Heading?

Research in the area of media coverage on climate change communication represents one of the most prolific areas of inquiry within communication and mass communication studies. This body of literature, which ranges from empirical to critical studies, continues to expand. Much research has focused on representations of climate change causes, effects, and human actions, while some has assessed the impacts of these representations. What is broadly missing from this literature, however, is a discussion of how we might integrate media analysis into transdisciplinary collaborative research aimed at creating solutions to the social, environmental, and economic issues intertwined with climate change. Given the magnitude of problems the society and science are currently grasping with, it behooves us to understand how media studies can contribute most effectively to characterizing and solving problems. We maintain that the move toward integrating media studies into transdisciplinary collaborative research marks an essential transition for environmental communication in general, but climate change communication in particular, given the urgency and magnitude of creating meaningful adaptation and mitigation strategies to address this pressing, complex challenge. Drawing on our work as part of a large transdisciplinary sustainability science team, we provide a case study for understanding what collaborations are key to moving media studies into a transdisciplinary context and the key opportunities and barriers that come along with that move. We argue that media studies must increasingly engage directly in collaboration with other researchers, stakeholders, and communities to serve on-the-ground decision-making and enhance society's ability to take action.     

雅砻江流域湿地景观格局变化分析

应用ArcGIS软件,对雅砻江流域湿地1986和2000年遥感数据进行解译、矢量化处理,用Apack软件进行湿地景观格局指数计算,研究了近15 a雅砻江流域景观空间格局特征及其变化。结果表明：（1）近15 a雅砻江流域湿地景观面积减少,减少量为49404 hm2,占2000年湿地总面积的0506%;（2）两个时期内湿地斑块密度保持不变,湿地景观的聚集度都很高,均在099以上,湿地景观集中分布,破碎化水平低;（3）雅砻江流域湿地景观的多样性指数水平和均匀度水平较低,而且两指数在两个个时期内没有发生太大的变化,且各类湿地景观比例差异相对较大,沼泽湿地景观控制的程度较高;（4）雅砻江流域的5类湿地景观分布质心基本上未发生变化,但总体格局分布质心向南偏移001°,再向西偏移023°,整体上向西南方向偏移了2532 km     

Perspectives on utilising Community Land Trusts as a vehicle for affordable housing provision

With lack of affordable housing being clearly identified as a social and economic exclusion issue for most communities, innovative ways of addressing this deficiency should be considered. Increasingly local communities are engaging with the possibility of direct provision themselves and discussion around this notion has profound implications for community cohesion. One community-based solution gaining popular support within communities, and with government ministers, is the Community Land Trust mechanism. This involves control and ownership of land to help ensure affordable housing is built and remains affordable in perpetuity for the community. The language and difficulties with definition of terms, together with the complexity of engaging relevant stakeholders in a changing policy and legislative framework can be problematic. This may lead to apparent lack of consensus within communities on the way forward. Perceptions of local housing issues and ways to address them are sometimes vague, sometimes diverse but rarely apathetic. This paper includes data from two case studies in North East England, which are examined using interviews with key players, as a means of seeking some practical solutions.     

Integrated economic-ecological analysis and evaluation of management strategies on nutrient abatement in the Rhine basin

Management of river basins involves the making of informed choices about the desired levels of economic activities and ecosystem functioning in the catchment. Information on the economic and ecological effects of measures as well as their spatial distribution is therefore needed. This paper proposes the following instruments to support decision-making in river basins: (1) the linking of models and indicators to describe the economic and ecological effects of management actions and their spatial distribution and (2) an extended evaluation framework that aims to evaluate management actions on three objectives for sustainable river management. These are cost-effectiveness, spatial equity, and environmental quality. This paper illustrates the potential of these instruments for river basin management by a case-study on nutrient management in the Rhine basin. In this case-study four nutrient abatement strategies are formulated, based on policies of the International Commission for the Protection of the Rhine and the North Sea Commission. These strategies are analysed and evaluated on their contribution to the three management objectives. Results show that none of these strategies score highest on cost-effectiveness, spatial equity and environmental quality simultaneously. It appears that cost-effectiveness is in conflict with environmental quality, whereas spatial equity and cost-effectiveness show quite close correspondence. This means that a trade-off has to be made between costs and spatial equity on the one hand, and environmental standards on the other hand. This paper offers a framework to make these trade-offs more explicit and provides quantitative information on cause-effect relationships, economic and environmental effects and the spatial distribution of these effects for various management strategies. This information can be particularly useful in the development of compromises required to establish international agreement and co-operation.     

Animal Agriculture: Symbiosis, Culture, or Ethical Conflict?

Several writers on animal ethics defend the abolition of most or all animal agriculture, which they consider an unethical exploitation of sentient non-human animals. However, animal agriculture can also be seen as a co-evolution over thousands of years, that has affected biology and behavior on the one hand, and quality of life of humans and domestic animals on the other. Furthermore, animals are important in sustainable agriculture. They can increase efficiency by their ability to transform materials unsuitable for human consumption and by grazing areas that would be difficult to harvest otherwise. Grazing of natural pastures is essential for the pastoral landscape, an important habitat for wild flora and fauna and much valued by humans for its aesthetic value. Thus it seems that the environment gains substantially when animals are included in sustainable agricultural systems. But what about the animals themselves? Objections against animal agriculture often refer to the disrespect for animals’ lives, integrity, and welfare in present intensive animal production systems. Of the three issues at stake, neither integrity nor animal welfare need in principle be violated in carefully designed animal husbandry systems. The main ethical conflict seems to lie in the killing of animals, which is inevitable if the system is to deliver animal products. In this paper, we present the benefits and costs to humans and animals of including animals in sustainable agriculture, and discuss how to address some of the ethical issues involved.     

Renewable Resources and Enzymatic Processes to Create Functional Polymers: Adapting Materials and Reactions from Food Processing

We are exploiting materials and concepts from food science to create functionalized, environmentally friendly derivatives of the biopolymer chitosan, a byproduct of seafood processing. Functional groups are grafted onto chitosan using tyrosinase, the enzyme responsible for food browning. The functionalizing groups studied include low-molecular-weight phenols derived from natural sources and high-molecular-weight proteins. The approach of using low-molecular-weight phenols to functionalize chitosan is illustrated with arbutin, a natural phenol found in pears. Results demonstrate that tyrosinase initiates reactions that lead to the conversion of arbutin–chitosan solutions into gels. These gels can be rapidly broken by treatment with the chitosan-hydrolyzing enzyme chitosanase, demonstrating that the chitosan derivatives remain biodegradable. We briefly review other studies in which low-molecular-weight natural phenols are enzymatically grafted onto chitosan to confer functional properties. The creation of co-polymers is illustrated by results in which tyrosinase is used to couple gelatin onto chitosan. Gelatin is a proteinaceous byproduct of meat production. The tyrosinase-generated gelatin–chitosan conjugates have been observed to offer interesting rheological and thermal properties. These results demonstrate the potential for using renewable resources and enzymatic processing to create environmentally friendly polymers with useful functional properties.     

水资源的可持续开发与利用

水是一切生物生存环境的最重要支撑,只有可持续地开发利用水资源,才能创造一个可持续发展的社会和生存环境。针对日趋严重的淡水资源危机,本文以水资源的可持续存在为基础,从整体的角度出发,而不是就水论水,探讨了可持续开发、利用水资源的五个途径:经济向生态效益型转向、可持续开发水资源、建立水资源核算体系、建立水资源政策分析机制、人人参与水资源管理,从而实现环境完整性、经济效率和平衡三个基本目标。     

城市生活垃圾的生命周期管理

根据国际标准化组织１９９７ 年颁布的ＩＳＯ１４０００ 环境管理体系“生命周期评价—原则与框架”,本文对可持续城市生活垃圾生命周期管理进行研究,指出城市生活垃圾应在环境可持续性、经济可负担性及社会可接受性的原则基础上,通过垃圾的减量化、无害化、资源化和社会化管理,实现城市可持续发展的管理目标     

Delivering on the Promise of Agroforestry

Agroforestry – the traditional practice of growing trees on farms for the benefit of the farm family and for the environment – was brought from the realm of indigenous knowledge into the forefront of agricultural research less than two decades ago. It was promoted widely as a sustainability-enhancing practice that combines the best attributes of forestry and agriculture. Based on principles of natural resource management and process-oriented research, agroforestry is now recognized as an applied science, that is instrumental in assuring food security, reducing poverty and enhancing ecosystem resilience at the scale of thousands of smallholder farmers in the tropics.Trees on farms provide both products and services: they yield food, fuelwood, fodder, timber and medicines, which farm families can use at home or take to market to bring in much-needed cash; they replenish organic matter and nutrient levels in soils and they help control erosion and conserve water. The International Centre for Research in Agroforestry, and its partners, are working to integrate the functions of trees with policy and institutional improvements that aim at facilitating wide-scale adoption by farmers.Two examples described in this paper are replenishing soil fertility in sub-Saharan Africa using short-term improved tree and shrub fallows and the results of agroforestry research to support significant land tenure policy in southeast Asia.Although just one option in sustainable land-use, science-based agroforestry has the potential to produce economically, socially and environmentally sound results for the billions of people who depend on this ancient practice and modern science.     

Aquatic Macroinvertebrate Diversity in Nanda Devi Biosphere Reserve,India

Aquatic macroinvertebrate diversity in the Nanda Devi Biosphere Reserve (NDBR) was monitored for a period of twelve months (September 2000 to August 2001). All the important hydrological attributes were measured monthly for one year. Macroinvertebrates were sampled from three sites (S¹$, S²$, & S³$) of the headwater stream Dhauliganga of NDBR. The present study revealed that the velocity of the water current, hydromedian depth, turbidity and dissolved oxygen in addition to nature and size of the bottom substrates have their significant impact on benthic invertebrate diversity. The ecological relevance of the measured hydrological attributes was investigated by comparing their degree of correlation with invertebrate density and diversity. Macroinvertebrate diversity was found to be highest (3.096 ± 0.03) in winter months (November–January) and lowest (2.816 ± 0.02) in monsoon months (July–August). The high diversity of macroinvertebrates may be due to low turbidity, high water transparency, optimum water temperature, high dissolved oxygen, low water velocity and suitable composition of the bottom substrates.