Exploring public perceptions of energy security risks in the UK

Along with climate change and affordability, concerns about energy security are key drivers behind proposals for major energy system change in the UK and numerous other countries. Unlike climate change we know very little about how the public thinks and feels about this aspect of sustainability and energy policy. Beyond engaging critically with conceptual and theoretical discussions, empirical data from two surveys (Cardiff postal survey, N=520; online UK survey, N=499) using a ten item energy security scale are presented and discussed. Here we show that aspects of energy security are certainly of concern to the UK public, with particularly high concern around dependence on fossil fuels/imports and relatively lower expressed concern for actual disruption of energy supply. However public concerns around energy security are only emerging, and likely to change depending on the context in which it is discussed (e.g. in comparison to climate change). In addition, findings from public interviews are used to further contextualise the survey findings, showing unfamiliarity among the UK public with regards to the term “energy security”. We discuss implications, and further work that would be useful for understanding public perceptions in more depth

Risk tolerance as a complementary concept to risk perception of natural hazards: a conceptual review and application

There is a longstanding assumption that if people perceive a risk as high, they will act to reduce it. In fact, research has shown a lack of consistently strong causal relations between risk perception (RP) and mitigative behavior—the so-called “risk perception paradox.” Despite a recent increase in research on RP, individuals’ risk tolerance (RT; or demand for risk reduction) only rarely appears as a consideration for explaining behavioral response to natural hazards. To address this research gap, we first systematically review relevant literature and find that RT has been directly assessed or operationalized using perceived thresholds related to costs and benefits of risk reduction measures, risk consequences, hazard characteristics, behavioral responses, or affective reactions. It is either considered a component or a result of RP. We then use survey data of individuals’ RP, RT, and behavioral intention to assess relations among these variables. Comparing across three European study sites, “behavioral intention” is assessed as the public's willingness to actively support the implementation of nature-based solutions to reduce disaster risk. A series of tests using regression models shows RT significantly explains variance in behavioral intention and significantly contributes additional explanatory power beyond RP in all three sites. In two sites, RT is also a significant partial mediator of the relation between RP and behavior. Taken together, our findings demand further conceptual and empirical research on individuals’ RT and its systematic consideration as a determinant for (in)action in response to natural hazards

Identification and Incidence of Peanut Viruses in Georgia

Surveys of peanuts in Georgia in 1983 detected peanut mottle virus (PMV), peanut stripe virus (PStV), and peanut stunt virus. The mild strain of PMV was by far the most prevalent virus in commercial peanuts; it occurred in every field and an average incidence of 15-20% was observed when the growing season was about two-thirds complete. The necrosis strain of PMV was noted in 39% of the fields, but the incidence was less than 0.1%. A new severe strain of PMV (chlorotic stunt) was identified in two fields. PStV was found at four locations; in each case the infected plants were near peanut germplasm lines from The People's Republic of China. Mixed infections of PMV and PStV occurred frequently. Peanut stunt virus was noted only in one research field in 1983. Numerous serological and sap inoculation tests did not detect tomato spotted wilt virus or cowpea chlorotic mottle viru

Search for a periodic signal from Cygnus X-3 usingmuons observed underground in the Frejus detector (4800 mwe)

Periodic signals from Cygnus X-3 in the ultra high energy range were recently reported by air shower arrays and attributed to gamma rays. Although gamma rays are expected to produce muon-poor showers, the preceding observations have stimulated similar studies based on underground muons. Two groups have claimed a significant underground signal coming from Cygnus X-3. The results are, however, extremely difficult to explain in the present framework of particle physics, and clearly need confirmation. The preliminary results obtained from the Frejus underground detector during its first 16 months of operation (March 1984 to June 1985) are presented

Behavioural stress responses predict environmental perception in European sea bass (Dicentrarchus labrax)

Individual variation in the response to environmental challenges depends partly on innate reaction norms, partly on experience-based cognitive/emotional evaluations that individuals make of the situation. The goal of this study was to investigate whether pre-existing differences in behaviour predict the outcome of such assessment of environmental cues, using a conditioned place preference/avoidance (CPP/CPA) paradigm. A comparative vertebrate model (European sea bass, Dicentrarchus labrax) was used, and ninety juvenile individuals were initially screened for behavioural reactivity using a net restraining test. Thereafter each individual was tested in a choice tank using net chasing as aversive stimulus or exposure to familiar conspecifics as appetitive stimulus in the preferred or non preferred side respectively (called hereafter stimulation side). Locomotor behaviour (i.e. time spent, distance travelled and swimming speed in each tank side) of each individual was recorded and analysed with video software. The results showed that fish which were previously exposed to appetitive stimulus increased significantly the time spent on the stimulation side, while aversive stimulus led to a strong decrease in time spent on the stimulation side. Moreover, this study showed clearly that proactive fish were characterised by a stronger preference for the social stimulus and when placed in a putative aversive environment showed a lower physiological stress responses than reactive fish. In conclusion, this study showed for the first time in sea bass, that the CPP/CPA paradigm can be used to assess the valence (positive vs. negative) that fish attribute to different stimuli and that individual behavioural traits is predictive of how stimuli are perceived and thus of the magnitude of preference or avoidance behaviour.European Commission [265957]; Portuguese Fundacao para a Ciencia e Tecnologia (FCT) [FRH/BPD/72952/2010]; FCT [SFRH/BD/80029/2011

Public values for energy system change

In this paper we discuss the importance of framing the question of public acceptance of sustainable energy transitions in terms of values and a ‘whole-system’ lens. This assertion is based on findings arising from a major research project examining public values, attitudes and acceptability with regards to whole energy system change using a mixed-method (six deliberative workshops, n=68, and a nationally representative survey, n = 2441), interdisciplinary approach. Through the research we identify a set of social values associated with desirable energy futures in the UK, where the values represent identifiable cultural resources people draw on to guide their preference formation about particular aspects of energy system change. As such, we characterise public perspectives as being underpinned by six value clusters relating to efficiency and wastefulness, environment and nature, security and stability, social justice and fairness, autonomy and power, and processes and change. We argue that this ‘value system’ provides a basis for understanding core reasons for public acceptance or rejection of different energy system aspects and processes. We conclude that a focus on values that underpin more specific preferences for energy system change brings insights that could provide a basis for improved dialogue, more robust decision- making, and for anticipating likely points of conflict in energy transitions

Viruses associated with chlorotic rosette and green rosette diseases of groundnut in Nigeria

Groundnut (Arachis hypogaea) plants from Nigeria with chlorotic rosette disease contained a manually transmissible virus, considered to be a strain of groundnut rosette virus (GRV(C)). GRV(C) infected nine out of 32 species in three out of nine families. It caused local lesions without systemic infection in Chenopodium amaranticolor, C. murale and C. quinoa, and systemic symptoms in Glycine max, Nicotiana benthamiana, N. clevelandii and Phaseolus vulgaris as well as in groundnut. Some ‘rosette-resistant’ groundnut lines were also infected. GRV(C) was transmitted by Aphis craccivora, but only from groundnut plants that were also infected with an aphid-transmissible second virus, which was not manually transmissible and was considered to be groundnut rosette assistor virus (GRAV). Plants infected with GRAV contained isometric particles c. 25 nm in diameter which were detectable by immunosorbent electron microscopy on grids coated with antisera to several luteoviruses, especially with antisera to bean leaf roll, potato leafroll and beet western yellows viruses. No virus-like particles were observed in extracts from plants infected with GRV(C) alone. A single groundnut plant obtained from Nigeria with symptoms of green rosette contained luteovirus particles, presumed to be of GRAV, and yielded a manually transmissible virus that induced symptoms similar to those of GRV(C) in C. amaranticolor but gave only mild or symptomless infection of N. benthamiana and N. clevelandii. It was considered to be a strain of GRV and designated GRV(G)