Framing Fracking: Media Coverage of Unconventional Oil and Gas Development in South Texas

There is an oil boom occurring in the United States reminiscent of the production booms of the early 20th century. As the use of unconventional gas and oil extraction practices explode across the US, understanding how the affected public perceives this development is vital. As a major influence on public opinion, understanding the way this development is being framed by interest groups and the news media is an important step in understanding public perceptions. This study utilizes framing theory as a method for investigating how online and print media coverage of this development utilizes the frames promoted by actors on either side of this issue. Content analysis is used to examine national level industry and opposition websites to inductively uncover the thematic frames used by these actors in the public debate surrounding unconventional development. These frames are subsequently used to analyze newspaper articles published in metropolitan cities of Eagle Ford Shale region to discover how these or other frames are utilized in their coverage of the unconventional development occurring in the Eagle Ford Shale. I found that the pro-development frames used by proponent interest groups matched very closely with the pro-development frames used in the news media. Conversely, the way opposition frames are used by the opponent interest groups and in the news media display much more variance. These findings have implications for several theories seeking to explain the influence of interest groups on news coverage. And are important for fully understanding how the perceptions of residents regarding oil and gas activity are formed. While this research did not take the step to compare the news media frames used to the individual frames residents use to understand this activity, it does address a lacuna in the research on unconventional development by examining the way interest groups and the media frame their communications pertaining to the issue

Klipsun Magazine, 1999 - June

https://cedar.wwu.edu/klipsun_magazine/1196/thumbnail.jp

AC DEVICE-LEVEL POWER CONSUMPTION MEASURE, ATTRIBUTION AND CONTROL FOR FLEXIBLE OFFICE WORKSPACES

While Power-over-Ethernet (PoE) systems are able to perform per-connected-device DC-power control, monitoring, and reporting, such an equivalent does not exist for AC-powered devices. Techniques presented herein enable a holistic view of both AC and DC powered devices, which may enable organizations, such as organizations operating multi-tenanted workspaces or those charged with improving their real-estate carbon footprint, to develop a detailed view of their power footprint, as well as manage power consumption of individuals, devices, and/or workspace locations in a proactive and intelligent manner

Klipsun Magazine, 1999, Volume 29, Issue 06 - September

https://cedar.wwu.edu/klipsun_magazine/1197/thumbnail.jp

RAPID CABLE BUNDLE SIZE INSPECTION OF POWER OVER ETHERNET BASED COMMUNICATIONS CABLING

Techniques are described herein to allow a user (e.g., installer, electrician, inspector, etc.) to use a tie for a particular gauge wire system to tie the bundle together. A set of markers on the tie may indicate the number of wires that are in the bundle. If the viewing window exceeds the marked bundle size, then the bundle grouping is too large and the wire count must be reduced

Interpreting wind damage risk-how multifunctional forest management impacts standing timber at risk of wind felling

Landscape multifunctionality, a widely accepted challenge for boreal forests, aims to simultaneously provide timber, non-timber ecosystem services, and shelter for biodiversity. However, multifunctionality requires the use of novel forest management regimes optimally combined over the landscape, and an increased share of sets asides. It remains unclear how this combination will shape stand vulnerability to wind disturbances and exposed timber volume. We combined forest growth simulations and multi-objective optimization to create alternative landscape level forest management scenarios. Management choices were restricted to 1) rotation forestry, 2) continuous cover forestry, and 3) all regimes allowed over a harvest intensity gradient from completely set aside landscapes to maximal economic gain. Estimates for the stands' structural and environmental characteristics were used to predict the stand level wind damage probability. We evaluated averaged wind-exposed standing timber volume and changing forest structure under management scenarios. Intensive rotation forestry reduced tree heights and wind damage risk, but also reduced landscape multifunctionality. Conversely, continuous cover forestry maintained multifunctionality but increased wind damage probability due to taller trees and higher thinning frequency. Overall, continuous cover forestry lowers the total volume of wind exposed timber at any given time compared with rotation forestry. Nevertheless, a selective application of rotation forestry contributes to high economic gains and increases landscape heterogeneity. A combination of management approaches across landscapes provides an efficient way to reduce the amount of wind-exposed timber volume while also increasing habitat for vertebrate and non-vertebrate species and satisfying high timber demands

Sectoral policies cause incoherence in forest management and ecosystem service provisioning

Various national policies guide forest use, but often with competing policy objectives leading to divergent management paradigms. Incoherent policies may negatively impact the sustainable provision of forest ecosystem services (FES), and forest multifunctionality. There is uncertainty among policymakers about the impacts of policies on the real world. We translated the policy documents of Finland into scenarios including the quantitative demands for FES, representing: the national forest strategy (NFS), the biodiversity strategy (BDS), and the bioeconomy strategy (BES). We simulated a Finland-wide systematic sample of forest stands with alternative management regimes and climate change. Finally, we used multi-objective optimization to identify the combination of management regimes matching best with each policy scenario and analysed their long-term effects on FES.The NFS scenario proved to be the most multifunctional, targeting the highest number of FES, while the BES had the lowest FES targets. However, the NFS was strongly oriented towards the value chain of wood and bioenergy and had a dominating economic growth target, which caused strong within-policy conflicts and hindered reaching biodiversity targets. The BDS and BES scenarios were instead more consistent but showed either sustainability gaps in terms of providing timber resources (BDS) or no improvements in forest biodiversity (BES). All policy scenarios resulted in forest management programs dominated by continuous cover forestry, set-aside areas, and intensive management zones, with proportions depending on the policy focus. Our results highlight for the first time the conflicts among national sectoral policies in terms of management requirements and effects on forest multifunctionality. The outcomes provide leverage points for policymakers to increase coherence among future policies and improve implementation of multiple uses of forests