539 research outputs found
Happiness versus the environment - a case study of Australian lifestyles
Crafting environmental policies that at the same time enhance, or at least not reduce people\u27s wellbeing, is crucial for the success of government action aimed at mitigating environmental impact. However, there does not yet exist any survey that refers to one and the same population, and that allows the identifying relationships and trade-offs between subjective wellbeing and the complete environmental impact of households. In order to circumvent the lack of comprehensive survey information, we attempt to integrate two separate survey databases, and describe the challenges associated with this integration. Our results indicate that carbon footprints are likely to increase, but wellbeing levels off with increasing income. Living together with people is likely to create a win-win situation where both climate and wellbeing benefit. Car ownership obviously creates emissions, however personal car ownership enhances subjective wellbeing, but living in an area with high car ownership decreases subjective wellbeing. Finally, gaining educational qualifications is linked with increased emissions. These results indicate that policy-making is challenged in striking a wise balance between individual convenience and the common good
BP'nin Kùrı
BP bugĂŒne kadar hiç kĂąr etti mi? Soru, biraz tuhaf geliyor. Ćirket geçen yıl 26 milyar dolar kĂąra geçtiÄini açıkladı. BPânin, hisse sahiplerinin ceplerine para pompaladıÄına ĆĂŒphe yok. Burada asıl sorulması gereken Ćey Ću: Bu para, gerçekten Ćirketin söylediÄi Ćey mi? BP buna âkĂąrâ diyor, bense Ćirketin gelecekte neden olabileceÄi zararların karĆılanması için bir fon diyorum
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The media and climate change
Progressive voices in the arts and heritage sector have called for a politics of cultural democracy as a means of empowering all to participate in public life. Through a rejection of policies of 'inclusion', they have asked more searching questions about the role culture can play in the fight for social justice. At the same time the sector is preparing for a change of ideological direction, as rumours run rife about what a future Tory government, highly critical of state intervention, will do to the bodies that run the arts and heritage sector. This article looks at the prospects for a radical cultural democracy in the face of these potential political changes
Climate change and rising energy costs will change everything: A new mindset and action plan for 21st Century public health
Western governments currently prioritize economic growth and the pursuit of profit above alternative goals of sustainability, health and equality. Climate change and rising energy costs are challenging this consensus. The realization of the transformation required to meet these challenges has provoked denial and conflict, but could lead to a more positive response which leads to a health dividend; enhanced well-being, less overconsumption and greater equality. This paper argues that public health can make its best contribution by adopting a new mindset, discourse, methodology and set of tasks
Eyes wide shut? UK consumer perceptions on aviation climate impacts and travel decisions to New Zealand
The purview of climate change concern has implicated air travel, as evidenced in a growing body of academic literature concerned with aviation CO2 emissions. This article assesses the relevance of climate change to long haul air travel decisions to New Zealand for United Kingdom consumers. Based on 15 semi-structured open-ended interviews conducted in Bournemouth, UK during June 2009, it was found that participants were unlikely to forgo potential travel decisions to New Zealand because of concern over air travel emissions. Underpinning the intervieweesâ understandings and responses to air travelâs climate impact was a spectrum of awareness and attitudes to air travel and climate change. This spectrum ranged from individuals who were unaware of air travelâs climate impact to those who were beginning to consume air travel with a âcarbon conscienceâ. Within this spectrum were some who were aware of the impact but not willing to change their travel behaviours at all. Rather than implicating long haul air travel, the empirical evidence instead exemplifies changing perceptions towards frequent short haul air travel and voices calls for both government and media in the UK to deliver more concrete messages on air travelâs climate impact
Climate change and rising energy costs: a threat but also an opportunity for a healthier future?
Health problems caused by overconsumption, growing inequalities and diminished well-being are issues that have been attributed to the prioritization of economic growth as the central purpose of society. It is also known that climate change and rising energy prices will inevitably bring changes to the globe's economic models. Doctors and the wider public health community have campaigned successfully in the past on issues such as the threat of nuclear war. Is it now time for this constituency to make its distinctive contribution to these new threats to health
Itâs not too late to do the right thing:: Moral motivations for climate change action
This is the author accepted manuscript. The final version is available from Wiley via the DOI in this recordWhile it is too late to avert some dangerous consequences of climate change, it is not âall-ornothingâ and our actions can still make a difference. Building on social psychology research
showing the importance of seeing oneâs group as moral, one reason people act on climate
change is to help create a more moral and caring society. Considering climate change action
through this lens gives rise to several challenges, including how people respond to moral
threats, who has moral standing as advocates, the consequences of promoting a moral cause
through âimmoralâ actions (e.g., breaking the law), and moral âblindspotsâ where some
emitting behaviours are excluded from scrutiny. Reviewing social psychological bases for
these issues suggests potential responses to these challenges, including the importance of
engaging people with diverse views and backgrounds (e.g., through citizensâ assemblies),
advisory personal carbon budgets, and broad-based policies that aim to secure the social
wellbeing of communities as well as the protect the environment (e.g., a Green New Deal).
Encouragingly, a recent study suggests that many people are more ready than we might
assume to accept the types of changes urgently needed
History in schools and the problem of 'the nation'
The article examines the enduring popularity of a form of school history which is based predominantly on the idea that the transmission of a positive story about the national past will inculcate in young people a sense of loyalty to the state; a reassuring and positive sense of identity and belonging; and a sense of social solidarity with fellow citizens. England is one of the countries which has to at least some extent moved away from this model of school history; but the past few years have seen suggestions for a move back to a history curriculum which focuses predominantly on the transmission of âOur Island Storyâ; and which presents a positive rendering of that story. The history curriculum in England is currently under review; and public pronouncements by politicians; academic historians and newspaper editorials suggest strong pressures towards a restoration of what is often termed âtraditionalâ school history; which was prevalent in English schools before the advent of what has been termed âNew historyâ in the 1970s. The paper questions some of the arguments which have been put forward in order to justify a return to a history curriculum based on a positive and unproblematic narrative of the national story and suggests that such a course of action is based on some unexamined assumptions and a limited understanding of pedagogy and learning. The final section of the paper outlines several weaknesses and flaws in the arguments for reverting to a traditional (i.e. ânation-basedâ and celebratory) form of school history; and some of the dangers inherent in such a project
Conserving socio-ecological landscapes: An analysis of traditional and responsive management practices for floodplain meadows in England
Contemporary practice in the conservation of socio-ecological landscapes draws on both a model of responsive management, and also on ideas about historic management. This study considered what evidence might exist for the exercise of these approaches to management in the conservation of floodplain meadows in England, in order to inform understanding and knowledge of conservation management and assessment practice.
Evidence for a model of responsive management was limited, with managing stakeholders often alternating between this model and an alternative approach, called here the âtraditional management approachâ, based on ideas, narratives and prescriptions of long-established land management practices. Limited monitoring and assessment appeared to undermine the former model, whilst uncertainty over past long-standing management practices undermined the latter. As a result of the relative power of conservation actors over farmers delivering site management, and their framings of meadows as ânaturalâ spaces, management tended to oscillate between aspects of these two approaches in a sometimes inconsistent manner.
Conservation managers should consider the past motivating drivers and management practices that created the landscapes they wish to conserve, and bear in mind that these are necessarily implicated in aspects of the contemporary landscape value that they wish to maintain. They should ensure that assessment activity captures a broad range of indicators of site value and condition, not only biological composition, and also record data on site management operations in order to ensure management effectiveness
Framing the relationship between people and nature in the context of European conservation
A key controversy in conservation is the framing of the relationship between people and nature. The extent to which the realms of nature and human culture are viewed as separate (dualistic view) or integrated is often discussed in the social sciences. To explore how this relationship is represented in the practice of conservation in Europe, we considered examples of cultural landscapes, wildlife (red deer, reindeer, horses), and protected area management. We found little support, for a dualistic worldview, where people and nature are regarded as separate in the traditional practice of conservation in Europe. The borders between nature and culture, wild and domestic, public land and private land, and between protected areas and the wider landscape were blurred and dynamic. The institutionalized (in practice and legislation) view is of an interactive mutualistic system in which humans and nature share the whole landscape. However, more dualistic ideals, such as wilderness and rewilding that are challenging established practices are expanding. In the context of modern day Europe, wilderness conservation and rewilding are not valid for the whole landscape, although it is possible to integrate some areas of low-intervention management into a wider matrix. A precondition for success is to recognize and plan for a plurality of values concerning the most valid approaches to conservation and to plan for this plurality at the landscape scale
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