The Roles of Group Membership, Beliefs, and Norms in Ecological Risk Perception

Variability in ecological risk perceptions was investigated by surveying members of four stakeholder groups commonly involved in environmental policy debates. Fifty-six individuals from government, industry, environmental, and general-public groups completed a risk-perception survey in which they evaluated 34 environmental hazards on 17 attributes and also evaluated the riskiness and acceptability of each hazard. In addition, participants reported their environmental beliefs and norms using Dunlap et al.'s revised New Ecological Paradigm Scale and modified versions of Schwartz's Awareness of Consequences and Personal Norms Scales. Group membership was predictive of participants' scores on the belief and norm scales. Factor analysis of attribute ratings (averaged across participants) revealed the anticipated three oblique factors: ecological impacts, scientific understanding, and aesthetic impacts. Factor patterns were very similar for the four stakeholder groups. Factors from the aggregate analysis were predictive of individuals' riskiness judgments, but these relationships were moderated by participants' group membership, beliefs, and norms. Compared to members of other groups, members of the general public placed less emphasis on ecological impacts and more emphasis on the other two factors when judging the ecological riskiness of hazards. To our knowledge, these results represent the first formal tests of interactions between hazard characteristics and participant characteristics in determining riskiness judgments, and illustrate how traditional psychometric analyses can be successfully coupled with individual-difference measures to improve the understanding of risk perception.     

Generating Probabilistic Spatially-Explicit Individual and Population Exposure Estimates for Ecological Risk Assessments

Exposure to chemical contaminants in various media must be estimated when performing ecological risk assessments. Exposure estimates are often based on the 95th-percentile upper confidence limit on the mean concentration of all samples, calculated without regard to critical ecological and spatial information about the relative relationship of receptors, their habitats, and contaminants. This practice produces exposure estimates that are potentially unrepresentative of the ecology of the receptor. This article proposes a habitat area and quality-conditioned exposure estimator, E[HQ], that requires consideration of these relationships. It describes a spatially explicit ecological exposure model to facilitate calculation of E[HQ]. The model provides (1) a flexible platform for investigating the effect of changes in habitat area, habitat quality, foraging area, and population size on exposure estimates, and (2) a tool for calculating E[HQ] for use in actual risk assessments. The inner loop of a Visual Basic program randomly walks a receptor over a multicelled landscape--each cell of which contains values for cell area, habitat area, habitat quality, and concentration--accumulating an exposure estimate until the total area foraged is less than or equal to a given foraging area. An outer loop then steps through foraging areas of increasing size. This program is iterated by Monte Carlo software, with the number of iterations representing the population size. Results indicate that (1) any single estimator may over- or underestimate exposure, depending on foraging strategy and spatial relationships of habitat and contamination, and (2) changes in exposure estimates in response to changes in foraging and habitat area are not linear.     

Research Summary of Chinese Ecological Anthropology in 2013

The year 2013 was a fruitful year for the study of Ecological Anthropology in China . More than one hundred related papers were been published in 2013 . They can be roughly divided into three categorie...     

宁夏南部山区生态移民的实践研究

宁夏生态移民工程四年来,在改善移民生产生活、恢复生态环境、拓宽致富渠道、减轻人口压力、促进民族团结、有效利用土地资源、降低扶贫成本等方面取得了明显的效益。同时,也存在搬迁规模与安置能力矛盾突出、资金紧缺、迁出群众生产能力差、设施配套不够完善、土地开发面积不足以及社会事业方面的问题。因此,必须从政策保障的高度对宁夏南部山区生态移民工作进行研究与探讨。     

论马克思恩格斯人与自然辩证统一思想的当代价值

马克思恩格斯的唯物史观深刻地揭示了人与自然的辩证统一关系,人与自然一体共存、和谐共生,自然规律是人与自然间物质变换的尺度,而科学技术则对调控人与自然关系具有积极作用。这一思想对当代中国建设生态文明社会,最终解决生态问题,促进社会和谐发展,具有重要指导价值。     

Validation of interaction-based egocentric elicitation using ecological momentary assessment with young adults currently or formerly homeless

IntroductionSocial network changes are common as individuals transition from homeless to Supportive Housing. Egocentric approaches to elicit network members have been utilized with young adults experiencing homelessness to better understand such socio-environmental contexts; however, such approaches are subject to recall bias. Momentary measurements of one’s social network via Ecological Momentary Assessment (EMA) can support in understanding the accuracy of egocentric elicitation methods.ObjectiveTo examine who is elicited using an interaction-based approach in egocentric social network analysis among currently homeless and formerly homeless young adults residing in Supportive Housing and explore which alters are reported in interactions and how often are they reported when egocentric network analysis is embedded in EMA.MethodsThe present study utilizes interaction-based elicitation embedded within Ecological Momentary Assessment (EMA) in two sub-samples: currently homeless young adults (n = 72) and formerly homeless young adults residing in Supportive Housing (n = 118).ResultsMost egos interacted with three of their top five alters, while only 8.9% interacted with all five. Conversely, only 2% of egos reported that they did not interact with any of their top five. Several differences in alter characteristics were identified by housing status. Alters indicated as being more supportive are elicited first and alters elicited first are interacted with the most.ConclusionsEMA findings suggest that a cross-sectional social network survey of top five alters will results in an ordered list, with the most important/frequent alter being named first and trend downward. Results have implications for future study design involving egocentric network analyses. Present findings indicate qualities of alters present and thus, offer plausible “best practices” when utilizing network elicitation methods, particularly interaction-based methods.     

大地之爱——广西当下诗歌创作的生态情怀

生态问题是当代社会发展中受到高度关注的问题，作为诗歌，同样也在关注生态问题。广西具有独特的地缘优势，在其中，既有美丽的风景，又有城市化进程中的生态危机。作为生态诗歌，其主要的功能不仅在于对美景的讴歌，更重要的，是对生态危机的反思和批判。广西当下诗人的某些诗歌当中就呈现出这种明显的生态情怀。     

流域水环境保护的市场型协调机制:策略及评价

流域水权交易、流域政府间生态补偿、排污收费与排污权交易、污水处理设施民营化等策略选择或是采取了产权自由化的设计,或是表现出对竞争机制的倚重,又或是将两者相结合,最终它们均可以增进流域政府间协调,减少流域水资源消费负外部性现象.也正是在这一意义上,可以将它们全部归为一种流域水环境治理的市场型协调机制.此种协调机制对于增进流域合作治理,更深刻的意涵则在于,由市场发挥对水资源乃至其他各类资源配置的基础性作用,才能真正减少和规范流域政府行政权力的活动范围,进而抵制其纵容辖区流域水资源消费负外部性的地方保护行为,最终促进流域政府间横向协调和对负外部性的联合治理.     

洞庭湖生态经济区可持续发展度研究--基于均方差权值法的实证分析

以实现洞庭湖生态经济区可持续发展为目标,从生态、经济和社会可持续发展度三个方面构建可持续发展的综合评价指标体系,采用均方差权值法确定指标的权重,对可持续发展状态进行统计测度,结果表明,洞庭湖生态经济区可持续发展水平整体上偏低,且可持续发展水平存在空间差异。因此,应从生态建设、经济手段和社会目标等方面构架促进该区域可持续发展的设想。