Satire, Humor, and Environmental Crises

Satire, Humor, and Environmental Crises PDF

Author: Massih Zekavat

Publisher: Taylor & Francis

Published: 2023-05-15

Total Pages: 227

ISBN-13: 1000868664

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Satire, Humor, and Environmental Crises explores how satire and humor can be employed to address and mitigate ecological crises at individual and collective levels. Besides scientific and technological endeavors, solutions to ecological crises must entail social and communicative reform to persuade citizens, corporations, organizations, and policymakers to adopt more sustainable lifestyles and policies. This monograph reassesses environmental behavior and messaging and explores the promises of humorous and satiric communication therein. It draws upon a solid and interdisciplinary theoretical foundation to explicate the individual, social, and ecospheric determinants of behavior. Creative works of popular culture across various modes of expression, including The Simpsons, Last Week Tonight with John Oliver, and The New Yorker cartoons, are examined to illustrate the strong if underappreciated relationship between humor and the environment. This is followed by a discussion of the instruments and methodological subtleties involved in measuring the impacts of humor and satire in environmental advocacy for the purpose of conducting empirical research. More broadly, the book aspires to participate in urgent cultural and political discussions about how we can evaluate and intervene in the full diversity of environmental crises, engage a broad set of internal and external partners and stakeholders, and develop models for positive social and environmental transformations. This book will be of great interest to students and scholars interested in environmental humanities, communication science, psychology, and critical humor studies. It can further benefit environmental activists, policymakers, NGOs, and campaign organizers.

Ecophenomenology and the Environmental Crisis in the Sundarbans

Ecophenomenology and the Environmental Crisis in the Sundarbans PDF

Author: Kalpita Bhar Paul

Publisher: Taylor & Francis

Published: 2024-08-16

Total Pages: 264

ISBN-13: 1040120091

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This book offers a philosophical analysis of the environmental crisis in the Indian Sundarbans, drawing upon phenomenological narratives. It nuances the present understanding of the crisis by introducing plurality in our metaphysical understanding of the environment and epistemological understanding of the human–environment relationship. Contemporary research on the Sundarbans mainly focuses on the impending threat of climate change, natural disasters, as well as increasing human–animal conflict, conservation, and forest access debates, while scholarly works have mostly used environmental impact assessments to offer technocratic solutions that prioritize a particular type of human–environment relationship characterized by an "anticipation of ruin." Rather than rushing to find solutions, I embark on a journey to unpack the meaning of crisis through phenomenological narratives of human–environment relationships. A deep dive into the human–environment relationship through an intentional engagement with the work-worlds of islanders, the formation of a more-than-human community is revealed, giving rise to community-based ethic that transcends the poverty of thought and imagination in comprehending the crisis of the Indian Sundarbans. This new ethical framework emphasizes the co-emergence of self-consciousness and eco-consciousness, serving as a moral impetus for individuals to act ethically towards the environment. This approach impels us to rethink what the Sundarbans is, how the crisis gets manifested to the inlanders and outsiders, and what kind of procedural changes are required to protect the Sundarbans as a living ecosystem instead of a natural museum. The book’s phenomenological depth and engaged philosophical framework will elicit deep interest from within academia and among practitioners who are working in environmental studies, philosophy, human ecology, and island studies. The convergence of conceptual understandings and field narratives will also draw the interest of research students working in correlated fields.

A Planet for the President

A Planet for the President PDF

Author: Alistair Beaton

Publisher: Weidenfeld & Nicolson

Published: 2005-06-01

Total Pages: 256

ISBN-13: 9780297847779

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It is the near future. Things are not going well for the President of the United States. He wants Americans to be adored by freedom-loving people everywhere. Instead, half the planet seems to be in a permanent state of insurrection against US power. What's more, there's a growing environmental crisis that even he can't ignore. It's one thing when there are floods in Bangladesh, quite another when almost 2,000 Americans die in flooding in Texas. His advisers warn him he could be remembered as the President who wrecked the planet. That's not exactly the historical legacy he's longed for.Against this background, the President is persuaded of one simple fact: there are too many people in the world. Only radical action can deal with the problem. By which his advisers mean reducing the number of people on the planet. In fact, getting rid of everybody - except Americans. The President recoils in horror at the thought. But soon he and his advisers are committed to thinking the unthinkable. As a vaccination programme for all Americans begins, plans are drawn up for a deadly pathogen to be spread around the globe...

Bad Environmentalism

Bad Environmentalism PDF

Author: Nicole Seymour

Publisher: U of Minnesota Press

Published: 2018-10-30

Total Pages: 301

ISBN-13: 1452958092

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Traces a tradition of ironic and irreverent environmentalism, asking us to rethink the movement’s reputation for gloom and doom Activists today strive to educate the public about climate change, but sociologists have found that the more we know about alarming issues, the less likely we are to act. Meanwhile, environmentalists have acquired a reputation as gloom-and-doom killjoys. Bad Environmentalism identifies contemporary texts that respond to these absurdities and ironies through absurdity and irony—as well as camp, frivolity, irreverence, perversity, and playfulness. Nicole Seymour develops the concept of “bad environmentalism”: cultural thought that employs dissident affects and sensibilities to reflect critically on our current moment and on mainstream environmental activism. From the television show Wildboyz to the short film series Green Porno, Seymour shows that this tradition of thought is widespread—spanning animation, documentary, fiction film, performance art, poetry, prose fiction, social media, and stand-up comedy since at least 1975. Seymour argues that these texts reject self-righteousness and sentimentality, undercutting public negativity toward activism and questioning basic environmentalist assumptions: that love and reverence are required for ethical relationships with the nonhuman and that knowledge is key to addressing problems like climate change. Funny and original, Bad Environmentalism champions the practice of alternative green politics. From drag performance to Indigenous comedy, Seymour expands our understanding of how environmental art and activism can be pleasurable, even in a time of undeniable crisis.

UN Human Rights Institutions and the Environment

UN Human Rights Institutions and the Environment PDF

Author: Sumudu Atapattu

Publisher: Taylor & Francis

Published: 2023-05-22

Total Pages: 312

ISBN-13: 1000878864

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This book presents an in-depth analysis of how UN human rights institutions and mechanisms have addressed environmental protection, sustainable development, and climate change. Despite the increasing involvement of UN human rights bodies in addressing environmental degradation and climate change, a systematic review of the convergence between human rights and the environment in these bodies has not been carried out. Filing this lacuna, this book surveys the resolutions, general comments, concluding observations, decisions on individual communications and press releases. It identifies principles that have emerged, explores the ways in which human rights charter-based and treaty-based institutions are interpreting environmental principles and examines how they contribute to the emerging field of human rights and the environment. Given the disproportionate effect that polluting activities have on marginalized and vulnerable groups, Atapattu also discusses how these human rights mechanisms have addressed the impact on women, children, indigenous peoples, people with disabilities, and racial minorities. Written by a world-renowned expert on human rights and the environment, this book will be of great interest to students and scholars researching and teaching in this important field of study.

The Handbook of International Trends in Environmental Communication

The Handbook of International Trends in Environmental Communication PDF

Author: Bruno Takahashi

Publisher: Routledge

Published: 2021-12-27

Total Pages: 661

ISBN-13: 1000509389

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This handbook provides a comprehensive review of communication around rising global environmental challenges and public action to manage them now and into the future. Bringing together theoretical, methodological, and practical chapters, this book presents a unique opportunity for environmental communication scholars to critically reflect on the past, examine present trends, and start envisioning exciting new methodologies, theories, and areas of research. Chapters feature authors from a wide range of countries to critically review the genesis and evolution of environmental communication research and thus analyze current issues in the field from a truly international perspective, incorporating diverse epistemological perspectives, exciting new methodologies, and interdisciplinary theoretical frameworks. The handbook seeks to challenge existing dominant perspectives of environmental communication from and about populations in the Global South and disenfranchised populations in the Global North. The Handbook of International Trends in Environmental Communication is ideal for scholars and advanced students of communication, sustainability, strategic communication, media, environmental studies, and politics.

Energy, Environment and Geopolitics in Eurasia

Energy, Environment and Geopolitics in Eurasia PDF

Author: Norman A. Graham

Publisher: Taylor & Francis

Published: 2023-12-22

Total Pages: 225

ISBN-13: 1003823645

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This book advances our understanding of security and its intricate interactions with geopolitics and the environment in Eurasia. Norman A. Graham and Şuhnaz Yılmaz focus on Eurasia, where the energy-water-food nexus has emerged as a vital aspect of political economy and increasinglyas a decisive factor for human security. As clearly revealed during the Russian invasion of Ukraine, this nexus rests on a precarious balance. Graham and Yilmaz argue that Central Eurasia is currently “Running on Empty” and highlight the key environmental challenges, including water quantity and quality and food security. The authors draw on their extensive fieldwork in countries including Azerbaijan, China, Georgia, Kazakhstan, the Russian Federation, Turkey, and Uzbekistan to assess the interests and impact of pivotal actors and evaluate the competition and complementarities of these actors regarding water, energy, food security, and foreign policy imperatives. They also examine the broader interaction and implications of security at multiple levels by analyzing the local, national, and international factors in light of geopolitical and environmental challenges. Taking a novel and highly interdisciplinary approach, this book will be an important resource for students and scholars of energy and food security, political economy, international conflict and cooperation, and natural resource politics.

Making CO2 a Resource

Making CO2 a Resource PDF

Author: Øyvind Stokke

Publisher: Taylor & Francis

Published: 2024-06-03

Total Pages: 223

ISBN-13: 1040032486

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This interdisciplinary book explores how CO2 can become a resource instead of a waste and, as such, be a tool to meet one of the grandest challenges humanity is facing: climate change. Drawing on a Norwegian narrative that has significance for a global audience, Øyvind Stokke and Elin Oftedal introduce in-depth, multi-perspective analyses of a sustainable innovation research experiment in industrial carbon capture and utilisation technologies. Building on extensive literature within marine sciences, sustainability research, and environmental philosophy and ethics, this book documents how a misplaced resource like CO2 can become valuable within a circular economy in its own right, while at the same time meeting the challenge of food security in a world where food production is increasingly under pressure. The book is diverse in scope and includes chapters on how to reduce the environmental footprint of aquaculture by replacing wild fish and soy from the Amazon, how to optimise the monitoring of aquatic environments via smart technologies, and how to replace materials otherwise sourced from natural environments. The authors also analyse the pivotal role of the university in driving innovation and entrepreneurship, the pitfalls of different carbon technologies, and explore how the link between petroleum dependence and CO2 emissions has been addressed in Norway specifically. Making CO2 a Resource will be of great interest to students and scholars of climate change, environmental ethics, environmental philosophy, sustainable business and innovation, and sustainable development more broadly.

Myth and Environmentalism

Myth and Environmentalism PDF

Author: Esther Sánchez-Pardo

Publisher: Taylor & Francis

Published: 2023-07-05

Total Pages: 255

ISBN-13: 100090072X

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This volume traces the interconnections between myth, environmentalism, narrative, poetry, comics, and innovative artistic practice, using this as a framework through which to examine strategies for repairing our unhealthy relationship with the planet. Challenging late capitalist modes encouraging mindless consumption and the degradation of human–nature relations, this collection advocates a re-evaluation of the ethical relation to "living with" and sharing the Earth. Myth and the environment have shared a rich common cultural history travelling as far back as the times of storytelling and legend, with the environment often the central theme. Following a robust introduction, the book is organized into three main sections—Myth, Disaster, and Present-Day Views on Ecological Damage; Indigenous and Afro-diasporic Myths and Ecological Knowledge; Art Practices, Myth, and Environmental Resilience—and concludes with a Coda from Jeanette Hart-Mann. The methodology draws from diverse perspectives, such as ecocriticism, new materialism, and Anthropocene studies, offering a truly interdisciplinary discussion that reflects on the dialogue among environment and myth, and a broad range of contributions are included from Canada, the United States, the Caribbean, Ukraine, Japan, Morocco, and Brazil. The book joins a long line of approaches on the interrelations between ecological and mythical thinking and criticism that goes back to the early 20th century. This volume will be of interest to students, scholars, activists, and experts in environmental humanities, myth and myth criticism, literature and art on more-than human and nature interaction, ecocriticism, environmental activism, and climate change.

Christian Environmentalism and Human Responsibility in the 21st Century

Christian Environmentalism and Human Responsibility in the 21st Century PDF

Author: Katherine M. Quinsey

Publisher: Taylor & Francis

Published: 2023-11-16

Total Pages: 270

ISBN-13: 1000996433

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Christian Environmentalism and Human Responsibility in the 21st Century comprises original scholarly essays and creative works exploring the implications of Christian environmentalism through literary and cultural criticism and creative reflection. The volume draws on a flourishing recent body of Christian ecocriticism and environmental activity, incorporating both practical ethics and environmental spirituality, but with particular emphasis on the notion of human responsibility. It discusses responsibility in its dual sense, as both the recognized cause of environmental destruction and the ethical imperative of accountability to the nonhuman environment. The book crosses boundaries between traditional scholarly and creative reflection through a global range of topics: African oral tradition, Ohio artists off the grid, immigrant self-metaphors of land and sea, iconic writers from Milton to O’Connor to Atwood, and Indigenous Canadian models for listening to the nonhuman Mother of us all. In its incorporation of academic and creative pieces from scholars and creative artists across North America, this volume shows how environmental work of its nature and necessity crosses traditional academic and community boundaries. In both form and orientation, this collection speaks to the most urgent intellectual, physical, social, and spiritual needs of the present day. This book will appeal to scholars, researchers, and upper-level students interested in the relationship between religion and environment, ethics, animal welfare, poetry, memoir, and post-secularism.