Electronic Green Journal

Earth Day 2013

Articles

Online Environmental Citizenship: Blogs, Green Marketing and consumer sentiment in the 21st Century

Consumers’ environmental consciousness is widespread with public acceptance of the global environmental crisis causing shifts in the debates within the environmental movement. The last three decades have seen consumers’ environmental consciousness grow as the environment has become a mainstream issue encouraging individual, government and company rethinking. Our longitudinal, empirical research findings are innovative and contribute by exploring global green blog sites using a content analysis, qualitative research technique Leximancer, which is an ideal analysis method that captures the essence of large volumes of textual data to draw significance. This snapshot monitored public opinion and found important concepts discussed over two, four month periods including energy, company, action, products, climate change, emissions, business, carbon, electric cars, organic and plastic. Our results revealed bloggers believe themselves to be influential and instrumental in creating change through environmental citizenship actions by creating an opportunity to disseminate environmental knowledge and attitude that exists between green bloggers and non-green bloggers.

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Green Libraries Are More Than Just Buildings

Aulisio, George J.

Many colleges and universities across the United States have adopted sustainability in their curriculum and operations. Academic libraries need to support the mission of their university and therefore must also play their part in sustainability education and operations. The library and information science literature shows the term “green library” to be a hallmark for a library building with an environmentally friendly design. However, there are very few academic libraries in the United States that are LEED certified. I argue that a green library is more than what the architecture entails. By using example initiatives and providing recommendations for green library operations, it is determined that a green library does not necessarily entail a green building, but it does involve a green mission.

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The Perils of Consumption and the Gift Economy as the Solution Daniel Miller’s Consumption and Its Consequences

Leahy, Terry

Miller is an anthropologist who has done much work on people’s connections to consumer objects. This has put him at odds with the view that modern consumerism is driven by false needs. His latest book also acknowledges the impact of consumption on the environment. Miller argues there is no chance of reigning in consumption with campaigns for moral reform. He favours regulation by a so-called neutral science. Whether this is any more politically palatable than moral reform is debatable. Miller does not sufficiently emphasize the role of alienated labour. Within the political framework he favours, alienated labour is inevitable. However, the gift economy could alleviate pressures for consumption by abolishing alienated labour. Miller’s ethnographies appear to show that every consumed product is much wanted. The critique of market failures expains the problems with this conclusion. A complete replacement of the market with the gift economy could be the best option for avoiding problems with consumption.

Columns

Environmental Information Sources: Books and websites

Mittrach, Michelle

A compliation of recent book publications and online resources in the environemental sciences.

Reviews

Review: Shopping for Good

Anderson, Byron P.

Book Review: Shopping for Good

Review: Human Dimensions of Ecological Restoration: Integrating Science, Nature, and Culture

Conklin, Jamie L

Book Review: Human Dimensions of Ecological Restoration: Integrating Science, Nature, and Culture

Review: Reigning the River: Urban Ecologies and Political Transformation in Kathmandu

Fiala, Matthew

Review: Reigning the River: Urban Ecologies and Political Transformation in Kathmandu

Review: Food and the Mid-Level Farm: Renewing an Agriculture of the Middle

Helman, Daniel S

Thomas A. Lyson, G.W. Stevenson, and Rick Welsh (Eds.) Food and the Mid-Level Farm: Renewing an Agriculture of the Middle. Cambridge, MA: The MIT Press, 2008. 296 pp. ISBN 9780262622158. US $27.00, paperback.

Reviews: From the End of Energy and Unlocking Energy Innovation

Kunnas, Jan

The End of Energy provides a good historical overview how the US energy system ended up in its current state, where the United States, with only 4 percent of the world’s population, consumes one-quarter of the energy the world uses each year. Unlocking Energy Innovation again gives an action plan how to close the resulting big energy efficiency gap to Europe and Japan.