PRESS-NEWS.org - Press Release Distribution
PRESS RELEASES DISTRIBUTION

Climate change at the movies

2014-06-03
(Press-News.org) Research published in the International Journal of Sustainable Development suggests that purportedly entertaining films that feature global warming and climate change can affect public understanding. But films are often bound up in problematic and limiting identity politics, which commonly reiterate racial, gender and sexual stereotypes positioning as they do white men as being the decision makers and the voice of authority.

Bridie McGreavy and Laura Lindenfeld of the Department of Communication and Journalism at the University of Maine, have analyzed three films that feature global warming prominently: The Day After Tomorrow (2004), Sizzle: A Global Warming Comedy (2008) and An Inconvenient Truth (2006).

The Day After Tomorrow, a drama directed by Roland Emmerich and featuring as its lead, male character a paleoclimatologist who predicts that global warming might actually plunge the planet into a new Ice Age, is simply a search and rescue in which the lead character must make a daring trek across America to get to his son, trapped in the cross-hairs of the sudden global storm.

Sizzle: A Global Warming Comedy directed by Randy Olson is allegedly a comedy, a mockumentary exploring the chaos surrounding global warming. It blends documentary and reality style in encounters with the silliness of environmental extremism and the seriousness of Hurricane Katrina.

An Inconvenient Truth directed by Davis Guggenheim documents Al Gore's campaign to get the issue of global warming recognized internationally.

All three films had their critics. All three have their factual errors and distortions. All three have their hidden agendas. None of the films is peer-reviewed science...obviously. Nevertheless, such storytelling does have an impact on popular culture and public perception regarding a given issue. McGreavy and Lindenfeld suggest that dominant representations of race and gender in these films fail to align with the key sustainable development goals of equity, freedom and shared responsibility. Instead, their position as "entertainment" influence s our sense of the world, guides our relationships and may well affect, in a detrimental manner, our collective abilities to create a sustainable future.

"Scientific consensus on climate change is clear," the team says. "Attention to this issue in mainstream media is likely to grow stronger as the reality of a changing climate comes home." They add that, "Ideological criticism of movie representations is important because it helps us discover how texts align with or differentiate themselves from dominant discourse." They suggest that we need to engage critically with films to understand who is positioned as having the ability to act and how. "It is not just about rational, fact-based reasoning but about making and using films to challenge dominant stereotypes, change social institutions, and empower citizens more broadly," McGreavy says.

INFORMATION: McGreavy, B. and Lindenfeld, L. (2014) 'Entertaining our way to engagement? Climate change films and sustainable development values', Int. J. Sustainable Development, Vol. 17, No. 2, pp.123-136.


ELSE PRESS RELEASES FROM THIS DATE:

NASA infrared imagery sees heavy rain potential in Tropical Depression 2E

NASA infrared imagery sees heavy rain potential in Tropical Depression 2E
2014-06-03
NASA's Aqua satellite captured an infrared image of Tropical Depression 2E that revealed high, very cold cloud top temperatures. Strong thunderstorms with cold cloud top temperatures that reach high into the troposphere have the potential to drop heavy rainfall amounts, and the National Hurricane Center has forecast large rainfall for the southern region of Mexico over the next couple of days. A Tropical Storm Warning is in effect for Salina Cruz to the Mexico and Guatemala border as the depression remained stationary near the southwestern coast of Mexico on June 3. NASA's ...

Farmers markets inspire WIC moms, but grocery-store produce costs less!

2014-06-03
URBANA, Ill. – When participants in a local Women, Infants, and Children (WIC) program received vouchers for fruits and vegetables at area farmers markets, they ate a greater variety of vegetables and more often chose fruits or vegetables as snacks. But a survey comparing prices at grocery stores and farmers markets showed that better produce prices could be found in local supermarkets, says a new University of Illinois study. "The biggest effect the vouchers had was related to the quality of participants' diets. Those who used the farmers market vouchers ate a greater ...

NIH task force proposes standards for research on chronic low back pain

2014-06-03
June 3, 2014 - Standardized research methods are needed to make greater progress toward reducing the high burden and costs of chronic low back pain (cLBP), according to a Task Force report in the June 15 issue of Spine. The journal is published by Lippincott Williams & Wilkins, a part of Wolters Kluwer Health. The article introduces a set of proposed research standards to help in comparing the results of cLBP studies. The recommendations were developed by a Research Task Force convened by the NIH Pain Consortium. The Task Force co-chairs were Drs Richard A. Deyo of ...

Brain signals link physical fitness to better language skills in kids

Brain signals link physical fitness to better language skills in kids
2014-06-03
CHAMPAIGN, Ill. — Children who are physically fit have faster and more robust neuro-electrical brain responses during reading than their less-fit peers, researchers report. These differences correspond with better language skills in the children who are more fit, and occur whether they're reading straightforward sentences or sentences that contain errors of grammar or syntax. The new findings, reported in the journal Brain and Cognition, do not prove that higher fitness directly influences the changes seen in the electrical activity of the brain, the researchers say, ...

Palmer amaranth threatens Midwest farm economy, researchers report

Palmer amaranth threatens Midwest farm economy, researchers report
2014-06-03
CHAMPAIGN, Ill. — An invasive weed that has put some southern cotton farmers out of business is now finding its way across the Midwest – and many corn and soybean growers don't yet appreciate the threat, University of Illinois researchers report. Palmer amaranth (Amaranthus palmeri), a flowering plant native to the Sonoran desert and southwest United States, has a laundry list of traits that make it a fierce competitor on the farm, said Aaron Hager, a University of Illinois crop sciences professor. Palmer amaranth germinates throughout much of the growing season, starts ...

Toxic computer waste in the developing world

2014-06-03
As the developing world continues to develop, standards of living and access to technology increases. Unfortunately, as personal computers, laptops and mobile phones become increasingly common so the problem of recycling and disposal of such devices when they become technologically obsolete rises too, according to research published in the International Journal of Environmental Technology and Management. Neelu Jain of the PEC University of Technology, in Chandigarh and Pamela Chawla of the Surya World, Surya World Technical Campus in Punjab, India, have estimated the ...

Nano-platform ready: Scientists use DNA origami to create 2-D structures

2014-06-03
Scientists at New York University and the University of Melbourne have developed a method using DNA origami to turn one-dimensional nano materials into two dimensions. Their breakthrough, published in the latest issue of the journal Nature Nanotechnology, offers the potential to enhance fiber optics and electronic devices by reducing their size and increasing their speed. "We can now take linear nano-materials and direct how they are organized in two dimensions, using a DNA origami platform to create any number of shapes," explains NYU Chemistry Professor Nadrian Seeman, ...

Scientists capture most detailed images yet of tiny cellular machines

Scientists capture most detailed images yet of tiny cellular machines
2014-06-03
MADISON, Wis. — A grandfather clock is, on its surface, a simple yet elegant machine. Tall and stately, its job is to steadily tick away the time. But a look inside reveals a much more intricate dance of parts, from precisely-fitted gears to cable-embraced pulleys and bobbing levers. Like exploring the inner workings of a clock, a team of University of Wisconsin-Madison researchers is digging into the inner workings of the tiny cellular machines called spliceosomes, which help make all of the proteins our bodies need to function. In a recent study published in the journal ...

Preventive services by medical and dental providers and treatment outcomes

2014-06-03
Alexandria, Va., USA – The International and American Associations for Dental Research (IADR/AADR) have published a paper titled "Preventive Services by Medical and Dental Providers and Treatment Outcomes." Nearly all state Medicaid programs reimburse non-dental primary care providers (nDPCPs) for providing preventive oral health services to young children; yet, little is known about how treatment outcomes compare to children visiting dentists. This study compared the association between the provider of preventive services (nDPCP, dentist or both) to Medicaid-enrolled children ...

New Ichthyosaur graveyard found

2014-06-03
Boulder, Colo., USA – In a new study published in the Geological Society of America Bulletin, geoscientists Wolfgang Stinnesbeck of the University of Heidelberg and colleagues document the discovery of forty-six ophthalmosaurid ichthyosaurs (marine reptiles). These specimens were discovered in the vicinity of the Tyndall Glacier in the Torres del Paine National Park of southern Chile. Among them are numerous articulated and virtually complete skeletons of adults, pregnant females, and juveniles. Preservation is excellent and occasionally includes soft tissue and embryos. ...

LAST 30 PRESS RELEASES:

Cheese may really be giving you nightmares, scientists find

Study reveals most common medical emergencies in schools

Breathable yet protective: Next-gen medical textiles with micro/nano networks

Frequency-engineered MXene supercapacitors enable efficient pulse charging in TENG–SC hybrid systems

Developed an AI-based classification system for facial pigmented lesions

Achieving 20% efficiency in halogen-free organic solar cells via isomeric additive-mediated sequential processing

New book Terraglossia reclaims language, Country and culture

The most effective diabetes drugs don't reach enough patients yet

Breast cancer risk in younger women may be influenced by hormone therapy

Strategies for staying smoke-free after rehab

Commentary questions the potential benefit of levothyroxine treatment of mild hypothyroidism during pregnancy

Study projects over 14 million preventable deaths by 2030 if USAID defunding continues

New study reveals 33% gap in transplant access for UK’s poorest children

Dysregulated epigenetic memory in early embryos offers new clues to the inheritance of polycystic ovary syndrome (PCOS)

IVF and IUI pregnancy rates remain stable across Europe, despite an increasing uptake of single embryo transfer

It takes a village: Chimpanzee babies do better when their moms have social connections

From lab to market: how renewable polymers could transform medicine

Striking increase in obesity observed among youth between 2011 and 2023

No evidence that medications trigger microscopic colitis in older adults

NYUAD researchers find link between brain growth and mental health disorders

Aging-related inflammation is not universal across human populations, new study finds

University of Oregon to create national children’s mental health center with $11 million federal grant

Rare achievement: UTA undergrad publishes research

Fact or fiction? The ADHD info dilemma

Genetic ancestry linked to risk of severe dengue

Genomes reveal the Norwegian lemming as one of the youngest mammal species

Early birds get the burn: Monash study finds early bedtimes associated with more physical activity

Groundbreaking analysis provides day-by-day insight into prehistoric plankton’s capacity for change

Southern Ocean saltier, hotter and losing ice fast as decades-long trend unexpectedly reverses

Human fishing reshaped Caribbean reef food webs, 7000-year old exposed fossilized reefs reveal

[Press-News.org] Climate change at the movies