Ecological Responsibility Research Articles

Analysis of Dances with Wolves from the Perspective of Deep Ecology

Dances with Wolves (1988), the masterpiece of Michael Blake, tells the story of a Civil War-era United States Army lieutenant named Dunbar who was dispatched to the American frontier to find a military post, and who eventually blended in the community of the aboriginals, Lakota. Since its publication, there have been many interpretations of the novel. However, no one has carried out research on the novel from the perspective of deep ecology, one of the basic branches of ecocriticism. As all the other writers pondering the relationship between humans and the environment, Blake launched a call on humankind to reflect deeply on environmental crisis and most of his works were brimmed with concerns over the relationship between humans and the environment. This paper intends to interpret Dances with Wolves from deep ecological perspective and to explore the ecological ideas implied in the novel. Firstly, the paper gives a sketch of deep ecology, the ultimate norms of deep ecology and the concept wilderness which the author of this paper will apply to the study. Secondly, the paper expounds the protagonist Dunbar’s Self-realization through analyzing his adventure on the prairie. The paper respectively illuminates his Self-realization from three aspects: Dunbar’s adventure in the wilderness, Dunbar’s intimacy with his initiator Two Socks and Dunbar’s companionship with his mentor Kicking Bird. The last part of the paper is a conclusion that summarizes the social significance of Dunbar’s Self-realization. For the common benefit of the whole ecosystem, Michael Blake, with the book, advocates human beings to cultivate ecological consciousness, to possess the ecological responsibility, to respect the values and rights of all forms of life and to live in harmony with nature.

Green Information Systems Refraction for Corporate Ecological Responsibility Reflection in ICT Based Firms

This study develops a green information system (IS) interpretive model grounded on technology organization environment (TOE) framework to identify the factors that influence Green IS refraction and further examines to what extent these factors impact Green IS refraction in information communications technology (ICT) based firms for corporate ecological responsibility reflection. For this purpose, a survey was conducted among ICT based firms and analyzed using partial least square-structural equation modeling (PLS-SEM). Results indicate that the technological factors significantly influence Green IS refraction. In addition, results suggest that the organizational factors positively influence Green IS refraction. Moreover, results reveal that environmental factors significantly determine the extent of Green IS refraction. Finally, results show that Green IS reflection initiatives implemented in ICT-based firms positively defines corporate ecological responsibility. Respectively, this study offers a comprehensive approach for measuring Green IS practice implemented in ICT based firms.

Forecasting the number of vehicle kilometers by applying the autoregression model, using Warsaw trams as an example

One of the biggest challenges of the 21st century is ecological responsibility. It also concerns the sustainable development of transport and the reduction of threats related to the negative impact of this phenomenon on the environment. A constant increase in transport congestion, atmospheric air pollution, and noise promotes the search for new solutions, especially in urban areas. One of the systematically implemented and improved ideas in this area is the development of urban transport systems. Their effectiveness and efficiency are evidenced by the level of meeting the transport needs of residents, with the optimal utilization of vehicles. The article analyses urban transport in Warsaw, focusing only on trams as the second most popular means of transport after wheeled vehicles. Two objectives of the study were adopted. The first was evaluating the current state and characteristics of the available options and indicating potential development directions, considering factors that determine it. The second goal was to select the appropriate model describing the number of vehicle kilometers accumulated by Warsaw trams in the years 2017-2019 and parametric identification of this model. The study allowed us to estimate and make a short-term forecast of transport services carried out by trams. The research has shown that the current situation regarding the performance of transport work by trams in Warsaw does not fit into the paradigm of sustainable transport development. This is due to the loss of vehicles from the records in the absence of new vehicle purchases. Additionally, the developed tool indicates a decrease in the number of vehicles-km performed in the following months and, thus, a reduction in the share of trams in transport in the Warsaw communication system. The identified problem (i.e., a downward trend in transport performance) is essential from the point of view of the quality of the system's operation and the ability to meet passengers' expectations. It also informs decision-makers about the need to implement changes leading to an increase in the share of tram transport, mainly in capacity and operating costs.

Designing cross-region ecological compensation scheme by integrating habitat maintenance services production and consumption—A case study of Jing-Jin-Ji region

Establishing a practicable ecological compensation scheme is crucial to raise sufficient funds for habitat conservation. This study proposes a cross-region ecological compensation scheme by integrating habitat maintenance services production and consumption. In addition, the suitability evaluation method and InVEST model of habitat quality were employed to estimate the habitat maintenance services production and consumption, respectively. We used 1980 as the benchmark year and applied the scheme to a three-level hierarchy of the Jing-Jin-Ji region for 2000, 2008 and 2013. At the provincial level, Beijing paid the most habitat maintenance services ecological compensation, with an increasing trend from 1.64 × 109 RMB to 2.22 × 109 RMB, and Hebei received the most, from 2.06 × 109 RMB to 2.72 × 109 RMB. At the municipal level, Chengde, which is the most underdeveloped region in Hebei, was the largest beneficiary, receiving 1.31 × 109 RMB, 1.42 × 109 RMB and 1.46 × 109 RMB, respectively, and the ratio of ecological compensation to fiscal revenue was 7.59%. At the county level, Fengning and Weichang, the top two underdeveloped counties in Chengde, received the highest compensation. The results are consistent with each region's ecological function positioning and economic development status of the Jing-Jin-Ji region. This study can clarify the ecological responsibilities and rights, and provides the suggestions for establishing the cross administrative region ecological compensation scheme and long-term funding mechanism for habitat conservation.

Impact of Environmental Concern on Ecological Purchasing Behavior: The Moderating Effect of Prosociality

Promoting ecological consumption is gradually becoming a social consensus. A crucial point of ecological consumption is consumers’ willingness to purchase eco-friendly products, which has become an important consideration for government policymakers. In order to achieve social responsibility, enterprises are also finding ways to encourage consumers to buy eco-friendly products. In this study, we explored the relationship between environmental concern and ecological purchasing behavior, and we tested the moderating effect of prosociality in order to explain why people act in a manner that benefits society. A self-administered questionnaire was developed to gather data, and statistical hypotheses were validated through a structural equation model. The results indicated that enhancing consumers’ environmental concerns can effectively influence their eco-purchasing behavior. Therefore, ecological attitude and ecological responsibility have a direct influence on ecological purchasing behavior. Environmental concern positively influences ecological attitude and ecological responsibility through ecological values and ecological affects. Furthermore, the prosociality moderating effect is also significant. Prosociality positively moderates the relationships among ecological responsibility, ecological attitude, and ecological purchasing behavior. The relationships among these factors are important to consider when developing ecological marketing campaigns and communication strategies to influence consumers’ ecological behavior. Therefore, fostering prosociality among citizens is also an effective way to enhance the level of eco-consumption.

Voluntary Simplicity and Green Buying Behavior: An Extended Framework

Green consumption is usually understood in the context of green consumption values and receptivity to green communication. Voluntary simplicity, a related yet distinct construct that relies on ecological responsibility, has not been included in the same framework. This paper bridges this gap and extends the original model to consider green consumption and voluntary simplicity in a unified structure. Based on a study conducted in Romania, it was found that 70% of the variation in buying behavior is explained by a combination of direct and mediated influences. The main takeaway is that any serious attempt to encourage responsible buying has to rely on a reduction in the absolute level of consumer demand. This result has far-reaching implications because the current paradigm of economic growth and prosperity is tributary to consumerism. The question is not how to avoid curtailing consumption and substitute green products for those harming the environment, but rather how to make voluntary frugality palatable.

Exploring Supply Chain Collaboration for Green Innovations: Evidence from the High-Tech Industry in Poland

The purpose of this article is to investigate whether the wide scope of supply chain collaboration including both customers and suppliers (Upstream–downstream External Collaboration) determines the greening of innovation more significantly than the scope limited only to suppliers (Upstream External Collaboration) or customers (Downstream External Collaboration). This goal was achieved as part of extensive research on the impact of relational capital on the innovativeness of high-tech companies in Poland. The results of the research were analysed using fuzzy conversion scales and descriptive statistics based on triangular fuzzy numbers. The application of the achievements of the fuzzy sets theory made it possible to test the hypotheses presented in the article with the use of fuzzy analysis of variance (fuzzy ANOVA). The findings confirm that the subjective scope of collaboration in the supply chain is important for greening innovation. Companies that cooperate with both suppliers and customers (Upstream–downstream External Collaboration) declared a greater tendency to green their innovations than those that cooperate with only one group of partners. The research findings contribute to the literature on the role of collaboration in the ecological responsibility and environmental performance of supply chain partners. The conclusions may have practical implications for the design and implementation of strategies in sustainable supply chain management. The study provides important lessons for SC managers facing the challenge of sustainable management during and after the COVID-19 outbreak.

Rescaling the Weather Experience: From an Object of Aesthetics to a Matter of Concern

This paper analyses the cluster of aesthetic features involved in the common experience of the weather. Perceptual features (framelessness, chromatics, texture, synaesthesia, ephemerality, proteism) are accompanied by ‘atmospheric’ moods that are irreducible to physiological well-being. Representation and imagination reach their limits due to the more-than-human spatiotemporal scale of the atmosphere. Finally, some ‘transaesthetic’ aspects include the agency of an active matter and the longing for an elemental alterity. The aesthetics of the weather has to account for the interdependence between aesthetic and ethical values, between bodily engagement and appropriate knowledge, individual contemplation and social commitment, in order to develop ecological responsibility.

Merawat Bumi Ciptaan Allah: Tanggung Jawab Ekoteologis GMIT Jemaat Lopo Maus Klasis Kupang Barat dalam Memanfaatkan Lahan Tidur

This paper will describe the practice of ecological responsibility that has been implemented in the Lopo Maus Congregation. The author began to stir the congregation when he saw land that was not being used. Even though the people around the Lopo Maus congregation have a large land area, striving for this land is to build an economy that is still below the poverty line. The challenge for land management in Kupang is that there is very little water. This writing aims to make the community make the best use of the land. This effort is made so that people love the environment more. The method that I use is qualitative, an objective approach that is carried out in the field. The results of the study found that first, land management requires persistence and patience. Second, good teamwork. Third, creating jobs. Fourth, environmental management as a concrete form of worship. Fifth, it can improve people's lives.

ЕКОЛОГІЧНА ОСВІТА МАЙБУТНІХ СУДНОВОДІЇВ ЯК ПСИХОЛОГО-ПЕДАГОГІЧНА ПРОБЛЕМА

The article reveals the role of environmental education in the professional training of specialists - future navigators. It was established that the problem of environmental protection is one of the most acute problems of our time. Formation of ecological culture, ecological beliefs, ecological style of thinking of modern students, mastering the basics of rational nature management is one of the priority tasks of modern maritime higher education. It was underlined that environmental education is a very important component of the educational process. It is a system in which ecological thinking, ecological culture, ecological responsibility, ecological consciousness, humanistic ideas, principles, universal human values, scientific knowledge, and skills interact. These qualities are necessary for future navigators, as they are needed to solve professional tasks related to ecological safety during the operation of sea and river transport. In addition, the solution of professional tasks requires the implementation of a certain algorithm of actions in the event of accidents and incidents on water with dangerous environmental consequences. The theoretical approaches of scholars to the concepts of "ecological education", "ecological responsibility", "ecological competence", "ecological culture" are generalized. The conclusion was made concerning the importance of the formation of the integrated content of professional disciplines, taking into account the ecological component in the training of maritime specialists. The need to upgrade the system of higher maritime education in order to form an ecological component in professional training. At the same time, emphasis should be placed on qualitative changes in the environmental education of future maritime specialists, in updating the structure and content of environmental knowledge as the main factor in the formation of the environmental consciousness of future navigators. Key words: future navigators, maritime education, ecological competence, ecological education, ecological culture.

Environmental attitude and ecological behavior: the key of climate change to win the sustainable development challenge

In this article, we are shining lights on the ecological transition, as a switch from a societal model that prioritizes economic growth towards a model that supports environmental sustainability as well economic prosperity at the same time. We will develop, in an approach foresight, which highlights all the dimensions influencing the role of each individual with respect to his behavior and ecological responsibility. This paper will also identify the determinants of consumer’s ecological behavior in the Moroccan context. It aims to describe a consumer's ecological behavior by taking a responsible decision that guarantees its social responsibility. The innovative benefit of our perception is to integrate the ecological aspect into the dimensions chosen in order to define and further explain a responsible ecological behavior.

“They Saw Mute Creation Trembling”: Forms of Catastrophe in the Old English Christ III

The Old English poem Christ III represents the Crucifixion not by focusing on Christ's suffering but by depicting natural disasters. In its representation of creation's upheavals, Christ III establishes an ecopoetics in which language can sketch but never fully fathom either the extent or, importantly, the causes of ecological catastrophe. Its forms suggest that creation's compassion for Christ's suffering actually results in violent self-destruction—a suggestion that troubles twenty-first-century narratives of ecological catastrophe and human responsibility. Although the motif of creation's sympathy with Christ appears throughout medieval theology, Christ III's treatment of this motif raises two sets of questions about medieval depictions of catastrophe, one set focused on represention of ecological catastrophe and one focused on causes of catastrophe. Christ III leads the reader to experience the impossibility of fully understanding catastrophe, forcing the reader to question the individual's role in catastrophe.

THE NIGERIAN BLUE ECONOMY: ECONOMIC EXPANSION ISSUES AND CHALLENGES

The land is deteriorating. Now we’ll look at the oceans. With the continued loss of terrestrial resources and the need for major economic gains, littoral states have increased their efforts to achieve a “blue economy.” Nigeria, as a country with a large number of littoral component states and long waterways, has not been left out in this pursuit, making the creation of a Nigerian blue economy a need for the country’s benefit. The pursuit of a blue economy, on the other hand, goes beyond national borders and takes on an international dimension. The blue economy, also known as the marine economic system, is an ecosystem of economic activities centered on commerce and action in and around huge bodies of water, such as oceans, that are continued to survive ecological responsibility. Fishing, wastewater treatment, tourism, seaside hotels and restaurants, power (wind energy and tidal power), and transportation are all part of the economy (ships, bargers, rigs, and other floating vessels). In value terms added and employment, the “Blue Economy” might outperform the world economy as a whole. Around the world, blue economy activities and ideas are showing to be varied, vibrant, and broad. As a result, this debate emerges, with the goal of determining how this ideal of a Nigerian blue economy may become a reality.

Application of Carbon Sink in Restorative Justice Measures for Ecological Responsibility

Application of Carbon Sink in Restorative Justice Measures for Ecological Responsibility

Les valeurs écologiques dans les discours portant sur l’environnement

The article focuses on the analysis of the axiological dimension of ecology-related vocabulary. The following concepts were used to analyze the diversified corpus: lexical-discursive profile, discursive designation and interdiscursive memory. The analyzes show that the concept of the so-called ecological responsibility is the main reference in creating two main axes: good, fair, beneficial vs bad, unfair, unfavorable for humans and the environment / the planet. It has also been observed that valuation begins at the level of definition of a lexical item in linguistic and thematic dictionaries.

Ecofeminist Theology of Interdependence. A Constructive Theological Approach to Contemporary Environmental (in)Justice and Vulnerability

This article addresses the issue of social and environmental (in)justice through the lens of Christian ecofeminism and its ethic of interconnectedness and ecological responsibility for all of creation. Because ecofeminism connects the exploitation of women with the exploitation of creation (nature), I use the central research methodology of Christian ecofeminist hermeneutics to formulate a central research question: first, an analysis of Christian ecofeminism’s position on social and ecological (in)justice, then an analysis of the positive implications for Christian theology and for the pursuit of social and ecological justice. Although climate change disproportionately impacts female populations, in particular the reproductive health of poorer women, women are often excluded from environmental decision-making processes. Women around the world are already more affected by polluted air, limited access to clean water, and increased exposure to toxic chemicals, and climate change exacerbates these threats. Sensitivity to the impacts of climate change also provides women with a unique experiential knowledge that they can use to make an important contribution to efforts to increase climate resilience and sustainability, as well as to improve awareness and attitudes toward environmental issues and nature in the world’s religions. For ecofeminists, the environmental crisis is a reality, a threat, and a warning to modern humanity. Climate change, global warming, loss of biodiversity and other processes that are supposedly the result of pollution and long-term overuse and exploitation of natural resources are certainly a reflection and consequence of man’s global consumer-imperialist attitude towards nature.

Wirtschaftswandel als Kulturwandel? Die Gemeinwohl-Ökonomie als möglicher Wegbereiter für eine Kultur wechselseitiger Verbundenheit

The article analyzes the development of new post-capitalist practices with their possible effects on the transformation of self-images and self-conceptions using the example of the economy for the common good. To this end, the connection between the current subject order, the present social crises and the complex entanglement of the prevailing mode of production and life is explained. A socio-ecological transformation would therefore also have to be linked to the emergence of an alternative subject culture which is oriented towards cooperation and community. The Association of Common Good Economy (Verein der Gemeinwohl-Oekonomie) and common good-oriented companies are used in this research as a space to observe social-cultural practices and new forms and conventions of cooperation in their acceptance and dissemination. On the one hand, it shows that these companies, with their values based on cooperation, social and global justice and ecological responsibility, and with their participatory organizational structures, offer opportunities for countercultural practices and make utopias tangible, so that social change and self-change are being made possible on a small scale. On the other hand, by means of detailed examples the inconsistencies of social-cultural practices and the hybrid mixture of subject forms become clear and comprehensible in their specific context.

Corporate social responsibility, cost structures, and COVID-19: Impact of passenger behavior on business models

The present work is concerned with the distinction between low-cost and network carriers within the airline industry. These distinct business models follow different approaches in their external strategy and, thus, in their communication, marketing, and internal cost structure. The differences between the two models are discussed in general and in light of the ongoing trend toward more sustainable and transparent business models, thus focusing on the customer perspective. A quantitative empirical study was conducted to assess the perception of the two airline business models. Additionally, an analysis of changing flyer behavior owing to the COVID-19 crisis was conducted, and the importance of corporate social responsibility (CSR) in the airline industry was evaluated. Using a sample of self-reported frequent flyers (n = 99), the present study used a correlative approach to evaluate the relationship between the individual variables. Among the core findings of the study were that CSR plays an important role in the mindset of passengers, especially with respect to philanthropic and legal responsibility, and that during the COVID-19 pandemic, concerns about ecological responsibility gained momentum. Apparently, COVID-19 did not cause a demand shift within business models, and no differences in passengers’ perceptions regarding CSR were detected among models. However, significant differences between low-cost and full-service airlines were found regarding their respective perceived cost structures. Passengers are aware of this difference, which implies that they might see fare differences up to 30% as reasonable.

Urban Compactivity Models: Screening City Trends for the Urgency of Social and Environmental Sustainability

Urban compactivity models are increasing around the globe, and sustainability has become the new buzzword. In recent decades, the focus of ecological responsibility has been shifted to the world’s cities, as they are the source of excessive consumption, major waste production, social inequalities, and global imbalances of economic wealth. This literature review is a contribution to the exploration of compactivity models that urgently aim at more sustainable forms of urban land-use, habitation, and transportation and considers: (i) compact cities; (ii) the 15-minute city; (iii) eco-villages/urban villages; (iv) transit oriented development; and (v) transit-corridor-livability. In the second section, we will address the debate on the need for governing authorities and the interdependence between micro-, meso- and macro dynamics for the implementation of transformational plans on a longue-durée. The work will be concluded with the presentation of a set of questions for exploring the need for a priority shift in political decision-making, the role of leadership articulation, and socio-economic inequity under the umbrella of environmental public anthropology.

Confronting Ecological Monstrosity

Confronting Ecological Monstrosity