This paper provides new empirical evidence on the hypothesis that the perception of landscape dis... more This paper provides new empirical evidence on the hypothesis that the perception of landscape disruption by wind turbines is a substantially subjective and relative matter. It is based on a survey involving nearly five hundred residents living in six different locations with operational wind turbines in the Czech Republic. Geographical and socioeconomic factors and sociodemographic characteristics that affect local community perceptions of landscape disruption are explored using correlations and a regression analysis model. The results suggest that the expressed perception of landscape disruption is not determined by the number of existing wind turbines, the proximity of residences to them and their visibility from the home but is significantly affected by the perception of the economic favourability of projects (benefits to local communities), perception of other negative impacts of wind turbines (particularly the noise annoyance) and the socio-cultural background of people (partic...
In this study, we examined the fate and future of sewage irrigation fields; historic urban wetlan... more In this study, we examined the fate and future of sewage irrigation fields; historic urban wetlands that served as sewer drainage before modern sewage treatment plants were built. Our aim in this study was to reappraise sewage irrigation fields in the urban fabric of modern cities and to analyse the possibility of re-integrating them into the ecosystem services system, as well as into green and blue infrastructure, providing leisure and recreational opportunities, stabilising the city’s biodiversity and microclimate, and increasing water retention in these areas. The research was based on the identification of the location of sewage irrigation fields in green and blue infrastructure systems, determination of the scale and extent of their connections to the urban fabric and an analysis of their multi-functionality including: ecological, climatic, hydrological, landscape, spatial, environmental, cultural and social, educational, and tourist and recreational functions.
Despite extensive social science research into public perceptions and social responses to frackin... more Despite extensive social science research into public perceptions and social responses to fracking, scholars have only begun to examine the relationship between distance to development and support or opposition for it. Importantly, the emerging studies are exclusively from the United States, and focus on communities and regions in which fracking already exists – in contrast to areas where it is proposed and still going through planning approvals. This paper reports public responses to proposed fracking in County Fermanagh, Northern Ireland, United Kingdom. A total of 120 people participated in an in-person survey with a qualitative follow-up in four locations: the village right next to the development site, two other villages just inside and just outside the wider fracking concession area, and in the capital city of Belfast, 150 km away. A clear spatial pattern of opinion was found, from almost universal opposition to fracking next to the site, to an even three-way split between pro...
The quest for sustainable energy, one of the greatest challenges of the 21st century, calls for m... more The quest for sustainable energy, one of the greatest challenges of the 21st century, calls for more input from academics than 'simply' producing good science. Geographical imaginations are as old as storytelling and mapmaking, but this essay is neither about 'long ago and far away', nor about utopian energy futures. This is a call to geographers to engage with 'alternative present' energy scenarios, using the full range of analytical and discursive tools at our disposal. Drawing on a diverse tradition of imagined spaces and the awareness of absences (material, relational or otherwise), geographers should be able to contribute to the quest for a more sustainable society by assessing, envisaging, and communicating a counterfactual 'here and now', based on good practices existing right now, but not (yet) right here. We need to understand how much more sustainable our bit of the planet would be if we could just, environmentally speaking, 'keep up'...
Renewable sources of energies and its support have been recently experiencing wide public debate ... more Renewable sources of energies and its support have been recently experiencing wide public debate in the Czech Republic that varies from agreement to complete denial. Nevertheless support from national and EU sources is factor that heavily infl uenced dynamic development of this sector in last decade. Anaerobic digesti-on plants are one of options for production of renewable energies (biogas in this case) that have experienced next to solar plants the most important increase of its installed capacities. This contribution fi rst aims to analyse phenomenon of anaerobic digestion plants, its legal, strategic support, supporting fi nancial incentives, individual types of such plants, and secondly based on available statistical data to analyse spatial distribution of agricultural anaerobic digestion plants. On basis of comparison of data for increasing biogas production and declining agriculture in regions of the Czech Republic basic consequences are deduced. In context of spatial distrib...
Some books are annoying because they are impenetrable, obfuscating in what they stand for, or dev... more Some books are annoying because they are impenetrable, obfuscating in what they stand for, or deviously subtle in their one-sided approach to a complicated topic. Earth Grab is not one of those books. It is readable and annoying in large and equal measures. It is obfuscating about its true purpose and deviously subtle about who are those socalled “Geopirates and Biomassters” who are looking to “Capture Genes and Grab the Earth“: are they academics?; businessmen?; northern governments?; the military? And what nefarious consequences of this “grab” are we supposed to fear: is it hunger or environmental catastrophe or growing inequality? If you think the title reeks of polemics, this review will prove you right. However if you “view science as independent of social systems” (to quote one of the endorsements on the back), then this book will prove you wrong. And if you are interested in trends in science and society which are likely to have significant impacts on food security, this book should give you some food for thought. With its catchy titles, cartoons, short articles and text boxes, the book consists of three stand-alone, pamphletlike reports against geoengineering, the bioeconomy and the patenting of climate change resistant crops. But it would be simplistic to say that the book is just a form of protest-inprint. We got the impression that the authors were trying to juggle with a mix of different objectives in mind: to inform on emerging technologies (which it does quite well); to warn and lobby against these (which it does in a committed but confused manner); to demand a wider representation (focussing mainly on southern countries); and to name (and perhaps by association also to shame?) those involved in the development of these technologies. For that last reason alone, it would be worthwhile to pay attention to this book; individual academics are identified, the funding of their conferences is being examined, and the authors use the same tar brush to name Big Business, right-wing foundations and mainstream national research institutions like the US National Academy of Sciences and the UK’s Royal Society as “key actors” in an enfolding effort to ‘bankroll’ research by suspicious scientists, exclude and harm the global south and allow big greedy corporations to reap the profits whilst gambling with the future of our planet. The authors do not attempt to construct a coherent narrative about knowledge, power and political agendas. Instead they create the suspense of a complot theory by stringing together a number of separate pieces of text about who does the research, what the risks of the technology might be, examples of involvement by the private sector, and statistics about the underrepresentation of female researchers and people from southern countries. Is this the activist art of insinuation? When the authors refer to public bodies like Vienna University of Technology and (the Dutch energy research centre) ECN as “next generation biofuel companies”, is that just a clumsy mistake? When they say that some research projects associated with geoengineering are “sponsored by Bill Gates”, are they seeking to suggest something sinister about the involvement of a billionaire? Are they deliberately avoiding the more philantrophic sound of ‘Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation’? Maybe this simply illustrates the value of peer review; this book should have had one. There is a full page article on CCS but the technology is missing from a table on page 21 S. Vermeylen (*) Lancaster University, Lancaster, UK e-mail: s.vermeylen@lancaster.ac.uk
This paper provides new empirical evidence on the hypothesis that the perception of landscape dis... more This paper provides new empirical evidence on the hypothesis that the perception of landscape disruption by wind turbines is a substantially subjective and relative matter. It is based on a survey involving nearly five hundred residents living in six different locations with operational wind turbines in the Czech Republic. Geographical and socioeconomic factors and sociodemographic characteristics that affect local community perceptions of landscape disruption are explored using correlations and a regression analysis model. The results suggest that the expressed perception of landscape disruption is not determined by the number of existing wind turbines, the proximity of residences to them and their visibility from the home but is significantly affected by the perception of the economic favourability of projects (benefits to local communities), perception of other negative impacts of wind turbines (particularly the noise annoyance) and the socio-cultural background of people (partic...
In this study, we examined the fate and future of sewage irrigation fields; historic urban wetlan... more In this study, we examined the fate and future of sewage irrigation fields; historic urban wetlands that served as sewer drainage before modern sewage treatment plants were built. Our aim in this study was to reappraise sewage irrigation fields in the urban fabric of modern cities and to analyse the possibility of re-integrating them into the ecosystem services system, as well as into green and blue infrastructure, providing leisure and recreational opportunities, stabilising the city’s biodiversity and microclimate, and increasing water retention in these areas. The research was based on the identification of the location of sewage irrigation fields in green and blue infrastructure systems, determination of the scale and extent of their connections to the urban fabric and an analysis of their multi-functionality including: ecological, climatic, hydrological, landscape, spatial, environmental, cultural and social, educational, and tourist and recreational functions.
Despite extensive social science research into public perceptions and social responses to frackin... more Despite extensive social science research into public perceptions and social responses to fracking, scholars have only begun to examine the relationship between distance to development and support or opposition for it. Importantly, the emerging studies are exclusively from the United States, and focus on communities and regions in which fracking already exists – in contrast to areas where it is proposed and still going through planning approvals. This paper reports public responses to proposed fracking in County Fermanagh, Northern Ireland, United Kingdom. A total of 120 people participated in an in-person survey with a qualitative follow-up in four locations: the village right next to the development site, two other villages just inside and just outside the wider fracking concession area, and in the capital city of Belfast, 150 km away. A clear spatial pattern of opinion was found, from almost universal opposition to fracking next to the site, to an even three-way split between pro...
The quest for sustainable energy, one of the greatest challenges of the 21st century, calls for m... more The quest for sustainable energy, one of the greatest challenges of the 21st century, calls for more input from academics than 'simply' producing good science. Geographical imaginations are as old as storytelling and mapmaking, but this essay is neither about 'long ago and far away', nor about utopian energy futures. This is a call to geographers to engage with 'alternative present' energy scenarios, using the full range of analytical and discursive tools at our disposal. Drawing on a diverse tradition of imagined spaces and the awareness of absences (material, relational or otherwise), geographers should be able to contribute to the quest for a more sustainable society by assessing, envisaging, and communicating a counterfactual 'here and now', based on good practices existing right now, but not (yet) right here. We need to understand how much more sustainable our bit of the planet would be if we could just, environmentally speaking, 'keep up'...
Renewable sources of energies and its support have been recently experiencing wide public debate ... more Renewable sources of energies and its support have been recently experiencing wide public debate in the Czech Republic that varies from agreement to complete denial. Nevertheless support from national and EU sources is factor that heavily infl uenced dynamic development of this sector in last decade. Anaerobic digesti-on plants are one of options for production of renewable energies (biogas in this case) that have experienced next to solar plants the most important increase of its installed capacities. This contribution fi rst aims to analyse phenomenon of anaerobic digestion plants, its legal, strategic support, supporting fi nancial incentives, individual types of such plants, and secondly based on available statistical data to analyse spatial distribution of agricultural anaerobic digestion plants. On basis of comparison of data for increasing biogas production and declining agriculture in regions of the Czech Republic basic consequences are deduced. In context of spatial distrib...
Some books are annoying because they are impenetrable, obfuscating in what they stand for, or dev... more Some books are annoying because they are impenetrable, obfuscating in what they stand for, or deviously subtle in their one-sided approach to a complicated topic. Earth Grab is not one of those books. It is readable and annoying in large and equal measures. It is obfuscating about its true purpose and deviously subtle about who are those socalled “Geopirates and Biomassters” who are looking to “Capture Genes and Grab the Earth“: are they academics?; businessmen?; northern governments?; the military? And what nefarious consequences of this “grab” are we supposed to fear: is it hunger or environmental catastrophe or growing inequality? If you think the title reeks of polemics, this review will prove you right. However if you “view science as independent of social systems” (to quote one of the endorsements on the back), then this book will prove you wrong. And if you are interested in trends in science and society which are likely to have significant impacts on food security, this book should give you some food for thought. With its catchy titles, cartoons, short articles and text boxes, the book consists of three stand-alone, pamphletlike reports against geoengineering, the bioeconomy and the patenting of climate change resistant crops. But it would be simplistic to say that the book is just a form of protest-inprint. We got the impression that the authors were trying to juggle with a mix of different objectives in mind: to inform on emerging technologies (which it does quite well); to warn and lobby against these (which it does in a committed but confused manner); to demand a wider representation (focussing mainly on southern countries); and to name (and perhaps by association also to shame?) those involved in the development of these technologies. For that last reason alone, it would be worthwhile to pay attention to this book; individual academics are identified, the funding of their conferences is being examined, and the authors use the same tar brush to name Big Business, right-wing foundations and mainstream national research institutions like the US National Academy of Sciences and the UK’s Royal Society as “key actors” in an enfolding effort to ‘bankroll’ research by suspicious scientists, exclude and harm the global south and allow big greedy corporations to reap the profits whilst gambling with the future of our planet. The authors do not attempt to construct a coherent narrative about knowledge, power and political agendas. Instead they create the suspense of a complot theory by stringing together a number of separate pieces of text about who does the research, what the risks of the technology might be, examples of involvement by the private sector, and statistics about the underrepresentation of female researchers and people from southern countries. Is this the activist art of insinuation? When the authors refer to public bodies like Vienna University of Technology and (the Dutch energy research centre) ECN as “next generation biofuel companies”, is that just a clumsy mistake? When they say that some research projects associated with geoengineering are “sponsored by Bill Gates”, are they seeking to suggest something sinister about the involvement of a billionaire? Are they deliberately avoiding the more philantrophic sound of ‘Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation’? Maybe this simply illustrates the value of peer review; this book should have had one. There is a full page article on CCS but the technology is missing from a table on page 21 S. Vermeylen (*) Lancaster University, Lancaster, UK e-mail: s.vermeylen@lancaster.ac.uk
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