scholarly journals Tropicality and the Choc en Retour of Covid-19 and Climate Change

2021 ◽  
Vol 20 (1) ◽  
pp. 54-93
Author(s):  
Daniel Clayton
Keyword(s):  
Climate Change ◽  
United Kingdom ◽  
Extreme Weather ◽  
Epidemic Disease ◽  
The United Kingdom ◽  
Science Theory ◽  
Boomerang Effect ◽  
Tropical Areas ◽  
The Media ◽  
The Tropics

This article reads ‘pandemic, plague, pestilence and the tropics’ through Covid-19, climate change and the discourse of tropicality.  It asks: What happens, as seems to be the case today, when the temperate/tropical oppositions around which tropicality revolves start to unravel because the aberrations and excesses (here of epidemic disease and extreme weather) hitherto deemed to belong to tropical areas, and as constitutive of their otherness, are found in temperate ones? This question is broached with a focus on the United Kingdom as one such ‘temperate’ place that currently finds itself in this situation (although the argument has broader resonance), and with Aimé Césaire’s ideas about the choc en retour (boomerang effect) of Western colonisation and la quotidienneté des barbaries (the daily barbarisms) by which this effect works. Evidence and feelers from science, theory, politics, and the media are used to consider how sensibilities of tropicality, and especially (as Césaire enquired) distinctions between the ‘normal’ and ‘pathological,’ and ‘immunity’ and ‘susceptibility,’ permeate the way Covid-19 and climate change are perceived and felt in the temperate world.

scholarly journals Climate effects on the onset of flowering in the United Kingdom

2019 ◽  
Vol 31 (1) ◽  
Author(s):  
Nigel Fox ◽  
Anna Maria Jönsson
Keyword(s):  
Climate Change ◽  
Time Series ◽  
United Kingdom ◽  
Response Rates ◽  
Extreme Weather ◽  
Extreme Weather Event ◽  
Negative Response ◽  
Wild Plant ◽  
Weather Event ◽  
The United Kingdom

Abstract Background A warmer climate has consequences for the timing of phenological events, as temperature is a key factor controlling plant development and flowering. In this study, we analyse the effects of the long-term climate change and an extreme weather event on the first flowering day (FFD) of five spring-flowering wild plant species in the United Kingdom. Citizen science data from the UK Woodland Trust were obtained for five species: Tussilago farfara (coltsfoot), Anemone nemorosa (wood anemone), Hyacinthoides non-scripta (bluebell), Cardamine pratensis (cuckooflower) and Alliaria petiolate (garlic mustard). Results Out of the 351 site-specific time series (≥ 15-years of FFD records), 74.6% showed significant negative response rates, i.e. earlier flowering in warmer years, ranging from − 5.6 to − 7.7 days °C−1. 23.7% of the series had non-significant negative response rates, and 1.7% had non-significant positive response rates. For cuckooflower, the response rate was increasingly more negative with decreasing latitudes. The winter of 2007 reflects an extreme weather event, about 2 °C warmer compared to 2006, where the 2006 winter temperatures were similar to the 1961–1990 baseline average. The FFD of each species was compared between 2006 and 2007. The results showed that the mean FFD of all species significantly advanced between 13 and 18 days during the extreme warmer winter of 2007, confirming that FFD is affected by temperature. Conclusion Given that all species in the study significantly respond to ambient near-surface temperatures, they are suitable as climate-change indicators. However, the responses to a + 2 °C warmer winter were both more and less pronounced than expected from an analysis of ≥ 15-year time series. This may reflect non-linear responses, species-specific thresholds and cumulative temperature effects. It also indicates that knowledge on extreme weather events is needed for detailed projections of potential climate change effects.

Experience of Canada, The United Kingdom, Finland and Spain for formation of media literacy among the students

2020 ◽  
Vol 28 (2) ◽  
Author(s):  
Zlatina Dimitrova ◽  
◽  
◽  
Keyword(s):  
United Kingdom ◽  
Media Literacy ◽  
Media Education ◽  
Theoretical Research ◽  
School Age Children ◽  
Educational Models ◽  
The United Kingdom ◽  
The World ◽  
The Media ◽  
Media Habits

The theoretical research focuses on the educational experience for the formation of media literacy among school-age children in different countries around the world. The article presents various options for the formation of media literacy, based on three educational models. According to the first model, media education is represented in the form of a compulsory subject in schools, which is studied by students in different grades. According to the second educational model, media habits are acquired within the interdisciplinary (integrated) approach – the use of the media in traditional school subjects, including native and foreign languages, literature, social sciences. The third model offers practical and informal integration of media education as a supplement and replacement of specific subjects or the intersection between them. The article examines in detail the media training opportunities offered in Canada, the United Kingdom, Finland and Spain, as their experience in media education is applied in a number of other countries around the world. Special attention is paid to the first steps in the introduction of media literacy training among students in Bulgaria, which is carried out only in the last 5-6 years.

scholarly journals Metaphors of corruption in the news media coverage of seven European countries

2018 ◽  
Vol 33 (1) ◽  
pp. 57-72 ◽  
Author(s):  
Roxana Bratu ◽  
Iveta Kažoka
Keyword(s):  
United Kingdom ◽  
News Media ◽  
Media Coverage ◽  
European Countries ◽  
Complex Phenomenon ◽  
The United Kingdom ◽  
The Media ◽  
Media Practices

This article explores the symbolic dimension of corruption by looking at the metaphors employed to represent this phenomenon in the media across seven different European countries (France, Hungary, Italy, Latvia, Romania, Slovakia and the United Kingdom) over 10 years (2004–2014). It focuses on the media practices in evoking corruption-related metaphors and shows that corruption is a complex phenomenon with unclear boundaries, represented with the use of metaphorical devices that not only illuminate but also hide some of its attributes. The article identifies and analyses the metaphors of corruption by looking at their sources and target domains, as well as unpacking the contexts in which media evoke corruption-related metaphors.

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