The EnvComm Blog

Today, I’m getting on a plane to Paris, France, for the first week of COP21; organized by Gregg Walker, I am one of four delegates for the International Environmental Communication Association Climate Working Group. Our goal is to try to blog/tweet daily during COP21 to try to raise awareness about climate communication. In Paris over the next two weeks—during which climate activists already are being put under house arrest and criminalized for reasons completely unrelated to the impetus of the state of emergency—this simple act of encouraging public attention and debate matters.

Tema Milstein (University of New Mexico), author of 'The Performer Metaphor: “Mother Nature Never Gives Us the Same Show Twice”', provides a timely analysis of SeaWorld's announcement that it is to introduce sweeping changes, including phasing out its “Shamu” orca show.

Here is the eighth--and final--IECA excursion assignment I am giving my Environmental Communication class this semester.  The assignment asks them to read through the articles published in 2015 in our journal Environmental Communication, then identify and list five articles that they think are most relevant to topics covered in our class this semester.

Here is the third and final Twitter-related assignment that I gave my Environmental Communication students in an attempt to encourage them to explore the "twitterverse" surrounding the IECA membership base.

As you may know, the IECA (led by Prof. Gregg Walker, Oregon State University, and Mark Meisner, the IECA Executive Director) has secured four badges for IECA members to serve as delegates at COP21.

My Environmental Communication class is in the middle of a three-part exploration of the IECA "twitterverse."  In their next assignment, each student will be given the name and Twitter handle of a current IECA member who is active on Twitter.  Here is what I am asking the students to do.

Environmental Communication, Volume 9, Issue 4, December 2015 is now available online.

We are halfway through my Environmental Communication class this semester at the University of Cincinnati.  Thanks to all of you who responded when contacted by my students with questions about your IECA membership (see list of members who responded below).  You made a very positive impression on the students--much appreciated.  This is how we encourage and nurture tomorrow's environmental communication professionals.

I have just posted a call for applications for the next editor of ENVIRONMENTAL COMMUNICATION, the official journal of the International Environmental Communication (www.tandfonline.com/renc).  Alison Anderson, the current editor, is in the middle of a three-year term that will expire at the end of 2016.  We want to install the next editor by early in the calendar year to insure continuity in editorial leadership.

In this assignment, students are asked to read and catalogue items from two weeks' worth of the "IECA LIST" (e-newsletter that Mark Meisner sends IECA members on a regular basis).