trends and future of sustainable development - TransEco

Quantitative content analysis was performed to the material (Krippendorff, 2004). A coding schemeconsisting of 67 independent variables was developed. The variables included information describing thenews item such as title, date, length, and newspaper section. Other variables described attitudes towardsdifferent environmental policy measures and car tax reform in the articles. In addition, actors, futureorientation and viewpoints were examined. Furthermore, a set of variables were determined based onthe modified version of the Environmental Protection Process (EPP) framework (Willamo, 2005; Tapioand Willamo, 2008).The EPP-framework is an integrative tool aimed to holistically grasp the overall process throughwhich environmental problems are created and settled from systems thinking perspective. Theframework is based on distinction between interacting ecological and human dimensions with differentelements (see also Figure 3): Driving forces. Individual factors affecting human action include e.g. knowledge, values,emotions, experiences and resources. Societal factors affecting human action include e.g.politics, administration, legislation, science, religion, economy, mass media, education andsocial activism. Ecological factors affect human action both directly and indirectly. The effectof individual, societal and ecological factors on human action is filtered through the physicalinfrastructure, such as road network. Action. Environmental problems are due to variety of human actions and actors. Actions canbe interpreted as a simple act, such as driving a car or a whole societal sector, e.g. transport. Intakes/outputs. Human action causes intakes from and outputs to the ecologicalenvironment. The intakes and outputs can be divided to energy, substance, living material ormacro structures. For example, removing trees before construction of a road is an intake ofliving material that affects also on energy balance, material flows and landscape levelstructures. Examples of outputs include planting of plants, releasing asphalt on road-top oremitting greenhouse gases in the air. Ecological changes. Intakes and outputs cause primary changes in the ecologicalenvironment, such as change on noise levels near traffic area or carbon dioxideconcentration in the air. The primary changes can cause secondary (and tertiary) impactssuch as changes in species composition or abundance or climate change. Human impacts and environmental problems. Ecological changes cause human impacts.Some of the changes or impacts can be interpreted as harmful environmental problemswhile others may be valued as positive. Changes below certain critical thresholds mayremain unnoticed or they may be considered as insignificant. Climate change discussion is atypical example of a debate with highly varying interpretations of the severity of problem. Targets and measures. If a particular change or impact is perceived as a problem, a targetcan be outlined for satisfactory state of the environment. When a target is set, measures areneeded to reach the target. For example, decreasing the carbon dioxide emissions fromtraffic is a widely – although not universally – agreed target, but there may be widelydiffering views on appropriate level of emissions, emission reduction timetables or means toachieve the target. The car tax reform is such a means.460