Title Participants Abstract "Understanding public perception of hydraulic fracturing" "Daniele Mesquita Bordalo Da Costa, Isabel Veloso Alves Pereira, J. Góis, A. S. Danko, A. Fiúza" "Public acceptance is crucial for the implementation of energy technologies. Hydraulic fracturing is a technology widely used in the USA for natural gas production from shale formations, but currently finds strong public opposition worldwide, especially in Europe. Shale gas exploitation and exploration have the potential to significantly reduce import dependency in several countries, including Spain. To better understand public opinion on this issue, this article reports a survey targeting both the entire Spanish population and the inhabitants of the province of Burgos, the location where shale gas exploration permits have already been issued. Results demonstrate that half of the Spanish population opposes shale gas, and this opposition increases in autonomous communities that are closer to possible exploration sites. The results also show that socio-demographic aspects are not strong predictors of opposition. In addition, Burgos' population show different behaviours toward shale gas that demonstrates that proximity and prospect of shale gas development affects opinion. Finally, there is still a great level of unfamiliarity with high volume hydraulic fracturing and shale gas in both populations sampled." "The marine environment and contaminants in seafood : public perception and risk assessment" "Silke Jacobs" "An analysis of the public perception of flood risk on the Belgian coast" "Wim Kellens, Ruud Zaalberg, Tijs Neutens, Wouter Vanneuville, Philippe De Maeyer" "Risk posed by microplastics: Scientific evidence and public perception" "Ana Catarino, Johanna Kramm, Carolin Völker, Theodore Henry, Gert Everaert" "Microplastic pollution has sparked interest from researchers, public, industries and regulators, due to reports of extensive microplastics presence in the environment, household dust, drinking water, and food that indicate chronic exposure to organisms within ecosystems and in human living spaces. While exposure to microplastics is evident, negative effects from microplastics appear to be minimal in most studies on biota and no risk assessments have been completed for microplastics on human health. Despite current evidence that indicates that microplastics present low risk to biota, there is public perception that microplastics are a serious environmental and human health risk, and this perception has motivated political action. The discrepancy between scientific evidence and public risk perception has generated debate amongst researchers within the natural and social sciences. Here, we review the evidence on the risks of microplastics to ecosystem and human health, and consider the relation between evidence and public perception of microplastics risk." "COVID-19 anxiety as a moderator of the relationship between organizational change and perception of organizational politics in forestry public sector" "Larasatie Pipiet, Triana Fitriastuti, Efi Yuliati Yovi, Herry Purnomo, Dodik Ridho Nurrochmat" "In addition to an outstanding commitment to the Sustainable Development Goals' (SDG) agenda to good governance (goal no. 16), there is an argument that the SDGs can only be achieved through good governance with strong political institutions and processes. In Indonesia, a new era in politics has been marked with the new leadership of Joko Widodo (the current Indonesian President) who has a vision to reform the Indonesian bureaucracy. One of the bureaucratic reform implementations is the merging of the Ministry of Forestry and the Ministry of Environment into the Ministry of Environment and Forestry (MoE). In this kind of organizational change, employees may have increased perceptions of organizational politics and feelings of uncertainty and anxiety. This effect is suspected to be exacerbated by the impact of the COVID-19 pandemic. This article, therefore, aims to investigate the effects of organizational change in the public sector. Based on a survey of 112 state civil apparatuses in the forestry sector in Indonesia, we found that organizational change is positively related to employees' perception of organizational politics. Nevertheless, our most intriguing finding is that the COVID pandemic situation has decreased employees' perception of organizational politics. This is because political behaviors are difficult to perform in virtual working settings due to reduced face-to-face interaction and limited non-verbal cues." "Living with a warming ocean: European research and public perception of climate change impacts in the marine environment. International CLAMER Conference. Royal Flemish Academy of Belgium for Science and the Arts, Brussels, Belgium, 14-15 September 2011." "Jan Mees, Jan Seys" "Flanders Marine Institute" "Proceedings 'Living with a warming ocean: European research and public perception of climate change impacts in the marine environment'. International CLAMER conference. Royal Flemish Academy of Belgium for Science and the Arts, Brussels, Belgium," "Jan Mees, Jan Seys, Thalia Watmough" "Flanders Marine Institute" "Computer and mobile phone waste in urban India: an analysis from the perspectives of public perception, consumption and disposal behaviour" "Anwesha Borthakur, M Govind" "© 2018 Newcastle University Sustainable management of Electronic waste (E-waste) is a major challenge for contemporary India, an emerging economy burdened with both the domestic generation and illegal import of E-waste. Considering the ever-increasing complexities of E-waste in Indian cities, this paper aims to evaluate the current trends, opportunities and challenges associated with consumption of electronic items (with respect to computers and mobile phones) and disposal of E-waste in urban India. Bangalore, a city popularly known as the ‘Silicon Valley of India’, is considered as a case study in order to evaluate public awareness, household consumption and E-waste disposal behaviours. The city profile of Bangalore indicates that it has a rapidly emerging market for electronics and thus, has the potential to act as a ‘model’ for evaluating the issues concerning E-waste in metropolitan India. Questionnaires were distributed originally among 300 households with an effective response rate of 63.3%. The results indicate that the majority of households (59.3%) still retain their obsolete electronics due to lack of knowledge about proper E-waste management. High awareness about E-waste and high willingness to recycle/repair their E-waste (above 80% in both cases) are yet to be translated into responsible disposal/recycling behaviour as 95.8% of households have no knowledge about the presence of any formal recycling centre. Income, education, age and gender dimensions associated with E-waste disposal behaviour and awareness were also evaluated. Although we found no gender differences for most of the parameters, there have been some interesting correlations in age and income-wise segregation of disposal behaviour. We noted that the city of Bangalore still possesses some typical Indian socio-cultural characteristics, such as considering E-waste as ‘valuables’, changing several hands before final disposal, defying ‘brand’ or ‘looks’ consciousness, etc., which could be directed towards responsible E-waste disposal behaviours. We suggest that establishing appropriate and convenient E-waste collection/recycling facilities, ensuring responsible household disposal behaviour, implementing effective laws and legislation, and organizing mass E-waste awareness campaigns would aid in addressing the current E-waste concerns in the city." "Results of ISECA surveys: public perception on eutrophication" "Carolien Knockaert" "Flanders Marine Institute" "Public perception on eutrophication. ISECA Final Report D1.3" "Elise Chiroutre, Carolien Knockaert, Anne Vernier, Prem Wattage, Leo De Nocker, Richard Santer"