New report on public perception of risk and the implications for CCS

08 Sep 2011

A new report on risk communication and CCS (available on the Institute's website, ) explores the insights from social science research relating to the extent people view risk more expansively than might be considered in a technical or scientific risk assessment. The report reviews some of this research and also draws on interviews with representatives from five CCS projects to underscore the importance of understanding this expanded view of potential CCS project risk. Support or opposition to new technology by members of the public can be influenced substantially by their perceptions of the risks and benefits of a technology and how they perceive it will impact their lives. Those involved in CCS - including project developers, regulators, elected officials, civic groups and others - all have an interest in understanding how the public will perceive the benefits and risks of CCS generally and in relation to specific projects.
Evolving thinking about the perceptions of risk
Although risk assessment results are often reported in quantitative terms, there are inherently subjective judgments involved in determining the defining factors such as the nature of the risk being assessed as well as the receptors and impacts of concern. For example, should an air quality standard be set in consideration of the average impact on the average population or should it be set to address a range of impacts (e.g., discomfort, death) and the most sensitive populations (e.g., children, the elderly, those living in socio-economically disadvantaged conditions)? Identifying this underlying subjectivity, social science research turned to the question of trying to understand how the public perceives the same risks that are quantified in technical risk assessment. 
The essential conclusion of early research was that whereas technical experts tend to measure risk in terms of quantitative impacts such as mortality, lay people tend to consider additional factors. This resulted in a situation in which technical risk assessments seemed to "treat risk as an objective reality against which ‘faulty’ or ‘inaccurate’ public perceptions could be measured." Accordingly, risk communication 'was seen as the answer to many thorny problems – most notably as a means to bridge the gulf between expert views and public perceptions of risk'.
Later research modified this approach to recognize the important role of a public’s social context in which knowledge is produced, interpreted and used. Namely, people’s risk perceptions (including developers and their technical experts, as well as the potentially affected public) are based on an existing cultural frame of reference – their values, interests, and ways of interpreting and responding to the world. The fundamental shift in this newer approach is that it starts with the social background and characteristics of the perceivers rather than with the characteristics of the technology.
Insights for understanding risk perception
The report highlights several observations from the reviewed research:

1. Treating risk as an objective 'fact' is inaccurate and leads to misleading guidance for interactions with the public.
2. Attempts to make technology decisions on the basis of technically defined risk fail to incorporate the full societal dimensions of the policy issues at stake – including the implication of decisions about the level, acceptability, and distribution of risk.
3. A more productive filter for considering stakeholder views might focus on the differing rationalities underlying judgments, for example ‘technical rationality’ and ‘cultural rationality'.

There are several implications for CCS risk communication:

1. A more expansive view of project risk is warranted.
2. The public is not a passive 'target audience' to whom messages should be delivered but rather is an active participant in interpreting information.
3. Differences in perceptions of risk are not limited to differences between experts and the public.
4. The essential communication issue is not technical risk per se but the overall potential impact of a technology on a host community and the relationship with the project developer.

Taiwanese fearful after pipeline blasts

By Cindy Sui BBC News, Kaohsiung City

The gas explosions ripped up metres of roads in the Cianjhen neighbourhood of Kaohsiung

The scene at Sanduo No 1 Road near Kaisuan Road - one of the worst affected areas from the series of explosions that ripped through a neighbourhood in southern Taiwan's Kaohsiung City - looks as if a monster underground had suddenly awakened.

Long stretches of the streets were torn up, with the underground trenches, pipelines and cables exposed. A creek from the broken water pipes ran through one trench.
Windows in many homes and businesses facing the street were completely shattered. The chairs and perming equipment of a second-storey hair salon were there for all to see as not a shard was left of the salon's large glass window.
Nearby residents still in shock over the blasts, which happened late on Thursday night, were gathered outside, many too afraid to go home.

At least 25 people were killed and 267 injured from the explosions. Several people are still missing

Even if they were not afraid, they felt it was better to be outside - thousands of households had lost electricity, water and natural gas, making it miserable to be indoors in the hot summer weather.

“Start Quote

The explosion was so strong it knocked me off my chair”

Local resident

Many residents said they had initially thought there was an earthquake. Some thought it was a bomb.

"The explosion was so strong it knocked me off my chair," said one woman.
Kuo Chu-wang, 53, said he was just closing up his tofu stand in a nearby night market when he heard the blasts.
"It was horrible. You only know how terrifying it was if you were here to see the fires," he said, adding that one of his friends saw bodies of the dead and injured littered on the streets.
"We tried to remove the debris from the damaged streets from the road so that ambulances and other rescue vehicles could drive through, but we were told later that it was too dangerous for us to stay here."
They were the lucky ones.

Emergency services worked to clear rubble and remove upended vehicles throughout the day on Friday

Local authorities said most of those killed or injured were out on the streets at the time - some had come out after smelling a strong odour, others were on their way home.
Nearly every hospital in the city was treating patients on Friday.
Chemical leak likely The cause of the blast is still under investigation. But local authorities suspect a chemical leak - most likely propylene - from one of the pipelines belonging to local petrochemical companies may be to blame.
Kaohsiung has been developed as a centre of the petrochemical industry in Taiwan and there are many factories in the city. Their pipelines run underneath Kaohsiung's streets.
But Ting Yun-kung, a spokesman for the Kaohsiung City government, said the authorities were still trying to determine how much of the city had pipelines running through them.
"Some of the pipelines are 20 to 30 years old," Mr Ting said. "We're investigating where they are. We will step up inspections of them."

Residents are worried about a network of aging pipelines that run under the southern Taiwanese city

The head of Citizen of the Earth, an environmental campaign group in Taiwan, said some of the pipelines were more than 40 years old and posted a map of them criss-crossing beneath Kaohsiung.
Taiwan is also prone to earthquakes and the fear is that the frequent shaking of the ground may cause damage to the pipes.
Local residents said they were now even more worried to learn many of the apartment buildings in the city had petrochemical pipelines running under them.
"When we bought our home we had no idea; nobody would think about asking such a thing at the time of purchase," said Ke Chih-jen.
Kaohsiung Mayor Chen Chu has asked the central government to help the city replace the old underground pipelines.
President Ma Ying-jeou urged government departments to investigate the source of the explosions and prevent any such incident from happening again.

Many local firefighters were caught in the explosions while investigating reports of possible gas leaks

The death toll could rise as many of the injured suffered serious burns. Four of the deceased were firefighters.
Two fire department officials - the third in command of the city's fire department and a fire brigade captain - remain missing.
They were among the first to respond to the scene after residents reported possible gas leaks, before the explosions happened about three hours later.
As excavators continue to clean up the mess and hazardous chemical specialists test the levels of gas and other chemicals in the area, many questions remain unanswered.
Those living in the area and elsewhere in Kaohsiung could only pray that the authorities will act quickly to check for any damaged or leaking pipelines so that there is no repeat of what was a horrible night and day for them.

'Steroids made my sperm count zero'

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29 July 2014 Last updated at 07:20 BST

Lee Little has been using steroids for 25 years and has now been told his sperm count is zero.
Speaking to BBC Radio 5 live Breakfast he says "It just isn't worth it for your health risks. People are taking insulin now to gain weight but you can go into a diabetic coma".
The director of the one of the country's biggest drug treatment centres says that steroid abuse is a 'ticking time-bomb'.
David Smallwood from the One40 clinic in London says more people than ever are taking steroids - and storing up enormous health problems for themselves as they do so.

Two Americans held in North Korea plead for help from US

Matthew Miller, left, and Jeffrey Edward Fowle were detained separately in North Korea in April

Two American tourists charged with "anti-state" crimes in North Korea have pleaded for the US government to help secure their release.

Matthew Miller and Jeffrey Fowle told the AP news agency they expected to be tried soon and given long prison terms.
The two men said they were in good health and had been treated well but expected conditions to get worse.
They were detained separately in April but both were accused of "committing hostile acts" while in the country.
Mr Fowle, 56, entered North Korea on 29 April and was detained in early June as he was leaving the country
He is said to have left a bible in the toilet of a restaurant in the northern port city of Chongjin but his family have insisted that he was not on a mission for his church.
North Korean authorities say Mr Miller, 24, entered the country on 10 April with a tourist visa but tore it up at the airport and shouted that he wanted to seek asylum.

North Korea is holding several US citizens and has been accused of using them as bargaining chips

Speaking for the first time since being detained more than three months ago, Mr Miller said "the horizon for me is pretty dark.
"I don't know what the worst-case scenario would be, but I need help to extricate myself from this situation. I have been requesting help from the American government, but have received no reply," he added.
It is unclear whether North Korean officials were in the room at the time of the interview or if the men were being coerced.
Authorities say they are preparing to bring the men before a court, but the charges or potential punishment have not been specified. The date of the trial has not been announced.

Korean-US citizen Kenneth Bae was detained in December 2012 and sentenced to 15 years' hard labour

North Korea has in the past been accused of using arrested Americans as diplomatic bargaining chips.
The US wants Pyongyang to abandon its nuclear ambitions in return for economic and diplomatic incentives, but talks on a deal agreed in 2007 have been stalled for several years.
Religious activity is severely restricted in North Korea and missionaries have been arrested on many previous occasions.
Kenneth Bae, the highest-profile of the currently detained Americans, was sentenced to 15 years' hard labour in May 2013 after being accused of planning to overthrow the government.

Other US detainees in North Korea

• Eddie Jun Yong-su: Businessman detained for six months in 2011, freed after a visit led by US envoy Robert King
• Aijalon Mahli Gomes: Teacher and Christian jailed in 2010 for eight years over illegal entry via China - freed after ex-US President Jimmy Carter visited Pyongyang
• Robert Park: US activist crossed into North Korea via China in late 2009 - freed in 2010 by North Korea
• Laura Ling and Euna Lee: Journalists jailed in 2009 for 12 years over illegal entry via the Chinese border - freed after ex-US President Bill Clinton met former NK leader Kim Jong-il

Bestiality vet Oliver Lown struck off

The disciplinary committee heard Oliver Lown trained as a vet at a university in Hungary

A vet who was filmed having sex with a horse and a dog has been struck off his profession's register.

Oliver Fraser Lown of Kesgrave, Suffolk was found guilty of five charges by the Royal College of Veterinary Surgeons (RCVS) disciplinary committee.
Videos were found in his possession showing him engaging in sexual activity with animals, as were extreme images of animals and people, the RCVS heard.
Lown, believed to be in his 20s, has never practised as a vet in the UK.
'Total lack of respect' The RCVS panel heard that in 2012 he pleaded guilty at Northallerton and Richmond Magistrates Court in North Yorkshire to seven criminal charges relating to the possession of extreme images involving people and animals, for which he was given a conditional discharge.

Continue reading the main story

“Start Quote

Each of the charges individually amounts to disgraceful conduct”

Prof Noreen Burrows

The RCVS committee heard the Crown Prosecution Service decided not to prosecute him in respect of a bestiality charge that it was considering, but the RCVS found the charge to be proven.

Lown had graduated from the Szent Istvan University in Budapest, Hungary and he had been registered with the RCVS in 2013, the committee heard.
Lown did not attend the RCVS hearing in London, but he was represented by a solicitor.
Three of the charges related to the discovery of images or videos on a laptop and a mobile phone at his home near Ipswich.
Another charge related to footage of him engaging in sexual activity with a horse and a dog, while a fifth charge related to him sending messages that referred to sexual activity with animals.
Prof Noreen Burrows, chairing the committee, said: "The material found in possession of the respondent and his own conduct... involved the abuse of animals and a total lack of respect for their welfare.
"In the judgement of the committee, each of the charges individually amounts to disgraceful conduct and the charges certainly amount to disgraceful conduct when taken cumulatively."

Regina reveals its resources

29 Nov 2013

Saskatchewan is best known as Canada's 'bread basket' because it provides more than half of the country’s wheat, but that’s not its only claim to fame. Indeed, Saskatchewan is fast becoming known as a centre for education about, and the demonstration of, carbon capture and storage (CCS).
Home to the IEA Greenhouse Gas R&D Programme's Weyburn–Midale CO₂ Monitoring and Storage Project,  Boundary Dam Integrated CCS Project,  Aquistore Project, and Shand Carbon Capture test facility,  Saskatchewan's CCS credentials were already top of the class.  However, in November 2013 it added another string to its bow with the launch of Regina Catholic School’s CCS curriculum resources.
Over the past nine months, six dedicated teachers from Regina, Canada, have worked with maths and science Education Consultant Donna Ell to integrate teaching about CCS into the Regina Catholic School curriculum.

Drawing on materials like the Institute's 'Introduction to Carbon Capture and Storage'  education resource pack, the dedicated team has produced CCS-related curriculum resources for Grades 3, 7 and10 (students aged between 8 and 16 years) and is looking forward to sharing the materials with other school boards in the province and beyond.
The Institute's Public Engagement Manager, Kirsty Anderson, caught up with the team on the day the resources were launched. The team, shown in the photo on the right, includes: Liz Stephenson (St Mary School), Heather Haynes (Miller Comprehensive High School), Leah Maier (Archbishop M.C. O’Neill High School), Paul Owens (St Jerome School) ,Mark Wernikowski (Archbishop M.C. O’Neill High School), Coordinator – Donna Ell (Regina Catholic School Division), Christine Treptau (Not available for photo – St Gabriel School).
Q. I'm so pleased to be with you today for the launch of your Carbon Capture Curriculum for Catholic schools in Regina! I understand that as a team you have been working hard at this for more than nine months. Tell me how this project came about? Did you know much about CCS before you started?
We were originally approached by an organisation that used to operate in Regina called IPAC CO₂ to create classroom materials on CCS. Prior to agreeing to do this, we took a good look through the Saskatchewan curriculum to see if there were areas that would naturally support teaching about CCS. There were plenty! We found logical links in our Grade 3, 7 and 10 curricula.
We were pretty surprised to discover that Saskatchewan is the home to world leading research into CCS – as a group, we really knew very little about the subject. So that got us thinking, wouldn’t it be great to bring knowledge of this technology that is being demonstrated on our doorsteps, into our classrooms.
So we pulled together this amazing group of teachers from across the different year groups – some with science expertise, some not.
Our first step was to sit down as a group and look at all the outcomes from the Saskatchewan science curriculum and say, okay, what does this topic connect with and how could we evaluate it… and not just the science curriculum! This topic really lends itself to cross curriculum learning.
Having our learning outcomes and indicators all correlate directly to the Saskatchewan curriculum is a key thing to highlight – I know that you had a similar approach with the CarbonKids program in Australia… it just makes life so much easier for the teachers trying to deliver these lessons and so they are much more likely to use them. Donna Ell

Q. What are you hoping to achieve with these resources? What was the vision you set out with?
An overarching goal while we were creating these materials was to produce something that was very accessible for teachers with limited background knowledge.
Often at high school, it is not science specialists that are teaching junior science (Grades 9 and 10), so we wanted to make sure that anything we produced would be very teacher-friendly. We incorporated answer keys and simple research links to give non-science teachers the confidence to use the material – these folders and DVDs are not meant to be left on the shelf!
For the middle years (Grade 7), we wanted to encourage as much independent learning as possible, so we have lots of research based activities and challenges to find good sources of information online. And of course we know that all students love to have a good mix of hands-on experiments. We loved the chocolate experiments from the CarbonKids program! Paul Owens
We also wanted to introduce a First Nation's perspective to our teaching.
... you know so much of what we teach in science seems so content related, but critical thinking is a really important part of our teaching here in Saskatchewan… and part of that is not providing Western knowledge as problem free, but to make it clear that there are different perspectives and ways of understanding the world. Mark Wernikowski
We really had a vision of including the First Nation’s perspective, not as a kind of tokenism, but to let our students discover how two different perspectives can complement each other. We wanted to weave the two perspectives together into our students’ learning. So we filmed an interview with local Elder Mike Pinay of the Cree Peepeekesis First Nation to get a different perspective on managing our environment, and we encourage students to reflect on the differences and similarities of opinion between Elder Mike and a CCS expert from the University of Regina.
...and you know, many of the elementary school students in this region will have met Elder Mike, and I think this helps reinforce just how relevant this topic is to our students. Paul Owens
Q. Saskatchewan is a province that is fairly familiar with large industry and mining – was this helpful for you as teachers trying to introduce materials on CCS? Would links to these CCS demonstrations and researchers be helpful for students?
I think the great thing about teaching about CCS in our environment classes is that previously we would start teaching about recycling and energy efficiency and get the students really engaged in recycling clubs and analysing the trash to see what stuff we should and shouldn’t be throwing out, but then when they step out of school and see the refinery pumping out all these waste gases, it just seems like such a large thing… it doesn’t seem like recycling my tetra box is going to make any difference… but now what they can see is that in Saskatchewan we are taking large action to solve the problems of the gases coming out of the refinery or the power plant, and I’m not showing them a video about something that is being done far away, this is here and it’s real – I think that is very powerful. Heather Haynes
We really wanted to make this material as relevant as possible for our students. So much of science can feel like you are teaching very abstract concepts, so this was a really great opportunity to consider these concepts in practice.
The majority of our high school science students that go on to study engineering will go into petroleum engineering. By introducing students to modern technologies and low–carbon energy options, and establishing links to the projects in our area, we are opening their eyes to a new set of choices.
It's still engineering, it's about the earth, it's about geology... it's about all these things that this province is becoming known for, but this is about how to better protect our environment. It's a career option for them that I didn’t know existed prior to starting work on this resource. Heather Haynes
Q. Have you trialled the resources in the classroom yet? How did the students respond?
You know, originally I was trying to make the Grade 3 materials really simplistic so that the students would understand it, and I was nervous walking them through the full PowerPoint for the first time… but I was so impressed at their reactions. They were asking questions like… ‘well why does everyone not do this?’ They showed a real curiosity and a much deeper understanding than I would have expected – I think a lot of that was down to the fact that they could identify with the topic as something happening now, in their environment. Liz Stephenson
Q. Of what parts of the resource are you most proud?
It's phenomenal how it all just works together. I think that it is a real strength of the curriculum that this is a topic that is introduced in Grade 3, returned to in Grade 7 in more detail, and then looked at again in Grade 10 ... this means it is really embedding these concepts in our students learning, not just bringing in a whole new topic when the students reach Grade 10. Heather Haynes
The nice thing about all the activities is that they are not using lots of complicated materials – it is essentially kitchen chemistry. This is really important in the younger grades, where many schools just don’t have access to science equipment. Paul Owens
It's very teacher-friendly – I love the real mix of approaches and teaching styles – hands-on science, inquiry based learning, different mediums of information – the lessons aren't lecture driven. Donna Ell
The thing I like about this whole project is that, often when we talk about the carbon cycle or climate change and GHGs it is so negative, you know? I think we have a responsibility as teachers to not only provide the problem ... but also teach about possible solutions and frame things in a positive, inspiring manner, or else these topics are overwhelming and students and adults alike will just shut down and find it easier to ignore the problem than to make a change. I think teaching about CCS opens the door to teaching about many of these other issues around climate change in a much more positive, action orientated way. Mark Wernikowski
It was important to embed our teaching about CCS into the wider story of reducing our ecological footprint, so that the students are empowered with ideas of things that they can do to improve things personally. It helps them realise that their actions do have an impact and empowers them to take responsibility. Leah Maier
I trialled the resource with Grades 3–8 to check that we hadn’t made the concepts too complex. When I asked the students for feedback, I was so impressed by their overwhelming enthusiasm to do something that would help the environment! Liz Stephenson
Q. So what are the next steps? Are you happy to share your work with others interested in creating something similar?
It was always one of our goals to be able to share our ideas with others who are interested – you know this is about sharing knowledge to empower people. We started to build our work from ideas and experiments that we took from other resources, so yes, we really think that it is crucial to share knowledge on topics as important as this.
We meet regularly with other science educators from across our province and with people in the Ministry here in Saskatchewan and we know there is a real interest in integrating this material into the wider public school system. Likewise, if there are people internationally who are interested in what we have done here, then of course we are happy to share our materials and experiences.
We also have a new science curriculum coming in for some of our higher grades in 2015 and from what I have seen, there are a number of areas where we can make more links with CCS, so watch this space!
The Regina Catholic School Board launched its Grade 3, 7 and 10 carbon capture resources in English and French on Friday, 15 November 2013. CCS will be incorporated into the curriculum of all 29 Catholic schools in Regina, Canada. Regina Public School Board and the Saskatoon School Boards have expressed an interest in using the resources.

#BBCtrending: Baseball trade prompts Detroit-bashing tweet

By BBC Trending What's popular and why

Star pitcher David Price is traded from the struggling Tampa Bay Rays to the first-place Detroit Tigers

The 31 July trade deadline can be a trying time for US baseball fans. A favourite team could land key players to help win a championship or throw in the towel for the season by offloading high-priced talent.

It was just such a tale of two cities on Thursday when the Tampa Bay Rays shipped star pitcher David Price to Detroit in a blockbuster deal.
Fans in Detroit were thrilled. Those in Tampa were less than happy.
The local Fox affiliate station expressed its dismay with the following ill-advised tweet to its 40,000 followers:

The image, which was retweeted thousands of times, prompted immediate outcry. While sports rivalry talk between US cities is nothing new, picking on Detroit - which has seen its population plummet and recently had to file for bankruptcy - was seen by many as a low blow.
"Making fun of urban decay and poverty to make a #joke about #sports,"  SBNation's Grant Brisbee. "Very, very classy."
Yahoo Sports's David Brown  that Detroit's economic hard times makes it an easy target for potshots, but St Petersburg, Florida - where the Rays play - actually has a higher property crime rate.
He adds: "If you've ever actually been to Detroit, and interacted with the people who work and live there, you'd never consider hurting their feelings like this."
Renee Monforton, director of communications at the Detroit Metro Convention and Visitors Bureau, told BBC Trending that the Tampa TV station's tweet was disappointing and that Price will be pleasantly surprised when he arrives in the Motor City.
"When we get people to come here, their perception completely changes," she says. "Detroit is a surprising place. If they haven't been here in a while, they really haven't been to Detroit."
Detroit prides itself on being a baseball town. Last year the Tigers drew 3,083,397 fans to their stadium, ranking it sixth in the league in overall attendance. Tampa Bay was dead last, with 1,510,300 tickets sold. That gave the local Detroit Fox station more than enough material for the following rebuttal: