Social and Behavioral Sciences Commons^™

Pakistan's Contribution To The Global Rise In Conventional Pollution, Emily Warner

CMC Senior Theses

This thesis examines the impact of conventional pollutants on the environment, communities, and individuals in Pakistan. It begins by investigating the causes of conventional pollutants and exploring Pakistan’s agricultural industry, domestic practices, non-renewable energy sources, and industrial practices (the brick industry, leather tanning industry, and textile industry). It then analyzes factors that continue to contribute to conventional pollution in Pakistan such as economic incentives, politics, and traditional practices within industries. Exploring the measures that have been taken by Pakistan and other organizations to decrease conventional pollutants, it then suggests potential opportunities for improvement.

On The Brink Of Extinction: The Fate Of The Pacific Northwest's Southern Resident Killer Whales, Sabrina Wilk

Pomona Senior Theses

The killer whales that roam the northeastern Pacific Ocean have been the objects of studies since the 1970s, making them the most well-studied population of orcas in the world. Three distinct ecotypes of killer whales (Orcinus orca), known as residents, transients, and offshores, share these waters. The ecotypes are morphologically and behaviorally distinct to the extent that some scientists consider them separate species, with residents eating salmon, transients specializing on marine mammals, and offshores preferring Pacific sleeper sharks and Pacific halibut. Resident populations have endeared themselves to the region's locals with their striking black and white markings and …

The Reclamation Of Public Parks: An Analysis Of Environmental Justice In Los Angeles, Allison Rigby

Scripps Senior Theses

People who live in cities are far more likely to suffer the physical and psychological effects of urban environments--high noise levels, automobile emissions, toxic industrial waste, crowded living conditions, and a general scarcity of open space. Combating these issues, public parks do more than provide recreational space. They are fundamental to any efforts focusing on urban revitalization, social justice, and sustainability. In downtown Los Angeles, public parks are rare, especially in low-income communities. Several new public parks have reclaimed abandoned land, unwelcoming spaces, and the City’s brownfields. After years of intense private use and neglect, spent land has been reinvigorated …

Spreading The Char: The Importance Of Local Compatibility In The Diffusion Of Biochar Systems To The Smallholder Agriculture Community Context, Laura C. V. Munoz

Pomona Senior Theses

This thesis enters the context of smallholder agriculture communities in the developing world. It explores the potentials of biochar and what biochar systems could bring to the smallholder communities while simultaneously bringing environmental benefits. It then acknowledges the challenges of diffusion –the spreading of an unfamiliar innovation. It seeks to answer the question of what will make diffusion of biochar systems more successful in the smallholder context, fixating on the characteristic of compatibility as well as the role local community members can play in making a new biochar system more visible to the rest of the communities.

Pitzer College Outback Preserve Restoration Project, Paul Faulstich

Pitzer Faculty Publications and Research

A question we keep asking ourselves in environmental analysis at Pitzer College is whether it’s possible to create modern socionatural systems that are truly sustaining; that is, that avoid the features of contemporary systems in which the human factor dominates to the detriment of the environment. Any genuinely sustainable society must honor diversity— cultural and biological—and, at Pitzer, we’re committed to forging innovative directions for a healthy future. Toward this end, students, along with faculty and staff, have initiated a program of ecological restoration in the Pitzer College Outback Preserve.

Missing Voices, Hidden Fields: The Gendered Struggles Of Female Farmworkers, Keiko A. Budech

Pitzer Senior Theses

Known for its fertile soil and ideal climate, California has been one of the most agriculturally productive areas in the world. Often left out of this picture are the farmworkers who make it possible. Within this farmworker community, females are a sub-class that has been even more marginalized. This thesis investigates the gendered aspects of fieldwork and exposes female leadership working towards changing these specific struggles, such as sexual harassment in the fields, domestic abuse, pesticide exposure, and the perpetuation of submissive gender roles in the household and workplace. An in-depth case study of Lideres Campesinas, a community- based grassroots …

Agricultural Efficiency And The End Of The Oil Age; Building A Future Of Longevity, Keith Mchugh

Pomona Senior Theses

This thesis uses an efficiency analysis of agricultural systems to assert that, in lieu of rising prices of fossil fuel, people need to come into more direct contact with their food systems. With a switch to smaller, more efficient farms that rely less on fossil fuel and are connected with the communities they supply for, we can avoid an energy crisis turning into a famine. These smaller-scale systems can help create self-contained, carbon-neutral communities.

San Antonio High School Food Justice Program: A Handbook And Evaluation Of Edible Education, Katherine B. Tenneson

Pitzer Senior Theses

This senior environmental studies thesis explains and analyzes edible education through a food and gardening program at a continuation high school in Claremont, California. The first chapter situates the program-specific analysis by providing background information of the edible education movement, a history of the Edible Schoolyard in Berkeley, California, and an explanation of why food is a powerful teaching tool. The second chapter delineates the program by describing all of its components and compiling essential resources and teaching documents. The third chapter is based on interviews with 9 of 12 involved students and 7 teachers, and thoroughly explains the outcomes …

Arsenic Contamination In Groundwater In Vietnam: An Overview And Analysis Of The Historical, Cultural, Economic, And Political Parameters In The Success Of Various Mitigation Options, Thuy M. Ly

Pomona Senior Theses

Although arsenic is naturally present in the environment, 99% of human exposure to arsenic is through ingestion. Throughout history, arsenic is known as “the king of poisons”; it is mutagenic, carcinogenic, and teratogenic. Even in smaller concentrations, it accumulates in the body and takes decades before any physical symptoms of arsenic poisoning shows. According to the World Health Organization (WHO), the safe concentration of arsenic in drinking water is 10 µg/L. However, this limit is often times ignored until it is decades too late and people begin showing symptoms of having been poisoned.

This is the current situation for Vietnam, …

Exploring German And American Modes Of Pedagogical And Institutional Sustainability: Forging A Way Into The Future, Lindon N. Pronto

Pitzer Senior Theses

Rooted deep in Germany's past is its modern socio-political grounding for environmental respect and sustainability. This translates into individual and collective action and extends equally to the economic and policy realm as it does to educational institutions. This thesis evaluates research conducted in Germany with a view to what best approaches are transferable to the United States liberal arts setting. Furthermore, exemplary American models of institutional sustainability and environmental education are explored and combined with those from abroad to produce a blueprint and action plan fitting for the American college and university.

When Curiosity Kills More Than The Cat: The Perils Of Unchecked Scientific Inquiry, Jamie Shannon

Pomona Senior Theses

This work analyzes the ecological, physical, emotional and health impacts of the US nuclear testing done in the Marshall Islands in the mid-20th century.

Teaching For Change: The Leadership In Environmental Education Partnership, Paul Faulstich

Pitzer Faculty Publications and Research

Humans are transforming earth's landscape from a natural matrix with pockets of civilization to just the opposite. Most of us realize that this pattern is not sustainable. I live and work in Claremont, California, a charming college town in the midst of suburban sprawl. The town has a central village of terminally tasteful, overpriced bungalows nestled in the shade of tall, largely exotic trees. Indeed, most of the landscape of this "city of trees and Ph.D.s" has been imported; only a remnant parcel of coastal sage scrub that the Claremont Colleges have reluctantly preserved remains.

Field Station Under Threat, Paul Faulstich

Pitzer Faculty Publications and Research

As reported in the last issue of The Other Side, The Bernard Biological Field Station of the Colleges is slated to be the site of the Keck Graduate Institute, the newest (but yet unbuilt) addition to the Claremont Consortium. With Pitzer casting the sole dissenting vote, the Claremont Colleges approved construction of the Keck Institute on eleven acres of the 85 acre Field Station.

Land Development And Biotechnology At The Claremont Colleges, Paul Faulstich

Pitzer Faculty Publications and Research

Founded on the Oxford model of a cluster of institutions, the Claremont Colleges has periodically established a new school. In the Spring of 1997, the Board of Fellows of the Claremont University Center charged with policy-making for the consortium-voted to establish a seventh college; the Keck Graduate Institute of applied life sciences. or bioengineering. Despite other landholdings, including a golf course and a non-operational gravel quarry, the Board of Fellows voted to site the New Venture on a portion-approximately eleven acres--of the Bernard Biological Field Station. (Pitzer's vote was cast against building on the Field Station.)

Malaysian Deforestation Proceeds Apace, Paul Faulstich

Pitzer Faculty Publications and Research

A hunger fast, dubbed Fast Action, was staged in front of the Japanese Consulate General in Honolulu on July 20 to protest the destruction of the most ancient and biologically diverse ecosystem on Earth. Organized by Hawai'i Earth First! and the O'ahu Rainforest Action Group, Fast Action was designed to alert people to the destruction of tropical rainforests in Sarawak, Malaysia. Protesters demanded on immediate moratorium on the cutting of rainforests in,which the Penan and other-native peoples live.

Hawaii's Hottest Issue: Update On Geothermal Development, Paul Faulstich

Pitzer Faculty Publications and Research

Walking through Hawai'i's Wao Kele O Puna rainforest, you can hear the coarse volcanic soil crunch underfoot. A surrealistic calm lingers in the thick air while songbirds call out from the understory. Yet this is a forest under siege.

Geothermal developers want to tap the volcanic heat beneath the Wao Kele O Puna forest and use it to make electricity and profits.

Hawaiians Fight For The Rainforest, Paul Faulstich

Pitzer Faculty Publications and Research

On March 25, 141 were arrested as part of the largest demonstration yet against the drilling of geothermal wells in the Wao Kele O Puna Rainforest on the Big Island of Hawaii. The geothermal project, undertaken by True Geothermal Company and endorsed by Hawaii's governor and other high-powered, short-sighted people, has already invaded the largest intact tropical lowland rainforest in the United States. The demonstration drew over 1500 protesters,

Hawaii's Rainforest Crunch: Land, People, And Geothermal Development, Paul Faulstich

Pitzer Faculty Publications and Research

One hundred and forty-one people, led by Native Hawaiians, were arrested on 25 March 1990 as part of the largest demonstration yet against geothermal development in Hawaii. The gathering was intended to focus attention on Native Hawaiian rights and the ecological consequences of drilling geothermal wells in the near-pristine Wao Kele O Puna rain forest. The energy project, undertaken by True Geothermal Company and endorsed by Hawaii's governor and other imposing figures, has already invaded the largest intact tropical lowland rain forest in the United States.