Social and Behavioral Sciences Commons^™

Fight To Ignite: The Impacts Of Climate Change On Prescribed Burning In Pine Forests, Chloe Anderson

Celebrating Scholarship and Creativity Day (2018-)

Prescribed burning is a strategy that has been used to manage the health of forest ecosystems for thousands of years. While these practices have certainly evolved over time, recent impacts of climate change are threatening the future feasibility of implementing fire in forest management altogether. This ecological process is essential to restoring and maintaining a healthy forest ecosystem as fire acts as a catalyst by returning nutrients to soil and promoting healthy regrowth. Prescribed burning prepares forestlands for reforestation by destroying weeds and other competitive species so that native and fire-dependent species can reproduce. This process also lessens the fuel …

Saint John's Prep Navigation Map, Alec Otte

Celebrating Scholarship and Creativity Day (2018-)

This map was a project commissioned by Jill Pauly, Director of Communications at St. John’s Prep School. The intended purpose of the map is to assist new students and first-time visitors with finding buildings and fields. Places such as Tower Field, Sexton Commons, and Thomas Hall/Life Safety were desired focuses as they are further from the main prep school building and thus more difficult to find without guidance.

To Buy Or Not To Buy: The Ethics Of College Clothing, Mariko Hermerding

Celebrating Scholarship and Creativity Day (2018-)

Look back and consider your past and current wardrobe. If you are a college graduate, most likely along the way you owned an article of college apparel. It could be something as simple as a pair of socks with your school’s logo on it. Have you ever considered where you received that piece of clothing from? Have you considered who made it for you? In this essay, research will be conducted to figure out and establish where the Minnesota Intercollegiate Athletic Conference colleges source their clothes from, how ethically made they are, and suggest sustainable alternatives.

Stirring Up The Soil: Best Practices To Mitigate Lead Exposure In Contaminated Soils Within Omaha, Nebraska, Mckenzie Blaine

Celebrating Scholarship and Creativity Day (2018-)

Cities across the nation in the United States experience problems associated with lead contamination in their urban soils due to industrial pollution. In many instances, the emission of lead particles occurred – unregulated – for several decades. Though there are federal cleanup efforts to help minimize the negative impacts of lead contamination for the public in the United States, the efforts are designated for specified criteria and thus do not reach all areas which need to be remediated. In order to perform proper lead abatement practices, local organizations must take initiative on projects which meet the needs and demands of …

Intersections Of Climate Justice, Brigid Mark, Alejandra Gallardo, Jack Pieper, Danielle Voss, Corrie Grosse, Leonardo Cumplido, Elena Lozano

Environmental Studies Faculty Publications

This packet covers current information on climate justice issues in Minnesota including: Latinx immigration, public health, Black Lives Matter, native rights, LGBTQIA+ community, Somali livelihoods, and just transition.

We hope to help realize how we are connected to the climate crisis, identify action items for individuals, and build an understanding of how the crisis may affect our neighbors with different experiences. We believe that exchanging knowledge and raising awareness of local issues are essential to build a lasting and welcoming movement to secure healthy and happy livelihoods for all.

Olympic Success: Built, Born, Or Bought?, Jacob Ney

Celebrating Scholarship and Creativity Day (2018-)

During the Olympic Games, a ranked medal count often compares performance by country, but this system may be an unfair and inaccurate representation of Olympic success. To fairly balance how this success is measured, factors such as a country’s participation, population, and GDP must be considered. These choropleth, Robinson-projected world maps display normalizations of these factors using medal count and participant information from every summer Olympics since 1896, as well as data on each country’s current population and GDP.

Future Mining In Minnesota: Effects On Communities And Environment, Jayson Valek

Celebrating Scholarship and Creativity Day (2018-)

Future Mining in Minnesota: Effects on Communities and Environment Abstract This study explores and describes the potential risks of the proposed PolyMet copper-nickel mine near Hoyt Lakes, Minnesota. The goals of the research were: 1) identify vulnerable communities and environmental features, 2) determine the mine’s potential damage, and 3) create maps to illustrate the vicinity of the mine to vulnerable areas. The interest of this project is to determine whether the mine’s economic benefit outweighs the environmental risks. This research is an observational study that involves analysis of maps compiled with environmental, population, and vulnerability data as well as non-spatial …

College Of Saint Benedict Marie And Robert Jackson Fellow (2014)-Center For Earth Energy And Democracy, Chendan Yan

Celebrating Scholarship & Creativity Day (2011-2017)

Center for Earth Energy and Democracy was founded by a group of researchers, educators and community activists who saw the need to affirm and revitalize principles of democracy and social justice. CEED’s mission is to work at the intersection of energy, environment and community development to develop solutions that are democratic, sustainable and socially just. As a mapping tool student researcher at CEED, 2014 Jackson Fellow Chendan Yan, an Environmental Studies and Philosophy double major from Shanghai, China, contacted agencies, collected, and analyzed data for Environmental Justice (EJ) Mapping tool. She developed Infographics demonstrating disparities among neighborhoods and created visual …

Identifying Environmentally Burdened Neighborhoods In Minneapolis Through A Cumulative Approach, Chendan Yan

Celebrating Scholarship & Creativity Day (2011-2017)

Environmental problems are not confined to political boundaries and tend to impact population beyond their sources, yet some communities are more impacted than others. This GIS project calculates a Cumulative Impact (CI) Score of environmental hazards for each neighborhood in Minneapolis based on the following four measures: environmental effects, public health effects, sensitive populations, socioeconomic factors. The higher the CI score, the more environmentally burdened a neighborhood is. The scope of this GIS project is limited and it is the hope of many environmental organizations in Minnesota that Minnesota Pollution Control Agency will take the lead and develop a more …