Social and Behavioral Sciences Commons^™

Training Future Agriculture Professionals In Landowner–Tenant Conservation Decision-Making, Andrea Basche, Angela Carter

Michigan Tech Publications

The landowner–tenant relationship is important to the implementation of conservation on agricultural lands. Women own or co-own a significant portion of U.S. farmland yet are underrepresented in conservation research. The next generation of agriculture professionals can benefit from first-hand experience in assisting women landowners and their tenants in navigating the complexities of conservation decision-making. This article analyzes undergraduate student perceptions of landowner–tenant relationships in conservation management through their engagement in case studies with women landowner–tenant pairs in the Western Corn Belt. Student groups were asked to complete a management improvement plan that both incorporated the agronomic and conservation goals discussed …

A First Investigation Of Agriculture Sector Perspectives On The Opportunities And Barriers For Agrivoltaics, Alexis Pascaris, Chelsea Schelly, Joshua M. Pearce

Michigan Tech Publications

Agrivoltaic systems are a strategic and innovative approach to combine solar photovoltaic (PV)-based renewable energy generation with agricultural production. Recognizing the fundamental importance of farmer adoption in the successful diffusion of the agrivoltaic innovation, this study investigates agriculture sector experts’ perceptions on the opportunities and barriers to dual land-use systems. Using in-depth, semistructured interviews, this study conducts a first study to identify challenges to farmer adoption of agrivoltaics and address them by responding to societal concerns. Results indicate that participants see potential benefits for themselves in combined solar and agriculture technology. The identified barriers to adoption of agrivoltaics, however, include: …

Ratepayer Perspectives On Mid- To Large-Scale Solar Development On Long Island, Ny: Lessons For Reducing Siting Conflict Through Supported Development Types, Chelsea Schelly, Emily Prehoda, Jessica Price, Aimee Delach, Rupak Thapaliya

Michigan Tech Publications

The state of New York has ambitious mandates for reducing greenhouse gas emissions and increasing renewable energy generation. Solar energy will play an important role in reducing greenhouse gas emissions from the electric energy sector. Concerns over solar installations’ impacts to host communities and the environment have led to growing conflicts over solar energy siting on Long Island, in other parts of New York, and throughout the US. Understanding community members’ perspectives is critical for reducing conflict. Solar energy can be deployed more quickly and at lower cost if projects are structured to address the concerns and meet the needs …

Covid-19: Effective Policymaking Depends On Trust In Experts, Politicians, And The Public, Paul Cairney, Adam Wellstead

Michigan Tech Publications

In a crisis, almost-instant choices about who to trust or distrust could make a difference between life and death. Trust is necessary for cooperation, coordination, social order, and to reduce the need for coercive state imposition. During a pandemic, people need to trust experts to help them understand and respond to the problem, governments to coordinate policy instruments and make choices about levels of coercion, and citizens as they cooperate to minimize infection. We compare these general requirements with specific developments in the UK and US, identifying: the variable reliance by elected politicians on scientific experts, worrying levels of distrust …

Quantifying Surface Severity Of The 2014 And 2015 Fires In The Great Slave Lake Area Of Canada, Nancy H. F. French, Jeremy Graham, Ellen Whitman, Laura Bourgeau-Chavez

Michigan Tech Publications

The focus of this paper was the development of surface organic layer severity maps for the 2014 and 2015 fires in the Great Slave Lake area of the Northwest Territories and Alberta, Canada, using multiple linear regression models generated from pairing field data with Landsat 8 data. Field severity data were collected at 90 sites across the region, together with other site metrics, in order to develop a mapping approach for surface severity, an important metric for assessing carbon loss from fire. The approach utilised a combination of remote sensing indices to build a predictive model of severity that was …

Enrollment Decision-Making By Students In Forestry And Related Natural Resource Degree Programmes Globally, T. L. Bal, M. D. Rouleau, T. L. Sharik, A. M. Wellstead

Michigan Tech Publications

A survey of 396 undergraduate and graduate students from 51 countries on 5 continents currently enrolled in Forestry or Related Natural Resource (FRNR) degree programmes was conducted of attendees to the International Union of Forest Research Organizations' (IUFRO) conference in Salt Lake City, Utah, 2014. These perspectives come from some of the most active students in their respective fields. We explored the motivating reasons for enrolling in their current FRNR programme, and conversely why they may have been hesitant to do so. Results indicate that enjoyment of nature was the most important factor on average driving the decision to enroll, …

U.S. Greenhouse Gas Emission Bottlenecks: Prioritization Of Targets For Climate Liability, Alexis Pascaris, Joshua M. Pearce

Michigan Tech Publications

Due to market failures that allow uncompensated negative externalities from burning fossil fuels, there has been a growing call for climate change-related litigation targeting polluting companies. To determine the most intensive carbon dioxide (CO₂)-emitting facilities in order prioritize liability for climate lawsuits, and risk mitigation strategies for identified companies as well as their insurers and investors, two methods are compared: (1) the conventional point-source method and (2) the proposed bottleneck method, which considers all emissions that a facility enables rather than only what it emits. Results indicate that the top ten CO₂ emission bottlenecks in the U.S. …

Paul Robeson, Carnival, And The 2018 National Eisteddfod, Mark Rhodes

Michigan Tech Publications

No abstract provided.

The North-South Policy Divide In Transnational Healthcare: A Comparative Review Of Policy Research On Medical Tourism In Source And Destination Countries., Altaf Virani, Adam Wellstead, Michael Howlett

Michigan Tech Publications

Medical tourism occupies different spaces within national policy frameworks depending on which side of the transnational paradigm countries belong to, and how they seek to leverage it towards their developmental goals. This article draws attention to this policy divide in transnational healthcare through a comparative bibliometric review of policy research on medical tourism in select source (Canada, United States and United Kingdom) and destination countries (Mexico, India, Thailand, Malaysia and Singapore), using a systematic search of the Web of Science (WoS) database and review of grey literature. We assess cross-national differences in policy and policy research on medical tourism against …

American Influences At The National Eisteddfod, Mark Rhodes

Michigan Tech Publications

No abstract provided.

Mapping Kenyan Grassland Heights Across Large Spatial Scales With Combined Optical And Radar Satellite Imagery, Olivia S. B. Spagnuolo, Julie C. Jarvey, Michael Battaglia, Zachary Laubach, Mary Ellen Miller, Kay E. Holekamp, Laura Bourgeau-Chavez

Michigan Tech Publications

Grassland monitoring can be challenging because it is time-consuming and expensive to measure grass condition at large spatial scales. Remote sensing offers a time- and cost-effective method for mapping and monitoring grassland condition at both large spatial extents and fine temporal resolutions. Combinations of remotely sensed optical and radar imagery are particularly promising because together they can measure differences in moisture, structure, and reflectance among land cover types. We combined multi-date radar (PALSAR-2 and Sentinel-1) and optical (Sentinel-2) imagery with field data and visual interpretation of aerial imagery to classify land cover in the Masai Mara National Reserve, Kenya using …

Examining The Key Drivers Of Residential Solar Adoption In Upstate New York, Chelsea Schelly, James C. Letzelter

Michigan Tech Publications

This research examines the decision factors influencing adoption of residential solar electric power systems in upstate New York. New York has a goal to provide 100% of electric energy in the State through renewable resources, which includes solar electricity, by 2030. Thus, identifying the most important decision factors may be useful in understanding potential means of promoting solar technology adoption. Through an online survey of homeowners in upstate New York who have installed residential solar systems, the research examined the importance of decision factors influencing the decision to adopt and how factors have changed over time. The research finds that …

Exporting Consumption: Lifestyle Migration And Energy Use, Richelle Winkler, David Matarrita-Cascante

Michigan Tech Publications

This paper examines how international population movements from highly developed to less developed countries spread environmentally-impactful consumption habits around the world. Lifestyle migration, a phenomenon whereby relatively privileged migrants move in search of a more fulfilling life, is increasingly common around the world and serves as an optimal example for studying the spread of unsustainable consumption. We wonder whether lifestyle migrants take high consumption lifestyles typical in their countries of origin to their destination places and whether their presence in destination communities increases consumption among natives as well. This study investigates these relationships based on the case of Costa Rica, …

Assessing Boreal Peat Fire Severity And Vulnerability Of Peatlands To Early Season Wildland Fire, Laura Bourgeau-Chavez, Sarah L. Grelik, Michael Billmire, Liza K. Jenkins, Eric S. Kasischke, Merritt R. Turetsky

Michigan Tech Publications

Globally peatlands store large amounts of carbon belowground with 80% distributed in boreal regions of the northern hemisphere. Climate warming and drying of the boreal region has been documented as affecting fire regimes, with increased fire frequency, severity and extent. While much research is dedicated to assessing changes in boreal uplands, few research efforts are focused on the vulnerability of boreal peatlands to wildfire. In this case study, an integration of field data collection, land cover mapping of peatland types and Landsat-based fire severity mapping was conducted for four early season (May to mid-June) wildfires where peatlands are abundant in …

What Is An Endangered Species?: Judgments About Acceptable Risk, Thomas Offer-Westort, Adam Feltz, Jeremy T. Bruskotter, John A. Vucetich

Michigan Tech Publications

Judgments about acceptable risk in the context of policy may be influenced by law makers, policy makers, experts and the general public. While significant effort has been made to understand public attitudes on acceptable risk of environmental pollution, little is known about such attitudes in the context of species' endangerment. We present survey results on these attitudes in the context of United States' legal-political apparatus intended to mitigate species endangerment. The results suggest that the general public exhibit lower tolerance for risk than policy makers and experts. Results also suggest that attitudes about acceptable risk for species endangerment are importantly …

‘Coronated’ Consumption In The Viral Market, Soonkwan Hong

Michigan Tech Publications

The universal exposure to the virus has disrupted institutions, redefined values, and reshaped systems, including the market. Idling, uncertainty, and liquidity encapsulate the ever-precarious individual lives and the reflexive socio-politico-cultural changes. These conditions and consequences nonetheless create paradoxical opportunities in the viral market. The new meaning of connectivity that promotes high-viscosity relationships and high-visibility identities will transform the market to better acknowledge and support humans and the new sociality.

Where Is The Policy? A Bibliometric Analysis Of The State Of Policy Research On Medical Tourism., Altaf Virani, Adam Wellstead, Michael Howlett

Michigan Tech Publications

Background: It is imperative that researchers studying medical tourism connect their work with policy, so that its real-world challenges can be better understood, and more effectively addressed. This article gauges the scope and evolution of

Methods: A Boolean search of the Web of Science (WoS) Core Collection was performed to identify policy-related publications on medical tourism. We analyzed the results using bibliometrics and a data visualization software called

Results: Our findings suggest that only a small proportion of medical tourism research explicitly addresses policy issues or applies policy paradigms in their study approach. Field-specialized journals serving practitioners publish less research …

Copper-Rich “Halo” Off Lake Superior's Keweenaw Peninsula And How Mass Mill Tailings Dispersed Onto Tribal Lands, W. Charles Kerfoot, Noel Urban, Jaebong Jeong, Carol Maclennan, Sophia Ford

Michigan Tech Publications

Over a century ago, shoreline copper mills sluiced more than 64 million metric tonnes of tailings into Lake Superior, creating a “halo” around the Keweenaw Peninsula with a buried copper peak. Here we examine how tailings from one of the smaller mills (Mass Mill, 1902–1919) spread as a dual pulse across southern Keweenaw Bay and onto tribal L'Anse Indian Reservation lands. The fine (“slime clay”) fraction dispersed early and widely, whereas the coarse fraction (stamp sands) moved more slowly southward as a black sand beach deposit, leaving scattered residual patches. Beach stamp sands followed the path of sand eroding from …