Environmental Studies Commons^™

Which Came First, People Or Pollution? A Review Of Theory And Evidence From Longitudinal Environmental Justice Studies, Paul Mohai, Robin Saha

Environmental Studies Faculty Publications

A considerable number of quantitative analyses have been conducted in the past several decades that demonstrate the existence of racial and socioeconomic disparities in the distribution of a wide variety of environmental hazards. The vast majority of these have been cross-sectional, snapshot studies employing data on hazardous facilities and population characteristics at only one point in time. Although some limited hypotheses can be tested with cross-sectional data, fully understanding how present-day disparities come about requires longitudinal analyses that examine the demographic characteristics of sites at the time of facility siting and track demographic changes after siting. Relatively few such studies …

Impact Of Executive Order 13211 On Environmental Regulation: An Empirical Study, Elizabeth Ann Glass Geltman

Publications and Research

A great deal has been written about the Energy Policy Act of 2005 exempting oil and gas operations using hydraulic fracturing from the purview of certain federal environmental laws. Far less attention has been paid to George W. Bush’s Executive Order 13211 (EO 13211), entitled “Actions Concerning Regulations that Significantly Affect Energy Supply, Distribution or Use.” The executive order requires federal agencies to evaluate the impact of federal regulations on “supply, distribution and use of energy.” This study examined the impact of EO 13211 on United States environmental and conservation regulations proposed and promulgated by federal agencies. The study found …

Occupancy Analysis And Density Estimation Of Kori Bustards (Ardeotis Kori) And Helmeted Guineafowl (Numida Meleagris) For Use In Landscape Conservation Planning In The Northern Tuli Game Reserve, Botswana, Kathryn R. Mccollum

School of Natural Resources: Dissertations, Theses, and Student Research

For understudied species, more informed conservation planning and decision-making on both the local and landscape levels may be attained through the use of occupancy and abundance estimations. Here, we focus on two iconic bird species in eastern Botswana, kori bustards (Ardeotis kori) and helmeted guineafowl (Numida meleagris). The overall goal of this project was to better understand the hierarchy of factors that influence occupancy (ψ) and density of kori bustard and helmeted guineafowl populations within the Northern Tuli Game Reserve and how these factors may interact to affect landscape conservation and usage. We performed distance sampling …

Public Preferences For Investments In Renewable Energy Production And Energy Efficiency, Caroline L. Noblet, Mario F. Teisl, Keith S. Evans, Mark W. Anderson, Shannon Mccoy, Edmund Cervone

Publications

In this paper we investigate the choices citizens make when asked to express willingness to support a proposed energy policy and are then compelled to allocate the program funds to either renewable energy or energy efficiency. In a survey study based on a random sample of residents of the state of Maine, USA, we find that citizens have preferences for specific types of renewable energy but these preferences do not yield significantly different allocation of investment funds between renewable energy and energy efficiency. We find that preferences are generally consistent regardless of presentation of options (i.e. limited ordering effects). Our …

Influence Of Rock-Pool Characteristics On The Distribution And Abundance Of Inter-Tidal Fishes, Gemma E. White, Grant C. Hose, Culum Brown

Ecology Collection

Rock pools can be found in inter-tidal marine environments worldwide; however, there have been few studies exploring what drives their, fish species composition, especially in Australia. The rock-pool environment is highly dynamic and offers a unique natural laboratory to study the habitat choices, physiological limitations and adaptations of inter-tidal fish species. In this study rock pools of the Sydney region were sampled to determine how the physical (volume, depth, rock cover and vertical position) and biological (algal cover and predator presence) parameters of pools influence fish distribution and abundance. A total of 27 fish species representing 14 families was observed …

Keeping Sabbath During The Week, Michael E. Cafferky

Faculty Works

Would Sabbath-keeping be less meaningful if, on the other six days, our work disrupted human well-being or otherwise failed to honor the Sabbath Giver? This article is an abridged version of the longer peer-reviewed article "Sabbath: The Theological Roots of Sustainable Development" published in the Journal of Biblical Integration in Business available at http://cbfa-jbib.org/index.php/jbib/article/view/108/108 .

Centerville Slough Project, Susie Van Kirk

Susie Van Kirk Papers

An extensive cultural resources document for the Eel River Estuary Preserve was prepared in 2014 to identify resources within the initial project area. With new project proposals and an expanded Area of Potential Effect (APE), several additional structures were surveyed. This addendum looked at three barns and a house, none of which will be affected by proposed projects. They were surveyed because they fall within the expanded APE.

Some of the research conducted for the 2014 historic resources document was applicable to the addendum, including land ownerships and newspaper references. For the present report, additional research was conducted in the …

Discover Joyce's Dublin By Reading And Running, Barry Sheehan

Academic Articles

James Joyce told his friend Frank Budgen. “‘I want’ said Joyce, as we were walking down the Universitätstrasse, ‘to give a picture of Dublin so complete that if the city one day suddenly disappeared from the earth it could be reconstructed out of my book.’” (Budgen, 1960, p.67, 68).

This research looks at the relevance of Dublin to Joyce’s writings and to the relevance of Joyce’s writings to Dublin. It is concerned with the virtual Dublin of Joyce’s writings, the physical manifestation of Dublin over time, and the relationships between them.

Numerous scholars read and analyse the writings of Joyce …

Estimating The Economic Impact Of The Construction And Operation Of The Plains And Eastern Clean Line Project, Katherine A. Deck, Mervin Jebaraj

Publications and Presentations

Clean Line Energy Partners LLC (Clean Line) is proposing to build the Plains & Eastern Clean Line project, an approximately 700-mile, high voltage direct current transmission line and associated facilities with the capacity to deliver 4,000 megawatts (MW) of wind power from the Oklahoma Panhandle region to utilities and customers in Arkansas, Tennessee, and other markets in the Mid-South and Southeast, areas that lack access to low-cost renewable power. The project will deliver enough energy to power more than one million homes annually in the MidSouth and Southeastern United States.

The Influence Of Gendered Roles And Responsibilities On The Adoption Of Technologies That Mitigate Drought Risk: The Case Of Drought-Tolerant Maize Seed In Eastern Uganda, Monica Fisher, Edward R. Carr

Sustainability and Social Justice

Gender-disaggregated, household survey data for Uganda are used to examine how gendered roles and responsibilities influence adoption of drought-tolerant (DT) maize, a new technology that can help smallholder farmers in sub-Saharan Africa adapt to drought risk. Multinomial logit (MNL) regression results indicate that, compared to men farmers, women farmers have much lower adoption of DT maize, mainly due to differences in resource access, notably land, agricultural information, and credit. Differentiation of women and men farmers by various characteristics reveals that whether a male farmer was younger or older, or poor or non-poor has no significant influence on DT maize adoption; …

Does The Global Food System Have An Achilles’ Heel? How Regional Food Systems May Support Resilience In Regional Disasters, Rebekah Paci-Green, Gigi M. Berardi

Environmental Studies Faculty and Staff Publications

Today’s domestic United States food production is the result of an industry optimized for competitive, high yielding, and high-growth production for a globalized market. Yet, industry growth may weaken food system resilience to abrupt disruptions by reducing the diversity of food supply sources. In this paper, we first explore shifts in food consumption patterns towards reliance upon complex and long-distance food distribution, food imports, and out-of-home eating. Second, we discuss how large-scale, rapid-onset natural hazards may shape food access for both food secure and insecure households, given changing realities of consumption. We then consider whether and how regional food production …

Guide To The Dr. Jane Claire Dirks-Edmunds Papers, Linfield College Archives

Linfield Archives Finding Aids

This collection reflects the life work of Dr. Jane Claire Dirks-Edmunds, a student and professor of Linfield College. A dedicated and scrupulous woman, the majority of the collection consists of her research, teaching materials, and correspondence. The collection also includes research and correspondence by Dr. Jane Claire Dirks-Edmunds’s mentor, Dr. James A. Macnab.

Trump And Sanders Supporters Differ Sharply On Key Scientific Fact, Lawrence C. Hamilton

The Carsey School of Public Policy at the Scholars' Repository

In this fact sheet, author Lawrence C. Hamilton reports the results of a recent WMUR/CNN poll by the UNH Survey Center asking more than 700 New Hampshire residents whether they would vote for Donald Trump or Bernie Sanders if the 2016 presidential election was being held on that day, and how candidate preferences matched up with people's beliefs about a basic scientific fact -- the rising con­centration of CO2 or carbon dioxide in the Earth’s atmosphere.

The Projekti Arkeologjike I Shkodres (Pash): Combining Paleoenvironmental And Archaeological Data From A Balkan Lacustrine Landscape, The University Of Maine Anthropology Department

Cultural Affairs Distinguished Lecture Series

The Projekti Arkeolojike i Shkodres (PASH) conducted five years of interdiciplinary, diachronic field research (2010-2014) in the Northern Albanian region of Shkoder, targeting the plain and hills that ring Shkodra Lake. The project was designed to address changes in landscape, settlement, and land use, beginning in prehistory. Intensive archaeological survey of 16 square kilometers identified 15 sites of all periods, many of them multicomponent, and 175 prehistoric burial mounds. Four mounds and three sites were targeted for test excavations, allowing the beginnings of a regional absolute chronology. A program of geological coring is helping to clarify the varying size of …

Change The Game, John S. Farnsworth

Environmental Studies and Sciences

Not only was it a wild idea, it was someone else’s wild idea.

Having spent the three previous summers working feverishly on a book, I’d decided that I was due for a more restful interlude between spring and fall quarters. My summer was to be heavy on contemplation as I scratched together a prospectus for a new book. There was to be ample time for grant writing. In my spare time I would work on a sabbatical proposal. There was the pile of books I was eager to get to, heavy on obscure nature writers.

Then came an email from …

Two Steps Forward And One Step Back: An Assessment Of How Uneven Economic Development Affects The Number Of Civil Wars, Cassandra M. Scheiber

Student Publications

The effects of economic development are enormously important in understanding the causes of civil war and the requirements for successful post-conflict reconstruction. In recent decades we have seen an increase in the number of civil wars because of a phenomenon known as the conflict trap. I question why we see an increase in civil wars and what role unstable economic development plays in contributing to the conflict trap. This paper offers evidence to support the hypothesis that uneven economic development increases the risk of multiple civil wars occurring in a short amount of time. Based on the results of testing …

The Environment And Civil War: Exploring The Relationship Between The Environmental Performance Index And Incidence Of Internal Armed Conflict, Katerina N. Krohn

Student Publications

The state of the environment is receiving increasing attention. Environmental quality’s possible relationship to violent conflict attracts both popular and academic interest. Prior research has found support for the idea that environmental scarcity is related to higher occurrences of civil war. There have been few comprehensive quantitative studies regarding this relationship. This study tests a more general argument that higher environmental quality can lead to fewer occurrences of internal armed conflict. The study utilizes an environmental performance index found in the Quality of Government Standard Dataset to test its hypothesis. The study finds that the higher the environmental performance index …

Patagonia Con Poder: El Éxito De La Oposición Frente El Proyecto Hidroaysén, Nathaniel Korn

Independent Study Project (ISP) Collection

This investigation analyzes the movement in opposition to the HidroAysén project in Southern Chile that is often referred to as and uses the slogan “Patagonia Sin Represas” (Patagonia Without Dams). The investigation is framed through collective action theory, the study of what incentives and other factors create the conditions for mobilization and group action. In the context of social movements it is usually argued that there needs to be a better cost-benefit scenario for each actor to be involved than there is to not be involved in the movement. Immediately following return of democracy to Chile in the 1990’s social …

Assessing The Sustainability Of Selective Logging In Ankarabolava-Agnakatrika New Protected Area, Eileen Nakahata

Independent Study Project (ISP) Collection

Over the past 50 years, more than 90% of dense low-altitude humid forest in the District of Vangaindrano has been lost to deforestation and the remaining fragments continue to be threatened by slash and burn agriculture and selective cutting by local populations. These activities are driven by widespread poverty, population growth, and lack of development, which have made subsistence increasingly difficult. This study investigates logging rates and the stock of five commercially valuable trees in the Ankarabolava-Agnakatrika New Protected Area. Fifteen 1000m² transects were established systematically within the territory of the Matanga commune. Within each transect data was collected …

Prescribed Fire Monitoring Report, Tallgrass Prairie National Preserve 2014 (Iqcs Fire Number 285382, 285383, 266782, 285677), Sherry A. Leis, Sarah E. Hinman

United States National Park Service: Publications

Introduction

In 2014, the preserve’s federal and NGO partners conducted prescribed fires during March, April, and October that encompassed 8129.8 acres of Tallgrass Prairie National Preserve (TAPR). This was a unique burn year in that prescribed burns occurred in the spring, the traditional burn season, and the fall. Fall burns were conducted to support needed archaeological surveys as part of the environmental compliance for a symphony event scheduled for June 2015 at the preserve. Burns at TAPR were coordinated with local US Fish and Wildlife Service (USFWS), The Nature Conservancy (TNC), and various units of the National Park Service.

Burns …

Landscape Values And Wind Generation In West Mayo, Ireland, Ken Boyle

Conference Papers

The landscape of west Mayo, in North West Ireland, is dominated and shrouded by an extensive area, 3,539Km2, of blanket peat soils. The landscape and its habitats have multiple values associated with them including a source of peat for fuel, agriculture, forestry, conservation, tourism, biomass production, tourism, cultural and archaeological. Historically communities have relied on peat as a source of energy and in the 20th century the state harvested peat on an industrial scale to generate electricity. Biomass production using willow (Salix spp) on cutover blanket peat and extensive planting, on deep peat, of Picea sitchensis and Pinus contorta was …

Barriers To Disaster Preparedness Among Medical Special Needs Populations, Leslie Meyer, Kristina Vatcheva, Stephanie Castellanos, Belinda M. Reininger

School of Mathematical and Statistical Sciences Faculty Publications and Presentations

A medical special needs (MSN) assessment was conducted among 3088 respondents in a hurricane prone area. The sample was female (51.7%), Hispanic (92.9%), aged >45 years (51%), not insured for health (59.2%), and with an MSN (33.2%). Barriers to preparedness were characterized for all households, including those with inhabitants reporting MSN ranging from level 0 (mild) to level 4 (most severe). Multivariable logistic regression tested associations between hurricane preparedness and barriers to evacuation by level of MSN. A significant interaction effect between number of evacuation barriers and MSN was found. Among households that reported individuals with level 0 MSN, the …

Simulating And Animating The Spatial Dynamics Of Interacting Species Living On A Torus, Boyan Kostadinov

Publications and Research

The goal of this talk is to present a student research project in computational population biology, which aims at creating a computer simulation and animation of the spatial dynamics of interactions between two kinds of species living on a torus-shaped universe. The habitat for spatial interactions is modeled by a 2D lattice with periodic boundary conditions, which wrap the rectangular grid into a torus. The spatial interactions between the species have two components: 1. Population dynamics modeled by the classical Nicholson-Bailey two-parameter family of models for coupled interactions between species, extended to incorporate space and 2. Two-parameter migration dynamics, modeled …

Delta Narratives: Saving The Historical And Cultural Heritage Of The Sacramento-San Joaquin Delta, Steve Boilard, Robert Benedetti, Margit Aramburu, Gregg Camfield, Philip Garone, Jennifer Helzer, Reuben Smith, William Swagerty, Marcia Eymann, Tod Ruhstaller, David Stuart, Leigh Johnsen, Dylan Mcdonald, Michael J. Wurtz, Blake Roberts, Margo Lentz-Meyer

College of the Pacific Faculty Reports

From August 2014 through July 2015, the Delta Narratives project, on contract to the Delta Protection Commission, addressed two questions. First, in what ways does the historical experience of the Sacramento-San Joaquin Delta contribute to an understanding of key themes in regional and American history? Second, how might Delta stories gain wider appreciation within the region, throughout Northern California, and among people in the rest of California and beyond?

Scholars on the project team documented ways the history of the Delta illustrates trends in land management and reclamation, technological shifts in transportation and agriculture, the impact of ethnicity and labor …

Environmental Resource Management In Borderlands: Evolution From Competing Interests To Common Aversions, Patrick H. Buckley, John Belec, Jason Levy

Environmental Studies Faculty and Staff Publications

Great enthusiasm is attached to the emergence of cross-border regions (CBRs) as a new institutional arrangement for dealing with local cross-border environmental resource management and other issues that remain too distant from national capitals and/or too expensive to be addressed in the traditional topocratic manner requiring instead local adhocratic methods. This study briefly discusses the perceived value of CBRs and necessary and sufficient conditions for the successful and sustainable development of such places. Then, assuming that necessary conditions can be met, the study investigates an intriguing hypothesis concerning the catalyzing of sustainable consensus for cross-border resource management based on a …

Successes And Shortcomings In The Implementation Of National Sustainable Development Strategies: From The Greening Of Governance To The Governance Of Greening, Rachel Emas

FIU Electronic Theses and Dissertations

The interdependence between the economy and the environment necessitates integrated policymaking that recognizes the biological limits of our world and the scarcity of these natural resources. At the 1992 Earth Summit, countries agreed to adopt a National Sustainable Development Strategy (NSDS) which should comprise the integration of economic, social, and environmental policies across sectors, territories, and generations; country ownership and commitment; broad participation and effective partnerships; development of the necessary capacity and enabling environment; and focus on outcomes and implementation. Working from these key factors and based on decades of international research and peer reviews of these policies, this study …

The Role Of Sister Cities’ Staff Exchanges In Developing “Learning Cities”: Exploring Necessary And Sufficient Conditions In Social Capital Development Utilizing Proportional Odds Modeling, Patrick H. Buckley, Akio Takahashi, Amy D. Anderson

Mathematics Faculty Publications

In the last half century former international adversaries have become cooperators through networking and knowledge sharing for decision making aimed at improving quality of life and sustainability; nowhere has this been more striking then at the urban level where such activity is seen as a key component in building “learning cities” through the development of social capital. Although mega-cities have been leaders in such efforts, mid-sized cities with lesser resource endowments have striven to follow by focusing on more frugal sister city type exchanges. The underlying thesis of our research is that great value can be derived from city-to-city exchanges …

The Price Of Snow: Albedo Valuation And A Case Study For Forest Management, David A. Lutz, Richard B. Howarth

Dartmouth Scholarship

Several climate frameworks have included the role of carbon storage in natural landscapes as a potential mechanism for climate change mitigation. This has resulted in an incentive to grow and maintain intact long-lived forest ecosystems. However, recent research has suggested that the influence of albedo-related radiative forcing can impart equal and in some cases greater magnitudes of climate mitigation compared to carbon storage in forests where snowfall is common and biomass is slow-growing. While several methodologies exist for relating albedo-associated radiative forcing to carbon storage for the analysis of the tradeoffs of these ecosystem services, they are varied, and they …

Using An Obcd Approach And Landsat Tm Data To Detect Harvesting On Nonindustrial Private Property In Upper Michigan, Riccardo Tortini, Audrey L. Mayer, Pieralberto Maianti

College of Forest Resources and Environmental Science Publications

Forest dynamics influence climate, biodiversity, and livelihoods at multiple scales, yet current resource policy addressing these dynamics is ineffective without reliable land use land cover change data. The collective impact of harvest decisions by many small forest owners can be substantial at the landscape scale, yet monitoring harvests and regrowth in these forests is challenging. Remote sensing is an obvious route to detect and monitor small-scale land use dynamics over large areas. Using an annual series of Landsat-5 Thematic Mapper (TM) images and a GIS shapefile of property boundaries, we identified units where harvests occurred from 2005 to 2011 using …

A Market Study Of Organic And Fair Trade Coffee In Bolivia, Christopher L. Estevez

FIU Electronic Theses and Dissertations

The purpose of this research is to study the commercialization of Fairtrade and Organic coffee in the Bolivia. Fairtrade and Organic coffee are alternative trade systems designed to promote the equitable and environmentally sustainable production of coffee. However, these alternative trading systems often fail to meet these goals. The producers and environment these systems are intended to protect remain marginalized. These failures are due to a number of local institutions. In order to better understand these institutions, this research conducted interviews of various stakeholders including producers, cooperative leaders, organic/Fair Trade certifiers, government agencies and private buyers. All these stakeholders influence …