Digital Commons Network^™

Green Inequities: Examining The Dimensions Of Socioenvironmental Injustice In Marginalized Communities, Akiebia S. Hicks, Zachary Malone, Megan A. Moore, Roslynn Powell, Austin Thompson, Patricia A. Whitener, Rowan Williams

Human Movement Studies & Special Education Faculty Publications

In the realm of socioenvironmental justice, much discourse centers on equal access to green areas and on climate injustice in the United States. Marginalized communities, including Indigenous populations, are being excluded from current narratives surrounding the natural spaces that in many cases are historically tied to under-represented groups. This article aims to explore some of the many dimensions of environmental racism, green inequities, climate injustice, and access. The dimensions include but are not limited to racial gatekeeping, nature deprivation in low-income communities, green gentrification, light pollution, and access to clean water. The recommendations section serves as a guide during decisionmaking …

The Clean Air Act: How It Can Be Localized To Promote Both Environmental And Social Justice, Tate Kirk

Seattle Journal of Technology, Environmental, & Innovation Law

Legislators attempt to achieve intended goals by enacting laws that provide for regulatory enforcement. However, many times laws are unable to achieve their stated goals and in some ways may create new or exacerbate existing issues. Luckily, upon review, many of these issues can be fixed with quick modifications to either their implementation or enforcement mechanisms. In its current form, the Clean Air Act does not effectively account for differences in regional climate patterns, and, moreover, it perpetuates environmental injustice. If local governments were given more autonomy to enforce the Clean Air Act, they could shape its enforcement to more …

Environmental Gentrification In Chicago: Perceptions, Dilemmas And Paths Forward, Colette Copic, Tania Schusler, Amy Krings

School of Environmental Sustainability: Faculty Publications and Other Works

This research sheds light on perceptions of environmental gentrification in Chicago. It also identifies policies and practices that hold potential to promote environmentally healthy neighborhoods and equitable development without displacement.

Executive Summary

Purpose

Access to greenspace, clean air, water, food, and safe, affordable, and stable housing are all important to good health. Yet, low income and communities of color endure disproportionate pollution burdens that negatively affect health. While cleaning up contamination or implementing “green” improvements like parks, playgrounds, bike trails, and other greenspaces can reduce health disparities, these environmental improvements sometimes contribute to rising rents and property values, which can …

An Analysis Of Selected Climate Action Plans In California, Christopher R. Dedo

City and Regional Planning

This project involves the research and comparison of seven cities’ climate action plans, each from its own region within California. The areas selected roughly represent major California regions, each with unique characteristics that will impact the characteristics of the climate action plan’s framework and contents. This analysis will identify similarities in framework and content among each plan, highlighting organizational differences, some generalized observations, and the consistency of topics covered and not covered within the plans. This project reviews the California Office of Planning & Research’s General Plan Guidelines Chapter 8, the California Office of Emergency Services’ California Adaptation Planning Guide, …

Collaboration And Evaluation In Urban Sustainability And Resilience Transformations: The Keys To A Just Transition?, Liliana Elizabeth Caughman

Dissertations and Theses

Climate has changed and will continue changing; city populations are swelling as urbanization continues to accelerate; extreme environmental events like heat waves and floods are becoming more severe and more common; and the climate justice movement is rapidly gaining momentum. It in this context that municipal governments find themselves urgently seeking solutions to transition cities from extractive, vulnerable, and unjust to sustainable, resilient, and equitable. The task is complex and will require systemic transformations across interconnected social, environmental, and economic infrastructures. Emerging theories regarding how to govern such massive changes suggest Transition Management strategies and the values of a just …

A Colonial Climate: Climate Change Governance In Puerto Rico, Usa, Justin Grant Pearson

Master's Projects and Capstones

This capstone project examines the relationship between the colonial structures of governance that persist in Puerto Rico and how they affect the island’s resilience to the onslaught of climate change. Within the frameworks of climate change, governance and colonialism, I set out to analyze the means by which Puerto Rico’s status as a colony of the United States has led to its history and present circumstances that have left a gap in terms of effective governance at the federal and other upper levels of government. The conclusion made is that there needs to be a greater level of focus placed …

When Nature Invades: Resident Perceptions Of The Austerity-Driven "Rewilding" Of An Urban Park In Rock Island, Illinois, Christian S. B. Elliott

Anthropology: Student Scholarship & Creative Works

In an era of rapid urbanization, changing climate, and increasing political division, parks represent increasingly important places for urban residents to interact with and feel connected to the natural environment and receive a number of mental and physical health benefits. Unfortunately, in an age of austerity politics, parks and recreation departments in Midwest Rust Belt cities often lack adequate funding to maintain such public spaces. Recently, the business-minded Rock Island, Illinois Department of Parks and Recreation has implemented a creative cost-saving management solution: “naturalizing” sections of its city parks. This interdisciplinary study uses a mixed methods approach to discover how …

The Impact Of Extreme Heat On Environmental Justice Communities In California: Assessing Equity In Climate Action Plans, Karishma S. Becha

Master's Projects and Capstones

Climate change projections suggest extreme heat events will be more frequent over the next few decades. Extreme heat has both negative environmental and social impacts as it affects energy security, public health by increasing the risk of heat-related illnesses and stresses food and crop supply through prolonged droughts. The impacts of extreme heat will also disproportionately affect communities of low economic status. Because of this, there is a need for better climate action plans that can adapt to and mitigate the impacts brought upon by extreme heat that does not disproportionately impact vulnerable communities. This research analyzed local government Climate …

Using Self-Reflection And Community Engagement Opportunities To Combat Social Justice Issues, Dionna Williams, Catherine Zeman

INSPIRE Student Research and Engagement Conference

The Recycling and Reuse Technology Transfer Center at the University of Northern Iowa funds an environmental equity internship program designed to challenge students to revision sustainability from an equity perspective and leave an impact on the interns and community. Interns are challenged to understand the systems analysis of issues using formal systems thinking approaches (Meadows, 2008), inculcating practices that allows them to tackle challenging equity and social justice implications, High vs. Low context communication and leadership styles (Vellnagel, 2013; Hall 1976), and understand environmental health disparities that exist using approaches such as understanding the naturome/nurturome, exposome and multiple expo-zones (Hall …

Environmental Justice In Little Village: A Case For Reforming Chicago’S Zoning Law, Charles Isaacs

Northwestern Journal of Law & Social Policy

Chicago’s Little Village community bears the heavy burden of environmental injustice and racism. The residents are mostly immigrants and people of color who live with low levels of income, limited access to healthcare, and disproportionate levels of dangerous air pollution. Before its retirement, Little Village’s Crawford coal-burning power plant was the lead source of air pollution, contributing to 41 deaths, 550 emergency room visits, and 2,800 asthma attacks per year. After the plant’s retirement, community members wanted a say on the future use of the lot, only to be closed out when a corporation, Hilco Redevelopment Partners, bought the lot …

Indigenous Communities Versus Oil Companies: Identifying Trends In Tactics And Success Of Indigenous-Led Anti-Petroleum Movements In The Ecuadorian Amazon, Ella V. H. Carlson

Independent Study Project (ISP) Collection

In roughly the last 50 years, the Ecuadorian Amazon has become the epicenter of petroleum production in Ecuador. As oil companies attempt to exploit more and more of the rainforest, they have encroached on indigenous lands, leading to violations of indigenous rights through environmental destruction. As their territories have been invaded, indigenous groups throughout the Amazon have formed movements large and small in resistance to petroleum activities. Scholars have studied select campaigns in the past, but the literature lacks a comparative review of the characteristics of those movements. This paper compiles histories of seven campaigns against petroleum in the Ecuadorian …

Trash Talk: An Exploration Of The Problem Of Marine Debris And Some Virginia-Specific Solutions, Elizabeth Pindilli

Virginia Coastal Policy Center

In an effort to address the problem of marine debris, the Virginia Coastal Zone Management Program (Virginia CZMP) undertook a planning process that resulted in the Virginia Marine Debris Reduction Plan (VMDRP) in 2014. In light of the policy issues raised in the VMDRP, this paper will explore the issue of marine debris and some possible solutions that can be pursued in Virginia.

This abstract has been adapted from the author's introduction.

Planning For A Managed Retreat: Moving In A New Direction, Caitlin Parry, Michael Heard Snow, Ryan Franklin

Virginia Coastal Policy Center

Climate change is altering the United States’ coastline in both subtle and extreme ways. The threat is especially pressing in the Commonwealth of Virginia, which is experiencing sea levels rising faster than the global average. As global sea level rise continues to increase, coastal communities across the country must make difficult decisions about their futures. Instead of waging an endless war with the tide, one option for them to consider is the process of managed retreat, which provides a long-term solution by relocating communities away from vulnerable areas. Low to moderate income communities face a variety of additional social and …

The Urban Heat Island Effect In Nevada, Ember Smith, Kaylie Pattni, Caitlin Saladino, William E. Brown

Environment

This fact sheet explores the temperature difference between Nevada cities and their undeveloped surrounding areas using reports by the Urban Land Institute, Climate Central, National Public Radio (NPR), and various governmental organizations. We investigate what “urban heat islands” are, their effects, the correlation between heat and income, and factors that contribute to rising temperatures in Las Vegas, North Las Vegas, Henderson, and Reno.

Following The Newark, Nj Drinking Water Lead Crisis, Morgan Clauser

Gettysburg Social Sciences Review

In the summer of 2018, after it was revealed that there were dangerous levels of lead in the drinking water in Newark, New Jersey, the Natural Resources Defense Council and the New Jersey Education Workers Caucus filed a lawsuit against the City of Newark. They claimed the city did not comply with statues in the Safe Drinking Water Act, Lead and Copper Rule, and New Jersey’s Open Public Records Act. This case follows the nationally recognized case in Flint, MI, and both cases present undertones of systemic racism through the inaction of local governments. While the jury is still out …

A Backbone Organization For Denver Based Environmental Justice Organizations 5280 For Environmental Justice, Allison Finnegan-Kihega

Regis University Student Publications (comprehensive collection)

Environmental injustices in Denver follow the same patterns that are seen throughout the country, which is that low-income People of Color are, relative to White people, disproportionately impacted by poor air and water quality, food deserts, displacement, and a phenomenon known as urban heat islands. The literature review conducted for this proposal revealed that despite the 2019 U.S Census Bureau indicating that Denver is 80.9 percent White, 29 percent Latino, and 10 percent Black, neighborhoods with predominantly Black and Latino residents are the neighborhoods experiencing environmental injustices in Denver.

For this project proposal, a literature review was conducted along with …

The Effect Of México’S Transition From Neoliberalism To Populism On Environmental Policy, Christina Marshall

Scripps Senior Theses

This article examines the transformation in Mexican politics from a neoliberal state to a one lead by a left wing populist leader and its impacts on environmental policy in the country. Specifically, looking at the election of AMLO in 2018 and prior neoliberal environmental policies (NAFTA and Pena Nieto's energy reform). This article looks at the motivations and outcomes of these policies to better understand environmental impact.

A Policy Analysis Of Lead Paint Disclosure Implementation In Residential Homes In Missoula Montana, Marissa Lein Lehner

Graduate Student Theses, Dissertations, & Professional Papers

Using Weimer and Vining’s (2017) framework and interviews with key actors, this policy analysis evaluates the implementation of federal lead paint disclosure requirements in Missoula Montana. Lead based paint was commonly used in homes built prior to 1978. Disclosure requires landlords and any persons selling a home to disclose known lead-based paint hazards to buyers and renters. The policy was enacted to promote informed decisions to avoid or reduce the risk of lead paint exposure. Lead paint disclosure serves a critical purpose to inform citizens of risk of lead paint in older housing, because any lead exposure is particularly detrimental …

On Environmental Law, Climate Change, And National Security Law, Mark P. Nevitt

Faculty Articles

This Article offers a new way to think about climate change. Two new climate change assessments—the 2018 Fourth National Climate Assessment (“NCA”) and the United Nations Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change’s Special Report on Climate Change— prominently highlight climate change’s multifaceted national security risks. Indeed, not only is climate change an environmental problem, it also accelerates existing national security threats, acting as both a “threat accelerant” and “catalyst for conflict.” Further, climate change increases the intensity and frequency of extreme weather events while threatening nations’ territorial integrity and sovereignty through rising sea levels. It causes both internal displacement within nations …

Environmental Governance For Whom? Examining The Political, Institutional, Fiscal, And Legal Determinants Of State Environmental Agency Budget Policy In The Us, Andrew R. Duggan

Theses and Dissertations

Budgets are a prospective tool of governance, and appropriations are a planning vehicle reflecting: bureaucracies’ values, complex interactions, collective preferences, political influences, and available resources. Research spanning 30 years finds that environmental pollution is a key determinant of environmental budgets in the US, though myriad factors, actors, and subsystems are important to consider. Due to federalism and devolution of responsibilities and authorities, environmental governance falls largely to the states. While the dynamics that shape state environmental budget policy have received scholarly interest, theoretically-driven examinations of environmental appropriations remain limited within the public budgeting and environmental policy literature.

Using panel data …

Rights, Water, And Guardians: How Rights Of Nature Movements Are Reshaping Our Current Environmental Ethics And What These Policies Need To Be Successful, Megan Schmiesing

Pitzer Senior Theses

Giving legal rights to nature is no longer a fringe idea in international environmental law. Rights of Nature movements have gained traction in countries around the world, including Ecuador, Australia, India, Aotearoa New Zealand, and the United States. The act of organizing to recognize legal rights and legal personhood for nature represents a philosophical, moral, and political shift from previous anthropocentric values. Through two case studies in Aotearoa New Zealand and the United States, this thesis examines the policy language and the context and history that led to their creation. The Te Awa Tupua (Whanganui River Claims Settlement) Act and …

Linking Energy Efficiency And Public Health: A Case Study Of Illinois, Azat Turegeldin

Dissertations, Master's Theses and Master's Reports

A growing body of research has established the connection between emissions from fossil fuels and severe impacts on human health, such as asthma attacks in children and adults and chronic cardiovascular problems. This work evaluates in monetary terms the implementation of two energy-saving scenarios. Illinois, as a state with high coal electricity generating content, has been chosen as a case study to quantify the impacts brought up by air pollution on public health. The potential benefits of improved air quality and health are the considered results of implemented energy efficiency technologies. This report is a culmination of a summer internship …

Ailing In Place: Environmental Inequities And Health Disparities In Appalachia, Michele Morrone

Ohio University Press Open Access Books

In Ailing in Place, Michele Morrone explores the relationship between environmental conditions in Appalachia and health outcomes that are too often ascribed to individual choices only. She applies quantitative data to observations from environmental health professionals to frame the ways in which the environment, as a social determinant of health, leads to health disparities in Appalachian communities. These examples—these stories of place—trace the impacts of water quality, waste disposal, and natural resource extraction on the health and quality of life of Appalachian people.

Public health is inextricably linked to place. Environmental conditions such as contaminated water, unsafe food, and polluted …

Arising: Hurricane (Superstorm) Sandy’S Impact On Design/Planning Professionals, Maxinne R. Leighton

Antioch University Dissertations & Theses

Standing by my bedroom window, looking out at the ocean, a huge wave comes and swallows up my building. Everything around me is gone, including me. I wake up. I am 13 years old and living in the Coney Island Houses on Surf Avenue, Brooklyn, New York. With ongoing anthropogenic changes to the natural environment such as sea level rise and intensifying storms, coastal communities, especially ones segregated by class and culture, are particularly vulnerable in this context that challenges a way of life, and in some instances, threatens that life's survival. This dissertation focuses specifically on what one massive …

Sustainable Solutions, Fall/Winter 2020, Issue 41

Sustain Magazine

No abstract provided.

Community Outreach For The Virginia Beach Comprehensive Flooding Response Plan (Sea-Level Wise), Michelle Covi, Wie Yusuf, Gail Nicula, Daniel Richards, Afi Anuar

Presentations, Lectures, Posters, Reports

[From Introduction]

In partnership with the City of Virginia Beach, the Old Dominion University research team of Drs. Michelle Covi, Wie Yusuf, Gail Nicula, Daniel Richards and Afi Anuar developed and executed a program for public engagement meetings using the ASERT (Action-oriented Stakeholder Engagement for a Resilient Tomorrow) framework to solicit resident engagement with and input into the City’s Comprehensive Sea Level Rise and Recurrent Flooding Response Plan, now known as Sea Level Wise.

Ship Breaking And Its Future In Bangladesh, Jewel Das, Muhammed Ali Shahin

Journal of Ocean and Coastal Economics

Ship breaking is comparatively a sustainable business, particularly in the developing world, but the conditions where it is practiced is non-sustainable. Ship breaking is the process of dismantling ships and selling their parts - primarily the steel - for scrap. The main impetus for breaking a ship down is that maintenance costs go up as a ship ages. Shipping companies also have to pay port charges, crew salaries and oil fees for their ships, so when they are no longer economically viable they are sold to ship recyclers who strip the old ships down, salvaging anything of value. Bangladesh is …

Environmentally Responsible Land Use, Spring/Summer 2010, Issue 22

Sustain Magazine

No abstract provided.

Sustainable Communities, Fall/Winter 2010, Issue 21

Sustain Magazine

No abstract provided.

Environmental History, Fall/Winter 2009, Issue 19

Sustain Magazine

No abstract provided.