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Climate Change Adaptation In Highland Ecuador: Intersections Of Gender, Geography, And Knowledge In Farming Communities, Dinka Natali Caceres Arteaga

Latin American Studies ETDs

This dissertation uses a feminist political ecology perspective to explore the socioeconomic impacts of climate change in Ecuador, especially but not limited to the agriculture sector. It is based on the use of mixed methods that allowed the participation and validation of the local population, surpassing their role as beneficiaries to co-authors of this research.

The significance of this study relies on the position the local population holds in the fields of human geography, under a community local-planning perspective, as they attempted to collaborate in the process of adaptation to climate change by presenting analysis and calculation of an index …

Willingness To Protest Over Resource Extraction In Latin America, Moises Arce, Marc S. Polizzi, Bryce Reeder

Faculty & Staff Research and Creative Activity

Protests over resource extraction have increased in Latin America in recent years. However, significant variation exists in the region in terms of citizen’s willingness to protest against resource extraction. We argue that this variation is based on the interaction of factors at both the individual and state levels. Individual-level characteristics, such as social engagement, influence the likelihood of protest activity. State-level characteristics, such as the quality of governance, also present opportunities for engaged individuals to challenge resource extraction. Following political mediation theory, we argue that collective action strategies are likely to be more productive in some political contexts than in …

Unpacking The Process And Outcomes Of Ethical Markets: A Focus On Certified B Corporations, Renée Bogin Curtis

Dissertations and Theses

The growth in conscious consumption presents an opportunity to 1) better understand the potential outcomes of ethical market practices as a community-advocacy tool and 2) to consider potential policy considerations. The marketplace has increasingly become an arena for social action. This leads to the question of how can markets facilitate ethical business practices and community benefits? The recent rise of social benefit corporations warrants an evaluation of the outcomes of ethically-driven markets. Using a comparative research design and qualitative interview methods, this study examines certified Benefit Corporations (B Corps) in two selected cities: Philadelphia and Portland. Through interviews with B …

The Tensions Of Mobilizing Emergent Tactics: Lessons From The Standing Rock Occupation, Margaret E. Breen

Sociology Honors Projects

The Dakota Access Pipeline is an oil pipeline that sparked a massive uprising in the fall of 2016 due to its environmental impacts, and violation of Native treaty rights. Upwards of 10,000 people participated in the six-month-long occupation in North Dakota and there were hundreds of injuries and arrests. What sparked this tactical innovation? And what tensions arose from this strategy? In an attempt to answer these questions, I have interviewed water protectors who participated in the occupation, and analyzed interview records with movement leaders. From this research, I conclude that the limited resources available to the movement led to …

Environmental Activism, Ellen Dexter, Lydia Dexter

Honors Program: Expanded Learning Clubs

An after school book club that follows Greta Thunberg's book of speeches No One is Too Small to Make a Difference , as well as uses hands-on activities to teach the importance of environmental activism.

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 …

Visual Rhetoric Worksheet, Janelle Poe

Open Educational Resources

Designed for a Writing for the Sciences course at CCNY, this worksheet is to be completed after watching an environmental journalism video on noise pollution by David Owens for The New Yorker (2019). Students can complete individually, in pairs, or groups. Largely focused on analyzing visual rhetoric, creator, publisher, and audience bias, students should complete this worksheet after learning the elements of visual rhetoric to assist with the development of their rough drafts for the Rhetorical Analysis/Visual Rhetoric essay assignment.

Environmental Injustice's Impact On Asthma Disparities In Nyc, Tayler J. Rodriquez

Student Publications

Understanding the social determinants of health is essential when looking at low-income minorities in urban cities. Social determinants of health are conditions in the environment in which people are born, which affects a wide range of health and quality-of-life outcomes. Amongst other determinants, adequate housing can have a significant influence on population health outcomes such as asthma. Zoning inequality negatively and disproportionately impacts the health and the overall quality of life of low-income minorities; zoning is correlated to environmental injustice fueling adverse health effects and health disparities among low-income minority populations. Without the opportunity to receive adequate and affordable housing, …

Scwk 410 Field Placement And Seminar I (Individuals And Families), Shirell Roeback

Open Educational Resources

Social Work 410 is the second of the three-course field practice sequence (SCWK 293, 410 & 492). Supervised field experience. On-site visits by Social Work faculty. Integration of field, classroom learning in a weekly on-campus seminar and professional preparation. Placements are from 9:00 a.m. to 5:00 p.m. on two weekdays for a minimum of 200 hours for the semester. Permission required for repeating the course.

Gen Z Perspectives On Climate Change And The Future: Having The Courage To Imagine And Fight For A Better World, Isabelle Graj

Independent Study Project (ISP) Collection

I conducted 6 interviews with Gen Z students to investigate how they think climate change will impact their future and how they frame the issue in general. I communicate my findings and analysis with visual context through a zine, which is a form of alternative media created in the 1930s. Today, zines provide a creative approach to exchange ideas and explain contemporary culture (Gisonny and Freedman, 2006, 26). My zine is not meant to be utterly educational but rather it is meant to convey the emotion, confusion, and chaos associated with my findings. The interviews collectively created an image of …

Crude Intentions: Evaluating The Growing Risks Of Arctic Alaskan Oil Production, Eliot Stein

Independent Study Project (ISP) Collection

The discovery of oil on Alaska’s North Slope in the 1920s began a century of fossil fuel exploration, development, and production in the Arctic region. Alaska became integral to the nation’s growing energy dominance. However, since 1988, oil production on the North Slope has been in steady decline. In 2015, Shell, followed by several other oil majors, terminated their Arctic Alaska operations. This past year, BP made waves by ending six decades of operations in Alaska. Most recently, five of the six major U.S. banks announced they would no longer finance Arctic oil and gas projects. This paper analyzes these …

La Minería Del Litio En Salinas Grandes: Un Análisis De Diferentes Narrativas En Torno A La Extracción De Litio Desde 2010 Hasta El Presente / Lithium Mining In The Salinas Grandes: An Analysis Of Different Narratives Surrounding The Extraction Of Lithium From 2010 Until The Present, Sofia Perrotto

Independent Study Project (ISP) Collection

El litio ha ocupado una posición muy interesante y controvertida dentro del movimiento ambiental desde su descubrimiento en 2010. Entre los muchos usos de este metal precioso está la fabricación de baterías, que es un componente esencial para la transición hacia una "economía verde". Los vehículos eléctricos y las unidades de almacenamiento de energía que funcionan con baterías de litio son dos tecnologías importantes para este movimiento, y como resultado, la demanda de litio está aumentando en el mercado global. En las Salinas Grandes, la cuestión de la extracción de litio involucra a una variedad de actores que tienen diferentes …

La Justicia Medioambiental Y La Minería Aurífera: Las Implicaciones De La Deforestación Y La Contaminación De Metales Pesados En Madre De Dios, Perú, Madison Scully

Independent Study Project (ISP) Collection

Usando un marco teórico de justicia medioambiental y de colonialidad, este informe describe, analiza e interprete los impactos ecológicos de la minería aurífera en Madre de Dios, una región amazónica del Perú. Específicamente, este informe trata las consecuencias de la deforestación y la contaminación por mercurio causadas por esta industria para la salud y el bienestar de los pueblos indígenas de Madre de Dios. A través de investigación secundaria de la literatura existente y los estudios ya realizados sobre el alcance de la degradación ecológica resultante de la minería aurífera en esta región, este informe examina la manera en que …

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 …

Ordinary Disasters: On Unexceptional Flooding In La's San Fernando Valley, Sayd Randle

Research Collection College of Integrative Studies

Talking about flood as California's" other big one," otherwise known as a plausible natural disaster with the power to cause damage equivalent to that caused by a massive earthquake, does important work in capturing the imagination. Nearly a quarter submitted short stories about narrowly escaping death-by-ARkStorm, piling on the melodrama and watery metaphors. Because of its sheer scale, epic flooding is not hard to picture and/or to fear, even amidst the palm trees of Los Angeles.[...] I do fear that ignoring the more quotidian flare-ups and inundations and dry spells and snowstorms and other threats, the unevenly distributed" slow violence" …

Toxic Colonialism And Green Victimization Of Native Americans: An Examination Of The Genocidal Impacts Of Uranium Mining, Averi R. Fegadel

USF Tampa Graduate Theses and Dissertations

While the field of criminology has delved into environmental justice issues in Black communities through the exploration of urban exposure to toxins, it has failed to expand this research orientation to examine issues affecting peoples in different locations, which in the U.S. draws attention to the green victimization of Native Americans. In short, existing criminological research has largely ignored the social, economic, and environmental injustices experienced by Native Americans. This study addresses this research gap by exploring environmental justice issues as they relate to the ways toxic colonialism affects Native Americans. Specifically, this study confronts historic and current struggles endured …

Governmentality, Biopower, And Sexual Citizenship: A Feminist Examination Of Sexual And Reproductive Healthcare Experiences Of 18-24 Year-Olds In The U.S. Southeast, Melina K. Taylor

USF Tampa Graduate Theses and Dissertations

Sexual and reproductive healthcare in the U.S. is a contentious and often stigmatized topic. Conservative politics and Christian religious ideology guide laws and policies that inform narratives of sexual citizenship that promote white, heterosexual, procreative, cis-gendered relationships as the ideal. For young people, exposure to sexuality education greatly influences their self-identity as sexual citizens and guides how they form intimate relationships. While sexual and reproductive healthcare has been included marginally in the discipline of anthropology, almost no research has focused on young people’s sexual and reproductive healthcare within the U.S.

This dissertation examines the viewpoints and experiences of 18-24 year-old …

Bay Area Lgbtq+ Millennials: The Newest Generation Leading The Gay Civil Rights Movement, Sara Miyo Hall-Kennedy

Dissertations

Purpose: The purpose of this phenomenological study was to explore and describe the lived experiences of LGBTQ+ millennials that influenced their participation in the gay civil rights movement in the Bay Area of California. Another purpose of the study was to explore and describe the recommendations LGBTQ+ millennials have for the future of the national gay civil rights movement.

Methodology: A qualitative analysis of the data from a combination of both social movements and symbolic interactionism theoretical perspectives was conducted. Data for this study was generated through the synthesis and triangulation of the thematic coding of 12 interviews conducted by …

Fields Brook Superfund Site: Race, Class, And Environmental Justice In A Blasted Landscape, Richard C. Bargielski

USF Tampa Graduate Theses and Dissertations

In 1980, the United States Congress passed the Comprehensive Environmental Response, Compensation, and Liability Act (CERCLA). This federal law provided the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) with the legal tools necessary to pursue polluters who had improperly stored or disposed hazardous wastes. Since its passage, more than a thousand sites have been added to the National Priorities List (NPL), but only a fraction have been cleaned up. Proponents of neoliberalism argue that aggressive environmental policies such as CERCLA harm workers by making it impossible for businesses to operate profitably. This coincides with a drop of nearly 50% in the U.S. …

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.

Focus On Youth: Awakening Youth Voice & Engagement In Community Heritage Through The Implementation Of A Youth Participatory Empowerment Model, Amber T. Hurd

Dissertations

Citizen engagement in community and public life is vital to a healthy democracy. Young people have a unique place in community citizenry; they are often not yet able to vote or serve in powerful roles, but they have much at stake for the future. Youth can be powerful allies to a participatory culture. The purpose of this qualitative, action research study was to arm youth and youth mentors with a Youth Participatory Empowerment Model (YPEM) to identify and address a community heritage or social justice need. This study used interviews and observations with individuals and focus groups to observe and …

Webinar: When Growth Outpaces Infrastructure: A Community-Engaged Assessment Of Transportation Gaps, Jandel Crutchfield, Kate Hyun

TREC Webinar Series

This study used a community-engaged interdisciplinary approach to assess the gaps between economic growth and transportation infrastructure development, and the impact of potential gaps on access to opportunities for environmental justice populations within North Central Texas, where population growth has increased over 100% since 2000.

The interdisciplinary team, comprised of social work and civil engineering researchers, in partnership with the regional homeless coalition, measured residents’ perspectives of:

• the economic growth in the area over the past decade,
• the extent to which transportation infrastructure has matched the economic growth, and
• the implications for access to affordable quality housing, employment, quality public …

Giving Voice To Silent Stakeholders, Mindy Peterson, Will Wingfield

Purdue Road School

Only the most motivated stakeholders attend public meetings or submit written comments. To ensure that more people and quieter voices are heard, transportation agencies are supplement-ing public-involvement efforts with interactive, mobile-friendly surveys and in-person inter-views. Learn how tech tools are being used on projects such as the Sherman Minton Renewal to involve the public and provide more data to decision makers.

Elemental Climate Disaster Texts And Queer Ecological Temporality, Laura Mattson

USF Tampa Graduate Theses and Dissertations

This thesis approaches climate disaster texts as an opportunity to challenge constructions of the body, space, and time. Developed from embodied experiential knowledge about hurricanes, my work will explore how climate disasters can teach us to reimagine human-nature relationships. In my two analysis chapters, I use critical textual analysis and autoethnography to challenge particular representations of the human-nature relationship as a binary between nature and culture. By intervening in the nature-culture binary, I theorize queer ecological temporality as an opportunity to reveal and challenge constructions of nature and time. Working at the intersections of queer and ecocritical theory, this thesis …

Exploring The Dynamics In The Environmental Discourse: The Longitudinal Interaction Among Public Opinion, Presidential Opinion, Media Coverage, Policymaking In 3 Decades And An Integrated Model Of Media Effects, Qingjiang Yao, Zhaoxi Liu, L. F. Stephens

Communication Faculty Research

Using data on environmental issues drawn from 41 series of poll questions and federal outlay in 43 years (1965-2007) and a content analysis of newspaper articles, television news summaries, and presidential documents in 28 years (1980-2007), with the multivariate Granger Causality test based on Vector Autoregression (VAR) models and bivariate Granger Causality (F and Chi-squire) tests, the study finds that public opinion has little influences on federal environmental expenditure in the past several decades. It also finds that for the presidents, the media, and the public, their agendas (volume of information) cause a change in the agenda and frame building …

Environmental Injustice: Examining How The New York Times Frames The Flint Water Crisis, Mark Congdon Jr., Quang Ngo, Evan Young

Communication, Media & The Arts Faculty Publications

Perceived as one of the current environmental controversies in the United States, the Flint water crisis represents a case of environmental injustice and has attracted public attention and scrutiny. Among mainstream news media outlets, The New York Times is the newspaper that has intensively published news stories addressing the issue. Using qualitative frame analysis as the method, the researchers examined the way in which The New York Times framed the Flint water crisis from when a federal state of emergency was declared in 2016 to the one-year anniversary of this declaration. Examining how the Flint water crisis is framed in …

Effectiveness, Equity, And Ethics Of Costa Rica's Payment For Environmental Services Program., Anna J Carter

College of Arts & Sciences Senior Theses

This paper examines the effectiveness of Costa Rica’s Payments for Environmental Services, or PSA program, which provides government subsidies to participants who protect forested lands or reforest their land. Effectiveness is determined in terms of the program’s progress in reversing deforestation and generating reforestation efforts, with particular attention paid to the success and failings of the program in reaching small landowners. The claim that the PSA program can act as a tool for human development is evaluated through its accessibility to small landowners. Finally, the ethical costs and benefits of the market based scheme underlying the PSA program as a …

Señor Jim Crow Still Roosts In Cuba: A Comparative Analysis Of Race And Resistance In The United States And Cuba, Leah P. Hollis

Comparative Civilizations Review

After touring Havana, Cuba, with a group of African American Scholars in the fall of 2019, I am inspired to identify the subtle and explicit racist experiences that we endured. A common message from those in the tourism industry is that Cubans love African Americans. This message was constant, yet it rang like a gong in our ears because the message did not match the treatment we received. In truth, this love was not for the African aspect of our identities but for the financial prosperity in the American part of our identities. The Cuban tour guide constantly announced the …