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"This Sacred Land Is Our Shield": Deploying The Sacred In Indigenous Art And Activism, Charlotte Jones

Scripps Senior Theses

My art historical and sociological thesis will take Cheyenne-Arapaho artist Edgar Heap of Birds’ Defend Sacred Mountains print series as the point of departure for examining the interventions of Native artists and grassroots activists in their decolonizing campaigns. Heap of Birds’ exhibition of sixty-four mono-prints, to be exhibited at Pitzer College Art Galleries in January 2018, calls attention to the ongoing injustices committed against four indigenous sacred sites across the United States: Bear Butte, South Dakota; Bear’s Lodge, Wyoming; San Francisco Peaks, Arizona; and Mauna Kea, Hawaii. Heap of Birds’ monoprints address and allude to indigenous struggles to undermine insensitive …

Into The Woods - Environmental Problem Solving Through Steam Lesson Planning, Laura Rachel Fattal

The Transdisciplinary STEAM+ Journal

Title - Into the Woods – environmental problem solving through STEAM lesson planning

Abstract

The STEAM conversation takes on new urgency in the preservice university classroom due to its potential for synergistic problem solving of real world problems. The visual and performing arts invite creativity to be understood as social practice and aesthetic flexibility and the assessment of the practice through student/student and student/teacher curiosity building. In this article pedagogical praxis is centered on the critical issue of climate change caused by global warming. The praxis addresses:

• University preservice candidates’ arts-integrated teaching and learning focusing on climate change,
• Provocative rewriting …

Development And Environmental Injustice In Malaysia: A Story Of Indigenous Resistance In Sarawak, May Tay '17

EnviroLab Asia

In 2008, the Federal Government of Malaysian announced an initiative to build 20,000 megawatts of mega dams along a 320km corridor in Sarawak. Named the Sarawak Corridor of Renewable Energy (SCORE), the scheme would create one of five regional development corridors throughout Malaysia, and was part of the government’s strategy to make the state of Sarawak ‘developed’ by 2020 through industrialization and renewable energy development (Recoda). Of the mega dams planned for construction by 2020, three have been completed, with construction for the others underway and the construction process frequently delayed by resistance from local indigenous communities. Indigenous tribe members …

Hydropower, Oil Palm, And Sustainability, Fernando Salud '17

EnviroLab Asia

This reflection touches on the writer’s experiences during the EnviroLab Asia Clinic trip in early 2016 to Borneo, Malaysia and Singapore. The reflection involves two events: a visit to a blockade protesting the construction of a hydroelectric dam and a meeting with the sustainability department of Wilmar, one of the world’s leading palm oil producers. The first event comments on the tension between the need for renewable energy and the destruction of the natural environment and communities due to the particular energy generation technology chosen. This event highlighted the importance of understanding the societal constraints a technology is being installed …

Table Of Contents: Volume 1: Oil Palm In Southeast Asia: Culture, Politics, And Sustainability

EnviroLab Asia

No abstract provided.

Adaptation And Power, Elizabeth Weinlein '17

EnviroLab Asia

Academic knowledge of some of the inequities and injustices embedded in economic development was given greater depth and significance after the EnviroLab Asia clinic trip to Southeast Asia; the same was true result occurred after the group’s meeting with Dyack activists.

Narratives About Energy, Megaprojects, And The Ecology Of Tropical Rivers: The Baram River Dam Project, Marc Los Huertos

EnviroLab Asia

The conflict between development goals to build dams for hydroelectricity and indigenous peoples in Sarawak was set in motion in the 1970s. In spite of the potential ecological damage, hydroelectric development has been justified by developed and developing countries for decades. These impacts include changes in river geomorphology, water quality, and habitat value and access. Moreover, in the Bakun and Baram river watersheds, the Dayak people of Sarawak have poignantly demonstrated the socio-ecological disruption. For the time being, the construction of the Baram Dam has been halted.

Institutional Responses To Pressures For Sustainable Palm Oil, Stephen Marks, Justin Lauw '18, Shivang Mehta '19, Fernando Salud '17

EnviroLab Asia

As the two leading palm oil producing countries, Indonesia and Malaysia have come under external pressures to limit deforestation and greenhouse gas emissions related to land use conversion for oil palm cultivation. We examine various institutional frameworks that have emerged to mediate these pressures. These frameworks can be distinguished by their geographic scope—domestic, region, and global—as well as by the nature of control—private, non-profit, and governmental. The frameworks have taken the form of sustainability certification systems from non-profit organizations or governments, corporate sustainability policies, or the setting through global or bilateral negotiations of voluntary national targets for limiting deforestation or …

Indigenous People, Development And Environmental Justice: Narratives Of The Dayak People Of Sarawak, Malaysia, Elizabeth Weinlein '17

EnviroLab Asia

Focusing on the indigenous people of Sarawak, this article explores the authors learned biases as well as the dispelling of myths through hands on experiences in Malaysia. Over the period of a couple days, it becomes apparent that the indigenous people in Sarawak are not victims of systems of oppression, but survivors who continue to fight for their land rights and livelihoods.

Just Research, Ki’Amber Thompson '18

EnviroLab Asia

The trip to Malaysia Borneo was an eye-opening experience that reinforced the need for researchers to listen to the indigenous peoples and to integrate their knowledge and understanding of place into any scientific, political, or policy analyses designed to restore the impact of deforestation and dam projects in the region.

White Privilege In Environmental Policy: An Analysis Of Hazardous Waste Management And Operations In Southeast Los Angeles, Lindsey Chen

Scripps Senior Theses

This thesis takes an unconventional approach to environmental racism. Through the lens of white privilege and racial capitalism, I analyze hazardous waste procedures, work site dynamics, and governmental enforcement. Southeast Los Angeles encompasses 26 neighborhoods and the communities racial demographic is 85.8% people of color. The region is home to an abundance of hazardous waste generators, and the area is disproportionately burdened by pollution compared to the rest of LA County. I chose white privilege as a framework because more often than not, discrimination in the workplace is unintentional and covert. White privilege manifests through hazardous waste management in four …

Democracy In The Dark: An Energy Democracy Model Centering Property And People, Feby Boediarto

Pitzer Senior Theses

The United States’ electric macro-grid provides electricity for all people to sustain our lifestyle. The current governing institutions that generate our electricity limit community representation, causing procedural injustice particularly to communities of color. This thesis is a contribution to the Energy Democracy literature, describing a community-based electricity model that includes two components: property and people. I argue to include an in-depth study of John Locke’s theories on property, in addition to Elinor Ostrom’s Institutional Analysis and Development Framework to promote local knowledge in understanding how physical space and governing bodies strengthen the Energy Democracy movement. In addition, I utilize the …

The Potential And Limits Of Extended Producer Responsibility: A Comparative Analysis Study, Jessica Bass

CMC Senior Theses

This thesis draws on the concept of product stewardship and its focus on incorporating all of the actors in a product’s lifecycle into steps to take responsibility for waste management. Extended Producer Responsibility (EPR) recognizes the producer’s distinct potential to consider and drive change in waste management. Producers often serve like mediators between the design and use phases of a product’s lifecycle. Through EPR policies, the producer takes on the costs of ensuring safe end-of-life waste disposal. In this way, EPR can be expected to help relieve the public of some of the costs of waste disposal, and to support …

Stand Clear Of The Closing Doors, Please: Transit Equity, Social Exclusion, And The New York City Subway, Taylor Novick-Finder

Pitzer Senior Theses

The history of transportation planning in New York City has created disparities between those who have sufficient access to the public transportation network, and those who face structural barriers to traveling from their home to education, employment, and healthcare opportunities. This thesis analyzes the legacy of discriminatory policy surrounding the Metropolitan Transportation Authority (MTA) and city and state governments that have failed to support vital infrastructure improvement projects and service changes to provide multi-modal welfare to New York’s working poor. By exploring issues of transit equity as they pertain to the New York City subway system, this thesis raises the …

Environmental Justice Litigation In California: How Effective Is Litigation In Addressing Slow Violence?, Deedee Chao

CMC Senior Theses

As the environmental justice movement has spread and become more mainstream since its start in the 1980s, its framework and body of knowledge has expanded, and environmental justice activists, organizers, and scholars have developed and critiqued different methods through which environmental justice can be pursued. Among its relatively new concepts is the idea of slow violence, or the long-term and continuous impacts of environmental injustices on an afflicted community; and among the methods examined by scholars is environmental justice litigation, where legal action is taken, often with members of an affected community as plaintiffs, to remedy environmental injustices within that …

Focusing Events In Environmental Policy: Exide Technologies, Aliso Canyon, And Industrial Health Crises In Southern California, Emily Chittick

Pomona Senior Theses

Focusing events are sudden, rare events that become known to policymakers and the public simultaneously, highlighting issues with existing public policy. Two case studies, the gas leak from the Aliso Canyon natural gas storage facility near Porter Ranch, and the publication of the Health Risk Assessment and discovery of lead contamination from Exide Technologies’ battery recycling facility in Vernon, are used to deepen theoretical insights into the development and functionality of industrial health crises as focusing events. The case studies suggest four key areas relevant to understanding focusing events. The first is the unique characteristics of industrial health crises, which …

Social Sustainability: The Role Of Ecotourism In Regenerating Cultural And Environmental Histories In Rio De Janeiro, Nia Mcallister

Pomona Senior Theses

Ecotourism is a rapidly growing global export industry that aims to uphold the ethics of responsible tourism by engaging with local communities and encouraging environmentally conscious travel. With existing critiques of the greenwashing of ecotourism and the tendency for tourism agencies to exploit host communities, I advocate for participatory community-based models of ecotourism. This thesis explores both the material and conceptual benefits of community-based ecotourism through the critical examination of community-based ecotourism projects in Rio de Janeiro Brazil. Focusing on the implementation of ecotourism in of some of Rio de Janeiro’s peripheral communities, areas that are impacted by social and …

From Yosemite To A Global Market: How Patagonia, Inc. Has Created An Environmentally Sustainable And Socially Equitable Model Of Supply-Chain Management, Mary-Clare Bosco

Pomona Senior Theses

There is an urgent pressure of the time (2016) to re-evaluate our patterns of consumption to adapt to changing climates and reduce waste and pollution. Because an immediate restructuring of global production strategies is not likely any time soon, industrial innovators are finding new ways of redesigning supply-chain management in efforts to move towards environmentally sustainable business in which all manufacturing practices are transparent. Patagonia, Inc. is a testament to the often-debated question of economic value in green business practices, and this thesis acts as an outline as to how they arrived at such an impressive presence in the business …

Race, Class, And Gentrification Along The Atlanta Beltline, Natalie Camrud

Scripps Senior Theses

This thesis examines issues of affordability and gentrification in neighborhoods around the Atlanta BeltLine. The BeltLine is a Transit Oriented Development project that is an adaptive reuse of an old freight rail corridor circling the city of Atlanta. The rapid new development occurring along the BeltLine is gentrifying neighborhoods and displacing communities. This thesis examines past urban redevelopment projects in Atlanta to see what the affects were on marginalized communities, and how the BeltLine is either similar or different to past development initiatives.

Oceans Of Space, Stephanie Steinbrecher '16

EnviroLab Asia

"Oceans of Space" relates my observations of the 2016 EnviroLab Asia Clinic Trip to Singapore and Sarawak, Malaysia. In this meditation, the concept of space serves as a lens to examine assumptions of geopolitical, historical, and philosophical positioning—regionally and globally. At the center of my inquiry is EnviroLab's connection to the Dayak communities in Baram, Sarawak. This region is experiencing dramatic social and ecological change as a result of industrial development. By triangulating my subjective impressions of this space, various knowledge systems, and the qualitative data EnviroLab gathered in Southeast Asia, I aim to untangle some paradoxes that complicate the …

Parting The Green Curtain: Tracing Environmental Inequality In Portland, Oregon, Lindsay E. Mccord

Pitzer Senior Theses

This thesis utilizes a lens of environmental justice to analyze the history of Portland, Oregon and the formation of the Albina neighborhood in North Portland to understand how this community became a space of environmental inequality. Portland has been a leader in sustainable development, and yet, even with its successes, the city either been unable or unwilling to address the disproportionate impacts of environmental hazardss on low-income and communities of color in Albina. Through an examination of Portland’s history of segregation, stigmatization of Albina and its residents, housing policies, and urban renewal as they relate to Albina, this thesis traces …

Faith In A Changing Planet: The Role Of Religious Leaders In The Fight For A Livable Climate, Morissa Zuckerman

Pitzer Senior Theses

Progressive religious leaders are playing an increasingly important role in the effort to combat climate change. Through a combination of unstructured in-depth interviews and primary source analysis, this thesis highlights nine U.S. religious leaders from various denominations of Christianity, Judaism and Islam who are actively involved in working on climate issues. Drawing on literature in social movement theory, I explore how clergy are uniquely influential in climate issues because of the organizational advantage and moral authority they hold through their positions as religious leaders, granting them the ability to highlight social justice implications of climate change with distinctive legitimacy. Clergy …

What A Waste: Segregation And Sanitation In Brooklyn, New York In The Post-Wwii Era, Amanda T. Chang

Pitzer Senior Theses

Through studying the intersections of sanitation and segregation in Brooklyn, New York in the post-WWII era, this thesis reveals a web of willful white negligence that constructed a narrative that supports continued environmental injustices towards black Americans. As a result of housing discrimination, the lack of sanitation, and the political and social climate of the 1950s, black neighborhoods in Brooklyn became dirtier with abandoned garbage. Institutional anti-black racism not only permitted and supported the degradation of black neighborhoods, but also created an association between black Americans and trash. In the present day, this narrative not only leads to the increased …

The Philosophy Of Ecology In John Steinbeck's The Grapes Of Wrath, Stephanie A. Steinbrecher

Scripps Senior Theses

This thesis explores the possibilities for ecocritical study in fiction through John Steinbeck’s 1939 novel The Grapes of Wrath. Major ecocritical interpretation has yet to gain much traction in novels; by focusing on human nature, this form’s “anthropocentric” posture seems itself to be antithetical to ecocritical efforts, which aim to unseat humans as the center of the moral universe. However, by analyzing The Grapes of Wrath’s formal, narratorial, and thematic valences, I argue that principles of social justice concurrently imply environmental justice in the philosophical currents of the text. Tenets of deep ecology and Aldo Leopold’s “land ethic” …

Can We Really Claim ‘Full Responsibility’? The Problem With Normative Luck Egalitarianism In A Luck-Pervasive World, Emilie Ho

Scripps Senior Theses

In the last four decades, luck egalitarianism has emerged as a hotly debated theory of distributive justice. The tenet, in its most normative sense, calls for distribution or assistance when circumstances of disadvantage arise from bad luck that is independent of human influence. Disadvantages that can be traced back to individual choice and responsibility, on the other hand, are left for the sufferer to bear. In this paper, I argue that luck egalitarianism should be abandoned as a standard for determining whether a disadvantage should be addressed, because the assumption that there are instances of disadvantage completely attributable to individual …

Environmental Justice In Remediation: Tools For Community Empowerment, Chihiro Tamefusa

Pomona Senior Theses

Exide Technologies finally closed its secondary lead-battery recycling plant on March 12, 2015. The community of primarily Hispanics around the facility had to fight many years to have the polluting facility shut down. Because government agencies, whose job is to protect citizens from polluters, were not regulating the facility properly, residents are not sure if they can trust the agencies to carry out remediation effectively and efficiently either. In this paper I explore the environmental justice issues associated with environmental remediation and what community members can do to make sure that their neighborhood is cleaned up properly. Through interviews with …

Ballot-Box Environmentalism Across The Golden State: How Geography Influences California Voters’ Demand For Environmental Public Goods, William Skyler Lewis

Pomona Senior Theses

In California, voters frequently face ballot propositions dealing directly or indirectly with environmental protection. Records of these votes provide powerful evidence of the character of voters’ demand and willingness-to-pay for environmental public goods (e.g., air quality, watershed ecosystem services, parks and recreation), and have been used in past environmental econometrics research to produce aggregated income and price effect estimates. Using neighborhood-level voting records on seven environmental-related ballot propositions in California between 2002 and 2010, this econometric study investigates the nature of voters’ demand for environmental public goods, focusing on the effect of household income on pro-environment voting. Unlike previous studies, …

Environmental Racism And The Movement For Black Lives: Grassroots Power In The 21st Century, Rickie Cleere

Pomona Senior Theses

This thesis explores the ways in which the environmental justice movement, which is in opposition to environmental racism, and the Black Lives Matter movement, which is in opposition to police brutality and other forms of racism, are part of the same struggle: a struggle against the neoliberal violence of the state. This struggle against neoliberal violence is at the same time a struggle for communities of color to achieve self-determination on a global scale, a monumental task which might be informed through a revolutionary intercommunalist framework of global grassroots solidarity. State oppression embodies violence in more forms that one, including …

You Are What You (Can) Eat: Cultivating Resistance Through Food, Justice, And Gardens On The South Side Of Chicago, Ida B. Kassa

Pomona Senior Theses

Though food is widely recognized as a basic necessity for humanity, disparate access to it highlights whose bodies, environments, health, nutrition, and utter existence has mattered most in American society—and whose has mattered the least. Through interviews with residents of the South Side of Chicago about the alternative food pathway they’ve forged for themselves, we learn that food becomes much more than just sustenance. Interviewees describe our present day food system as undeniably rooted in a history of enslavement and exploitation of Black and Brown bodies; they regard food justice work by communities of color as an important source of …

Whoever Controls Access To The Tap Collects Rent On It: How Nigeria’S Function As A Gatekeeper State Fostered Environmental Degradation By Transnational Corporations, Mayowa Ige

Pomona Senior Theses

Every year, for the past 50 years, Nigeria’s oil-rich Niger Delta has suffered the same magnitude of oil spill in its rivers and swamps than was spilled in the 2010 Gulf Oil Spill. The damage has devastated the way of life of the Ogoni people who live in the area. They have consistently suffered environmental injustice as a result of Shell’s oil exploration, and the Nigerian government has ignored their cries for help and restitution. In fact, movements to garner support for environmental justice and fare share of oil profits and ownership from Shell and the state have been brutally …