Digital Commons Network^™

Book Review: Sustainability: Approaches To Environmental Justice And Social Power, Melanie Mcnett

Natural Resources Journal

No abstract provided.

Vertical And Horizontal Modes Of Injustice In Air Pollution: A Comparison Of Law And Society In China And The Us, Mingjie Hoemmen

Natural Resources Journal

This article will compare legal remedies to both pollution and environmental injustice available in the United States and China. In 2015, China adopted a law that shares many features with the U.S. Clean Air Act that have proven successful in the United States. The law is still new, but China’s regional cultural differences, less experience with civil lawsuits, and uncertainty about the rule of law may risk its effectiveness. Furthermore, the evolving political situation in both China and the United States may change availability of remedies for class discrimination due to anti-pollution policies. Finally, this article will use the case …

Exposure Assessment Of Citizens To Traffic Related Air Pollutants In A Long-Range Transportation Plan, Amir Poorfakhraei

Civil Engineering ETDs

A large body of evidence links fine particulate matter (PM_2.5) exposure with a wide range of negative health outcomes. Research finds that about 30% of individuals’ exposure to particulate matter in urban areas come from mobiles sources. Evaluating regional transportation plans and estimating how they impact air quality and exposure to PM_2.5 in the future is thus of major concern.

There are two major concerns about the current practice of evaluating regional transportation plans also known as long-range transportation plans (LRTPs). First, how LRTPs affect future air quality are at best evaluated by estimating the change in …

Arts Of Resistance: Ecologic History And Contemporary Interventions In The Valley Of Mexico, Chloë L. Courtney

Art & Art History ETDs

This thesis analyzes two contemporary artworks concerning Mexico City’s complex socio-ecologic history: the installation The Return of a Lake (2012), by Maria Thereza Alves, and the performance Plan Acalote (2015) by the collective Plan Acalli (Carlos Huitzil and Ehecatl Morales). Mexico City faces land subsidence, flooding, and water shortages. Systemic power imbalances and ongoing efforts to transform a wetland landscape to a city conforming to Eurocentric ideals concentrate these problems in marginal communities. Using strategies of eco-criticism, decolonial thought, and performance studies, I argue that The Return of a Lake and Plan Acalote link broad social and ecologic problems with …

Sustainable And Equitable Financing For Pedestrian Infrastructure Maintenance, Alexis Corning Padilla

Shared Knowledge Conference

In many communities, pedestrian infrastructure is discontinuous, inaccessible to those with physical disabilities, and poorly maintained. Correcting these problems would be a first step in providing infrastructure to achieve the active travel and related transportation goals of many communities. One nearly universal challenge to maintaining sidewalks in a state of good repair and addressing environmental justice concerns is an adequate, sustainable and equitable source of funding. Municipal governments across the country maintain and repair their streets and roadways; however, most require residents to maintain and repair public sidewalks adjacent to their property. These policies are difficult to enforce and may …

The Last Oil: Students Respond, Unm Department Of Art

Art and Art History Faculty Publications

In February 2018, the University of New Mexico (UNM) convened the last oil: a multispecies justice symposium on Arctic Alaska and beyond.Twenty-nine artists, activists, attorneys, scientists, conservationists, curators, scholars, and writers from across the United States and Canada, gave talks and/or did creative performances—and ten colleagues from UNM and beyond chaired various sessions. the last oil was the first national convening to apprehend the reckless U.S. federal Arctic policy, and also brought impacts of climate change and Indigenous rights concerns in Alaska into conversation with similar impacts and struggles in New Mexico and the west.

Published on Indigenous …

Natural Resources And Environmental Law Newsletter, Fall 2018, Natural Resources And Environmental Law Program

Newsletter

• Professors Wolfley, Villa Receive National Recognition
• UNM Alumna Xochitl Torres Small Elected to Congress
• Natural Resources and Environmental Law Clinic Files Amicus in Chaco Canyon Drilling Case
• UNM Law Welcomes Pat Parenteau as Visiting Scholar in Spring 2019
• 2018 Students Receive Summer Stipend
• Recent and Forthcoming Faculty Scholarship
• Select Faculty Presentations
• Select Recent Events

Translating Global Nature: Territoriality, Environmental Discourses, And Ecocultural Identities, José R. Castro-Sotomayor

Communication ETDs

In this study, I explore environmental discourses circulating among Indigenous transboundary organizations working on environmental initiatives at the border between Ecuador and Colombia. I focus on three global environmental discourses –sustainability, development, and climate change– as they are at the core of the global environmental governance vernacular. La Gran Familia Awá Binacional (GFAB), one of the few transboundary Indigenous organizations working along the binational border, utilizes these global concepts to frame their environmental initiatives and projects. I use a critical and interpretive qualitative approach to investigate, deconstruct, and rearticulate global environmental discourses circulating among and translated by two of the …

Natural Resources And Environmental Law Newsletter, Summer 2018, Natural Resources And Environmental Law Program

Newsletter

• UNM Law Hosts Talk by Former EPA Administrator Gina McCarthy
• Natural Resources and Environmental Law Clinic Celebrates First Year Anniversary
• UNM Environmental Law Moot Court Team Wins Best Oralist Awards, Advances to Quarterfinals in National Competition
• Assistant Professor Cliff Villa Asks “Es FEMA El Problema?” in Puerto Rico
• UNM 3Ls Win Rocky Mountain Mineral Law Foundation Scholarships
• Nine Students Earn Natural Resources and Environmental Law Certificate in 2018
• Natural Resources Journal Wins Award for Heritage Preservation
• About UNM Law’s Natural Resources and Environmental Law Program

Es Fema El Problema? Hurricane Maria And The Slow Road To Recovery In Puerto Rico, Clifford J. Villa

Faculty Scholarship

A critical and sympathetic look at FEMA's work in post-Hurricane Maria Puerto Rico.

Achieving Public Health And Climate Change Goals: What Do We Need To Know About The Transportation System?, Mohammad Tayarani

Civil Engineering ETDs

The overall aim of this dissertation is evaluating what new knowledge can be gained about the environmental and public health outcomes of regional transportation planning strategies by implementing a suite of more spatially and temporally detailed transportation and air quality models. This new knowledge can be used to better understand the potential health effects of emissions exposure while also guiding the development of new transportation and land-use plans, and related policies that have the potential to achieve large reductions in pollution exposure and green house gas emissions at local and regional level.

Introduction, Logan Glasenapp

Natural Resources Journal

No abstract provided.

Alchemical Rulemaking And Ideological Framing: Lessons From The 40-Year Battle To Regulate Mercury Emissions From Electric Power Plants, Andrew Carter

Natural Resources Journal

Environmental mercury has long been linked to adverse health impacts on human populations. Globally ubiquitous at ambient levels in air and water, it can reach potentially unsafe levels in fish as it biologically magnifies and accumulates through aquatic and marine food webs. Vulnerable communities, including many communities of color, are particularly at risk from fish-borne mercury. Despite the fact that coal-fired electric generating units have been recognized as major sources of environmental mercury since the 1970s, and that the Environmental Protection Agency discussed possible future regulations of mercury emissions from such plants in 1975, it was not until 2014 that …

Introduction, Selena Sauer

Natural Resources Journal

No abstract provided.

Direct Potable Reuse In Small-To-Medium Sized Inland Communities: Lessons Learned For Public Education And Outreach, Claudia B. Pratesi

Architecture and Planning ETDs

Drought, growing populations, and potential conflict over water in the American Southwest have water authorities examining highly treated wastewater as an option to augment municipal supplies. Direct potable reuse (DPR) holds promise for improving sustainability and reliability of potable water supplies by generating high-quality drinking water from wastewater. Despite research demonstrating that DPR can be safe, one of the biggest hindrances to DPR is negative public perception. Attempts to implement some DPR project have failed, while others have proceeded quickly. Using insights from the literature and interviews with water managers, this study aims to: (1) examine existing community conditions related …

We Walk With Time, Time Does Not Walk With Us, Angelina L. Grey

Architecture and Planning ETDs

The conceptual framework of Indigenous placemaking is defined as a fundamental and complex approach to the processes of the Indigenous planning paradigm. To identify placemaking is to acknowledge and recognize Indigenous place-based knowledge as essential planning tools when working with Indigenous communities. Colonization and western acculturization adjudicated the divestment of Indigenous languages and cultures through western policies and Indian school education. Today, Indigenous worldviews are tainted with extreme levels of sociocultural disparities. The implementation of Indigenous planning processes establishes an understanding to Indigenous community-building through shared knowledge and collaboration. The concepts of placemaking thus enables and empowers Indigenous communities to …

Bodies Of Water: Politics, Ethics, And Relationships Along New Mexico's Acequias, Elise Trott

Anthropology ETDs

Growing public attention to global economic and environmental instability and collapse have brought new urgency to a classic activity of anthropology: looking for alternative economic and environmental models in other ways of life. This dissertation is a case study of the complex and sometimes contradictory ways in which New Mexico’s acequias (communally-managed irrigation ditches) are produced, experienced, and contested as an alternative form of living, creating community, and relating ethically to the environment. Drawing on over six years of participant observation and in-depth interviews with Nuevomexicano (Spanish- and Mexican-descendant), indigenous, and non-indigenous acequia users and organizers in North-Central New Mexico …

An Examination Of Policy Options For Achieving Greenhouse Gas Emissions Reductions In New Jersey, Gabriel Pacyniak

Faculty Scholarship

An Examination of Policy Options for Achieving Greenhouse Gas Emissions Reductions in New Jersey surveys emissions and energy trends, describes a “deep decarbonization pathway” for the state, and identifies the types of policies that would be necessary to achieve those reductions. Many of the policies address the power and transportation sectors, which account for more than 60 percent of total greenhouse gas emissions from New Jersey. The report also includes options for improving building efficiency, reducing methane leaks from natural gas infrastructure, restoring natural carbon sinks in forests and wetlands, and incorporating equity considerations to address the needs of frontline …

Introduction, Natural Resources Vii Journal

Natural Resources Journal

No abstract provided.

Hydropower Development In India: The Legal-Economic Design To Fuelgrowth?, Surabhi Karambelkar

Natural Resources Journal

Economic liberalization beginning in the early 1990s has represented a paradigm shift in policy discourse in India, from social welfare to economic growth. With its potential benefits of generating power for the growing economy and significant revenue through electricity sales and royalty payments, hydropower development has received center-stage in the hydrorich but economically weaker Himalayan states of India. Using an institutional approach to examine the evolution of laws and policies on electricity, land, environment, and water, this article seeks to uncover how prevailing legal and economic systems prioritize hydropower generation over other water uses. It argues that federal and state …

Front Matter, Natural Resources I. Journal

Natural Resources Journal

No abstract provided.

Fighting For Environmental Justice: The Life And Work Of Professor Eileen Gauna, Clifford J. Villa

Natural Resources Journal

No abstract provided.

The Choose H2o Challenge #Ich2oose: Piloting A Health Communication Campaign To Encourage Teens In Rural New Mexico To Drink More Water, Emily A. Lilo

Communication ETDs

This dissertation explains the process of designing, implementing, and evaluating a two-tiered health campaign on social media and in a rural New Mexico high school. The Choose H2O Challenge was an 8-week contest to engage youth in examining their beverage consumption habits, to increase awareness about the health risks of sugary beverages, the benefits of water, and the influence of beverage marketing on their choices. The goals were to change the culture of beverage consumption at the school by making it fun to drink more water, and to encourage teens to become health messengers to their families and friends. This …

Subjectivity Of Solar Power: Using Q Methodology To Evaluate Perceptions Of Solar Energy Projects In The San Luis Valley, Aaron D. Russell

Geography ETDs

Renewable energy is on the verge of becoming a significant source of power generation and for many Americans, that will mean thinking and talking about energy technologies in new ways. Land intensive energies such as solar and green will compete more and more with aspects of our social world. This project focuses on the perception, acceptance, and discourse of renewable energy projects by examining the solar energy conversation in the San Luis Valley of Southern Colorado. This vast high-desert valley holds the excellent geographic conditions needed for the siting of large solar energy installations, but such projects continue to run …

Humanature Relations In Oman: Connections, Disconnections And Globalization, Maryam A. Alhinai

Communication ETDs

In this dissertation, I explore agricultural practices as a window into ecocultural communication. Using agricultural practices of villagers in Village G, Oman, as a case study, I explore the ways in which villagers and government officials conceptualize humanature relations and the forces that enhance and/or impede these relations. My specific goals for this study were: (1) to build an interpretive understanding of ecocultural orientations of villagers and officials in Oman and how they conceptualize their humanature relations; (2) to critically examine ideologies and uncover structural forces that enable/constrain humanature relations; and (3) to co-create community engagement work that honors the …

Albuquerque & Bernalillo County Comprehensive Plan, City Of Albuquerque 22nd Council

Law of the Rio Chama

No abstract provided.

Environmental Racism With A Faint Green Glow, Eric Jantz

Natural Resources Journal

For the last thirty years, environmental justice, that is, the equitable distribution of environmental pollution among all members of society, has informed environmental decision-making at every level of government. While most Federal agencies responsible for environmental regulation have taken meaningful steps to address the disparate impacts of pollution on low-income communities and communities of color, the United States Nuclear Regulatory Commission has lagged behind. As a result, low-income communities and communities of color bear the disproportionate burden of nuclear pollution in the United Sates.

An Analysis Of The Barriers To Cross Border Trade In Hydroelectricity In The Himalayas, Eric Strahorn

Himalayan Policy Research Conference

There are many assumptions held by policymakers and scholars about the potential for hydroelectricity in the Himalayas. The first assumption is that the Himalayan rivers of Bhutan, India, and Nepal are a vast untapped source of hydroelectricity. The second is that the benefits of realizing this potential will provide for a routine cross border trade in relatively clean and sustainable electricity. The third is that despite the perceived benefits there are longstanding barriers that have prevented large scale hydroelectric development. Oseni and Pollitt (2016) argue that it would be worth understanding what barriers stand in the way of expanding cross …

Cumulative Impact: Digital Ethnography Of Environmental Activism In The Mountain View Community, Nina Cooper

Communication ETDs

While digital ethnography is a growing genre in communication, there is a salient need to fill the gaps of knowledge concerning health communication using a digital format. Digital ethnography holds the potential of reaching larger audiences, incorporating more stakeholders, and adding previously muted voices – individuals from non-academic communities as well as communities of color – to health research dialectics. With limited use of this tool in the field of health communication, there remain untapped opportunities for intra-disciplinary work within the communication field (e.g., ethnography, performance ethnography, critical ethnography) and beyond. By combining ethnography and community-based participatory research as theoretical …

Decolonizing The Body: Breast Cancer And The Environment In Toxic Times, Cynthia L. Martin

American Studies ETDs

This dissertation explores cultural narratives regarding the relationship between environmental toxins and breast cancer causation. It is not an analysis of current scientific research; grounded in Foucault’s theory of genealogy and archaeology, it evaluates cultural narratives on breast cancer causation that may be subsumed by the mainstream focus upon a cure for breast cancer, overlooking how people with breast cancer perceive illness causation, particularly as it relates to toxic exposure. Theories of place, space, and the neoliberal politics behind biotechnology support understanding the toxification of the human body as neocolonialism, and invite decolonizing methodologies as a means of understanding and …