Digital Commons Network^™

Editorial: Agricultural Production In A Warmer World: Challenges And Sustainable Development Strategies, Dengpan Xiao, De Li Liu, Xi Zhang, Yuchuan Fan

Faculty Publications

No abstract provided.

The Relationship Between Climate Distress And Climate Education Among College Students, Sylvie T. Heriza

Undergraduate Theses, Professional Papers, and Capstone Artifacts

This study examines the relationship between climate change education and climate distress among college students at the University of Montana. Utilizing a correlational design, forty-seven participants completed a survey assessing their concern with climate change and experience learning about climate change in university classes. Findings underscore the importance of addressing climate-related distress within higher education contexts and highlight avenues for improving university support systems. The study contributes to understanding the intersection of climate change awareness and mental health concerns among college students.

Civil Procedure For The Anthropocene, Roger Michalski, Emily S. Taylor Poppe

Faculty Articles

Climate considerations must become an element of procedural analysis. Scholars, rule makers, legislators, and judges have historically prioritized procedural values including cost, speed, and accuracy. More recent waves of scholarship—including critical perspectives—have emphasized participation as a further procedural goal. Yet this list has grown stale. Current environmental realities force all areas of law, including civil procedure, to reckon with climate change. In the future, proceduralists will be forced to integrate climate-aware thinking into their analyses, proposals, and discussions. Predictably, minds will disagree on how to accomplish this and the kinds of trade-offs that are warranted. Yet the fundamental point of …

California, An Island?, Lincoln L. Davies, Stephanie Lenhart

Utah Law Faculty Scholarship

A monumental change quietly is unfolding in the American West. For decades, the region has lagged the rest of the nation in coordinating electricity operations. Multiple efforts to change this stalled or never got off the ground. Now, everything is different. In the face of climate uncertainty and deepening concern that the region is unprepared for its energy future, stakeholders—government, industry, interest groups—are posturing to create formal electricity markets that will transform the region’s infrastructure, resilience, and economy for the remainder of this century.

Two paths are on the table. In one, much if not all the West will join …

Removing Development Incentives In Risky Areas Promotes Climate Adaptation, Hannah Druckenmiller, Yanjun (Penny) Liao, Sophie Pesek, Margaret Walls, Shan Zhang

Economics Faculty Publications

As natural disasters grow in frequency and intensity with climate change, limiting the populations and properties in harm’s way will be key to adaptation. This study evaluates one approach to discouraging development in risky areas—eliminating public incentives for development, such as infrastructure investments, disaster assistance and federal flood insurance. Using machine learning and matching techniques, we examine the Coastal Barrier Resources System (CBRS), a set of lands where these federal incentives have been removed. We find that the policy leads to lower development densities inside designated areas, increases development in neighbouring areas, reduces flood damages and alters local demographics. Our …

Climatizing National Security, Mark P. Nevitt

Faculty Articles

Is climate change a national security issue? Human security? Ecological security? This Article addresses the growing nexus between climate change and various conceptions of security with a particular emphasis on climate change's national security impacts. This Article argues that there is a growing connection between national security and climate change and a corresponding need to address the normative implications of "climatizing national security." This connection can be observed through three lenses: mitigation (reducing greenhouse gas emissions from military and national security sources); adaptation (investing in climate resilient infrastructure in an effort to prepare for climate impacts), and response (addressing climate-exacerbated …

Divergent Responses Of Nitrogen-Species Loadings To Future Climate Change In The Chesapeake Bay Watershed, Zihao Bian, Shufen Pan, Raymond G. Najjar, Marjorie A.M. Friedrichs, Eileen E. Hofmann, Maria Herrmann, Kyle E. Hinson, Pierre St.-Laurent, Hanqin Tian

CCPO Publications

Study region: Chesapeake Bay Watershed

Study focus: Climate plays a critical role in regulating N loading from terrestrial ecosystems to coastal waters and further affecting the health and functioning of coastal ecosystems. However, the sensitivities of riverine exports of different N species to climate change have rarely been investigated. This study examines the response of riverine exports of ammonia (NH₄⁺), nitrate (NO₃^-), dissolved organic nitrogen (DON), and particulate organic nitrogen (PON) to future changes in precipitation and temperature. A suite of climate forcings was used to drive a processbased terrestrial-aquatic model, DLEM (Dynamic Land Ecosystem Model), …

The Impact Of Climate Change On Montanans’ Mental Health, Phoebe Bean

Graduate Student Theses, Dissertations, & Professional Papers

Climate change poses many threats to human health, from vector-borne illnesses and food shortages to injuries and premature deaths related to extreme weather events. Less understood outcomes include the consequences of climate change for mental wellbeing; although the field of psychology examining these effects is growing, gaps in the literature regarding climate-related distress persist, particularly regarding the diverse ways in which people experience climate change-related psychosocial impacts and how they cope with distress. Thus, this study examined the impact of climate change on mental wellbeing through a comprehensive survey that sampled Montana residents across the state (n = 247). Results …

Racial Capitalism, Climate Change, And Ecocide, Carmen G. Gonzalez

Faculty Publications & Other Works

Lawyers, scholars, and activists have long sought to incorporate ecocide into the Rome Statute of the International Criminal Court to address corporate and governmental impunity for massive and severe ecological damage, including the harms caused by climate change. This Article uses the framework of racial capitalism to examine and critique the proposed criminalization of ecocide. Coined by South African scholars and activists and refined by political theorist Cedric Robinson, the theory of racial capitalism offers valuable insights on the root causes of the climate crisis and the manifold injustices it inflicts on marginalized states and peoples. While most discussions of …

Carbon Pricing For A Just Transition, Jeff Todd

University of Colorado Law Review

The legal tools to avoid the potential disasters of climate change are already available, at least according to economists. Economists overwhelmingly prefer carbon pricing tools like carbon taxes and cap-and-trade programs to combat climate change and guide the energy transition. Carbon pricing is more cost effective at lowering carbon and other greenhouse gases (GHGs) than other legal options such as efficiency standards, renewable portfolio standards, subsidies, and tax credits and deductions. Unlike those other options, carbon pricing targets both the supply of and the demand for GHG-emitting products and services; moreover, it gives firms and consumers flexibility in how best …

The Effect Of Water Scarcity On Gender Dynamics In Egypt, Zahwa Kortam

The Undergraduate Research Journal

This article investigates the complex relationship between Egypt's agriculture, water scarcity, and gender dynamics. It highlights the challenges facing the agricultural sector due to water shortages in a country highly dependent on the Nile River for food security and agricultural development. Women, who have been traditionally integral to agriculture, have to deal with multiple challenges posed by water scarcity. For men, their roles are changing, and with that, the power dynamics and social norms. This article attempts to reveal opportunities for gender equality and sustainable use of water resources through the examination differences in experiences between men and women in …

Pices At 32: An External Review, Eileen E. Hofmann, David Checkley, Fangli Qiao, Jörn Schmidt, Sinjae Yoo

CCPO Publications

[Introduction] The North Pacific Marine Science Organization (Pacific ICES, PICES) has been an effective voice and proponent for North Pacific marine science for more than 30 years. During this time, PICES has provided a safe and active venue for the open exchange of science, developed an international science network that includes participants from academic and government institutions, and non- and inter-governmental organizations, and has taken on leadership roles in studying North Pacific ecosystems.

From Redlining To Greenlining, Danielle Stokes

Law Faculty Publications

For generations, marginalized communities have been impacted by discriminatory land use, zoning, and property valuation policies, from redlining in the 1930s to the siting of undesirable land uses that persists today. Because of these policies, marginalized communities are forced to contend with low property values, substandard infrastructure, and increased health risks. The very same mechanisms that created these injustices, however, may now be key to addressing them. This Article introduces “greenlining” as a land use planning mechanism that seeks to remediate historical housing, siting, and economic disparities while forging a path toward energy and environmental justice. Greenlining, the productive and …

Net Zero And Settler Futurity, Jesse Goldstein

Sociology Publications

Net Zero ideology promises that current and ongoing emissions can be partially offset by ‘negative emissions’ strategies such as carbon capture and sequestration, allowing carbon intensive firms to narrate themselves as agents that are solving – not causing – the climate crisis. This represents a shift in liberal and corporate environmentalism away from both denial and delay, towards a new strategy acknowledging the need to end fossil fuel use while urgently deferring transformations to a future made possible by not-yet developed technological innovations. This paper argues that a through-line of settler futurity provides affective infrastructure potent enough to transect opposing …

Quantifying Structural Vegetation Change On Arctic Tundra: A Multi-Decadal Study Integrating Remotely Sensed Imagery And Traditional Field Measurements, Anna M. Moser

Graduate Student Theses, Dissertations, & Professional Papers

Arctic regions have experienced an amplified rate of climate warming in recent decades, contributing to well-documented increases in tundra vegetation productivity. Satellite remote sensing has historically played a crucial role in detecting and quantifying trends at regional and biome scales; however, coarse resolution imagery has proven insufficient for capturing fine-scale variability in vegetation response. Considering the spatial heterogeneity of tundra vegetation, high resolution, plot-scale remote sensing observations are necessary. This study couples traditional field measurements with high-resolution unmanned aerial vehicle (UAV) imagery and plane-based aerial photos to quantify changes in vegetation on the North Slope of Alaska over a 28-year …

A Half-Century Of Pacific Salmon Saving Efforts: A Primer On Law, Policy, And Biology, Michael C. Blumm, Daniel J. Rohlf, Adam Eno

Natural Resources Journal

Pacific salmon, the signature species of the Pacific Northwest, have declined across their range for well over a century, due to a myriad of human-caused effects on their habitat and the fish themselves. Restoration efforts—some successful, some halting—began in earnest in the late 20th century, with considerable attention focused on the Columbia Basin, where historically salmon runs were crippled by a large interconnected hydroelectric system of federal and non-federal dams. In the 1980 Northwest Power Act, Congress created an interstate agency, the Northwest Power and Conservation Council, with access to a substantial amount of ratepayer dollars; the agency has chosen …

Tracing Socio-Ecological Resilience In The Milpa, The Monte, And The Kitchen: Milpero And Campesino Perspectives From Tiholop, Yucatan And La Union Libertad, Oaxaca, Mexico, Marisela Chavez

Graduate Student Theses, Dissertations, & Professional Papers

Agrobiodiversity, the diversity of crops that been co-produced through humanenvironment interactions over millennia, constitutes an important part of humanity’s cultural heritage. Agrobiodiversity is as much about the local ecosystem and biotic resources, such as soil, water, pollinators, and microbes, as it is about human processes like sociocultural and linguistic practices, including farming methods, knowledge, skills, and natural resource management. At the center of these dynamics are the smallholder farmers who engage in a range of stewardship practices that contribute to the diversification and evolution of the native crops that in turn support their food security. This research focuses on understanding …

Repurposed Energy, Hannah Jacobs Wiseman, Alexandra Klass

Faculty Scholarship

Wildfires, weather extremes, and other conditions induced partially by climate change add urgency to the project of accelerating the clean energy transition from fossil fuels to zero-carbon energy infrastructure. Yet the hurdles to accomplishing such a massive industrial-scale transition are daunting. Indeed, large renewable energy generation projects regularly face denials or project-killing delays across the United States. This Article proposes a national policy to channel the bulk of new clean energy projects to targeted categories of both rural lands and urban, post-industrial lands that we define collectively as “repurposed energy” sites. Such lands will consist of marginal farmland, abandoned coal …

Abalones At Risk: A Global Red List Assessment Of Haliotis In A Changing Climate, Howard Peters, Gina M. Ralph, Laura Rogers-Bennett

Biological Sciences Faculty Publications

There is increasing awareness that marine invertebrates such as abalones are at risk from the combined stressors of fishing and climate change. Abalones are an important marine fishery resource and of cultural importance to Indigenous and non-Indigenous people. A highly priced marine delicacy, they are inherently vulnerable: individuals are slow-growing and long-lived and successful reproduction requires dense assemblages. However, their global conservation status is poorly understood. Using IUCN Red List methodology, we assessed the extinction risk to all 54 species of abalone (genus Haliotis). Of the 21 fished commercially for human consumption either now and/or in the past, 15 …

Environmental Justice Beyond 2°C, Clifford Villa

Faculty Scholarship

In the last four decades, average temperatures have risen significantly across the United States, with Alaska and New Mexico among the fastest warming states. Since 1970, average temperatures in New Mexico have risen 3.5 degrees Fahrenheit (°F)—or nearly 2 degrees Celsius (°C). The international scientific community has urged world leaders to contain global warming above pre-industrial levels to 1.5°C ideally, and to 2°C at worst. Current trajectories, however, suggest we may shoot past 2°C of global warming this century and enter a world of 3-4°C or beyond... The “trade offs” and “letting go” as we confront the looming 4°C world …

Aquatic Connectivity: Challenges And Solutions In A Changing Climate, Paul A. Franklin, Tea Bašić, Phil I. Davison, Katie Dunkley, Jonathan Ellis, Mayuresh Gangal, Alexia M. González-Ferreras, Catherine Gutmann Roberts, Georgina Hunt, Domino Joyce, C. Antonia Klöcker, Rachel Mawer, Timo Rittweg, Velizara Stoilova, Lee Frank Gordon Gutowsky

School of Geography, Earth and Environmental Sciences

The challenge of managing aquatic connectivity in a changing climate is exacerbated in the presence of additional anthropogenic stressors, social factors, and economic drivers. Here we discuss these issues in the context of structural and functional connectivity for aquatic biodiversity, specifically fish, in both the freshwater and marine realms. We posit that adaptive management strategies that consider shifting baselines and the socio-ecological implications of climate change will be required to achieve management objectives. The role of renewable energy expansion, particularly hydropower, is critically examined for its impact on connectivity. We advocate for strategic spatial planning that incorporates nature-positive solutions, ensuring …

Institute For Global Health And Development : Annual 2024, Institute For Global Health And Development

IGHD Newsletters

• Message From The Director
• Workshops & Conferences
• Climate Change, Agriculture, Human Nutrition & Development in Pakistan
• What Works Climate Solutions Summit, Berlin
• IGNIT3 Consultative Workshop on Nutrition for Health Professionals
• Climate Change and Health Symposium
• Collaborating For Change
• IGHD Hosts Workshop on Research Concepts & Basic Methodology
• SDSN Pakistan Leadership Council Meeting – 2024
• AKDN Technical Working Group (TWG) Meeting 2024
• Projects In the Spotlight
• Shining Light On Achievement
• Education And Capacity Building
• Team Building Activities
• Research Insights

High-Resolution Quantitative Vegetation Reconstruction In The North China Plain During The Early-To-Middle Holocene Using The Reveals Model, B Li, W Zhang, Ralph Fyfe, Baoshuo Fan, Sai Wang, Qinghai Xu, N Zhang, Guoqiang Ding, Jiaxing Yang, Y Li

School of Geography, Earth and Environmental Sciences

Understanding the process and pattern of vegetation succession during the early-to-middle Holocene can yield valuable information for better predicting future vegetation evolution. In this study, we investigated the humidity evolution pattern in the North China Plain (NCP) during the early-to-middle Holocene by employing principal component analysis on 93 fossil spectra. Furthermore, by integrating the Regional Estimates of Vegetation Abundance from Large Sites (REVEALS) model, we quantitatively reconstructed the process of vegetation succession and discussed vegetation response to climate change events. Our results indicate that the sample scores of the first principal component axis (PCA axis 1) exhibited a consistent negative …

Integrating Biodiversity Protection And Climate Mitigation In Nature-Based Climate Solutions: An Indicator Analysis, Tatyana Feiner

Theses and Dissertations (Comprehensive)

Climate change and biodiversity loss have been recognized as complex, interconnected issues that require synergistic and mutually reinforcing policy solutions. Given the ambitious commitments by the Canadian government to abate the two “wicked problems”, this study investigates whether the government has constructed a policy framework that synthesizes climate and biodiversity concerns through policy integration and mainstreaming processes. Through a semi-systematic and comprehensive content analysis approach, this study assesses the degree to which biodiversity protection and climate mitigation have been effectively mainstreamed into federal policies, programs, and instruments. Specifically, the study constructs an evaluative framework based on established “best practices” of …

Regional Variation In The Role Of Humidity On City-Level Heat-Related Mortality, Multi-Country Multi-City (Mcc) Collaborative Network, Patrick Goodman

Articles

The rising humid heat is regarded as a severe threat to human survivability, but the proper integration of humid heat into heat-health alerts is still being explored. Using state-of-the-art epidemiological and climatological datasets, we examined the association between multiple heat stress indicators (HSIs) and daily human mortality in 739 cities worldwide. Notable differences were observed in the long-term trends and timing of heat events detected by HSIs. Air temperature (Tair) predicts heat-related mortality well in cities with a robust negative Tair-relative humidity correlation (CT-RH). However, in cities with near-zero or weak positive CT-RH, HSIs considering humidity provide enhanced predictive power …

Climate Change And Sustainability Literacy: A Mixed-Methods Study Of Attitudes To Climate Education In Secondary Schools, Alison Anderson

School of Law, Humanities and Social Sciences

Climate change and sustainability are inherently socio-political issues and education plays a key role in mobilising action on climate change and environment. This study builds on interdisciplinary work on youth and climate change education including science communication, environmental education, environmental psychology, and sociology. It reports on novel mixed-methods research on attitudes to climate change and sustainability education in secondary schools in the UK. The study was undertaken in conjunction with the British Science Association (BSA) Future Forums. Drawing on the findings of a national cross-sectional survey of young people aged 14-18 (n= 1000) and two follow up in-depth workshops (n= …

"Kindness Eases Change / Love Quiets Fear": Mapping Change And Movement In Octavia Butler's Parable Of The Sower, Elizabeth Hershey

Cal Poly Humboldt theses and projects

In this project I take a digital mapping approach to reading and analyzing Octavia Butler’s Parable of the Sower. A lot has been said about this novel’s relevance to our own world, and the ways it forces us to think about possible futures. To contribute to the conversations surrounding this novel, I add a digital humanities element to the conversation in order to see what digital mapping has to offer in the way of literary analysis and connecting this novel to our own world. Since the novel is so focused on movement and change, I mapped out the movement of …

Of Changing Climate And Habitat: Range-Wide Individual Growth And Local Patterns Of Phenology And Landscape Use In A Threatened Pit-Viper, James Helferich

Theses and Dissertations

Over the 21st century, climate change and wetland habitat loss will pose major threats to the Eastern Massasauga (Sistrurus catenatus), a federally threatened and Great Lakes region endemic rattlesnake. I collected capture-recapture data from sites across the range and modeled the effect of climatic variables on growth rate and asymptotic size. I found that high snow residence time was associated with larger asymptotic sizes but slower growth, while high spring precipitation increased growth rate. I then projected future growth and size under different carbon emission scenarios. Given the threat posed by successional encroachment of woody vegetation, I used spatially explicit …

Trends Of Autumn Phenology In Response To Environmental And Meteorological Variables, Meagan Renee Maguire

Masters Theses

Previous studies have identified that changes in plant phenology are most likely induced by climate variability. One such change is the end of season (EOS) for deciduous forests in the United States. In essence, the EOS represents the end of plant productivity for a given year; the phase in which plant dormancy is reached. However, our wealth of knowledge on plant phenology largely overlooks the phases that occur in autumn, especially the EOS, with many previous studies focusing on spring phenology. This study uses remote sensing MODIS aerial imagery data and historical meteorological data to analyze any relationships that may …

Analysis And Assessment Of Land Use / Land Cover Impact On Human And Natural Ecosystems In The Salton Sea Watershed, 2013 - 2021, Diego Ramirez

Electronic Theses, Projects, and Dissertations

This study represents an interdisciplinary analysis of the changing landscape of the Salton Sea Watershed from 2013 to 2021, focusing on land use land cover (LULC) category changes, climatic variations, and socioeconomic factors. The findings of this research show a shift in land cover categories, portrayed by the changes of natural landscapes and vegetative areas into rapidly increasing urbanized expansion and increased impervious surfaces. These changes pose concerns about increased temperature in the region, a decrease in overall water availability and groundwater infiltration, and an increase in pollution. The study explores 10 sub-watersheds within the Salton Sea Watershed basin, focusing …