Digital Commons Network^™

California's Coast And Ocean Summary Report, Part Of California's Fourth Climate Change Assessment, Leila Sievanen, Jennifer Phillips, Charles Colgan, Gary Griggs, Juliette Finzi Hart, Eric Hartge, Raphael Kudela, Nathan Mantua, Karina Nielsen, Liz Whiteman

Working Papers

This report synthesizes current scientific understanding about the impacts of climate change on California’s coast and ocean and presents a forward-looking summary of challenges and opportunities for the future. It is one component of California’s Fourth Climate Change Assessment (Fourth Assessment). To prepare this report, the state called upon the California Ocean Protection Council (OPC) and California Ocean Science Trust (OST) to convene an Ocean Protection Council Science Advisory Team (OPC-SAT) working group composed of science and policy leaders. Similar to other components of the Fourth Assessment, the 12-member working group was guided by an Advisory Group of end users …

Power Dynamics Of The Dakota Access Pipeline Protests: An Environmental Justice Analysis, Brittany Bondi

Student Publications

The Dakota Access Pipeline and the events of the accompanying protests are contemporary examples of environmental injustice, with the Standing Rock Nation facing a majority of the injustice. Analyzing Sioux history, the pipeline's previous routes, and the police and state responses to the "protectors", I propose that the Dakota Access Pipeline is a form of distributive, procedural, and substantive injustice.

Prison Preparedness And Legal Obligations To Protect Prisoners During Natural Disasters, William Omorogieva

Sabin Center for Climate Change Law

Since at least 2004, the intensity of hurricanes and the damage they have caused in America has increased significantly. After the turbulent hurricane season of 2017, citizens should recognize the elevated risks to safety that occur when individuals stay put, especially during high-intensity hurricanes (Category 3 and higher). States of emergency and evacuation orders have been declared recently in many states and cities that anticipated extreme hurricane conditions. However, even with increased calls for evacuations, warnings from public officials, and around the clock media coverage, a significant portion of the population has continued to be overlooked during times of natural …

Holding Fossil Fuel Companies Accountable For Their Contribution To Climate Change: Where Does The Law Stand?, Michael Burger, Jessica A. Wentz

Sabin Center for Climate Change Law

The judge who called for a climate tutorial in a federal court in San Francisco accepted the science that says that human-caused emissions of carbon dioxide play the central role in rising average global temperatures, increased sea levels, and coastal flooding – but threw out a lawsuit calling for financial reparations from the oil companies for causing these problems. Why? And what might the decision mean for other cases in other states, along similar lines, that are still in the works? Two environmental lawyers, one of whom was in the courtroom for the tutorial, explain.

Prisons, Policing, And Pollution: Toward An Abolitionist Framework Within Environmental Justice, Ki'amber Thompson

Pomona Senior Theses

Environmental Justice defines the environment as the spaces where we live, work, and play. The Environmental Justice (EJ) Movement has traditionally used this definition to organize against toxics in communities. However, within EJ work, prisons or policing have often not been centralized or discussed. This means that the approximately 2.2 million people in prison are excluded from the conversation and movement. Additionally, communities and activists are identifying police and prisons as toxics in their communities, but an analysis of policing and prisons is largely missing in EJ scholarship. This thesis explores the intersection between prisons, policing, and pollution. It outlines …

Toward Civil Rights Enforcement In The Environmental Justice Context - Step One: Acknowledging The Problem, Marianne Engelman Lado

Fordham Environmental Law Review

No abstract provided.

Standing Rock Sioux Tribe V. U.S. Army Corps Of Engineers, Oliver Wood

Public Land & Resources Law Review

The United States District Court for the District of Columbia partially granted the Standing Rock Sioux Tribe’s motion for partial summary judgment against the Army Corps of Engineers after the Tribe alleged the violation of required environmental analysis. While the court held that the Army Corps of Engineers mostly complied with the requirements of the National Environmental Policy Act, the court found deficiencies within its environmental analysis; the remedy is forthcoming.

How Do Environmental Changes And Shared Cultural Experiences Impact The Health Of Indigenous Peoples In South Louisiana?, Shanondora M. Billiot

Arts & Sciences Graduate Student Theses and Dissertations

Global environmental change is an ongoing and complex social problem that will continue to permeate all spheres of life on earth (Moran, 2010). Not all communities experience social and economic consequences of environmental change at the same level (Adger, 2006a; Cutter, Boruff, & Shirley, 2003; Gillespie, 2010; Nicholls et al., 2007; Vogel, Moser, Kasperson, & Dabelko, 2007). The variability of vulnerability, or potential for exposure or harm, stems from proximity to fragile ecosystems as well as social and economic differences across communities (Boruff, Emrich, & Cutter, 2005). Additionally, environmental changes are projected to have adverse impacts on marginalized populations through …

Longitudinal Awareness: A Study Of Vulnerability To Flooding In Polk County, Iowa, Kerri A. Dickey

USF Tampa Graduate Theses and Dissertations

Flooding has become a problem of national proportion and many scholars have started to take note of the human impacts in this area. This study will focus on the social vulnerability framework in tandem with the environmental justice theoretical frameworks being applied to Polk County Iowa so that information can be added to the body of works within a Midwestern U.S. context. This research will contribute to the current geographical knowledge in natural hazards, environmental justice, and vulnerability to flood hazards. Taking into consideration the scarcity of county or sub-county studies in the Midwest U.S. measuring spatial tendencies in hazards …

The Effects Of Monsanto On Indian Farmer Suicide Rates, Rachel N. Sandri

ENV 334 Environmental Justice

The following paper presents an in-depth analysis of the effects of Monsanto on Indian farmer suicide rates from an Environmental Justice perspective. This case study intends to work through the continued injustice within Indian farming communities while examining the conditions in which this issue has been allowed to develop. Through an interdisciplinary lens, this paper aims to offer context on the situation by providing background information as well as integrating claims of morality. The paper highlights a close analysis of the issue through the incorporation of a multitude of resources such as scholarly works, news sources, social media, and works …

Environmental Justice And The Clean Power Plan: The Case Of Energy Efficiency, Cecilia Martinez

William & Mary Environmental Law and Policy Review

No abstract provided.

Final Project: Ignatian Pedagogy Certificate, Elisabeth R. Bayley

Ignatian Pedagogy Educational Resources

No abstract provided.

Garbage, Power, And Environmental Justice: The Clean Power Plan Rule, Ana Isabel Baptista, Kumar Kartik Amarnath

William & Mary Environmental Law and Policy Review

No abstract provided.

State And Local Procedural Injustices In Environmental Regulation: The Experiences Of Tallevast, Florida, Brett M. Paben

William & Mary Environmental Law and Policy Review

Government decisions made at the local and state level are those that most often directly affect communities. Participatory and procedural protections under state and local, rather than federal law, therefore, largely control the ability of grassroots environmental justice advocates to shape government decisions important to their communities. Thus, significant disparities in the standards of procedural justice differ not only by which state an environmental justice community happens to be located in, but also by the type of local government with authority over that community. Frequently, this diminishes the empowerment efforts of communities found in unincorporated areas. The community found in …

Achieving Emissions Reductions For Environmental Justice Communities Through Climate Change Mitigation Policy, Nicky Sheats

William & Mary Environmental Law and Policy Review

No abstract provided.

Recurrent Flooding And Social Vulnerability: A Model Ordinance, Sarah Edwards

William & Mary Environmental Law and Policy Review

No abstract provided.

Environmental Justice In India - The National Green Tribunal, Michael Rackemann

Denver Journal of International Law & Policy

No abstract provided.

“Sacrifice Zones” In The Green Energy Economy: Toward An Environmental Justice Framework, Dayna Scott, Adrian A. Smith

Articles & Book Chapters

The environmental justice movement validates the grassroots struggles of residents of places which Steve Lerner refers to as “sacrifice zones”: low-income and racialized communities shouldering more than their fair share of environmental harms related to pollution, contamination, toxic waste, and heavy industry. On this account, disparities in wealth and power, often inscribed and re-inscribed through social processes of racialization, are understood to produce disparities in environmental burdens. Here, we attempt to understand how these dynamics are shifting in the green energy economy under settler colonial capitalism. We consider the possibility that the political economy of green energy contains its own …

The Abstract Subject Of The Climate Migrant: Displaced By The Rising Tides Of The Green Energy Economy, Dayna Scott, Adrian A. Smith

Articles & Book Chapters

A controversial proposal to build the mammoth ‘Site C’ dam on the Peace River in northwestern Canada offers an opportunity to explore the intersections of climate and migration issues under debate in international environmental governance circles. Site C threatens to flood traditional fishing spots and traplines of Indigenous peoples in the name of the ‘green energy’ economy. We consider how people displaced by renewable energy projects justified as climate mitigation policies might constitute a different kind of ‘climate refugee’ in that they are ‘displaced without moving’ – the connections between the land and the people are severed to the extent …

Climate Legislation And Litigation In Brazil, Gabriel Wedy

Sabin Center for Climate Change Law

Brazil plays a major role in the global fight against climate change, especially because of its vast forests. However, the amount of deforestation now occurring is in great dispute. Between August 2014 and July 2015, for example, deforestation in the Amazon rainforest increased by 215% according to Imazon Research Institute. Contrarily, according to the Brazil Government, the increase was only 16%.

This paper discusses the role that legislation and litigation are playing, and the roles they may and should play in the future, in combatting deforestation and other factors relevant to climate change in Brazil.

Illegal Dumping As An Indicator For Community Social Disorganization And Crime, Amory Anne Brandt

Master's Theses

Illegal dumping of household waste in and around city streets results in many negative health, economic, and environmental effects. This goal of this study was to understand the systemic causes of illegal dumping within San José, California. Illegal dump sites were identified, quantified, characterized, and mapped within urban census block groups at a range of median family income levels. Results showed that commonly dumped debris types were furniture, and garbage. The most illegal dumping occurred within census block groups with low median family incomes, high percentages of non-English speaking individuals, and high percentages of renters. Factors such as social disorganization, …

Accumulating Risk: Environmental Justice And The History Of Capitalism In Detroit, 1880-2015, Josiah John Rector

Wayne State University Dissertations

This dissertation is an environmental history of Detroit, Michigan from the 19th century to the present. Recent scholarship on the history of capitalism has largely ignored the problem of environmental inequality, and the negative externalities of economic growth. In contrast, studies of the environmental justice movement have richly documented race, class, and gender inequalities in environmental risk exposure. However, they have neglected the relationship between the development of the environmental justice movement and the restructuring of American capitalism since the 1970s, including deindustrialization and the shift to neoliberalism. Bringing these fields together, this dissertation connects Detroit’s long-term economic transformation to …

Plan Ej 2014: Fact Or Fiction? A Critique Of The Obama Administration’S Efforts On Environmental Justice, Jeanne Zokovitch Paben

William & Mary Environmental Law and Policy Review

As President Obama’s tenure in office draws to a close, environmental injustices continue to proliferate in communities across this country. During the Obama Administration, there has been a strong government voice on combating these injustices, yet under their watch we see travesties like Flint, Michigan. Flint is the latest example of how our laws and government processes are not only inadequate in protecting overburdened communities, but also how they are complicit in perpetuating harm. This Article aims to answer how that happens, first, by cataloging the environmental justice efforts under the Obama Administration, most notably through Plan EJ 2014, then …

How Mature Capitalism Turns Pollution Into Diamonds: Malagnogenesis And The Reverse-Engineering Of Harm Into Risk, Kevin P. Martyn

USF Tampa Graduate Theses and Dissertations

In recent years, there has been a great deal of debate about the pervasiveness and persistence of neoliberal thinking. In the context of the post-2008 ‘great recession’ the resilience of neoliberalism is particularly confounding. To begin to unravel the ways in which neoliberalism is situated relative to risk, this study identifies an increasingly important neoliberal knowledge practice: malagnogenesis. Malagnogenesis is proposed herein as the production of ignorance that normalizes harm for and amongst marginalized populations. To shed light on the phenomena of malagnogenesis, this study investigated the history of leaded gasoline in the U.S. To that end, I …

Environmental Justice And Community-Based Reparations, Catherine Millas Kaiman

Seattle University Law Review

This Article seeks to illuminate the lack of adequate legal remedies that are available for low-income, predominantly minority communities that have suffered historic environmental injustices. The Article not only discusses the lack of adequate legal remedies, but also proposes the use of local, state, and federal reparations programs for communities that have previously suffered environmental injustices; are still living with the effects of environmental injustices, by way of disease, air, soil, and water pollution; or are suffering current and ongoing environmental injustices. As has been recently illustrated by Michigan’s state action of providing lead-contaminated water for over a year to …

Neighborhood Perceptions Of Proximal Industries In Progress Village, Fl, Laura E. Baum

USF Tampa Graduate Theses and Dissertations

Progress Village, a historically Black neighborhood outside of Tampa, FL, encountered structural violence that included construction of an adjacent phosphogypsum stack. Why the neighborhood signed a legal agreement with the stack’s operating industry and the impacts of this decision provides a lesson in critical environmental justice. Theories of urban political ecology frame exploration of resident priorities, relationships with industry, risk perceptions, and health concerns. Utilizing activist anthropology, this thesis aims to be mutually beneficial to scholarly and neighborhood development. Ultimately, this research demonstrates how southern gradualism, racism, and a trend towards isolationism created today’s striving, yet marginalized and divided community. …

Landfill Communities Within The Land Of Eternal Spring, Blanca Vaneza Guzmán

ENV 434 Environmental Justice

This paper examines the placement and impact of landfills within Guatemala City, Guatemala. By examining the municipal cite and its accessibility to policy taken on towards proper waste management, the recurring theme of lack of information will be obvious. It specifically looks at the lack of information provided and describes the landfill communities by looking at the minimal scholarship and media attention offered. This paper will also interrelate the importance of all beings, living and non-living with its surroundings and highlight ideas of ecological thinking. An emphasis on environmental racism will be stressed, particularly with the enormous impact it has …

Unearthed: Advocating Against Fracking And Breaking The Bond Of The Imagined World Order, Colleen E. Cloonan

ENV 434 Environmental Justice

While discussing the imagined world order, it is evident that the world is not perfect. Over the course of the centuries, the earth has been maimed by humans, whether it be during the agricultural age or throughout the process of industrialization into the modern era. Humans must realize that sooner, rather than later, we must address the environmental destruction we are causing. A specific case, with that such as hydraulic fracturing of shale, otherwise known as fracking, provides as an example of one of the environmental justice issues that is plaguing the earth. However, there are complications. In the consumer …

A Case Of Environmental Justice In Los Angeles, California, Cleora Ohar

ENV 434 Environmental Justice

Abstract: Environmental Racism has been around for a long time. Looking at its history of key movements like the Civil Rights Movement can help provide a framework for why it has become what it is today and could potentially look like in the future. The way in which people have presented it has changed as culture has changed. Not only does environmental racism involve issues of the environment, but it also includes issues of race. Hence, the name of this subcategory of environmental justice. In fact, studies have been conducted showing that those who live in underdeveloped or poor …

Flint Drinking Water Contamination: Frames Of Reference, Clifford J. Villa

Faculty Scholarship

Presentation given at Harvard Law School on Flint, Michigan, lead toxicity and what we can do as a matter of law.