Digital Commons Network^™

A Call For Change: Minnesota Environmental Justice Heroes In Action, Volume 2, Christie Manning, Minori Kishi, Rachel Campbell

Books

Access Online: https://mlpp.pressbooks.pub/environmentaljusticevol2/

This second volume of “A Call for Change: Minnesota Environmental Justice Heroes in Action” is a collection of the stories and efforts of environmental justice activists at the forefront of the Minnesota environmental justice movement. It is a compilation of interviews, conducted by students at Macalester College in 2023, to understand the layers of environmental injustice in Minnesota and bring attention to the resilience and determination of activists and communities. See volume one at https://mlpp.pressbooks.pub/environmentaljustice/

Bridging The Gap: Analyzing The Relationship Between Environmental Justice Awareness On Twitter And Socio-Environmental Factors Using Remote Sensing And Big Data, Charles Knoble, Danlin Yu

Department of Earth and Environmental Studies Faculty Scholarship and Creative Works

Mounting awareness of the discriminatory distribution of environmental factors has increasingly placed environmental justice at the forefront of discussions on sustainable development, but responses to these disparities are often too little, too late. Remote sensing has emerged as a potential solution to this problem, capitalizing on the ability to capture high-resolution, spatially explicit data in near-real time. However, a conventional reliance on physical measurements and surface-level analyses risks overlooking the experiences and perceptions of affected communities. It is against this backdrop that the potential integration of remote sensing imagery and socially sensed big data such as social media data assumes …

Navigating Roadblocks In Utah's Path Towards Curbing Greenhouse Gas Emissions, Emily K. Fletcher

All Graduate Theses and Dissertations, Fall 2023 to Present

In places where discussions about climate change have become highly political and divided, community groups have attempted to connect rival political parties by focusing on improving air quality. This topic is often less politically charged. The effects of climate change have been disproportionately felt by marginalized communities around the world. In the west side of the Salt Lake Valley, many communities are more likely to experience the negative consequences of a drying lake, a problem that Utah and other regions are currently facing, compared to others in the valley. This research focuses on the individuals who have signed the Utah …

Environmental (In)Justice: Evaluating The Factors That Led To The Jackson Water Crisis & Proposing A Solution For Environmental Justice In Mississippi, Emily Brennan

MC Law Review

40,000. That is the number of residents that were left without potable water for nearly five weeks during Jackson, Mississippi’s February 2021 water crisis. An unusual cold front rolled through, freezing plant equipment, bursting water pipes, and causing many in Jackson to lose access to running water. This was not, however, the first time that Jackson residents had endured hardships with regard to their drinking water—it was just the first time that national attention turned to, and has seemed to remain on, Mississippi’s capital city. Those in Jackson are all too familiar with water pipes bursting, low water pressure, boil …

Inequality Of Air Quality?: A Study Of Air Quality Within Housing Price Brackets In Gettysburg, Pa, Jess G. Schaefer, Alexis J. Jones, Arden H. Dowd

Student Publications

With the rise of cars and other motorized vehicles has come the rise of air pollution, which tends to have disproportionate environmental and health impacts on low-income and communities of color. This study analyzes car presence and air quality on a transect within Gettysburg, PA to determine if there is a relationship between air pollution and vehicle presence, and if there is a difference in air quality between higher price bracket housing compared to campus, commercial, and lower price bracket housing. To test our research questions, we identified nine sampling locations along a transect where we measured air pollutants, including …

Rising Coastal Groundwater As A Result Of Sea-Level Rise Will Influence Contaminated Coastal Sites And Underground Infrastructure, K. Hill, D. Hirschfeld, C. Lindquist, F. Cook, S. Warner

Landscape Architecture and Environmental Planning Faculty Publications

Sea-level rise (SLR) will cause coastal groundwater to rise in many coastal urban environments. Inundation of contaminated soils by groundwater rise (GWR) will alter the physical, biological, and geochemical conditions that influence the fate and transport of existing contaminants. These transformed products can be more toxic and/or more mobile under future conditions driven by SLR and GWR. We reviewed the vulnerability of contaminated sites to GWR in a US national database and in a case comparison with the San Francisco Bay region to estimate the risk of rising groundwater to human and ecosystem health. The results show that 326 sites …

Race And Income As Predictors Of Trust In Flood Mitigation Strategies, Wendy Nathaly Sangucho Loachamin

Dissertations and Theses

Trust plays a central role in coastal flooding management because the support or opposition to costly mitigation strategies depends, in part, on how much stakeholders trust in the effectiveness of these strategies. Despite the importance of trust in the approval of flood mitigation strategies, trust is rarely measured. Furthermore, Environmental Justice (EJ) studies have consistently shown that BIPOC (Black, Indigenous and People of Color) and low-income communities are more vulnerable to environmental hazards. Therefore, if these communities are more exposed to flooding, we hypothesize they will have less trust in flood mitigation strategies to protect them; yet trust is understudied …

A Seat At Whose Table? Analyzing Detroit’S Community Benefit Ordinance As A Tool For Environmental Justice, Sarah Draughn Gargaro

Michigan Journal of Environmental & Administrative Law

The Environmental Protection Agency defines environmental justice as the “just treatment and meaningful involvement” of all people in the decisionmaking that affects the environment and human health. Since the origins of the modern American environmental justice movement in the 1980s, activists have emphasized the importance of self-determination. Environmental justice requires that decision making processes center the voices of the individuals impacted by decisions made about the distributions of environmental assets and harms. There is a significant challenge, however, in designing community engagement practices that meaningfully involve community members. Since the 1990s, community benefits agreements have been heralded as an effective …

Abolition And Environmental Justice, Allegra M. Mcleod

Georgetown Law Faculty Publications and Other Works

During the coronavirus pandemic, movements for penal abolition and racial justice achieved dramatic growth and increased visibility. While much public discussion of abolition has centered on the call to divest from criminal law enforcement, contemporary abolitionists also understand public safety in terms of building new life-sustaining institutions and collective structures that improve human well-being, linking penal divestment to environmental justice. In urging a reimagination of public safety, abolitionists envision much more than decriminalization or a reallocation of police functions to social service agencies or other alternatives to imprisonment and policing. Instead, for abolitionists, meaningful public safety requires, among other things, …

Which Environmental Social Work? Environmentalisms, Social Justice, And The Dilemmas Ahead, John Mathias, Amy Krings, Samantha Teixeira

Social Work: School of Social Work Faculty Publications and Other Works

Social work has traditionally been concerned with the welfare of humans, a mission that some scholars want to expand to include other beings. How can concern for nonhumans and the natural environment best be integrated with the profession’s commitment to social justice? Although commentators have made several proposals, few have critically examined the dilemmas or trade-offs that may await a more expansive social work. Examining such challenges in environmental movements past and present, we identify three logics by which some varieties of environmentalism have perpetuated inequity among humans. We then explore how diverse movements for environmental justice—which make equity among …

Ecological Solidarity And Sustainable Development In Africa, Ambrose Esigbemi Umetietie

The Journal of Social Encounters

Today we are faced with a challenge that calls for a shift in our thinking, so that humanity stops threatening its life support system. We are called to assist the Earth to heal her wounds and in the process heal our own ... This will happen if we see the need to revive our sense of belonging to a larger family of life (Maathai, 2010). According to John Paul II, the “threat of ecological breakdown is teaching us the extent to which greed and selfishness - both individual and collective - are contrary to the order of creation, an order …

Whose Growth In Whose Planetary Boundaries? Decolonising Planetary Justice In The Anthropocene, Farhana Sultana

Geography and the Environment - All Scholarship

This critical analysis examines the geopolitics of planetary environmental injustice and the imperative for systems change to address the intertwined crises of climate breakdown and unsustainable economic growth. Climate breakdown has heightened attention to uneven anthropogenic use and abuse of the planet's biosphere and common pool resources. Recent arguments by climate scholars suggest that various planetary boundaries have already been breached, resulting in dramatic and harmful socio-ecological consequences. These trends raise crucial questions of equity and justice, especially concerning responsibilities and impacts. By centring Global South perspectives, prevailing ideologies promoting hyperconsumption, overproduction and waste are interrogated. The incommensurability of socioecological …

Integrating Sensor Development, Risk Assessment, And Community Engagement To Support Environmental Justice In The Rural Community Of El Tiple, Colombia, David Bahamon Pinzon

All Dissertations

In Colombia, ethnic communities have traditionally been responsible stewards of natural resources. They recognize the importance of these resources for their livelihood, as well as their ancestral and cultural heritage. El Tiple, a rural Afro-Colombian community, has been affected by the incursion of private corporations that promoted the expansion of sugarcane monocrops in their territory. Since the introduction of the monoculture industry, local freshwater sources have been depleted due to intensive water use for irrigation of the sugarcane crops. Additionally, the intensive usage of agrochemicals has been linked with loss of native flora, damages to family farms, and pollution of …

Experiences With Environmental Gentrification: Evidence From Chicago, Tania Schusler, Amy Krings, Richard T. Melstrom

School of Environmental Sustainability: Faculty Publications and Other Works

Environmental contamination and limited access to green spaces disproportionately burden communities of color with negative impacts on residents’ health. Yet, cleaning up contamination and creating green spaces has in some cases been associated with displacing long-term residents as the neighborhood becomes desirable to more affluent, often Whiter, populations through environmental gentrification. We used mixed methods to investigate environmental gentrification in the city of Chicago, IL, USA. We examined quantitatively the relationship between green areas, brownfield cleanups, and indicators of gentrification, including race and ethnicity, income, households without children, and home ownership. We explored through qualitative interviews how key informants perceive …

Federal Environmental Justice Legislation And Regulations, Nadia B. Ahmad

Faculty Scholarship

No abstract provided.

Ecology And Retribution: Blake, Tokarczuk, And Animal Rights, Kristina Isaak Powell

Theses and Dissertations

This thesis explores how Nobel laureate Olga Tokarczuk's 2008 novel, Drive Your Plow Over the Bones of the Dead, engages with William Blake's life and his writings on animal welfare and speaks to current conversations about multispecies justice in the environmental humanities. It argues, first, that in recognizing how this novel's protagonist, Janina, selectively reads Blake to rationalize retributive justice, readers should resist a tendency to mistake this character for Tokarczuk's ideal advocate for environmental ethics. Secondly, it asserts that legal scholars' division between retributive and restorative justice offers valuable framework for approaching both this novel and ongoing debates about …

Natural Resource Systems And The Evolution Of Environmental Law, Monika Ehrman

Pace Environmental Law Review

Professor Monika Ehrman provides a pragmatic response to Elliott and Esty’s proposal to end all environmental externalities, which she refers to as an “environmental law moonshot.” She examines the value of transforming environmental law and dreaming big as Elliott and Esty recommend, while discussing the practical considerations of doing so. Her considerations include incentivizing technological advancement, compensating environmentally harmed communities to address systemic issues, and breaking down silos in environmental law.

Alessandra Bergamin, Oral History Interview, 2023, You Li

Collective Memory of Women Journalists in COVID-19

Alessandra Bergamin is an award-winning Australian investigative journalist who divides her time between Melbourne and Los Angeles. Bergamin covers the intersection of environmental conflict and human rights around the world. Her work has appeared in The Baffler, In These Times, Harper’s Magazine, National Geographic, and The New Yorker.com, among others. In 2022, Bergamin was honored as a Distinguished Journalist by the Society of Professional Journalists, Los Angeles in the newspaper/print (smaller circulation) category. She has received fellowships and grants from many entities to investigate environmental and human rights issues.

In this interview, Bergamin reviewed her experiences and takeaways from reporting …

Combating The Climate Crisis: Anishinaabe Philosophy And Environmental Justice, Margaret Hunt

Student Theses 2015-Present

The climate crisis is considered one of humans' most detrimental issues today. Although there is a struggle to find solutions, many have been and continue to be at the forefront of the environmental movement, specifically Indigenous communities. The Anishinaabe people, in particular, have philosophies centered around environmental care. They view the environment as something deserving of honor and respect. Although these ideas have allowed them to have a respectful relationship with their local ecosystems, the United States government has ignored these ideas from the early stages of the environmental movement. With this, there is also an extensive history of harmful …

The Green Core Of The Big Apple: The Significance Of Urban Green Spaces In New York City & Beyond, Grace Dailey

Student Theses 2015-Present

This paper addresses the politics of urban green spaces which includes the issue of their inequitable distribution as well as related issues that can arise when communities do not have access to such spaces. There are a variety of types of urban green spaces, however, this paper will be focused on public parks. Together, such outdoor spaces can create cultural, recreational, and community building opportunities that are able to improve environmental and human health. Chapter 1 presents data about the existence and usage of urban green spaces around the world and in New York City in particular. Chapter 2 uses …

Environmental Injustice In Fayetteville, Arkansas: Investigating Unjust And Racist Conditions In Fayetteville's Industrial Park, Chloe Devecsery

Architecture Undergraduate Honors Theses

Environmental racism refers to how minority neighborhoods are burdened with a disproportionate number of environmental hazards and pollution that lower the quality of life and create health disparities. Despite the growing awareness of the national and global problem, environmental injustice and racism can be found in nearly every place. There is little being done regarding policy, public awareness, and government action. The fight for environmental justice is still needed across America, in Arkansas, and in our community. This disciplinary-oriented capstone gives a brief overview of the environmental justice movement and uses publicly available maps and statistics from government and academic …

Toward A More Holistic Understanding Of Uranium-Related Views And Experiences Of Residents In The Four Corners Region Of The United States, Matthew J. Barnett

All Graduate Theses and Dissertations, Spring 1920 to Summer 2023

Research on rural Four Corners Region (FCR) residents’ views about uranium production has focused mainly on predominately-White communities in the northern portion of the region. Meanwhile, residents in the southern part of the region, which includes the Navajo Nation and other tribal nations and communities, have dealt with the worst environmental and health effects of the uranium boom. Through a series of three studies in the southern part of the FCR, I explore the uranium-related views and experiences of racially diverse FCR residents.

In the first paper of this dissertation, I used 53 interviews to explore how sociodemographic factors (e.g., …

Exploring The Association Of Brownfield Remediation Status With Socioeconomic Conditions In Wayne County, Mi, Brendan F. O'Leary, Alex B. Hill, Colleen Linn, Mei Lu, Carol J. Miller, Andrew Newman, F. Gianluca Sperone, Qiong Zhang

Urban Studies and Planning Faculty Research Publications

Urban neighborhoods with locations of environmental contamination, known as brownfields, impact entire neighborhoods, but corrective environmental remedial action on brownfields is often tracked on an individual property basis, neglecting the larger neighborhood-level impact. This study addresses this impact by examining spatial differences between brownfields with unmitigated environmental concerns (open site) and sites that are considered fully mitigated or closed in urban neighborhoods (closed site) on the US census tract scale in Wayne County, MI. Michigan’s Department of Environment, Great Lakes, and Energy’s leaking underground storage tank (LUST) database provided brownfield information for Wayne County. Local indicators of spatial association (LISA) …

Assessing Environmental Justice In Minnesota: Do Native Americans Face Disproportionate Risks?, Mya Schmeling

Political Science Theses and Capstones

Environmental justice is an area that has gained traction worldwide in recent years. Today, researchers are analyzing what factors play into this issue and what policymakers and environmental regulation can do to better these issues. Environmental justice focuses on any group that experiences an imbalance of environmental harms. These groups are commonly distinguished by factors such as race and income. I analyze primarily if Native Americans in the state of Minnesota may face disproportionate environmental harms, I also look at Black identifying individuals and population size as a means of comparison. I compared the number of environmental harms and the …

Intersectional Management: An Analysis Of Cooperation And Competition On American Public Lands, Robin M. Rotman, Abigail M. Hunt

Faculty Publications

The United States government holds public lands in trust for the whole of the American people. This article focuses on National Monuments under the Antiquities Act. It argues that the federal government should renew its approach to the management of these lands by incorporating principles of environmental justice and long- term environmental viability. The article begins by examining the historical and legal foundations of federal lands in the United States, with a focus on the Antiquities Act. It then reflects on recent litigation and political controversy surrounding Bears Ears National Monument and Grand Staircase–Escalante National Monument, to illustrate how the …

How Many More Brazilian Environmental Defenders Have To Perish Before We Act? President Lula's Challenge To Protect Environmental Quilombola Defenders, Sarah Dávila A.

William & Mary Environmental Law and Policy Review

The Global South has been historically marginalized and continues to suffer from systemic oppression, impeding the realization of their human rights. Afro-descendants and other minority populations in the Global South live in disproportionately environmentally unsafe conditions and are disproportionately more vulnerable to climate change and environmental harm. One of those populations are Quilombolas. Quilombolas are Brazilian Afro-descendant communities who continue to fight to protect their community rights to ancestral lands, natural resources, and survival as a people. The Brazilian government under former Brazilian President Bolsonaro engaged in a persistent and systematic campaign to target, attack, and kill defenders, including Quilombola …

Litigation To Protect The Marine Environment: Parallels And Synergies With Climate Litigation, Randall S. Abate, Nadine Nadow, Hayley-Bo Dorrian-Bak

William & Mary Environmental Law and Policy Review

The world’s oceans are in crisis. Climate change impacts, biodiversity loss, plastic pollution, fisheries collapse, impacts to marine mammals, and vessel-based pollution are among the many threats the marine environment faces today. Fish biomass is predicted to drop by 3% to 25% by the end of the century due to climate change. Worse still, the amount of plastic in the world’s aquatic ecosystems is on track to hit 23 to 37 million tons per year by 2040.

[...]

This Article reviews recent successes and obstacles in using litigation as a tool to address these concerns across several contexts in the …

The Importance Of Accessible Government Data In Advancing Environmental Justice, Frank D. Lomonte, Daniel Delgado

William & Mary Environmental Law and Policy Review

Part I of this Article sets forth the history and animating principles of the environmental justice movement in the United States during the 1970s, which developed as an adjunct to the larger civil rights movement. Part II then turns to the role of documents and data in exposing where toxins present a risk to public health and where documentation habitually falls short. It discusses how freedom of information laws can unlock access to the documents and data that quantify environmental hazards but also how those laws fail to produce reliable results because of the influence of regulated industries. Part III …

Diversity, Equity, Inclusion, And Justice In Water Dialogues: A Review And Conceptualization, Simone A. Williams, Susanna Eden, Sharon B. Megdal, Valerisa Joe-Gaddy

Journal of Contemporary Water Research and Education

In the United States, the lack of diversity, equity, inclusion, and justice (DEIJ) in water governance and management has been identified as a serious problem that affects the validity of decisions. Because water governance and management institutions, processes, and practices at all scales involve dialogue, it is important to understand DEIJ in water dialogues. This paper reports on the results of a systematic literature survey that was undertaken to guide efforts by The University of Arizona Water Resources Research Center to improve diversity and inclusion in its engagement practices and outreach strategies. Three questions are explored: 1) How is DEIJ …

Homelessness, Water Access, And Environmental Justice In An Urban Environment, Alicia Gamble

Environmental Science and Management Professional Master's Project Reports

Only in recent years has houselessness been viewed as an environmental justice issue, and little is understood about the environmental injustices of water insecurity among unhoused individuals, especially during the COVID-19 pandemic. In order to understand the environmental injustices (i.e., distributive, procedural, and recognition) of the water insecurity process using the cause-response-effect theoretical model, unhoused participants living near services were interviewed in Portland, Oregon about their lived experiences gaining access to water, the barriers they encounter when trying to access water, and the impacts that result from these barriers. Results revealed that COVID-19 was a barrier to water access and …