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Editor's Note, Juliette Jackson, Bailey Nickoloff

Sustainable Development Law & Policy

The Sustainable Development Law and Policy Brief (“SDLP”) is celebrating twenty-two years of legal scholarship on issues related to environmental, energy, natural resources, and international development law. SDLP continues to provide cutting-edge solutions to these legal issues in the face of the global COVID-19 Pandemic, while also transitioning back into a “new normal.” This issue is no different, as we published articles challenging our lawmakers and policy heads to address the impending needs of our communities to develop more sustainable infrastructure—needs that are only exacerbated by man-made climate change. We are proud of the work published, and we are forever …

Extractivism And Conflict: Comparative Study Of Serbia And The Drc, Borislava Manojlovic, Espoir Kabanga

The Journal of Social Encounters

This study explores how populations in Serbia and the DRC have been affected by and responded to natural resource extraction. Specifically, protests and other activist engagement were examined by surveying social movements’ participants from civil society and academia. Both qualitative and quantitative methods of inquiry were used. Data was collected from multiple sources, including academic and online sources pertaining to the topic of extractivism, and a survey of 71 participants. The results indicate that both Congolese and Serbian participants have grave concerns about extractivism and its impact on the environment, peace, stability, health, and well-being but differ in their ability …

Death By Committee: Reviving Federal Environmental Justice Legislation To Mitigate Disproportionate Impacts On Vulnerable Communities, Sara Babcock

Pace Environmental Law Review

This Note proposes legislation that provides an avenue for protecting the right to a clean and healthy environment by requiring agencies to consider vulnerable communities before initiating large-scale federal projects. Part I lays out the emergence of environmental justice issues in the United States, including its turning point. Part II introduces both successful and failed attempts at federal environmental justice legislation and analyzes why federal environmental justice legislation continuously fails. Part III dis- cusses how executive environmental justice action becomes pointless to the overall progression of environmental justice and examines President Biden’s progress in the first year of his presidency. …

Toxic Criminals: Prosecuting Individuals For Hazardous Waste Crimes Under The United States Resource Conservation And Recovery Act, Dr. Joshua Ozymy, Dr. Melissa Jarrell Ozymy

Sustainable Development Law & Policy

The U.S. Resource Conservation and Recovery Act (“RCRA”) contains criminal provisions which allow prosecutors to seek substantial penalties when individuals commit hazardous waste crimes involving significant harm or culpable conduct. However, our empirical understanding of enforcement outcomes is limited. We used content analysis of 2,728 criminal prosecutions derived from U.S. EPA criminal investigations from 1983 to 2021 and examined all prosecutions of individual defendants for RCRA violations. Our results show that 222 prosecutions were adjudicated, with over $72.9 million in monetary penalties, 755 years of probation, and 451 years of incarceration levied at sentencing. Seventeen percent of prosecutions centered on …

About Sdlp, Sdlp

Sustainable Development Law & Policy

The Sustainable Development Law & Policy Brief (ISSN 1552-3721) is a student-run initiative at American University Washington College of Law that is published twice each academic year. The Brief embraces an interdisciplinary focus to provide a broad view of current legal, political, and social developments. It was founded to provide a forum for those interested in promoting sustainable economic development, conservation, environmental justice, and biodiversity throughout the world.

Climate Change And Environmental Justice, Clement Loo

Environmental Studies Publications

This chapter provides a broad overview of the relationship between climate change and environmental justice. It provides (1) a brief review of the concept of environmental justice, (2) discussion about how environmental justice applies to climate change, and (3) several examples of how environmental justice has been integrated into climate governance.

Climate Change Proposal: Coupling Equity And Scientific Rigor In Facing Global Warming, Rebecca Mcnicholas

University Honors Theses

Global warming has detrimental effects on the health and population of our planet. For years, scientists have known that in order to preserve the earth for future generations, it is necessary to adopt more sustainable practices that reduce greenhouse gas (GHG) emissions and waste. Policy makers across the globe have attempted to address the issue but have received pushback from the general public, industry and politicians on the other side, alike. Controversy surrounding necessary changes encompasses issues from livelihood, to affordability, to health equity, to taxation. This multifaceted problem cannot be solved with a simple solution; rather, it requires consideration …

Equitable Sustainability Literacy Guide: Creating A Resource Guide To Educate On Environmental Problems Through A Social Justice Lens, Jennifer K. Embree, Neyda Gilman, Jacqueline Jergensen

Library Scholarship

The Equitable Sustainability Literacy Guide (ESLG) is an online resource guide created by three student interns (Jacqueline Jergensen, Haley Arnold, and Sage Block) and two librarians (Jennifer Embree and Neyda Gilman) at Binghamton University to educate the public on the environment, climate change, and sustainability through a social justice lens.

Evaluating The Effects Of Heat Vulnerability On Heat-Related Emergency Medical Service Incidents: Lessons From Austin, Texas, Kijin Seong, Junfeng Jiao, Akhil Mandalapu

Research Collection College of Integrative Studies

Extreme heat exposure and sensitivity have been a growing concern in urban regions as the effects of extreme heat pose a threat to public health, the water supply, and the infrastructure. Heat-related illnesses demand an immediate Emergency Medical Service (EMS) response since they might result in death or serious disability if not treated quickly. Despite increased concerns about urban heat waves and relevant health issues, a limited amount of research has investigated the effects of heat vulnerability on heat-related illnesses. This study explores the geographical distribution of heat vulnerability in the city of Austin and Travis County areas of Texas …

Steam And Environmental Justice In An Interdisciplinary Context, Paula Farca, Alina Handorean, Jürgen Brune

The Transdisciplinary STEAM+ Journal

This course proposes an interdisciplinary perspective, envisions unique synergies between environmental justice concepts and STEAM projects on mining, and aims to solidify a foundation based on justice, equity, equality, and empathy for STEM students and faculty. Our (S)TEAM made of professors in three academic departments underscores interdisciplinary and diversity connections through an interdisciplinary team-taught course, units on environmental justice related to mining, teaching of literary texts, and STEAM projects. We also involved faculty, alumni, and our campus and city community through STEAM exhibits.

Environmental Activism: Pro-Environmental Behavior, Consumerism, And Environmental Justice, Kaden Uribe, April Chapman-Ludwig

DU Undergraduate Research Journal Archive

This literature review examines established research on the concept of pro-environmental behaviors (PEB) and its subsects: activism and consumerism. There are competing opinions regarding the salience of pro-environmental activist behavior. This dichotomy is characterized by the role of social media, which can be simultaneously used for performative identity signaling and as a platform to facilitate global collective activism. The research shows a stark contrast between pro-environmental activism and pro-environmental consumerism, with the former acknowledging historical injustices and addressing the social, economic, and environmental disparities created by neo-liberal policies designed with the purpose of profit extraction at the expense of marginalized …

#Landback: Northern Cheyenne To Reclaim Sovereignty, Kaelene C. Spang

Tapestries: Interwoven voices of local and global identities

Statement of Purpose:

As new movements emerge and become evermore relevant across Indian Country, I believe that it is important to address and document these movements and their themes in academic scholarship. Namely, the #Landback, Indigenous Data Sovereignty, and Indigenous Data Governance movements are significant. Proof of this significance lies within their purposes and the very fact that there is a lack of conversation regarding this discourse in the scholarly world. Therefore, the purpose of this essay is to increase this discourse by exploring and discussing Indigenous activism, land reclamation, resurgence, sovereignty, and #Landback in the context of the So’taa’eo/Tsetsêhesêstâhase/Tsitsistas …

What Makes It A Just Transition? A Case Study Of Renewable Rikers, Rebecca Bratspies

Pace Environmental Law Review

This essay offers New York City’s Renewable Rikers as an example of what a just transition might look like in practice. Specifically, this essay describes how Renewable Rikers connects the need for non-polluting energy infrastructure with a broader conversation about decarceration and racial justice to build an inclusive pathway for prosperity and environmental health for all New Yorkers. The first part of this essay sets the stage with a brief overview of the climate crisis. Part two sketches the contours of what constitutes a just transition as that term is used in the Green New Deal Resolution. Part three situates …

Environmental Aesthetics And Environmental Justice In Jonathan Edwards’S Personal Narrative And John Woolman’S Journal, Jay David Miller

Faculty Publications - Department of English

This essay examines the relationship between Christian theology, environmental aesthetics, and environmental justice in colonial America. As opposed to the work of secular writers from the early republic like J. Hector St. John de Crèvecoeur and Thomas Jefferson, the Christian environmental aesthetics of Jonathan Edwards and John Woolman have potential to address questions of environmental justice in American literary history, such as tenant exploitation, African enslavement, and Indigenous displacement. Edwards, however, worked in a pastoral literary tradition, which limited his ability to imagine environmental justice due to his commitment to the doctrine of election. Woolman, on the other hand, worked …

It Turned Into A Bioblitz: Urban Data Collection For Building Scientific Literacy And Environmental Connection, Kelly O'Donnell, Lisa Brundage

Publications and Research

In 2013, Macaulay Honors College redesigned its required science curriculum to focus on scientific literacy skills rather than content. Central to this shift was inclusion of a data collection event, a BioBlitz, to provide students with the basis for their own semester-long research projects. Students are teamed with naturalists in an urban green space to find as many species as they can in 24 h and to contribute to a global biodiversity database via the app iNaturalist. We have learned two important lessons: (1) developing an interdisciplinary curriculum with a high degree of experiential learning is more successful when both …

Criminalizing Environmental Degradation And Devastation: New Prospects For The Icc Rome Statute, Kelly Pisimisi

American University International Law Review

Over the last decade, steadily increasing voices are ringing the tocsin to the international community for the impact of human activities on climate and their potential consequences on human life and dignity. The Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC), in its recent (6th) Assessment Report, confirmed this assertion. Greenhouse gas concentrations and emissions (particularly CO2), as well as the retreat of arctic glaciers and the subsequent sea level rise causing—among other issues—the acidification of the oceanic waters, are some of the most evident human-induced implications on climate and the environment.

Caring Communities For Radical Change: What Can Feminist Political Ecology Bring To Degrowth?, S. Barca, Giovanna Di Chiro, W. Harcourt, I. Iengo, P. Kotsila, S. Kulkarni, I. Leonardelli, C. Sato

Environmental Studies Faculty Works

In this chapter, we share the insights of feminist political ecology (FPE) for degrowth, building from the debates on “caring communities for radical change” at the 8th International Degrowth Conference in August 2021. We discuss how FPE links to the principles of degrowth as an academic and activist movement and why it is necessary to take feminist political ecology perspectives on care and caring communities in resisting, questioning, and counteracting the structural racial, gender, and wider social inequalities that uphold and are perpetuated by growth-dependent economic systems. As we critically reflect on the experiences of paid versus unpaid, collectivised versus …

A Community-Engaged Oral History Study As A Tool For Understanding Environmental Justice Aspects Of Human Exposures To Hazardous Waste Thermal Treatment Emissions In Colfax, La, Matilda Odera, Blair Kelley, Louie Rivers, Alyanna Wilson, Jessica Tran, Khushi Patel, Brenda Vallee, Wilma Subra, Jennifer A. Cramer, Jennifer K. Irving, Margaret Reams, Jennifer Richmond-Bryant

Faculty Publications

This study investigates environmental justice (EJ) themes related to siting a hazardous waste thermal treatment facility near a low-income community of color. We investigated effects of living near a hazardous waste thermal treatment facility through three EJ aspects: recognitional, procedural, and distributive justice. The study involved the collection of oral history interviews from residents of Colfax, a town in Grant Parish, Louisiana, that hosts an open burn/open detonation hazardous waste thermal treatment facility. The facility processes materials such as munitions, theme park waste, and contaminated soils from Superfund sites, and it increased its volume drastically in 2014. Residents reported adverse …

An Ancient Thread Of “Inseparable Oneness”: A Theoretical Exploration Of Community And Kinship In Grassroots Environmental Justice Movements, Izzy Dean

Pitzer Senior Theses

This thesis arose from a particular fascination and frustration with the prescribed nuclear family unit and the competitive isolation that capitalism breeds within normative communities, particularly in the United States. In this paper, I use the approach of theoretical exploration combined with case study research to explore the role of community and kinship within grassroots environmental justice organizations. I initially wanted to explore examples of people and groups who found strength and resistance by engaging in “non-normative” or “queer” community-building practices. I have since redefined my topic as a broad theoretical exploration in which I cite theories of non-normativity, among …

Implementing Nature's Rights In Colombia: The Arato And Amazon Experiences, Camila Bustos, Whitney Richardson

Elisabeth Haub School of Law Faculty Publications

Nature's rights approaches are being developed as an alternative legal means to enable justice for nature and, oftentimes, humans, too. This study examines Colombia's two seminal court-ordered nature's rights approaches which recognize ecosystems-the Atrato River Basin (2016) and the Colombian Amazon (2018)-as a legal subject with rights to protection, maintenance, conservation, and restoration. Developed as remedies for human rights violations, both cases offer opportunities to explore variations in nature's rights approaches and the relationship between efforts to enable justice for humans and nature. We build on existing scholarly engagement with the cases by contributing a detailed archival study on their …

Current Practice And Recommendations For Advancing How Human Variability And Susceptibility Are Considered In Chemical Risk Assessment, Julia R. Varshavsky, Swati D.G. Rayasam, Jennifer B. Sass, Daniel A. Axelrad, Carl F. Cranor, Dale Hattis, Russ Hauser, Patricia D. Koman, Emily C. Marquez, Rachel Morello-Frosch, Catherine Oksas, Sharyle Patton, Joshua F. Robinson, Sheela Sathyanarayana, Peggy M. Shepard, Tracey Woodruff

Sustainability and Social Justice

A key element of risk assessment is accounting for the full range of variability in response to environmental exposures. Default dose-response methods typically assume a 10-fold difference in response to chemical exposures between average (healthy) and susceptible humans, despite evidence of wider variability. Experts and authoritative bodies support using advanced techniques to better account for human variability due to factors such as in utero or early life exposure and exposure to multiple environmental, social, and economic stressors. This review describes: 1) sources of human variability and susceptibility in dose-response assessment, 2) existing US frameworks for addressing response variability in risk …

Radioactive, Internal Colonialism: The Uranium Industry’S Historic And Current Impact On The Navajo Nation, Sophie Arens

Pitzer Senior Theses

The United States withheld information pertaining to the health problems associated with nuclear power, allowing uranium to be extracted, processed, and stored in the Southwest of the United States and more specifically the Navajo Nation. With this, many Diné people who had previously worked in the mines or lived within close vicinity to facilities developed various types of illnesses. This thesis argues that the development of nuclear energy in the United States is a form of radioactive, internal colonialism and that the current waste facility located in Carlsbad, New Mexico is furthering this history into the present day. This thesis …

Separating Litigation: How Seps Demonstrate The Need For Centralized Environmental Civil Litigation, Jon Paul Suttile

William & Mary Environmental Law and Policy Review

This Note will proceed in four parts to examine why enabling EPA [Environmental Protection Agency] litigation autonomy over reestablishing the EPA as a traditional independent agency is a better way of achieving uniform enforcement of environmental policy and regulations. Part I will address the history of independent agencies. Part II will briefly overview the arguments for and against independent agencies and discuss how Supreme Court precedent affects independent agency status. Part III will focus on whether the EPA would benefit from independent agency status. Lastly, Part IV will focus on the use of Supplemental Environmental Projects (“SEPs”) in settlement agreements …

Let Us Be The Fish Who Grow Legs: A Curriculum Guide For Linking Prison Industrial Complex Abolition, Environmental Justice, And State Power, Tess Gibbs

Scripps Senior Theses

This curriculum guide is designed to connect students’ understandings of environmental problems and injustices to their understandings of prison industrial complex (PIC) abolition, with the ultimate intention of cultivating the knowledge and imaginative practices to develop abolitionist-aligned solutions to environmental justice (EJ) problems outside of frameworks that rely upon state sanction. Students will connect the mutual causal forces of environmental injustices and the carceral state; explore intersections of environmental and carceral politics; and finish the course with broadened understandings of humans’ real and unrealized relationships with each other and the more-than-human world. The guide is intended to be worked through …

Tribal Air, Jonathan Skinner-Thompson

Publications

Prevailing approaches to addressing environmental justice in Indian Country are inadequate. The dual pursuits of distributive and procedural justice do not fully account for the unique factors that make Indigenous environmental justice distinct—namely, the sovereign status of tribal nations and the ongoing impacts of colonization.

This Article synthetizes interdisciplinary approaches to theorizing Indigenous environmental justice and proposes a framework to aid environmental law scholars and advocates. Specifically, by centering Indigenous environmental justice in terms of coloniality and self-determination, this framework can better critique and improve environmental governance regimes when it comes to pollution in Indian Country.

This Article tests that …

Treasure Island: Gold Dust Or Radioactive Soil?, Ari Daniels

Scripps Senior Theses

Former Naval Station Treasure Island in the San Francisco Bay is undergoing an expensive redevelopment process to be turned into a sustainable living community. However, the area has a long history of mishandled radioactive material, irresponsible behavior on behalf of authorities, environmental instability, lawsuits, and administrative complaints. This research project focuses on Treasure Island’s history and redevelopment plan, utilizing San Francisco government documents, local newspapers, literature on environmental justice and racism, and state legislation to draw conclusions on the efficacy of the project from a sustainability standpoint and the responsibilities of the planners and developers. After providing a historical overview …

State Sequestration: Federal Policy Accelerates Carbon Storage, But Leaves Full Climate, Equity Protections To States, Gabriel Pacyniak

Faculty Scholarship

Abstract

The Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change—the UN’s expert science panel—has repeatedly found that limiting climate change to prevent catastrophic harms will require at least some use of carbon capture and sequestration (CCS), and may entail substantial deployments of this technology. There is significant uncertainty, however, about the level of lifecycle greenhouse gas (GHG) reductions achievable in practice from varying CCS applications; some applications could even lead to net increases in emissions. In addition, a number of these applications create or maintain other harms, especially those related to fossil fuel extraction and use. For these reasons, many environmental justice advocates …

New York Environmental Legislation In 2022, Michael B. Gerrard, Edward Mctiernan

Faculty Scholarship

Several significant environmental bills were enacted by the New York legislature and signed by Gov.Kathy Hochul in 2022, and several others were vetoed. As a result of measures enacted last year, New York will see $4.2 billion invested in environmental protection, restoration, climate resiliency and clean energy projects; potential disproportionate and inequitable impacts on disadvantaged communities will become a key factor in determining whether environmental permits are issued; and apparel containing intentionally added per- and polyfluoroalkyl substances (PFAS) will no longer be sold in the state. In addition, important changes were made to New York’s brownfield and wetlands laws. These …

Sustainability Hub Newsletter - January 2023, Jacqueline Jergensen, Neyda Gilman, Jennifer Embree

Library Sustainability Resources

The January 2023 Issue of the Sustainability Hub Newsletter shares sustainable New Year's Resolutions, additions to our documentary collection, a new environmental justice mapping tool, information on the Sustainability Hub Interest Group, and a student petition for EV Chargers on campus! Also read our announcements and upcoming events!

Using State Law Before The Glaciers Thaw: Climate Torts After Bp V. Baltimore, Jillian Mayer

American University Journal of Gender, Social Policy & the Law

We are living in the beginning stages of Earth’s sixth mass extinction. Since the Industrial Revolution of the nineteenth century, the burning of fossil fuels has released huge quantities of carbon dioxide and other greenhouse gasses (“GHGs”) into the atmosphere. The increased concentration of GHGs causes the atmosphere to retain more heat. Consequently, ecosystems and weather patterns shift and change faster than most plants, animals, and human societies can adapt. Climate change threatens global peace, crashes economies, and creates humanitarian crises.