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#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 …

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 …

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 …

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.

Inequitable Distribution Of Plastic Benefits And Burdens On Economies And Public Health, Rachel Karasik, Nancy Lauer, Anne-Elisabeth Baker, Niki E. Lisi, Jason A. Somarelli, William C. Eward, Kathinka Fürst, Meagan M. Dunphy-Daly

Faculty Scholarship

Plastic heterogeneously affects social systems – notably human health and local and global economies. Here we discuss illustrative examples of the benefits and burdens of each stage of the plastic lifecycle (e.g., macroplastic production, consumption, recycling). We find the benefits to communities and stakeholders are principally economic, whereas burdens fall largely on human health. Furthermore, the economic benefits of plastic are rarely applied to alleviate or mitigate the health burdens it creates, amplifying the disconnect between who benefits and who is burdened. In some instances, social enterprises in low-wealth areas collect and recycle waste, creating a market for upcycled goods. …

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 …

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 …

Scientists And Activists Work To Save The Planet, Myriam G. Vidal Valero

Capstones

Climate change and human intervention in nature are affecting people, ecosystems and ways of living all over the world. This portfolio of environmental pieces showcases the dire consequences of not addressing these issues, how solutions can be reached and the challenges facing those who try to change things.

Between Two Rivers: Environmental Justice And The Politics Of Ecological Improvement In Puget Sound, Grant M. Gutierrez

Dartmouth College Ph.D Dissertations

Environmental justice (EJ) has become a central framework for historically marginalized communities in the United States to identify unequal exposure to environmental harm. Yet, what once began as a radical social movement challenge to different forms of environmental racism has been taken-up by a wide swathe of civil society across diverse political, cultural, and ecological landscapes. In particular, river restoration efforts – and the many communities they implicate – are emerging as key sites of political-ecological interventions that are central to EJ. However, not all river restoration efforts employ EJ as a guiding framework. Through this dissertation, I ask: how …

Acid Mine Drainage In The Shamokin Creek Watershed: A Spatial Analysis Of Economic And Environmental Consequences Of Coal Mining, Ben Shimer

Student Project Reports

No abstract provided.

The Theory Of Reasoned Action As A Basis For Investment In Cryptocurrency, Wrr Rinaldo

Masters Theses, 2020-current

In the past decade and a half, emergent blockchain technology has gained widespread attention, especially in the past few years. For the most part, attention has been focused on cryptocurrencies, but non-fungible tokens (NFTs), that use similar technology, have been given attention as well. Many concerns about these technologies have arisen, particularly that of the environmental impacts associated with them. Utilizing the theory of reasoned action, diffusion of technology theory, and surveys conducted through Amazon Mechanical Turk, this research attempts to uncover if there is a link between the level of cryptocurrency knowledge that an individual possesses and the level …

The Great Delusion, Beth Johnston

Masters Theses

The climate crisis is a wicked problem that poses many obstacles for action and understanding. This thesis is a non-linear accumulation of academic essays, interpolated with lists, anecdotal observations, data, and artwork that together explore the entanglements and complications of the climate crisis and my journey in making artwork as a response to those complications. The thesis surveys six bodies of artwork created over the course of graduate school, which use photography, sculptural installation, performance, and video to illustrate various topics and methodologies. Grounded in research on environmental justice, this essay explores temporal disjunctures, climate data encounters, the decolonization of …

A Woman’S Place Is In The Resistance: An Ecofeminist Response To Climate Change, Olivia Johnson

Student Theses 2015-Present

This paper addresses the unique impacts of climate change on women and gender diverse people throughout the world, and seeks to move beyond identifying them solely as victims by instead focusing on their dynamic role in environmental activism while addressing the need for a gendered approach to climate policy. The inclusion of gender is often absent in much of environmental literature, which leaves women’s experience of climate change unseen and unaddressed. Beginning with a case study of the Indigenous women of Standing Rock and their battle against the Dakota Access Pipeline, this paper seeks to understand the critical involvement of …

The Impact Of Water Infrastructure Inequality On Marginalized Communities, Indra Khalsa

Honors Theses

America’s current system of water infrastructure poses a threat not only to the environment but also to public health. The water crisis reveals the stark inequalities that exist from both an environmental justice and a social justice perspective. There is a growing concern that without adequate investment from federal resources, the problems related to this issue will only worsen the longer they are neglected. There is little information about how specific environmental and social factors combine with water infrastructure to create long-term infrastructure inequalities. However, this thesis explores the disparities in water infrastructure affordability, vulnerability patterns, and environmental hazards. It …

Home/Sick, Elizabeth P. Fontenot

Electronic Theses and Dissertations

This paper is a supporting document that discusses the conceptual and technical aspects of the artworks in the accompanying exhibition, HOME/SICK. The work in the exhibition consists of selections from different series of work that are inspired by related subject matter. The content driving the work responds to anecdotal experiences of people living in communities near oil refineries and chemical processing plants and how events at these facilities affect their way of life. Many times, these are communities of color which strive to voice concerns and protect homes from harmful toxins. In one series, original and appropriated imagery serves as …

Analysis Of Gentrification And Green Spaces In East Austin, Texas, Carly Fordyce

Graduate Theses and Dissertations

Gentrification, the urban process that results from uneven development within cities, can cause unjust displacement of traditional, low-income residents in residential neighborhoods, and inequitable access to community services and benefits. Because of the negative social impacts that gentrification can have, many local governments and agencies have been known to attempt to mitigate changes by initiating different types of planning policies. Such policies usually apply changes in housing or zoning rules to enable lower-income residents to have access to housing and community amenities in the area. Another aspect resulting from gentrification that local government will try to rectify is low access …

Environmental Repercussions Of The Strange Fruit: The Implications Of Our Enslavement On Modern Black Experiences With Nature, Indya Woodfolk

Honors Theses

When I was nine years old my dad often took me hiking at “Rosaryville State Park” in Maryland. Sometimes we would ride bikes, other times we would walk the trail and become mesmerized by the sounds and sights of nature. We would run down the path, play iSpy, or tell stories and sing songs. The trail led to an open field with acres of land in the distance. The only presence there was my dad, the trees, and me. We would take out our 7/11 sandwiches, sit on the ground, and enjoy our time together. It wasn't until I was …

Persistence In The North Pacific: The Makah People And Their Fight To Protect Their Cultural Heritage, Jeff Cocci

Richard T. Schellhase Essay Prize in Ethics

In the Pacific Ocean, just off the coast of North America a whale swims blissfully unaware of its own significance. It is a Gray Whale; scientists would call it Eschrichtius robustus and at nearly forty feet long, it is large enough that it does not have to worry about sharks or other carnivorous animals. Yet there are those that are brave enough to hunt the whale. They are the Makah People of the Olympian Peninsula, in upper Washington state. By doing so, they place themselves at the center of a complex ethical debate amongst activists, scientists, and the general public. …

Racism And Toxic Burden In Rural Dixie, Mary Finley-Brook, Environmental Justice Researchers

William & Mary Environmental Law and Policy Review

Rural pollution hotspots receive inadequate attention during impact assessments: low population density is strategically used to suggest rural areas lack critical importance. Local resistance led to a legal victory for Union Hill, Virginia, where a door-to-door household study of demographics and family heritage exposed data inequities and biases in state practices, establishing a precedent for attention to environmental injustice and disproportionate cumulative impacts on rural majority Black communities. Critical legal geographies of cases from Buckingham, Pittsylvania, and Charles City Counties in the Commonwealth of Virginia document patterns in the ways fossil fuel ‘sacrifice zones’ intersect with historic colonialism in rural …

Learning From The Massachusetts Municipal Vulnerability Preparedness (Mvp) Program In The Greater Boston Region, Patricio Belloy, David Sulewski, Stacy D. Vandeveer

Sustainable Solutions Lab

This report examines the implementation and impacts of Massachusetts' Municipal Vulnerability Preparedness (MVP) Program, with a particular focus on adaptation planning and action in the Greater Boston region. Initiated by the Commonwealth in 2016, the MVP Program aims to build local capacity and advance municipal climate adaptation through state-funded planning and action grants. Drawing on case studies, interviews, and document analysis, the report explores how the program fosters stakeholder engagement, supports vendor-led planning processes, and integrates environmental justice principles. While the MVP Program has made significant strides in promoting climate dialogue and nature-based solutions, it faces persistent challenges including uneven …

Understanding The Intersections Of The Lgbtq+ Community & Climate Change, San Diego Regional Climate Collaborative, A-Bel Gong, Darbi Berry

San Diego Regional Climate Collaborative

In this blog, we will explore these LGBTQ+ community relationships as they relate to environmental justice, relationships and access to the outdoors, and community representation in the environmental science field.

An Index Of Community Priorities To Inform Local Governance In New Haven, Max E. Teirstein

Library Map Prize

Environmental justice screening and mapping tools visually depict the distribution of environmental justice burden across a geographic area. How that burden is measured varies according to location—different communities face different challenges, and a mapping tool that represents the landscape of environmental justice in one community may not adequately capture the distribution of EJ burden in another area. Who decides what “burden” means for each community? In this study of environmental justice in New Haven, CT, I argue that it is residents and local community leaders whose perspectives are most critical to how environmental justice is defined. I create a census …

It Permeated Everything: A Lived Experience Of Slow Violence And Toxicological Disaster, Tara Jo Holmberg

Antioch University Dissertations & Theses

Impacts of disasters on individuals are dependent on numerous factors: local to international political dynamics, socioeconomics, geography, educational background, and outside support among others. Currently, much of disaster research focuses on those of natural origin, acute and large-scale environmental events, emergency management, and the ability of individuals, communities, and societies to prepare for, and recover from, likely known disasters in their region. However, there is a lack of data about individual experiences through ‘invisible’ anthropogenic disasters, especially those that fall under the umbrella of slow environmental violence (Davies, 2019; Rice, 2016). Through critical phenomenological autoethnography, I examine an individual experience …

Voices Of The Often Unheard: The Environmental Impacts Of Catastrophic Wildfire Events On Individuals With Developmental Disabilities, Mary Madison Mckenzie

Graduate Student Theses, Dissertations, & Professional Papers

The Thomas Fire for a time was the largest wildfire in California history, burning 281,893 acres and destroying 1,063 structures. Within three years, the August Complex Fire, at 1,032,649 acres, almost quadrupled that record. Climate related disasters such as these have impelled social science researchers to heed calls for a paradigm shift in understanding the risks climate change poses to the social world, in particular, disaster risks for vulnerable groups. Existing research tends to focus on disasters such as hurricanes, featuring risks for vulnerable populations by race, class, and/or individuals with disabilities in general, but not for individuals with developmental …

Introduction: Climate Change And Planned Retreat, Idowu Jola Ajibade, A. R. Siders

Geography Faculty Publications and Presentations

Chapter 1.

This edited volume advances our understanding of climate relocation (or planned retreat), an emerging topic in the fields of climate adaptation and hazard risk, and provides a platform for alternative voices and views on the subject. As the effects of climate change become more severe and widespread, there is a growing conversation about when, where and how people will move. Climate relocation is a controversial adaptation strategy, yet the process can also offer opportunity and hope. This collection grapples with the environmental and social justice dimensions from multiple perspectives, with cases drawn from Africa, Asia, Australia, Oceania, South …

Towers Of Trash: Dissecting India’S Solid Waste Management Crisis, Maya L. Reddy

Student Theses 2015-Present

This paper explores the complex issue of poor solid waste management in the nation of India. The infamous Ghazipur landfill in New Delhi serves as a focal point of this paper as it provides drastic examples of the consequences of solid waste management systems that do not operate effectively. Drawing on information from various scholarly sources, Chapter 1 discusses the issue of solid waste mismanagement in India and its surrounding quantitative and qualitative data. Chapter 2 highlights the socioeconomic, cultural, and religious aspects of consumption, growth, and waste, specifically in relation to prevailing sociological attitudes on material wealth and luxury. …

Nature-Based Solutions In Environmental Planning: Ecosystem-Based Adaptations, Green Infrastructures, And Ecosystem Services To Promote Diversity In Urban Landscapes, Lorena Alves Carvalho Nascimento

Dissertations and Theses

Nature-based solutions encompass strategies that explore ecosystem-based adaptations, green infrastructures, and ecosystem services in environmental planning and landscape management. However, nature-based solutions do not always consider ecological values and perspectives from Black, Indigenous, and Global South population. This dissertation has three independent papers that explore the application of ecosystem-based adaptations, green infrastructures, and ecosystem services in communities unheard by environmental planning agencies. The first paper is a conceptual framework that used literature review and observations of current human-nature interactions to reflect how the criminalization, acculturation, and cultural appropriation of cultural ecosystem services have burdened Black and Indigenous identities. Recommendations for …

Examining An Intersection Of Environmental Justice And Covid-19 Risk Assessment: A Review, Ashley Ellis

Honors Theses

This study views the risks associated with the novel coronavirus (COVID-19) as an environmental injustice issue due to the connection between existing environmental disparities and the disproportional negative impacts brought upon by the virus. The social and health determinants attributed to those environmental disparities have traditionally been evaluated as individual risk factors, an approach that fails to gauge the complexity of an environmental injustice issue. This study employs the emerging theory of intersectionality, a belief that phenomena cannot be linked to one principal cause but instead an interconnected web of influences, in order to synthesize the multitude of factors believed …

Addressing The Role Of Climate Change In Agriculture And Mexico-Us Immigration, Xiaoxin Liang

Binghamton University Undergraduate Journal

Among the greatest threats of climate change is the significant impact on mass displacement, particularly as it relates to Mexico-US immigration. Low crop yields from worsening climate conditions have been linked to increased migration of Mexican farmers. With a projected 4.2 million additional migrants in the foreseeable future, it poses a contemporary environmental, social, and political dilemma. This policy brief analyzes several provision proposals to be adopted into the United States-Mexico-Canada Agreement (USMCA), as evaluated under economic cost, equity, environmental impact, and feasibility criteria. My research concludes that the most effective and direct provision proposal is the implementation of adaptive …