Digital Commons Network^™

The Epa's Failure To Revise The Clean Water Act And Its Impact On Communities, Will Matushek

Public Interest Law Reporter

No abstract provided.

What A Waste: The Prosecution Of Hazardous Substances Crimes During The Trump Administration, Joshua Ozymy, Ph.D., Melissa Jarrell Ozymy, Ph.D.

Public Interest Law Reporter

The Trump Administration went to great lengths to roll back environmental regulatory and enforcement efforts. Yet, researchers know very little about the impact of the Administration on the criminal prosecution of hazardous substance crimes. This study utilizes content analysis of EPA criminal investigations leading to prosecution during the Trump Era to analyze charging and sentencing patterns and illustrate the greater themes that emerged during this period. Prosecutions are dominated by hazardous waste (48%), pesticide (41%), and lead-based paint (11%) crimes. Results show prosecutors were able to pursue crimes involving significant harm and culpable conduct, while securing over $90 million in …

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 …

Applying Community Ecology Principles To Assess Impacts Of The Harmful Algal Genus, Pseudo-Nitzschia, On Marine Bacterioplankton And Science Communication Challenges, Julie Maurer

Open Access Master's Theses

Harmful algal blooms (HABs) are projected to increase in frequency and severity with climate change, especially in coastal areas which face serious public health risks, ecological damage, and economic losses when HABs occur. The neurotoxin-producing diatom genus, Pseudo-nitzschia, is a particularly concerning HAB group due to its ability to form high-density, toxic blooms in coastal areas such as bays and estuaries, and due to high toxin variability, which has both genetic and ecological influences. Pseudo-nitzschia HABs may be an emerging issue on the U.S. east coast, due to recent anomalous and toxic blooms that occurred in 2016 and 2017. …

The Role Of Information Communications In The Educational Environment Of Higher Education Institutions, Nataliia Shetelia, Fedir Apshay, Oksana Telep, Yaroslav Ahiy, Valerii Maslov

Journal of Educational Technology Development and Exchange (JETDE)

In a rapidly evolving world with advancing technology and digital tools, understanding the role of information communications in higher education has become highly relevant. This study aims to determine the impact of information communications on the educational process and student communication and proceeds from the need to understand this impact in the context of the growing digitalization of society. The research objective was accomplished through the utilization of an analytical approach, involving the examination of available data and relevant literature in the field. Both qualitative and quantitative methods were employed to analyze the data, enabling the formulation of impartial conclusions …

Voices In, Voices Out: Impacted Stakeholders And The Governance Of Ai, Margot Kaminski

Publications

This Essay addresses reasons for impacted stakeholder involvement in AI governance, ranging from democratic accountability norms to principles of regulatory design. It evaluates several recent examples of both soft and hard law, noting a range of examples of impacted stakeholder participation. It closes with a critique: none of these laws adequately contemplates how to craft transparency and provide expertise so as to meaningfully empower impacted stakeholders.

Pathways To Health: Linking Accessible Green Space To Improved Health And Well‐Being In Rural Appalachia., Udday Shankur Datta

Graduate Theses, Dissertations, and Problem Reports (ETD)

Green spaces are essential for our physical health. The quality of its green space often determines the health of a community. The presence of green space in our lives is associated with reduced stress levels, better sleep, and increased feelings of safety. Lack of access to green space can lead to many health issues, such as high blood pressure, diabetes, and cardiovascular diseases, and has been linked to obesity and physical inactivity.

The Appalachian Regional Commission (ARC) defines Appalachia as a region covering 420 counties across 13 states in the eastern United States. A large part of this region is …

Foodways: An Ethnographic Analysis Of Cwu International Students’ Perception Of The Role Of Culturally Relevant Food In Their Sense Of Belonging, Joy Ihuka

All Master's Theses

International students face unique challenges adjusting to new academic environments, including developing a sense of homesickness and lack of belonging. Studies have shown that consuming culturally relevant food helps international students relieve homesickness, fostering a sense of belonging. Curiously, nonetheless, literature on student belonging rarely focuses on food. Within this gap, this thesis explores the significance of culturally relevant food in fostering a sense of belonging among international students at Central Washington University. Using ethnographic interviews, this research examines how culturally relevant food (including how food is prepared) or lack thereof may influence international students’ perceptions of belonging. This study …

Sedulur Sikep Fights For The Environment & Livelihood Through The Javanese Pop Song "Ibu Bumi", Enkin Asrawijaya, Sri Ningsih, Dedi Supriadi Adhuri, Tity Kusrina

Journal of Urban Culture Research

The issue of environmental preservation is an important topic in global issues. The role of all parties is needed to support environmental preservation because it has an impact on welfare. One of them is conducting a struggle through songs, which this effort is carried out by the indigenous community of Sedulur Sikep (Javanese sub-tribe) in Indonesia. An ethnographic method was utilized through a qualitative approach. We use the theory of symbolic resistance to discuss. The results showed that they made a song entitled "Ibu Bumi" as symbolic resistance by applying the cultural perspective of Sedulur Sikep to invite listeners to …

Characteristics Of Vulnerability Of Tampa Residents Proximate To Superfund Sites, Christian Muisener, Beverly G. Ward, Robin Ersing

Weather, Climate, and Society REU

Using a mixed methods approach, both census data of six selected census tracks in Hillsborough County and interviews with community stakeholders were employed to determine the vulnerability and what current actions are being taken to improve the situation. The vulnerability of these communities was compared to their superfund site proximity to examine the correlation. A correlation exists in the selected census tracts between higher percentages on indicators of vulnerability and distance from both superfund and hazardous waste sites.

Analyzing Vulnerable Census Tracts In Hillsborough County: Are They Disaster Ready?, Mariah Austin, Robin Ersing, Beverly G. Ward

Weather, Climate, and Society REU

Vulnerability and Resilience

FEMA’s Community Disaster Resilience Zones (CDRZ) areas are designated by either being in the top 1% of their state with their NRI (national risk index) score or the top 50 of the country and by being designated as disadvantage with the Climate and Economic Justice Screening Tool.

• There are 483 CDRZs in the US
• Most vulnerable – least prepared
• Hillsborough County has one CDRZ, census tract 121.03

Climate Change

Heat

• Tampa experiences about 73 days each year that feel like 100F and up

*Flooding and Increased Storms

• Affects water quality
• Safety issues with transportation and walking

Habitats …

Environmental Justice Is A Civil Rights Issue, Dennis Chavez Memorial Lecture (Sept. 22, 2022), Secretary Deb Haaland

Natural Resources Journal

No abstract provided.

Bend Down Select: Analysis Of Secondhand Clothing Waste In Africa Under The Current Anti-Dumping Regime, Bisi Ogunmefun

Natural Resources Journal

The second-hand clothing market is a multi-billion-dollar industry that has helped many developing countries stimulate their economy. Over the years, however, the quality of secondhand clothing has declined as the fast-fashion market rises. Countries such as India and the Philippines have banned secondhand clothing imports to protect their textile industries from demise. African countries like Kenya, Rwanda, and Uganda also attempted to ban secondhand clothing imports but were sanctioned with a threat of removal from the African Growth Opportunity Act. This article explores how Anti-Dumping Laws fail to fulfill their ordinary meaning in the secondhand fashion market in African countries …

Symposium On New Mexico's Just Transition, Melanie Coffing, Logan Stokes

Natural Resources Journal

A Just Transition aims to develop capacity for a low-carbon, climate-resilient economy while maximizing benefits and minimizing hardships for working communities. The ideation and implementation of such a sweeping, intersectional policy framework requires thoughtful conversation, collaborative action, and years of dedication from community members and policy makers alike. On November 3, 2023, the Natural Resources Journal, through the University of New Mexico School of Law, and the New Mexico Speaker of the House, Javier Martínez, hosted the Symposium on New Mexico’s Just Transition. Students from the law school and the Natural Resources Journal had the opportunity to collaborate with community …

Tennessee Forestry Commission 2024 Annual Report, Tennessee. Department Of Agriculture.

Forestry Commission Annual Report

No abstract provided.

The Additionality Double Standard, James Salzman

Public Law and Legal Theory Working Papers

Carbon offsets are widely criticized for lacking additionality. The public debate, how- ever, has failed to recognize that the problem of additionality goes far beyond offsets. It arises any time the government subsidizes an activity. Programs with longer histories than offsets and far more money at stake offer valuable lessons for managing lack of additionality in offsets. The article sets out the current efforts to prove offset additionality, explains why major government programs present comparable additionality challenges, and show why other programs’ problems of additionality are perceived as significantly different than those for offsets. We examine the toolkit used to …

State Of California Sea Level Rise Guidance 2024 Science & Policy Update, Ocean Protection Council

State & Federal Reports and Publications

This report was produced by the California Ocean Protection Council, in partnership with the California Ocean Science Trust and a scientific Task Force. This report updates and replaces the previous 2018 ‘State of California Sea- Level Rise Guidance’ and marks the fourth iteration of statewide guidance since 2010 for state and local decision-makers to incorporate best available science on sea level rise into planning, design, permitting, investments, and other decisions.

Queering The Tropics: A Cartography Of Tropical Materialism, Queer Ecology & Spectral Tropicality, Christian Jil Benitez, Gregory Luke Chwala, Anita Lundberg, S. N. Nyeck

Filipino Faculty Publications

This special issue entitled “Queering the Tropics” explores how queering as a methodology and gender and sexuality as a critical rubric complicate the study of the tropics and conceptions of tropicality. It also engages with how the tropics as a worldly zone, and the notion of tropicality as simultaneously material and imaginary, reconfigure notions of queer sexuality. In other words, our aim has been to study how the tropical might queer queerness itself. This is to attempt to understand queer as a way to initiate and pursue critical encounters with the tropical world—indeed to begin queering the tropics. This first …

Agriculture Against The Wall: Barriers And Opportunities For Agroecological Transitions In California’S Industrial Agricultural Landscapes, Estelí Jiménez-Soto, Madeleine Fairbairn, Joji Muramoto, Carol Shennan

School of Geosciences Faculty and Staff Publications

Agroecology emphasizes a shift from low diversity, high chemical input farming to more biodiverse agroecosystems cultivated in conjunction with natural ecosystem processes and embedded in socially just relationships. Yet achieving such agroecological transitions presents enormous challenges in industrial agricultural landscapes dominated by consolidation and overproduction. We examine both the challenges and the opportunities for agroecological transition in one particular industrial agricultural context: the fumigant-dependent strawberry production of California’s Central Coast. We do so by exploring adoption of Anaerobic Soil Disinfestation (ASD), an agroecological alternative to fumigation which has shown considerable promise but has been historically underutilized. Building on previously identified …

The Additionality Double Standard, James Salzman, David A. Weisbach

Coase-Sandor Institute for Law & Economics Research Paper Series

Carbon offsets are widely criticized for lacking additionality. The public debate, how- ever, has failed to recognize that the problem of additionality goes far beyond offsets. It arises any time the government subsidizes an activity. Programs with longer histories than offsets and far more money at stake offer valuable lessons for managing lack of additionality in offsets. The article sets out the current efforts to prove offset additionality, explains why major gov- ernment programs present comparable additionality challenges, and show why other programs’ problems of additionality are perceived as significantly different than those for offsets. We examine the toolkit used …

Does Paying To Pollute Make Pollution Seem Less Bad?, Hajin Kim

Coase-Sandor Institute for Law & Economics Research Paper Series

Does Paying to Pollute Make Pollution Seem Less Bad? Hajin Kim* October 2024 Abstract A common critique of market-based instruments is that they commodify pollution and so reduce its moral stigma. If true, the increasing use of market-based instruments could reduce concern for the environment. With a preregistered and demographically representative experimental vignette study of over 2000 Americans, this project finds evidence against the anti-commodification critique. Participants randomly assigned to learn about market-based regulations of a fictitious new pollutant, malzene, did not find malzene pollution to be less morally problematic than those randomly assigned to learn about a mandate dictating …

Spatial Predictors Of Human–Black Bear Interactions In Nova Scotia, Canada, Jason I. Airst, Tricia B. Fleming

Human–Wildlife Interactions

The increased global frequency of human–wildlife conflict with large, wild carnivores and omnivores negatively impacts human, wildlife, and ecosystem health. The goal of this study was to determine what landscape characteristics best predicted where human–black bear (Ursus americanus) interactions occurred in Nova Scotia, Canada, to support management efforts. We compared the location of 3,278 human–bear conflict reports and 867 non-conflict reports collected between 2017 and 2021 to 12,000 randomly generated locations. Data were analyzed using logistic additive mixed models. We found that interactions (conflict and non-conflict reports) occurred near roads and farther from forests and surface water features. …

Carbon Free Tbd, Hudson B. Kingston

Mitchell Hamline Law Journal of Public Policy and Practice

No abstract provided.

Cost Prohibitive Bonds As Denial Of Justice: Grassroots And Community Organizations’ Due Process Rights, Elizabeth Royal, Aletta Brady

Mitchell Hamline Law Journal of Public Policy and Practice

No abstract provided.

Climate Change Will Make The Final Call In New Mexico's Groundwater Appropriation, Lauren Hewitt

Natural Resources Journal

No abstract provided.

Costuming The Californian Apocalypse: Sartorial Speculations Of Los Angeles's Future, Isabel Kramer

Scripps Senior Theses

With this project, I use fashion design as a medium to visually speculate a range of futures that exist in relation to different temporal apocalypses and dystopian world endings under the current capitalist structure. Three questions guided my thinking and creation of this project: What will people be wearing in 100 years in Los Angeles if we continue down our current path of late capitalism-induced climate change? How will this look differently for people who exist alongside different axes of oppression and who are affected by environmental racisms that manifest in the built environment of Los Angeles? How do dystopian …

Greening The Grounds: Mitigating Compost Contamination And Expanding Onsite Composting Practices In A Small Liberal Arts College Setting, Loren Mello

Scripps Senior Theses

In response to the growing need for sustainable waste management practices, the Farm Manager at Pomona College proposed redirecting food waste from offsite industrial composting to onsite composting at the Pomona Farm, expanding beyond kitchen waste to include student plate scrapings. This research aimed to address the anticipated challenges associated with this transition, including increased compost contamination, Farm staff labor, and operational work hours. To gain insights, a pilot program was conducted at Frank Dining Hall for one week, focusing on compost contaminants, food waste weight, collection and composting time, and additional qualitative measures. Findings from the pilot indicated that …

The Climate Crisis And The Class System: An Ethical Analysis, Alia Baig

Williams Honors College, Honors Research Projects

Climate change is a concerning subject that more and more people are beginning to care about. The climate crisis is continuing to affect populations across the globe and shows no signs of slowing. While everyone has been affected by climate change in some capacity, the climate crisis disproportionately affects low-income communities around the world and, specifically, within the United States. I plan to research the ethics of the relationship between climate change and the class system and the goal o f this project is to prove the claim that the class system is the reason for climate change's disproportionate effect …

“The Times They Are A Changin’”: Generational Comparisons Of The Civil Rights Movement With The Current-Day Climate Movement, Robin Boyle-Laisure

Faculty Publications

(Excerpt)

Bob Dylan’s famous song lyric, capturing the spirit of the 1960s, is just as apropos today: “The times they are a changin’” (1964). The civil rights movement changed history by securing legislation and court decisions advancing the constitutional rights of black people (Dalton 2008, 7). The movement took flight at a time when the Baby Boomer generation was politically active and seeking social change. As outlined in the introduction to this book, the generations and their birth years are as follows: Silents (1925–45); Baby Boomers (1946–64); Gen X (1965–80); Millennials (1981–95); and Gen Z (1996–2013). Baby Boomers “experienced the …

The Private Litigation Impact Of New York's Green Amendment, Evan Bianchi, Sean Di Luccio, Martin Lockman, Vincent Nolette

Faculty Publications

The increasing urgency of climate change, combined with federal environmental inaction under the Trump Administration, inspired a wave of environmental action at the state and local level. Building on the environmental movement of the 1970s, activists have pushed to amend more than a dozen state constitutions to include “green amendments”—self-executing individual rights to a clean environment. In 2022, New York activists succeeded, and New York’s Green Amendment (the NYGA) now provides that “Each person shall have a right to clean air and water, and a healthful environment.”

However, the power of the NYGA and similar green amendments turns on judicial …