Digital Commons Network^™

Accelerating California's Transition Toward An Electric Transportation Sector, Stella Streufert

CMC Senior Theses

As the need to reduce carbon emissions becomes more urgent, electric vehicles are becoming an increasingly popular solution. Last year, California, a leader in climate policy, mandated that 100 percent of new vehicle sales must be zero emission vehicles (ZEVs) by 2035. ZEVs will rule the freeways of California eventually, but uncertainty remains in terms of when and how this shift will occur. This thesis delves into the barriers still at hand in order to accelerate and promote an equitable and effective transition to ZEVs, primarily looking at total cost of ownership (TCO), lack of adequate charging infrastructure, and slow …

The Stateless Agent: A Multidisciplinary Analysis Of Transboundary Air Pollution In The El Paso-Ciudad Juárez Region Of The U.S.-Mexico Border, Elizabeth Hernandez

CMC Senior Theses

The El Paso-Ciudad Juárez (EPJ) region has a history of nonattainment for ozone and particulate matter. Given transboundary air pollution in the EPJ region is not confined to the U.S.-Mexico border, it is important to implement a transnational response that accounts for the health and safety of everyone, including marginalized communities in EPJ. This thesis assesses the state of air quality and transboundary air pollution in the EPJ region through a multidisciplinary perspective that focuses on issues of data monitoring, environmental governance, and transnational environmental justice. Analysis of the quantity and placement of ambient monitoring stations reveals EPJ residents near …

International Investment Law And Climate Justice: The Search For A Just Green Investment Order, Olabisi D. Akinkugbe, Adebayo Majekolagbe

Articles, Book Chapters, & Popular Press

Efforts are underway to craft responses to the climate crisis within the international investment order. This Article highlights international investment law (“IIL”) and international climate law (“ICL”) as two basic governance contexts within which investment- related responses to climate change are being designed. There is, however, a multilevel—normative and institutional—dissonance between both regimes that makes for an asymmetric integration of the regimes at best, or worse still, the escalation of the injustices which have characterized both. While similar in their recognition of international investment as an important tool for responding to climate change, assumptions and approaches under both regimes are …

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 …

Putting The Public In Public Transit: A Proposed Amendment To The Citizen Participation Regulations Implementing The National Environmental Policy Act, Sofia Johnson

Fordham Urban Law Journal

No abstract provided.

Monument Of Faith Sustainability Plan, Loraine Koua, Sam Woody, Katherine Yu

Sustainability Exchange Projects

No abstract provided.

The Legal Case For Equity In Local Climate Action Planning, Amy E. Turner

Fordham Urban Law Journal

No abstract provided.

Offshore Wind In New Jersey: Launching A Domestic Industry While Creating A Workforce Rising Tide, Kimberly E. Diamond

Fordham Urban Law Journal

No abstract provided.

Health Forest Networks: A Unified Urban Response To Regional Ecosystem Degradation And The Rise Of Chronic Disease, Rachel Toker

Fordham Urban Law Journal

No abstract provided.

Trashing The Chasing Arrows: How New York City Can Solve Its Plastics Problem, Rachel Zhu

Fordham Urban Law Journal

No abstract provided.

Waste And Chemical Management In A 4°C World, Michael B. Gerrard

Faculty Scholarship

Many chemicals and hazardous substances are kept in places that can withstand ordinary rain, but not severe storms or floods. If these events occur and the chemicals are released, people and the environment may be endangered. This Article discusses the hazards posed to chemical and waste disposal facilities by extreme weather events that would be worsened as a result of climate change, and how U.S. laws do (or do not) deal with these hazards; and considers how the law would need to change to cope with what would happen to these facilities in a potentially 4°C world. It is adapted …

The Role Of Traditional Environmental Knowledge In Planetary Well-Being, Deborah Mcgregor, Danika Billie Littlechild, Mahisha Sritharan

Articles & Book Chapters

No abstract provided.

I Say See You Later, Lillian Slaughter

Electronic Theses and Dissertations

This MFA thesis continues the work that was completed in the master’s thesis “This Is Home: Stories of H2-A Placemaking in the U.S. and Mexico,” by creating a short film about the farm in Kentucky. Through research on ethics and positionality, I explore the ideas that shaped this filmmaking process. The film highlights the experience of working on a mid-sized organic farm that utilizes the federal H2-A visa program for seasonal farmworkers through the lens of a co-worker. This supplemental written thesis includes research, personal accounts of the process of filmmaking, and a reflection of influential films.

Property Value Impacts Of Onshore Wind Energy In New England: The Importance Of Spatial Heterogeneity And Temporal Dynamics, Luran Dong, Vasundhara Gaur, Corey Lang

Environmental and Natural Resource Economics Faculty Publications

The purpose of this paper is to update and extend prior studies that examine the impact of onshore wind turbines on property values. Our data come from Massachusetts and Rhode Island, two states that are population dense and rapidly transitioning to renewable energy. We use a difference-in-differences identification strategy with treatment defined by proximity. In contrast to prior research in these states, our results suggest that property values decline when wind turbines are built. These negative impacts are mostly confined to properties within 1 km of a turbine. However, we delve deeper into these aggregate results by examining how treatment …

Blue Oval Sk Battery Park Environmental Impact And Community Guide, Warren Rummage

Theses and Dissertations--Public Health (M.P.H. & Dr.P.H.)

This Capstone Project Paper will discuss the potential effects of the BlueOval SK Battery Park being constructed in Glendale, Kentucky based on knowledge attained from open records requests and available publicly online. Based on the process of attaining said information, a Community Guide has been generated and is available to distribute to concerned community members. It is the hope that this work will enable those in Hardin County, and possibly beyond, to ensure their environment and community health are prioritized during the construction phase and eventual operation of the EV-battery manufacturing faciliities on this massive 1,500 acre plot of land.

Warehouses In The Inland Empire: Displacing Land And Life, Katherine Gelsey

Pomona Senior Theses

The Inland Empire in Southern California embodies unique spatial and social configurations as a consequence of how settler colonialism has manifested locally in the region since the Spanish Mission Period. This work uses GIS software to estimate patterns of land conversion for residential, agricultural, and warehouse land from 2012 to 2022. Preliminary analysis suggests that thousands of people have been displaced by warehouse expansion over the ten-year period. In the twenty-first century, the Southern California logistics industry continues processes of land dispossession and racialized labor exploitation through displacing agricultural and residential land, exposing disproportionately low-income Black and Latine communities living …

Ecodrama And Sustainable Theatre: A Handbook For Creating Remarkable Change, Gigi Buddie

Pomona Senior Theses

The climate crisis is not new to us, nor are the art forms that have taken shape as vital components of the many activist movements that seek to save the planet. Yet, for the first time at Pomona College, a play about environmental devastation and our hand in it finally graced the stage of this progressive institution this past year. This mini handbook is a call-to-action (of sorts), one that stems from the idea that this should not be the last ecodrama performed at Pomona College. These chapters are structured and supported by both experience and research – formulated from …

Weaving Testimonio And Territory In La Comuna Ancestral Las Tunas, María J Durán González

Pomona Senior Theses

“Nosotras las mujeres ibamos al río a lavar la ropa pero sin con tanto químico y nada de esas cosas. Ahora, pues, cómo ve…” (Tomala, 2023).

The woman’s vignette of La Comuna Ancestral Las Tunas, or the Ancestral Commune of Las Tunas is a testimonio of the territory, yet women’s testimonios are registered separately from the dominant tales of territorial resistance of la Comuna. The analysis of testimonios arises from Chicanx/Latinx feminist studies that center the voices of Chicana/Latina women to form a collective narrative emerging from silences. I aim to interlace Latinx and Latin American geography principles with …

Reterritorialization And Enclavic Tourism Development: A History Of Zoning And Its Impacts In Corbett Tiger Reserve Landscape, India, Rajiv Bhartari

Graduate Student Theses, Dissertations, & Professional Papers

Zoning has become the sine qua non in protected area management around the world. Yet zoning as an assemblage of policies, practices and especially politics is not well understood, especially through a critical geographical/political ecology lens. In this research, I used the concepts of territorialization, reterritorialization and enclavization as a framework for examining the creation and impacts of zoning in the Corbett Tiger Reserve (CTR) landscape over past five decades (1973-2023). The Corbett Tiger Reserve landscape has the largest wild tiger (Panthera tigris tigris) population in any protected area in the world. The framework helped to understand successive …

Estimating Potential Exposure From Abandoned Uranium Mine Sites Through Machine Learning Classification Of Animal Behavior: A Case Study In The Navajo Nation, Christopher Girlamo

Geography ETDs

Waste from Abandoned Uranium Mines (AUMs) has negatively impacted Indigenous communities for generations. To answer these concerns, this research collaborated with Navajo Nation community members in Cove, AZ and Red Valley, AZ in order to better predict the potential AUM waste exposure their flocks face. A GIS-Multi-Criteria Decision Analysis (GIS-MCDA) model quantified potential exposure to AUM waste. Animal behavior was classified based on GPS and accelerometer data utilizing a Hidden Markov Model (HMM). The results of both the GIS-MCDA and animal behavior classification modeling was combined into a cumulative exposure potential value for each animal. This study found that livestock …

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 …

Short-Term Exposure To Wildfire Smoke Pm2.5 And Symptoms Of Anxiety And Depression Among U.S. Veterans: A Cross-Sectional Study, Emily Goddard

Public Health Theses

Exposure to environmental pollutants can have serious consequences for mental health and well-being, leading to widespread societal impacts. With climate change leading to more frequent and severe wildfires, it is increasingly important to understand the impacts of fine particulate matter (PM2.5) from wildfire smoke, a harmful air pollutant that has been shown to impact cognitive health. Burgeoning research has focused on the impact of ambient PM2.5 on mental and neurological health, but little has focused specifically on wildfire smoke PM2.5. This study aimed to examine the relationship between short-term (prior two-week average) and long-term (average during past wildfire season, May-October) …

Improving Health Equity Through Residential Electrification And Energy Efficiency: State Of Practice In The Us, Alice Lu

Public Health Theses

Improving residential building efficiency and transitioning from fossil fuels for climate alignment has been a primary focus in climate change mitigation efforts. Energy efficiency is usually achieved through tightening buildings by sealing gaps that allow conditioned air to pass through. However, early research highlighted the potential for more efficient buildings to also limit the supply of outdoor air, leading to increased indoor concentrations of various air pollutants. Tightening buildings for efficiency must therefore be accompanied by supplemental ventilation to preserve indoor air quality. However, less is known about the effects of specific indoor pollutant sources. It is hypothesized that indoor …

The Right To A Healthy Environment And The Global South, Carmen G. Gonzalez

Faculty Publications & Other Works

This essay explores the implications of the right to a healthy environment for the long-standing criticisms of international human rights law as a project and product of the Global North. It examines the Southern origins of the right to a healthy environment and its interpretations in regional human rights tribunals. The essay analyzes the responses offered by this evolving jurisprudence to various objections to human rights-based approaches to environmental protection. These include the human rights-based framework’s individualism, anthropocentrism, failure to address transboundary harm, and failure to challenge the economic law instruments that perpetuate environmental degradation.

Engaging In Equity-Centered Policymaking: State-Level Racial Equity Impact Assessment Trends, Lessons Learned, And Future Directions, Daina Strub Kabitz

Mitchell Hamline Law Review

No abstract provided.

Sustainability Strategies For Nonprofit Organizations, Ramchand Francisco

Walden Dissertations and Doctoral Studies

Nonprofit leaders face the challenges of ensuring their organizations are financially healthy while navigating economic and organizational issues that require strategies to support program growth with limited financial resources. Grounded in Markowitz’s modern portfolio theory, the purpose of this qualitative single case study was to explore strategies nonprofit leaders used to support program growth and sustainability with limited financial resources. The study participants were three leaders of a nonprofit organization in the northwest region of the United States who had expertise related to the focus of the research. Data were collected through semistructured interviews, analyses of the client organization’s internal …

Table Of Contents (V. 29, No. 2)

William & Mary Journal of Race, Gender, and Social Justice

No abstract provided.

From Displaced To Displacers: Scottish Crofters, First Nation Peoples And Commons Enclosure From The 1700s To The 1800s, Anna Herrington

Theses and Dissertations--History

In the 18^th and 19^th centuries, the enclosure of common systems shaped the displacement of people on a global scale whilst bringing the people---Scottish Highland crofters and Mi’kmaq First Nation Canadians from the margins where they have dwelled for centuries in historical scholarship to of the centre of not just their history, but our collective history. Both populations experienced attacks on their ties to their lands, resources, and culture through enclosure. The enclosure process lasted over two centuries and was interspersed with violent protest, proactive resistance, interspersed with periods of acceptance and determination against their forced removals. Investigating …

It’S Time To Get Risky: Debt Based Public Financing In Renewable Energy, Jonathan Brueneman

Student Works

No abstract provided.

Environmental Evidence, Seema Kakade

University of Colorado Law Review

The voices of impacted people are some of the most important when trying to make improvements to social justice in a variety of contexts, including criminal policing, housing, and health care. After all, the people with on-the-ground experience know what is likely to truly effectuate change in their community, and what is not. Yet, such lived experience is also often significantly lacking and undermined in law and policy. People with lived experience tend to be seen as both community experts with valuable knowledge, as well as nonexperts with little valuable knowledge. This Article explores the lived experience with pollution as …