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Full-Text Articles in Physical Sciences and Mathematics
Closing The Concern-Action Gap Through Relational Climate Conversations: Insights From Us Climate Activists, Julia Coombs Fine
Closing The Concern-Action Gap Through Relational Climate Conversations: Insights From Us Climate Activists, Julia Coombs Fine
Environmental Studies Faculty Publications
Several studies have found that relational climate conversations can be an effective method of increasing conversational participants’ concern about the climate crisis and encouraging them to take collective action. However, little work has yet examined how such conversations are practiced by climate activists, a group with expertise in relational organizing. Drawing on surveys and semi-structured interviews with climate activists across the USA, this analysis finds that activists frequently have climate conversations with friends and family, most of whom are politically progressive and somewhat to very concerned about the climate crisis. These findings might seem to suggest that climate activists only …
Oak Savanna Restoration And Climate Change Mitigation Through Silvopasture In Minnesota, James Siems
Oak Savanna Restoration And Climate Change Mitigation Through Silvopasture In Minnesota, James Siems
Environmental Studies Student Work
Reducing emissions of world food systems will be critical to combatting climate change. Silvopasture systems, which integrate managed forests with pastureland, have been shown to be a more sustainable alternative to traditional livestock production and have the ancillary benefit of diversifying the sources of income for farmers. Silvopasture may also have the capacity to serve as a mechanism for ecological restoration. This paper combines existing literature with an interview of a farmer who is engaging in silvopasture to evaluate the potential of silvopasture as means to restore Minnesota’s disappearing oak savanna ecosystem, while improving the sustainability of food production within …
What Technologies And Barriers Are Present In Sustainable Heating And Cooling, Mason D. Nibbe
What Technologies And Barriers Are Present In Sustainable Heating And Cooling, Mason D. Nibbe
Environmental Studies Student Work
Sustainable heating and cooling practices can save homeowners money and reduce their carbon emissions. In the cold upper Midwest, Minnesota specifically, there are ways houses can be more efficient in terms of heating. The most efficient and practical are heat pumps systems, passive solar designs, and proper insulation of the building. This study is targeted at both existing buildings and the construction of new buildings. This project focuses on what sustainable heating and cooling practices, technologies, and barriers are present in the heating, ventilation, and air-conditioning (HVAC) industry. I find that using any sustainable solution is helpful, but multiple solutions …
Language And Social Justice In Us Climate Movements: Barriers And Ways Forward, Julia Coombs Fine
Language And Social Justice In Us Climate Movements: Barriers And Ways Forward, Julia Coombs Fine
Environmental Studies Faculty Publications
Climate movements increasingly conceptualize the climate crisis as an issue of social injustice, both in terms of its root causes and its present and future effects. Climate justice calls for participatory decision-making within climate movements, which, as communication scholars have pointed out, necessitates inclusive and accessible communicative practices. Within sociocultural linguistics, a growing body of research has explored sociolinguistic justice, or marginalized groups' struggle for self-determined language use. This analysis interweaves these two research areas, applying the theory of sociolinguistic justice to climate communication in organizing contexts. Drawing on 67 semi-structured interviews and 112 online surveys with climate activists from …
Death-Related Anxiety Associated With Riskier Decision-Making Irrespective Of Framing: A Bayesian Model Comparison, Blaine Tomkins
Death-Related Anxiety Associated With Riskier Decision-Making Irrespective Of Framing: A Bayesian Model Comparison, Blaine Tomkins
Psychology Faculty Publications
A commonly reported finding is that anxious individuals are less likely to make risky decisions. However, no studies have examined whether this association extends to death-related anxiety. The present study examined how groups low, moderate, and high in death-related anxiety make decisions with varying levels of risk. Participants completed a series of hypothetical bets in which the probability of a win was systematically manipulated. High-anxiety individuals displayed the greatest risk-taking behavior, followed by the moderate-anxiety group, with the low-anxiety group being most risk-averse. Experiment 2 tested this association further by framing outcomes in terms of losses, rather than gains. A …
Can Lethal Autonomous Weapons Be Just?, Noreen L. Herzfeld, Robert H. Latiff
Can Lethal Autonomous Weapons Be Just?, Noreen L. Herzfeld, Robert H. Latiff
Computer Science Faculty Publications
In 2018 the United States Department of Defense (DoD) created a new Joint Artificial Intelligence Center to study the adoption of AI by the military. Their strategy, outlined in a document entitled, “Harnessing AI to Advance Our Security and Prosperity,” proposes to accelerate the adoption of AI in the military by fostering a culture of experimentation and calculated risk taking, noting that AI will change the character of the future battlefield and, even more, the pace of battle. Is there any way to ensure that this future battlefield will be just? Can the age-old precepts of just warfare help guide …