Environmental Health and Protection Commons^™

The How And Why Of Visual Practice At Un Climate Negotiations, Stéphanie Heckman

New England Journal of Public Policy

In this article Stéphanie Heckman examines the process and outcomes of her graphic recording work and other forms of visual practice in the context of UN climate negotiations, reflecting on three years of collaboration with the UN Climate Change Secretariat, particularly during the eighteen-month Global Stocktake process. After a review of the history and science behind visual storytelling, she analyses one of the graphic recordings made for the third meeting of the Technical Dialogue of the Global Stocktake through the lens of Kelvy Bird’s ‘Levels of Scribing’ model. Drawing on comments from delegates at COP27 in Sharm el-Sheikh, Egypt and …

Results Of Cop27 And Expectations For Cop28, Cecilia Kinuthia-Njenga, Fareed Yasseen

New England Journal of Public Policy

Since 1995, government representatives from around the world have gathered nearly every year for the United Nations Conference of the Parties (COP) to advance work on multilateral agreements and to provide a way forward in tackling the significant challenges of climate change. The last of these conferences took place on November 6–20, 2022, in Sharm el-Sheikh, Egypt.

COP27 brought together more than 35,000 people from across the globe to deliberate on important actions for addressing the climate. Hailed as the “African COP” and “Implementation COP,” it raised expectations that decisions from previous conferences, reflecting the needs and priorities of the …

Editor's Note, Padraig O'Malley, Adanna C. Kalejaye

New England Journal of Public Policy

To coincide with COP28 in Dubai, this issue of the New England Journal of Public Policy published a series of articles on climate warming.

Joint Global Responsibility Fund For Climate, Conservation, And Communities: A Proposed Innovative Tax-Based Funding Mechanism, Tamar Ron

New England Journal of Public Policy

Nature-based solutions address biodiversity loss, climate change, and societal challenges at the local, national, regional, and global levels. The costs of their conservation, however, are mostly local and national in nature. Confronting the rolling dual crisis of biodiversity loss and climate change requires us to recognize nature’s intrinsic value. Moreover, we must find practical ways for their monetary valuation to be channeled as payment for the services of conservation custodians. It is suggested here to translate the value of natural assets and the understanding of the local costs and global benefits of their conservation, into an innovative and ambitious funding …

Cop27 And The New Rise Of The Global South, Janice Golding

New England Journal of Public Policy

Developing countries require direct and indirect financial and non-financial assistance to address the climate crisis. The COP27 announcement of a new Loss and Damage Fund as well the unveiling of the Bridgetown Initiative collectively hold substantial promise to alter the course of climate multilateralism. The outcome of COP27 has presented unprecedented opportunities for the Global South to build global solidarity for climate justice, but the path ahead will not be easy. Materialization of support to developing countries may be, at best, not sustainable, or at worst, unforeseeable without consistent application of principles and values enshrined in historic, moral accountability for …

The Perfect Is The Enemy Of The Good: Carbon Credits And Funding For Decarbonization In Developing Countries, Andrew A. Bernstein

New England Journal of Public Policy

Carbon credits issued in the voluntary carbon market are an important source of funding for projects in developing countries designed to reduce greenhouse gas emissions, such as forest preservation and renewable energy. Beyond their potential to provide billions of dollars of private sector financing for decarbonization, carbon credits can generate economic opportunity, employment, and biodiversity. But they are controversial, mainly (but not only) because it is difficult to confirm and to quantify their emissions benefits. This article argues that policymakers should nonetheless support voluntary carbon market growth, so long as companies use carbon credits to mitigate emissions they cannot avoid …

Solar Radiation Modification Governance In The Context Of Temperature Overshoot, Janos Pasztor

New England Journal of Public Policy

As the climate crisis escalates, governments—and recently even those in the wealthier countries in the Global North—are struggling to manage the impacts we are experiencing around the world in frightening abundance, including record-setting temperatures, fires, floods, and glacial and ice melt. Behind closed doors, policymakers are concerned as they contemplate the increasing likelihood, even under the most ambitious emission reduction pathways, that the world will overshoot the goal agreed upon in the Paris Agreement to limit global average temperature rise to 1.5oC beyond pre-industrial levels.

It is in this “overshoot context” that interest is growing in an emerging, potentially supplementary …

The Gulf: An Appeal For More Coordinated Action On Climate Change, Fareed Yasseen

New England Journal of Public Policy

This article seeks to provide the rationale behind Iraqi Prime Minister Al-Sudani’s call at the United Nations for the formation of a negotiating group within the United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change process that brings together all member states of the Gulf Cooperation Council, Iraq, and Iran. This article argues that these countries would benefit doubly from such an arrangement, because it would help them better address the direct effects of climate change, on the one hand, and to better address the effects of the measures taken to address climate change, which will affect them as fossil fuel producers, …

The Role Of Carbon Management Technologies In Meeting Net Zero, Ali Al-Saffar

New England Journal of Public Policy

The pathway toward implementing the changes necessary in the energy sector to keep global temperature rises from breaking through catastrophic barriers is narrow and tenuous and will require a range of zero- and low-carbon technologies to be dispatched at a speed and scale that is virtually unprecedented. Decarbonization through renewables, matched with the more efficient use of energy in the end-use sectors will play a large part. But there is growing realization that there will be residual fossil fuel use long into the future, and that the emissions from the burning of these fossil fuels in power plants and factories …

Emerging Sensing, Imaging, And Computational Technologies To Scale Nano-To Macroscale Rhizosphere Dynamics – Review And Research Perspectives, Amir H. Ahkami, Odeta Qafoku, Tiina Roose, Quanbing Mou, Yi Lu, Zoe G. Cardon, Yuxin Wu, Chunwei Chou, Joshua B. Fisher, Tamas Varga, Pubudu Handakumbura, Jayde A. Aufrecht, Arunima Bhattacharjee, James J. Moran

Biology, Chemistry, and Environmental Sciences Faculty Articles and Research

The soil region influenced by plant roots, i.e., the rhizosphere, is one of the most complex biological habitats on Earth and significantly impacts global carbon flow and transformation. Understanding the structure and function of the rhizosphere is critically important for maintaining sustainable plant ecosystem services, designing engineered ecosystems for long-term soil carbon storage, and mitigating the effects of climate change. However, studying the biological and ecological processes and interactions in the rhizosphere requires advanced integrated technologies capable of decoding such a complex system at different scales. Here, we review how emerging approaches in sensing, imaging, and computational modeling …

Representations And Realities: Misali Island's Biodiversity In Hybrid Narratives, Justin Ross Whitney

Independent Study Project (ISP) Collection

Marine Protected Areas (MPAs) are complex organisms that ebb and flow between strict and unyielding conservation doctrines often at the cost of community engagement. Misali Island is different. Conceived and advocated for by community members, this organism has navigated a tumultuous tenure of environmental degradation, periods of high and low funding, and a looming tourism presence. On top of these challenges has been a growing fishing community attempting to share in the bounty of this shockingly biodiverse setting. This study sorts through the grey space of Misali Island by applying a hybrid narrative that interfaces the marine context of the …

Flujos De Servicios Ecosistémicos En Un Área Marina Protegida Del Atlántico Sur: Perspectivas Desde El Análisis De La Teoría De Redes, Mitch Porter

Independent Study Project (ISP) Collection

En cuestiones de gestión de áreas protegidas, los servicios ecosistémicos se tienen cada vez más en cuenta junto con la conservación de la biodiversidad. Sin embargo, las decisiones que se toman sobre la conservación de los servicios ecosistémicos no suelen incluir los posibles efectos en cascada de la pérdida de biodiversidad sobre la provisión de servicios. Los conocimientos de la teoría de redes y los estudios de robustez pueden proporcionar una metodología para evaluar la vulnerabilidad de estos servicios frente la estructura trófica de los ecosistemas que los proveen. A través de una serie de simulaciones de extinción para la …

Feasibility Analysis Of Aeronet Lunar Aod For Nighttime Particulate Matter Estimation, Kwang Nyun Kim, Seung Hee Kim, Sang Seo Park, Yun Gon Lee

Institute for ECHO Articles and Research

Several studies have attempted to estimate particulate matter (PM) concentrations using aerosol optical depth (AOD), based on AOD and PM relationships. Owing to the limited availability of nighttime AOD data, PM estimation studies using AOD have focused on daytime. Recently, the Aerosol Robotic Network (AERONET) produced nighttime AOD, called lunar AOD, providing an opportunity to estimate nighttime PM. Nighttime AOD measurements are particularly important as they help fill gaps in our understanding of aerosol variability and its impact on the atmosphere, as there are significant variations in AOD between day and night. In this study, the relationship between lunar AOD …

Drinking Water Contaminants: Bacteria, Bruce I. Dvorak, Becky O. Schuerman

Department of Civil and Environmental Engineering: Faculty Publications

Testing drinking water for fecal bacteria or Escherichia coli (E. coli) is commonly used as an indicator of the presence of pathogenic microorganisms. The presence of pathogenic (disease-causing) microorganisms is a concern when considering the safety of drinking water. Pathogenic microorganisms can cause flu-like systems, intestinal infections, dysentery, hepatitis, typhoid fever, cholera, and other illnesses.

Margalefidinium Polykrikoides Cyst Resuspension In The Lafayette River, A Sub-Tributary Of The Chesapeake Bay, Gabrielle Greaney, Eduardo Perez Vega, Katherine Crider, Dreux Chappell, Kimberly Powell, Richard Hale, Peter Bernhardt, Margaret Mulholland

Undergraduate Research Symposium

Harmful Algal Blooms are a collection of algae in a body of water that can cause serious environmental issues and health problems in both people and aquatic organisms. Dinoflagellates are microscopic, unicellular, and eukaryotic organisms that are well known for forming harmful algal blooms because of eutrophication. Coastal Virginia suffers from HABs in the Chesapeake Bay and its tributaries. A common species of dinoflagellate, known as Margalefidinium polykrikoides exists in the Chesapeake Bay. The purpose of this study is to determine if sediment resuspension produced by wind generated surface gravity waves cause cysts (dinoflagellate resting stages) to be suspended into …

Trends In Cyanotoxin Production Potential In China Lake: An Edna Analysis Of Microcystis And Dolichospermum And The Environmental Drivers Of Cyanotoxin Production, Gennifer M. Rubin

Honors Theses

Episodes of cyano-harmful algal blooms (cyano-HABs) are hypothesized to be exacerbated by the effects of climate change. However, the dynamics of the interactions between elements of climate change and toxigenic cyanobacteria proliferation are not well defined. China Lake is the drinking water source for 7 municipalities in the Kennebec County and is one of many lakes in central Maine that has been subjected to high levels of cyano-HABs and microcystin toxin contamination in recent years. Monitoring the toxicity of these blooms in relation to various aspects of climate change may lead to identification of the major drivers of microcystin production …

Blue Carbon Science, Management And Policy Across A Tropical Urban Landscape, Daniel A. Friess, Yasmine M. Gatt, Tze Kwan Fung, Jahson B. Alemu I, Natasha Bhatia, Rebecca Case, Siew Chin Chua, Danwei Huang, Valerie Kwan, Kiah Eng Lim, Yudhishthra Nathan, Yan Xiang Ow, Daniel Saavedra-Hortua, Taylor M. Sloey, Erik S. Yando, Hassan Ibrahim, Lian Pin Koh, Jun Yu Puah, Serena Lay-Ming Teo, Karenne Tun, Lynn Wei Wong, Siti Maryam Yaakub

Biological Sciences Faculty Publications

The ability of vegetated coastal ecosystems to sequester high rates of “blue” carbon over millennial time scales has attracted the interest of national and international policy makers as a tool for climate change mitigation. Whereas focus on blue carbon conservation has been mostly on threatened rural seascapes, there is scope to consider blue carbon dynamics along highly fragmented and developed urban coastlines. The tropical city state of Singapore is used as a case study of urban blue carbon knowledge generation, how blue carbon changes over time with urban development, and how such knowledge can be integrated into urban planning alongside …

Ecological Protection Alone Is Not Enough To Conserve Ecosystem Carbon Storage: Evidence From Guangdong, China, Lihan Cui, Wenwen Tang, Sheng Zheng, Ramesh P. Singh

Biology, Chemistry, and Environmental Sciences Faculty Articles and Research

The increase in atmospheric CO₂ caused by land use and land cover change (LUCC) is one of the drivers of the global climate. As one of the most typical high-urbanization areas, the ecological conflicts occurring in Guangdong Province warrant urgent attention. A growing body of evidence suggests LUCC could guide the future ecosystem carbon storage, but most LUCC simulations are simply based on model results without full consistency with the actual situation. Fully combined with the territorial spatial planning project and based on the land use pattern in 2010 and 2020, we have used the Markov and Patch-generating Land …

Crisisready's Novel Framework For Transdisciplinary Translation: Case-Studies In Wildfire And Hurricane Response, Andrew Schroeder, Caleb Dresser, Akash Yadav, Jennifer Chan, Shenyue Jia, Caroline Buckee, Satchit Balsari

Institute for ECHO Articles and Research

Extreme weather events including wildfires and hurricanes are becoming increasingly hazardous due to climate change, and often result in transient or permanent population displacements. Disaster-related disruptions in infrastructure, workforce, wages, and social networks can combine with population displacements to result in interruptions in health care access and prolonged impacts on morbidity and mortality. The data needed to make health systems and emergency management approaches more resilient to these hazards, and more responsive to the needs of affected populations, are sequestered in silos across private corporations and public agencies. In two case studies, we describe how our research team at CrisisReady …

Methane Emissions From Agricultural Ponds Are Underestimated In National Greenhouse Gas Inventories, Martino E. Malerba, Tertius De Kluyver, Nicholas J. Wright, Lukas Schuster, Peter I. Macreadie

Climate Science Research Articles

Agricultural ponds have some of the highest methane emissions per area among freshwater systems, and these anthropogenic emissions should be included in national greenhouse gas inventories. Here we deliver a continental-scale assessment of methane emissions from agricultural ponds in the United States and Australia. We source maps of agricultural ponds, compile a meta-analysis for their emissions and use published data to correct for temperature and the relative contributions of two methane fluxes (diffusion and ebullition). In the United States, 2.56 million agricultural ponds cover 420.9 kha and emit about 95.8 kt year−1 of methane. In Australia, 1.76 million agricultural ponds …

Wrack Lines Volume 22, Number 2, Fall-Winter 2022-2023, Nancy C. Balcom, Juliana Barrett, Judy Benson, Ben Crnic, Sto Len

Wrack Lines

With the theme, "Looking Ahead: People and Projects Shaping the Future," the Fall-Winter 2022-2023 leads with the first in what will be a series of articles about offshore wind development impacting Connecticut. That is followed by the inspiring story of how a dying forest was replanted for climate resilience. Next, a profile of longtime marine educator Tim Visel tells about his lasting impact on Connecticut schools and students. Lastly, the complex challenge of dealing with Contaminants of Emerging Concern is examined, with descriptions of how Sea Grant is involved and the particularly troublesome group of substances called PFAS.

Increased Aerosols Can Reverse Twomey Effect In Water Clouds Through Radiative Pathway, Pradeep Khatri, Tadahiro Hayasaka, Brent N. Holben, Ramesh P. Singh, Husi Letu, Sachchida N. Tripathi

Biology, Chemistry, and Environmental Sciences Faculty Articles and Research

Aerosols play important roles in modulations of cloud properties and hydrological cycle by decreasing the size of cloud droplets with the increase of aerosols under the condition of fixed liquid water path, which is known as the first aerosol indirect effect or Twomey-effect or microphysical effect. Using high-quality aerosol data from surface observations and statistically decoupling the influence of meteorological factors, we show that highly loaded aerosols can counter this microphysical effect through the radiative effect to result both the decrease and increase of cloud droplet size depending on liquid water path in water clouds. The radiative effect due to …

Nexus Between Animal Welfare, Environment, And Sustainable Development: Resource Document, Wellbeing International

Nexus – UNEP – Animal Welfare, Environment, Sustainable Development

This Resource Document has been developed to explore the Nexus (links) between Animal Welfare, the Environment, and Sustainable Development. The document includes relevant citations and reports addressing the topics encompassed by the Nexus. It will be maintained as a “living document” (subject to revision) in the WellBeing International Studies Repository. The original document and subsequent revisions will be kept in the Repository to provide a record of the changes.

Ammonium Adduct Chemical Ionization To Investigate Anthropogenic Oxygenated Gas-Phase Organic Compounds In Urban Air, Peeyush Khare, Jordan E. Krechmer, Jo E. Machesky, Tori Hass-Mitchell, Cong Cao, Junqi Wang, Francesca Majluf, Felipe Lopez-Hilfiker, Sonja Malek, Will Wang, Karl Seltzer, Havala O. T. Pye, Roisin Commane, Brian C. Mcdonald, Ricardo Toledo-Crow, John E. Mak, Drew R. Gentner

Advanced Science Research Center

Volatile chemical products (VCPs) and other non-combustion-related sources have become important for urban air quality, and bottom-up calculations report emissions of a variety of functionalized compounds that remain understudied and uncertain in emissions estimates. Using a new instrumental configuration, we present online measurements of oxygenated organic compounds in a US megacity over a 10 d wintertime sampling period, when biogenic sources and photochemistry were less active. Measurements were conducted at a rooftop observatory in upper Manhattan, New York City, USA using a Vocus chemical ionization time-of-flight mass spectrometer, with ammonium (NH as the reagent ion operating at 1 Hz. The …

Caviar Of The Pacific: Palolo Fishing Today And Its Association With Coral Reef Health, Emma Letti Lee

Independent Study Project (ISP) Collection

Palolo is a traditional delicacy of Samoa. It is the reproductive part of a marine worm that is released twice a year, October and November in Samoa, making palolo season a culturally significant time. Coral reefs, the palolo worm’s habitat, is under a plethora of environmental threats, which is an extremely prevalent concern for Pacific Islanders. Hundreds of palolo harvesters walking on corals twice a year adds extra pressure on coral reefs. Despite these vulnerabilities, prices of palolo are soaring year by year, while there is little to no research about the palolo worm and documentation of current harvesting practices …

Spatio-Temporal Changes In Vegetation In The Last Two Decades (2001–2020) In The Beijing–Tianjin–Hebei Region, Yuan Zou, Wei Chen, Siliang Li, Tiejun Wang, Le Yu, Min Xu, Ramesh P. Singh, Cong-Qiang Liu

Biology, Chemistry, and Environmental Sciences Faculty Articles and Research

In terrestrial ecosystems, vegetation is sensitive to climate change and human activities. Its spatial-temporal changes also affect the ecological and social environment. In this paper, we considered the Beijing–Tianjin–Hebei region to study the spatio-temporal vegetation patterns. The detailed analysis of a moderate-resolution imaging spectroradiometer (MODIS) data were carried out through the Google Earth Engine (GEE) platform. Our results show a slow and tortuous upward trend in the average leaf area index (LAI) in the study region for the periods 2001–2020. Specifically, Beijing had the highest LAI value, with an average of 1.64 over twenty years, followed by Hebei (1.30) and …

Developing A Miniature Smart Boat For Marine Research, Michael Isaac Eirinberg

Computer Engineering

This project examines the development of a smart boat which could serve as a possible marine research apparatus. The smart boat consists of a miniature vessel containing a low-cost microcontroller to live stream a camera feed, GPS telemetry, and compass data through its own WiFi access point. The smart boat also has the potential for autonomous navigation. My project captivated the interest of several members of California Polytechnic State University, San Luis Obispo’s (Cal Poly SLO) Marine Science Department faculty, who proposed a variety of fascinating and valuable smart boat applications.

High Spatial And Temporal Resolution Census Data Reveal Communities At Risk Along The Wildland-Urban Interface (Wui) In California, Usa, Shenyue Jia, Slade Lazeweski, Jessica E. Viner, Wesley Ho, Brian Hoover

Institute for ECHO Articles and Research

We tracked census tract level population change along California's wild land-urban interface (WUI) during the past decade (2010-2019), an ecological sensitive region transitioning from developed land to wilderness. Our results from Mann-Kendall analysis, a method employed for monotonic trend detection showed that about one-third (29.1%) of census tracts in California’s WUI have seen a significant population increase from 2010 to 2019, affecting 12.7% population in California. The population increase along WUI is largely driven by the sixteen counties in the San Francisco Bay Area (10) and Southern California (6). We also found that higher proportion of WUI residents in Bay …

Changes In Western U.S. Streamflow Extremes Under Climate Change, Rama Bedri

Student Scholar Symposium Abstracts and Posters

We are analyzing streamflow extremes in Western U.S. rivers due to climate change. Global warming causes natural disasters to reach extreme points and affects river volumes, snowfall, and precipitation amounts. We analyze the data for 17 stations in the Colorado River Basin, whose rivers provide Southern California’s drinking water supply. Disruptions in streamflow due to climate change affect the region’s water availability and make it difficult to predict future trends. We compared historical streamflow data to eight possible climate scenarios. The different scenarios are Warm Dry, Cool Wet, Average, and Other at emission levels of RCP 4.5 and 8.5. First, …

Evaluating Alternative Ebullition Models For Predicting Peatland Methane Emission And Its Pathways Via Data–Model Fusion, Shuang Ma, Lifen Jiang, Rachel M. Wilson, Jeff P. Chanton, Scott Bridgham, Shuli Niu, Colleen M. Iversen, Avni Malhotra, Jiang Jiang, Xingjie Lu, Yuanyuan Huang, Jason Keller, Xiaofeng Xu, Daniel M. Ricciuto, Paul J. Hanson, Yiqi Luo

Biology, Chemistry, and Environmental Sciences Faculty Articles and Research

Understanding the dynamics of peatland methane (CH4) emissions and quantifying sources of uncertainty in estimating peatland CH4 emissions are critical for mitigating climate change. The relative contributions of CH4 emission pathways through ebullition, plant-mediated transport, and diffusion, together with their different transport rates and vulnerability to oxidation, determine the quantity of CH4 to be oxidized before leaving the soil. Notwithstanding their importance, the relative contributions of the emission pathways are highly uncertain. In particular, the ebullition process is more uncertain and can lead to large uncertainties in modeled CH4 emissions. To improve model simulations of CH4 emission and its pathways, …