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Full-Text Articles in Social and Behavioral Sciences
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 …
Tomorrow’S Stewards: Engaging Youth With Environmental Volunteerism, Miriam Nelson
Tomorrow’S Stewards: Engaging Youth With Environmental Volunteerism, Miriam Nelson
Environmental Studies Student Work
Environmental volunteers are of great value to their host organizations, the environment, the economy, and civil society. The Friends of Acadia (FOA) Drop-In Stewardship Volunteer Program hosts volunteers who complete an assortment of tasks in Acadia National Park. However, this program has no regular youth volunteers. Engaging youth volunteers is critical for program effectiveness, civic engagement, generativity, and increasing personal development. Drawing on survey data collected from FOA volunteers and College of the Atlantic students, this paper analyzes volunteer motivations and interests, and barriers to participation. I conclude with suggestions for how FOA can recruit more youth volunteers.
Changing Course: Increasing Sustainability Of Mn Golf Courses, Jake Vandermeeden
Changing Course: Increasing Sustainability Of Mn Golf Courses, Jake Vandermeeden
Environmental Studies Student Work
No abstract provided.
Queering Disaster Response: Best Practices For Intentional And Inclusive Disaster Response, Sean Fisher
Queering Disaster Response: Best Practices For Intentional And Inclusive Disaster Response, Sean Fisher
Environmental Studies Student Work
Climate change is causing an increase in the severity and frequency of extreme weather and climatic disasters. Indigenous, Persons of Color, Women, Queer, Trans, Two Spirit, and Disabled communities will be most impacted by the adverse impacts of these disasters. This disproportionate impact is being examined through vulnerability to adverse impacts. Vulnerability is accrued though pre-existing social, political, and or economic marginalization. Overton comments, “Disaster can thus be seen as social events that reveal the inequalities, vulnerabilities, and coping mechanisms that inform how people negotiate the ‘permanent disaster’ of daily life.” However, current methods of disaster relief and aid don’t …
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 …
Stirring Up The Soil: Best Practices To Mitigate Lead Exposure In Contaminated Soils Within Omaha, Nebraska, Mckenzie Blaine
Stirring Up The Soil: Best Practices To Mitigate Lead Exposure In Contaminated Soils Within Omaha, Nebraska, Mckenzie Blaine
Celebrating Scholarship and Creativity Day (2018-)
Cities across the nation in the United States experience problems associated with lead contamination in their urban soils due to industrial pollution. In many instances, the emission of lead particles occurred – unregulated – for several decades. Though there are federal cleanup efforts to help minimize the negative impacts of lead contamination for the public in the United States, the efforts are designated for specified criteria and thus do not reach all areas which need to be remediated. In order to perform proper lead abatement practices, local organizations must take initiative on projects which meet the needs and demands of …