Social and Behavioral Sciences Commons^™

Black Rhino Conservation And Ranger Wellness In Namibia, Terra Gallo

Honors Theses

Wildlife rangers play an essential role in conserving biodiversity worldwide. Until recently, little was known about ranger working conditions and welfare. In 2019 the World Wildlife Fund (WWF) released a report that summarized survey results about ranger wellness from 7,110 rangers across multiple continents. However, the WWF study had geographic gaps and did not survey rangers from southern Africa, including the Republic of Namibia. In Namibia, rangers in the Kunene region are central to the conservation of the desert-adapted black rhino. Save the Rhino Trust (SRT) is a Namibian organization that supports rhino rangers and black rhino conservation. The aim …

Performance And Policy Indexes In Carbon Pricing Efficacy: A Cross-Country Analysis Of Policy Impact (2012-2020), Ke (Zoky) Zhou

Honors Theses

Climate change poses a significant threat to global ecosystems and human societies, driven largely by CO2 emissions from various economic activities. This macroeconomic cross-country study empirically assesses the effectiveness of carbon pricing in reducing CO2 emissions across three periods: 2012-2017, 2015-2019, and 2015-2020. Building on the foundational research by Best et al. (2020), the analysis extends to more recent data, capturing the evolving impacts of carbon pricing amid changing global economic and policy landscapes. A key advancement in this research is the creation and integration of two comprehensive indexes—a performance index and a policy index—constructed from 14 environmental performance or …

Is Energy Localized Or Gone With The Wind? An Analysis Of Iberdrola’S Wind Energy Localization Initiatives In Burgos, Spain, Mia Cromwell

Honors Theses

While renewable energy systems offer solutions to mitigate greenhouse gas emissions, promote sustainable development, and foster a just energy transition, certain energy projects account for local needs while others do not. While community energy projects are known to provide localized energy benefits, less is known about large-scale companies’ abilities to foster just transitions through their energy systems. To better understand how global actors can promote a just and sustainable transition through renewable energy deployment, I explore the following research question with a focus on the global electric utility Iberdrola: To what degree does Iberdrola implement energy localization initiatives through wind …

Felling For Photovoltaics: Remote Sensing For The Detection Of Solar Facilities In Maine, James A. Lane

Honors Theses

Solar power is an area with increasing development in the State of Maine. Photovoltaic solar, which uses large arrays of panels constructed on facilities of several hectares, is an ideal renewable energy source for Maine, because of its low population density and small proportion of conserved lands. Since most of the state of Maine is forested, the development of photovoltaic solar will require increasing amounts of deforestation. Environmental impacts of this deforestation include loss of carbon sequestration, erosion, damage to habitat, and inhibition of other forest benefits. This study uses Landsat data and remote sensing to analyze a large portion …

Law And Literature In Pennsylvania: A Changing Landscape, Juliette Gaggini

Honors Theses

This thesis examines themes of American national identity perpetuated in Pennsylvania surrounding private property through historical, literary and legal analysis. Ideals of private property and land ownership are broken into three transitions throughout Pennsylvania history: the American frontier and initial land claiming by settlers, mass-deforestation and the introduction of widespread agriculture, and finally industrialization and the introduction of mining and fracking. Each of these transitions highlights the physical changes to the region and how they were influenced by American ideals of private property, productivity, and profitability.

Throughout this thesis, I analyze both literary and legal texts to examine societal beliefs …