Social and Behavioral Sciences Commons^™

The Contradiction Between Use-Value And Exchange-Value: Ecology, Imperialism, And The Telos Of Production, Larry Alan Busk, Elizabeth Portella

Emancipations: A Journal of Critical Social Analysis

This article elaborates and defends a critique of capitalism which, despite its appearance in various bodies of work, has not been named or systematically differentiated. The critique locates a contradiction between production for use-value and production for exchange-value, or a contradiction in what we call “the telos of production.” While maintaining that it has some basis in Marx’s work, we defend this model as preferable to the critique of capitalism based strictly on the exploitation of labor (which we call the “exploitation-exclusive critique”). We attempt to show this by applying the two approaches to the empirical realities of the ecological …

Family Medicine’S Role In Addressing The Intersections Of Redlining And Climate Change, Daryl O. Traylor, Eboni E. Anderson, Brianna Clark, Alex M. Smith, Cooper K. Allenbrand

Journal of Sustainable Social Change

Redlining, the practice of discriminating against specific neighborhoods based on race and socioeconomic status, leads to persistent environmental hazards and socioeconomic inequalities that have lasting adverse health effects on their populations. Health disparities are further exacerbated through the concentration of environmental hazards, as well as the escalating impact of climate change, which poses an increased risk of respiratory illness, cardiovascular disease, mental health issues, heat-related illness, infectious diseases, food insecurity, and socioeconomic difficulties in redline neighborhoods.

This paper examines the interplay of redlining, climate change, and health disparities, with an emphasis on the enduring consequences for these marginalized communities. Through …

Analysis Of State Climate Action Plans: What Influences States To Adopt, Ethan Yaroch

Honors Theses

Federal-level policies aimed to address and mitigate the effects that will arise from climate change have become an extremely polarizing issue in the United States. Given this policy stalemate, individual states have stepped up to address the national-level shortcomings by publishing state-level Climate Action Plans (CAPs). CAPs mainly consist of emissions mitigation goals and other non-binding policy initiatives that provide a basis for future compulsory legislation. This paper examines whether party identification in the state legislature, public opinion, susceptibility to the risks associated with climate change, and proximity to neighboring states with published CAPs influence states to adopt CAPs. Employing …

Breaking The Loop: Strategies For Fighting Climate Change On U.S. Farms, Ashley Barry

Honors Capstones

Climate change is an increasingly urgent area of research due to the hardships it causes for lands and communities across the globe. Specifically in regard to the United States (U.S.), climate change has many concerning implications on our agricultural system. Increased weather hazards, decreased crop production, and drought are just a few of the hardships American farmers are facing in their fight to keep their farms alive and feed their communities, despite a rapidly changing climate. This study investigates how farmers can fight and prevent climate change through the use of specific mitigation and adaptation strategies on their farms. Semi- …

Climate Change Attitudes Of United States Family Forest Owners And Their Influence On Forest Management Practices, Logan Miller

Masters Theses

Understanding family forest owners’ (FFOs’) attitudes and behaviors towards climate change will allow for more sustainable forest management practices to be implemented, helping to combat climate change and its impacts. The goals for this research are (1) to begin measuring U.S. FFO attitudes toward climate change, (2) to determine what factors impact these attitudes, and (3) to determine how they influence the FFO’s management practices using the Responsible Environmental Behavior (REB) framework (Hines et al. 1987). Chapter 1 explores the different facets of my thesis project focusing on forests and forests’ ecosystem services, forest ownership in the United States, and …

The Embodied Rhetoric Of Cognitive Labour, Shubhayan Chakrabarti

Electronic Thesis and Dissertation Repository

This dissertation traces the roots of neoliberal selfhood to the rationalist ontology of modernity in the 1600s. The historical tension between materialism and immaterialism is expressed in the historicisation of work into Fordism and post-Fordism where embodied factory toil is apparently replaced by immaterial work, recalling Descartes’ mind-body split. If post-Fordist work addresses the Marxist critique of alienation in its emphasis on entrepreneurial inner selves, it does not explain the post-Fordist preoccupation to efficiently “Taylorise” the body through obsessive productivity. I argue that the factory prevails in the entrepreneur’s adoption of factory efficiency as a learnt behaviour from the Fordist …

Oscars Vs. Ozone: The Motion Picture Industry’S Impact On Climate Change And What They Are Doing About It, Alexis J. Simpson

Senior Theses

This thesis focuses on demonstrating that the motion picture industry, which includes film and television production (and thus will also be called ‘the film and television industry’), has notably contributed to the global effects of climate change. Such contributions can stem from the industry’s emissions and waste, with examples including travel for cast and crew, energy use for production equipment (some of which run on diesel), and disposable physical sets and costumes. The intention here is to give an accurate picture of current production practices and share examples of progress in the industry that are combating the negative impacts of …

Cohabitation X Adaptation, 2100: A Climate Change Epoch, Kyle Andrews

Masters Theses

Some seventy-seven odd years in the future, the world as we know it will only be recognizable by those who are willing to accept it. The bustling metropolis of Boston Massachusetts has been transformed to appease the tides of Mother Nature as a consequence of human intervention. In the decades prior, humanity viciously fought to contain the effects of climate change, until many realized the colossal undertaking of such a battle. Municipalities across the globe had begun to accept that fighting the earth was no longer an option. Instead, the only hope forward was to adapt to a reality in …

Tempers Rising: The Effect Of Heat On Spite, Jake C. Cosgrove

Master's Theses

The relationship between heat and harmful outcomes is well documented, with research connecting various adverse economic outcomes to the climate. In the presence of increasing global warming and climate change, understanding why the climate leads to negative economic outcomes is essential for forming peaceful institutions of the future. We study how behavioral economic outcomes change in the presence of heat through a lab experiment involving 1,110 observations conducted in five different countries. This paper specifically focuses on the social preference outcome of spite. We find that increased time exposure to the treatment effect of heat is required to elicit an …

21st Century Political Agronomy: Between Collapse And Apocalypse In The Capitalist World System, Harrison Raskin

Honors Scholar Theses

Examinations of the causal chain between ecological impacts and food shortages reveal significant impending global disturbances. This paper draws a causal link between ecological impacts and low food productivity which will lead to food insecurity and economic crises in the near term. Further, this paper argues that food insecurity may lead to the collapse of the capitalist world system. This threat is contrasted with “business as usual” climate models which, rather than depicting the collapse of the capitalist world system, depict its persistence throughout the collapse of the world ecology.

A Cost-Benefit Analysis Of Preserving The Great Barrier Reef, Taylor Cox

Honors Theses

This paper investigates both the economic benefits and costs of protecting Australia’s Great Barrier Reef (GBR). The benefits associated with the Reef come from a 2016 Deloitte Touche Tohmatsu Limited report and quantifies direct economic contributions, nonuse values, and a social, economic, and icon value. The costs of protecting the Reef come from a collection of sources, including the Reef 2050 Long-Term Sustainability Plan, “The Cost and Feasibility of Marine Coastal Restoration”, and a number of annual reports from governmental and non-governmental organizations. By analyzing these documents, the net benefits were calculated. The Great Barrier Reef contributes $6.4 billion to …

The Effects Of Media Usage On Climate Change Beliefs, Leia Hernandez

Student Scholar Symposium Abstracts and Posters

The subject of climate change has been a controversial debate for the past decade on whether it is real or just a myth. In this paper, the research that is found from various surveys will examine the correlation between fear of climate change and types of media usage. The correlation between fear of climate change and a person’s media usage will also demonstrate how media usage affects and shapes public opinion. The data associated with the fear of climate change was collected through the Chapman University American Fear Survey (CSAF). The survey sample was conducted on 1035 participants which is …

Socioeconomic Vulnerability: Qualitative Findings From Climate Change Data In California, Evan Martinez

Capstone Projects and Master's Theses

Climate Change has existed as an important focus in the science community for decades, however relevant literature often focuses on environmental viewpoints more so than those of a socioeconomic perspective. In 2023, an increase in severe weather and unexpected weather events across the United States shed light onto the shortcomings of our preparedness and mitigation techniques. Particularly in California, flooding, sea level rise, and drought conditions have led to high rates of population displacement, economic inequality, and health/safety risks. These events pose the questions as to how climate change and its related natural disasters can potentially affect the average California …

Will Populations Of Macroinvertebrate Functional Feeding Groups Survive Precipitation Changes?, Malika Gottfried, Laura Kim, Sophia Zuccala

Other Student Projects

Climate change is a pervasive issue that has the potential to have detrimental effects on many freshwater organisms and their habitats. Fluctuations in precipitation, changes in temperature, and other long-term shifts in weather patterns are just a few examples of the ways in which climate change is impacting the world around us (“What is Climate Change?” n.d.). The Mill River in Northampton, Massachusetts is an ideal location to measure some of these impacts on macroinvertebrates in various functional feeding groups. Macroinvertebrates are small organisms that lack an internal skeletal system, and their functional feeding groups refer to “the type of …

The Effects Of Climate Change In Guam, Olga M. Zyzanska, Brooke R. Ashfield, Kate E. Eulberg

Student Publications

The purpose of this project is to dive into the harm that climate change has on Guam and its population. The objectives of our project are centered on highlighting the creative resistance of the CHamoru Indigenous community on Guam to established structures of colonialism and militarization during increasing climate crises. This project explores questions such as: How is Guam being impacted by climate change? Is the impact severe and/or immediate? How is the Indigenous community in Guam affected? How does US policy help or harm the island and its Indigenous population? What is being done to protect the island and …

Examining The Impact Of Disaster Experience With Winter Storm Uri And Climate Change Risk Perceptions On Support For Mitigation Policy, Ginger Orton, Laura Morgan Fischer, Cara Lawson

Journal of Applied Communications

In February 2021, Winter Storm Uri swept across the central and eastern United States bringing extreme cold, widespread power outages, and rolling blackouts throughout Texas. This storm prompted climate change to emerge as a major topic of controversy and conversation with scientists and the public alike, and many began to think about the impacts of climate change. Risk communication experts have suggested prior disaster experience is a key mechanism of understanding how risk perceptions are shaped, and ultimately, on how individuals arrive at a judgment, evaluation, or attitude toward information and situations. Drawing from risk communication scholars, we examined the …

Epistemological Insecurity In The Anthropocene, Dustin Purvis

Graduate Theses, Dissertations, and Problem Reports

This dissertation analyzes how increased mainstream awareness of climate change and other complex environmental phenomena transforms some of the basic tools we use to understand the world, including notions of agency, evidence, and causality. More specifically, this project highlights numerous contemporary literary and cultural narratives that formally and thematically depict impromptu systems of action and comprehension developed by humans confronting the unique forms of information overload that result from damaged and rapidly changing environments. Following critics like Ulrich Beck, Rob Nixon, and Stacy Alaimo, I suggest our current era of ecological instability and destructive environmental practices dictate what I refer …

Evaluating Electric Bicycle Access In Us National Parks: Advantages And Controversy, Ben Rodman

CMC Senior Theses

Rising global temperatures are causing a higher likelihood of future climate disaster. Changes in personal behavior, that reduce the emissions driving this increase in global temperatures, contribute to the greater good. Electric bicycles (e-bikes) offer a viable option for individuals to reduce their personal contribution to this problem, while at the same time benefit from outdoor recreation. These benefits, along with affordability, are driving the current increase in popularity of this form of transportation. The COVID 19 pandemic fueled an increased interest in outdoor recreation, which in turn contributed to an increase in visitation at US National Parks. This thesis …

It's Hard To Believe There Are People There, Lily Rose Peña

Senior Projects Spring 2023

Senior Project submitted to The Division of Arts of Bard College.

Don’T Talk To Me Until I’Ve Had My Coffee: An Analysis Of Colombia’S Changing Coffee And Agricultural Sector In The Face Of Climate Change, Nita Vemuri

Senior Projects Spring 2023

Senior Project submitted to The Division of Social Studies of Bard College.

Abstract

“With each year that passes, Atlantic and Pacific cyclone generating areas have experienced higher sea surface temperatures and increases in the intensity and duration of tropical storms.” (Sherbinin et al., 2007) While climate change remains a myth to some, it has become a reality for many, especially those whose livelihoods depend on climate-vulnerable fields and occupations. Latin American countries are especially subjected to climate change consequences because of their vast agricultural sectors and their reliance on ENSO (El Nino Southern Oscillation) patterns, “There is a clear relationship …

Environmental And Climate Change Dictionary, Fozia Parveen

Books

The idea of creating a dictionary was conceived after AKU-IED launched the climate change and environmental sustainability module in 2022 for parents, teachers, and students. As a follow-up to the launch, under the ismaili civic banner, over 100 teachers and youth educators were oriented about the module. It was realized that several words that we presume teachers would know are not as common in their vocabulary as we had thought, especially considering that head teachers come from diverse background.
Working on the principle of creating more scholarship for climate change education and education for sustainable development, this dictionary was initiated …

The Vital Role Of Dehcho Dene Knowledges In Climate Change & Permafrost Thaw Adaptation In Jean Marie River First Nation Nwt, Mackenzie Bell

Theses and Dissertations (Comprehensive)

Across the globe climate change has become an issue of growing concern for both Indigenous and non – Indigenous peoples alike. In Northern Canada this narrative is no different. For Indigenous groups such as the Jean Marie River First Nation (JMRFN) anthropogenic climate change is not only a reality but is visible through their daily interactions with the environment around them. Additional insight pertaining to these climatic changes and their impacts can be found through analyzing the traditional knowledge systems of the JMRFN and how these before mentioned interactions have changed over time. This two-year participatory research project has investigated …

New Perspectives On The Ocean Economy Of The Mid-Atlantic States, Charles Colgan

Publications

No abstract provided.

Spatiotemporal Change Detection Of The Alpine Meadows At Holcomb Valley, San Bernardino Mountain National Forest, Using Gis And Remote Sensing Techniques, Rama Ewing

Electronic Theses, Projects, and Dissertations

Holcomb Valley, with a general elevation between 2200-2257m, is in the Northeast of Big Bear Lake in the San Bernardino Mountains. Holcomb Valley is covered by Alpine meadows, unlike most mountain landscapes, which are rarely found in Mediterranean climates such as California. The cultural-environmental history of the San Bernardino Mountains in the past century speaks of intense anthropogenic activities such as timbering, grazing, gold mining, and extreme climate changes (i.e., drought, fires, floods). A study is conducted to identify and calculate the changes in the Alpine meadows at Holcomb Valley. The climatical data has been acquired to compute and visualize …

Quantifying Spatial Heterogeneity Of Wild Blueberries And Crop Water Stress Monitoring Using Remote Sensing Technologies, Kallol Barai

Electronic Theses and Dissertations

The wild blueberry is one of the major crops of Maine, with significant economic value and potential health benefits. Due to global climate change, drought impacts have been increasing significantly in recent years in the northeast region of the USA, causing significant economic losses in the agricultural sectors. It has been predicted to increase further in the future. Changing patterns of the elevated atmospheric temperatures, increased rainfall variabilities, and more frequent drought events have made the wild blueberry industry of Maine vulnerable, suggesting the adoption of novel approaches to mitigate the negative impacts of global climate changes. Also, wild blueberry …

Characterization Of Municipal Water Sources For The Mexico-Lerma-Cutzamala Basin Region, Ian F. Hirons

International Development, Community and Environment (IDCE)

The Mexico and Toluca Valleys in central Mexico are part of one of the most heavily populated megalopolises in the western hemisphere where consistent access to safe, affordable, and quality water sources figures to be a decisive challenge in the era of climate change. This professional project report compiles a range of statistics and information about the vital liquid for 29 municipalities located in and around the Mexico City and Toluca areas. This contribution is derived from a broader team research endeavor that seeks to gauge the impacts and adaptive processes to climate change within those regions. By doing so, …

Environmental Communication: Changing The Attitude-Behavioral Gap In Science Communication Utilizing Strategic Messaging, Carrie Helgeson Nelms

Graduate Theses and Dissertations

National Polls in the United States consistently find the public’s beliefs and attitudes about climate change and other environmental issues significantly diverge from those held by the science community. A communication gap between the findings on the causes and effects of environmental issues and the public’s inability to interpret or refuse to accept these findings are possible causes of this divergence. This communication gap constitutes a threat to society because of inaction to environmental problems and points to needed changes in scientific messaging that better informs and motivates behavioral change. The present research employed a strategic message design to affect …

Assessing Urban Canopy Program In Redlands California, Joseph Angel Rocha Iv

Electronic Theses, Projects, and Dissertations

Climate change can cause major environmental and human health issues especially in lower income and minority communities (Ros et al. 2020; Bethel et al. 2022). Although studies note tree coverage alone cannot solve all climate related problems (Pataki, et al. 2021; Ross, 2021), tree coverage does provide alleviation for climate change related factors (Free-Smith, et al. 2004). Some ways trees can combat climate change is through improved air quality, improved water quality, and decreasing impacts of Urban Heat Island Effect (UHIE) (Nowak et al. 2018; Liu, Liu, 2021; Wang, Zhao, et al 2017). Although throughout the United States there is …

Unmasking Climate Change: How The Impacts Of Global Warming Alter Disease Spread And Discovery, Ellie Potts, Andy Bunn, Adam Wright

WWU Honors College Senior Projects

What is the relationship between global temperature increase and the number of communicable disease cases, and is this relationship stronger for denser populations? Climate change and communicable diseases are two intertwined global issues. Since the start of the COVID-19 pandemic, business owners, governments, and general consumers have all realized the scale of benefits and risks of an internationally integrated global economy, and how our level of urbanization can cause rapid disease spread. This pandemic has uncovered our lack of preparation for global emergencies. Climate change not only poses a global emergency but will also increase our world’s likelihood of diseases. …

Climate Change Adaptation, Migration, And Promising Developments For Pacific Island States, Ashley Jonas

Honors Theses

The people of the Pacific Islands face an existential crisis due to climate change, despite the fact that they are the least responsible for contributing to carbon emissions. The effects of climate change, namely sea-level rise, pose a verified threat to low-lying islands, infiltrating water supplies, crops, and infrastructure. As a result, there is a need for improved solutions for adapting to the impacts of climate change and for easier access to legal migration pathways when the consequences are insurmountable. Through comparative discourse analysis of scholarly sources, intergovernmental policies, and non-governmental organizations, the thesis finds that Small Island Developing States …