Environmental Studies Commons^™

Understanding Health And Well-Being Outcomes Associated With Protected Coastal Ecosystems: A Fundy National Park Case Study., Mhairi K. Chandler

Theses and Dissertations (Comprehensive)

The COVID-19 pandemic has significantly impacted the mental health and well-being of Canadians, prompting many to turn to nature for consolation and social interaction. However, there is a lack of evidence linking these outcomes specifically to coastal areas. To address this gap, we conducted a self-reported survey at Fundy National Park, New Brunswick, Canada, in summer 2022. Over 400 visitors participated, revealing nature enjoyment, physical health, and mental well-being as primary motivators for park visitation. Notably, mental well-being showed significant differences across gender, sexual identity, and ethnicity, with males, straight individuals, and others exhibiting distinct preferences compared to females, 2SLGBTQIA+ …

Beauty And The Anthropocene: On The Emancipatory Potential Of Experiences Of Beautiful Places In The Natural World, Matthew John

Theses and Dissertations--Geography

This dissertation investigates the proposition that beauty—specifically, experiences of beautiful places in the natural world—can contribute to the emancipation of modern persons (and thereby developed societies) from instrumental rationality, which is theorized as a major driver of contemporary socioecological crises of the Anthropocene. Buber’s concept of the I–Thou relation provides a framework for conceptualizing ideal non-instrumental relations. The project’s methodology, rooted in post-phenomenology, consisted of semi-structured remote interviews and four follow-up focus groups with 35 then current and recently former residents of Juneau, Alaska. Taken together, data confirm that experiences of beautiful places in the natural world can and do …

Net Zero And Settler Futurity, Jesse Goldstein

Sociology Publications

Net Zero ideology promises that current and ongoing emissions can be partially offset by ‘negative emissions’ strategies such as carbon capture and sequestration, allowing carbon intensive firms to narrate themselves as agents that are solving – not causing – the climate crisis. This represents a shift in liberal and corporate environmentalism away from both denial and delay, towards a new strategy acknowledging the need to end fossil fuel use while urgently deferring transformations to a future made possible by not-yet developed technological innovations. This paper argues that a through-line of settler futurity provides affective infrastructure potent enough to transect opposing …

Late Holocene Fire History Reconstruction Of Beaver Lake In The Northwest Lowlands Of The Olympic Peninsula, Grace Mckenney

All Master's Theses

Fire is an essential component of the landscapes and forests of the Pacific Northwest, including the temperate rainforests of the Olympic Peninsula. Previous fire history reconstructions from the peninsula show that fire return intervals varied throughout the postglacial period, primarily in response to climatic changes and corresponding shifts in vegetation. However, much less is known about the fire history of the low-elevation forests of the Olympic Peninsula and the role of cultural fire regimes in these environments. The purpose of this study was to reconstruct the paleoenvironmental history of a low-elevation study site, Beaver Lake, located in the northwestern part …

Climate Change And Critical Agrarian Studies, Ian Scoones, Saturnino M. Borras Jr., Amita Baviskar, Marc Edelman, Nancy Peluso, Wendy Wolford

Publications and Research

Climate change is perhaps the greatest threat to humanity today and plays out as a cruel engine of myriad forms of injustice, violence and destruction. The effects of climate change from human-made emissions of greenhouse gases are devastating and accelerating; yet are uncertain and uneven both in terms of geography and socio-economic impacts. Emerging from the dynamics of capitalism since the industrial revolution — as well as industrialisation under state-led socialism — the consequences of climate change are especially profound for the countryside and its inhabitants. The book interrogates the narratives and strategies that frame climate change and examines the …

A Tale Of Two Working Landscapes, Sage C. Sutcliffe

Graduate Student Theses, Dissertations, & Professional Papers

No abstract provided.

Local Visions For Patagonia: Drivers And Dynamics Of Collaborative Environmental Governance In Aysén, Chile, Zachary J. Hummel

Graduate Student Theses, Dissertations, & Professional Papers

Collaborative governance (CG) has emerged as a tool for addressing increasingly complex societal problems by engaging a diverse of set of cross-sector actors in a deliberative process with the aim of realizing consensus-driven outcomes. Emerson et al.’s (2011) Integrated Framework for Collaborative Governance (IFCG) attempts to improve understanding of these arrangements by articulating causal connections between collaborative drivers and dynamics across different contexts. Answering researchers’ call for more empirical support for the IFCG in non-US/European contexts, I used the framework to guide 10 interviews with collaborative governance practitioners in the comanaged marine protected area, AMCP-MU Pitipalena Añihue, located in Aysén, …

Geographies Of Storage, Sayd Randle

Research Collection College of Integrative Studies

Resource storage has long played a key role in the production of socio-ecological arrangements and economic relations. Even so, storage as a concept has remained somewhat marginal within geographical scholarship, often obscured by an analytical focus on the dynamics of movement. Reviewing recent works from geography, science and technology studies, and anthropology that center sites and practices of storage, this essay elaborates the diverse ways in which storage arrangements mediate resource circulation and the production of space. This literature demonstrates that thinking systematically with storage can illuminate a range of novel temporal, material, and value entanglements in-the-making, pointing to potentially …

Mapping With The Land: Co-Developing A Cumulative Impact Monitoring And Land Stewardship Framework With Sambaa K’E First Nation, Northwest Territories, Canada, Michael S. Mcphee

Theses and Dissertations (Comprehensive)

Across the Northwest Territories (NWT), Canada, Indigenous populations are striving to achieve effective environmental protection, whilst navigating complex methods, policies, and research relationships within co-management contexts. This thesis seeks to identify how differing cultural systems, environmental change, and fractured partnerships may be unified to align with the needs of the Sambaa K’e First Nation (SKFN), a remote Dehcho Dene community. Indigenous methodologies guided co-development of research questions with SKFN leadership which yielded objectives a) develop a GIS-based method to manage, organize and mobilize cultural and environmental data; b) develop a new stewardship monitoring procedure so that users can apply the …

Reducing Food Scarcity: The Benefits Of Urban Farming, S.A. Claudell, Emilio Mejia

Journal of Nonprofit Innovation

Urban farming can enhance the lives of communities and help reduce food scarcity. This paper presents a conceptual prototype of an efficient urban farming community that can be scaled for a single apartment building or an entire community across all global geoeconomics regions, including densely populated cities and rural, developing towns and communities. When deployed in coordination with smart crop choices, local farm support, and efficient transportation then the result isn’t just sustainability, but also increasing fresh produce accessibility, optimizing nutritional value, eliminating the use of ‘forever chemicals’, reducing transportation costs, and fostering global environmental benefits.

Imagine Doris, who is …

Reviewers And Referees

Midwest Social Sciences Journal

No abstract provided.

Author Biographical Notes

Midwest Social Sciences Journal

No abstract provided.

Statement From The Indiana Academy Of The Social Sciences And Board Of Directors

Midwest Social Sciences Journal

No abstract provided.

Editors' Note, Nirupama Devaraj, Bharath Ganesh Babu

Midwest Social Sciences Journal

No abstract provided.

Mission And Editorial Policy

Midwest Social Sciences Journal

No abstract provided.

Submission Guidelines

Midwest Social Sciences Journal

No abstract provided.

Volume 26, Full Contents

Midwest Social Sciences Journal

No abstract provided.

Living Among Wildlife: Elevating Human-Wildlife Interactions And Coexistence, Bridget Rebecca Murphy

Graduate Student Portfolios, Professional Papers, and Capstone Projects

After a semester of learning, both in class and in nature, my writing honed in further on this human-nature divide. To me, I see humans as part of nature – as we are mammals, animals, part of the food chain, biological beings no higher than others on our planet. We have simply constructed this false narrative around us within our societies, minds and media that embeds this division between us and nature, between us and wildlife. Humans have been managing, stewarding, living off and within landscapes for thousands of years. As time and technology evolved, a lot of people began …

Tunnels As Temples Of 'New Green India': Dominant Narratives Of Himalayan Dam Building, Manshi Asher, Vivek Negi

National Law School Journal

The dramatic unfolding of the Joshimath crisis in Uttarakhand, India, has brought the world’s attention once again to the Himalaya. The contribution of a 520-megawatt hydropower dam to land subsidence is squarely in the spotlight. River valleys with bumper-to-bumper hydropower dam building, especially in the North Western Himalaya, in the past decade and a half or so, have witnessed frequent slope de-stabilisation, landslides and seepages. Unlike the visible dispossession of rural—often adivasi and dalit— populations in reservoir based dam affected areas, even establishing and ‘scientifically’ correlating cascading hazards with human impacts of the ‘invisible’ activity of run-of-the-river dams in the …

Socioeconomic Geographies And Municipal Decision Making Of New York's Climate Smart Communities Program, Stephen Corbisiero

Digital and Data Studies Student Scholarship

Nearly all of New York’s residents live in a municipality designated as a Climate Smart Community, but few are familiar with one of the state’s major legislative accomplishments. The initiative allows municipalities to earn points toward a climate smart certification by implementing sustainable technologies in their communities, which in turn makes them eligible for increased grant funding from New York State. As climate change begins to have a greater impact on human and natural life, investing in green infrastructure has never been more important. New York’s Climate Smart Communities program is widespread, but adoption rates vary greatly throughout the state …

Trends Of Autumn Phenology In Response To Environmental And Meteorological Variables, Meagan Renee Maguire

Masters Theses

Previous studies have identified that changes in plant phenology are most likely induced by climate variability. One such change is the end of season (EOS) for deciduous forests in the United States. In essence, the EOS represents the end of plant productivity for a given year; the phase in which plant dormancy is reached. However, our wealth of knowledge on plant phenology largely overlooks the phases that occur in autumn, especially the EOS, with many previous studies focusing on spring phenology. This study uses remote sensing MODIS aerial imagery data and historical meteorological data to analyze any relationships that may …

Interrogating Households In Anticipation Of Disasters: The Feminization Of Preparedness, Chika Watanabe, Celie Hanson

Critical Disaster Studies

It is now a maxim among scholars and policy-makers alike that disaster preparedness needs to involve community-based approaches in order to be effective. These include preparedness strategies in the household. But how do disaster preparedness policies and public discourses define “the household” in the first place? In this article, we explore how particular gendered notions of the household are reproduced in disaster preparedness policies and activities in Japan and the UK. Drawing on historical and cross-cultural analyses, we suggest that household preparedness efforts place the burden of labor on people coded as women—a phenomenon we call “the feminization of preparedness.” …

Accessibility Or Environmental Conservation? Evaluating The Relationship Between Environmental Protection And Hiking Trails Accessibility Via Lidar & Remote Sensing, Zhanchao Yang

GIS Day

Binghamton University Nature Preserve spans 190 acres of land, with a notable 20-acre wetland serving a multifaceted purpose. It is dedicated to preserving the ecological integrity of this landscape, fostering biodiversity, and facilitating research and environmental education. Furthermore, it serves as a recreational space for students, enhancing the bonds between the campus and the neighboring community. This research focuses on Binghamton University's nature preserve as a case study to explore the intricate balance between two vital objectives: ensuring equal access for all user demographics while safeguarding its ecosystem services. To achieve these objectives, the study employs diverse public engagement methods, …

Smallholder Farmer Resilience As A Pillar Of Climate-Smart Agriculture: A Review, Michael B. Madin Mr, Daniel Kweku B. Inkoom Professor, Charles A. Bamfo Jr

Journal of Environmental Sustainability

This systematic review synthesizes and assesses scientific literature publications (n=42), to identify and depict the focus of climate change adaptations and resilience research on smallholder farmers in the savannah ecological zone (SAZ). We found substantive studies providing evidence of climate impacts, with adverse consequences on both human and environmental systems. Adaptive actions are being employed to manage the changing conditions as response to climate impacts. Notably, most research efforts are currently restricted to impacts on adaptation, food security, and vulnerability, with a very rare focus on climate resilience and the effects of adaptive actions. Hence, the possible maladaptation outcomes, which …

Inclement, Susan Wismer

The Goose

"Inclement," by Susan Wismer, is from Hageography:

Hagios, a Greek word for holy.

Hag, an old woman. Hag, an overhang at the edge of a cliff

Rough notes. Foot notes. Choreographies of happenstance.

I-Guide Climbers: A Model For Multidisciplinary Academic Labs For Early Career Development, Iman Haqiqi, Wei Hu, Ramya Kumaran, Pin-Ching Li, Nicholas Manning, Alex Michels, Ayman Nassar, Jinwoo Park, Jimeng Shi, Adam Tonks, Zhaonan Wang

I-GUIDE Forum

In this paper, we propose a new form of multidisciplinary academic collaboration that goes beyond the traditional modes of knowledge exchange. We argue that most research collaboration today is based on interactions between closely related disciplines, in which researchers share data, methods, and insights within a common framework or problem. However, such collaboration may not foster the development of the communication and management skills essential to a multi-disciplinary research career. Therefore, we suggest establishing a network of researchers from divergent, yet complementary, disciplines who are interested in improving these skills through regular interactions and feedback. The main goal of this …

The Great Displacement: Climate Change And The Next American Migration, Minnesota State University, Mankato

Weather/Natural Disasters

Bibliography and photographs of a display of government documents from Minnesota State University, Mankato.

When Planetary Cosmopolitanism Meets The Buddhist Ethic: Recycling, Karma And Popular Ecology In Singapore, Siew Ying Shee, Orlando Woods, Lily Kong

Research Collection College of Integrative Studies

By thinking with and through Buddhist cosmology, this paper explores the emergence of an ethical sensibility—what we call planetary cosmopolitanism—that is based on not just a spatially expanded ethic of care to ecological worlds, but also a temporally extended sense of justice to the future Earth. This transtemporal sense of ethical becoming reflects how the possibility of future ‘rebirth’ and accountability for past actions can motivate new ecological consciousness in the present. We forge these ideas through an empirical focus on popular Buddhist ecological practices in Singapore, where green recovery visions have primarily been driven by a secular and technocratic …

Scents Of Place: Exploring Self, Place And Planet Through Botanical Fragrance, Jennifer L. Kitson, Donna M. Sweigart

Open Educational Resources

This learning module provides instructors with an experiential field guide for introducing students to the United Nations Inner Development Goals Framework through self-guided mindful smelling activities and reflection prompts related to botanical fragrance. The interdisciplinary nature of this module allows for use or adaptation in a wide range of courses looking for outdoor, place-based and self-guided experiential learning to explore the role of botanical fragrance for people, plants and pollinators. The overarching goal is to deepen students’ connections to their senses (and scents) of self, place and planet through exploring botanical fragrance with mindful smelling. The learning activities in this …

Exploring Expansion Of Biogas Energy Production On Homesteads, Small-Scale, And Large-Scale Farms, Morgan Powell

Student Project Reports

No abstract provided.