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Articles 121 - 150 of 261

Full-Text Articles in Environmental Studies

Collaborative Environmental Chemistry Projects: Universiti Kebangsaan Malaysia And The Claremont Colleges, Katie Purvis-Roberts Sep 2019

Collaborative Environmental Chemistry Projects: Universiti Kebangsaan Malaysia And The Claremont Colleges, Katie Purvis-Roberts

EnviroLab Asia

I received a course redevelopment grant from the Claremont Colleges EnviroLab Asia for my Environmental Chemistry (CHEM139) course. This allowed me to add a focus on environmental issues in Asia to the course and, more important, co-teach the class with a colleague at the Universiti Kebangsaan Malaysia (UKM).Te many results of that cross-Pacific teaching project are the key subject of this reflective essay.


Towards Universal Design For All: Understanding Japan’S Environment From An Accessibility Standpoint, Bailey Lai Sep 2019

Towards Universal Design For All: Understanding Japan’S Environment From An Accessibility Standpoint, Bailey Lai

EnviroLab Asia

No abstract provided.


Health Preferences And Culturally Appropriate Strategies To Reduce Bear Bile Demand In Northern Vietnam, Shannon Randolph, Laura Zhang, Lena Tran, Mai Nguyen, Kimberley Ha Sep 2019

Health Preferences And Culturally Appropriate Strategies To Reduce Bear Bile Demand In Northern Vietnam, Shannon Randolph, Laura Zhang, Lena Tran, Mai Nguyen, Kimberley Ha

EnviroLab Asia

Animal products, such as pangolin scales, rhinoceros horns, tiger bones, and bear bile have been used in East Asian traditional medicine (TM) for more than 2,000 years. However, markets for medicinal wildlife products have expanded dramatically in countries like China and Vietnam in recent decades where economic prosperity has enabled a larger proportion of the population to afford wildlife products (Olmedo et al. 2017). Related new farming and commercialization practices to meet growing international demand pose environmental and human health risks. Animal products also symbolize shared cultural and historical medical practices that are distinct from the dominant Western medical model.


Theatre & The Environment: Cross-Cultural Exchange Through Travel And Performance Activism, Betel Solomon Tesfamariam Sep 2019

Theatre & The Environment: Cross-Cultural Exchange Through Travel And Performance Activism, Betel Solomon Tesfamariam

EnviroLab Asia

Performance activism, collaborative and cross-cultural, were keys to the success of EnviroLab Asia's clinic trip to Thailand in May 2018. Working with peers in Thai universities, this writer reflects on the degree to which her immersion in local environmental struggles in Thailand, and the compelling theater project that grew out of it, also has helped her understand some of the same pressures that confront her home communities in Africa.


Familiarity & Unfamiliarity, Luyi Huang Sep 2019

Familiarity & Unfamiliarity, Luyi Huang

EnviroLab Asia

During the May 2018 EnviroLab Clinic Trip to Thailand, and as part of the performance group, the author encountered an important linguistic barrier. Because the Thai and US-based dancers did not know each other's language, they had to learn to trust each other's body language as their form of communication. The unfamiliar became familiar.


Letter To My Homeland, Vy Thuy Doan Sep 2019

Letter To My Homeland, Vy Thuy Doan

EnviroLab Asia

"I never thought I would be returning back to Vietnam to study its environmental issues and in studying them, also unravel more of my identity," the author writes about her remarkable experience on the January 2018 EnviroLab Asia Clinic trip to Vietnam. Hers is a compelling meditation on the diasporic experience.


Exploring Gender Through Art In Myanmar, Allison E. Joseph Sep 2019

Exploring Gender Through Art In Myanmar, Allison E. Joseph

EnviroLab Asia

No abstract provided.


Rights To The River: Implementing A Social Cost-Benefit Analysis In The United States Hydropower Relicensing Process, Claire Wendle Jan 2019

Rights To The River: Implementing A Social Cost-Benefit Analysis In The United States Hydropower Relicensing Process, Claire Wendle

Scripps Senior Theses

Private hydropower operations across the United States are utilizing a public resource, rivers, for power production benefits. The Federal Energy Regulatory Commission regulates river use through a relicensing procedure that occurs every thirty or fifty years through a cost-benefit analysis framework to determine the best public use of the river. This thesis explores the structure of the current cost-benefit analysis and the effects of timing, public participation and valuation of ecosystem services in the final relicensing decision, and recommends the use of a social cost-benefit framework to distribute the natural resource benefits rivers provide more equally and give fair weight …


Belonging While Black At Lake Merritt: The Black Spatial Imaginary And Place-Making In Oakland, Ca, Betel Solomon Tesfamariam Jan 2019

Belonging While Black At Lake Merritt: The Black Spatial Imaginary And Place-Making In Oakland, Ca, Betel Solomon Tesfamariam

Pomona Senior Theses

This thesis aims to demonstrate how the processes of gentrification and displacement are interrelated processes that invent new ways of perpetuating anti- blackness in the U.S. I demonstrate this through an engagement with Christina Sharpe’s (2016) analysis of the imagery of the wake, the ship, the hold, and the weather as axis points that position Black life in the afterlife of slavery—how the conditions of slavery are ongoing today—presenting the racist encounters at Lake Merritt as illustrative examples. In her most recent book, In the Wake: On Blackness and Being, Sharpe (2016) deploys an interdisciplinary approach to critically theorize …


Women In The Wage Economy: A New Gendered Division Of Labor Amongst The Inuit, Hannah Buehler Jan 2019

Women In The Wage Economy: A New Gendered Division Of Labor Amongst The Inuit, Hannah Buehler

Pitzer Senior Theses

Inuit constructions of gender in the pre-colonial period were centered around a gendered division of subsistence tasks. It is through this division of labor which gender roles, gendered socialization and spousal roles were formed. However, during the colonial period Inuit subsistence and the role it plays in Inuit society was rapidly and drastically changed. By analyzing the work of three different Arctic ethnographers documenting Inuit subsistence in different time periods and national contexts, this thesis will analyze how political, economic and environmental change in the Arctic has altered Inuit subsistence practices from European contact through the contemporary era. By analyzing …


Island Invasion: The Silent Crisis In Hawaii, Sophia Janssen Jan 2019

Island Invasion: The Silent Crisis In Hawaii, Sophia Janssen

Pomona Senior Theses

Keeping out invasive species may, upon first review, seem like a trivial environmental cry from ecologists and deep environmentalists; a belated wish to return to an undeveloped world where nature was pristine. However invasive species create problems that impact all of us and can have far more severe consequences than changing a stunning landscape. These problems are heightened in islands like Hawaii, where the fragile ecosystems have developed over centuries of evolution and adaptation. The introduction of a disease-carrying mosquito can put the people of Hawaii at risk to many vector-born illnesses and create an epidemic, taking human life. The …


How Can California Best Promote Electric Vehicle Adoption? The Effect Of Public Charging Station Availability On Ev Adoption, Viraj Singh Jan 2019

How Can California Best Promote Electric Vehicle Adoption? The Effect Of Public Charging Station Availability On Ev Adoption, Viraj Singh

Pomona Senior Theses

To promote higher air quality and reduce greenhouse gas emissions, the Californian government is investing heavily in developing public charging infrastructure to meet its electric vehicle adoption goal of five million zero-emission vehicles on the road by 2030. This thesis investigates the effect of public charging infrastructure availability on electric vehicle adoption at the zip code level in California. The analysis considers other factors that may influence electric vehicle adoption such as education level, income, commute time, gas prices, and public transportation rate. The findings suggest that public charging infrastructure availability does significantly positively correlate with electric vehicle registrations. Linear …


The Sea Turtle As A Marketing Symbol For The Anti-Plastics Movement, Hannah Chiu Jan 2019

The Sea Turtle As A Marketing Symbol For The Anti-Plastics Movement, Hannah Chiu

Pitzer Senior Theses

The anti-plastic straw movement uses the sea turtle to bring an empathetic symbol to broaden the scope of the plastics problem in the ocean, giving the public a powerful visual image for the first time in the history of the anti-plastics movement. In this thesis, I build on existing conversations on charismatic megafauna and flagship species, to explore the emerging anti-plastic straw movement and its use of the sea turtle as a symbol. I also provide an analysis of the imagery and comments on social media sites of green marketing companies and non-governmental organizations. These social media sites, such as …


Mapping Land Use Around The San Francisco Bay: A Look At Environmental Justice Through S. F. Bay Conservation And Development Commission’S Permitting History, Aviva R. Wolf-Jacobs Jan 2019

Mapping Land Use Around The San Francisco Bay: A Look At Environmental Justice Through S. F. Bay Conservation And Development Commission’S Permitting History, Aviva R. Wolf-Jacobs

Pitzer Senior Theses

Planning and regulatory environmental agency San Francisco Bay Conservation and Development Commission (BCDC) plays an important role in the permitting of development around the San Francisco Bay. As the agency works to add an environmental justice amendment to its primary policy document, this research explores the S.F. Bay Area’s history of approved development project proposal permits, and the associated patterns of land use and environmental justice implications in order to support the proposed change in permitting policy. By classifying all major permits found within BCDC’s internal permit database into groups based on the type of land use associated with the …


Campaigning On An Environmental Justice Platform: Irmalinda Osuna For Upland City Council, District 3, Jenny Bekenstein Jan 2019

Campaigning On An Environmental Justice Platform: Irmalinda Osuna For Upland City Council, District 3, Jenny Bekenstein

Pitzer Senior Theses

After successfully organizing around preserving Cabrillo Park in Upland and feeling a lack of local political representation, Irmalinda Osuna ran for Upland City Council in the 2018 midterm elections. As one of the many female candidates in the 2018 elections, Irmalinda led a grassroots, community-led political campaign in which she advocated for environmental justice and the preservation of parks, a more inclusive community, increased civic participation, a more efficient use of technology in politics, and support for small businesses.


The Mark Of The Japanese Murrelet (Synthliboramphus Wumizusume): A Study Of Song And Stewardship In Japan’S Inland Sea, Charlotte Hyde Jan 2019

The Mark Of The Japanese Murrelet (Synthliboramphus Wumizusume): A Study Of Song And Stewardship In Japan’S Inland Sea, Charlotte Hyde

Pomona Senior Theses

The Japanese Crested Murrelet Synthliboramphus wumizusume occupies a limited range in Southern Korea and Japan and is considered vulnerable by the IUCN. There is strong indication of a colony of Japanese Murrelets located in Kaminoseki, Japan; however, no nests or individuals have yet been found. The is also evidence that murrelets make use of this habitat during their vulnerable autumnal molting season during which they cannot fly. This habitat is threatened by the construction of a nuclear power plant in Tanoura Bay. Construction of this plant would result in loss of nesting sites, food supply, and other components vital to …


Why Csas Matter: (Re)Localizing For People-Based Food Networks, Gretchen Alexander Jan 2019

Why Csas Matter: (Re)Localizing For People-Based Food Networks, Gretchen Alexander

Scripps Senior Theses

This thesis details the history of Claremont Market Shares, a Community Sourced Agriculture (CSA) project based out of Claremont, California. By using this project as a jumping off point for discussing local food networks, buzzwords such as "organic" and "local" are analyzed and re-defined. I argue for a people-based food network model over the currently popular 'place-based' that prioritizes producer-consumer relationships. The CSA functions as a sustainable model of this ideology.


Best Practices To Encourage Landfill Diversion In Waste Management Programs, Sondra Abruzzo Jan 2019

Best Practices To Encourage Landfill Diversion In Waste Management Programs, Sondra Abruzzo

Scripps Senior Theses

Waste generation in the United States is at an all time high. Over half of the country’s waste goes to landfill, yet 70 percent of this waste can be recycled or composted. Since landfills pose one of the largest manmade threats to the environment, sustainable waste management strategies should focus on landfill diversion. A successful waste recovery program needs to engage the public, and ensure individuals participate correctly in available waste management systems. This paper sheds light on effective education and awareness strategies used to encourage participation in local waste management systems and promote landfill diversion. By highlighting successful programs …


On The Brink Of Extinction: The Fate Of The Pacific Northwest's Southern Resident Killer Whales, Sabrina Wilk Jan 2019

On The Brink Of Extinction: The Fate Of The Pacific Northwest's Southern Resident Killer Whales, Sabrina Wilk

Pomona Senior Theses

The killer whales that roam the northeastern Pacific Ocean have been the objects of studies since the 1970s, making them the most well-studied population of orcas in the world. Three distinct ecotypes of killer whales (Orcinus orca), known as residents, transients, and offshores, share these waters. The ecotypes are morphologically and behaviorally distinct to the extent that some scientists consider them separate species, with residents eating salmon, transients specializing on marine mammals, and offshores preferring Pacific sleeper sharks and Pacific halibut. Resident populations have endeared themselves to the region's locals with their striking black and white markings and …


Fragile Oceans, Synthetic Flotsam And Microbial Collaboration – Explorations In The Visual Communication Of The Plastic Crisis, Ivan Langesfeld Jan 2019

Fragile Oceans, Synthetic Flotsam And Microbial Collaboration – Explorations In The Visual Communication Of The Plastic Crisis, Ivan Langesfeld

Pomona Senior Theses

Scientific evidence that the ocean plastic crisis is larger in scale and more sinister than previously thought continues to mount, but the rate of plastic production is only rising. What will it take to decisively turn the tide against plastic? We need scientists, politicians, and industry changemakers to continue producing knowledge and positive change in the industry, but we need to go further still. This thesis explores art as an alternative visual communication strategy with the capacity to encourage curiosity, empathy, and positive engagement with the issue of ocean plastics. The series of work explores bacterial bioluminescence as an artistic …


Restoring Reciprocity: Indigenous Knowledges And Environmental Education, Mireya Valencia Jan 2019

Restoring Reciprocity: Indigenous Knowledges And Environmental Education, Mireya Valencia

Pomona Senior Theses

Environmental education in the U.S. has been slow to incorporate Indigenous knowledges, with most pre-university curriculum centering around Western science. I believe incorporating Indigenous knowledges into environmental education can promote reciprocal, critical, and active human-nature relationships. While Indigenous knowledges should infiltrate all levels of environmental education, I argue that alternative forms of education which operate outside the formal school system might present the fewest immediate obstacles.


Accounting For Intermediaries And Transnational Linkages In The Multi-Level Perspective: Mongolia’S Renewable Energy Transition, Madeline Lee Jan 2019

Accounting For Intermediaries And Transnational Linkages In The Multi-Level Perspective: Mongolia’S Renewable Energy Transition, Madeline Lee

CMC Senior Theses

As the international community takes increasing action to mitigate the effects of climate change, increased focus has been placed on the topic of energy transitions in developing countries. This paper uses the multi-level perspective (MLP) framework to analyze the ongoing energy transition in Mongolia, specifically the integration of large-scale wind and solar energy systems. Attention is paid to the presence of transnational linkages and intermediaries that have substantially contributed to Mongolia’s success in diffusing renewable energy technology, as well as challenges Mongolia has faced as a result of limited technological and institutional capacity. The paper concludes that Mongolia’s transition shares …


Leveraging Trade Agreements To Reduce Greenhouse Gas Emissions In Accordance With The Paris Agreement, Sam Becker Jan 2019

Leveraging Trade Agreements To Reduce Greenhouse Gas Emissions In Accordance With The Paris Agreement, Sam Becker

CMC Senior Theses

Climate change is the most obvious and pressing impairment of the biological, physical, and chemical systems. To help mitigate this unprecedented problem, I present heads of state, policymakers, and members of civil society with a set of new provisions that they can include in their trade agreements to drive emissions reduction from countries inside and outside of their trade agreements, maintain their ability to compete in an increasingly globalized world, and comply with international trading rules. Ultimately, I seek to demonstrate the untapped potential for leveraging trade agreements to reduce emissions in the midst of an international system that lacks …


Farm To Label: A Critique Of Consumer Activism In The Sustainable Food Movement, Olivia Whitener Jan 2019

Farm To Label: A Critique Of Consumer Activism In The Sustainable Food Movement, Olivia Whitener

Pomona Senior Theses

“Local,” “organic,” “natural,” and “Fairtrade” are just several of the many claims adorning the food products that line grocery store shelves. These promises of environmental sustainability and social responsibility are pillars of the “good food revolution” sweeping the nation as consumers demand alternatives to the products of the industrial food system. Green consumerism, the premise that consumer demand for environmentally sustainable goods will bring about ecologically beneficial outcomes, is at the heart of the sustainable food movement. This thesis takes a critical look at the operation of green consumerism in the food system. It explores the ideology and shortcomings of …


Let's Get Sorted: The Path To Zero Waste At Pomona College, Sara Sherburne Jan 2019

Let's Get Sorted: The Path To Zero Waste At Pomona College, Sara Sherburne

Pomona Senior Theses

This senior thesis in environmental analysis explores the Zero Waste ideal and its practical application to a college campus. Given the growing global trash crisis and its grave environmental, social and economic consequences, the Zero Waste movement argues for a holistic shift from ‘end of pipe’ disposal practices to those that promote the cyclical use of materials, with little-to-no matter ending up in the landfill or incinerator. Cities and colleges around the world have adopted these Zero Waste goals in an effort to function as more sustainable, efficient and moral entities. With a case study of Pomona College, I assess …


Exploring Transit-Based Environmental Injustices In San Gabriel Valley And Greater Los Angeles, Bailey Lai Jan 2019

Exploring Transit-Based Environmental Injustices In San Gabriel Valley And Greater Los Angeles, Bailey Lai

Pomona Senior Theses

This thesis attempts to disentangle the multilayered interactions between Greater Los Angeles’s history, its built environment, and its inequitable treatment of different peoples, focusing on how transportation in surrounding suburban communities like San Gabriel Valley has developed in relation to the inner city of Los Angeles. Greater Los Angeles contains a long, winding trajectory of transit-based environmental injustices, from the indigenous societies being overtaken by the Spanish missions, to the railroads and streetcars boosting the farmlands and urban growth of Los Angeles, leading into the decline of transit and rise of automobile-oriented suburbia. Within the San Gabriel Valley, the suburban …


A Western Interconnection Regional System Operator: Benefits And Barriers, Siena Hacker Jan 2018

A Western Interconnection Regional System Operator: Benefits And Barriers, Siena Hacker

Scripps Senior Theses

A Regional System Operator in the Western Interconnection would create significant environmental and economic benefits. California alone could realize annual savings of up to 1.5 billion dollars while cutting the state’s greenhouse gas emissions by eight to ten percent in 2030. However, many stakeholders have rejected development of a Regional System Operator both historically and in recent California Legislative sessions. Ultimately, key stakeholders’ fears of repeating the California Electricity Crisis, relinquishing state authority, allowing greater interference from the Federal Energy Regulatory Commission, and sacrificing legislative environmental progress in California have created political opposition and legislative failures blocking efforts to develop …


Stormwater Capture In The Built Watershed: Fostering Public Awareness Of Water Conservation Through A Parcel-Level Approach To Stormwater Management, Benjamin Rigby Jan 2018

Stormwater Capture In The Built Watershed: Fostering Public Awareness Of Water Conservation Through A Parcel-Level Approach To Stormwater Management, Benjamin Rigby

Pitzer Senior Theses

As California contends with climate change and more extreme cycles of drought and deluge, water management agencies and conservation groups are looking towards solutions to the decreasing reliability of imported water supplies. Stormwater has historically been perceived as a threat to development but when captured properly, it presents a resource that can augment local water supplies. Solutions to water supply issues in California have traditionally employed technical and centrally controlled methods for importing water, but there is a growing understanding that parcel-level capture through vegetated swales presents an opportunity for reducing the impact that development has on California’s hydrology. Vegetated …


Indigenous-Led Resistance To Environmental Destruction: Methods Of Anishinaabe Land Defense Against Enbridge's Line 3, Charlotte Degener Hughes Jan 2018

Indigenous-Led Resistance To Environmental Destruction: Methods Of Anishinaabe Land Defense Against Enbridge's Line 3, Charlotte Degener Hughes

Pitzer Senior Theses

Enbridge has proposed the Line 3 “Replacement” Project, a new pipeline project taking a new route strait through Anishinaabe treaty territory in what is known as northern Minnesota. In the middle of the regulation process, the future remains unclear of how the State of Minnesota will move forward with the permitting process, but Anishinaabe communities, a range of non-profit organizations, and local landowners remain firmly against the line. Rooted in varied frameworks of Native sovereignty, the land, and Indigenous feminism, Anishinaabe communities lead the resistance against a product of ongoing settler colonialism, racial capitalism, and environmental racism. This thesis contextualizes …


Closing The Loop: Exploring Ikea’S Transition To The Circular Economy, Alexandra Seidel Jan 2018

Closing The Loop: Exploring Ikea’S Transition To The Circular Economy, Alexandra Seidel

Pomona Senior Theses

Inspired by the way nature cycles waste in an ecosystem, the circular economy was developed as an alternative to the linear take-make-dispose model and designed to decouple economic growth from resource use. After developing a framework for what it means to be a business pursuing circularity, this thesis examines six different companies to explore the tension between the strategies and business models in theory and what business are implementing in practice today. This exploration continues with an in-depth analysis of the circular success of IKEA, finding that the gains from the circular economy for a large corporation are found within …