Environmental Studies Commons^™

An Introductory Examination Of Worldviews And Why They Matter For Environmental And Sustainability Studies, Loren B. Byrne

Arts & Sciences Faculty Publications

A worldview is a complex cognitive and affective lens through which a person sees and interprets the world, including human-environment relationships. Examining worldviews is relevant to environmental and sustainability studies, in part, because they influence a person’s environmentally related decisions and divergent worldviews create conflict about environmental problems and solutions. Using physical glasses that make an abstract concept more concrete, the activity described in this chapter introduces students to worldviews and their links to environmental and sustainability issues through informal, open-ended, exploratory dialogue, catalyzed by the examination of four individuals’ hypothetical worldviews as playful case studies. The activity’s goal is …

Learner-Centered Teaching Activities For Environmental And Sustainability Studies, Loren B. Byrne

Arts & Sciences Faculty Publications

Learner-centered teaching is a pedagogical approach that emphasizes the roles of students as participants in and drivers of their own learning. Learner-centered teaching activities go beyond traditional lecturing by helping students construct their own understanding of information, develop skills via hands-on engagement, and encourage personal reflection through metacognitive tasks. In addition, learner-centered classroom approaches may challenge students’ preconceived notions and expand their thinking by confronting them with thought-provoking statements, tasks or scenarios that cause them to pay closer attention and cognitively "see" a topic from new perspectives. Many types of pedagogy fall under the umbrella of learner-centered teaching including laboratory …

Preface, Loren B. Byrne

Arts & Sciences Faculty Publications

No abstract provided.

Learner-Centered Teaching For Environmental And Sustainability Studies, Loren B. Byrne

Arts & Sciences Faculty Publications

This volume merges two aspects of education that have rapidly changed in recent years: environmental and sustainability education, and knowledge about effective pedagogy. Its central purpose is to disseminate engaging teaching activities that instructors can use to help increase students’ environmental literacy. The included activities are that require minimal instructor preparation, do not require elaborate setups or specialized materials, and can be used in many course contexts but especially in traditional (i.e., non-laboratory, indoor) classroom spaces; most can be completed in one or two class sessions. The target audience is primarily higher-education instructors (including graduate level), but high school teachers …

Powering An Industry: The History Of The Calumet And Hecla Electrical System And The Environmental Consequences Left Behind, Emma M. Zawisza

Dissertations, Master's Theses and Master's Reports

The Calumet and Hecla Copper Mining Company in Houghton County, Michigan, was established in 1865 and closed its doors in 1968. This company was a major contributor in developing secondary copper processing and used these methods to produce copper even when its underground mines were closed. C&H built its own electrical transmission system that could have rivaled many during its time. This allowed the company to have the ability to produce and control its electrical network and expand, but it had major environmental effects. Polychlorinated biphenyl compounds (PCBs), used in transformer oil and other components were produced between about 1930 …

Energy Justice And U.S. Energy Policy: Case Study Applications Exploring U.S. Energy Policy Through An Energy Justice Framework, Emily Prehoda

Dissertations, Master's Theses and Master's Reports

This thesis presents three examples of U.S. energy policy and demonstrates how these policies violate the principles of energy justice. First, requiring only Federal agencies to obtain a percentage of energy production from renewables violates the distributive energy justice principle through a lack of a federal renewable energy policy which distributes the potential for unequal electrical grid failure to populations. Second, U.S. energy policy violates the procedural energy justice principle through inequitable participation and poor knowledge dissemination that, in some cases, contributes to stagnant renewable targets during the decision-making process and inequitable distribution of the benefits associated with renewable energy …

Environmental Justice In Remediation: Tools For Community Empowerment, Chihiro Tamefusa

Pomona Senior Theses

Exide Technologies finally closed its secondary lead-battery recycling plant on March 12, 2015. The community of primarily Hispanics around the facility had to fight many years to have the polluting facility shut down. Because government agencies, whose job is to protect citizens from polluters, were not regulating the facility properly, residents are not sure if they can trust the agencies to carry out remediation effectively and efficiently either. In this paper I explore the environmental justice issues associated with environmental remediation and what community members can do to make sure that their neighborhood is cleaned up properly. Through interviews with …

Ballot-Box Environmentalism Across The Golden State: How Geography Influences California Voters’ Demand For Environmental Public Goods, William Skyler Lewis

Pomona Senior Theses

In California, voters frequently face ballot propositions dealing directly or indirectly with environmental protection. Records of these votes provide powerful evidence of the character of voters’ demand and willingness-to-pay for environmental public goods (e.g., air quality, watershed ecosystem services, parks and recreation), and have been used in past environmental econometrics research to produce aggregated income and price effect estimates. Using neighborhood-level voting records on seven environmental-related ballot propositions in California between 2002 and 2010, this econometric study investigates the nature of voters’ demand for environmental public goods, focusing on the effect of household income on pro-environment voting. Unlike previous studies, …

How Can We Have A Better Public Transportation System? –An Exploratory Agent Based Model, Boyu Liu

Pomona Senior Theses

Public transportation plays an integral part in a city's development, but transportation professionals disagree about whether it is feasible to increase the capacity of public transportation systems at a reasonable cost; and if it is, how. This study develops an agent based model that aims to answer this question and provide a framework to compare the effects of improvements in different aspects of the public transportation service. The results of this study show that it is possible to increase ridership enough to compensate for the increased operational cost, but only in certain circumstances. Interesting phenomenon that might have showed up …

Extra Studies In Rio Grande Valley History, Milo Kearney, Anthony K. Knopp, Antonio Zavaleta, Thomas Daniel Knight

Studies in Rio Grande Valley Regional History Series

Vaqueros del Valle, a poem / Manuel Medrano -- Matamoros and the Tejanos of Victoria and Goliad in the Texas Revolution: conflicting loyalties and ‘Assiduous Collaborators’ / Craig H. Roell -- Antonio Canales Rosillo / James Mills -- The origins of Salome Balli McAllen / Thomas Daniel Knight -- Sally Skull: the legend / Sondra Shands -- The Kawahata Family comes to the Valley / Randall Sakai – The Battle of Reynosa / Jesus Ramos -- Los días siguientes a la toma de Matamoros por los Constitucionalistas / Andres Cuellar -- H-E-B: an American and Valley success story / Norman …

A Comparative Examination Of International Carbon Trading Mechanisms, Allison Moors

CMC Senior Theses

A Comparative Examination of International Carbon Trading Mechanisms

Contextualizing And Evaluating The Klamath Basin Restoration Agreement, Jackman Wilson

CMC Senior Theses

This thesis explores the background of the Klamath Basin Restoration Agreement, a 250 page water use agreement among irrigators, Indian tribes, fishermen, environmental groups, federal and state agencies in the Klamath Basin. The agreement is contextualized in terms of water rights law, Indian law and the Endangered Species Act. The specific details of the agreement are explored. Finally, this thesis evaluates the agreement's merits and suggests a path forward for the agreement to become law.

Assessing Urban Greenhouse Gas Emissions In European Medium And Large Cities: Methodological Considerations, Peter Marcotullio, Andrea Sarzynski, Jochen Albrecht, Niels Schulz, Jake Garcia

Publications and Research

Policymakers need clear, consistent, and reliable information about the location of greenhouse gases and drivers of emitting activity in order to design appropriate mitigating strategies. At the urban scale, there have been challenges in developing consistent and reliable emissions inventories. This chapter examines selected methods to determine greenhouse gas emissions at the urban scale. We describe the various criteria considered when constructing an urban greenhouse gas protocol including the definition of urban, the gasses that are measured, the source they come from, the scope of analysis and how the measurements are undertaken. We then present results for European medium and …

Urban Farming In The North American Metropolis: Rethinking Work And Distance In Alternative Food Networks, Diana Mincyte, Karin Dobernig

Publications and Research

This article examines the role of manual work in bridging the distance between production and consumption in alternative agro-food economies, particularly in urban farming. Scholars and public commentators often draw on Marxian theories of alienation to suggest that manual work constitutes a key strategy for reconnecting production and consumption, and overcoming the ecological rift between natural processes and modern, agro-industrial production. Focusing on urban farming, this article complicates the picture of unalienated, decommodified labor and points to continuous negotiations between experiences of re-embedding in the community and the environment, and the on-going commodification of the farming experience. We argue that …

The Pathology Of Command And Control: A Formal Synthesis, Michael Cox

Dartmouth Scholarship

One of the most important theories in the study of environmental governance and policy is the pathology of command and control, which describes the negative consequences of top-down, technocratic governance of social and ecological systems. However, to date, this theory has been expressed somewhat inconsistently and informally in the literature, even by the seminal works that have established its importance and popularized it. This presents a problem for the sustainability science community if it cannot be sure of the precise details of one of its most important theories. Without such precision, applications and tests of various elements of the theory …

Environmental Racism And The Movement For Black Lives: Grassroots Power In The 21st Century, Rickie Cleere

Pomona Senior Theses

This thesis explores the ways in which the environmental justice movement, which is in opposition to environmental racism, and the Black Lives Matter movement, which is in opposition to police brutality and other forms of racism, are part of the same struggle: a struggle against the neoliberal violence of the state. This struggle against neoliberal violence is at the same time a struggle for communities of color to achieve self-determination on a global scale, a monumental task which might be informed through a revolutionary intercommunalist framework of global grassroots solidarity. State oppression embodies violence in more forms that one, including …

Whoever Controls Access To The Tap Collects Rent On It: How Nigeria’S Function As A Gatekeeper State Fostered Environmental Degradation By Transnational Corporations, Mayowa Ige

Pomona Senior Theses

Every year, for the past 50 years, Nigeria’s oil-rich Niger Delta has suffered the same magnitude of oil spill in its rivers and swamps than was spilled in the 2010 Gulf Oil Spill. The damage has devastated the way of life of the Ogoni people who live in the area. They have consistently suffered environmental injustice as a result of Shell’s oil exploration, and the Nigerian government has ignored their cries for help and restitution. In fact, movements to garner support for environmental justice and fare share of oil profits and ownership from Shell and the state have been brutally …

Vehicle To Grid: An Economic And Technological Key To California's Renewable Future, Jackson C. Rafter

Pomona Senior Theses

This paper explores how the concept of Vehicle to Grid (V2G) could bring benefits to California's electric grid, transportation sector, and environmental goals.

Food Rebellion: Contemporary Food Movements As A Reflection Of Our Agrarian Past, James Gordon

Pomona Senior Theses

This thesis considers the influence of agrarian thought on contemporary food movements.

Turning Waste Into Compost In Napa, California, Liana D. Solis

Pomona Senior Theses

Two significant pieces of legislation in California have mandated that cities and counties must reduce their waste streams. Assembly Bill 341 establishes that California must divert 75% of its waste from landfills by the year 2020. The first bill that included composting, Assembly Bill 1826, was passed in 2014 and requires that commercial users enact composting beginning in 2016. These initiatives have led cities and counties to seek ways of implementing composting programs. Using the City of Napa as a case study, this thesis argues that a composting program can be integrated into any existing waste hauling service. Although there …

Christianity And The Development Of Eco-Justice, Emily C. Hill

Pomona Senior Theses

This thesis investigates the role Christian communities in the United States play in eco-justice work. Eco-justice is the recognition that human rights and environmental rights are indivisible. Christianity had a deep impact on Western culture in Europe during the Medieval, Renaissance, and Enlightenment periods. Evangelizing and carrying out God’s will were used repeatedly as justification for the colonial escapades of European powers. The notion of a Covenant with God permeated American culture and influenced the identity of the nation and of American environmentalism. However, Christian communities were also active in resisting the exploitation of people and the Earth. Today, Christian …

The Power Of The Tower: Contesting History At Bear Lodge/Devils Tower National Monument, Anna Marie Kramer

Pomona Senior Theses

Bear Lodge/Devils Tower National Monument, a spectacular rock formation in northeastern Wyoming, has a multiplicity of meanings, not all of which were fully acknowledged until the 1990s. It is widely known as a geologic wonder, the first national monument, a marker of local and pioneer heritage, and a premier rock climbing area. In the 1980s and ‘90s, however, the National Park Service began to acknowledge that the Tower also holds cultural and historical meaning for the Northern Plains tribes, dating back long before the colonization of the American West. Some of the tribes expressed to the Park Service that they …

All’S Whale That Ends Whale: How Correctly Identifying Antarctic-Feeding Grounds Of Oceania Humpbacks Could Save An Endangered Population, Davey Holmes

Pomona Senior Theses

Although major whaling practices have ceased, increasing human involvement and influence in the world’s marine ecosystems continue to adversely effect global whale populations. It is a major concern throughout Antarctic waters, where endangered Oceania Humpback Whales (Megaptera novarangliae) annually feed. This study analyzes the extent to which a proposed marine protected area within the Ross Sea may indirectly harm the last remaining endangered population of Humpbacks. Using current satellite tracks of southern Humpback migrations, this model maps the effects of displaced Toothfish fisheries, and suggests further conservations efforts, based on New Zealand’s Precautionary Approach, to protect these vulnerable whales.

Crossing The Line: Navigating A Polluted Transboundary Watershed, Celia T. Tobin

Graduate Student Theses, Dissertations, & Professional Papers

Montana’s Lake Koocanusa sits at the end of a river system that drains Canada’s most productive coal country. Today, the waters of the massive lake contain a mineral called selenium, a poorly understood byproduct of mine waste. This summer, the U.S. federal government will be in a position to declare that the selenium in the lake puts Canada in violation of its international treaty with the U.S. The Montana government, however, is preparing to argue otherwise through its own water analysis. The disagreement has U.S. ecologists frustrated with the state’s position, saying they won’t practice science that is slave to …

The Sacrificial Ram, Charles Ebbers

Graduate Student Theses, Dissertations, & Professional Papers

Every January and February, Montana and other western states auction tags to hunt big horn sheep, moose, mountain goats, bears and other big game species to the highest bidder, at a series of hunting shows in Nevada. Some states call them “governor’s tags,” while others like Montana call them auction tags.

The purpose of the auctions is to raise funds for state conservation programs meant to keep wildlife populations healthy. In Montana, the funds raised are species specific, meaning that the proceeds from a bighorn sheep tag must be used to help bighorn sheep. Yet, the revenue from these tags …

Assessing The Use Of Food Waste Biochar As A Biodynamic Plant Fertilizer, Rachel Mazac

Departmental Honors Projects

Biochar is a charcoal-like substance produced from plant material such as food waste. Converting food waste into a useful product would mitigate environmental damage through reduced landfill inputs, reduced greenhouse gas production, and increased benefits to soils. I asked (1) if biochar improved plant growth and (2) if the effects of biochar varied among different samples of mixed food waste (batches) and between different biochar preparation times (treatments). Four independent batches of biochar were prepared with assorted, uncooked food waste collected from a university dining facility. Each batch was dried then placed in a covered ceramic pot at 260℃ for …

A Hybrid Law Model For The Management Of Waste Electrical And Electronic Equipment: A Case Of The New Draft Law In Thailand, Panate Manomaivibool, Sujitra Vassanadumrongdee

Applied Environmental Research

Waste electrical and electronic equipment (WEEE) has been high on the environmental policy agenda of many countries due to its rapidly increasing volume and concerns over its toxicity and the critical metals it holds. To date, 59 countries have passed laws for WEEE management (ex-cluding State level legislation in the USA and Canada). Most of these laws are based on the principle of extended producer responsibility (EPR) but their treatment of allocation of respon-sibility and system operation differ considerably. This study reviews the implementation models of EPR which are classified into two broad groups: producer compliance schemes and governmental funds. …

Greenhouse Gas Emission In Jewelry Industry: A Case Study Of Silver Flat Ring, Parnuwat Usapein, Chantra Tongcumpou

Applied Environmental Research

This paper describes an assessment of the carbon footprint (CF) of a silver ring, together with an attempt to measurematerial and energy consumption. The boundary of analyzing CF was defined as Business to Business (B2B). All primary data were obtained from a survey of the case study factory. Acquisition of raw material (silver) was the main GHG contribution to the overall CF and was thus considered as a CF hotspot. Acquisition accounted for 0.9740 kg CO2e or 94.44% of total emissions, followed by production processes (0.0573 kg CO2e) and tran-sportation (0.002 kg CO2e). The total CF amounted to 1.03 kg …

The Econometric Model Of Ship-Generated Operational Waste: The Underlying Tool For Waste Management In Container Port, Chalermpong Senarak

Applied Environmental Research

Marine pollution prevention through adequate provision of garbage reception facility (GRF) is a legal obligation of every port. According to MARPOL 73/78, each port authority should explore ways to increase its ability to prevent marine pollution from ship-generated waste. The paper supports this legal requirement by developing an econometric model for estimating the amount of operational waste delivered at GRF. The multiple regression with ordinary least squares technique was used to analyze the relationship between the amount of operational waste per month and two explanatory variables - size of ship and travelling distance from the last port of discharge. Data …

Acidic Recovery From Wastewater Of Automotive Battery Plant Using Membrane Technology, Nantanee Chaimongkalayon, Sudtida P. Thanasupsin

Applied Environmental Research

Diffusion dialysis (DD) equipped with anion exchange membranes (AEMs) is used as an effective tool to recover acidfrom various types of waste acid solutions. The aim of this study was to investigate the possibility of using the DD process to recover sulfuric acid (HsSO4) from the acidic wastewater from an automotive battery plant. A numbers of experimental runs was conducted to optimize the equipment's operating conditions, particularly variations in feed flow and flow rate ratios . The results showed that H2SO4 permeated well through the AEM, while metal ions were efficiently rejected. The recovery of H2SO4 increased as flow rate …