Environmental Studies Commons^™

Decolonial Foodurisms: From Plantations To Agricultural Spaces Of Intersectional Healing, Dominic Arzadon

Pitzer Senior Theses

Considering the complex colonial histories and relationalities associated with agricultural food production, a reimagined future beyond the violent legacy of plantations is presented. Exploring land as the site for intersectional healing to take place, the symbiotic relationship between humans and food production is increasingly becoming a reality—a theoretical framework I propose called decolonial foodurisms (pronounced food-yoor-isms). Combining “food” and “futurism” to emphasize that our collective futures are predicated on food security and food justice for all and especially for marginalized and racialized communities with ancestral ties to agricultural violence, decolonial foodurisms aims to capture how intersectional healing can come into …

The Risk Of Climate Change And Extreme Weather, Steven Michels Ed.

Political Science & Global Affairs Faculty Publications

No abstract provided.

How To Build A World: Stereoscopes, Tourism, And Land In Zion National Park, Emma Duggleby

Scripps Senior Theses

This thesis fundamentally questions how representations of the environment and land impact how we relate to and live in it. By examining a set of 1925 stereoscope images of Zion National Park, it considers how use-based perceptions of place – structured by the entertainment of tourism and mass media – become part of the mundane practices of consumption. By revealing how these capitalist-colonial relationships to the land have been built through time, an analysis of these stereoscope slides reveals that these stories are anything but natural in hopes of making room for other stories to be built instead. The second …

Grain-Washing: The Issue With Corn Ethanol As A Sustainable Aviation Fuel, Emily J. Rinn

Scripps Senior Theses

Decarbonizing the aviation sector remains one of the most prevalent obstacles in reducing the United States’ significant contribution to global greenhouse gas emissions. Launched in 2021, the Sustainable Aviation Fuel (SAF) Grand Challenge aims to supply enough fuel to meet 100% of demand by 2050 through reducing its production costs and enhancing its sustainable practices. Corn ethanol feedstock has been proposed to make up as much as half of all SAF production in the 2030 benchmark. This thesis explores the assemblage of corn ethanol – from its true environmental impacts, role in the future SAF market, to research claiming corn …

Politics And The Criminal Enforcement Of Superfund, Joshua Ozymy, Melissa Jarrell Ozymy

Kentucky Journal of Equine, Agriculture, & Natural Resources Law

No abstract provided.

Determining The Effectiveness Of Rosemary Essential Oil On The Shelf Life Of Ground Beef Under Different Lighting Conditions, Jordan T. Looper, Kelly R. Vierck

Discovery, The Student Journal of Dale Bumpers College of Agricultural, Food and Life Sciences

This study determined the effectiveness of rosemary extract on the shelf life of ground beef patties under different retail display conditions. Ground beef patties were produced from an 85%:15% blend (lean:fat). Patties were formed from batches of control or amended with rosemary extract. Patties were individually packaged using overwrap. Groups were assigned into one of two lighting groups (3000K and 3500K). Patties were placed in a simulated retail display for 5 d under continuous lighting and rotated once a day. Lipid oxidation and color samples were taken each day. Relating to lipid oxidation, there was no three-way interaction between display …

Instructions For Authors, Discovery Editors

Discovery, The Student Journal of Dale Bumpers College of Agricultural, Food and Life Sciences

No abstract provided.

Consumers’ Preferences And Willingness To Pay For Value-Added Dairy Products In Kentucky - Considering Price, Provenance, And Environmental Product Attributes, Favour E. Esene

Theses and Dissertations--Agricultural Economics

Many medium and smaller dairies are shifting to various kinds of value-added products that may expand in demand nationally aside from fluid milk. This study uses a latent class logit model to investigate the heterogeneity of consumer preferences and willingness to pay for dairy value-added products across four latent classes considering different local and environmental sustainability labels. The dairy products examined for this research are butter, cheese, yogurt, and ice cream. This research revealed that younger consumers, especially those that reside in rural areas, always pay attention to product attributes when they shop for dairy products, mostly the local state …

An Analysis Of Water Quality At Orange County, California Beaches, Naomi Meurice

Pomona Senior Theses

Beaches in Southern California are highly recreated by residents and visitors, making beaches socially and economically important. Public health departments in coastal communities are in charge of measuring water quality and ensuring it is safe for users. Research in the past has indicated that beach water quality gets worse after storms, with bacteria levels jumping on the day of a storm and staying high for up to five days. Studies have shown these spikes in bacteria to be associated with storm runoff, with beaches closer to runoff discharge locations experiencing more impact. However, prior research has not considered the period …

Warehouses In The Inland Empire: Displacing Land And Life, Katherine Gelsey

Pomona Senior Theses

The Inland Empire in Southern California embodies unique spatial and social configurations as a consequence of how settler colonialism has manifested locally in the region since the Spanish Mission Period. This work uses GIS software to estimate patterns of land conversion for residential, agricultural, and warehouse land from 2012 to 2022. Preliminary analysis suggests that thousands of people have been displaced by warehouse expansion over the ten-year period. In the twenty-first century, the Southern California logistics industry continues processes of land dispossession and racialized labor exploitation through displacing agricultural and residential land, exposing disproportionately low-income Black and Latine communities living …

The Wh-Eye Of The Storm: How Zora Neale Hurston, Virginia Woolf, And Arif Anwar Fictionalize Extreme Weather In Their Works, Elena Vedovello

Pomona Senior Theses

In this thesis, I used Robin Wall Kimmerer’s and James D. Rice’s ideas of “ecological imagination” to analyze three twentieth and twenty-first century works that feature historical extreme weather events. American Harlem Renaissance writer Zora Neale Hurston introduces her fictional characters to the historical force of the 1928 Okeechobee Hurricane in her 1937 novel Their Eyes Were Watching God; British Modernist writer Virginia Woolf writes about the 1609 Great Frost in Orlando; and Bangladeshi author Arif Anwar sets his novel The Storm during and around the infamous Bhola Cyclone of 1970.

Although these authors and their novels stem …

Ecodrama And Sustainable Theatre: A Handbook For Creating Remarkable Change, Gigi Buddie

Pomona Senior Theses

The climate crisis is not new to us, nor are the art forms that have taken shape as vital components of the many activist movements that seek to save the planet. Yet, for the first time at Pomona College, a play about environmental devastation and our hand in it finally graced the stage of this progressive institution this past year. This mini handbook is a call-to-action (of sorts), one that stems from the idea that this should not be the last ecodrama performed at Pomona College. These chapters are structured and supported by both experience and research – formulated from …

¡Hay Comida En La Casa! - There Is Food At Home!, Gabriela Camacho

Pomona Senior Theses

Implemented in 2019, AB 626 created a new category in the California Retail Food Code known as a Microenterprise Home Kitchen Operation (MEHKO). MEHKOs are restaurants operated from private homes that allow the preparation and sale of meals that were previously illegal under state law. Californians were previously limited to cottage food laws which restrict home-cooked food production to non-perishable foods like baked goods. My thesis analyzes the progression of homemade food laws and how they impact home cooks. Additionally, many MEHKO owners and home cooks are immigrants, low-income individuals, or belong to BIPOC communities, groups that have traditionally faced …

Weaving Testimonio And Territory In La Comuna Ancestral Las Tunas, María J Durán González

Pomona Senior Theses

“Nosotras las mujeres ibamos al río a lavar la ropa pero sin con tanto químico y nada de esas cosas. Ahora, pues, cómo ve…” (Tomala, 2023).

The woman’s vignette of La Comuna Ancestral Las Tunas, or the Ancestral Commune of Las Tunas is a testimonio of the territory, yet women’s testimonios are registered separately from the dominant tales of territorial resistance of la Comuna. The analysis of testimonios arises from Chicanx/Latinx feminist studies that center the voices of Chicana/Latina women to form a collective narrative emerging from silences. I aim to interlace Latinx and Latin American geography principles with …

Out Of Sight, Out Of Mind: An Exploration Of Wastewater Issues And Possible Solutions In And Out Of Montana, Keely I. Larson

Graduate Student Theses, Dissertations, & Professional Papers

Larson, Keely, M.A., Spring 2023

Major:Environmental and Natural Resources Journalism

Out of sight, out of mind: An exploration of wastewater issues and possible solutions in and out of Montana

Chairperson: Dennis Swibold

Co-Chairpersons: Nadia White, Sarah Halvorson

This is a master’s project, featuring three stories, linked in theme. The first starts with a nationally scoped story about septic systems in resort towns and what happens when too many people want to visit areas like Cape Cod, the Florida Keys or, more locally, Seeley Lake, and overwhelm waste disposal methods. Often in these areas that are more remote, septic systems …

Pathways To Sustainability: Industry, Development, Business, Agriculture, Economy, And Politics, Andreas Hernandez, Pablo Arias-Benavides, Dayana C.M. Machada, Ousmane Pame, Alice Main, Per Moller

Geography and Environmental Studies Faculty Publications

In this chapter we examine six compelling on-the-ground experiences, which are demonstrating pathways to sustainability, resilience and regeneration. Each case opens a pathway to sustainability in a key sphere of human activity: industry, development, business, agriculture, economy and politics. These experiences are creating new social imaginaries embodied in the practical forms of new politics and economics aimed at profound democratizations of human life, and towards a creative realignment of humans with the rest of the web of life. These social imaginaries are both open and encompassing. They are open in the sense that they can be filled with new possibilities …

Konsumsi Energi, Pembangunan Sektor Keuangan, Dan Emisi Karbon Di Indonesia, Monica Ruth Karunia, Ahmad Komarulzaman, Ari Tjahjawandita

Jurnal Ekonomi dan Pembangunan Indonesia

This study investigates EKC hypothesis in Indonesia over the period of 1980–2019. Within the EKC framework, we examine the impact of GDP, energy consumption, and financial development on CO2 emissions using ARDL bound-test. The results show that the study variables are cointegrated, representing a long-run relationship. The EKC hypothesis is not validated as we found a U-shaped relationship. Given the turning point (IDR13,274,579) has been reached in 1987, a further increase in GDP would only be associated with an increase in CO2 emissions. While energy consumption increases CO2 emissions, financial development seems to improve environmental quality by lowering CO2 emissions.

Radioactive, Internal Colonialism: The Uranium Industry’S Historic And Current Impact On The Navajo Nation, Sophie Arens

Pitzer Senior Theses

The United States withheld information pertaining to the health problems associated with nuclear power, allowing uranium to be extracted, processed, and stored in the Southwest of the United States and more specifically the Navajo Nation. With this, many Diné people who had previously worked in the mines or lived within close vicinity to facilities developed various types of illnesses. This thesis argues that the development of nuclear energy in the United States is a form of radioactive, internal colonialism and that the current waste facility located in Carlsbad, New Mexico is furthering this history into the present day. This thesis …

Discovery: The Student Journal Of Dale Bumpers College Of Agricultural, Food And Life Sciences - Volume 24 2023, Several Authors

Discovery, The Student Journal of Dale Bumpers College of Agricultural, Food and Life Sciences

No abstract provided.

Smoke, Air, Fire, Energy (Safe) In Rural California: Critical Reflections On An Interdisciplinary Research Collaboration, Deepti Chatti, Carisse Geronimo, Cassidy Barrientos, Jana Ganion, Malcolm Moncheur, Peter Alstone Phd, Shawn Bourque, Tanya Garcia, Tesfayohanes Yacob

Humboldt Journal of Social Relations

This article provides a synthesis of the interconnected problems of tenuous energy access, wildfires, and exposures to high air pollution in Indigenous communities in rural California through the lens of ongoing collaborative research being carried out by researchers at Cal Poly Humboldt, Schatz Energy Research Center, Karuk Department of Natural Resources, and the Blue Lake Rancheria Tribe. The collaboration is funded by the Strategic Growth Council of the state of California, and we hope is the beginning of a longer term relationship between all partners. We are an interdisciplinary team of researchers drawing on energy engineering, air pollution science, and …

From Displaced To Displacers: Scottish Crofters, First Nation Peoples And Commons Enclosure From The 1700s To The 1800s, Anna Herrington

Theses and Dissertations--History

In the 18^th and 19^th centuries, the enclosure of common systems shaped the displacement of people on a global scale whilst bringing the people---Scottish Highland crofters and Mi’kmaq First Nation Canadians from the margins where they have dwelled for centuries in historical scholarship to of the centre of not just their history, but our collective history. Both populations experienced attacks on their ties to their lands, resources, and culture through enclosure. The enclosure process lasted over two centuries and was interspersed with violent protest, proactive resistance, interspersed with periods of acceptance and determination against their forced removals. Investigating …

The Links To Cancer: How Golf Became Dangerous And What We Can Do To Save The Game, Meredith Boos

Undergraduate Theses, Professional Papers, and Capstone Artifacts

This study is a comprehensive meta-analysis on health claims linked to exposure to golf courses, more specifically the chemicals used to maintain their appearance. It provides a brief history of the golf industry and how its growth exacerbated the environmental impact as well as an explanation of the legal landscape that will affect golf course management. Golf courses can disrupt local ecologies, contaminate ground water, rivers, lakes and streams with run-off, and be responsible for the bioaccumulation of chemicals which remain dangerous for decades. Despite the adverse effects of golf courses on the environment, there remains an opportunity to transform …

Barriers To Outdoor Recreation For Marginalized Groups At The University Of Montana, Sabine R. Englert, Beatrix Frissell, Adrienne Liebert, Sophia Rodriquez, Margaret Jensen, Rachana Harris, Abby Doss

Undergraduate Theses, Professional Papers, and Capstone Artifacts

Exclusion from outdoor recreation reflects legacies of oppression of marginalized communities and makes access to the outdoors not equally available. In the United States, approximately 38% of Black Americans and 48% of Hispanic Americans participated in outdoor recreation in 2020. This is compared to 55% participation among Caucasian Americans. Many other intersecting identities are actively excluded, including people with disabilities, fat populations, and members of the LGBTQIA2S+ community; furthermore, class-based hierarchies are shown through the restricted outdoor access of low-income populations.

While numerous studies show a lack of diversity in outdoor recreation, little to no research has been conducted on …

Cop27: Kick The Climate Can Down The Road Another Year, Peter Jacques

Faculty Journal Articles

No abstract provided.

Three Essays On Environmental And Energy Economics, Maher F. Mekky

Graduate Theses, Dissertations, and Problem Reports (ETD)

In this dissertation, three related topics are investigated about environmental and energy economics. The research in these essays utilize panel data and regression models. The overall theme of these essays is to explore the relationships between energy and the environment in the United States (U.S.).

In the first essay, using data from fifty U.S. states between 2012 and 2020, the impacts of three types of state level policies on electric vehicles (EV) adoption are examined: 1) policies that mitigate the environmental impacts from energy production, 2) policies that provide financial incentives to consumers for EV purchase, and 3) policies that …

A Case Study On The Practice Of Carbon Offset Projects In Michigan: Forest Practitioners’ Perspectives, Zachary B. Hough Solomon

Dissertations, Master's Theses and Master's Reports

This report examines the practice of carbon offset programs on private nonindustrial forestlands in the state of Michigan ass. Previously, the state of Michigan provided technical assistance for enrollment in carbon offsets through the Michigan Working Forest Carbon Offset Program, but this program has now been discontinued. Currently, private companies and nongovernmental organizations are developing projects throughout the state with nonindustrial private landowners. This descriptive analysis in this case study examines the roles of different forest practitioners who are working on carbon offsets, including private consulting foresters and foresters within Michigan public agencies. I review the academic and grey literature …

Let Us Be The Fish Who Grow Legs: A Curriculum Guide For Linking Prison Industrial Complex Abolition, Environmental Justice, And State Power, Tess Gibbs

Scripps Senior Theses

This curriculum guide is designed to connect students’ understandings of environmental problems and injustices to their understandings of prison industrial complex (PIC) abolition, with the ultimate intention of cultivating the knowledge and imaginative practices to develop abolitionist-aligned solutions to environmental justice (EJ) problems outside of frameworks that rely upon state sanction. Students will connect the mutual causal forces of environmental injustices and the carceral state; explore intersections of environmental and carceral politics; and finish the course with broadened understandings of humans’ real and unrealized relationships with each other and the more-than-human world. The guide is intended to be worked through …

Concrete Everywhere: A Project-Based Analysis Of The Unequal Distribution Of Warehouses In Fontana, Chanah Haigh

Scripps Senior Theses

Unjust legislation and zoning practices drive the excess of warehouses in Fontana, California whose impacts fall disproportionately on low income communities of color. This paper addresses the environmental and health impacts of warehouses, as well as the legislation and the use of zoning which bring them to Fontana. Original maps show the spread of warehouses over census tract level data depicting race, income, and environmental factors such as diesel particulate matter. State and local legislation is analyzed to determine its intended effect and how well it has been enforced. Research was conducted through a project based thesis done in conjunction …

Grieving Climate Change: A Psychological And Personal Exploration Of Emotionally Processing The Climate Crisis, Hava Chishti

Pitzer Senior Theses

The psychological concept of grief, although not typically associated with climate change, has strong applications to the emotional processing of climate change for human beings. Grief can be related to climate change in many ways, including the grief that individuals may feel over the anticipated loss of their future, losses that may be experienced due to climate-related disasters, and grief for the overall implications of anthropogenic climate change. A mixture of traditional literature analysis and creative nonfiction essays, which focus on personal narratives from interviews and the author’s experience, are used to outline the ways in which the psychology of …

Issue Brief (The Cairo Review Of Global Affairs, 47), Noha El-Mikawy

Faculty Journal Articles

No abstract provided.