Environmental Studies Commons^™

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.

Validation Of A Diagnostic Marker For Primocane-Fruiting In Blackberry, Isabella Vaughn, Alexander Silva, Carmen Johns, Lacy Nelson, Margaret Worthington

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

Typical blackberries (Rubus subgenus Rubus) have perennial crowns and roots and biennial canes. The first-year canes (primocanes) are usually vegetative, while second-year canes (floricanes) produce fruit. Primocane-fruiting blackberries produce fruit on first-year canes and are desirable to growers because they potentially allow for a longer harvest season in temperate regions and enable production in tropical areas where no natural chill hours are accumulated. The development of molecular markers for desirable traits can potentially increase efficiency in blackberry breeding. However, to date, there are no diagnostic molecular markers for economically important traits in blackberries. Primocane-fruiting is recessively inherited, and tetraploid blackberries …

An Inclusive Playground For Infant And Toddler Development, Amanda M. Swartz, Jacquelyn D. Wiersma-Mosley, Donia Timby, Shelley Mcnally, Caitlyn Daniel

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

The purpose of this project was to help children reach more developmental goals and to make outdoor play at the Jean Tyson Child Development Study Center more inclusive for all children. Children gain many developmental goals from playing outside and being exposed to other environments as compared to just being inside the classroom. Outdoor play should be as inclusive as indoor play and offer many different activities and outlets, just as the indoor classroom does. The implementation of this service-learning creative project was to add more versatility to the outdoor area at the University of Arkansas Jean Tyson Child Development …

Teaching Agroecology: Preparing Students For Navigating Uncharted Territory, Charles A. Francis, Steve Gliessman

Department of Agronomy and Horticulture: Faculty Publications

Agroecologists understand that farming and food systems are more complex than the aggregation of their components. This realization drives our choices of learning strategies and activities that will prepare students for complexity and uncertainty. Our quest for a just, sustainable, and nutritious food system adequate to equitably serve everyone on the planet today and into the future is an enormous challenge. An undertaking of this magnitude will be met only with major adjustments informed by thoughtful teaching and practicing problem solving skills through a new educational lens. The principles of agroecology help us focus this lens on the wicked problems …

Between Tradition And Transformation: A Feminist Investigation Of The Role Of Pastoral Women Within Tanzania's Integrated Environment And Development Landscape, Kelli Erin Rogers

Graduate Student Theses, Dissertations, & Professional Papers

Pastoral women hold pivotal social and environmental roles within their communities. Equally and actively engaging pastoral women in processes to conserve and sustainably use rangeland resources has therefore become an important focus for integrated environment and development intervention. In northern Tanzania, pastoral women find themselves at the center of gender equality efforts, which attempt to translate gender and environment theory into conservation action that elevates pastoral women’s historically unheard voices. Along the way, particular global narratives have positioned pastoral women alternately as passive beneficiaries or as powerful allies in biodiversity conservation and natural resource management. Although the importance of integrating …

Red White And Blue – And Also Green: How Energy Policy Can Protect Both National Security And The Environment, David M. Schizer

Faculty Scholarship

Too often, energy policy protects the environment while neglecting national security, or vice versa. Since each goal is critical, this Article shows how to advance both at the same time.

For national security, the key is to avoid depending on the wrong suppliers. If they are vulnerable to attack (like some Middle Eastern producers), they need to be defended. Or, if they are themselves geopolitical threats (like Russia and Iran), their energy exports fund harmful conduct. This Article breaks new ground in showing why suppliers tend to be insecure or menacing: authoritarian regimes — which are more likely to pose …

Disaster Risk Assessment In The Context Of Social Justice Using Geospatial Data Analytics, Behrang Bidadian

Graduate Theses, Dissertations, and Problem Reports (ETD)

Disaster Risk Assessment in the Context of Social Justice Using Geospatial Data Analytics

Behrang Bidadian

In recent decades, urban areas have witnessed a rise in floods which have posed a significant threat to human life and wealth, due to the effects of global warming. While researchers have conducted extensive studies on natural disaster risk focusing on components such as hazard, exposure, and vulnerability, certain aspects of this field have remained inadequately understood. To fulfill this need, the primary objective of this dissertation was to enhance our understanding of flood risk in urban areas, considering it a crucial example of natural …

Middle Savannah River: An A/R/Tographic Ecopedagogical Ethnography Experimenting With Rhizomatic Perspectives, Lisa Augustine-Chizmar

College of Graduate Studies: Theses & Dissertations

This research is an experiment in perspective. Using the four commonplaces (Schwab, 1978), I practiced letting the Savannah River teach me what there is to know about the water, the land, the people, and the other entities that depend on ki through artistic, ethnographic, and ecopedagogical lenses. The ethnographic findings describe the social actors that depend on ki and give a voice to the River. The a/r/tographic findings display the River on a canvas map through two hundred years using paint, clay, photography, video, abstract acrylics, and fabric. Together, these methods contribute to a unique ecopedagogical journey. This word cloud …

Environmental Policy Implementation And Electoral Institutions In Germany And Japan, Kaia Rendo

Honors Theses

In an era when attention to reconstruction and preservation of the environment is crucial, this thesis looks at the effect that electoral institutions have on attention paid to the environmental policy issue dimension. Specifically, it looks at party manifestos and policies in post-1980 Germany and Japan to determine if specific electoral structures, such as the number of parties in a system, correlates with a greater amount of either attention paid to environmental policy in party platforms or in the actual passing of policy. It finds that though both Germany and Japan employ multi-member proportional systems, the greater number of parties …

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 …

Habitat Value Of Stormwater Retention Basins For Avian Species In The South San Francisco Bay, Maya D. Briones

Master's Theses

Shorebird populations are declining worldwide due to habitat fragmentation, degradation, and loss. A potential, understudied set of resources that might be used to benefit waterfowl, especially breeding shorebirds, are artificial wetlands such as stormwater retention basins. This study evaluated the habitat value of stormwater retention basins in the San Francisco Bay Area by measuring species abundance, richness, and behavior. Seston, or biota and other suspended material, was collected and tested for mercury contents. Additionally, the habitat features within each basin were recorded and tracked for changes over a year. The stormwater retention basins supported a higher diversity of bird species …

Linking Social Dynamics To Private Land Management: A Study Of Prescribed Burn Associations In Northern California, Spencer R. Klinefelter

Master's Theses

Prescribed fire is one way to improve the adaptive capacity of communities in the wildland urban interface in terms of managing wildfire risk and meeting socio-ecological goals. In California, Prescribed Burn Associations (PBAs) are a way of organizing private landowners with the goal of engaging in more widespread and frequent prescribed fires. This research uses semi-structured interviews with private landowners, along with key informants from public agencies such as CalFire and Regional Parks, to explore PBA development and functioning in northern coastal California. Sonoma and Marin counties were chosen as the primary study sites as they are represented by the …

Tree Removal From An Encroached Coastal Grassland Restores Soil Bacterial Communities Before Fungal Communities, Ka Ki Law

Master's Theses

Woody species encroachment depletes historic grassland biodiversity and degrades ecosystem function around the world. In particular, the encroaching trees can shift soil properties and microbial communities, which play critical roles in plant health and global nutrient cycling. Little is known about how removing encroached trees affects soil ecosystems, however. Over the last century, Pinus radiata and Hesperocyparis macrocarpa (non-native to the area) both encroached into coastal prairies at Rancho Corral de Tierra in California, and selected trees were removed in 2017 and 2018 to restore grassland habitats. To examine the impacts of encroachment and removal on the soil ecosystem, I …

Distribution And Habitat Use By Western Burrowing Owls (Athene Cunicularia Hypugaea) In Alameda, Contra Costa And San Joaquin Counties, California, Jacqueline Taylor

Master's Theses

Grasslands are regularly altered for development, agriculture, and animal farming which leads to habitat destruction and fragmentation and, ultimately, a loss of wildlife species. Though degraded, grassland ecosystems – including native and non-native species - dominate the landscape in the region of the San Francisco Bay Area east of the Bay. The western burrowing owl (Athene cuncularia hypugaea) is a native grassland species of California. The breeding burrowing owl population in the San Francisco Bay Area is resident, but burrowing owls from other parts of the range migrate into the region for the winter. The breeding owl populations in the …

Welcome To The Farm, Elani Ben-Gabriel Borhegyi

Undergraduate Theses, Professional Papers, and Capstone Artifacts

The purpose of this creative scholarship is to examine human relationships to Earth and the implications for a thriving future. This thesis studies the current environmental state of our planet, then looks at sustainability as a model for improving human and planetary health, and ends by visualizing a thriving future beyond sustainability in which we adopt a “caretaker” culture. The key to this trajectory is to untangle and dismantle colonial relationships with the planet and replace them with “caretaker” relationships - relationships rooted in love, honor, and reciprocity with environmental connection, while taking into account past, present, and future generations …

Quantifying The Carbon Stored And Sequestered By The Trees On Pomona College’S Campus, Paola A. Giron-Carson

Scripps Senior Theses

We are experiencing a climate crisis that must be confronted with strategic mitigation. Pomona College contributes to the climate crisis through its emissions for which there is a baseline record. However there is no baseline record of the climate mitigation currently performed by the trees on Pomona’s campus through carbon storage. This study seeks to determine a current baseline quantity of carbon stored and sequestrated by Pomona’s trees as well as possible courses of climate mitigation for Pomona College to take. Initial information gathering was conducted through interviews with several stakeholders. This study was conducted using data collected prior to …

Treasure Island: Gold Dust Or Radioactive Soil?, Ari Daniels

Scripps Senior Theses

Former Naval Station Treasure Island in the San Francisco Bay is undergoing an expensive redevelopment process to be turned into a sustainable living community. However, the area has a long history of mishandled radioactive material, irresponsible behavior on behalf of authorities, environmental instability, lawsuits, and administrative complaints. This research project focuses on Treasure Island’s history and redevelopment plan, utilizing San Francisco government documents, local newspapers, literature on environmental justice and racism, and state legislation to draw conclusions on the efficacy of the project from a sustainability standpoint and the responsibilities of the planners and developers. After providing a historical overview …

Fossil Fuels In Disguise: Environmental Issues With Carbon Capture Storage In The Central Valley, Medha Gelli

Scripps Senior Theses

The California Air Resources Board’s 2022 Scoping Plan supports the development of Carbon Capture Storage (CCS) facilities in order to meet California’s climate goals. Most of the proposed fourteen sites will be located in the Central Valley. CCS may help achieve negative emissions but poses several environmental problems. Key among these issues are water depletion and contamination, excessive energy usage, air pollution, and the potential for CCS-induced seismic risk. Due to the Central Valley’s disadvantaged and less-resourced background, this area is more at risk for environmental injustices with CCS implementation. By creating Geographic Information Systems (GIS) maps of factors related …

Performance-Based Evaluation Of Cmip5 And Cmip6 Global Climate Models And Their Multi-Model Ensembles To Simulate And Project Seasonal And Annual Climate Variables In The Chungcheong Region Of South Korea, Bashir Adelodun, Mirza Junaid Ahmad, Golden Odey, Qudus Adeyi, Kyung Sook Choi

Arusha Climate and Environmental Research Centre

Extreme climate change events are major causes of devastating impacts on socioeconomic well-being and ecosystem damage. Therefore, understanding the performance of appropriate climate models representing local climate characteristics is critical for future projections. Thus, this study analyses the performance of 24 GCMs from the Coupled Model Intercomparison Project Phases 5 and 6 (CMIP5 and 6) and their multi-model ensembles in simulating climate variables including average rainfall, maximum (Tmax), and minimum (Tmin) temperatures at annual and seasonal scales over the Chungcheong region of South Korea from 1975 to 2015. A trend analysis was conducted to estimate the future trends in climate …

Firewise Landscaping: Homeowner Knowledge, Behaviors And Educational Preferences, Kendal Beauvais, Rowan Grassi, Frederick Gleasman

Undergraduate Theses, Professional Papers, and Capstone Artifacts

Although wildfire is a natural process in fire-adapted forests, it poses growing socioeconomic and health threats. Urban development and expansion into the wildland-urban interface (WUI) has heightened wildfire exposure, putting tens of thousands of homes at risk in Montana alone. The Firewise USA program was created to reduce the risk of home ignition and loss in the WUI. The program encourages WUI homeowners to engage in mitigation efforts such as using Firewise landscaping strategies to create a defensible zone around their homes and using building materials that decrease overall ignition risk. Despite strong evidence that Firewise mitigation strategies are effective, …

Leveraging Environmental Stewardship Mapping And Assessment Research As A Relational Process For Ecology With Cities, Bemmy Jennifer Maharramli, Michele Romolini

Center for Urban Resilience Scholarship

Increasingly, scholars, policy makers, and others have put forth that governance and management of urban environments requires a consideration of cities as social-ecological systems, necessitating involvement from a broad range of actors. Yet the research on environmental governance and development of tools to support it is often completed for rather than with those responsible for carrying out the work. We examined a university-led research e��ort on urban environmental stewardship in Los Angeles (LA), USA. A university urban research center conducted an environmental StewardshipMapping and Assessment Project (STEW-MAP) in Los Angeles County, which draws upon network analysis andGIS to better understand …

Piney Point Cascading Disaster And Environmental Conflict: An Explanatory Case Study, Ketti Davison

Department of Conflict Resolution Studies Theses and Dissertations

The purpose of this explanatory case study is to understand the sense that community members made of how and why environmental conflict manifested in the wake of the Piney Point cascading disaster. It found that intentional avoidance of local news caused community members to be unaware of the risks beforehand, of the responses in the aftermath, and of the threats that remain. The study leverages a unique opportunity to fill a gap in the research by examining a contemporary cascading disaster as it generated environmental conflict. This dissertation centers on the perceptions of directly affected community members in the Tampa …

Quantifying The Potential Health Impacts Of Unvented Combustion In Homes – A Meta- Analysis, P. Jacob Bueno De Mesquita, Nuria Casquero-Modrego, Iain Walker, Brennan D. Less, Brett C. Singer

Arts & Sciences Faculty Publications

While a growing body of scientific literature describes the population health impacts of fossil fuel production and burning via climate and air pollution pathways, less is known about the health impacts of indoor combustion. This paper summarizes the results of studies from the last two decades that investigated the association between exposure to sources of unvented combustion pollutants in homes and a range of health outcomes. We found gas combustion to be associated with 6-28% (95% confidence intervals) increased odds of asthma symptoms, 4-51% increased odds of systemic symptoms, 7-81% increased odds of asthma medication use, and 3-12% increased risk …

Bicycling For Sustainable Urban Mobility: Comparing Urban Transformations In Paris And Bogotá, Luba Masliy

Pomona Senior Theses

Promoting cycling is one of the low-hanging fruits to decarbonizing transportation, with further extensive benefits to quality of life. The main deterrent to the adoption of cycling for transportation is the lack of safe and connected infrastructure. This thesis explores and compares the case studies of Paris and Bogotá, where cycling modal shares grew significantly within the last decade. Plans outlining ambitious goals around sustainable transportation were put in place, and total bicycle network lengths increased rapidly in both cities. My work focuses on examining policy and infrastructure developments that lead to increased adoption of cycling over time in Paris …

Determinan Pertumbuhan Ekonomi Asean+5: Aspek Lingkungan, Kartika Sari, Setyo Tri Wahyudi, Rihana Sofie Nabella

Jurnal Ekonomi dan Pembangunan Indonesia

The environmental aspect is a vital issue because it is closely related to economic activities that drive the rate of economic growth. Environmental aspects in this study are environmental degradation and natural resource rent. Natural resource rent is still considered a curse or a blessing for a country. Therefore, this study aims to determine the effect of environmental aspects in terms of environmental degradation and natural resource rent. In addition, in this study, foreign direct investment and life expectancy were also selected to determine their effect on economic growth. This study took a sample of 5 countries in the ASEAN+ …

Keep Working Hands On Working Land, Elyse Caiazzo

Graduate Student Portfolios, Professional Papers, and Capstone Projects

Strategies for Effective Farmland Transitions, Succession Planning, and Landowner Education

Co-Op To Cafeteria: Building A Food Value Chain For Farm To School, Blake D. Lineweaver

Graduate Student Portfolios, Professional Papers, and Capstone Projects

The central theme of this M.S. Environmental Studies portfolio considers farm-to-school as a medium for food system transformation within an innovative regional partnership of producer-owned food hubs and a state education agency. The portfolio consists of three main elements.

The first element is a literature review that examines the holistic farm-to-school model, with a particular focus on local food procurement.

The second element is a strategic communications plan, which was developed as part of an internship project with the Northwest Food Hub Network and the Mission Mountain Food Enterprise Center. The aim of this plan is to promote value-added products …