Environmental Studies Commons^™

Rights, Water, And Guardians: How Rights Of Nature Movements Are Reshaping Our Current Environmental Ethics And What These Policies Need To Be Successful, Megan Schmiesing

Pitzer Senior Theses

Giving legal rights to nature is no longer a fringe idea in international environmental law. Rights of Nature movements have gained traction in countries around the world, including Ecuador, Australia, India, Aotearoa New Zealand, and the United States. The act of organizing to recognize legal rights and legal personhood for nature represents a philosophical, moral, and political shift from previous anthropocentric values. Through two case studies in Aotearoa New Zealand and the United States, this thesis examines the policy language and the context and history that led to their creation. The Te Awa Tupua (Whanganui River Claims Settlement) Act and …

Urban Renewal Or Urban Legend? Re-Historicizing Human-River Relationships Disrupted By Displacement Before And Now In Los Angeles, Jamie Sophia Helberg

Pitzer Senior Theses

This thesis speaks to how historical and on-going colonization of the river has consistently traumatized the relationship disadvantaged communities have had with the Los Angeles River. By historicizing those relationships, I argue that current use of human-centered market-based strategies to revitalize the river only furthers serial displacement of disadvantaged communities and will not adequately achieve sustainability. Using Frogtown as a case study, I also explore methods of resiliency to “green gentrification," an agent of neocolonialism along the river. In studying the placemaking practices implemented in Frogtown, I problematize notions of gentrification as “natural” and "necessary" for river revitalization. Elements of …

Microdialysis: A Method For Quantifying In Situ Nitrogen Fluxes In Soil Microsites, Srusti Maddala, Mary C. Savin, Julie A. Stenken, Lisa S. Wood

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

Microdialysis, a diffusion-based sampling technique commonly used in biomedical research, has recently been recognized as a candidate for monitoring chemical changes in the rhizosphere. The information it provides about nutrient diffusion may improve nitrogen use efficiency, leading to enhanced management and success of restoration projects. The objective of this study was to determine the efficacy of microdialysis sampling to quantify the relative recoveries (RR%) of nitrate-N and ammonium-N, the two inorganic nitrogen compounds typically found in soil. The effects of microdialysis flow rate, sample medium concentration, and the presence of both analytes in solution on the relative recoveries obtained from …

The Economics Of On-Farm Rice Drying In Arkansas, Clayton J. Parker, Lanier Nalley

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

Globally, rice producers are faced with the temporal problem of deciding the optimal time to harvest rice. When harvested, paddy rice is typically at a harvest moisture content (HMC) between 15% and 22% and subsequently dried by the mill to a moisture content (MC) of 12.5%. Riceland Foods Inc., the largest miller of rice in the world, uses a stair-step pricing model to charge farmers to dry, which can complicate the timing of harvest as producers try to balance the tradeoff of minimizing drying costs by waiting to harvest at lower HMC vs. maintaining higher rice quality typically observed when …

The Biofiltration Ability Of Asparagus Densiflorus To Remove Sulfur Dioxide From The Indoor Atmosphere, Rhiannon De La Rosa, Mary Savin

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

Sulfur dioxide is an inorganic compound (IC) and air pollutant that causes health risks in humans. The buildup of sulfur dioxide (SO2) in enclosed indoor spaces is, therefore, a concern to human health, especially since the average person spends 90% of his/her time indoors. This study focused on decreasing SO2 concentration in a cost-effective and simple way—by using botanical biofiltration, or the uptake of pollutants by plants. Research in biofiltration has focused mostly on the remediation of volatile organic compounds (VOC). However, research has also shown that plant species that remediate VOC efficiently also have the potential for efficient IC …

Sympathy For Cecil: Gender, Trophy Hunting, And The Western Environmental Imaginary, Eric S. Godoy

Faculty Publications - Philosophy

This article draws from political ecology and ecofeminism to examine sympathy, expressed by record-breaking donations from North Americans, for the death of Cecil the Lion. The overlapping normative critique offered by these two perspectives together demonstrates how sympathy is disclosive of power relations. Sympathy reveals, relies upon, and reinforces different forms of gender, racial, and neocolonial domination; especially when western sympathy remains ignorant of the power relations, including their politics and histories, that shape attitudes toward non-human animals and grant them status as members of the (western) moral community.

In The Wake Of Two Storms: An Impact Assessment Of Hurricanes Irma And Maria On The St. Croix And St. Thomas Fisheries, Usvi, Brent Stoffle, Amanda Stoltz, Scott Crosson, Jennifer Tookes

Sociology & Anthropology: Faculty Publications

Hurricanes are common in the United States Virgin Islands (USVI). For generations, the USVI fishermen and residents have adapted to hurricane impacts and grown accustomed to the process of rebuilding. In September of 2017, however, hurricanes Irma and Maria passed over the islands leaving an unprecedented massive destruction of property and disruption of services. Losses included boats, homes, power, and basic infrastructure access. The economic impacts included a consequential loss of tourism and tourism-related infra-structure. Fishermen experienced all of these impacts. This NOAA sponsored research focuses on the impact of these two hurricanes on the St. Croix, St. Thomas, and …

Sustainable Operations, Industry Performance, And Environmental Sustainability: A Case Study On U.S. Marine Fisheries And Pacific Bluefin Tuna, Kalyn Chapman

Undergraduate Research Awards

When thinking of the numerous industries we have across the United States, the environmental impacts created from their unsustainable operations is not always at the forefront of our thoughts. The fact that negative impacts on our environment can also create problems for our economy is often overlooked as well. The damaging impact marine fisheries in the United States have on our environment, and the cost it creates for the fishing industry, is a good example of this cycle between sustainable (or unsustainable) operations and productivity.

In this paper we ask the following: Has the implementation of sustainable practices in U.S. …

Three Essays On Trade, Environment, And Health, Sookti Chaudhary

Theses and Dissertations--Economics

My dissertation consists of three essays on trade, environment and health. The first essay empirically evaluates domestic facilities' environmental response to Chinese import competition in the United States (US) manufacturing sector from 2000 to 2010. Using facility-level data on chemical emissions and employing an instrumental variables approach, the paper finds that industry/regional exposure to increased import competition had very little impact on the environmental decisions of domestic facilities.

The second essay empirically explores a possible link between the environmental justice efforts during the Obama administration and the change in environmental inequity by examining the change in US facilities' underlying environmental …

Diet Of A Recently Reintroduced River Otter (Lontra Canadensis) Population In Taos County, New Mexico, Gabriela Alexandra Wolf-Gonzalez

Theses and Dissertations--Forestry and Natural Resources

North American river otters (Lontra canadensis), native to every U.S. state and Canada, experienced extensive population decreases and range reduction until the mid-20th century as a result of overexploitation and habitat loss during European colonization. The last known river otter in New Mexico was killed on the Gila River in 1953, although unverified reports continued thru 2008. After a nearly 60-year absence from New Mexico, 33 adult river otters were reintroduced to the Rio Pueblo de Taos in the northern part of the state between 2008-2010; however, they were not subsequently monitored or studied. I characterized diet of …

The Effects That Family Form And Medical Practices Have On The Willingness Of Consumers To Adopt Entomophagous Practices, Mackenzie Conlon

Undergraduate Honors Thesis Projects

To help reduce amounts of destructive methane produced by livestock, climate activists are advocating for the inclusion of entomophagy in the mindset and culinary choices of Western society. Entomophagy, customary in most regions of the world, is seen as a deviant and disgusting food practice by most Westerners. In order to challenge this perception, producers of insect-based products are changing the appearance and marketability of their commodities. To successfully target markets, they need to determine the ideal household for entomophagy acceptance. My research tests the hypothesis that family form and medical practices affect the willingness of consumers to adopt these …

Towards Sustainable Development: Measuring Environmental Total Factor Productivity In Egypt, Hoda Hassaballa, Iman Al-Ayouty

Economics

Egypt’s heavy reliance on energy and capital-intensive industries currently hinders its drive towards achieving sustainable development goals. This paper studies environmental total factor productivity (ETFP) for ten energy-intensive industries using the Malmquist index and data envelopment analysis (DEA) for the period 2002-2014. Through incorporating CO2 emissions by energy intensive industries, DEA helps identify both environmentally-efficient and inefficient industries. Findings indicate that: i) ETFP has remained almost unchanged for the 10 industries, with ‘technical progress’ improvement almost fully outweighed by an efficiency deterioration, ii) excluding the environmental component indeed yields overestimated total factor productivity (TFP). In its estimation of ETFP, the …

Externalities As The Status Quo: Federal Application Of Environmental Charges In The United States, Robert Zupko

Dissertations, Master's Theses and Master's Reports

Conceptualized as early as 1920 by English economist Arthur Cecil Pigou, but not formalized until later work in the 1970s and 1990s, “environmental charges” are a form of Pigouvian taxes that suggest the revenue burden of governance could be shifted from economic “goods” to environmental “bads”. While their association with Pigouvian taxes would suggest that environmental charges are applied as a policy instrument to encourage the reduction or elimination of environmental externalities, their application at the federal level in the United States suggests this is not the case. This report postulates that federally applied environmental charges accept environmental externalities as …

The Human Dimensions And Spatial Ecology Of Poaching And Implications For Red Wolf Survival, Suzanne Agan

Antioch University Dissertations & Theses

In the 1970’s, red wolves were considered America’s most endangered mammalian species and the US Fish and Wildlife Service (USFWS) developed the Red Wolf Recovery Plan soon after passage of the Endangered Species Act (ESA) to preserve and eventually reintroduce them. It marked the first successful attempt to reintroduce a large predator that had been completely extirpated from the wild. The conservation of predators, such as red wolves, stirs controversy when it hinders human activities and some people retaliate by illegal killing. In Northeastern North Carolina (NENC), poaching has been a problem throughout the entire recovery process and is the …

Anti-Colonial Foodways: Food Sovereignty In Post-Katrina New Orleans, Clara Zervigon

Scripps Senior Theses

After centuries of colonization, the geographies and social relations of New Orleans are incredibly unequal. While many in the city were aware of this fact, the destruction brought on by Hurricane Katrina in 2005 laid bare all the problems built into the city’s environment and culture.

New Orleanians are subject to neocolonial power structures, and creating a more localized and democratic food system is a method in which we seek to subvert these systems. While this has been an ongoing process, Katrina both solidified the need and provided the conditions for greater change in our local foodways. In this thesis, …

Liturgy As Ethicizer: Cultivating Ecological Consciousness Through A Coptic Orthodox Liturgical Ethos, Stephen M. Meawad

Catholic Studies Faculty Publications

This project will examine the liturgical ethos of the Coptic Orthodox Church and how this ethos is effective in creating self-sustaining, ecologically aware communities.

Humboldt Geographic, Full Issue

Humboldt Geographic

No abstract provided.

Cover And Table Of Contents

Humboldt Geographic

No abstract provided.

Faculty And Staff

Humboldt Geographic

No abstract provided.

Gesa Student Life, Kourtney Boone

Humboldt Geographic

No abstract provided.

How I Quarterbacked And Studied Geography In Great Britain, Tyrone Garrido

Humboldt Geographic

No abstract provided.

Finding Permaculture In Humboldt, Gilbert Trejo, Sigrid Arenas

Humboldt Geographic

No abstract provided.

Road Tripping The Roof Of The World, Miyako Namba, Sigrid Arenas, Joan Esqivel, Samuel King, Blenna Kiros, Noah Ruschmeyer, Garrett James Gazzo, Molly Cribari, Monica Wingett

Humboldt Geographic

No abstract provided.

San Gabriel Mountains, Riley Buoen

Humboldt Geographic

No abstract provided.

Visualizing Humboldt State's Built Environment, Leo Dipierro, Rosalio Gonzalez

Humboldt Geographic

No abstract provided.

Sex Work In Humboldt County, Danielle Kirkland-Shatraw

Humboldt Geographic

No abstract provided.

Mapping Lumberjacks, Amy Rock

Humboldt Geographic

No abstract provided.

Photo Essay: Murals Of Humboldt, Ryan A. Sendejas

Humboldt Geographic

No abstract provided.

Conflicts And Attitudes Regarding The Return Of The Grey Wolf To California, Kendall Burke

Humboldt Geographic

No abstract provided.

Mapping Marijuana Cultivation Sites And Water Storage In The Redwood Creek Watershed, Southern Humboldt County, Cristina Bauss

Humboldt Geographic

No abstract provided.