Environmental Studies Commons^™

Assessment Of Watershed Condition And Vulnerability To Forecasted Land-Use/Land-Cover Change In The Northwestern Great Plains Of Western South Dakota, Aaron Suehring

Electronic Theses and Dissertations

A projected increase in global population by mid-century will likely further intensify agricultural practices given future demand for food, increasing the strain on the nation’s aquatic resources. Extensive water quality monitoring will be important in agriculturally dominated regions. The main objectives of this effort were to develop an approach to assess watershed condition and watershed vulnerability to land-use/landcover (LULC) change under multiple scenarios of future development. We used U.S. EPA’s Analytical Tools Interface for Landscape Assessment (ATtILA) to analyze landscape spatial data to determine the condition of wadeable, perennial stream watersheds in the Northwestern Great Plains level III ecoregion of …

Nature, Socio-Spatial Divisions And Connections: An Examination Of El Jardín De Guadalupe, Elizabeth Moreno

Cal Poly Humboldt theses and projects

Culture is often discussed in the content of social behavior but, how culture is spatially linked to landscapes is often overlooked. Points of social and cultural reproduction is not only tied to landscapes, but there are constantly challenged as new cultures are introduced into a space. Latino culture in the United States has, and continues to, reshape America’s landscapes. For purpose of this thesis, the reshaping of landscapes will be observed in a community. This project examines the perception that Latinos avoid participation in a community garden. This perception is not entirely true, as there was one Latina participating. As …

From Vulnerability To Resilience: Emergency Planning For Individuals With Developmental Disabilities And Their Service Providers In Humboldt County, California, Dawn C. Albrecht

Cal Poly Humboldt theses and projects

Shortfalls in emergency mitigation, planning, response and recovery for people with disabilities have frequently resulted in increased negative impact for these individuals ranging from a loss of essential services to preventable injury and death. The purpose of this project was to identify the gaps in planning for individuals with developmental disabilities and their service providers in Humboldt County, California, and close these gaps by providing outreach, education, and emergency engagement plans for these individuals and members of their support teams. This project used a mixed-method approach, including questionnaires and feedback forms, informal interviews, workshops, and examples of on-site planning specific …

Social Justice In Social-Ecological Systems: Resilience Through Stakeholder Engagement, Frederick I. Lauer

Graduate Student Theses, Dissertations, & Professional Papers

Successful management of social-ecological systems (SES) is predicated on quality collaborative exchanges between project stakeholders and management. The Southwest Crown of the Continent Collaborative (SWCC) Collaborative Forest Landscape Restoration Program (CFLRP) provided an opportunity to explore landscape scale collaborative management and SES outcomes. Global change and future uncertainty of landscapes prompted the SWCC to employ restoration treatment alternatives throughout 1.4 million acres of forests, most of which are publicly held. The SWCC currently monitors environmental and economic variables, with plans to monitor social variables. This thesis formalizes a proposed framework to investigate SES resilience, and explores public engagement as an …

Collaborative Problem-Solving For Environmental Justice, Sophie C. Wolfram

Graduate Student Theses, Dissertations, & Professional Papers

An extensive body of environmental justice literature has demonstrated repeatedly what impacted communities have long known from experience, that environmental pollution including groundwater threats, diesel particulate matter, toxic releases, pesticide use, and hazardous waste sites, disproportionately burdens people of color and low-income communities. The environmental justice movement seeks to bring about equal protection of all people from environmental hazards, including equal enforcement of environmental laws and regulations. Advocacy within the movement has frequently adopted oppositional framings with respect to the state; however, collaborative approaches to environmental justice problem-solving have become more common, especially as states increasingly recognize environmental justice in …

Democracy In The Dark: An Energy Democracy Model Centering Property And People, Feby Boediarto

Pitzer Senior Theses

The United States’ electric macro-grid provides electricity for all people to sustain our lifestyle. The current governing institutions that generate our electricity limit community representation, causing procedural injustice particularly to communities of color. This thesis is a contribution to the Energy Democracy literature, describing a community-based electricity model that includes two components: property and people. I argue to include an in-depth study of John Locke’s theories on property, in addition to Elinor Ostrom’s Institutional Analysis and Development Framework to promote local knowledge in understanding how physical space and governing bodies strengthen the Energy Democracy movement. In addition, I utilize the …

Shifts In Thermal Habitats In The Gulf Of Maine Under Climate Change: A Case Study On American Lobster, Xinyi Zheng

Honors Theses

The rapid ocean warming observed in and predicted for the Gulf of Maine (GoM) raises uncertainties in the future distribution of American lobster (Homarus americanus). The location of lobsters is crucial to the long-term sustainability as well as management of Maine lobster fishery. This study provides a literature review of lobsters’ thermal preferences in the summer lobstering season and analyzes high-resolution sea surface temperature data in Geographic Information System in order to predict the changes in thermal habitats in the GoM under different climate change scenarios. The results show a projected decrease in cooler thermal habitats (11-15 °C) …

Crops And Controversy: Industry’S Role In The Gmo Debate, Carina Wallack

Honors Theses

The use of genetically modified crops (also called GM crops, genetically modified organisms, or GMOs for short) has become a highly contested issue. New genetic modification technologies offer a variety of advantages for improving agricultural efficiency. However, some scientists argue that the safety testing conducted thus far does not provide enough information and worry about possible health and ecological risks. Private industry sponsors a great deal of research on genetically modified crops. As the international controversy regarding the use of GMOs has unfolded, the very companies responsible for commercializing genetically modified crops have gained substantial influence in the resulting scientific …

America's National Parks And The Anthropocene: Addressing The Present To Accommodate The Future In Acadia National Park, Sophie A. Swetz

Honors Theses

In 2000, atmospheric chemist, Paul J. Crutzen, and limnologist, Eugene Stoermer, formally proposed the idea of “the Anthropocene,” a new geologic epoch in which humans are the dominant force shaping the Earth. To claim the Anthropocene's existence is to declare that human actions have altered the Earth in such a way that geologic indicators render it a distinct epoch in the stratification of geologic time. This new epoch emerges as a consequence of increased technological development employed to accommodate an anthropocentric human existence. That is, rapid advancements in technology have driven the transformation from a primarily naturally controlled planet to …

Drowning In Rising Seas: Navigating Multiple Knowledge Systems And Responding To Climate Change In The Maldives, Rachel Hannah Spiegel

Pitzer Senior Theses

The threat of global climate change increasingly influences the actions of human society. As world leaders have negotiated adaptation strategies over the past couple of decades, a certain discourse has emerged that privileges Western conceptions of environmental degradation. I argue that this framing of climate change inhibits the successful implementation of adaptation strategies. This thesis focuses on a case study of the Maldives, an island nation deemed one of the most vulnerable locations to the impacts of rising sea levels. I apply a postcolonial theoretical framework to examine how differing knowledge systems can both complement and contradict one another. By …

Towards Buen Vivir: Brian Massumi’S "The Power At The End Of The Economy”, Robert Leston

Publications and Research

In this review of The Power at the End of the Economy, Lestón delineates the theoretical apparatus of Massumi's book and its possible implications.

Politics Below The Surface: A Political Ecology Of Mineral Rights And Land Tenure Struggles In Appalachia And The Andes, Lindsay Shade

Theses and Dissertations--Geography

This dissertation examines how confusion and lack of access to information about subsurface property rights facilitates the rapid acquisition of mineral rights by mining interests, leaving those who live 'above the surface' to contend with complicated corporate and bureaucratic apparatuses. The research focuses on the first proposed state-run large scale mining project in Ecuador, believed to contain copper ores, and on the natural gas hydrofracking industry in three counties in north central West Virginia. Qualitative and visual methods, including mapping, are employed to determine (i.) how the geography of subsurface ownership patterns is changing, (ii.) links between changes in subsurface …

Taking Good Works To The Next Level: Increasing Investment In And Support For Higher-Risk Innovation, Jessie Capper

CMC Senior Theses

This thesis explores the possible avenues available to corporations and capital-managing entities seeking to increase their commitment to good works. These organizations have the potential to fill the gap in societal needs by supporting and investing in good works, including environmental protection and highly-innovative energy technologies, beyond the traditional corporate social responsibility (CSR) norm. These means include charitable giving, working with disadvantaged communities, corporate assistance to environmental or other social non-governmental organizations, and more. This thesis discusses the advantages and limitations of various corporate structures (C Corporations, S Corporations, LLCs, B Corps, L³Cs, and benefit corporations) and capital-managing …

The Potential And Limits Of Extended Producer Responsibility: A Comparative Analysis Study, Jessica Bass

CMC Senior Theses

This thesis draws on the concept of product stewardship and its focus on incorporating all of the actors in a product’s lifecycle into steps to take responsibility for waste management. Extended Producer Responsibility (EPR) recognizes the producer’s distinct potential to consider and drive change in waste management. Producers often serve like mediators between the design and use phases of a product’s lifecycle. Through EPR policies, the producer takes on the costs of ensuring safe end-of-life waste disposal. In this way, EPR can be expected to help relieve the public of some of the costs of waste disposal, and to support …

Sustainable Mining For Long Term Poverty Alleviation In The Democratic Republic Of The Congo, Ellen Perfect

CMC Senior Theses

This thesis explores the poverty alleviation and peace-spoiling power of the mineral extraction sector in the Democratic Republic of the Congo to arrive at a set of strategic goals for the country moving forward. Although subterranean minerals are often a source or perpetuator of violence, the potential to lift the country’s rural communities out of extreme poverty makes the mining industry an essential part of the nation’s development strategies. Lessons from Tanzania, Côte d’Ivoire, Guinea, Ethiopia, Zimbabwe, Nigeria, Ghana, Zambia, Uganda and Sierra Leone to arrive at best practices for increasing the multiplier effect of large-scale mining, formalization, beneficiation, capital …

Seed Policy In Pakistan: The Impact Of New Laws On Food Sovereignty And Sustainable Development, Amna Tanweer Yazdani, Nosheen Ali

Institute for Educational Development, Karachi

This paper highlights the challenges that genetically modified (GM) seeds pose for farmers, citizens and the land itself in Pakistan. It explores the history of agricultural policy in Pakistan from the Green Revolution to what is now being dubbed the “Gene Revolution”, and analyzes how harmful effects of both are being amplified by two recently passed laws: the Seed (Amendment) Act 2015 and the Plant Breeders' Rights Act 2016. The analysis of these laws is done from a food sovereignty perspective on sustainable development, where food sovereignty represents “the right of peoples to healthy and culturally appropriate food produced through …

The Balancing Act: Ecological Interventions And Decision Tradeoffs To Preserve Wilderness Character, Lucy A. Lieberman

Graduate Student Theses, Dissertations, & Professional Papers

Global climate change, land use intensification and increasing development are impacting federal wildernesses in new and unprecedented ways. Ecological restoration is one tool that that wilderness managers are using to combat degradation, though the decision to intervene in wilderness is complicated by the Wilderness Act’s legal mandate to preserve wilderness character and demonstrate managerial restraint. The purpose of this study is to document a baseline of ecological interventions that have occurred in the NWPS over the last five years, and to understand how wilderness managers make decisions related to ecological interventions. I sent a quantitative survey to over five hundred …

Poison In Pink, Sydney V. Cook

Graduate Student Theses, Dissertations, & Professional Papers

Humans slather, spray, mist, and cleanse their bodies with personal care products like lotion, hairspray, cologne, and shampoo every day. Our cupboards are stocked full of them, but few of us understand what is in those jars and bottles. We trust that if it’s on the shelf at the store, it’s safe. However, this is not always the case, and many personal care products contain chemicals that are harmful to human and environmental health.

My multi-disciplinary Environmental Studies thesis project combines evidenced-based research, interviews, nonfiction narrative, and science communication to create part of a book manuscript intended to educate general …

Stand Clear Of The Closing Doors, Please: Transit Equity, Social Exclusion, And The New York City Subway, Taylor Novick-Finder

Pitzer Senior Theses

The history of transportation planning in New York City has created disparities between those who have sufficient access to the public transportation network, and those who face structural barriers to traveling from their home to education, employment, and healthcare opportunities. This thesis analyzes the legacy of discriminatory policy surrounding the Metropolitan Transportation Authority (MTA) and city and state governments that have failed to support vital infrastructure improvement projects and service changes to provide multi-modal welfare to New York’s working poor. By exploring issues of transit equity as they pertain to the New York City subway system, this thesis raises the …

Archaeological Gis Analysis Of Raised Field Agriculture In The Bolivian Amazon, Thomas W. Lee

Honors Undergraduate Theses

Modern agricultural systems have been criticized for their detrimental effects on the environment and a general emphasis on crop yield rather than long-term sustainability. Traditional forms of agriculture may provide case-specific examples of sustainable alternatives for contemporary societies. In the seasonally inundated savannas of the Llanos de Mojos, pre-Columbian Indians piled earth into ‘large raised field platforms’ elevated high enough above the floodplain to allow crops to grow. Archaeological evidence indicates that raised field agriculture supported much larger populations than those found in the Beni today. The examination of satellite imagery has revealed more than 40,000 individual fields spread across …

Remote Sensing Observation Of Annual Dust Cycles And Possible Causality Of Kawasaki Disease Outbreaks In Japan, Hesham El-Askary, Nick Lahaye, Erik J. Linstead, William A. Sprigg, Magdi Yacoub

Mathematics, Physics, and Computer Science Faculty Articles and Research

Kawasaki disease (KD) is a rare vascular disease that, if left untreated, can result in irreparable cardiac damage in children. While the symptoms of KD are well-known, as are best practices for treatment, the etiology of the disease and the factors contributing to KD outbreaks remain puzzling to both medical practitioners and scientists alike. Recently, a fungus known as Candida, originating in the farmlands of China, has been blamed for outbreaks in China and Japan, with the hypothesis that it can be transported over long ranges via different wind mechanisms. This paper provides evidence to understand the transport mechanisms …

A Synthesis Of James Howard Kunstler’S Themes Of Urbanization And The Impending Oil Crisis In The Geography Of Nowhere, Home From Nowhere, The City In Mind, And The Long Emergency, William S. Humphrey

Tenor of Our Times

This paper examines and synchronizes the thoughts put forth by American social critic and author James Howard Kunstler in his four books, The Geography of Nowhere, Home from Nowhere, The City in Mind, and The Long Emergency. Kunstler asserts that human beings are losing their sense of being while simultaneously facilitating daily life, thus leaving a world rife with nothingness. A large portion of Kunstler’s argument deals with how humans have knowingly increased suburban sprawl while depleting valuable resources; such activity, left unchecked, will worsen the state of the world. The United States, in particular, is the most problematic. …

Finding The Link Between Social Connectivity And Dietary Intake Among Rural Adolescents In North Carolina And Kentucky, Jordan Elizabeth Mcdonald

Theses and Dissertations--Nutrition and Food Systems

Social networks play a significant role in adolescent decision making, specifically when it comes to dietary outcomes. This study, granted by the United States Department of Agriculture (USDA), assessed the connectivity of these social networks and the impact they have on fruit and vegetable, added sugar and sugar sweetened beverage consumption. Additionally, the relationship between shopping companionship and dietary choices was studied. Positive and negative associations were found among adolescents who shop with parents or friends. It was also found that those adolescents with greater social network cohesion were found to have more negative dietary outcomes. Divulging further into the …

University Of North Florida Environmental Center Annual Report 2017, Maria Mark, James W. Taylor, Natalie Sassine, Tiffany Torres

Annual Reports

2017 Annual Report of the Environmental Center at the University of North Florida

Instructions For Authors, Discovery Editors

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

No abstract provided.

Investigating The Utility Of Rapid Assessment Process For Environmental Development Work Of Peace Corps Master’S International Students, Mariah Maggio

Dissertations, Master's Theses and Master's Reports

Peace Corps Master’s International (PCMI) students engage in international development when they assume the role of Volunteer and graduate researcher. Michigan Technological University had the largest PCMI program in the country, with many Volunteer assignments involving environmental problem solving opportunities. Unfortunately some PCMI students have experienced “failed projects,” something not un-common to international development approaches. This research design supports institutional interdisciplinary efforts aimed at preparing PCMI students to engage in productive community development that avoids historic pitfalls of international development efforts. In order to contribute to this effort, the Rapid Assessment Process (RAP) approach was identified as a potential tool …

Risk Mitigation Through Diversified Farm Production Strategies: The Case In Northern Mozambique, Olivia C. Caillouet, Lawton L. Nalley, Amy L. Farmer

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

Mozambique, like many other parts of the low-income world, faces perennial challenges with food security. With a rapidly growing population and arable land on the decline, sustainable agriculture is vital to managing the already depleted natural resources of Sub-Saharan Africa more effectively while increasing food security. Food security issues for subsistence farmers in most low-income countries are a product of endogenous (crop yields) and exogenous (currency fluctuations as many agricultural inputs are imported) factors. In Mozambique the value of the local currency, meticals, has decreased by approximately 50% since January 2015 compared to the U.S. dollar. While this makes exporting …

Environmental Justice Litigation In California: How Effective Is Litigation In Addressing Slow Violence?, Deedee Chao

CMC Senior Theses

As the environmental justice movement has spread and become more mainstream since its start in the 1980s, its framework and body of knowledge has expanded, and environmental justice activists, organizers, and scholars have developed and critiqued different methods through which environmental justice can be pursued. Among its relatively new concepts is the idea of slow violence, or the long-term and continuous impacts of environmental injustices on an afflicted community; and among the methods examined by scholars is environmental justice litigation, where legal action is taken, often with members of an affected community as plaintiffs, to remedy environmental injustices within that …

Rethinking Redevelopment: Neoliberalism, New Urbanism And Sustainable Urban Design In Cleveland, Ohio, Julian Geltman

Honors Papers

This article explores unintended consequences of recent urban design initiatives in Cleveland, Ohio. Historically rife with environmental injustice issues, Cleveland’s built environment continues to exhibit issues of distributive justice across racialized spaces. In this research project, I first investigate whether and how New Urbanist aesthetics are geared towards a white spatial imaginary and subsequently deconstructing its whiteness. I seek to answer: is New Urbanism inherently racist? I then explore how New Urbanism in the U.S. has spread into circles of sustainable urban design, pushing space and place towards a homogenized normativity. Third, I examine the history of racial prejudice in …

Interrogating The "And": A Study Of Environmentalism And Disability, Melissa Cabat

Honors Papers

Mainstream environmental activists often draw the correlation between environment and disability as being a matter of public health inequities, including air quality, pollution, and now the aftereffects of fracking. These are important, but they only scratch the surface of the link between these movements. I will discuss the movement of ecodisablism and how climate justice activists with disabilities, including the Crips for Climate Justice movement, have been influenced by climate and disability activism. This research is relevant as the massive baby boomer population ages and risks losing their connection to nature due to inaccessible green spaces. Moreover, discussing disability rights …