Environmental Studies Commons^™

In Search Of Environmental Sustainability At The Base Of The Pyramid, Mark Heuer, Nancy E. Landrum

School of Environmental Sustainability: Faculty Publications and Other Works

This paper proposes a revision to Hart and Sharma’s 2004 model for corporate engagement with the base of the pyramid (BoP) by making the BoP community and the natural environment, not the firm, the central focus for engagement. The revised model proposes that core stakeholders must include the BoP community, the poor, weak, and illiterate, as they can benefit most from the community collective action model presented herein to address sustainability in the natural environment. These are the core stakeholders rather than fringe stakeholders, as indicated in the Hart and Sharma model. Our model recognizes the legitimacy of the firm …

Natural Disasters, Foreign Aid And Economic Development, Valeriu Tomescu

Honors Theses and Capstones

No abstract provided.

What’S The Common Sense Of Just Some Improvement Of Some Welfare For Some Animals?, Liv Baker

Animal Sentience

The goal of Animal Welfare Science to reduce animal suffering is commendable but too modest: Suffering animals need and deserve far more.

Nature As Spiritual Lived Experience: How Five Christian Theologians Encounter The Spirit In And Through The Natural World, Brad A. Martell

Antioch University Dissertations & Theses

This qualitative study explored five Western Christian theologians’ religious lived experience of God’s Spirit in and through Nature. The hermeneutic phenomenological research method was utilized. Rich descriptions of lived experience were collected through 60-90 minute long phenomenological interviews which were recorded and transcribed verbatim into a text for analysis. Analysis included repeated readings of the text, identification of themes, and validation and/or correction of themes. Synthesis looked at the research as a whole and established implications and applications for Christian theology, particularly ecotheology. The study contributes to the literature of phenomenology and theology, calls for a place for lived experience …

Positive Organizational Leadership And Pro-Environmental Behavior: The Phenomenon Of Institutional Fossil Fuel Divestment, Abigail Abrash Walton

Antioch University Dissertations & Theses

Climate change is one of the most significant dynamics of our time.The predominant contributor to climate change is combustion of fossil fuels by humans.This study deepened understanding of organizational leaders’ role in enacting one approach to addressing climate change:institutional fossil fuel divestment.The study used a qualitative research design to explore U.S.-based foundation leaders’ readiness to pursue fossil fuel divestment by their institutions.The study examined leaders’ motivations and actions in pursuing divestment, while simultaneously exercising their fiduciary duty to steward institutional assets.Research questions focused on the divestment behavior change process and the outcomes of divestment on leaders and their organizations.Data collection …

"One Narrow Thread Of Green": The Vision Of May Theilgaard Watts, The Creation Of The Illinois Prairie Path, And A Community's Crusade For Open Space In Chicago's Suburbs, Anne M. Keller

Antioch University Dissertations & Theses

Women's environmental activism prior to the early 1960s in America focused on women's roles as municipal housekeepers or emphasized wilderness conservation. I offer in this dissertation the story of the Illinois Prairie Path, the country's first rails-to-trails conversion to apply for National Recreation Trail status, and the innovative women who fought for nature preservation in a suburban setting rather than in a wilderness area. Led by renowned writer and naturalist, May Theilgaard Watts, these women built support for the public footpath project by fostering an ecological awareness throughout their region. I place them in the tradition of Chicago female reformers …

The Behavioral Ecology And Population Characteristics Of Striped Skunks Inhabiting Piper Plover Nesting Beaches On The Island Of Martha's Vineyard, Massachusetts, Luanne Johnson

Antioch University Dissertations & Theses

We studied coastal striped skunks (Mephitis mephitis) on the island of Martha’s Vineyard, Massachusetts, USA to gather information on the population characteristics of this mesopredator on Atlantic coast beaches with nesting piping plovers (Charadrius melodus). From 2004 – 2008, we captured and marked 138 skunks and fitted 51 adults with VHF radio-collars. Capture rates ranged from 1 – 7 individuals/100 trap nights (TN) in the spring and 4 – 21 individuals/100 TN in the fall. Spring capture rates were highest at Dogfish Bar (DB), a beach with abundant wrack in the intertidal zone in close proximity to low-density housing, where …

Enhancing The Resilience Of Vulnerable Groups Through Participatory Climate Change Adaptation Planning: A Case Study With The Elderly Community Of Bridgeport, Connecticut, Jason L. Rhoades

Antioch University Dissertations & Theses

Recent reports highlight the vulnerability of the elderly to climate change. Unfortunately, a lack of research incorporating the perspectives of the elderly on this topic could cause their needs to go unrecognized and unaddressed. To promote adaptation planning that is responsive to the concerns of the elderly, this dissertation presents the results of a participatory research and adaptation planning process conducted in partnership with the elderly community of Bridgeport, Connecticut. The process combined a five-step climate change adaptation planning model with a community-based action research approach that placed the elderly participants as key drivers in the research and planning processes. …

Collaboration In Conservation Networks: Regional Conservation Partnerships In New England, Jill L. Weiss

Antioch University Dissertations & Theses

Environmental problems are becoming increasingly complex and harder for any one discipline or approach to address. In the case of land conservation, there is an incongruity between how we view and manage social and natural systems even though each is reliant on the other. Adaptive co-management of these socio-ecological landscapes by a cross section of stakeholders and disciplines is necessary. In New England this is happening through Regional Conservation Partnerships (RCPs). RCPs are conservation networks comprised of land trusts, local governments, landowners, and localized conservation action groups. The geographic range of each RCP varies in size from a few hundred …

Making Meaning Together: The Role Of Interpretation During A Short-Term Nature Excursion, Kate Jurow

Antioch University Dissertations & Theses

Interpretive nature walks are an important tool for conservation organizations, which use them to educate, and to connect visitors with their sites. Interpretive studies often focus on program outcomes. However, less research exists on how the experience itself is perceived by visitors. Is it primarily a learning process? What role does the guide play, and how does the process of interpretation affect the visitor experience? What implications might this have for interpretive techniques, and for organizations seeking to build supportive stewardship communities? The purpose of this study was to explore how the process of interpretation affects a short-term nature experience …

Opportunities For Conversion To More Sustainable Practices By Houses Of Worship Through Team Performance Enhancing Strategies That Include Leadership With Facilitative Skills, Carolina Del Carmen Saiz

Antioch University Dissertations & Theses

This research focused on assessing the performance of teams of volunteers in Houses of Worship (HOWs) in the State of Massachusetts that are successfully planning, advancing and completing sustainable initiatives. The sustainable initiatives included solar photovoltaic (PV) installations, city public parks cleaning projects, efficient windows installations, efficient lighting fixtures installations, and building insulation improvements. The goal of this research was to assess the dynamics of a total of eight successful teams, including the relationships among team members and their leaders with facilitative skills that they perceived were instrumental to their effective and efficient performance. The role of team leadership was …

Building & Measuring Psychological Capacity For Biodiversity Conservation, Kayla A. Cranston

Antioch University Dissertations & Theses

Capacity building has become the centerpiece of recent attempts to strengthen regional biodiversity conservation. Many conservation organizations aim to increase this capacity by training local conservation professionals. While many practitioners will agree that these trainings presumably have a psychological effect on their participants that may benefit long-term local action toward conservation goals, there also seems to be a resignation that these effects are difficult if not impossible to measure and target, especially within diverse cultures. The common result is a perfunctory evaluation of observable behaviors or basic knowledge, which may be easy to count but undoubtedly fails to represent the …

Piglets And Perspectives: Exploring Sustainability Communication Through Participatory Filmmaking, Dyanna Innes Smith

Antioch University Dissertations & Theses

The goal of this research was to conduct a qualitative study applying narrative theory to participatory video methodologies in order to better understand how the process of filmmaking can be used to create a method of sustainability communication. To do this, the study collaborated with individuals who are currently practicing different types of sustainable agriculture on small farms in southern New Hampshire. A group of five farms participated in a new method of filmmaking designed to blend specific elements of participatory video technique with principles of narrative theory. This method included camera training, filmed personal interviews, participants filming their own …

Increasing Energy Efficiency In Existing Residential Buildings: A Case Study Of The Community Home Energy Retrofit Project (Cherp), Jenna Perelman

Scripps Senior Theses

This thesis uses a case study of the Community Home Energy Retrofit Project (CHERP) and it analyzes the larger statewide effort in California to increase energy efficiency in existing residential buildings to reduce greenhouse gas emissions. CHERP’s primary strategy is to embed itself into a community, educate residents on the multiple benefits of energy efficiency, and inspire them to take energy-saving actions in their own homes. It then builds its own community by connecting like-minded individuals together and provides an opportunity for them to exercise their political agency. This thesis analyzes CHERP’s effort in the context of the political, social, …

Disasters Are Not, They Become: An Understanding Of Social Vulnerability In The United States Gulf Coast With Respect To Hurricanes, Katherine Franklin

Scripps Senior Theses

Scientific literature is concerned with the impact that climate change will have on natural disasters in the near future. These events disrupt our daily lives and can cause damage that may never be repaired. Merging science and social science, the study of vulnerability looks at how human systems will be impacted by these natural disasters. In the United States, hurricanes in the Gulf Coast are projected to increase in intensity as well as have an increased capacity for damage with a rise in sea level. Therefore, it is important to understand who is systematically vulnerable to these impacts of natural …

Dismantling Structural Inequality In The Inland Empire: Rebuilding Community From The Ground Up At Huerta Del Valle Garden, Jennifer E. Reyff

Scripps Senior Theses

This thesis provides an analytical case study of Huerta del Valle Community Garden as a successful model of redefining social capital through not only providing healthy, affordable, high quality produce to a community subjected to the disproportionate consequences of systemic inequality, but also in incorporating a food justice education framework to underlie all development at the garden. Located in the city of Ontario, Southern California – the heart of the Inland Empire, known for its prominence within the nation’s goods movement industry and its landscape of sprawling warehouses – local residents face high rates of poverty, obesity, and a lack …

Modeling Animal Behavior In A Changing Environment, Shandelle M. Henson, James M. Cushing, James L. Hayward

Faculty Publications

No abstract provided.

Environmental Influences On Elite Sport Athletes Well Being: From Gold, Silver, And Bronze To Blue Green And Gold, Aoife Donnelly, Tadhg Macintyre, Nollaig O'Sullivan, Giles Warrington, Andrew Harrison, Eric Igou, Marc Jones, Chris Gidlow, Noel Brick, Ian Lahart, Andrew Lane

Articles

This paper considers the environmental impact on well-being and performance in elite athletes during Olympic competition. The benefits of exercising in natural environments are recognized, but less is known about the effects on performance and health in elite athletes. Although some Olympic events take place in natural environments, the majority occur in the host city, usually a large densely populated area where low exposure to natural environments is compounded by exposure to high levels of air, water, and noise pollution in the ambient environment. By combining methods and expertise from diverse but inter-related disciplines including environmental psychology, exercise physiology, biomechanics, …

Identifying Plant Functional Traits To Assist Ecological Intervention In A Drying Landscape, Ana Luiza Muler

Theses: Doctorates and Masters

Mediterranean-type ecosystems (MTEs) are among the most vulnerable to land use and climate change and many attempts are in place to restore these ecosystems. Therefore, it is necessary to assess differences in plants’ ability to withstand water-stress, including biotic interactions. Such knowledge helps us understand community assembly, which is crucial for ecological intervention. This study involved: (1) reviewing the literature on traits that can differentiate functional types; (2) adapting the methodology to measure leaf water potential at turgor loss point (πtlp) for small-leaved species; (3) using these traits to quickly identify water-use strategies of adult …

Environmental Dimensions Of Colonial Settlement: A Palynological Investigation Of La Cienega, New Mexico, Kyle W. Edwards

Graduate Masters Theses

Using palynological data, this project explores how changing land use practices associated with successive waves of colonial settlement shaped local environments in La Cienega, New Mexico. This is accomplished by linking collected pollen data to known historic occupations beginning with pre-colonial Puebloan populations and continuing through the present day, encompassing both Hispanic and Anglo-American colonial occupations. The data were collected from a single sediment core taken at a small pond located within La Cienega. Pollen from 12 samples was analyzed, providing a 600-year record of changes within local plant communities. The collected data are interpreted in relation to known archaeological …

Brooklyn Trash Problems, Christina Diaz

Capstones

Walk through the streets of New York and at some point you’ll inevitably pass by a wafting smell of garbage, but residents of North Brooklyn are handling more than their share of the smelly load and they’re tired of getting dumped on.

A newly formed coalition of neighbors and environmental activists has begun a turf war against Brooklyn Transfer LLC, a waste transfer station located on Thames Street in East Williamsburg, which handles private commercial waste through ­­­­­­­­­­­­­Five Star Carting.

Link to Map: https://www.zeemaps.com/map?group=1769408

Fish Landings At The World’S Commercial Fishing Ports, Tim Huntington, Fiona Nimmo, Graeme Macfadyen

Journal of Ocean and Coastal Economics

In 2009, the United Nations Food and Agriculture Organization (FAO) adopted the Agreement on Port State Measures to Prevent, Deter and Eliminate Illegal, Unreported and Unregulated (IUU) fishing (PSMA). Countries that ratify the treaty commit to exert greater control at ports over foreign-flagged vessels to detect IUU catch before it is offloaded from vessels, and prevent the ill-gotten catch from entering the world’s markets. The PSMA, when effectively implemented globally, will be a major deterrent to IUU fishing. A major challenge to selecting ports for enhanced controls has been the lack of data on which ports are the world’s largest …

Which Came First, People Or Pollution? A Review Of Theory And Evidence From Longitudinal Environmental Justice Studies, Paul Mohai, Robin Saha

Environmental Studies Faculty Publications

A considerable number of quantitative analyses have been conducted in the past several decades that demonstrate the existence of racial and socioeconomic disparities in the distribution of a wide variety of environmental hazards. The vast majority of these have been cross-sectional, snapshot studies employing data on hazardous facilities and population characteristics at only one point in time. Although some limited hypotheses can be tested with cross-sectional data, fully understanding how present-day disparities come about requires longitudinal analyses that examine the demographic characteristics of sites at the time of facility siting and track demographic changes after siting. Relatively few such studies …

The Role Of The State, Multinational Oil Companies, International Law & The International Community: Intersection Of Human Rights & Environmental Degradation Climate Change In The 21st Century Caused By Traditional Extractive Practices, The Amazon Rainforest, Indigenous People And Universal Jurisdiction To Resolve The Accountability Issue, Marcela Cabrera Luna

Master's Theses

Local, national and international conventions that protect indigenous sovereignty and their territories, where many of the resources are extracted from by multinational corporations (MNCs) particularly oil, the number one commodity of the world and cause of climate change, continue to be jeopardized because of the lack of a clear international legal framework that can protect them and potentially hold multinationals accountable for their actions. These practices are causing not only environmental issues to the indigenous and surrounding communities, but climate change is in fact, the real human rights issue of the 21^st century and it affects everyone. By using …

Restoring The Mississippi River Delta In Louisiana Ecological Tradeoffs And Barriers To Action, Alison Maulhardt

LSU New Orleans Theses and Dissertations

This study investigates the Louisiana 2012 Coastal Master Plan’s ability to reconcile conflicting economic and ecological demands on coastal resources. The Louisiana Coastal Master Plan was unique in combining flood control and coastal restoration under one authority. However, the objectives of flood control and coastal restoration can be in conflict. The plan was also unique in its approach of restoration from a working coast perspective. However, the objectives of ecological restoration and economic productivity do not always agree. By conducting semi-structured interviews with major coastal stakeholders, this research will explore how the planning process has accommodated the views and values …

Impact Of Executive Order 13211 On Environmental Regulation: An Empirical Study, Elizabeth Ann Glass Geltman

Publications and Research

A great deal has been written about the Energy Policy Act of 2005 exempting oil and gas operations using hydraulic fracturing from the purview of certain federal environmental laws. Far less attention has been paid to George W. Bush’s Executive Order 13211 (EO 13211), entitled “Actions Concerning Regulations that Significantly Affect Energy Supply, Distribution or Use.” The executive order requires federal agencies to evaluate the impact of federal regulations on “supply, distribution and use of energy.” This study examined the impact of EO 13211 on United States environmental and conservation regulations proposed and promulgated by federal agencies. The study found …

The Validity Of The Environmental Kuznets Curve For The European Union, Connor L. Kasten

Honors College Theses

This research empirically explores the validity of the environmental Kuznets curve (EKC) for the European Union. Data for CO₂ emission per capita, GDP per capita, population density, and fossil fuel consumption percentage was gathered for the 28 countries within the European Union for years 1990-2010 and regression analysis was conducted in order to see if the EKC relationship held true. However, under this analysis, that result is inconclusive. As GDP per capita increases, CO₂ increases to a certain point and then, instead of having a negative relationship, it continues to increase but at a lesser rate. The coefficients …

Keeping Sabbath During The Week, Michael E. Cafferky

Faculty Works

Would Sabbath-keeping be less meaningful if, on the other six days, our work disrupted human well-being or otherwise failed to honor the Sabbath Giver? This article is an abridged version of the longer peer-reviewed article "Sabbath: The Theological Roots of Sustainable Development" published in the Journal of Biblical Integration in Business available at http://cbfa-jbib.org/index.php/jbib/article/view/108/108 .

Centerville Slough Project, Susie Van Kirk

Susie Van Kirk Papers

An extensive cultural resources document for the Eel River Estuary Preserve was prepared in 2014 to identify resources within the initial project area. With new project proposals and an expanded Area of Potential Effect (APE), several additional structures were surveyed. This addendum looked at three barns and a house, none of which will be affected by proposed projects. They were surveyed because they fall within the expanded APE.

Some of the research conducted for the 2014 historic resources document was applicable to the addendum, including land ownerships and newspaper references. For the present report, additional research was conducted in the …

Influence Of Rock-Pool Characteristics On The Distribution And Abundance Of Inter-Tidal Fishes, Gemma E. White, Grant C. Hose, Culum Brown

Ecology Collection

Rock pools can be found in inter-tidal marine environments worldwide; however, there have been few studies exploring what drives their, fish species composition, especially in Australia. The rock-pool environment is highly dynamic and offers a unique natural laboratory to study the habitat choices, physiological limitations and adaptations of inter-tidal fish species. In this study rock pools of the Sydney region were sampled to determine how the physical (volume, depth, rock cover and vertical position) and biological (algal cover and predator presence) parameters of pools influence fish distribution and abundance. A total of 27 fish species representing 14 families was observed …