Place and Environment Commons^™

Energy Efficiency Retrofit And Decarbonization Of Old And Historic Buildings In California, Daria Nikolaeva

Master's Projects and Capstones

Buildings are responsible for almost 40% of total global greenhouse gas emissions and the retrofitting of existing buildings is an essential part of solving the problem. About 75% of buildings in Californian were constructed before the first energy-efficiency building code was adopted in 1978. Old buildings are inefficient, responsible for large carbon footprints and must be retrofitted to stay on track with the state's climate targets. However, current policies do not require substantial changes and tend to favor historic preservation over energy efficiency, missing improvement opportunities. Recognizing the significance of carbon intensity, the 2019 California Energy Efficiency Action Plan shifted …

“It’S Getting Hot In Here”: Climate Change And Tensions Surrounding Environmental Injustice For Minority And Low-Income Communities, Symone Gaskin

Symposium of Student Scholars

Our current climate crisis presents the perfect opportunity to address other social ills that reflect environmental injustice. The purpose of this research was to explore if, when, and how climate change disproportionately impacts minority communities. A thematic analysis was developed through the creation of a literature review matrix comprised of twenty academic and practitioner articles. This thematic analysis uncovered four key themes: implications in the workplace, the housing market, the economy, and the standard of health. Consequently, confirming the disenfranchisement of marginalized groups in relation to the environment, this research uncovered the long-lasting effects of systemic racism as an important …

The Water-Energy Nexus With Alida Cantor, Alida Cantor

PDXPLORES Podcast

In this episode of PDXPLORES, geography professor Alida Cantor discusses the water-energy nexus--the ways water and energy resources are physically, socially, and politically intertwined. Cantor's research focuses on politics, power, decision-making, and environmental justice around water resources.

Click on the "Download" button to access the audio transcript.

How The Consumption Of Green Public Spaces Contributes To Quality Of Life: Evidence From Four Asian Cities, Antonietta Di Giulio, Marlyne Sahakian, Manisha Anantharaman, Czarina Saloma-Akpedonu, Rupali Khanna, Srikanth Narasimalu, Dunfu Zhang

Sociology & Anthropology Department Faculty Publications

While green public spaces have been studied in relation to biodiversity and climate change, and in relation to health and social inclusion, there is a need to further understand how they relate to a broader understanding of human wellbeing. Evidence suggests that public spaces play an important role with a view to happiness and mental health, but further evidence is needed on how people actually use such spaces and how human needs are met – and how this might compare across different contexts. This necessitates to linking conceptually, empirically and practically the consumption of such spaces, the notion of the …

Table Of Contents (Vol. 5.1): Foundations Ii, Editorial Board

The International Journal of Ecopsychology (IJE)

No abstract provided.

New Ije Logo

The International Journal of Ecopsychology (IJE)

No abstract provided.

Proximate And Ultimate Perspectives On Romantic Love

The International Journal of Ecopsychology (IJE)

Romantic love is a phenomenon of immense interest to the general public as well as to scholars in several disciplines. It is known to be present in almost all human societies and has been studied from a number of perspectives. In this integrative review, we bring together what is known about romantic love using Tinbergen’s “four questions” framework originating from evolutionary biology. Under the first question, related to mechanisms, we show that it is caused by social, psychological mate choice, genetic, neural, and endocrine mechanisms. The mechanisms regulating psychopathology, cognitive biases, and animal models provide further insights into the mechanisms …

Beating “Love” To Death: Emotion Junkies, The Unnatural Affectations Of “Loving Earth,” And Other Ghostly Infatuations

The International Journal of Ecopsychology (IJE)

If the sentiment, or more precisely, an emotion that one identifies as ‘love’ becomes the protagonist of and footnote to almost everything we do, that is, if that thing ‘love’ reigns supreme and is definitive of what most humans do or want, then grinding and packing everything else into the same ‘love’ sausage casing becomes commonplace if only to add provenance to ‘our feelings’ – in order to, unnecessarily perhaps, validate them. When we beat ‘love’ to death (virtual signalling) it is more likely, it seems, that we are in the shadows of its scarcity. In its clamoring we know …

New Coyote Stories

The International Journal of Ecopsychology (IJE)

No abstract provided.

Book Review Vol. 5 (1) 2022

The International Journal of Ecopsychology (IJE)

No abstract provided.

Poem Vol. 5 (1)

The International Journal of Ecopsychology (IJE)

No abstract provided.

Book Recommendation Vol. 5 (1)

The International Journal of Ecopsychology (IJE)

No abstract provided.

Loving Truly: An Epistemic Approach To The Doxastic Norms Of Love

The International Journal of Ecopsychology (IJE)

If you love someone, is it good to believe better of her than epistemic norms allow? The partiality view says that it is: love, on this view, issues norms of belief that clash with epistemic norms. The partiality view is supposedly supported by an analogy between beliefs and actions, by the phenomenology of love, and by the idea that love commits us to the loved one’s good character. I argue that the partiality view is false, and defend what I call the epistemic view. On the epistemic view, love also issues norms of belief. But these say simply (and …

American Artists: Craig Albright

The International Journal of Ecopsychology (IJE)

No abstract provided.

Orange County Parks Trail Use Designation Pilot Project, Christopher Monz, Noah Creany

Environment and Society Faculty Publications

This report provides an analysis and summary of the survey research findings from the Orange County (OC) Parks Trail Use Designation Pilot Project conducted during the summer of 2021. Repeat ecological monitoring flights were completed in May 2022 and the analysis and findings of the ecological effects of the Trail Use Designation Pilot Project will be delivered in a forthcoming addendum to this report.

Constructing Scale, Eroding Responsibility: The Politics Of Scoping In Canadian Energy Project Reviews, Yanqi Li

Undergraduate Student Research Internships Conference

This project investigates the practice of strategic boundary drawing in energy and resource project reviews. Focusing on applications to Canadian federal and provincial review bodies over the past 20 years, we ask: to what extent have proponents of oil and gas projects, hydroelectric dams, mines etc. used two strategies: 1) ‘slicing’ complex projects into multiple parts and filing separate applications for each, or 2) ‘splicing’ multiple actions together into a single application – with what outcomes for regulatory approval? This study contributes to three areas of scholarship: 1) theoretical work on the relational nature of space and scale; 2) decolonial …

The Power Of A Profound Experience With Nature: Living With Meaning, Becky Mathers, Eric Brymer

School of Education Faculty Work

Nature based experiences have been linked to significant positive outcomes for people and the planet. Significant life experience research investigates the associations between formative experiences in nature and resulting environmental concern and action, including both singular events and repeated experiences. However, little is known about the long-term impacts of singular profound experiences with nature. This research sought to better understand how a singular, meaningful experience defines an individual’s self-awareness of his or her relationship with nature, changes social relationships, and directs environmental decisions and behaviors. Twenty-one adults who had a profound experience with nature participated in a semi-structured interview exploring …

Katrina Vs. Ida: A Comparative Analysis Of Fema Housing Recovery Efforts With Regard To Vulnerable Populations, Alyssa Harrynanan

Honors Theses

When Hurricane Katrina struck Louisiana in 2005, it revealed disparities in the way that recovery efforts are handled after storms. For example, it demonstrated flaws in the Federal Emergency Management Agency’s attempt to provide housing for disaster survivors. The agency failed to adequately accommodate vulnerable populations, including communities of color, low-income individuals, the elderly, and people with disabilities, in its housing recovery process. Since then, efforts have been made to reform the agency and ensure that all individuals, regardless of race, income, education or disability level, are accommodated by FEMA. However, when Hurricane Ida struck Louisiana exactly 16 years later …

Combating The Climate Crisis: Deconstructing Western Anthropocentricity And The Value Of Indigenous Teachings, Jessica K. St. Michael

University Honors Theses

This thesis will analyze prevailing Western perceptions of the natural environment and the historical construction of these beliefs, in an attempt to discern the root problems contributing to the present-day climate crisis. The dominant historical narratives of the West (such as Greco-Roman, and Christian) will be examined so as to demonstrate the trajectory of Western thought in regard to perceptions of the natural environment. Prominent theories on combating climate change in the modern era, put forth by scholars with expertise in relevant fields, will be examined and discussed, with a specific focus on the established dichotomy between man and nature, …

In Memoriam, Editorial Board

The International Journal of Ecopsychology (IJE)

No abstract provided.

Table Of Contents 4(1) May 2022, Editorial Board

The International Journal of Ecopsychology (IJE)

No abstract provided.

Editorial And Clarification, Editorial Board

The International Journal of Ecopsychology (IJE)

No abstract provided.

Why We Experience Musical Emotions: William Gardiner’S “The Music Of Nature” Revisited, Daniela L. Boero Dr.

The International Journal of Ecopsychology (IJE)

This paper focuses and expands on the ideas of William Gardiner, an amateur musician who was the first to propose that human emotions experienced in music listening might be inspired by “the sounds of nature.” His book has been ignored for almost two centuries. We revisit his hypothesis from an evolutionary psychology approach. This contribution reviews environmental psychology and musical studies which focus on emotional reactions to basic musical cues such as pitch, timbre, and loudness, and also, on animal communication studies. Reported literature confirms the hypothesis that our ancestral soundscape might have shaped, at least in part, the basic …

Ontological Awareness In Food Systems Education, Colin C. Dring

The International Journal of Ecopsychology (IJE)

We review efforts in Sustainable Food Systems Education and Critical Food Systems Education literature to employ education in ways that seek social and environmental transformation of food systems. Here, we argue that forms of food systems education that are disconnected from awareness of their ontological roots are destined to reproduce the same food systems with the same consequences for life on Earth. This theoretical paper invites discussions that unpack “habits of being” underpinning modern/colonial conceptualizations of food system issues, transformation efforts, and pedagogies. We note the risk of reinscribing, within food systems education, specific onto-epistemological norms and values that are …

Lotus Eating: A Summer Book. New York: Harper And Brothers, Editorial Board

The International Journal of Ecopsychology (IJE)

American Letters: Archives George William Curtis (1824-1892)

Poem: "Foundations" By William Wilfred Campbell (1860 - 1918), Editorial Board

The International Journal of Ecopsychology (IJE)

No abstract provided.

Foundations: Eating. Loving. Praying., George Conesa

The International Journal of Ecopsychology (IJE)

Kurt Goldstein imagined that at every stage of their development, organisms are, to characterize, wrestling with the imminent and inescapable realities (bio-socio-psychological) of energy (e.g., food and sleep), safety (e.g., hygiene; home and a family), and possibility (e.g., learning; opportunities and luck), and importantly, simultaneously. To oversimplify, Maslow would like us to eat before loving or praying, whereas Goldstein intuits that human motivations are dynamically complex and multifactorial -- in others words, integrally transactional and ongoing. It is Goldstein’s more complex idea that this essay supports.

Making Forests, Making Communities: An Ethnography Of Reforestation In Monteverde, Costa Rica, Megan Brown

Anthropology Theses and Dissertations

Reforestation is not just planting trees in the ground. More than net increase in forest cover, reforestation is a complex political endeavor undertaken by both humans and non-humans and a popular climate change mitigation tactic. However, little research has examined the dynamics between selection of specific reforestation strategies, health, and community resilience, particularly with attention to entanglements between the lives of both human and non-human forest dwellers. This ethnographic work, based on six months of in-person fieldwork and six months of digital ethnography, examines reforestation and forest relations in Costa Rica’s Monte Verde zone, a region which experienced widespread deforestation, …

“Somos Un Pueblo Fumigado”: Un Análisis De La Lucha Contra La Fumigación Y Sistema De Agronegocios En La Provincia De Buenos Aires, Samuel Brooks

Independent Study Project (ISP) Collection

Esta investigación estudia el movimiento contra el sistema de monocultivo de soja transgénica, la fumigación con “agrotóxicos,” y los grandes agronegocios en la provincia de Buenos Aires. Con la información de tres entrevistas y una visita a un encuentro de habitantes de pueblos fumigados, examino los diferentes “marcos” que el movimiento tiene para describir las formas en que ellos expresan el problema actual, las soluciones que proponen, sus métodos para motivar a la gente, y la perspectiva del movimiento en general. También, incorporo perspectivas académicas para profundizar el análisis de las diferentes áreas de discurso en el movimiento y definir …

La Ciencia Deshumanizada: La Relación Humano-Ambiental Entre El Cadic-Conicet Y La Antártida, Ariel Silverman

Independent Study Project (ISP) Collection

Las investigaciones científicas reconocen cada vez más que los humanos tienen una relación recíproca con la naturaleza, donde cambios rápidos en uno produce inestabilidad en el otro (Mace, 2014). Los humanos y la Antártida son particularmente interdependientes considerando la vulnerabilidad de los servicios ecosistémicos antárticos al cambio climático antropogénico. El Centro Austral de Investigaciones Científicas (CADIC) en Ushuaia, Argentina, es una institución importante en la producción del conocimiento sobre el continente. Por lo tanto, cómo lxs científicxs del CADIC perciben la relación de los humanos con la Antártida pueden afectar la manera en que la Antártida es afectada, y, en …