Environmental Studies Commons^™

Climate And Surging Of Donjek Glacier, Yukon, Canada, Ellyn M. Enderlin

Geosciences Faculty Publications and Presentations

Links between climate and glacier surges are poorly understood but are required to enable prediction of surges and mitigation of associated hazards. Here, we investigate the role of snow accumulation, rain, and temperature on surge periodicity, area changes, and timing of surge initiation since the 1930s at Donjek Glacier, Yukon, Canada. Snow accumulation measured in three ice cores collected at Eclipse Icefield indicates that a cumulative accumulation of 15.5 ± 1.46 or 16.6 ± 2.0 m w.e. occurred in the ten to twelve years between each of its last eight surges, depending on ice motion spatiotemporal offset corrections. Although we …

Climate Translators: The Impacts Of Broadcast News On The Political Divide Over Climate Change In The United States, Dylan V. Macy

Pitzer Senior Theses

In many instances, television news is the primary outlet through which the public gains knowledge on climate change. Both the perceived threat of climate change and American news media have grown politically divided since the 1980s. I make the argument that American news media influences the partisan divide over climate change. In addition to the political landscape of news media, focus on political events and figures in climate coverage further contributes to a partisan divide. Supporting these claims are research displaying how climate change news is processed in a partisan manner and a selection of three case study periods in …

The Chumash Heritage National Marine Sanctuary: An Exploration Of Changing The Discourse On Conservation, Arielle Ben-Hur

Pitzer Senior Theses

In 2015, the Northern Chumash Tribal Council submitted a National Marine Sanctuary Nomination to establish the Chumash Heritage National Marine Sanctuary– a means by which to ensure the protection of one of the most culturally and biologically diverse coastlines in the world. On October 5, 2015, John Armor of the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA) responded to the nomination, adding it to the inventory of areas NOAA may consider in the future for national marine sanctuary designation.

In my thesis, I explore how the nomination of the Chumash Heritage National Marine Sanctuary acts as a platform from which Traditional …

A Qualitative Assessment Of Attitudes Toward Environmental-Health Concerns In Vietnamese -Owned And -Operated Salons In The Greater Seattle Area, Cindy Pham Nguyen

Honors Theses

Environmental-health disparities in nail salons lies at a unique intersection of environmental, health, and social justice. Although the nail industry is booming in the United States, business often occurs at the expense of the well-being of nail salon workers. The workforce, many of whom are immigrant Vietnamese women, routinely handles products containing known carcinogens and endocrine disruptors. Furthermore, workers disproportionately experience negative health impacts from working in salons, including respiratory or musculoskeletal disorders. This behavioral study assesses potential variables (demographic background, health, personal behavior, salon management, and external influence) that impact the attitudes of Vietnamese nail salon workers toward environmental-health …

Analytical Variables Leading To The Involvement Of Consumers And Farmers In Sustainable Urban Agriculture In The Indianapolis Region, Olivia Holabird

Undergraduate Honors Thesis Collection

200,000 people living in Indianapolis have low food access, most of whom live in low-income areas. One solution to these food deserts is sustainable urban agriculture. I investigated what factors bring people living in the Indianapolis region to become involved in sustainable agriculture in the hopes of increasing future involvement. To do this, I conducted 12 semi-structured interviews with 6 farmers and 6 consumers across the Indianapolis region. I used Vermeir and Verbeke’s analytical categories of values, social norms, certainty, perceived availability, and perceived influence. Through my interviews, however, I found my own variables of sense of identity, accessibility, health, …

Artificial Intelligence-Enhanced Decision Support For Informing Global Sustainable Development: A Human-Centric Ai-Thinking Approach, Meng-Leong How, Sin Mei Cheah, Yong-Jiet Chan, Aik Cheow Khor, Eunice Mei Ping Say

CCX Research

Sustainable development is crucial to humanity. Utilization of primary socio-environmental data for analysis is essential for informing decision making by policy makers about sustainability in development. Artificial intelligence (AI)-based approaches are useful for analyzing data. However, it was not easy for people who are not trained in computer science to use AI. The significance and novelty of this paper is that it shows how the use of AI can be democratized via a user-friendly human-centric probabilistic reasoning approach. Using this approach, analysts who are not computer scientists can also use AI to analyze sustainability-related EPI data. Further, this human-centric probabilistic …

Towards A Resilient Future: Federal Policies For Adapting The U.S. Coasts To Climate Change, Samuel Horowitz

Pitzer Senior Theses

Climate change is projected to have a devastating impact on the American coast, yet coastal communities and states have largely failed to prepare for projected impacts. This is in large part due to a lack of resources. This thesis analyzes innovative federal policy mechanisms that will address the current gap between actions and forecasted impacts, and will make U.S. coastal communities more resilient in the face of climate change.

Present And Passionate: A Critical Analysis Of Asian American Involvement In The United States Environmental Justice Movement, Emily M. Ng

Pitzer Senior Theses

Communities of color are disproportionately exposed to toxins and pollution. The environmental justice movement addresses the greater health and environmental risks experienced by minority groups. Although Asian Americans are the fastest growing population in the United States, there is little known about their involvement in the movement. In this thesis, I further observe Asian American involvement in the United States environmental justice movement. By analyzing community case studies, I identify Asian American-specific mobilization challenges and strategies. Interviews with prominent Asian American environmental justice activists reveal activism and collective identity are connected, but vary greatly according to individualized Asian American experiences. …

The Great Turning: A Call For Systems-Thinkers, Gabriella M. Demarce

Undergraduate Theses, Professional Papers, and Capstone Artifacts

David Orr, in an article on ecological intelligence reminds us that the modern world was shaped by people who did not understand that our social and economic systems could not coexist with the rest of the biological or natural systems on Earth (Orr, 1994). My research is rooted in Orr’s argument and discovering ways to shift this degrading paradigm. With my belief in the power of education in empowering youth and my background in environmental and climate change studies, I see a future in great need of people who holistically understand the functions of all types of systems and can …

Food System Resilience In The Face Of Covid-19: A Study Of Maine’S Food Sovereignty Movement, Hania M. Lincoln Lenderking

Honors Theses

As the COVID-19 pandemic has exposed the vulnerabilities in the United States’ industrialized food system, the need for a more resilient alternative is stronger than ever. In Maine, food sovereignty - the right of people to determine their own food system - has been enacted at the local level through the adoption of the Local Food and Community Self-Governance Ordinance (LFCSGO). Using unstructured interviews with leaders of Maine’s food sovereignty movement conducted prior to the pandemic, this study aims to link food sovereignty in Maine to the concept of food system resilience. Participants defined food sovereignty specifically in relation to …

Household Costs And Resistance To Germany's Energy Transition, Roger Karapin

Publications and Research

Germany is an exemplary case of an energy transition from nuclear energy and fossil fuels toward renewables in the electricity sector, but it also demonstrates repeated, increasingly successful counter-mobilization by energy incumbents and their allies. The course for Germany's energy transition was largely set with the adoption of a feed-in tariff law in 1990, but since then the energy transition has been altered by a series of policy-making episodes, each of which was shaped by the outcomes of the previous episodes; there has been a combination of reinforcing and reactive sequences. This article uses policy windows and advocacy coalition theory, …

Environmental Governance For Whom? Examining The Political, Institutional, Fiscal, And Legal Determinants Of State Environmental Agency Budget Policy In The Us, Andrew R. Duggan

Theses and Dissertations

Budgets are a prospective tool of governance, and appropriations are a planning vehicle reflecting: bureaucracies’ values, complex interactions, collective preferences, political influences, and available resources. Research spanning 30 years finds that environmental pollution is a key determinant of environmental budgets in the US, though myriad factors, actors, and subsystems are important to consider. Due to federalism and devolution of responsibilities and authorities, environmental governance falls largely to the states. While the dynamics that shape state environmental budget policy have received scholarly interest, theoretically-driven examinations of environmental appropriations remain limited within the public budgeting and environmental policy literature.

Using panel data …

Contents, Discovery Editors

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

No abstract provided.

Letter From The Dean, Deacue Fields

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

No abstract provided.

Estimation Of Additive And Dominance Effects Of A Mutant Glutathione S-Transferase Gene On Anthocyanin Content In Muscadine Grape (Vitis Rotundifolia), Autumn Brown, Margaret Worthington, Aruna Varanasi, Lacy Nelson, Renee T. Threlfall, Luke R. Howard

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

The skin color of muscadine grapes (Vitis rotundifolia) is typically classified as black or bronze. A glutathione S-transferase, VrunGST4, has been identified as a candidate gene for berry skin color in muscadine grapes. A molecular marker was developed within VrunGST4 to distinguish between muscadine genotypes (cultivars and selections) with bronze (T:T), heterozygote black (C:T), and homozygote black (C:C) berries. The objectives of this study were to determine whether there was a correlation between berry skin color and total anthocyanin content and to calculate additive and dominance effects of VrunGST4 in determining total anthocyanins in the berries of two biparental F1 …

Decomposition In Pasture Soil Receiving Excreta From Ruminants Fed Alfalfa Forage Diet Supplemented With Increasing Proportions Of Sericea Lespedeza Legume, Yang Kai Tang, Mary C. Savin, Dirk Philipp, Ken Coffey, Jiangchao Zhao

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

Healthy soil is fundamental to a productive pasture system as it will decompose labile organic matter and promote retention of carbon to build a stable, resistant pool of organic matter. An easy, standardized approach to measure decomposition and litter stabilization that is gaining popularity in both citizen science and research studies is the use of the Tea Bag Index. The Tea Bag Index is a relatively new method evaluating the loss of organic material in two different kinds of commercial tea bags (green tea and Rooibos tea) after burial in the soil for 90 days. The objective of this experiment …

Benefits From Laguna Lake: Perspective Of Small Fisher Households, Rosalina Palanca-Tan

Economics Department Faculty Publications

Fishing is considered to be the most important among the many uses of Laguna Lake, the largest lake in the Philippines and second largest in Southeast Asia. Using primary data gathered through focus group discussions, key informant interviews, and a household survey together with secondary data on revenue and cost estimates for aquaculture and catch fisheries, this paper discusses the lake___s role in the economic life of two fishing communities located along the shoreline. The study, which uses a microscopic lens to look at issues from the perspective of small fisher households instead of from that of policymakers and non-government …

"May We Be Buried Alive Together": Towards An Intersectional Feminist True Crime Praxis, Alexandra White

Pomona Senior Theses

Most mainstream true crime narratives revolve around a corpse. It is usually the body of a woman. The body is most often white. Not always, but in the cultural imaginary, she is blonde. She comes from a good family. She was a sweet girl. What happened to her? While this question haunts the general public, it also animates true crime communities as the victim becomes a symbol of innocence, a site of spectacular violence, and evidence of the incomprehensible extreme of human behavior. The question brings (primarily) white, cis women true crime fans together in the name of fascination, fear, …

Protecting Biodiversity On National Forests: The Evolution And Implementation Of Forest Planning Regulations, Anna Wearn

Graduate Student Theses, Dissertations, & Professional Papers

In 2012, the U.S. Forest Service (USFS) promulgated new forest planning regulations that significantly altered national forest management. One of the most controversial and important advancements was the inclusion of what were meant to be stronger biodiversity protections. An analysis of USFS’s rationale in revising the biodiversity regulations provides insights into how to interpret the substantively and procedurally new ecosystem and species protections. Examining this regulatory history reveals three key changes to the manner in which national forests are required to manage and monitor biodiversity: 1) a greater reliance on science to inform planning, 2) a new emphasis on ecological …

Down The Deer Path: Reflections On The Future Of Hunting In America, Jackie A. Bussjaeger

Graduate Student Theses, Dissertations, & Professional Papers

This collection of chapters delves into the dramatically shifting landscape of hunting sports from a personal perspective of a young hunter. As older hunters age out of the sport, hunter-funded conservation initiatives are in danger of losing support. This work examines the nature of relationships between hunters, their prey, and their worldview, as well as the elements of hunting that appeal to new hunters, and the challenges they may face as they become the hunters of the future.