Environmental Studies Commons^™

Agroforestry For The Future: Motivations Behind Tasmanian Farmers Planting Trees, Josh Lipp

Independent Study Project (ISP) Collection

Agroforestry is the act of combining farming and tree planting, and many Tasmanian farmers are starting to plant trees on their properties for multiple reasons. Through conducting 9 interviews with farmers and researchers and visiting field sites, 3 main themes were identified to answer the question: why are Tasmanian farmers planting trees, and what are the benefits and downsides to agroforestry? Interviews help us understand farmers’ perceptions of agroforestry, and field data collection will prove the benefits of agroforestry in the future. Tasmania was chosen as the location of study as it is a state in Australia that largely focuses …

Considerations For Solar Development: Comprehensive Assessment Of Solar Production Benefits And Consequences In Portugal, Jonathan Ramos Marcuse

Independent Study Project (ISP) Collection

In this paper, the potential for solar energy development in Portugal is explored, with a focus on the Alentejo region of Portugal. The Fernando Pessoa Photovoltaic plant that is approved for construction in the Santiago do Cacém municipality is analyzed. The size of the plant and the location are considered when studying the environmental, social, and economic impacts of the project. The possibility of a centralized solar array in Sines is also explored as an alternative, taking into account the environmental and social impacts on local communities. Additionally, the feasibility and benefits of implementing a decentralized energy grid, utilizing scattered …

Could The Future Of Work Be Green? Two Plot Twists, Ghada Barsoum

Faculty Journal Articles

Given the pressures of climate change could “green” define the future of work? Why are green jobs limited and who is pushing for them to grow?

Reflections On Cop27: How Egypt And India Can Work Together, Sanjay Verma

Faculty Journal Articles

In the face of the global climate crisis, India and Egypt must continue to lead the Global South in pursuing equitable climate action and building on the outcomes of the twenty-seventh Conference of the Parties in Sharm El-Sheikh.

The Archetype Of The Ocean In Balinese Culture, Ava Hull

Independent Study Project (ISP) Collection

An archetype is essential for expressing an understanding of symbols and adding depth to the meaning derived from everyday life. It is a connection of source and meaning through the lens of the human experience. In the case of the ocean, people all over the world turn to the sea as a source of healing and a symbol of the murkiness of the unconscious mind. This holds true for the people of Bali as their beautiful Island is in deep connection with the force of the ocean. From the everyday contact like fishing and relaxing at the beach, to the …

All Policy Is Climate Policy, Jennie Stephens

Faculty Journal Articles

Scholar and activist Jennie Stephens discusses the future of climate policy, emphasizing a “people-first” perspective and the need for larger societal structural transformation.

A Bank Of Actions: Making Good On Losses And Damages, Arunabha Gosh

Faculty Journal Articles

In the seat of the COP27 Presidency, Egypt has the chance to reframe the Conference of the Parties as a forum for action based on accountability.

Carbon Sequestration Capacities Of Different Land Cover Types And Climate Change, Nicole L. Melnick, Annabel Gorman, Adam F. Warren

Student Publications

Human-caused climate change creates a positive feedback loop that emits more carbon dioxide into the atmosphere instead of being sequestered in the Earth or its oceans. A major contributor to this feedback loop is deforestation in order to use land for agriculture and livestock. This study aims to investigate differences in carbon sequestration capabilities of forests, pastures, and cropland through soil and tree sampling in Gettysburg, Pennsylvania. The main hypothesis of this study is that forested land will be the most effective at carbon sequestration. The loss on ignition method (LOI) was used to determine the percent organic material in …

Will Populations Of Macroinvertebrate Functional Feeding Groups Survive Precipitation Changes?, Malika Gottfried, Laura Kim, Sophia Zuccala

Other Student Projects

Climate change is a pervasive issue that has the potential to have detrimental effects on many freshwater organisms and their habitats. Fluctuations in precipitation, changes in temperature, and other long-term shifts in weather patterns are just a few examples of the ways in which climate change is impacting the world around us (“What is Climate Change?” n.d.). The Mill River in Northampton, Massachusetts is an ideal location to measure some of these impacts on macroinvertebrates in various functional feeding groups. Macroinvertebrates are small organisms that lack an internal skeletal system, and their functional feeding groups refer to “the type of …

The Effects Of Climate Change In Guam, Olga M. Zyzanska, Brooke R. Ashfield, Kate E. Eulberg

Student Publications

The purpose of this project is to dive into the harm that climate change has on Guam and its population. The objectives of our project are centered on highlighting the creative resistance of the CHamoru Indigenous community on Guam to established structures of colonialism and militarization during increasing climate crises. This project explores questions such as: How is Guam being impacted by climate change? Is the impact severe and/or immediate? How is the Indigenous community in Guam affected? How does US policy help or harm the island and its Indigenous population? What is being done to protect the island and …

Cub Plastic Shipping Bag Recycling Program, Samuel M. Arkin, Ethan J. Bruemmer

Student Publications

We implemented a plastic shipping bag recycling program at Gettysburg College. Recycling bags contribute towards contamination within the college's single-stream recycling or end up directly in the landfill via traditional trash collection. The production of plastic bags relies on the continued production of fossil fuel extraction. Plastic bag recycling can decrease fossil fuel extraction and waste entering landfills. To curb Gettysburg College’s generation of waste, we placed four bins in various locations throughout the Center Union Building (CUB) in order to collect plastic shipping bags over a 4.5-week period. We made three hypotheses: that our bins would collect shipping bags …

Hearing The Global South In Climate Convos, Zeinab Shaker

Faculty Journal Articles

If progress on climate change is to be made, voices from the most vulnerable Global South and African countries must be heard and included in conversations at climate conferences.

Inclusion And Implementation At Cop27: Just The Beginning, Cairo Review

Faculty Journal Articles

Achieving a COP of inclusion and implementation

Lessons From Cop27: Between Progress And Challenges, Martha Delgado

Faculty Journal Articles

While COP27 made progress in the areas of mitigation, adaptation, financing, and incorporating a gender, youth, and human rights perspective, Mexico is putting forward various initiatives to tackle remaining challenges.

Good To The Last Drop, Thomas L. Crisman, Zachary S. Winters

Faculty Journal Articles

Why nature-based solutions and adaptive management may hold the key to water conservation in the MENA region.

When Consensus Is Reached, Miguel Ruiz Cabañas

Faculty Journal Articles

The outcome of the UN climate conference in Sharm El-Sheikh gives hope for climate justice, but leaves behind many challenges for the upcoming COP28 in Dubai.

The Future Of Water In Mena Is At Stake, Malak Altaeb

Faculty Journal Articles

The MENA region, one of the driest in the world, is facing unprecedented water management challenges due to the effects of climate change.

Cop27 And The Sustainable City: Global Climate Solution Or Mirage?, Patrick J. Bohlen

Faculty Journal Articles

The COP27 meeting in Sharm El-Sheikh highlighted the gap between climate policy goals and climate reality. In the MENA region and globally, cities are key to advancing climate goals

Essays On Agglomeration Economies And Industrial Clusters, Ahmad Aswin Masudi

Dissertations

This dissertation explores the role of agglomeration economies in Indonesia’s manufacturing sector. In three chapters, I utilize different methods from three different perspectives.

The first chapter explores the role of localization and urbanization economies in manufacturing firms’ location decisions using Indonesia’s Industrial Survey from 2003 to 2013. The mixed conditional-multinomial logit model results indicate that, despite the small magnitudes, localization economies do attract firms. However, urbanization economies seem to discourage firms. On the other hand, sectoral-weighted import content has proven to be one of the most prominent attractors of firms, except for medium technology firms in Java. For foreign firms …

Regenerative Farming Practices: How Much Carbon Do They Sequester?, Andrew M. Havens

Department of Agricultural Economics: Dissertations, Theses, and Student Research

Along with the recent rise of voluntary carbon markets comes potential carbon credit producers seeking reliable information on how much carbon they can expect to sequester. In this thesis a distribution of expected sequestration outcomes is constructed using cost-benefit analysis and data gathered from agronomic experiments and land-grant university crop budgets for cover crops and no-till practices. The inverse cumulative distribution of carbon sequestration outcomes from adopting a regenerative agricultural practice is visualized and the net social benefit of paying farmers to produce carbon credits is estimated. Results show that on average there is between $29.02 and $37.20 of social …