<p> The field of environmental political theory has made great gains in its relatively short existence as an academic discipline. One area in which these advancements can be noticed is the strong discussion surrounding the foundations, institutions, and processes of Western liberalism and the relationship of these elements to issues of environmentalism. Within this discussion has manifested the bedrock assumption that the underlying components of classical liberalism &ndash; namely individualism, negative liberties, and instrumental rationality &ndash; preclude or greatly hinder progress toward securing collective environmental needs. This assumption has great intuitive strength as well as exhibition in liberal democracies such as the United States. However, in using this assumption as a launchpad for reconsidering elements of liberalism scholars have inadvertently closed alternate routes of analysis and theorization. This thesis aims to explore one such alternate route. </p><p> Libertarianism, the contemporary reincarnation of classical liberalism, has been generally disregarded in policy and academic realms due to its stringent and inflexible adherence to self-interest, instrumental rationality, and individualism; in discussions of environment, these complaints are only augmented. These criticisms have been validated by a libertarian scholarship that emphasized nature as a warehouse of resources specifically suited for human use. But from where in libertarianism does this ontology develop, and is it correct? This thesis carries this investigation through its overarching research question: can nonhumans have self-ownership within libertarian theory, and what would that mean for libertarian theory? </p><p> Part I of the thesis introduces us to the foundation, tenants, and overall logical structure of contemporary libertarian theory. Finding autonomy to be the key to moral standing, and finding autonomy to be a contested criterion, we discover the shaky ground on which the totality of libertarianism stands. After identifying the relationship of libertarianism and the environment &ndash; one of atomistic, instrumental, and anthropocentric utilization &ndash; we connect the current non-standing moral status of nonhumans in libertarian theory directly to criteria of autonomy. With autonomy acknowledged as a contested subject, we thus arrive at the conclusion that the lack of moral status awarded to nonhumans has arisen not through logical derivation but the reification of tradition. </p><p> Part II centers on the establishment of a proper framework for the task of evaluating libertarianism&rsquo;s main criteria of autonomy. This framework is grounded foremost in the recognition of the inherent social embeddedness within libertarian theory; this embeddedness is founded in the necessary <i> reciprocation</i> of liberty protections through the principles of non-aggression and non-interference and, while acknowledged by libertarian theorists, remained a largely undernourished portion of libertarian theory. To counter anthropocentric bias &ndash; in effort to ward off the influence of tradition &ndash; additional ecological criteria are added to this framework, culminating in an open, non-anthropocentric framework. Afterward, the chapter examines the Naturalistic Fallacy. Finding our answer in the naturally morally pragmatic nature of Man, this discussion finalizes our analytic framework by emphasizing the practical importance of moral reasoning. </p><p> Part III sets about the task of examining the criteria of autonomy utilized within libertarian theory. Two conceptions of autonomy &ndash; minimalist and prudentialist &ndash; are defined, with discussion showing libertarianism to rely, inherently and explicitly, on prudentialist forms of autonomy. The two primary criteria of prudentialism used, life-planning and reason, are then analyzed in turn; this analysis manifests the critique that in the practical usage of morality both criteria rely on and collapse into minimalism. Prudentialism as a standard is then examined to show its paradoxical reliance on pre-formulated conceptions of human lives, to the detriment of logical consistency and the virtues of negative liberty. Singer&rsquo;s criterion of suffering is then briefly examined, with discussion outlining its inapplicability within libertarian theory. Narveson&rsquo;s question of the moral egoist completes the chapter, with the linkage between nonhuman domination and human domination solidifying the argument that full nonhuman moral standing will reduce both to the advantage of libertarian society. From these critiques, then, we observe the critical failure of prudentialism to hold in praxis and see minimalist autonomy as the necessary foundation for libertarian theory. </p><p> Part IV outlines some consequences of minimalist autonomy within libertarian theory. The questions of reciprocity and nonhuman violence are examined, with discussions of complications and critiques following. These complications comprise the intersection of ecological libertarianism with extant issues within libertarian theory, such as Nozick&rsquo;s Principle of Rectification, the moral allowance of self-defense, and the question of the moral standing of children. Afterward, the broader conversation is considered along with specific consideration of the potential environmental impacts of an ecological libertarian theory. Lastly, some doors for future theorizing are opened &ndash; namely the conceptualization of nonhuman labor and nonhuman property rights &ndash; for future critical investigation. (Abstract shortened by ProQuest.) </p>

This thesis represents an analysis of the concept of environmental justice with the aim of identifying possible legal remedies.  The thesis does so through an analysis of the history of environmental justice as well as an analysis of the theories behind environmental justice.  The thesis analyses the concordance between environmental justice and existing principles of environmental law and policy, while also analysing environmental justice in a UK as well as a European and international context. From the outset, environmental justice deals with the negative effects that environmental decisions have on certain minority populations.  In the US, the concept emerged as a response to what was perceived as discriminate targeting of African-American communities through the siting of environmental harms.  In the UK, where environmental justice is emerging on policy and grassroots level, environmental justice has been given an entirely different connotation relying on social justice arguments and concerns for low-income groups.  The thesis sets out to establish and uncover the specific meaning of environmental justice and its implications in a UK context. The thesis argues that environmental justice is as much a problem in the UK as elsewhere.  Despite empirical shortfalls of some of the work that environmental justice advocates rely upon, environmental justice is a real issue.  In light of this, the thesis argues in favour of the specific utilisation and application of human rights norms as well as an improved framework of corporate social responsibility in the attempt to address environmental injustices.  Such legal approaches can be utilised alongside established tools of public participation and access to environmental information in order to secure an aim of environmental justice.

<p> The goals of this research were to determine if the mode of mineralization and the geology of two abandoned uranium and vanadium mining districts that border the Crow Reservation might be a source for contaminants in the Bighorn River and a source of elevated uranium in home water wells on the Reservation. Surface and spring waters of the Crow Reservation have always been greatly respected by the Crow people, valued as a source of life and health and relied upon for drinking water. Upon learning that the Bighorn River has an EPA 303d impaired water listing due to elevated lead and mercury and that mercury has been detected in the fish from rivers of the Crow Reservation this study was implemented. Watersheds from both mining districts contribute to the Bighorn River that flows through the Crow Reservation.</p><p> Initial research used the National Uranium Resource Evaluation database to analyze available geochemistry for the study areas using GIS. The data showed elevated concentrations of lead in drainages related to the mining areas. The data also showed elevated uranium in many of the surface waters and wells that were tested as a part of the study on the Crow Reservation. The author attended meetings and presented results of the National Uranium Resource Evaluation data analyses to the Crow Environmental Health Steering Committee. Thus, both uranium and lead were added to the list of elements that were being tested in home water wells as part of a community based participatory research project addressing many issues of water quality on the Crow Reservation. Results from home wells tested on the reservation did show elevated uranium. </p><p> Rock samples were collected in the study areas and geochemically analyzed. The results of the analyses support a Permian Phosphoria Formation oil source of metals in the two mining districts. Structural data support fracturing accompanied by tectonic hydrothermal brecciation as a process that introduced oil and brines from the Bighorn Basin into the deposits where the uranium vanadium deposits later formed.</p>

<p> &ldquo;<i>Somos semillas</i>&rdquo; &mdash; we are seeds is a slogan, a sentiment, and a belief that emerges and circulates in a myriad of spaces from Ferguson Black Lives Matter protests advocating for racial justice in the United States, to struggles against state violence in Ayotzinapa, Mexico, to climate justice and food sovereignty movements in Latin America. Seeds are both symbolic and material embodiments of futurity. In this dissertation, I examine the discourses around seeds, particularly genetically modified seeds (GM), and the role of biotechnology as our only purveyor of futurity. In &ldquo;Seeds,&rdquo; I examine the dominant discourses around GM seeds produced by pro-GM actors such as agro-industries including Monsanto and Syngenta, and USDAID programs such as Feed the Future. These discourses are constructed around social and environmental looming crises that include hunger and overpopulation, loss of biodiversity and climate change. In &ldquo;Seeds,&rdquo; thinking through the decolonial option, I challenge the single Western narrative that presents GM seeds and crops as the only path to solve these crises and for humanity to have a utopian future. &ldquo;Seeds&rdquo; takes on a &lsquo;studying up&rsquo; approach that as scholar Laura Nader argues investigates those in power instead of those that are being oppressed. &ldquo;Seeds&rdquo; then works alongside other academic, indigenous, campesin@s, and farmer intellectuals and activists to elucidate a number of ways that people around the world are engaging with such crises and are building different paths to decolonial futures.</p>

Urban green spaces, such as parks, provide urban residents with a multitude of environmental benefits and city residents should all have access to these benefits. This study examined the socioeconomic status of urban residents who live within one-mile distance to a public park in the city of Atlanta. Park accessibility was investigated with respect to distances to parks and park acreage using Euclidean distance and street-network distance. Socioeconomic status was examined using five variables: population density, median household income, percentage of population living below poverty, percentage of minority population and percentage of female population. A site suitability analysis was conducted to determine where additional park space could be most beneficial for the populations lacking access to the benefits of park space. Using Geographic Information Systems to analyze socioeconomic data from U.S. Census Bureau vis-à-vis Atlanta parks, this study discovered there is no statistically significant socioeconomic disparity among residents who currently have or do not have park access in Atlanta. The findings of this study showed some weak relationships of park distance and park size with population density and minority populations. The site suitability study suggested two sites that could be potentially used for future park development. Note: This is a large file due to the number of images in the document. Users can right click on the download button and select "Save file" or "Save Link" from the available options. This will circumvent the browser from timing out by downloading the file directly to your computer rather than attempting to open it in the browser.

Thesis (Ph. D.)--University of Chicago, Irving B. Harris Graduate School of Public Policy Studies, June 2001. / Includes bibliographical references. Also available on the Internet.

Home environments pose a number of challenges for environmental justice. Healthy homes in healthy neighborhoods are often inaccessible due to socioeconomic factors, environmental racism, and/or environmental gentrification. Publicly funded home repair programs increasingly strive to both improve environmental health conditions and to reduce energy bills for low-income homeowners. Such programs have been intended to stimulate reinvestment in neighborhoods experiencing blight and more recently to reduce gentrification pressure in neighborhoods experiencing rapid reinvestment. While such programs do not represent a silver-bullet solution to the accessibility of healthy housing, the question remains: “What is the potential of low-income home repair programs to serve as a leverage point for environmental justice in urban home environments facing gentrification pressure?” This question is investigated through performance evaluation case studies of three municipally funded, low-income home repair programs in Austin, Texas intended to ameliorate gentrification and advance outcomes related to environmental justice. The findings suggest that as a site of intervention, dialogue, community connection, and resource-mobilization, home repair programs have potential as leverage points in regenerative community development that advances environmental justice performance outcomes. Actors in home environments can increase their performance with the support of the home ecology paradigm (HEP), a synthetic research paradigm that draws from sustainability science, environmental justice, and social learning literature to renew an action research paradigm established by Ellen Swallow Richards in the late 1800s to advance healthy community design and development. Guided by a vision of environmental justice, equipped with tools supporting holistic, multi-scalar systems-thinking and regenerative dialogue assessments, and engaged in a practice of resilient leadership, such actors can more deftly dance with the co-evolving systems of their home environments. In so doing, they increase their potential to directly enhance the material, social, and ecological conditions of life in the present, while also cultivating the capacity of these living systems to adapt resiliently to future disruptions. Furthermore, beyond producing life-enhancing performance outcomes, the HEP also appears to support actors in an engaged praxis that enhances their moment-by-moment experience of life and the vitality of living systems in the present.

<p> This dissertation examines the politics of knowledge in collaborative watershed governance institutions of the Klamath River Basin of Northern California and Southern Oregon. The waters of the Klamath are shared between farmers, fisherfolk, indigenous communities, hydro-electric facilities and one of the most biologically diverse eco-regions in the United States. Since 1986, the watershed has provided the primary spatial unit for resolving resource conflict by coordinating agency and citizen science, guiding integrated resource management and cultivating a shared sense of place and belonging among Klamath watershed inhabitants. For nearly three decades, the Klamath Basin has served as a laboratory for experiments in &ldquo;<i>watershed democracy</i>&rdquo;- a form of hydrologically-grounded political association that attempts to facilitate the direct participation of all watershed inhabitants in knowledge production, deliberation and collective action at the watershed scale. Through the idiom of <i>watershed democracy,</i> I connect empirical research on the outcomes of nearly three decades of community-based natural resource management in the Klamath with theoretical debates waged over the last century and a half regarding the question of scale in environmental science, democratic governance and natural resource management. </p><p> In this dissertation, I analyze the watershed as a scale of knowledge production, a site of democratic deliberation and a unit of environmental governance. I investigate whether the watershed is the most appropriate socio- spatial unit for representing people and place in the Klamath, paying particular attention to the impact of collaborative watershed governance arenas on the ability of Karuk Tribal members to participate in knowledge-production and decision- making for natural resource management in their ancestral territory in northern California. </p><p> Through participatory research with the Karuk Tribe&rsquo;s Department of Natural Resources, participant observation, document analysis and interviews with Federal, State, Tribal and local agency scientists and representatives, I follow knowledge and policy-making processes across a diverse range of institutions engaged in Klamath watershed governance. Combining participatory research and participant observation with theoretical insights from political ecology, science and technology studies (STS) and indigenous studies scholarship, I evaluate the processes and outcomes of collaborative watershed-based governance according to its impacts on local watershed ecosystems and communities. Drawing on the theoretical framework of &ldquo;co-production&rdquo;, I analyze the mutually constitutive relations between watershed science, watershed governance institutions, the materialities of Klamath watershed-ecosystems and the distributions of resource benefits and burdens in Klamath communities. I follow Klamath experiments in watershed democracy negotiate the basic terms of political life such as property, territory, sovereignty and the public good, as well as the material conditions and flows of watershed resources and the patterns of access to, ownership in and distribution of these resources. </p><p> While the Klamath experiements in collaborative environmental governance at the watershed scale have opened up oppportunities for Karuk representatives to participate in knowledge production and decision-making, the watershed scale has itself constrained the focus of integrated resource management, limiting the kinds of knowledge that can pattern as reliable and the types of restoration and management projects that can issue from Klamath collaborative governance forums. I demonstrate how Karuk representatives have both leveraged and critiqued the watershed as a way of conceptualizing Klamath watershed-ecological processes and as a socio-spatial unit for approaching ecological restoration and cultural revitalization in their ancestral territory. Watershed science and watershed governance forums were sometimes leveraged by Karuk representatives to substantiate Karuk sovereignty and resource rights and at times rejected for not being able to convey distinct Karuk epistemologies, ontologies and cosmologies. I demonstrate how collaborative watershed management forums have struggled to render different types of indigenous, local and scientific knowledge commensurable and have instead provoked debates about how to produce knowledge about nature in ways that are appropriate for the local community and its ecosystems. </p><p> I draw attention to the cultural politics of scale to critique watershed-centric management and search for alternative ways of representing the multiple scales through which Klamath inhabitants understand and value nature. I compare watershed-based governance with two other emerging scales of democratic resource governance- firesheds and foodsheds- in their abilities to bring together diverse forms of environmental knowledge around multiple nested scales of social and ecological processes. <i>Firesheds</i> are emerging areas of community-based fire management patterned according to the way fire burns across the western Klamath landscape. <i>Foodsheds</i> are another emerging form of community-based resource governance taking shape in the Klamath around the spatial and temporal characteristics of food resources and their associated management practices in forest ecosystems. Comparing watersheds, firesheds and foodsheds opens up the question of scale in collaborative environmental governance by highlighting tensions among different ways of producing knowledge, managing resources and acting collectively at different bioregional scales in the Klamath. </p><p> Against watershed-centric approaches to ecological democracy, I argue for deliberative multi-scalar approaches to implementing collaborative environmental governance, cultural revitalization and watershed-ecosystem restoration in the Klamath. Multi-scalar perspectives can accommodate multiple ways of making knowledge while avoiding homogenizing diverse situated perspectives into a single way of seeing Klamath eco-cultural landscapes. I argue for <i> &ldquo;democratizing scale&rdquo;</i> in order to define an appropriate scalar framework for producing knowledge, representing human values and making decisions about the management of natural resources. Collaborative environmental governance requires an accompanying democratization of scale to accommodate the myriad ways of knowing nature and making a living in Klamath watershed-ecosystems. Scalar formations that are produced through deliberative democratic processes can provide more inclusive grounds than watersheds for democratic environmental governance and multispecies world-making.</p>

<p> This dissertation examines whether spatial measures of health determinants and health outcomes are being used appropriately and effectively to improve the health of marginalized populations in the United States. I concentrate on three spatial measures that have received significant policy and regulatory attention in California and nationally: access to healthful foods, climate change, and housing quality. I find that measures of these health determinants have both significant limitations and unrealized potential for addressing health disparities and promoting health equity. </p><p> I define spatial triage as a process of using spatial data to screen or select place-based communities for targeted investments, policy action, and/or regulatory attention. Chapter 1 describes the historical context of spatial triage and how it relates to ongoing health equity research and policy. In Chapter 2, I evaluate spatial measures of community nutrition environments by comparing data from in-person store surveys against data from a commercial database. I find that stores in neighborhoods with higher population density or higher percentage of people of color have lower availability of healthful foods and that inaccuracies in commercial databases may produce biased measures of healthful food availability. </p><p> Chapter 3 focuses on spatial measures of climate change vulnerability. I find that currently used spatial measures of "disadvantaged communities" ignore many important factors, such as community assets, region-specific risks, and occupation-based hazards that contribute to place-based vulnerability. I draw from examples of successful actions by community-based environmental justice organizations and reframe "disadvantaged" communities as sites of solutions where innovative programs are being used to simultaneously address climate mitigation, adaptation, and equity goals. </p><p> In Chapter 4, I combine electronic health records, public housing locations, and census data to evaluate patterns of healthcare utilization and health outcomes for low-income children in San Francisco. I find that children who live in redeveloped public housing are less likely to have more than one acute care hospital visit within a year than children who live in older, traditional public housing. These results demonstrate how integrating patient-level data across hospitals and with data from other sectors can identify new types of place-based health disparities. Chapter 5 details recommendations for analytic, participatory, and cross-sector approaches to guide the development and implementation of more effective health equity research and policy.</p>

Research Doctorate - Doctor of Philosophy (PhD) / This thesis uses a transdisciplinary, sustainability-science approach to investigate the dialectics and potential for the Hunter Valley region of New South Wales, Australia, to make a transition to sustainability. The Hunter Valley, one of Australia’s historic food, wine and grain breadbaskets, is now home to over 50 opencut and underground black coal mines and is one of the world’s major coalmining and exporting regions. It is Australia’s largest black coal electricity generating region where six coal-fired power stations generate 40% of Australia’s electricity supply. The carbon intensity of the Hunter Valley’s economy makes the region Australia’s largest direct and indirect contributor to global carbon dioxide emissions. The region is a climate change hot spot that embodies the challenges and opportunities confronting Australia if it is to move towards a clean, renewable energy future and ecologically and socially-sustainable economy. The study examines the Hunter Valley as a complex adaptive socio-ecological system nested in an extended panarchy (Gunderson and Holling, 2002) that includes global energy systems and the ecosphere. The research examines the linked ecological and social health impacts of different scenarios for the Hunter Valley, comparing its current status – given the name Carbon Valley (Ray, 2005a) – with an alternative socio-ecological regime described by local residents as a Future Beyond Coal (CAN, 2006). This Future Beyond Coal is a regional manifestation of what Heinberg (2004) calls, at a global scale, a Post-carbon Society. Transdisciplinary sustainability-science is used to examine complex processes in which Hunter Valley residents are dealing with linked ecosystem-human health distress, while developing capacity for anticipating and forging change towards sustainability. They are also boosting the resilience of desirable states while challenging the perverse resilience of coal dependency. The thesis examines the potential for a ‘Just Transition’ to sustainability, a social and economic restructuring process which aspires to move the region’s socio-ecological relationships rapidly towards sustainability through protecting the wellbeing of vulnerable workers, communities and ecosystems. It investigates hegemonic relationships within coal communities, and the role popular education and social learning are playing in building a social movement for sustainability, a movement that links local, regional and global attractors and disturbances in order to change the basin of attraction from the current non-sustainable coal-dependent society to one that is ecologically sustainable and socially just.