Exide Technologies finally closed its secondary lead-battery recycling plant on March 12, 2015. The community of primarily Hispanics around the facility had to fight many years to have the polluting facility shut down. Because government agencies, whose job is to protect citizens from polluters, were not regulating the facility properly, residents are not sure if they can trust the agencies to carry out remediation effectively and efficiently either. In this paper I explore the environmental justice issues associated with environmental remediation and what community members can do to make sure that their neighborhood is cleaned up properly. Through interviews with government agencies and environmental activists heavily involved in this case, I discovered that the main environmental justice issue in remediation is increased exposure to toxins. I argue that strong community activism and involvement are necessary for remediation to happen properly, and explore some tools that can be used in this process.

This thesis investigates the role Christian communities in the United States play in eco-justice work. Eco-justice is the recognition that human rights and environmental rights are indivisible. Christianity had a deep impact on Western culture in Europe during the Medieval, Renaissance, and Enlightenment periods. Evangelizing and carrying out God’s will were used repeatedly as justification for the colonial escapades of European powers. The notion of a Covenant with God permeated American culture and influenced the identity of the nation and of American environmentalism. However, Christian communities were also active in resisting the exploitation of people and the Earth. Today, Christian communities and activists bring resources – both material and moral – to the fight for eco-justice, they provide a space for inclusive organizing, and they practice rituals that encourage an active, transformative hope for the world.

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No. of bitstreams: 1 angeli_t_me_rcla.pdf: 2113029 bytes, checksum: 4281d8f9955086abdb5c6c6840b6c849 (MD5) Previous issue date: 2017-10-30 / Fundação de Amparo à Pesquisa do Estado de São Paulo (FAPESP) / O presente trabalho, que se insere no âmbito do Projeto Educação Ambiental no Brasil: análise da produção acadêmica - teses e dissertações (Projeto EArte), tem como objetivos de investigação: 1) caracterizar o contexto de produção das teses e dissertações de educação ambiental (EA) que problematizam o conceito de justiça ambiental, concluídas no Brasil no período de 1981 a 2014 e catalogadas no Banco de Teses e Dissertações do Projeto EArte e 2) explorar possíveis significados e sentidos sobre as relações entre educação ambiental e justiça ambiental, passíveis de serem construídos a partir de diálogos com esses textos. Trata-se de uma pesquisa documental, do tipo "estado da arte", que apresenta caráter qualitativo e é orientada pela abordagem histórico-cultural, compreendendo o ato da pesquisa como uma relação dialógica entre sujeitos, possibilitada pela linguagem. O corpus documental da investigação é constituído por 23 teses e dissertações de EA nas quais questões relativas à justiça ambiental são problematizadas. Em relação ao contexto de produção dessas pesquisas, observamos que o primeiro trabalho de EA que problematiza o conceito de justiça ambiental foi publicado no ano de 2004 e que, a partir dessa data, a distribuição temporal dos trabalhos se manteve relativamente estável, com um máximo de quatro trabalhos publicados em 2011. Também é possível perceber que as regiões Sudeste, Sul e Centro-Oeste destacam-se na produção acadêmica em EA que estabelece relações com a justiça ambiental. Quanto aos programas de pós-graduação aos quais os trabalhos analisados estavam vinculados, a maioria pertence à área de Ciências Humanas, particularmente da Educação. Além disso, o Grupo Pesquisador em Educação Ambiental, Comunicação e Arte, coordenado pela pesquisadora Michèle Sato, da Universidade Federal de Mato Grosso, foi responsável pela produção de várias teses e dissertações analisadas, o que possivelmente está relacionado com o foco do referido grupo de pesquisa. Quanto aos contextos educacionais privilegiados nas pesquisas, foi possível observar que praticamente não houve diferença entre o número de trabalhos desenvolvidos em contexto escolar e o número de trabalhos desenvolvidos em contexto não escolar. Foi possível perceber, ainda, algumas aparentes tendências nos objetivos e intenções dos pesquisadores e pesquisadoras em EA ao trabalharem com questões relativas à justiça ambiental, quais sejam: a busca por uma formação voltada à transformação social e justiça ambiental, a abordagem do conceito de justiça ambiental através da tematização dos conflitos socioambientais e a preocupação com a construção e o desenvolvimento de práticas contextualizadas à realidade socioambiental local, de maneira a contribuir com transformações socioambientais para as comunidades envolvidas e com a constituição de sujeitos que busquem a justiça socioambiental. Em relação à tentativa de explorar possíveis significados relacionados ao conceito de justiça ambiental nas teses e dissertações de EA, utilizamos a metodologia dos núcleos de significação, a partir da qual sistematizamos quatro núcleos, assim propostos: Relações de causas e efeitos das injustiças ambientais, Relação entre justiça ambiental e preservação ambiental, Relação entre justiça ambiental e processos de transformação social e Estratégias de construção de justiça ambiental. A partir dessa análise, exploramos sentidos sobre as relações entre EA e justiça ambiental, apontando para possibilidades e limitações do processo educativo na construção da justiça ambiental. / The present work, which is part of the Project Environmental Education in Brazil: analysis of academic production - theses and dissertations (EArte Project), has the following research objectives: to characterize the context of production of theses and dissertations of environmental education (EE) that problematize the concept of environmental justice, concluded in Brazil from 1981 to 2014 and cataloged in the Bank of Thesis and Dissertations of EArte Project and 2) to identify the significance and explore possible meanings on the relationships between environmental education and environmental justice, which can be constructed from dialogues with these texts. This is a state-of-the-art documentary research that is qualitative and oriented by the historical-cultural approach, including the act of research as a dialogical relationship between subjects, made possible by the language. The documentary corpus of the investigation is constituted by 23 theses and dissertations of EA in which questions related to environmental justice are problematized. Regarding the year by year distribution of these researches, we noticed that the first EE work that addresses the idea of environmental justice was published in 2004 and, from that year, the temporal distribution remained relatively stable, with a peak of works observed in the year of 2011. It can also be noticed that the Southeast, South and Center-West regions stand out in the academic production in EE that establishes relations with environmental justice. Regarding the postgraduate programs to which the analyzed works were linked, the majority belongs to the area of Human Sciences, particularly Education. In addition, the Research Group on Environmental Education, Communication and Art, coordinated by the researcher Michèle Sato, from the Federal University of Mato Grosso, was responsible for the production of several of the analyzed theses and dissertations, which is possibly related to the focus of this research group. As for the privileged educational contexts in the researches, it was possible to observe that there was practically no difference between the number of works developed in school context and the number of works developed in non-school context. It was also possible to notice some apparent tendencies in the objectives and intentions of researchers in EE when working with issues related to environmental justice, such as: the search for a formation focused on social transformation and environmental justice, the approach of the concept of environmental justice through the thematization of social and environmental conflicts and the concern with the construction and development of practices contextualized to local socio-environmental reality, in a way that contributes to socio-environmental transformations for the involved communities and for the constitution of individuals seeking social and environmental justice. In relation to the attempt to explore possible meanings related to the concept of environmental justice in theses and dissertations of EE, we used the methodology of the nuclei of meaning, from which we systematized four nuclei: Relations of causes and effects of environmental injustices, Relation between environmental justice and environmental preservation, Relation between environmental justice and processes of social transformation and Strategies for building environmental justice. From this analysis, we explore meanings about the relations between EE and environmental justice, pointing to possibilities and limitations of the educational process in the construction of environmental justice. / FAPESP: 2015/20352-4.

Exposure to pollutants of ambient origin contributes significantly to the global disease burden (Cohen et al., 2017). Mounting evidence has demonstrated disproportionately high ambient PM2.5 and NO2 concentrations in the U.S. among nonwhite and low-income populations, potentially contributing to environmental health disparities (Bell and Ebisu, 2012; Clark et al., 2014; Morello-Frosch and Lopez, 2006). There is limited understanding of temporal trends and underlying causes of exposure inequalities (EIs), and whether residential building characteristics modify observed EIs. Further, while ambient pollutants have been linked to cardiometabolic disease in adulthood, few studies have documented the link between early-life ambient air pollution exposure and weight growth trajectories in early childhood- an informative step on the causal pathway between early life exposures and chronic outcomes. Using 1 km2 PM2.5 and NO2 predictions in Massachusetts and Census data, we quantify longitudinal EI between sociodemographic groups over a decade. We estimate AER for all Massachusetts residential parcels using publicly available data and assess whether accounting for AER exacerbates or ameliorates PM2.5 inequalities. We examine associations of weight growth trajectories in early childhood with residential prenatal and postnatal PM2.5 and distance to road (traffic) exposure in the Boston-based Children’s HealthWatch cohort. PM2.5 and NO2 inequalities increased across the study period in urban areas, and EIs were more pronounced for NO2 than PM2.5 and among racial/ethnic groups compared to other population subgroups. Analyzing EI longitudinally revealed that spatio-temporal shifts in air pollution, and not demographic distributions, contributed to exposure disparities. We found substantial variability in estimated AER across the state, and that PM2.5 EIs were magnified when AER was considered. Prenatal PM2.5 >9.5 µg/m3 predicted higher weight growth rates among females, but with an opposite direction of effect in males. This association was modified by birth weight and AER, with a stronger magnitude of effect in low-birthweight and higher-AER females. These findings underscore the importance of considering vulnerable communities and residential characteristics in ambient air pollution reduction strategies. This dissertation provides an opportunity to understand susceptible phenotypes and periods of potential intervention to reduce ambient air pollution impacts on cardiometabolic outcomes. / 2020-03-17T00:00:00Z

This dissertation proposes an approach to energy that transcends the focus on energy as a mere technical economic or engineering problem, is connected to sociological theory as a whole, and takes issues of equality and ecology as theoretical starting points. In doing so, the work presented here puts ecological and environmental sociological theory, and the work of environmental justice scholars, feminist ecologists, and energy scholars, in a context in which they may complement one another to broaden the theoretical basis of the current sociology of energy. This theoretical integration provides an approach to energy focused on energy justice. Understanding energy and society in the terms outlined here makes visible energy injustice, or the interface between social inequalities and ecological depredations accumulating as the social and ecological debts of the modern energy regime. Systems ecology is brought into this framework as a means for understanding unequal exchange, energy injustice more generally, and the requirements for long-term social and ecological reproduction in ecological terms. Energy developments in Ecuador and Cuba are used here as case studies in order to further develop the idea of energy justice and the theory of unequal ecological exchange. The point is to broaden the framework of the contemporary critical sociology of energy, putting energy justice at its heart. This dissertation contains previously published and unpublished co-authored material.

My dissertation examines critical engagements with the "new urbanist" movement in late 20th and early 21st century U.S. novels, including Karen Tei Yamashita's Tropic of Orange, Helena María Viramontes's Their Dogs Came with Them, and Colson Whitehead's Zone One. I argue that these novels reflect new urbanism's valorization of neighborhoods that are walkable, green, and diverse, even as they critique the movement's inattention to environmental injustice and the long history of urban rights movements. Moreover, I argue that contemporary fiction's engagement with new urbanism has driven formal and stylistic innovation in the novel. The "new urbanist novel," I argue, blends elements of the postmodern literary mode, such as metafiction and narrative fragmentation, with elements that are arguably anti-postmodern, such as representations of stable collective identity and utopian visions of organic urban community.

For years, West Eugene, Oregon residents have struggled for acknowledgment of unjust government practices in the area, while agencies have been slow to acknowledge the negative social and environmental health outcomes experienced by the neighborhood. Examining land use/zoning and air quality agencies in Eugene, this study identifies the way the “state” engages in discourses regarding inequity that are used as a means to deflect political criticism and maintain social order, effectively insulating its actions from public input or scrutiny. By examining discourses from the ‘top’, this study finds the “state” deflects criticism and insulates its actions through four processes presented by Habermas: use of scientific discourse in development of government policy, management of political demand through neocorporatist decision-making, prioritization of capital accumulation in organizational structure, and increase of decision-making power within the state. Adding to the literature, this study finds a fifth process: “homogenization” of the public.

This dissertation studies the intersections of militarism, climate change, and environmental justice in U.S. literature and popular culture since the end of the Cold War. The project identifies different mechanisms enacting environmental military violence through discursive analysis of literary and cultural texts, and considers the ideas, values, and beliefs that support environmental military violence. In each chapter I trace a different dynamic of environmental violence structured through the logics of U.S. counterinsurgency theory by examining what I call “narrative political ecologies”—cultural texts that center concerns of ecology and broadly defined political economy. Chapter I establishes the stakes and questions of the dissertation. The next two chapters investigate the dynamics of environmental violence depicted within narrative political ecologies. Chapter II investigates how eruptive interpersonal violence secures more insidious, hidden forms of slow environmental violence in Héctor Tobar’s The Tattooed Soldier. Chapter III considers the U.S.-Mexico Borderlands and the environmental military violence responsible for the deaths of undocumented migrants by examining Luis Alberto Urrea’s The Devil’s Highway and the Electronic Disturbance Theater’s Transborder Immigrant Tool. Chapter IV turns to potential f wars and conflicts that may be caused by climate change as they have been depicted in speculative fiction. In novels depicting climate migrants, such as Octavia Butler’s Parable of the Sower (1993) and Parable of the Talents (2014), I show that even politically progressive, intersectional approaches to environmental endangerment naturalize conflict and occlude dialogic solutions to environmental change. The final chapter traces how the environmental refugee has become a paradigmatic figure in climate change discourse, particularly the aspects of this discourse where issues of national security are articulated. At the center of these texts is the figure of the migrant and narratives of migrations, and I argue that the figure of the environmental migrant offers a privileged vantage on the constitutive forces of the Anthropocene. The dissertation identifies the specific literary and rhetorical techniques that authors use to contest environmental militarization and expand the U.S. public’s capacity to creatively and compassionately reason around increased flows of environmental migrants— issues of vital importance for humane climate change adaptation.

Flooding has become a problem of national proportion and many scholars have started to take note of the human impacts in this area. This study will focus on the social vulnerability framework in tandem with the environmental justice theoretical frameworks being applied to Polk County Iowa so that information can be added to the body of works within a Midwestern U.S. context. This research will contribute to the current geographical knowledge in natural hazards, environmental justice, and vulnerability to flood hazards. Taking into consideration the scarcity of county or sub-county studies in the Midwest U.S. measuring spatial tendencies in hazards vulnerability, this thesis is fitting. This study examines Polk County Iowa for social vulnerability factors present today to the natural disaster of flooding and then looks longitudinally back to 1990 to see if similar individual variables were also prominent historically. This study utilizes block group census level data and creates from it a social vulnerability index (SoVI) following Cutter et al. (2003). The study then used FEMA flood risk level boundaries and the 100-year floodplain to create a comparison of vulnerability of higher flood risk areas and lower risk areas to see if exposure to flood prone areas coincides with an increase or decrease in social vulnerability. Findings of statistical tests and the bivariate choropleth map of the study area suggest that Polk County exhibits a spatial vulnerability paradox, where the persons most socially vulnerable do not necessarily always preside in the source area for flooding. Interestingly enough the study suggests that risk capable and risk resilient populations live in some of the most physically risky places. An examination of specific individual vulnerability factors from the present and historically in 1990 give the same picture of spatial paradoxical vulnerability, leading many variables to be inconclusive. However, four variables (QFAM, QMOBILE, QEXTRACT, and AVGTRVL) did show correlation to prolonged historical disenfranchisement within the flood boundaries. It is crucial to take this information and widen the spatial location of risk from the present immobile boundary set forth and perpetuated by government entities, to a realistic flexible range of spatial locations that consider historical cultural forces and formulate new mitigation policies from these understandings. This thesis further highlights the need to use multiple interdisciplinary methods to understand what is happening within our space, place, and time. This thesis adds to the ever-growing literature in social vulnerability, and environmental justice but in a U.S. Midwestern context instead of a U.S. coastal context to a flood hazard situation.

Pollution, extreme weather, and global warming have become increasingly important in today’s society. This dissertation examines these topics in three chapters, analyzing the effects of pollution and environmental factors on human behavior. The first chapter uses a dataset of unique daily crimes in the U.S. to unveil the relationship between weather/pollution and the crime rate for seven major U.S. cities. The results reveal that temperature significantly affects both violent and property crime rates. The rate of violent crime is lower on extreme and unpleasant weather days (i.e., when the temperature is above 99°F) in comparison to good or unremarkable days. There is little evidence on how air pollution affects the crime rate by using fine particulates (PM2.5) and coarse particulates (PM10). However, pollution does have an effect on crime if the area of analysis is located closer to an operated toxic release facility. The second chapter examines how weekly hours worked by individuals vary with respect to snowfall in 265 metropolitan areas (about 75% of the US workforce) over the years 2004-2014. The results reveal that working hours are significantly affected by snow events, with magnitudes varying by types of workers, types of employment (class of worker, occupation, and industry), and regions. Overall, each average daily inch of snowfall, during a Current Population Survey (CPS) monthly reference week, reduces working hours by about 1 hour. Snow storms reduce weekly hours worked considerably more among construction workers and in the South than elsewhere in the U.S.. We find little evidence that hours lost from large snowfalls are “made-up” in subsequent weeks. The third chapter investigates whether housing age, which has been missing in the conventional environmental justice literature, has an impact on the distribution of households in a pollution area. Income and race were believed to be predominant factors that affect the location choices of individuals. By controlling for this additional housing age variable in the conventional model, I examine which factor, income or race, is affected most. The results indicate that older houses are located closer to pollution sites. Additionally, once I control for the housing age, the marginal effect of income declines significantly, approximately by 50%. The effect on race was insignificant in empirical analysis.