The communities of the Yukon Kuskokwim Delta in rural Southwest Alaska are living mosaics of the historical and sociological processes that have taken place since human populations first called this region home. These ongoing processes include integration of the cash economy, government-mandated assimilation, and the struggle to maintain infrastructure in an extreme climate and geographically isolated region of Alaska. In many aspects, the culture and people of this region are disadvantaged by the injustices of settler colonialism, perpetuated by state and federal policies. This thesis aims to describe social inequity in the YK Delta region through a comparison of solid waste management infrastructure and access to resources in the region’s hub city versus the surrounding villages. I will analyze the processes that allow predominantly Alaska Native villages to be exposed to environmental contamination—from policy to practice. Lastly, I will argue that State and Federal government is neglecting remote, Alaskan villages by failing to provide protective policy and access to adequate infrastructure. The devaluation of remote, Alaska Native communities creates an immense public health issue and case for environmental racism.

A large number of quantitative studies have examined social inequities in the geographic distribution of air pollution. Although previous research has made strides towards understanding the nature and extent of inequities, they have been limited methodologically in three ways. First, the presence of pollutants have been rarely linked to their adverse health effects, with many studies using proximity to sources as a proxy for risk. Second, there has been a tendency to study a single pollution source instead of assessing multiple types of sources. Finally, conventional statistical methods such as multivariate regression have been limited by their inability to discern spatial variations in the relationships between dependent and explanatory variables. This thesis addresses these gaps in environmental justice analysis of air pollution by using data from U.S. Environmental Protection Agency's 1999 National-Scale Air Toxics Assessment in combination with 2000 U.S. Census data to evaluate inequities in the geography of cancer risks from hazardous air pollutants in Florida. The objective is to determine if there are racial/ethnic inequities in the distribution of estimated cancer risks from outdoor exposure to point and mobile sources of air pollutants, after controlling for well-documented contextual variables. The first phase of the study utilizes traditional correlation and regression techniques to reveal that cancer risk from most air pollution sources are distributed inequitably with respect to race, ethnicity, and socioeconomic state. In the second phase, geographically weighted regression is used along with choropleth mapping to explore the spatial nonstationarity of regression model parameters and geographic variations in the statistical association between cancer risks and various explanatory variables. Results indicate that while Black and Hispanic proportions remain consistent indicators of cancer risk from most pollution sources, these relationships vary across space within Florida. This thesis contributes to environmental justice analysis by demonstrating that conventional multivariate regression can hide important local variations in the relationships between environmental risk and explanatory variables such as race, ethnicity, and socioeconomic status. Since this spatial nonstationarity can be significant within an entire region or a single urban area, understanding its nature and extent is imperative to advancing environmental justice goals.

What do people talk about when they talk about climate change? This dissertation sets out to answer this question by focusing on local understandings of climate change and the policy priorities that result from them in Miami. Through a historical study that spans from the 1920s to today and 88 hourlong interviews, I demonstrate that climate change is a historically contingent, contested, and localized concept defined by power relationships. Through a historical investigation of the narratives that connect environmental policies with segregation and efforts to displace Miami’s Black residents over more than 80 years, I show how historic understandings of race and the environment inform debates about what climate change means and what to do about it today. This investigation shows how Miami’s current response to climate change has been shaped by its history as a colonial city built on the maximization of land value and exclusionary planning and policies. I find that dominant understandings of climate change in Miami have been rooted in concern for the effects of sea level rise on property prices, directing policy money toward shoreline areas while continuing to encourage a building boom that is accelerating gentrification. This set of responses is not haphazard. As my research shows, it represents a continuation of local and international patterns of exploitation. In recent years, however, a coalition of activist groups mounted an unprecedented campaign to force the city to include social and environmental justice concerns in its policy agenda. This coalition mobilized Miami’s history of environmentally-justified urban removal as a key counternarrative to policies that have historically ignored the problems of low-income areas, especially in Miami’s historically Black neighborhoods, to demand a coordinated response to environmental and social vulnerability.

This teacher research project investigates a high school English teacher’s classrooms that combine outdoor activities in nature with literacy activities, including environmental literature read through a lens of ecocriticism. It seeks to answer the overarching research question: What happens when students read environmental literature and experience outdoor activities in English classes that emphasize critical literacy focusing on environmental justice and ecocriticism? The data sets derive from students’ writing and testimony (from interviews) involving cohorts of between three and six students who participated in classroom research studies in 2011, 2012, and 2018. This teacher research project borrows from grounded theory methodologies in the processes of data collection and analysis. Findings from the data suggest that participants showed an ability to read the word and the world in ways that promoted a critical gaze toward social and environmental injustice. Also, students were able to see “what nobody ever sees” in literature and the natural world. A grounded theory of critical rambling is offered.

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In this dissertation I explore how the international law principle of free, prior and informed consent (FPIC) can enhance public participation, to promote environmental justice for communities affected by environmental decision-making in the mining sector in South Africa. Public participation required in terms of the mining sector environmental regulatory framework in South Africa is underscored by a requirement to ‘consult’. In chapter one, I describe how the requirement to consult differs from a requirement to secure consent in terms of FPIC. I describe public participation (i.e. consultation) requirements related to applications for rights, permits, licences and authorisations that must be in place prior to commencement of mining operations. I argue that where the level of public participation requires mere consultation, it can easily amount to a regulatory tick-box exercise given that the views of mining-affected communities can be manipulated or overlooked, with mining developments proceeding despite devastating effects on communities. In chapter two I describe how FPIC has become part of the regulatory framework governing mining activities through the court’s purposive interpretation of the Interim Protection of Informal Land Rights Act 31 of 1996 (IPILRA) in Baleni and Others v Minister of Mineral Resources and Others and Maledu and Others v Itereleng Bakgatla Mineral Resources (Pty) Limited and Another. In chapter three, I engage with scholarly literature on FPIC to analyse why and how environmental justice should and can be enhanced by embedding FPIC into legislative public participation requirements. I argue that FPIC, which now forms part of South Africa’s law through the IPILRA, should be a prominent feature in public participation processes for mining-affected communities generally, and not only for informal land right holders. / Mini Dissertation (LLM)--University of Pretoria, 2021. / Public Law / LLM / Unrestricted

Transportation infrastructure is important for human mobility and population well-being. However, it can also have detrimental impacts on health and equity, including through increased air pollution and its unequal social distribution. There is a need for better understanding of these impacts and for better approaches that improve health and equity outcomes of transportation planning programs. In this study, we are investigating the air pollution and health equity impacts of an ongoing large-scale metropolitan transportation improvement program, Tampa Bay Next (TBNext). Specific objectives are: 1) to characterize and quantify the air pollution levels and population exposures resulting from the roadway expansion currently planned under TBNext, and 2) to identify key attributes that could improve health and equity consideration in TBNext and similar programs. Using a multi-component modeling system that combines agent-based travel demand simulation with air pollution dispersion estimation, we simulated population exposures to oxides of nitrogen (NOx) resulting from two scenarios: one with the proposed TBNext lane expansions and one without it. To elucidate potential impacts on equity, including disparities in exposure for low-income and minority groups, the distribution of exposure among the population was compared using three measures of inequality. Additionally, through document review, we also performed a qualitative analysis of the TBNext program from a Health in All Policies (HiAP) perspective. Results from the modeling component indicate that the proposed lane scenario increased the number of vehicles, NOx emission rates, NOx concentration, and block group NOx exposure densities in downtown Tampa and its surrounding neighborhoods during the morning and evening rush hours. However, the proposed lanes also caused a decrease in the simulated total emissions and the daily average NOx concentration in Hillsborough County. The average individual-level NOx exposure also decreased, but disparities in exposure for minority and the below-poverty population groups increased in the proposed lane scenario. Results of the HiAP analysis suggest that health and equity should be priorities in major policies and programs such as transportation improvement programs. Multi-sectoral collaboration that provides benefit for all parties and stakeholders is also essential to improve the health and equity outcomes. Furthermore, health departments and public health agencies should be included in the transportation decision-making process. Finally, improving active transportation modes was commonly found in HiAP case studies to promote public health and equity in transportation planning programs. Evaluation of TBNext transportation improvement program from the HiAP perspective show that health consideration was not one of the priorities in the program. However, the Florida Department of Transportation (FDOT) frequently engaged with stakeholders in community meetings throughout the recent development process of the program. Additionally, FDOT and local governments addressed some inequity issues as a response to public concerns. Through assessment of a real case study, the results of this study contribute to the body of knowledge on the air quality and equity impacts of large-scale transportation improvement programs. Further, they suggest that air quality assessments and equity analyses should be conducted in more detail than what the law currently requires for transportation programs. Lastly, this study also shows that the HiAP paradigm could promote health and equity outcomes of transportation improvement programs.

A global mining boom has recently occurred and conflicts due to mineral extraction in the context of environmental justice is visible all over the world. A recent conflict in Sweden, is in Gállok where mining exploration has been conducted on the traditional lands of the indigenous Sámi. Activists protested the exploration by occupying the site during three months in 2013. The conflict has received media attention and since media have influence on the public discourse and while Sami rights have received little official recognition in Sweden, this thesis aims at analysing the mining exploitation discourse by scrutinising the media coverage of the activism and conflict in Gállok. Mining advocates emphasise social effects like economic gain, jobs and future prospect and the importance of working co-existence between different stakeholder, while the mining critics stresses the importance of respecting and recognising Sami rights, long-term sustainability and negative social and environmental impacts from mining. The Government and the mining industry are dominant actors within the mining exploration discourse and truth claims of sustainable mining and the green economy, working co-existence and minerals as essential for and a prerequisite for sustainable development supports their interest. The activism and the Sami’s struggles for justice and recognition in Gállok can be regarded as part of the global environmental justice movement. Finally, the Swedish mining policies can be argued to be based on previous colonial politics, contributing to a continued marginalisation and oppression of the Sami people.

This thesis describes a study conducted for the San Antonio River Authority to understand the needs of educators in environmental education programming. This study explores the experiences of educators in teaching environmental education, the tools and methodologies they use, what they think and feel about environmental education, and what their needs are when selecting environmental education curricula and programming to engage their students. This thesis contains an extensive literature review relevant to the local environment in San Antonio, Texas, equity in access to education in borderland regions, educator training, and environmental education goals and methodologies. The study utilizes both qualitative and quantitative research tools: a survey and a collection of semi-structured interviews. The findings of this study indicate that educators are looking for environmental education curricula and programming that is convenient to use and access, training that gives them confidence to teach environmental concepts, curricula and training that helps them facilitate a sense of wonder and engagement in their students, and more content that is locally relevant.

This paper uses an environmental justice framework which is expanded through decolonial theory to analyse whether the mine permitting process used by the Swedish state does justice to local people’s opinions, perspectives and cultural histories. The specific case of Gállok is chosen as it is widely known in national and international circles and therefore has potential to make long-term impact. Research analysing the Swedish permitting process and its implications is severely lacking, thus this paper aims to act as an important stepping stone for future research into the subject. To answer the question, yarning was used to capture local perspectives in Jokkmokk. The conversations were later transcribed and coded using the expanded forms of justice as main coding topics. The results show that the inclusion of local communities in the consultation process is mostly symbolic and that they have no say or power over project details. The conversations also revealed that there is an overwhelming belief that the benefits to the local community are greatly exaggerated, while costs are understated. The analysis shows that the local communities, especially the Sámi sub-group, would have to bare the largest part of ecological and social damages, while overall benefits would be minimal. Finally, the paper argues that the Indigenous community members in northern Sweden cannot live according to their own ways, as land alterations from industrial developments force them to adapt, in order to be able to continue herding reindeer. This study fills a gap in research looking at the permitting process in the Swedish context as a potential source of oppression from a local community’s perspective. It emphasises the importance of understanding and addressing a larger system’s subsystems in order to cause an eventual transition towards more equitable functioning.