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Wednesday, April 26, 2023
Dr. Daniel Van Abs and Dr. Karen O’Neill
“Equity Issues in Water Expenditures in the Delaware”
A Rutgers team led by Human Ecology faculty members Dan Van Abs and Karen O’Neill has been identifying government expenditures to protect and improve water quality in the Delaware River Basin for the period 2014 to 2020. Through this project for the William Penn Foundation, the team is using the data and expert stakeholder interviews to assess how and the extent to which these federal, state, county and municipal expenditures reflect local priorities, address environmental issues, and reflect concerns about equity in government funding programs. While billions of dollars have been expended for a variety of purposes, each program tends to view equity differently and based on the unique program purposes. The speakers will present the results of the project and some thoughts on how individual programs can result in inequitable results when viewed in aggregate.
Abstract:
The speakers are documenting the scope and distribution of recent government expenditures to protect and improve water quality in the Delaware River Basin. The team is using the data and expert stakeholder interviews to assess whether these expenditures reflect regional priorities, address environmental issues, and reflect concerns about equity in government funding programs. The speakers will present the results of this project for the William Penn Foundation and some thoughts on how valuable governmental programs can result in inequitable results when viewed in aggregate.
Speaker Bios:
Dan Van Abs has 40 years of experience in water resources and regional environmental planning and management with Rutgers, the Highlands Council, NJ Water Supply Authority, NJ Department of Environmental Protection and Passaic River Coalition. He is a fellow of the American Institute of Certified Planners and a member of the Highlands Water Protection and Planning Council.
Karen O’Neill is a sociologist who studies how policies about land and water affect government power, the status of experts, and the well-being of various social groups. She has researched biodiversity protections in the urban plans of large cities around the world, local slow growth and pro-growth movements and policies in small towns, river flood control, and coastal storm vulnerability and hazard reduction.
Friday, March 31, 2023
Dr. Alex Barron
“Is Carbon Neutrality Leading Us Off Track? Lessons from Higher Education”
Fifteen years ago, 336 higher education institutions signed a Presidents’ Climate Commitment, pledging to “achieve carbon neutrality as soon as possible.” But is net carbon neutrality, and an approach to it developed at the turn of the century, really the most productive focus for institutional climate action? To understand how such commitments are working in practice, we studied American higher education institutions that have already announced achieving carbon neutrality. The results raise tough questions about whether current approaches are really accomplishing the original goals of the commitment.
Abstract:
Fifteen years ago, 336 higher education institutions signed a Presidents’ Climate Commitment, pledging to “achieve carbon neutrality as soon as possible.” But is net carbon neutrality, and an approach to it developed at the turn of the century, really the most productive focus for institutional climate action? To understand how such commitments are working in practice, we studied American higher education institutions that have already announced achieving carbon neutrality. The results raise tough questions about whether current approaches are really accomplishing the original goals of the commitment.
Speaker Bio:
Dr. Alexander Barron is an Assistant Professor in Environmental Science and Policy at Smith College, where his research focuses on climate policy design and analysis. He has also worked in Congress, where he helped design comprehensive climate legislation, the Environmental Protection Agency, where he worked on standards to reduce carbon and mercury pollution, and the White House Office of Management and Budget, where he focused on cross-government climate and environmental regulations. He has a B.A. in chemistry from Carleton College, a Ph.D. in ecology and evolutionary biology from Princeton University.
Wednesday, February 8, 2023
Dr. Todd E. Vachon
“Sustainability, Jobs, and Justice: Confronting the Dual Crisis of Ecology and Inequality”
The concept of a “just transition” attempts to confront the dual crises of ecology and inequality by reducing fossil fuel dependence while simultaneously creating good job opportunities for displaced and historically marginalized workers. But the concept is not universally supported and often draws sharp backlash from some workers and unions. Based on data from participant observation with three labor and climate organizations and 40 in-depth interviews with union leaders, I identify the major political-economic, institutional, and cultural factors which contribute to either support for or opposition to climate protection measures by some workers. These insights are used to identify some of the key ingredients that are needed to build a broad base of support for a just transition to a more sustainable and equitable world.
Abstract:
The concept of a “just transition” attempts to confront the dual crises of ecology and inequality by reducing fossil fuel dependence while simultaneously creating good job opportunities for displaced and historically marginalized workers. But the concept is not universally supported and often draws sharp backlash from some workers and unions. Based on data from participant observation with three labor and climate organizations and 40 in-depth interviews with union leaders, I identify the major political-economic, institutional, and cultural factors which contribute to either support for or opposition to climate protection measures by some workers. These insights are used to identify some of the key ingredients that are needed to build a broad base of support for a just transition to a more sustainable and equitable world.
Speaker Bio:
To d E. Vachon, PhD is an Assistant Professor in the Department of Labor Studies and Employment Relations (LSER) and the Director of the Labor Education Action Research Network (LEARN) at Rutgers, The State University of New Jersey. As the Director of LEARN, Todd oversees the University’s labor education programs, including classes and workshops for workers, unions, and other organizations and public programming designed to: (a) strengthen the community at work, (b) facilitate its organization on a more democratic basis, and (c) address unjustified inequalities of power and wealth in society.
October 5, 2022
Dr. Colin Jerolmack, New York University
“Down to Hell: Fracking, Freedom, and Community in an American Town”
Abstract:
Colin Jerolmack’s “Up to Heaven and Down to Hell” casts America’s ideas about freedom
and property rights in a troubling new light, revealing how your personal choices can undermine your neighbors’ liberty, and how the exercise of individual rights can bring unintended environmental consequences for us all. Shale gas extraction—commonly known as fracking—is often portrayed as an energy revolution that will transform the American economy and geopolitics. But in greater Williamsport, Pennsylvania, fracking is personal. Up to Heaven and Down to Hell is a vivid and sometimes heartbreaking account of what happens when one of the most momentous decisions about the well-being of our communities and our planet—whether or not to extract shale gas and oil from the very land beneath our feet—is largely a private choice that millions of ordinary people make without the public’s consent.
Speaker Bio:
Colin Jerolmack is chair of the Environmental Studies Dept. and Professor of Environmental Studies and
Sociology at NYU. His frst book, The Global Pigeon, examined how human-animal relations shape our
experience of urban life. He received his PhD in sociology from the City University of New York, after which he was a Robert Wood Johnson Scholar in Health Policy at Harvard University.
October 19, 2022
Dr. Emily Huddart Kennedy, University of British Columbia
via zoom, presenting on her new book:
“Ecotypes: Five Ways of Caring about the Environment.”
Abstract:
Across dozens of countries, civil society is increasingly polarized over environmental protection, particularly over efforts to reduce greenhouse gasses to mitigate climate change. Study after study shows us that liberals tend to be more committed to and supportive of efforts to protect the environment and that a growing proportion of conservatives is opposed to such efforts. Existing explanations point to the politics and economics of environmental protection: organizations funded by the oil & gas industry lobby governments to delay and reject proposals for climate action and foment uncertainty and distrust among the public through messaging targeted particularly to conservatives. Drawing on two years of interview data collection with a politically and socio-economically diverse sample (n=63) of Washington state residents, and a survey of US households (n=2619), I enrich our existing understanding of political polarization over environmental protection by drawing attention to the cultural dynamics between liberals’ and conservatives’ relationships with the environment. By asking people who they see as caring about the environment and about their own environmental concerns and commitments, I identified a cultural archetype of the ideal environmentalist and five distinct ways of caring about the environment (“eco-types”). These include the Eco-Engaged, the
Self-Effacing, the Optimists, the Fatalists, and the Indifferent. This talk introduces each type and shows how they are engaged in struggles for respect and recognition that drive political polarization.
Speaker Bio:
Emily Huddart Kennedy is associate professor and associate head of the Department of Sociology at The University of British Columbia. The aim of her research is to understand civic engagement in environmentalism, as well as the relationship between everyday environmentalism and social inequality and divisiveness. The talk is based on her recently-published book, Eco-Types: Five Ways of Caring about the Environment (published by Princeton University Press).
September 8-9, 2022 Workshop – Cook Student Center
Imagining Environmental Governance in the Anthropocene:
Creating Governance that’s Participatory, Boundary Spanning, and Knowledge-Based
As global environmental problems like climate change and biodiversity loss become more pressing, global environmental governance to collectively address these issues becomes a significant part of the solution. Please join us September 8th and 9th at the Cook student center for a workshop that seeks to understand key questions in environmental governance and how Rutgers faculty, across disciplines and schools, may help answer them. Funded by Rutgers Global and the Institute for Earth Ocean and Atsmospheric Sciences and co-sponsored by the Rutgers Climate Institute and Department of Human Ecology, the first day of this workshop, will host three keynote talks by internationally recognized leaders in environmental governance on topics such as how environmental governance systems 1) manage uncertainties and unknowables 2) work to facilitate stakeholder participation from diverse interests and 3) address flows across ecosystem and geopolitical boundaries. On the second day – Rutgers faculty and students will have the opportunity to brainstorm and identify ways in which Rutgers may build educational, research and service capacity in this field. Full agenda below.
Contact Rachael Shwom, shwomrac@sebs.rutgers.edu with any questions.
Workshop Agenda (PDF)