A Perfect Storm: Environmental Justice and Air Quality Impacts of Offshore Oil and Gas Development in the Arctic Outer Continental Shelf

The Arctic Outer Continental Shelf is the next great legal battleground over oil and gas resources, environmental protection, and environmental justice.  The Arctic is home to an array of sensitive ecological resources and a large Native Alaskan population that relies heavily on the natural environment for food and supplies.  The Arctic Ocean also holds a vast amount of untapped oil and gas resources that had previously been largely inaccessible because of harsh climatic conditions and withdrawals of large swaths of the Shelf by Congress and multiple presidents.  However, climate change is melting Arctic sea ice and opening up previously inaccessible areas.  In addition, President Trump is pushing to expand oil and gas development everywhere, including the Arctic.  If President Trump’s plans prevail against the many legal challenges seeking to protect the Arctic, Native Alaskans will face a multitude of threats to their health, safety, and way of life.Scholars, journalists, and environmental groups have already illuminated the threats of oil spills and climate change.  This Comment focuses on a less discussed impact of offshore oil and gas development: air pollution and its effects on Native Alaskans.  Onshore oil and gas development has already been polluting the air of Alaskan communities, causing increases in respiratory illnesses and other health problems, and leading to climate change, which is disrupting the natural environment upon which Native Alaskans depend for food and supplies.  A new era of offshore development would amplify these problems and create new and unique challenges that disproportionately burden Native Alaskan communities.This Comment makes two novel contributions.  First, it illuminates the erratic history and disjointed nature of air quality regulation on the Outer Continental Shelf.  Second, this Comment highlights how the federal government’s current regulatory structure for offshore air emissions uniquely fails Native Alaskans who are seeking to protect their health and way of life.  In addition, this Comment makes some recommendations for statutory and regulatory changes to better address the environmental justice impacts of air pollution from offshore oil and gas development in the Arctic

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African American and European American Therapists’ Experiences of Addressing Race in Cross-Racial Psychotherapy Dyads

Using Consensual Qualitative Research, 12 licensed psychologists’ overall experiences addressing race in psychotherapy were investigated, as were their experiences addressing race in a specific cross-racial therapy dyad. Results indicated that only African American psychologists reported routinely addressing race with clients of color or when race was part of a client’s presenting concern. European American psychologists indicated that they would address race if clients raised the topic, and some reported that they did not normally address race with racially different clients. When discussing a specific cross-racial dyad, African American therapists more often than European American therapists addressed race because they perceived client discomfort. Only European American therapists reported feeling uncomfortable addressing race, but therapists of both races perceived that such discussions had positive effects

A New Look at the Old Race Language: Rethinking Race and Exclusion in Social Policy

This essay is an examination of the use of the notion “race current in American social science literature and public discourse. It argues that the current assumptions of “race are mistaken and lead to misunderstanding and misdirected social policy. A rethinking of the notions of “race requires making a paradigmatic shift of the old categories of “race and “race relations to a new language that rejects “race as a descriptive and an analytical category. It examines the processes through which “racist social policies are enacted against Asian immigrants in contemporary Southern California

Supernova Properties from Shock Breakout X-rays

We investigate the potential of the upcoming LOBSTER space observatory (due circa 2009) to detect soft X-ray flashes from shock breakout in supernovae, primarily from Type II events. LOBSTER should discover many SN breakout flashes, although the number is sensitive to the uncertain distribution of extragalactic gas columns. X-ray data will constrain the radii of their progenitor stars far more tightly than can be accomplished with optical observations of the SN light curve. We anticipate the appearance of blue supergiant explosions (SN 1987A analogs), which will uncover a population of these underluminous events. We consider also how the mass, explosion energy, and absorbing column can be constrained from X-ray observables alone and with the assistance of optically-determined distances. These conclusions are drawn using known scaling relations to extrapolate, from previous numerical calculations, the LOBSTER response to explosions with a broad range of parameters. We comment on a small population of flashes with 0.2 < z < 0.8 that should exist as transient background events in XMM, Chandra, and ROSAT integrations.Comment: 14 pages, 9 figures, accepted by MNRAS, presented at AAS 203rd meetin

Is “Race” Modern? Disambiguating the Question

Race theorists have been unable to reach a consensus regarding the basic historical question, “is ‘race’ modern?” I argue that this is partly because the question itself is ambiguous. There is not really one question that race scholars are answering, but at least six. First, is the concept of race modern? Second, is there a modern concept of race that is distinct from earlier race concepts? Third, are “races” themselves modern? Fourth, are racialized groups modern? Fifth, are the means and methods associated with racialization modern? And sixth, are the meanings attached to racialized traits modern? Because these questions have different answers, the debate about the historical origins of “race” cannot be resolved unless they are distinguished. I will explain the ways in which “race” is and is not modern by answering these questions, thereby offering a resolution to a seemingly intractable problem

Social inclusion and valued roles : a supportive framework

The aim of this paper is to examine the concepts of social exclusion, social inclusion and their relevance to health, well-being and valued social roles. The article presents a framework, based on Social Role Valorization (SRV), which was developed initially to support and sustain socially valued roles for those who are, or are at risk of, being devalued within our society. The framework incorporates these principles and can be used by health professionals across a range of practice, as a legitimate starting point from which to support the acquisition of socially valued roles which are integral to inclusio