Environment for the People

Environment for the People, a joint publication of PERI and the Centre for Science and the Environment (CSE) in India, documents innovative strategies used by environmental activists around the world to build natural assets. In diverse landscapes, from Bangladesh's riverine delta to Somalia's arid uplands, ommunities are investing in ecological restoration. In 'extractive reserves' in the Amazon rainforest, the defense of sustainable livelihoods goes hand-in-hand with defense of bio-diversity. In the Peruvian Andes, indigenous communities are fighting to protect their lands and water from the ravages of the mining industry. And in cities around the world, from Los Angeles to New Delhi, communities are mobilizing to defend the right to clean air. These and other inspiring cases profiled in Environment for the People illustrate that humankind does not face an inexorable 'tradeoff' between protecting the natural environment and improving economic well-being. On the contrary, struggles for environmental protection and sustainable livelihoods are bound together

TRANSCRIPT—KITCHEN TABLES, BOARD ROOMS, AND OTHER POTENTIALLY DISRUPTIVE LOCALES: THE ROLE OF CONSUMER ACTION IN CARBON EMISSION REDUCTION

During the Western New England Law Review’s October 2019 symposium on Anthropocenic Disruption, Community Resilience and Law, Elizabeth A. Stanton, the Director and Senior Economist at the Applied Economic Clinic, gave a presentation that analyzed the overall impact that consumers and businesses have, in their everyday decisions, with respect to climate change and Anthropocenic disruption. In her presentation, she intentionally explores and parses through several questions geared towards underlying the key distinctions between individual consumer choices, known as kitchen table choices, and decisions made by businesses, or board room decisions. Additionally, she pursues a conversation on the decisions made by state entities and their continuous impact on climate change through the influences they hold over both consumers and businesses by way of regulation. She makes the argument that the regulatory space ultimately effects the largest share of our energy choices and, thus, our individual and collective emissions

Engendering Human Development: A Critique of the UNDP’s Gender-Related Development Index

This article reviews the literature critiquing the UNDP’s Gender-related Development Index (GDI), which is a measure of human development penalized for the extent of gender inequality in each country; presents several original critiques of GDI; and presents proposed corrections to the GDI in response to both received and original critiques

Massachusetts Battery Storage Measures: Benefits and Costs

This Applied Economic Clinic white paper provides the calculations and assumptions necessary to estimate complete 2019 benefit-cost ratios for battery storage measures in Massachusetts, using a methodology identical to that of the program administrator's own "BCR Model" spreadsheets for the 2019-2021 and previous three-year efficiency plans. The resulting Massachusetts benefit-cost ratios for battery storage in 2019 are:2.8 for a single-family home battery under the low-income efficiency program3.4 for a multi-family apartment complex battery under the commercial and industrial efficiency programsThe benefits of electric battery storage outweigh their costs, and, therefore, must be offered by Massachusetts electric program administrators to their customers, in accordance with the Green Communities Act. This white paper reviews the calculation of a value for battery storage of the cost and each type of benefit included in Massachusetts' cost-effectiveness assessment: avoided energy, avoided energy demand reduction induced price effects (DRIPE), summer generation capacity, winter generation capacity, electric capacity DRIPE, transmission, distribution, and reliability, non-energy benefits, and non-embedded environmental costs. Of these benefits, avoided capacity costs are by far the most substantial

CRED: A New Model of Climate and Development

This paper describes a new model, Climate and Regional Economics of Development (CRED), which is designed to analyze the economics of climate and development choices. Its principal innovations are the treatment of global equity, calculation of the optimum interregional flows of resources, and use of McKinsey marginal abatement cost curves to project the cost of mitigation. The model shows more equitable scenarios have better climate outcomes; the challenge of climate policy is to persuade high-income countries to accept the need for both international equity and climate protection.climate economics, development, global equity, abatement costs, integrated assessment models

Florida and Climate Change: The Costs of Inaction

Provides a detailed analysis of the potential consequences of continued climate change for Florida's economy

Assessing Energy Efficiency in Massachusetts

On behalf of the Conservation Law Foundation, this report, prepared by the Applied Economics Clinic (AEC), investigates how well Massachusetts' energy efficiency programs are reaching under-served communities and hard-to-reach families. In 2017, Massachusetts' "Mass Save" energy efficiency programs ranked number one in the annual efficiency scorecard produced by the American Council for an Energy-Efficient Economy (ACEEE) for the seventh consecutive year. Mass Save's ranking is not, however, a good indicator of whether or not low-income households are getting the services they need. At present, it is not possible to answer this question completely because Mass Save program administrators have access to - but do not include in publicly available statistics - information regarding low-income households, under-served communities and hard-to-reach families. Working with limited data, AEC found that there are substantial differences in energy savings among Massachusetts' towns, and lower-income communities are receiving lower efficiency savings. This report presents maps and other figures showing differences in efficiency savings, income, and other community characteristics like language abilities and renter status for both Massachusetts towns and neighborhoods within Boston

IGFBP2 Produces Rapid-Acting and Long-Lasting Effects in Rat Models of Posttraumatic Stress Disorder Via a Novel Mechanism Associated with Structural Plasticity

Background: Posttraumatic stress disorder is an anxiety disorder characterized by deficits in the extinction of aversive memories. Insulin-like growth factor 1 (IGF1) is the only growth factor that has shown anxiolytic and antidepressant properties in human clinical trials. In animal studies, insulin-like growth factor binding protein 2 (IGFBP2) shows both IGF1-dependent and IGF1-independent pharmacological effects, and IGFBP2 expression is upregulated by rough-and-tumble play that induces resilience to stress. Methods: IGFBP2 was evaluated in Porsolt, contextual fear conditioning, and chronic unpredictable stress models of posttraumatic stress disorder. The dependence of IGFBP2 effects on IGF1- and AMPA-receptor activation was tested using selective receptor antagonists. Dendritic spine morphology was measured in the dentate gyrus and the medial prefrontal cortex 24 hours after in vivo dosing. Results: IGFBP2 was 100 times more potent than IGF1 in the Porsolt test. Unlike IGF1, effects of IGFBP2 were not blocked by the IGF1-receptor antagonist JB1, or by the AMPA-receptor antagonist 2,3-Dioxo-6-nitro-1,2,3,4 tetrahydrobenzo[f]quinoxaline-7-sulfonamide (NBQX) in the Porsolt test. IGFBP2 (1 microg/kg) and IGF1 (100 microg/kg i.v.) each facilitated contextual fear extinction and consolidation. Using a chronic unpredictable stress paradigm, IGFBP2 reversed stress-induced effects in the Porsolt, novelty-induced hypophagia, sucrose preference, and ultrasonic vocalization assays. IGFBP2 also increased mature dendritic spine densities in the medial prefrontal cortex and hippocampus 24 hours postdosing. Conclusions: These data suggest that IGFBP2 has therapeutic-like effects in multiple rat models of posttraumatic stress disorder via a novel IGF1 receptor-independent mechanism. These data also suggest that the long-lasting effects of IGFBP2 may be due to facilitation of structural plasticity at the dendritic spine level. IGFBP2 and mimetics may have therapeutic potential for the treatment of posttraumatic stress disorder

Public Scholarship at Indiana University-Purdue University

Community engagement is a defining attribute of the campus, and the current Strategic Plan identifies a number of strategic actions to “Deepen our Commitment to Community Engagement.” In May 2015, A Faculty Learning Community (FLC) on Public Scholarship was established in May, 2015 to address the campus strategic goals to “recognize and reward contributions to community engagement” and “define community engagement work…in Faculty Annual Reports and promotion and tenure guidelines.” At IUPUI, scholarly work occurs in research and creative activity, teaching, and/or service. In terms of promotion and tenure, faculty members must declare an area of excellence in one of these three domains. The FLC on Public Scholarship is a 3-year initiative co-sponsored by Academic Affairs and the Center for Service and Learning (CSL). Seven faculty members from across campus were selected to be part of the 2015-2016 FLC, and two co-chairs worked closely with CSL staff to plan and facilitate the ongoing work. The FLC is charged with defining public scholarship, identifying criteria to evaluate this type of scholarship, assist faculty in documenting their community-engaged work, and working with department Chairs and Deans in adapting criteria into promotion and tenure materials. The intended audiences for this work includes faculty, community-engaged scholars, public scholars, promotion and tenure committees, external reviewers, and department Chairs and Deans. The following provides background to the campus context and a brief summary of work to date, including definition and proposed criteria to evaluate public scholarship.IUPUI Center for Service and Learning; IUPUI Office of Academic Affair