Achieving Emissions Reductions for Environmental Justice Communities Through Climate Change Mitigation Policy

Presented at the Environmental justice in the Anthropocene symposium held on April 24-25, 2017 at the Lory Student Center, Colorado State University, Fort Collins Colorado. This symposium aims to bring together academics (faculty and graduate students), independent researchers, community and movement activists, and regulatory and policy practitioners from across disciplines, research areas, perspectives, and different countries. Our overarching goal is to build on several decades of EJ research and practice to address the seemingly intractable environmental and ecological problems of this unfolding era. How can we explore EJ amongst humans and between nature and humans, within and across generations, in an age when humans dominate the landscape? How can we better understand collective human dominance without obscuring continuing power differentials and inequities within and between human societies? What institutional and governance innovations can we adopt to address existing challenges and to promote just transitions and futures?Includes bibliographical references.This paper focuses on emissions reductions for EJ communities under the Clean Power Plan in particular as well as climate change mitigation policy in general and argues that these reductions should be both mandatory and planned. The next section of the paper discusses why, from an EJ perspective, equity should be an integral part of climate change mitigation policy; then the need for climate change mitigation policy to produce emissions reductions for EJ communities is discussed; this is followed by an explanation of why neither the Clean Power Plan nor carbon trading programs in general can guarantee emissions reductions for EJ communities in the manner needed; then a specific mechanism for achieving these reductions under the Clean Power Plan is proposed; and the paper concludes with several final thoughts. Many of the ideas contained in this paper have been presented before in various forms in comments submitted by this author on behalf of the New Jersey Environmental Justice Alliance. However, additional ideas, discussion and detail are included here

Performance quantification of extensive green roof substrate blend: Expanded shale and biochar

Urban stormwater management practices often involve the redirection of runoff to local waterbodies. As such, the quality of runoff directly affects the condition of these receiving waters. Green roofs offer many benefits to the urban environment including attractive aesthetics, thermal insulation for buildings and stormwater runoff reduction. Unfortunately, in order to promote the spread of vegetation, fertilization is often practiced that can lead to elevated nutrient concentrations in runoff and, ultimately, nearby streams, rivers and bays. Different amounts of biochar, pyrolyzed biomass, were added to model green roof trays to test for the ability of this charcoal-like substance to prevent nitrate and phosphate leaching. Analysis of leachate from natural and simulated rain events showed statistically significant differences of average nitrate concentrations for two out of four rain events, though none for phosphate. Samples from the natural rain event exhibited a clear inverse relationship between nitrate concentration and biochar quantity. The second simulated rain event, however, produced nitrate concentrations that rose and subsequently fell as biochar quantity increased. Further research is needed on the method by which biochar attracts anions though different experimental designs and equipment may more conclusively reveal that biochar can play a role in green roofs as a soil amendment. More noteworthy, though, may be the consistently high nutrient concentrations in leachate originating from the fertilized model trays. The fertilizer application rate of 5 g N/m2 may not be suitable for the substrate and vegetation used in this study but nonetheless it is strongly recommended that controlled-release fertilizer types are used

The Role of Social Work on College Campuses: A Systematic Narrative Review of Social Work Roles and Values

On college campuses, both mental health and systematic issues are apparent for students. The role of social work needs to be more present on college campuses. This paper will serve to explore the role of social work on college campuses. A narrative systematic review was done in order to answer the question “What is the role of social workers on college campuses”. The databases that were used were PsycNet, SOCINDEX, Social Work abstracts, and the Journal of College Counseling. The following search terms were used: Colleges AND Social Casework, College Counseling AND Higher Education, Social Work Practice AND Universities & Colleges. The initial search yielded 384 articles. After the inclusion and exclusion criteria were implemented, 15 articles were determined to meet the standards. 15 articles were split into 3 category ratings according to content. Three main roles emerged from the literature: individual psychotherapist, case manager and mezzo-macro social worker. In addition, the 15 articles were found to have 5 of the social work values present in the roles. These findings suggest that social work would find a home in student service careers on college campuses. This was further fortified by the majority of social work values being present, regardless if a social worker role was present. Future research could include exploring these roles further and creating more opportunities for social work students to work in these settings

The Role of Social Work on College Campuses: A Systematic Narrative Review of Social Work Roles and Values

On college campuses, both mental health and systematic issues are apparent for students. The role of social work needs to be more present on college campuses. This paper will serve to explore the role of social work on college campuses. A narrative systematic review was done in order to answer the question “What is the role of social workers on college campuses”. The databases that were used were PsycNet, SOCINDEX, Social Work abstracts, and the Journal of College Counseling. The following search terms were used: Colleges AND Social Casework, College Counseling AND Higher Education, Social Work Practice AND Universities & Colleges. The initial search yielded 384 articles. After the inclusion and exclusion criteria were implemented, 15 articles were determined to meet the standards. 15 articles were split into 3 category ratings according to content. Three main roles emerged from the literature: individual psychotherapist, case manager and mezzo-macro social worker. In addition, the 15 articles were found to have 5 of the social work values present in the roles. These findings suggest that social work would find a home in student service careers on college campuses. This was further fortified by the majority of social work values being present, regardless if a social worker role was present. Future research could include exploring these roles further and creating more opportunities for social work students to work in these settings

How Preservice Teachers Make Meaning of Mathematics Methods Texts

Mathematics methods texts are important resources for supporting preservice teachers’ learning. Methods instructors routinely assign readings from texts. Yet, anecdotally and also based on reading compliance literature, many students report that they do not read assigned readings. Within this paper we briefly describe the findings from a survey of 132 mathematics methods instructors about their customary use of texts and focus more closely on interviews of 16 preservice and first-year teachers about the reading strategies they used while reading methods texts. Research questions addressed the following: What strategies do preservice teachers use to make meaning of mathematics methods texts? What recommendations do preservice teachers suggest for instructors about the usage of texts? Findings suggest that most preservice and first-year teachers, at first, hesitated, not seeming to understand the first question and then struggled to explain their strategies. According to preservice and first-year teachers, instructors need to: balance reading with other ways to interact with the texts; discuss text readings in class; give them a purpose for reading; and, hold them accountable for the readings. Perhaps, both general content area literacy strategies and disciplinary literacy strategies need more emphasis in methods coursework

Multiple Representations Help Teachers and Students Understand a Geometry Problem

This narrative account begins in a high school classroom as we describe how students were mostly unengaged with a "Problem of the Week." As observers in this setting, we sat in the back of the classroom and attempted to solve the problem: Choose any three vertices of a cube at random.What is the probability that any three vertices will form a right triangle? Because of our different answers to the problem and the struggles we experienced as we attempted to visualize a cube with triangles on the faces and in the interior space we later created concrete and virtual manipulatives. Additionally, we posed this problem in a mathematics methods course with preservice high school teachers and then discussed the use of enactive (concrete), iconic (pictorial), and symbolic representations (Bruner, 1966). The significance of using concrete manipulatives for some mathematics problems cannot be overstated