Promoting Environmental Justice Research and Practice for Social Workers in a Rural State: Methodology and Findings of a Pilot Qualitative Study

Environmental justice work is an emerging field of practice that recognizes the interrelationship between social, economic, racial, gender, and environmental injustice and the impact social workers can have for policy and practice. Despite inclusion of environmental justice knowledge and practice as critical elements of ethical social work, little research exists on the topic in the professional knowledge base. Additionally, little research exists to date that specifically examines environmental justice knowledge and practice in a rural area. This pilot study examines awareness and knowledge of environmental justice issues and practice amongst licensed social workers in a rural western state using focus group methodology. Findings of this pilot study are discussed, with implications for social work practice, education, policy work, and research rooted in rural settings. A second of the two-fold purpose of this article is to present the qualitative methodology utilized in hopes of building more pathways for the development of environmental justice knowledge through social work research

Innovations for Sustainability: Pathways to an efficient and post-pandemic future

3rd Report prepared by The World in 2050 initiativ

An irrigation experiment to compare soil, water and speleothem tetraether membrane lipid distributions

© 2016 Elsevier Ltd. Measurement of glycerol dialkyl glycerol tetraethers (GDGTs) preserved in speleothems offers a potential proxy for past temperature but, in general, their origin is unknown. To understand the source of speleothem GDGTs, we undertook an irrigation experiment to activate drip sites within a hydrogeochemically well characterised cave. The cave drip water was analysed for GDGTs, inorganic elements (major ions and trace elements), stable isotopes and dissolved organic matter concentration and character. Published speleothem GDGT records from the site have been observed to be dominated by isoprenoid GDGTs and interpreted as deriving from in situ microbial communities within the cave or vadose zone. The drip water in our irrigation experiment had a GDGT distribution distinct from that of soil and speleothem samples, providing direct evidence that the distinctive GDGT signature in speleothems is derived from a subsurface source. Analysis of GDGTs in this context allowed further elucidation of their source and transport in cave systems, enhancing our understanding of how they might be used as a temperature proxy