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Per- and polyfluoroalkyl substances (PFAS) are persistent chemicals of increasing concern to human health. PFAS contamination in water systems has been linked to a variety of sources including hydrocarbon fire suppression activities, industrial and military land uses, agricultural applications of biosolids, and consumer products. To assess PFAS in California tap water, we collected 60 water samples from inside homes in four different geographic regions, both urban and rural. We selected mostly small water systems with known history of industrial chemical or pesticide contamination and that served socioeconomically disadvantaged communities. Thirty percent of the tap water samples (18) had a detection of at least one of the 32 targeted PFAS and most detections (89 %) occurred in heavily industrialized Southeast Los Angeles (SELA). The residents of SELA are predominately Latino and low-income. Concentrations of perfluorooctanoic acid (PFOA) and perfluorooctanesulfonic acid (PFOS) ranged from 6.8 to 13.6 ng/L and 9.4-17.8 ng/L, respectively in SELA and were higher than State (PFOA: 0.007 ng/L; PFOS: 1.0 ng/L) and national health-based goals (zero). To look for geographic patterns, we mapped potential sources of PFAS contamination, such as chrome plating facilities, airports, landfills, and refineries, located near the SELA water systems; consistent with the multiple potential sources in the area, no clear spatial associations were observed. The results indicate the importance of systematic testing of PFAS in tap water, continued development of PFAS regulatory standards and advisories for a greater number of compounds, improved drinking-water treatments to mitigate potential health threats to communities, especially in socioeconomically disadvantaged and industrialized areas.

Shakespeare's writing responded to ecological problems in his own time. Today, we can adapt his works to speak to the urgent environmental crises facing our communities, as the group Shakespeare in Yosemite does every spring.Based on the final chapter of Katherine Steele Brokaw's Shakespeare and Community Performance (Palgrave Macmillan, 2023) and “Shakespeare and Environmental Justice: Collaborative Eco-Theatre in YosemiteNational Park and the San Joaquin Valley.” In Situating Shakespeare Pedagogy in  US Higher Education: Social Justice and Institutional Contexts. Edited by Marissa Greenberg and Elizabeth Williamson (Edinburgh University Press, 2024). Also based on the work of Shakespeare in Yosemite, https://yosemiteshakes.ucmerced.edu.

BACKGROUND: National-scale linear regression-based modeling may mischaracterize localized patterns, including hyperlocal peaks and neighborhood- to regional-scale gradients. For studies focused on within-city differences, this mischaracterization poses a risk of exposure misclassification, affecting epidemiological and environmental justice conclusions. OBJECTIVE: Characterize the difference between intraurban pollution patterns predicted by national-scale land use regression modeling and observation-based estimates within a localized domain and examine the relationship between that difference and urban infrastructure and demographics. METHODS: We compare highly resolved (0.01 km2) observations of NO2 mixing ratio and ultrafine particle (UFP) count obtained via mobile monitoring with national model predictions in thirteen neighborhoods in the San Francisco Bay Area. Grid cell-level divergence between modeled and observed concentrations is termed localized difference. We use a flexible machine learning modeling technique, Bayesian Additive Regression Trees, to investigate potentially nonlinear relationships between discrepancy between localized difference and known local emission sources as well as census block group racial/ethnic composition. RESULTS: We find that observed local pollution extremes are not represented by land use regression predictions and that observed UFP count significantly exceeds regression predictions. Machine learning models show significant nonlinear relationships among localized differences between predictions and observations and the density of several types of pollution-related infrastructure (roadways, commercial and industrial operations). In addition, localized difference was greater in areas with higher population density and a lower share of white non-Hispanic residents, indicating that exposure misclassification by national models differs among subpopulations. IMPACT: Comparing national-scale pollution predictions with hyperlocal observations in the San Francisco Bay Area, we find greater discrepancies near major roadways and food service locations and systematic underestimation of concentrations in neighborhoods with a lower share of non-Hispanic white residents. These findings carry implications for using national-scale models in intraurban epidemiological and environmental justice applications and establish the potential utility of supplementing large-scale estimates with publicly available urban infrastructure and pollution source information.

This study delves into the energy and emissions impacts of Shared Autonomous and Electric Vehicles (SAEVs) on disadvantaged communities in California. It explores the intersection of evolving transportation technologies—electric, autonomous, and shared mobility—and their implications for equity, energy consumption, and emissions. Through high-resolution spatial and temporalanalyses, this research evaluates the distribution of benefits and costs of SAEVs across diverse populations, incorporatingenvironmental justice principles. Our quantitative findings reveal that electrification of the vehicle fleet leads to a 63% to 71% decrease in CO2 emissions even with the current grid mix, and up to 84%-87% under a decarbonized grid with regular charging. The introduction of smart charging further enhances these benefits, resulting in a 93.5% - 95% reduction in CO2 emissions. However, the distribution of these air quality benefits is uneven, with disadvantaged communities experiencing approximately 15% less benefits compared to more advantaged areas. The study emphasizes the critical role of vehicle electrification and grid decarbonization in emissions reduction, and highlights the need for policies ensuring equitable distribution of SAEV benefits to promote sustainable and inclusive mobility.View the NCST Project Webpage

The historical impacts of transportation planning and investment have left lasting scars on communities of color and low-income communities. This research evaluates online equity tools that exist as spatial dashboards —i.e., interactive maps in which the parameters of interaction are controlled. Twelve tools ranging from the national to the local level were identified and qualitatively assessed for their ability to address conditions related to transportation equity. The evaluation focused on how each tool defines disadvantaged communities, the outcomes they measure (benefits, burdens, or other), their ease of use, and their ability to guide decisions about equity. The findings show a diversity of methods and metrics in defining disadvantage, with most relying on composite demographic indexes and comparative population thresholds. Tools most commonly provided accessibility metrics to assess transportation benefits, while incorporating a range of environmental and health indicators as burden measures. A minority of tools had integrated features to support planning or project implementation. This study provides examples of promising practices in transportation equity support tools.

BACKGROUND AND AIM[|]Traffic-Related Air Pollution (TrAP) adversely impacts human health, disproportionately harming disadvantaged communities. New technologies and infrastructure offer opportunities to reduce TrAP, but the health outcomes of individuals are not fully understood due to a lack of high-resolution models that grasp the complexities of transportation systems and their health implications amid evolving policies and technologies.[¤]METHOD[|]We introduce BEAM CORE (beam.lbl.gov), a high-resolution, agent-based transportation framework that simulates detailed passenger and freight activities. It captures interactions between transportation, land use, demographic and vehicle ownership changes at various scales. Validating crucial factors of emission modeling, including link-level VMT, speed and regional fleet in the San Francisco Bay Area’s nine counties, demonstrates its potential to be extended for assessing health outcomes from changes in TrAP.[¤]RESULTS[|]All major outputs from the BEAM CORE 2018 baseline have been calibrated and validated. Mode split and demographics align closely with census and survey data. Passenger and freight activities were validated against public and private data, with CO2 emissions corresponding to 3.67Mt/yr for medium/heavy-duty (MHD) and 22.79Mt/yr for all vehicles, demonstrating the model’s alignment with empirical data. The NOx, PM2.5 and PM10 from MHD exhaust, PM brake and tire wear are 14.8kt/yr, 424t/yr and 606.9t/yr under the 2018 baseline with high fractions of conventional vehicles, while the wide adoption of clean truck technologies under 2050 resulted in 87\%, 75\% and 56\% reductions respectively. BEAM CORE generates detailed fleet and activity data at high spatiotemporal resolution, enabling the integration with air quality models, including InMAP/AERMOD, to explore the causal pathway of health impacts from transport policy changes.[¤]CONCLUSIONS[|]We developed a sophisticated multi-dimensional transportation model for integration with advanced air quality, and health assessment models. It enables a thorough analysis of health impacts of transportation policies and technologies across diverse communities. It supports similar analyses in any area using local data.[¤]

Extreme weather events are becoming more severe due to climate change, increasing the risk of contaminant releases from hazardous sites disproportionately located in low-income communities of color. We evaluated contaminant releases during Hurricanes Rita, Ike, and Harvey in Texas and used regression models to estimate associations between neighborhood racial/ethnic composition and residential proximity to hurricane-related contaminant releases. Two-to-three times as many excess releases were reported during hurricanes compared to business-as-usual periods. Petrochemical manufacturing and refineries were responsible for most air emissions events. Multivariable models revealed sociodemographic disparities in likelihood of releases; compared to neighborhoods near regulated facilities without a release, a one-percent increase in Hispanic residents was associated with a 5 and 10% increase in the likelihood of an air emissions event downwind and within 2 km during Hurricanes Rita and Ike (odds ratio and 95% credible interval= 1.05 [1.00, 1.13], combined model) and Harvey (1.10 [1.00, 1.23]), respectively. Higher percentages of renters (1.07 [1.03, 1.11], combined Rita and Ike model) and rates of poverty (1.06 [1.01, 1.12], Harvey model) were associated with a higher likelihood of a release to land or water, while the percentage of Black residents (0.94 [0.89, 1.00], Harvey model) was associated with a slightly lower likelihood. Population density was consistently associated with a decreased likelihood of a contaminant release to air, land, or water. Our findings highlight social inequalities in the risks posed by natural-technological disasters that disproportionately impact Hispanic, renter, low-income, and rural populations.

This capstone project tells the untold story of marine diamond mining, tracing its origins from the shores of Namibia to the fjords of Greenland. Despite the stark differences between these two locales, they share striking similarities in diamond potential. In Namibia, marine diamond mining flourished prior to the country's independence and the establishment of international mining laws, setting a precedent for potential challenges in Greenland's current political landscape. Through in-depth research, stakeholder interviews, and media production, this project fosters an informed storyline for a full-length documentary film. The capstone deliverables encompass a film treatment, budget, film plan, concise trailer, and transcribed interviews, strategically crafted towards securing future support of the project. The outcome of such seeking to advocate for greater transparency in the diamond industry and policies that prioritize both economic development and environmental integrity. The final film will engage audiences worldwide in considering the implications of marine diamond mining for Greenland's evolving climate and economy.CLARITY film treatment can be found here: https://tinyurl.com/ClarityTreatment CLARITY interview transcriptions can be found here: https://tinyurl.com/ClarityTranscriptions

Introduction. Several frameworks exist to measure vulnerability to extreme heat events using a health equity approach, but little evidence validates these measures and their applications. We investigated the degree to which social vulnerability measures and their constituent elements correlate with excess emergency room visits as an outcome measure. Methods. The relationship between six commonly used social vulnerability indicators and measured excess emergency room visit rates (processed by including heat-related illnesses and all-internal causes diagnosis, with considerations for age and heat days) was tested through geospatial analytics and statistical regressions, for both California and Los Angeles County. Results. The vulnerability indicators and the outcome measure were significantly positively associated at the census tract-level but weaker (∼0.2 rs) at the scale of California and stronger (∼0.6 rs) at the scale of Los Angeles County. Hazard-specific vulnerability indicators showed stronger relationships with outcome measures regardless of scale. A Poisson regression model showed a significant inter-county variation, indicating the importance of localized assessments for equitable environmental policies. Conclusion. The findings identify communities that are overburdened by heat and pollution and highlight the need for use of both social vulnerability and indicators of adverse outcomes from excessive heat. Patterns are found across all measures that suggest that populations facing accessibility barriers may be less likely to visit emergency rooms. This suggestion needs to be tested in other environmental settings to draw broader conclusions but has direct implications for environmental scientists and mitigation planners who use these methods.

Legacy effects describe the persistent, long-term impacts on an ecosystem following the removal of an abiotic or biotic feature. Redlining, a policy that codified racial segregation and disinvestment in minoritized neighborhoods, has produced legacy effects with profound impacts on urban ecosystem structure and health. These legacies have detrimentally impacted public health outcomes, socioeconomic stability, and environmental health. However, the collateral impacts of redlining on wildlife communities are uncertain. Here, we investigated whether faunal biodiversity was associated with redlining. We used home-owner loan corporation (HOLC) maps [grades A (i.e., "best" and "greenlined"), B, C, and D (i.e., "hazardous" and "redlined")] across four cities in California and contributory science data (iNaturalist) to estimate alpha and beta diversity across six clades (mammals, birds, insects, arachnids, reptiles, and amphibians) as a function of HOLC grade. We found that in greenlined neighborhoods, unique species were detected with less sampling effort, with redlined neighborhoods needing over 8,000 observations to detect the same number of unique species. Historically redlined neighborhoods had lower native and nonnative species richness compared to greenlined neighborhoods across each city, with disparities remaining at the clade level. Further, community composition (i.e., beta diversity) consistently differed among HOLC grades for all cities, including large differences in species assemblage observed between green and redlined neighborhoods. Our work spotlights the lasting effects of social injustices on the community ecology of cities, emphasizing that urban conservation and management efforts must incorporate an antiracist, justice-informed lens to improve biodiversity in urban environments.

Contaminated drinking water from widespread environmental pollutants such as perfluoroalkyl and polyfluoroalkyl substances (PFAS) poses a rising threat to public health. PFAS monitoring in groundwater is limited and fails to consider pesticides found to contain PFAS as a potential contamination source. Given previous findings on the disproportionate exposure of communities of Color to both pesticides and PFAS, we investigated disparities in PFAS-contaminated pesticide applications in California based on community-level sociodemographic characteristics. We utilized statewide pesticide application data from the California Department of Pesticide Regulation and recently reported concentrations of PFAS chemicals detected in eight pesticide products to calculate the areal density of PFAS applied within 1 km of individual community water systems' (CWSs) supply wells. Spatial regression analyses suggest that statewide, CWSs that serve a greater proportion of Latinx and non-Latinx People of Color residents experience a greater areal density of PFAS applied and greater likelihood of PFAS application near their public supply wells. These results highlight agroecosystems as potentially important sources of PFAS in drinking water and identify areas that may be at risk of PFAS contamination and warrant additional PFAS monitoring and remediation.

Contemporary resource management is doubly burdened by high rates of organic material disposal in landfills, generating potent greenhouse gases (GHG), and globally degraded soils, which threaten future food security. Expansion of composting can provide a resilient alternative, by avoiding landfill GHG emissions, returning valuable nutrients to the soil to ensure continued agricultural production, and sequestering carbon while supporting local communities. Recognizing this opportunity, California has set ambitious organics diversion targets in the Short-Lived Climate Pollutant Law (SB1383) which will require significant increases (5 to 8 million tonnes per year) in organic material processing capacity. This paper develops a spatial optimization model to consider how to handle this flow of additional material while achieving myriad social and ecological benefits through compost production. We consider community-based and on-farm facilities alongside centralized, large-scale infrastructure to explore decentralized and diversified alternative futures of composting infrastructure in the state of California. We find using a diversity of facilities would provide opportunity for cost savings while achieving significant emissions reductions of approximately 3.4 ± 1 MMT CO2e and demonstrate that it is possible to incorporate community protection into compost infrastructure planning while meeting economic and environmental objectives.

BackgroundAlthough ~18 million people live within a mile from active oil and gas development (OGD) sites in the United States, epidemiological research on how OGD affects the health of nearby urban residents is sparse. Thousands of OGD sites are spread across Los Angeles (LA) County, California, home to the largest urban oil production in the country. Air pollution and noise from OGD may contribute to cardiovascular morbidity.ObjectiveWe examined the association between proximity to OGD and blood pressure in a diverse cohort of residents in LA.MethodsWe recruited residents in South LA who lived

Wildfire smoke fine particles (PM2.5) are a growing public health threat as wildfire events become more common and intense under climate change, especially in the Western United States. Studies assessing the association between wildfire PM2.5 exposure and health typically summarize the effects over the study area. However, health responses to wildfire PM2.5 may vary spatially. We evaluated spatially-varying respiratory acute care utilization risks associated with short-term exposure to wildfire PM2.5 and explored community characteristics possibly driving spatial heterogeneity. Using ensemble-modeled daily wildfire PM2.5, we defined a wildfire smoke day to have wildfire-specific PM2.5 concentration ≥15 μg/m3. We included daily respiratory emergency department visits and unplanned hospitalizations in 1,396 California ZIP Code Tabulation Areas (ZCTAs) and 15 census-derived community characteristics. Employing a case-crossover design and conditional logistic regression, we observed increased odds of respiratory acute care utilization on wildfire smoke days at the state level (odds ratio [OR] = 1.06, 95% confidence interval [CI]: 1.05, 1.07). Across air basins, ORs ranged from 0.88 to 1.57, with the highest effect estimate in San Diego. A within-community matching design and spatial Bayesian hierarchical model also revealed spatial heterogeneity in ZCTA-level rate differences. For example, communities with a higher percentage of Black or Pacific Islander residents had stronger wildfire PM2.5-outcome relationships, while more air conditioning and tree canopy attenuated associations. We found an important heterogeneity in wildfire smoke-related health impacts across air basins, counties, and ZCTAs, and we identified characteristics of vulnerable communities, providing evidence to guide policy development and resource allocation.

Wildfires have become more frequent and intense due to climate change and outdoor wildfire fine particulate matter (PM2.5) concentrations differ from relatively smoothly varying total PM2.5. Thus, we introduced a conceptual model for computing long-term wildfire PM2.5 and assessed disproportionate exposures among marginalized communities. We used monitoring data and statistical techniques to characterize annual wildfire PM2.5 exposure based on intermittent and extreme daily wildfire PM2.5 concentrations in California census tracts (2006 to 2020). Metrics included: 1) weeks with wildfire PM2.5 < 5 μg/m3; 2) days with non-zero wildfire PM2.5; 3) mean wildfire PM2.5 during peak exposure week; 4) smoke waves (≥2 consecutive days with

Historical policies have been shown to underpin environmental quality. In the 1930s, the federal Home Owners' Loan Corporation (HOLC) developed the most comprehensive archive of neighborhoods that would have been redlined by local lenders and the Federal Housing Administration, often applying racist criteria. Our study explored how redlining is associated with environmental quality across eight California cities. We integrated HOLC's graded maps [grades A (i.e., "best" and "greenlined"), B, C, and D (i.e., "hazardous" and "redlined")] with 10 environmental hazards using data from 2018 to 2021 to quantify the spatial overlap among redlined neighborhoods and environmental hazards. We found that formerly redlined neighborhoods have poorer environmental quality relative to those of other HOLC grades via higher pollution, more noise, less vegetation, and elevated temperatures. Additionally, we found that intraurban disparities were consistently worse for formerly redlined neighborhoods across environmental hazards, with redlined neighborhoods having higher pollution burdens (77% of redlined neighborhoods vs 18% of greenlined neighborhoods), more noise (72% vs 18%), less vegetation (86% vs 12%), and elevated temperature (72% vs 20%), than their respective city's average. Our findings highlight that redlining, a policy abolished in 1968, remains an environmental justice concern by shaping the environmental quality of Californian urban neighborhoods.

Abstract: Scientific research on the mechanisms to address global warming and its consequences continues to proliferate in the context of an accelerating climate emergency. The concept of climate action includes multiple meanings, and several types of actors employ its use to manage the crisis. The term has evolved to incorporate many of the suggested strategies to combat global warming offered by international bodies, states, nongovernmental organizations, the private sector, and social movements. The present work offers a classification scheme to build a shared understanding of climate action through a lens of environmental justice and just transitions developed by sociologists and others. The classification system includes major institutional and noninstitutional forms of climate action. By identifying the primary forms of climate action, analysts, scholars, policymakers, and activists can better determine levels of success and how different forms of climate action may or may not complement one another in the search for equitable solutions in turning back the rapid heating of the planet.

Water, weather, and climate affect everyone. However, their impacts on various communities can be very different based on who has access to essential services and environmental knowledge. Structural discrimination, including racism and other forms of privileging and exclusion, affects peoples lives and health, with ripples across all sectors of society. In the United States, the need to equitably provide weather, water, and climate services is uplifted by the Justice40 Initiative (Executive Order 14008), which mandates 40% of the benefits of certain federal climate and clean energy investments flow to disadvantaged communities. To effectively provide such services while centering equity, systemic reform is required. Reform is imperative given increasing weather-related disasters, public health impacts of climate change, and disparities in infrastructure, vulnerabilities, and outcomes. It is imperative that those with positional authority and resources manifest responsibility through (1) recognition, inclusion, and prioritization of community expertise; (2) the development of a stronger and more representative and equitable workforce; (3) communication about climate risk in equitable, relevant, timely, and culturally responsive ways; and (4) the development and implementation of new models of relationships between communities and the academic sector.

Problem research strategy and findingsEnvironmental justice (EJ) seeks to correct legacies of disproportionately burdening low-income and Black, Indigenous, and people of color (BIPOC) communities with environmental hazards that contribute to health inequalities. Federal and state policies increasingly require plans to assess and incorporate EJ principles. The current lack of accessible data and plan evaluation on EJ has been a barrier to policy setting and benchmarking. We created a framework for analyzing content across a large corpus of plans by using quantitative text analysis on 461 California city general plans, also known as comprehensive plans. To verify results and identify specific policies, we conducted content analysis on a subset of seven plans. Demonstrating the broad applicability of EJ principles in planning, policies spanned all required elements of general plans: housing, circulation, land use, health, safety, open space, air quality, and noise. We found that the most headway in EJ planning has been made in cities with a majority population of color and well before the 2018 California state mandate to address EJ. Policies were primarily focused on preventing adverse exposures as opposed to correcting for legacies of inequality. Further, although all policies address vulnerable populations and places, very few specifically addressed race or racism. Thus, EJ has been largely operationalized as health equity.Takeaway for practiceWe identified 628 EJ policies focused on vulnerable populations across the seven city plans included in content analysis. The smorgasbord of policy approaches provided fodder for cities across the United States to incorporate an EJ approach to planning. Gaps in focus areas reveal room for policy innovation (e.g., emphasis on language justice, formerly incarcerated individuals, and noise ordinance policing). We invite planners and community advocates to search across California's plans for EJ policy inspiration, and to use the appendix of EJ policies cataloged in this research as a benchmark of city-level innovation.

A healthy ocean is essential for human health, and yet the links between the ocean and human health are often overlooked. By providing new medicines, technologies, energy, foods, recreation, and inspiration, the ocean has the potential to enhance human health and wellbeing. However, climate change, pollution, biodiversity loss, and inequity threaten both ocean and human health. Sustainable realisation of the oceans health benefits will require overcoming these challenges through equitable partnerships, enforcement of laws and treaties, robust monitoring, and use of metrics that assess both the oceans natural capital and human wellbeing. Achieving this will require an explicit focus on human rights, equity, sustainability, and social justice. In addition to highlighting the potential unique role of the healthcare sector, we offer science-based recommendations to protect both ocean health and human health, and we highlight the unique potential of the healthcare sector tolead this effort.

Abstract: Water diversions for agriculture reduce ecosystem services provided by saline lakes around the world. Exposed lakebed surfaces are major sources of dust emissions that may exacerbate existing environmental inequities. This paper studies the effects of water diversions and their impacts on particulate pollution arising from reduced inflows to the Salton Sea in California via a spatially explicit particle transport model and changing lakebed exposure. We demonstrate that lakebed dust emissions increased ambient and concentrations and worsened environmental inequalities, with historically disadvantaged communities receiving a disproportionate increase in pollution. Water diversion decisions are often determined by political processes; our findings demonstrate the need for distributional analysis of such decisions to ensure equitable compensation.

We examine the barrier effects of freeways in California. We analyze the association between freeways and nearby street network connectivity and quantify the frequency and quality of crossings—underpasses or bridges that enable pedestrians and cyclists to cross the freeway. We find that barrier effects are most pronounced in communities of color. We also find that even where crossings exist, they are unpleasant or even hazardous for pedestrians and cyclists because of high-speed traffic on on- and off-ramps, and because large volumes of traffic are funneled through a small number of crossings rather than being distributed over a wider network.

Environmental justice research has focused on the distribution of environmental inequalities, such as proximity to landfills, across the U.S. and globally.BackgroundPublic health research and environmental health research, specifically, have focused on toxic exposure-encompassing individuals or communities that are disproportionately exposed to contaminants that are harmful or potentially harmful to them. Yet, little research has applied critical environmental justice theory-characterized by the idea that marginalized communities need to be treated as indispensable rather than disposable-to the study of toxic exposure. To fill this gap, the current paper offers a case study approach applying critical environmental justice theory to the study of disproportionate and unequal exposure to toxic contaminants.MethodsThis case study is of Kettleman City, a rural, unincorporated community in the heart of California's Central Valley (USA). This community experiences the co-location of environmental hazards, including residing at the intersection of two major highways and hosting a class I hazardous-waste landfill, which is one of the few licensed to accept PCBs. PCBs are a contaminant that has been linked with several adverse health outcomes, including cancers and low birthweight. Residents may also experience poor air quality from proximity to the highways.ResultsThis case highlights the uneven distribution of pollution and environmental degradation that may be shouldered by the community, along with their experiences of adverse health and social impacts. This analysis reveals the importance of incorporating a critical environmental justice perspective to unpack experiences of not only disproportionate exposure but also disproportionate procedural and recognitional inequality.ConclusionsThis research highlights the untapped potential of environmental justice to catalyze exposure science in challenging the unequal distribution of contaminants.

Increasingly, coastal communities are subjected to disasters associated with the effects of the climate crisis. Puerto Rico, an occupied colony of the U.S. continues to endure flooding, hurricanes and earthquakes, and a protracted economic crisis. Communities and community-based organizations fulfill vital roles in disaster relief efforts. The Caño Martín Peña (CMP) communities are situated in the center of San Juan and home to over 26,000 residents. This study centers on the discourses of local leaders from the CMP communities, and their work with the Grupo de las Ocho Comunidades (G-8), a community-based nonprofit organization that fosters empowerment through literacy and ecological restoration efforts of the region. Using a critical approach, we facilitated a focus group with five leaders from the CMP communities. Qualitative analyses revealed four themes: enduring social, economic, and environmental injustice; challenging dominant narratives; importance of community organizing, collective action and caring; and social change through a “different kind of education.” Unsettling colonial approaches to disaster relief, the study concludes with implications for community practice in the context of disaster recovery. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The intensity of Bangkok's urban heat island during the dry season can be as high as 6–7° and in the densest areas the urban heat island's intensity is approximately 4°C. The urban heat island thus is causing a city already oppressively hot to become even hotter. The urban heat island also contributes to health problems, such as heat stroke and fatigue, particularly to those with lower incomes. We historically examine the numerous causes of Bangkok's urban heat island, such as the lack of green space, high levels of air conditioning, and high rates of vehicle exhaust fumes. For example, Bangkok has only three square metres of green space per person which is one of the lowest in all of Asia. Local governmental weaknesses, administrative fragmentation, prioritisation of economic growth and limited buy-in from the private sector have intensified Bangkok's urban heat island, and imposed numerous barriers to actions that would reduce heat, such as establishing green space, restructuring urban transport or creating and following an effective urban plan. Ideas mooted to remedy these problems have yet to come to fruition, largely because of bureaucratic inertia, fragmentation and divisions within the relevant lead organisations. The political ecology lens also reveals how political–economic processes largely determine the vulnerability of urban inhabitants to heat, but also that thermal governance is highly unequal and unjust. Those who contribute to and profit the most from Bangkok's urban heat island, such as real estate developers, shopping mall owners, and automobile corporations, suffer the least from its effects, whereas low-income communities hardly contribute to this problem, yet are the most vulnerable. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Marine plastic pollution (MPP) has posed an unavoidable challenge to the conservation of marine ecosystems, escalating at an unprecedented rate. It extends beyond visible pollution, infiltrating the food chain and microcirculation, ultimately affecting the life and health of marine organisms. Of even greater concern is the fact that MPP has been found to penetrate human bloodstreams. The international community increasingly focuses on MPP, and has formulated a series of laws and regulations. This article analyses marine pollution prevention legislation within the context of international environmental resolutions and conventions, including those established by the United Nations, the European Union law and the domestic legislation of sovereign states. It is evident that the current legislation has played a pivotal role in the preventing MPP. However, global legislation on preventing MPP remains fragmented. The problems existing in the current legislation should be reviewed from the holistic systems perspective, and the integrity and systematicness of new plastics convention should be demonstrated. The proposed Marine Plastics Convention should emphasize environmental justice, protect the rights of vulnerable populations, lower the threshold for risk prevention, and focus on addressing residual risks. It must include clear provisions for regulating hydrosphere plastic pollution (HPP) to mitigate land-based pollution and scientifically define fundamental legal concepts to foster coordinated action among States. Moreover, the convention should establish standardized monitoring methodologies and assessment criteria to ensure accurate evaluation of the pollution status. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The study employed an epistemological framework of ecological imperialism to highlight the environmental implications of colonial development policies in Southeast Asia. The analysis focused on the environmental justice, equity, and fairness implications of colonial development initiatives in five domains: the built environment, land, agriculture, forestry, and mining. It reveals that the initiatives were tantamount to ecological imperialism in each domain. The study is not only of historical importance as it contains lessons on the environmental implications of economic development initiatives for the region’s contemporary planners and policymakers. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Related Articles For over a decade, members of the Aamjiwnaang Nation have continued to fight for the recognition and redress of their unique environmental health concerns in a region known as Canada's Chemical Valley. From a critical policy studies lens, this article addresses the discursive policy challenges faced by those who are most affected by the toxic policy assemblage of enduring pollution exposure. In response to the research question: how can the voices and lived experiences of those living in pollution hotspots like Chemical Valley contribute to the theory and practice of environmental justice, this article draws upon findings from extensive field‐work in the surrounding region of Lambton County as well as policy advocacy including participation in Senate of Canada hearings. This analysis examines how the omission of community‐based knowledge and expertise reproduces inequities. The article concludes with strategies for improved environmental justice and lessons learned for policy justice in Canada and beyond.Al‐Kohlani, Sumaia A., Heather E. Campbell, and Stephen Omar El‐Khatib. 2023. “Minority Faith and Environmental Justice.” Politics & Policy 51(6): 1069–96. https://doi.org/10.1111/polp.12564.Ash, John. 2010. “New Nuclear Energy, Risk, and Justice: Regulatory Strategies for an Era of Limited Trust.” Politics & Policy 38(2): 255–84. https://doi.org/10.1111/j.1747‐1346.2010.00237.x.Dilmaghani, Maryam, and Jeremy Dias. 2023. “In or Out? Citizenship Outcomes of Working Sexual and Gender Minority People of Canada.” Politics & Policy 51(5): 868–97. https://doi.org/10.1111/polp.12557. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Politics and power are increasingly central to the study of sustainability transitions, including just transitions. One line of research differentiates between incumbent coalitions that resist and insurgent coalitions that promote these transitions. More recently, there has been attention on the politics and power within these coalitions and the implications of who participates and how for the kinds of policy preferences that emerge. Here, we focus on how insurgent coalitions of relatively marginalized social forces negotiate differences in interests and power. We do so by comparing insurgent just transition coalitions in two US states, Washington State and Colorado. Our study also highlights the variability amongst actors within categories, whether labour or environmental and community justice, thus challenging their homogenization implied in the ‘jobs vs environment’ and green and blue framings. We believe that our research contributes to the politicization of sustainability transition research, including just transitions. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Agri-food systems are called upon to undergo profound transformation. The development of “flow approaches” (including lifecycle assessment, carbon footprint, ecological footprint, and metabolism methodologies) has been crucial to point to the material side of human activities. More specifically, these approaches highlight the material and energetic costs of long agri-food value-chains, intensive farming practices, high levels of geographic specialization, as well as the production of non-food commodities. In the logical progression from diagnosis to action, flow approaches are currently being used as decision-support tools. But what are the biases induced by flow approaches when it comes to supporting real-world transformations? Based on our experience and interdisciplinary background, we argue that flow approaches provide a decontextualized and narrow framing of issues related to agri-food systems, such as accumulations and transfers across space and time, inequalities and asymmetries along the chain of activities, or long-lasting environmental impacts. Some aspects are measured and emphasized, while others are difficult to observe or neglected. Flow approaches, alone, are not well suited to inform issues of environmental justice, radical transformation, and local governance. As in most cases methodological advances will not suffice to overcome the biases induced, we call for hybridizing methods and for broadening analytical perspectives. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The underground layers of cities are constantly concreted with urban transformation projects. The studies on built environment mainly focus on the morphological changes, related dispossessions and observable aspects of urban landscape. However, the environmental costs of transformations are not limited to the impacts of above-ground interventions. In Istanbul, the major impact of subterranean interventions is the destruction of water and soil ecosystems as well as its multi-layered heritage as the large-scale urban transformation decisions are primarily applied to historic neighbourhoods where the existing building stock was appropriated by the urban precariat. The urban transformation projects in historic neighbourhoods of Istanbul come into question with socio-economic dispossessions rather than environmental justice. In this manuscript, the main aim is to address the socio-ecological impacts of planning and architectural design decisions disregarding subterranean construction density, through the case of Tarlabaşı in Istanbul. Tarlabaşı represents one of the most emblematic case in Istanbul’s urban resistance history and evokes eco-dystopias, which may be attributed to the decisions that justify stigmatisation. With the context, conceptual frame and scope set by these problem definitions, while considering urban inequality a pre-condition of environmental justice, this manuscript examines the correlation between environmental policies, social stigmatisation and flexed environmental values in planning and architecture culture via local political ecology. The methodology employed in the study is based on qualitative analysis of the stages and legal decisions involved. Archival documents on the study area were used to identify the local variables contributing to the deterioration of socio-ecological unity for future discussions. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

In recent years, protests have emerged to save Lake Orumiyeh, which has nearly vanished following decades of agricultural development, dam building, and drought. Lake Orumiyeh is located in Iranian Azerbaijan, which sits at the intersection of three former empires: Persian, Ottoman, and Russian. Iranian Azerbaijan is largely comprised of ethno‐linguistic minority communities that are unevenly impacted by environmental hazards stemming from the lake's desiccation, and protests to save the lake are generally characterised as environmental conflict resulting from climate change or as a reflection of ethno‐nationalist tensions in Iran. These readings, however, fail to account for how imperial pasts and colonial presents shape exposure to environmental violence. This article posits that environmental violence functions as a form of coloniality and, using Lake Orumiyeh as an entry point, aims to: (i) examine coloniality in a country that was never formally colonised yet impacted by different formations of empire; (ii) account for subjectivities shaped through non‐Western European forms of imperialism; and (iii) connect racialised difference in Iran to the reproduction of colonial and racial logics vis‐à‐vis European imperialism. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

In this paper, we argue for greater recognition of young people’s contributions to environmental action through social and environmental justice. It draws on findings from research based on eleven organisations in the UK exploring young people’s connection with environment-related collective action and activism in the UK landscape. Building on theoretical arguments of ethics of care and implicit activism and capturing a range of practices of young people, the paper explores young people’s multiple framing(s) of activisms – towards the environment and each other.Drawing on the experiences of young people and facilitators within these organisations, we unpack the experiences and representation of minoritised groups in the climate movement and other forms of environmental engagement. The findings demonstrate thoughtful and effective approaches towards inclusion within the UK context and in terms of global climate justice but also highlight a need for more intersectional approaches and awareness of enduring barriers often relating to racialised identities. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

With planet-wide environmental unravelling ideas of multispecies and planetary justice are gaining multidisciplinary attention. They frame a set of ethical, moral and political obligations to life-on-Earth. While it is clear it is humans who bear the duties and obligations of justice, who or what is the subject of justice-beyond-human varies widely: Some limit the subject to sentient animals, others include all living things. We argue for a more expansive subject that includes both living and non-living matter. We claim that privileging living/life is an anthropocentric categorisation embedded in the foundational epistemologies and ontologies driving environmental damages, resource conflicts and mass extinction. An exclusion of matter from concerns of justice ignores multiple fundamental more-than-human relationships in humans' every-day material lives. We argue that the subject of planetary justice must be expansive – addressing sentient or not, living or not, animal, vegetable, mineral, and elemental – to be inclusive, applied, plural, and sustainable. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

In the face of rapid environmental change, restoration will need to emphasize innovative approaches that support the long‐term resilience of social and ecological systems. To this end, we highlight the critical, but often overlooked, role of adaptive capacity, which enables restoration practice, governance, and target ecosystems to adapt to directional environmental change. We identify three core attributes of adaptive capacity: (1) diversity, (2) connectivity, and (3) flexibility. For each attribute, we describe key strategies, including enhancing mechanisms of ecological memory, facilitating the generation of beneficial novelty, and developing governance structures that are flexible and anticipatory. These core attributes can also lead to maladaptive outcomes; careful consideration of a social‐ecological system's resilience and vulnerabilities to environmental change will likely be critical to avoid unwanted outcomes. Ultimately, implementing strategies that increase adaptive capacity can bolster restoration efficacy as it seeks to confront the global challenge of rapid environmental change. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The shifting frontiers of air pollution emission sources contribute to stagnation or reversal of air quality gains across the United States (US). The frequency and possible duration of Exceptional Events – driven primarily by wildfires and dust storms – have significantly increased in the US over the past decade. Combined with the US Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) final rule strengthening primary annual National Ambient Air Quality Standards (NAAQS) for PM2.5 by 25%, communities will need to reevaluate domestic and international sources of PM2.5. This study applies the Isolation Forest methodology to Exceptional Event demonstrations to flag and evaluate sources of anomalies in large PM2.5 measurement datasets. Focusing on a decade of hourly PM2.5 data measured in seven regions across Texas from 2012 to 2021 (>3 million data points), we present methods to efficiently flag hourly PM2.5 anomalies with compute times of ~minutes and characterize their spatial impacts as local or (multi-) regional; subsequent evaluation of potential sources of the increase can then be conducted more efficiently in a targeted manner. For a subset of anomalies, we incorporate air mass back trajectories, surface influences, and positive matrix factorization to evaluate potential sources. Our anomaly characterization method separated statistically normal PM2.5 data and enabled differentiation of localized versus larger-scale PM2.5 sources. In addition, our method successfully characterized the Summer 2020 severe Saharan dust intrusions into Texas, as well as the influence of international smoke from Mexico on El Paso's regional air quality. This anomaly flagging and characterization method is promising for assessing the relative importance of sources to anomalies in PM2.5 and other criteria air pollutants for multiple purposes; while this work focuses on its capacity for exceptional event demonstrations, the applicability includes long-term trend analyses from environmental justice analyses of air pollutant exposure to air quality attainment demonstrations. Implications: The shifting frontiers of air pollution emission sources contribute to stagnation or reversal of air quality gains across the United States (US). The frequency and possible duration of Exceptional Events – driven primarily by wildfires and dust storms – have significantly increased in the US over the past decade. Combined with the US Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) final rule strengthening primary annual National Ambient Air Quality Standards (NAAQS) for PM2.5 by 25%, communities will need to reevaluate domestic and international sources of PM2.5. This study presents a robust methodology to rapidly flag and evaluate sources of anomalies in PM2.5 measurements. This anomaly flagging and characterization method is promising for assessing the relative importance of sources to anomalies in PM2.5 and other criteria air pollutants for multiple purposes; while this work focuses on its capacity for exceptional event demonstrations, the applicability includes long-term trend analyses from environmental justice analyses of air pollutant exposure to air quality attainment demonstrations. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The City of Baltimore, MD has a history of problems with environmental justice (EJ), air pollution, and the urban heat island (UHI) effect. Current chemical transport models lack the resolution to simulate concentrations on the scale needed, about 100 m, to identify the neighborhoods with anomalously high air pollution levels. In this paper we introduce the capabilities of a mobile laboratory and an initial survey of several pollutants in Baltimore to identify which communities are exposed to disproportionate concentrations of air pollution and to which species. High concentrations of black carbon (BC) stood out at some locations – near major highways, downtown, and in the Curtis Bay neighborhood of Baltimore. Results from the mobile lab are confirmed with longer-term, low-cost monitoring. In Curtis Bay, higher concentrations of BC were measured along Pennington Ave. (mean [5th to 95th percentiles] = 2.08 [2.0–10.9] μg m−3) than along Curtis Ave. just ~ 150 m away (0.67[0.1 – 1.8] μg m−3). Other species, including criteria pollutants ozone (O3), carbon monoxide (CO), nitrogen dioxide (NO2), sulfur dioxide (SO2), and fine particulate matter (PM2.5), showed little gradient. Observations with high spatial and temporal resolution help isolate the mechanisms leading to locally high pollutant concentrations. The difference in BC appears to result not from heavier truck traffic or slower dispersion but from the interruptions in traffic flow. Pennington Ave. has three stoplights while Curtis Ave. has none. As heavy-duty diesel-powered vehicles accelerate, they experience turbo-lag and the resulting rich air-fuel mixture exacerbates BC emissions. Immediate mediation might be achieved through smoother traffic flow, and the long-term solution through replacing heavy-duty trucks with electric vehicles. Implications: We present results documenting the locations within Baltimore of high concentrations of Black Carbon pollution and identify the likely source – diesel exhaust emissions exacerbated by stop-and-go traffic and associated turbo-lag. This suggests solutions (smoother traffic, retrofit particulate filters, replacement of diesel with electric vehicles) that would enhance Environmental Justice (EJ) and could be applied to other cities with EJ problems. Synopsis: This paper presents observations of atmospheric black carbon aerosol showing impacts on environmental justice, then identifies causes and suggests solutions. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper examined the impact of an environmental justice class positioned against the backdrop of the Flint, Michigan, water crisis. Students questioned the link between the water crisis and environmental and racial injustice, as Flint citizens are largely African American and reside below the poverty line. The inquiry guiding this research centered on how students might use their voices to garner agency due to their participation in this class. The students' narratives became counter-stories; at the end of the course, their counter-stories highlighted a positive relationship between students' agency and their desire to become involved in the democratic process. The findings illustrate how participatory projects, ones that students direct themselves, can result in students' feelings of anxiety and complicate the role of the teacher in shaping the curriculum. The discussion examines curriculum design and place-based education adjacent to the complex undertaking of civic engagement with students. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This essay brings the analytic of abolition ecology into conversation with the critical rhetorical study of social movements, to emphasize the ecological dimensions of racialized violence, settler colonialism, and abolitionist liberation struggles. We do so by advancing the method of rhetorical powermapping, as one way to constellate the rhetorical labor of activists/protectors as they unearth the depth and textures of power temporally and spatially. Putting rhetorical powermapping into practice, we follow the contours of recent insurgent movements to "Stop Cop City" as they unsettle power from within the urban forests of Atlanta, Georgia to broader national and global regimes. Such a practice emphasizes the need for multi-scalar and multi-species systems thinking in any vision of an abolitionist future. Stop Cop City insists we contend more deeply with the ecological dimensions of violence and the indispensability of life amid climate chaos, global militarism, and racialized and gendered repression. It also demands, we argue, that rhetorical scholars adopt alternative methods and analytics to make sense of emerging, decentralized movements on their own terms, the histories and relations that ground them, and the human and more-than-human solidarities they require. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Mary Evelyn Tucker, Co-Director of the Yale Forum on Religion and Ecology, shares her journey from teaching in Japan to founding the Harvard Conference series on World Religions and Ecology, which led to the establishment of the Yale Forum. She discusses the impact of Pope Francis's Encyclical Laudato Si' on environmental and human concerns, emphasizing the importance of integrating moral values and ethics into environmental studies. The field of religion and ecology has seen significant growth over the past 25 years, with an increasing focus on graduate programs, ecojustice initiatives, and grassroots projects. The Yale Center for Environmental Justice addresses environmental inequities, drawing on religious influences to advocate for marginalized communities. [Extracted from the article]

Youth engagement in urban planning research and practice can help reveal their distinct experiences, priorities, and provide direction for future action. Environmental justice scholarship has documented critical insights learned from youth co-researchers. This article adds to this tradition by exploring how youth in Austin, Texas, experience environmental injustice within the context of gentrification. Using photovoice methods, youth researchers identify and discuss these dual challenges. We illustrate how their emphasis on brokenness links and builds on environmental justice, repair and maintenance, and reparative literatures. Findings also highlight how youth actively work to improve their communities, challenging planning scholarship's tendency to frame youth action as aspirational or as happening in structured, programmatic ways. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]