Our Future Environment

Woodland Park Zoo, a set on Flickr.

Filed under: zoo, leisure, eco-tourism, social justice on September 29th, 2011 | No Comments »

Last Autumn I was wondering how or if my interest in anti-war protesting is related to my interest in why environmental activists become, well, active. Somewhere along this trail of inquiry I ran into the theory of Peace Parks.

Wikipedia states that peace parks create friendly borders between countries and encourage natural animal migration patterns, […]

Filed under: parks, eco-tourism, social justice, environmental planning on June 29th, 2008 | 1 Comment »

photo credit: ideonexus
What is the difference between environmental racism, justice and equity? The former is the deliberate targeting of certain groups for siting of undesirable land uses which leads to disproportionate hazard exposures to those groups (Bryant 1995). Environmental justice requires that everyone have access to safe and clean neighborhoods, adequate jobs, quality schools, and […]

Filed under: social justice on June 2nd, 2008 | 1 Comment »

This play on words, Scales of Environmental Justice, as introduced to me by Cindi Katz, points to two ways we can think about and study environmental justice.
In GIS research (and others which emphasize horizontal geography) scale can refer to the scale of analysis used in a study and the socio-economic and demographic characteristics of populations […]

Filed under: natural landscape, social justice, environmental planning on June 1st, 2008 | No Comments »

How to foster a sense of shared identity or ideals is difficult to answer when Americans, and “potential Americans” appear, act and think differently because they are from, or choose to identify with, different countries with different social practices and ideals. Schlesinger (1998), Putnam (2007), and others argue that a “cult of ethnicity” is set […]

Filed under: fostering identity, social justice on May 24th, 2008 | No Comments »

For the next few days I’ll post the paper for my American Political Culture and National Identity course. Although the natural environment isn’t mentioned, I think the ideas about fostering identity and desire will be needed when thinking about how to create a desire for a positive future environment among youth.
The paper has changed since […]

Filed under: fostering identity, social justice on May 23rd, 2008 | No Comments »

This is a paper proposal slightly off topic for this blog, but, the idea of civic engagement and youth participation is increasingly central to bringing environmental justice to the forefront of American minds.
The authors and discussion topics so far approached in this course have centered on how we define American national identity and […]

Filed under: fostering identity, observations and opinions, social justice on May 16th, 2008 | No Comments »

“StreetsBlog is a daily source for news and information about New York City’s burgeoning Livable Streets movement.
The blog is produced by The Open Planning Project, edited by Aaron Naparstek, and is a project of the New York City Streets Renaissance Campaign.”

Filed under: observations and opinions, social justice on May 15th, 2008 | No Comments »

To begin a discussion of where and how Crown Heights residents engage in their neighborhood we will consider how sidewalks are “third places” of interaction and social gatherings. Home and work places can be thought of as first and second places. Third places are defined as “public spaces that host the regular, voluntary, informal, and […]

Filed under: natural landscape, social justice, environmental planning on April 4th, 2008 | No Comments »

New York City, as proposed in PlaNYC2030, is beginning citywide improvements to create a more sustainable and ‘green’ city. Part of this plan includes planting more trees in low tree count public spaces, particularly sidewalks, throughout all five boroughs. In addition to planting trees in low count areas the city can benefit residents by focusing […]

Filed under: natural landscape, social justice, environmental planning on April 2nd, 2008 | No Comments »