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- Creators: School of Earth and Space Exploration
- Creators: School of Politics and Global Studies
Description
This thesis examines how the wording of proposed government policies can affect the level of public support that a given policy generates. By surveying 158 Phoenix residents, I tested the differing degrees of support that voters would have for a proposed city ordinance, which would stop Homeowners' Associations from restricting the use of native desert plants in residential landscaping. The ordinance was framed in the survey as a self-governance issue or a water conservation issue. I found that the message frames had little effect on the overall level of support for the ordinance, since most residents had moderate support for the policy. However, participants who were either residents of Homeowners' Associations that did not have native plant restrictions, or native residents of Arizona, demonstrated greater levels of support for the self-determination frame of the proposed ordinance. These findings have implications for policy makers who use targeted messages to establish pro-environmental policies at the local level.
ContributorsSmith, Mary Hannah (Author) / Darnall, Nicole (Thesis director) / Ramirez, Mark (Committee member) / Tetreault, Colin (Committee member) / Barrett, The Honors College (Contributor) / School of Sustainability (Contributor) / School of Politics and Global Studies (Contributor)
Created2013-05
Description
Climate change, as it becomes more prevalent, is putting a much harsher strain on the resources of the world, specifically food, energy, and water. With this in mind, now is the time to make a change and begin working towards a more sustainable future for everyone. Arizona is an especially susceptible location that has the opportunity to be the leader of this change. In order to effectively manage this movement through governance, a food-energy-water nexus approach is required. This approach recognizes and accounts for the intricate relationships between these industries in order to promote more resilience and balance throughout the nexus. While the main focus in Arizona tends to be on water, and rightfully so, it is important to understand the intricacies of the food, energy, and water systems together. Right now, the system is fragile and needs a new, more complex approach. Ultimately, legislation that intertwines water rights with agriculture regulation and energy production goals, while also including equity and justice measures, have the capacity to work towards limiting the effects of climate change that Arizona will see. Arizona has the opportunity here to either provide a cautionary tale to other regions of how mismanagement can lead to destruction or can showcase the legislative success that the nexus governance approach can provide.
ContributorsKonopka, Violet (Author) / York, Abigail (Thesis director) / Richter, Jennifer (Committee member) / School of Sustainability (Contributor) / School of Life Sciences (Contributor) / School of Politics and Global Studies (Contributor) / Barrett, The Honors College (Contributor)
Created2020-05
Description
Two large sectors of water consumption within cities are: city owned irrigated landscape (such as parks) and household consumption. A related, third sector of consumption that has very little research behind it is shared landscapes in residential communities. Neighborhood communities, including those with formal Homeowner’s Associations and informal Neighborhood Associations, have common landscapes they are responsible for up-keeping and irrigating. 208 neighborhood communities exist within the City of Tempe. Each year the city provides $30,000 in grant funding to these 208 neighborhoods to implement water conservation projects. This thesis focuses on ten neighborhoods who had applied and were granted funding to implement a conservation project between the years 2011 and 2016. My findings showed that this program has not been effective in reducing water consumption, wither due to the lack of implementation or the small-scale of the projects. From my research and synthesis, I suggest a layer of accountability be added to the program to ensure projects are effective and participants are implementing their projects and that the program is effective overall. This study provides the City of Tempe with relevant and viable information to aid management of water consumption and conservation within neighborhoods.
ContributorsApillanes, Sierra Caitlyn (Author) / Larson, Kelli (Thesis director) / Bomar, Melissa (Committee member) / School of Sustainability (Contributor, Contributor) / School of Earth and Space Exploration (Contributor) / Barrett, The Honors College (Contributor)
Created2019-05
Description
This paper explores how the United States federal government has historically supported animal agribusiness to the detriment of native ecosystems and wildlife. It focuses on agricultural subsidies and state-funded predator persecution, with an emphasis on the historical conflict between gray wolves and ranchers in America. This paper examines the ecological consequences of agricultural policy in the U.S. and potential solutions to these issues that account for the needs of humans, wildlife, and the environment.
ContributorsPoe, Katherine (Author) / Barca, Lisa (Thesis director) / Schultz, Judith (Committee member) / Barrett, The Honors College (Contributor) / School of Life Sciences (Contributor) / School of Politics and Global Studies (Contributor)
Created2022-05
Description
This project was an exploratory take on outreach in the life sciences - looking into the existing literature and practices and formulating a proof of concept for future outreach with synthesizes my findings. The research culminated in the creation of an insect guide for the novice observer, which reads as a modern take on the dichotomous key and allows amateur insect observers to develop some skills of identification with relatively little entomological knowledge.
ContributorsHaddad, Mary (Author) / Polidoro, Beth (Thesis director) / Yule, Kelsey (Committee member) / Barrett, The Honors College (Contributor) / School of Life Sciences (Contributor) / School of Earth and Space Exploration (Contributor)
Created2022-05
Description
Political boundaries often divide ecosystems and create the challenge of conserving the ecosystem across borders. Through transboundary ecosystem management multiple groups can come together and manage the ecosystem that spans their borders collaboratively. In the United States there are several examples of ecosystems that span borders, such as the Sonoran Desert along the US-Mexico frontier and the Rocky Mountains running through the US and Canada. To gain insight into what leads to effective transboundary resource management I compared two case studies that manage resources over borders with multiple collaborators: Glacier National Park and Organ Pipe Cactus National Monument. These two cases offer contrasting ecosystems and backgrounds in transboundary resource management in the United States. To compare the cases I coded them using a collaborative governance codebook (Schoon et al. 2020). The codebook uses a Context-Mechanisms-Outcomes framework to identify aspects of collaborative governance and contextual factors present in each park (Pawson & Tilley 1997; Salter & Kothari, 2014). Once coded, the cases were compared to identify what aspects were similar and different in the parks to help potentially explain what features did or did not lead to effective transboundary resource management.
ContributorsTaetle, Noah (Author) / Schoon, Michael (Thesis director) / Carr Kelman, Candice (Committee member) / Barrett, The Honors College (Contributor) / School of Sustainability (Contributor) / School of Politics and Global Studies (Contributor)
Created2022-05
Description
Sea turtles are threatened globally. Their conservation requires, not just scientists and
governments, but communities as well. Conservationists have been developing ways to reduce
tensions between governments, biologists, and local communities. While community-based
conservation has been implemented successfully in certain cases, work must be done to
acknowledge the spiritual values of nature to garner more support for conservation from local
communities. For this reason, we chose to analyze how sea turtles have been viewed spiritually
in Latin America and globally throughout history by performing a literature review. Many
coastal communities have centuries old spiritual beliefs regarding sea turtles. Furthermore, we
conducted a case study in Ostional, Costa Rica, a village known for its sea turtle conservation, as well as its controversial sea turtle egg harvesting. From this study, which utilized surveys and
interviews, we learned that spirituality is a motivator for conservation for the people of Ostional.
Thus, we suggest that spirituality should be utilized as an appeal for local communities to
support local conservation efforts. Governments and scientists should include spirituality in
community-based conservation discourse. Further studies should assess how best to apply
spiritual appeals in this discourse and its effectiveness overall, as well as among different age
demographics.
ContributorsDeFazio, Victoria (Author) / Britton, Michael (Thesis director) / Burgher, Kayla (Committee member) / Barrett, The Honors College (Contributor) / School of International Letters and Cultures (Contributor) / School of Earth and Space Exploration (Contributor)
Created2024-05
Description
The Arizona Board of Education decides the science curricula for students K-6. The standards lack an in depth knowledge of marine life, marine science, ocean conservation, and more related topics. Through interviews with teachers, faculty, and research on ocean literacy and coral reefs, My Coral Reef Booklet assembles various learning activities to cater to students from a variety of education, financial and impairment backgrounds. My Coral Reef Booklet addresses coral reef basics and how students can play their part in coral reef conservation despite their location.
ContributorsHynds, Janna (Author) / Hedges, Craig (Thesis director) / Senko, Jesse (Committee member) / Barrett, The Honors College (Contributor) / School of Earth and Space Exploration (Contributor) / School of Life Sciences (Contributor)
Created2023-05