4/2 Saturday Sessions
Climate Politics in the Golden State 1
Saturday, 4/2/2016, from 8:00 AM - 9:40 AM in Union Square 2, Hilton Hotel, 4th Floor
8:00 AM Author(s): *Tracy Perkins, Ph.D. - Howard University
Abstract Title: When Does Participation Pay Off? California Environmental Justice Activists and the Global Warming Solutions Act of 2006
8:20 AM Author(s): *Michael A. Mendez - University of San Francisco
Abstract Title: Climate Change from the Streets: Community Action for Global Health Impact
8:40 AM Author(s): *Barbara Haya - University of California, Berkeley
Abstract Title: REDD reductions in the red?: implications of reference level and crediting period on the risk of over-crediting and program effectiveness
9:00 AM Author(s): *Libby Blanchard - University of Cambridge
Abstract Title: Interrogating Public Debates over Jurisdictional REDD+ in California's Global Warming Solutions Act: Implications for Social Equity
9:20 AM Discussant: Beth Rose Middleton - UC Davis
Discussant(s):
Beth Rose Middleton - UC Davis
Session Description: California is widely seen as a global innovator in subnational efforts to reduce greenhouse gas emissions. This year's annual meeting in San Francisco provides an opportunity to critically examine California's climate history, politics, and possible roads ahead with an emphasis on social equity. Scholars have addressed the role of environmental justice activists in shaping the state's landmark Climate Change Solutions Act of 2006 and the racialized neoliberal discourses underpinning the state's resulting carbon market (London et al. 2013; Sze et al. 2009). Others have analyzed how climate politics are influenced by the linkages between public health and greenhouse gas emissions (Pastor et al. 2013; Shonkoff et al. 2011; Mendez, 2015). We seek to bring together scholars working on California climate issues to build on existing work and discuss themes such as the following:
- Multi-scalar efforts to address climate change at the local, regional, state, national and global levels
- Evaluations of the success of existing climate policy
- The raced, classed nature of the impacts of climate change, as well as the potential social impacts of climate change solutions
- Comparisons between California climate politics and climate politics in other states
- Linkages between California and international climate mitigation efforts through carbon markets and REDD programs
- Tensions between efforts to reduce greenhouse gas emissions and to promote resiliency in the face of the projected impacts of climate change
- Tensions and opportunities in the convergence of ecological sustainability, human health and social justice in climate politics
- The contested meaning of 'sustainability' and its use in climate politics
- Electoral politics and social movement processes in the promotion of climate policies, as well as in opposition to them
Climate Politics in the Golden State 2
Saturday, 4/2/2016, from 10:00 AM - 11:40 AM in Union Square 2, Hilton Hotel, 4th Floor
Panelist(s):
Alice Kaswan - University of San Francisco School of Law
Patrick Bigger - University of Kentucky
Sean B. Hecht - UCLA
Session Description: California is widely seen as a global innovator in subnational efforts to reduce greenhouse gas emissions. This year's annual meeting in San Francisco provides an opportunity to critically examine California's climate history, politics, and possible roads ahead with an emphasis on social equity. Scholars have addressed the role of environmental justice activists in shaping the state's landmark Climate Change Solutions Act of 2006 and the racialized neoliberal discourses underpinning the state's resulting carbon market (London et al. 2013; Sze et al. 2009). Others have analyzed how climate politics are influenced by the linkages between public health and greenhouse gas emissions (Pastor et al. 2013; Shonkoff et al. 2011; Mendez, 2015). We seek to bring together scholars working on California climate issues to build on existing work and discuss themes such as the following:
- Multi-scalar efforts to address climate change at the local, regional, state, national and global levels
- Evaluations of the success of existing climate policy
- The raced, classed nature of the impacts of climate change, as well as the potential social impacts of climate change solutions
- Comparisons between California climate politics and climate politics in other states
- Linkages between California and international climate mitigation efforts through carbon markets and REDD programs
- Tensions between efforts to reduce greenhouse gas emissions and to promote resiliency in the face of the projected impacts of climate change
- Tensions and opportunities in the convergence of ecological sustainability, human health and social justice in climate politics
- The contested meaning of 'sustainability' and its use in climate politics
- Electoral politics and social movement processes in the promotion of climate policies, as well as in opposition to them
Author-Meets-Critics: Erica Schoenberger's 'Nature, Choice and Social Power'
Saturday, 4/2/2016, from 10:00 AM - 11:40 AM in Union Square 17, Hilton Hotel, 4th Floor
Panelist(s):
Yuko Aoyama - Clark University
Matthew Himley - Illinois State University
Matt Huber - Syracuse University
Michael Teitz - University of California, Berkeley
Discussant(s):
Erica Schoenberger - Johns Hopkins University
Session Description: In her book 'Nature, Choice and Social Power', Erica Schoenberger examines how different forms of social power structure and limit the set of available choices in the making of our social and environmental history. Drawing on case studies in mining,the automobile, and urban sprawl, the book draws on a political economy framework and addresses the notion of individual responsibility in an otherwise impersonal system. This session will bring Schoenberger into conversation with a diverse set of scholars who also grapple with similar questions in different ways. The following specialty groups are sponsoring this session: Cultural and Political Ecology; Development Geography; Economic Geography; Energy and Environment; Historical Geography; Human Dimensions of Global Change; and Urban Geography.
Pushing Energy Geographies' Boundaries: The Developing Energy Landscapes of Fracking
Saturday, 4/2/2016, from 4:00 PM - 5:40 PM in Franciscan B, Hilton Hotel, Ballroom Level
4:00 PM Author(s): *Armando Garcia Chiang, Doctor - Universidad Autónoma Metropolitana - Iztapalapa
4:20 PM Author(s): *Trey Daniel-Aaron Murphy - Texas A&M University
Christian Brannstrom, PhD - Texas A&M University
Matthew Fry, PhD - University of North Texas
Abstract Title: "Everybody wants an oil well in their backyard": Resource Dispossession Determined Through Eagle Ford Shale Mineral Interests
4:40 PM Author(s): *Susan J. Gilbertz, PhD - Montana State University-Billings
Jamie McEvoy, PhD - Montana State University
Matthew Anderson, PhD - Eastern Washington University
Abstract Title: Water Quality Issues in the Bakken
5:00 PM Author(s): *Gretchen Leigh Sneegas - University of Georgia
5:20 PM Author(s): *Peggy Petrzelka - Utah State University
Abstract Title: Frac(k)ing communities, fractured communities: Impacts of frac(k)ing on vulnerable populations
Session Description: Touted by policymakers to bring eventual energy independence to a country that has been importing increasing volumes of oil since the 1970s, hydraulic fracturing (fracking) and other unconventional exploration technologies have irrevocably altered the U.S. political, cultural, economic, and environmental landscape. These newly explored shale plays have been gaining prominence in geographic circles, as we grow curious—and subsequently, aware—of their potential positive and negative ramifications (see Holahan and Arnold 2013; Haggerty et al. 2014; Lave and Lutz 2014; Willow and Wylie, 2014; Fry and Brannstrom 2015; Fry, Briggle, and Kincaid 2015). As an indelible component of the present-day energy landscape, it is imperative that geographers continue to grapple with the sometimes-harsh realities of charting new ground in fracking research. This is particularly true as fracking landscapes find themselves warped by volatile hydrocarbon prices.
Answering the calls for stronger and more prolific energy geography research (Pasqualetti 2011; Zimmerer 2011; Sovacool 2014; Calvert 2015), the aim of this session is to examine recent developments in fracking scholarship, especially as it pertains to local and regional impacts. We seek participants whose research examines fracking from a human-environment perspective—in any form—through diverse theoretical angles ranging from the political to the economic to the cultural. This research does not have to be specific to the United States, as fracking knowledge and technologies are quickly traversing borders.
Potential topics include, but are not limited to:
- Local governance
- Hydrocarbon vs. renewable energy production
- Resource extraction and economic change
- Support for/resistance to hydrocarbon production
- Pollution and human/animal health
- Land-tenure and sovereignty
- Energy and agriculture
- Hydrocarbons and the media
- Population, crime and labor
- Transportation, distribution, storage and safety
- Energy, climate change and sustainability
- Emerging international shale plays