Science, Technology, and Environmental Policy: Plan A and Plan B Papers

Persistent link for this collectionhttps://hdl.handle.net/11299/43905

Browse

Now showing 1 - 20 of 55

Advantages of Increasing Evaluation Capacity in Nonprofits: How Principles of Process Use Can Inform Development and Strengthen a Nonprofit’s Position in its External Landscape
(2018) Matsumoto, Carley
Within this paper I explore how process use, or the intentional engagement of stakeholders in the creation and implementation of an evaluation, can increase an organization’s capacity for evaluative inquiry. Here, I share the impact of employing process use principles to a specific evaluation conducted within Full Spectrum Features (FSF), a small film production nonprofit based in Chicago, IL. I begin with a comprehensive literature review of process use theories and practices and continue by exploring the application of relevant principles to an evaluation conducted to assess the effectiveness of FSF’s educational tool and short film, The Orange Story. This exploration of translating theory to practice focuses primarily on the design phase and initial data collection process; the majority of the data analysis occurred outside the timeline for this paper. Throughout the Theory to Practice section, I incorporate components of the evaluation design, as well as insights from FSF’s internal evaluation team, to provide clarity and context. I conclude with a discussion of the challenges and successes of integrating principles of process use into a small nonprofit, then explore the broader implications of how FSF can use evaluation to strengthen their position in external landscapes. While FSF’s capacity for evaluative inquiry will serve as my primary focus, this endeavor cannot ignore the role systematic oppression has played in the erasure of underrepresented stories, in both the past and present. FSF strives to produce materials that have the fortitude to not only insert themselves into the psyche of dominant cultural spaces but to live there, to thrive there and to challenge this space indefinitely. Given this truth, if used intentionally, evaluative inquiry has the potential to increase FSF’s legibility in spaces that have historically excluded non-dominant perspectives and ways of knowing.
Barriers to Securing Human Rights for Climate Refugees: Examining the Relationship Between Discourse, Deservingness, and Developmen
(2022-05) Boytim, Brenna
Projections on climate migration show that under business-as-usual operations, hundreds of millions could internally migrate. The vast majority of these climate refugees will come from majority nations with limited adaptive capacity. Recent years have seen greater turns toward securitization against refugees accompanied by heightened nationalism and xenophobia. This phenomena rests on a history of maltreatment and negative rhetoric that have shaped the common imagination surrounding refugees. This paper seeks to examine how the relationship between discourse and deservingness impact the ability to secure human rights for climate refugees by drawing on literature of social psychology and critical discourse analysis. Further, this paper will examine how this relationship leads to the favored, proposed solution of development to aid climate refugees, exploring how this maintains dominant world systems with literature relating to fundamental cause theory.
Behind-the-Meter Battery Energy Storage in Minnesota Assessment of Value, Challenges, and Policy Opportunities
(2019-05) Venning, Alexander
The conversion and storage of electrical energy as mechanical or electrochemical potential is often said to be a game-changing technology when it comes to the modernization of the world’s electric grids. While this may be true in some ways, energy storage has always been the linchpin of grid reliability. However, modern technology is changing the way we are able to harness energy storage to the benefit of the grid, the climate, and energy consumers of all types. In the early 20th century, as power lines first connected homes and businesses to electricity, the grid was designed for one-way flow of electrons. There was a clearly delineated path, wherein electricity was generated in power plants (typically coal, biomass, or hydroelectric), transferred through transmission lines and distribution networks, and ultimately consumed by residential, commercial, and industrial customers. In this way, the grid was designed to move electricity through space from producer to consumer.
Bioenergy Incentive Options for Minnesota Farmers: A Policy Perspective
(Hubert H. Humphrey Institute of Public Affairs, 2008-09-11) Gangeness, Bjorn
Programs that support farmers interested in growing perennial bioenergy crops do not currently exist in Minnesota. Perennial bioenergy production faces many hurdles technologically and market‐wise but the current social climate seems to be leading toward more concerted development in the direction of renewable energy. Cost‐sharing and Annual Rental Payment programs exist in various forms supporting other environmental objectives and they are used in this paper to project their applicability to bioenergy development specifically. Carbon markets are also discussed as a potential source of support. After considering the analysis, it seems that a functional market for selling energy crops must exist before any real change can occur, but an establishment cost‐share program would go the furthest in helping farmers get started in farming these types of crops. Getting an early start in helping farmers adopt these practices may position Minnesota in a favorable position in an impending carbon‐constrained economy.
Boundary Organizations in Practice: Neighborhood-scale Organic Waste Management in Linden Hills, Minneapolis
(2017) Sharma, Karnamadakala Rahul
Boundary organizations play an increasingly important role in bridging the divide between science and politics or more broadly in processes of developing shared meaning among different stakeholders. In contexts where a variety of actors with different types of knowledge converge to promote collective outcomes, boundary organizations have played an important role in transfer, translation and transformation of knowledge. Through the example of a composting pilot program in the neighborhood of Linden Hills in Minneapolis, this paper aims to provide conceptual insights into the design of boundary organizations, arguing that a knowledge-management perspective offers a potentially powerful tool for design. While the value of such organizations in generative processes of bridging gaps between different actors is well established, there is little guidance in the literature on the design of boundary organizations in practice, or what information and framework might be useful while constituting them. Through the example of the Linden Hills program, it is argued that identifying the exact nature of information - the type of knowledge exchange (syntactic, semantic or pragmatic), and their nesting, is key to framework elements such as the design of the boundary organization and appropriate boundary objects. The paper aims to make a theoretical contribution to the literature on boundary organizations as well, by exploring how the relative proximity of a boundary organization to one or more actors influences the structure of boundaries themselves. And secondly, that distinguishing between functional activities that organizations perform, such as negotiation, advocacy, mediation, community building and so on from the ontological basis for instituting boundary organizations as knowledge management entities can provide conceptual clarity for the purposes of practical design.
The Case for Big Things: Public Value Mapping U.S. Space Policy from Sputnik to SpaceX
(Hubert H. Humphrey School of Public Affairs, 2013-07-11) Dammel, Joseph
In little more than fifty years, the United States’ involvement in space has brought the country and the world some of the greatest scientific and technologic achievements, yet these have also come at a tremendous cost. Space policy came of age in the Cold War and was used as a proxy for the all-encompassing competition that engulfed the two Superpowers of the time, the United States and the Soviet Union. This paper will investigate three eras of space policy each characterized by a significant event or chain of events that brought about a change in policy. The cases will be used to analyze a trait—public values—that can often be overlooked by other methods of evaluation. Public value mapping (PVM), developed by Bozeman and Sarewitz, will be used in conjunction with an open systems analysis, developed by Kraemer, to identify the public values of U.S. space policy over time and map them on a public values failure or success axis against an open/closed system axis. The underlying purpose of this paper is to better understand why the U.S. invests in large science and technology programs like space and how this understanding can be applied to other areas of governmental interest that contain public values. The PVM analysis identifies several key elements of success from the space cases, including external events, political windows, and strong, aware, and nimble leaders.
A Changing Climate on Minnesota’s North Shore: Identifying Values, Concerns, & Actions for the Protection & Restoration of Water
(2019-12) Rutledge, Annamarie
Community resilience along Minnesota’s North Shore depends upon freshwater ecosystems and the services they provide. Climate change threatens many ecosystem benefits and there is uncertainty regarding how water resources will be affected by a changing climate. By conducting a community design charrette on the North Shore, we identified values, concerns, and actions for water resources through three activities: a pre-survey, Q sort, and collage exercise. The collage exercise brought in human-inspired ideas such as fragility and the North Shore as an identify, a home, and place of work. Based on the results of the Q sort, the study group resonated with the biospheric typology the most, followed by altruistic. The Q sort also generated three narratives that assist in understanding opinion clusters: protection realist, cultural preservationist, and provisioning utilitarian. Consensus statements from the Q sort included natural systems and processes to be sustained and habitat for native fish and wildlife to survive. Out of four water program funding areas, safe drinking water and healthy fish and wildlife populations were identified as top priorities. These findings provide insight into the perspectives of North Shore stakeholders and can be used to inform action and investments in water resources and build productive, collaborative relationships.
Climate Change Adaptation policies in Himalayan Region of Nepal. Comparative analysis of INDCs between Nepal, India, and Peru
(2017) Gurung, Tashi, Wongdi
The Himalayas are also known as the third pole as they comprise the third largest amount of snow on the earth after the Arctic and Antarctica. They are also known as The Water Towers of Asia. With global climate change, the temperatures on the Tibetan Plateau in the Himalayas are rising substantially compared to other regions. The Himalayan people are far from being the top contributors to this climate change, yet they suffer its hardest consequences. Studies show that communities struggle to adapt to the changing environment because of limited information, poor or no access to services, lack of infrastructure, lack of capacity on the part of the central government, an unfavorable geographical location, lack of external support etc. Hence, rural mountain communities in developing nations such as Mustang in Nepal have very low adaptive capacity. In addition to the many existing problems like poverty, the changing climate has exacerbated the numerous difficulties of day-to-day life of people in the mountains. This is just as much an environmental problem as it is a policy and social justice problem. Mustang, a mountainous district in northern Nepal, is not immune to the impact of climate change. This paper focuses on how different adaptation policies and strategies can help the Himalayan region of Nepal adapt better to the constantly changing environment and assuage the impacts exacerbated by climate change. The challenges in Nepal are not unique: other mountainous regions in developing countries have begun to develop strategies to adapt to a changing climate. India and Peru provide two useful comparative cases. Recommendations and reforms for Nepal are discussed after comparative analysis of INDCs (Intended Nationally Determined Contributions) prepared by Peru and India.
Climate Change and the Federal Environmental Review Process
(Hubert H. Humphrey School of Public Affairs, 2011-08-24) Peterson, Garrett
In recent years, some state and local governments have moved towards incorporating climate change and greenhouse gas emissions into their environmental review processes. At the federal level, the Council on Environmental Quality (CEQ), the body that oversees the implementation of the National Environmental Policy Act (NEPA), produced draft guidance in 2010 that laid out a framework for federal agencies to include climate change in the NEPA environmental review procedures. This paper examines four EISs that included climate change information prior to the release of CEQ's draft guidance. By examining the methods employed by the EISs and comparing them to the proposed guidance, it will illustrate the successes and shortcomings of the draft guidance, and it will give a glimpse into the potential style of future EISs.
Climate-Smart Practice Adoption and Carbon Markets in Minnesota
(2022-05) Hansen-Connell, Maddie; Murphey, Kathleen; Bui, Jacqueline Oakes; Schmaltz, Megan; Williams, Ian
Climate change is a major concern globally and locally, and agriculture can help mitigate emissions through climate-smart practices. To capitalize on this carbon sequestration opportunity, agricultural carbon markets are emerging in Minnesota and elsewhere as a way to compensate farmers for their role in reducing emissions and carbon sequestration. However, there are barriers and concerns with carbon markets and adopting climate-smart practices. The Minnesota Department of Agriculture (MDA) was interested in investigating the gaps in current carbon market payment systems, policy mechanisms or other solutions, and the most appropriate role for MDA to play in increasing climate-smart practice adoption. To explore these questions, our research team conducted a background literature review with a stakeholder analysis and completed 26 key informant interviews with farmers and representatives from government, education, business, and others.
Decreasing Antibiotic Loading to Natural Water Systems from Concentrated Animal Feeding Operations: A Policy Analysis
(Hubert H. Humphrey School of Public Affairs, 2011-07-19) Entinger, Monica
The presence of pharmaceuticals and personal care products in natural water systems and their effects on human and ecosystem health is a recent emerging water quality concern. This analysis focuses on a specific class of pharmaceuticals; antibiotics, and their usage in commercial livestock production. Antibiotics are commonly used in livestock production both for treating illness (therapeutic use) and encouraging growth (sub-therapeutic use) (Burkholder, 2007). These antibiotic compounds have the potential to threaten human and ecosystem health through long-term exposure and increased prevalence of antibiotic resistant bacteria. The goal of this analysis is to evaluate multiple policy options for reducing antibiotic loading to natural water systems in the state of Minnesota using the Eight-Fold Path for Policy Analysis developed by Dr. Eugene Bardach. These alternatives were examined for their effectiveness in lowering antibiotics in water systems, cost effectiveness, political feasibility, public acceptance, feasibility for farmers and equity. The alternatives examined are: 1) Implementing more stringent regulations limiting use of antibiotics in livestock. Both a full ban on all antibiotics and a partial ban on only medically important antibiotics are discussed, 2) subsidizing organic farming methods to incentivize sustainable practices, 3) expanding National Pollution Discharge Elimination System (NPDES) and State Disposal System (SDS) permitting requirements to include manure composting requirements and more stringent flood protection, 4) and the status quo. Concerns with antibiotic-resistant bacteria specifically have brought this antibiotic use to the forefront in some discussions. The Preservation of Antibiotics for Medical Treatment Act has been introduced to the United States Congress (Govtrack, 2011), but is opposed by powerful lobbies representing the agricultural and pharmaceutical lobbies. These lobbies are concerned with increases in production cost for farmers, and decreases in profits for the pharmaceutical companies. Through analysis of these alternatives using the stated criteria, it appears that instituting a partial ban of medically important antibiotics and expanding organic subsidies is the best approach at this time. These alternatives will face political opposition and do not fully address the problem, but the partial ban will help to mitigate the most pressing concern, which is antibiotic resistant bacteria, and expanding subsidies will incentivize farmers to move toward more sustainable practices.
Direct-to-consumer genetic testing: Where we are and where we could be
(Hubert H. Humphrey School of Public Affairs, 2016) Hemmingsen-Jaeger, Amanda
Does Community Air Monitoring Lead to Better Environmental Policy? Evaluating AB 617 in Richmond, California
(2024-05-01) Hunt, Samantha
Community air monitoring, publicly-operated low-cost air monitors to gather local, real-time pollution data, is one method to potentially improve air quality. Regulatory agencies are increasingly funding community monitoring to complement sparse networks of regulatory monitors. However, data from low-cost monitors often faces challenges about data quality, contributing to monitoring data seldom leading to policy change. If community air monitoring is truly an avenue for improving air quality rather than increasing awareness, I argue this data must drive regulatory change. In California, Assembly Bill (AB) 617 created a comprehensive program of public involvement in designing plans to install additional air monitors and subsequently reduce emissions. Here, I analyze key AB 617 documents from Richmond, California to trace whether new air monitoring data is linked to strategies to reduce emissions. I find most monitoring data is not used and rarely connected to regulatory change. I also classify the types of actions within Richmond’s emissions reduction plan, finding relatively few new policies that are enforceable and ready for near-term implementation. Since community monitoring data is largely unused, changes in environmental regulation may be more likely if new regulatory monitors are installed instead. Regulators should also make it clear to community members from the outset that low-cost monitoring data will not lead to new regulation at this point. An alternative, potentially more effective method to improving air quality may be using new monitoring data to pursue change through media advocacy and direct pressure on industry rather than going through state institutions.
Economic Overview of fisheries in the Asia-Pacific Region
(2021-11) Anand, Sarayu Krishnan
Many people depend on fish as a source of protein making fishery resilience an integral part of food security. World fisheries struggle to meet current global demand as a result of improper management of this resource in the past. This poor management has led to exploitation of stocks, biodiversity loss and habitat loss calling for urgent action to be taken. Over half of the world produce is harvested from a single region, the Asia pacific region. This paper tries to breakdown the complexities of the issues face in the region and identify areas of policy influence to ameliorate the Asia pacific fisheries. This paper looks into the different factors that influence the fisheries in the Asia Pacific region and the nature of these influences and affects.
Effective Environmental Nonprofit Outreach & Stakeholder Engagement Strategies
(2022-05) Husein, Samira; Johnson, Lily; Thees, Barb
We collaborated with the local environmental non-profit MN350 over the course of a five month period to help them improve their organizational effectiveness. The goal of this project was to gather information from the literature as well as from staff and key volunteers within MN350 as a means of identifying opportunities to improve the functionality of the organization as a whole to more effectively engage a multiracial, statewide base of Minnesotans in the climate justice movement. We conducted a literature review to develop a foundation for our analysis, identifying the key areas from which to assess organizational effectiveness. Volunteer engagement and retention, effective environmental engagement and outreach strategies, as well as internal nonprofit communications strategies were identified by the graduate student team as crucial elements to address in the literature review. We found that the four key volunteer engagement strategies that lead to greater retention are volunteers’ ability to identify with the organization’s values, sense of community, perception of autonomy, and perception of competence. We also found that the literature highlighted the importance of knowledge sharing in nonprofit settings as a vehicle for innovation, problem-solving and enhancing organizational effectiveness. Knowledge sharing within an organization can occur via formal methods such as data management systems, digital communications, meetings, or informal methods such as conversations between staff members.
Environmental Protection in Madagascar: An Evaluation of Program Viability
(Hubert H. Humphrey School of Public Affairs, 2011-06-21) Wingen, Andrew
Madagascar is a biodiversity hotspot with many species found nowhere else on the planet. The island hosts many different climates, ranging from dry forests and savannah to tropical rainforests. Much like the Galapagos Islands, the results of Madagascar’s unique evolutionary history are highly coveted among scientists and international aid organizations. Much effort has been put into conserving the island’s ecoregions, especially following its nonalignment with the Soviet Union. Aside from recent international interest for conservation in Madagascar, the country has had a functioning environmental protection program for more than a century. The Madagascar environmental program has been historically protective, either incidentally or directly, of this biodiversity at the policy level, but enforcement has often lagged behind policy declarations. Since the mid-19th century, many environmental laws sought to exclude people from using forest resources outright. Between 2002 and 2009, environmental laws in Madagascar began to shift from seeking to exclude local people from natural resources to creating contracts for sustainable natural resource use. This transition of environmental law, coupled with a presidential political crisis that began in January of 2009, has been tenuous. It’s the second time environmental law has shifted tremendously in the past two decades. During this time, the Malagasy government has had to balance economic development and environmental conservation, a difficult prospect given how tied local people are to traditional land use practices. Local communities are especially sensitive and resistant to changes that prohibit traditional economic practices if a close substitute practice that preserves perceived economic sufficiency is not available. Despite this difficulty, the Malagasy government has set three policy goals for environmental protection beginning in the 5 early 1990s and these are: the environment must be conserved, local economies must be developed, and local people must be participants in resource management (Henkels 2001-2002). Four case studies are evaluated to determine how well these policy goals are being met. Meeting these three goals is an indicator of the viability of environmental protection in Madagascar. These case studies include the Masoala Peninsula Corridor, Ranomafana National Park, the Mikea Complexe, and the Vohidrazana-Mantadia Corridor. These case studies are different in more ways than the diverse environments they represent. Social groups, governance structures, and other local contexts are unique to each case study as well. The case studies are each evaluated by four criteria, including indicators of anthropogenic disturbance, perceived economic sufficiency and opportunities available for local people, enforcement ability, and political acceptability. These criteria are based on the three policy goals of the environmental protection program. The evaluation demonstrates that the environmental protection program’s viability differs across the case studies. Much of this variability is tied to differences in enforcement ability and governance structures in each protected area, combined with local reaction to the 2009 coup d’état that unseated a democratically-elected president in favor of a military-supported autocracy. This variability carries over into the viability of the environmental program of each case study area, with the national parks of the Masoala Peninsula Corridor clearly failing and not currently viable. Ranomafana National Park is another case study that is categorically failing to achieve majority community participation and options for local economic development. Parks within the Vohidrazana-Mantadia Corridor and Mikea Complexe are still viable, with the caveat that the 2009 political crisis was likely injurious to current program viability in these cases. Out of these two case studies, the Perinet Reserve from the Vohidrazana-Mantadia Corridor and the 6 Kirindy Forest from the Mikea Complexe are the most successful and viable protected areas of Madagascar’s environmental protection program. Despite Kirindy Forest’s and Perinet Reserve’s success in meeting the three policy goals of the environmental program, applying the strategies that make them successful may not be feasible across the many protected areas of the island. Three policy recommendations are given. The first relates to China’s importation of illegal rosewood, the second relates to how strict reserves are governed, and the third relates to the need for a shift away from slash-and-burn agriculture toward modernized agriculture. There are significant barriers to the implementation of these recommendations to increase the environmental protection program’s viability, and these barriers are largely contingent upon the resolution of the ongoing political crisis in Madagascar.
Estimating the Economic Impact of Ozone and Fine Particulate Nonattainment in the Twin Cities
(Hubert H. Humphrey School of Public Affairs, 2013-04-10) Blankenheim, Courtney
Evaluating utility benefits of custom owned and sited photovoltaics
(Hubert H. Humphrey Institute of Public Affairs, 2009-11-18) Miller, Stacy
There is growing interest in grid-connected, customer owned solar photovoltaic (PV) systems and considerable disagreement about how to determine the value of grid- connected PV. The solar industry asserts that utilities should support customer-sited PV systems because of the high correlation between solar energy production and peaking loads. Some utilities maintain that a utility realizes no net benefit from PV above wholesale value of the electricity because the utility must still maintain adequate infrastructure to meet the PV owner’s peak demand. This paper evaluates the benefits of solar energy delivered by customer owned and sited PV systems on a monetary basis from the utility’s perspective by examining the capacity of the solar resource to deliver during times of high spot market prices. The analysis is completed for the Minneapolis Saint Paul electricity market using a single PV system’s electricity production data correlated with regional wholesale pricing data to identify whether PV can reduce utility exposure to spot market pricing, thereby creating value to the utility to purchase power from solar producers.
Expanding Climate Mitigation in Healthcare: Investigating Top-Down Approaches to Greenhouse Gas Reduction in Minnesota Community Hospitals
(2024-05-01) Sako, Kristin
Healthcare exists to protect and promote human health, yet is a contributor to climate change. There is a need for this sector to begin addressing their environmental impact, though accountability measures must ensure that existing burdens in healthcare are not exacerbated. Currently, any environmental action in healthcare is done on a voluntary basis. Healthcare, especially patient-centered care, faces unique challenges that must be confronted in order for them to join the climate movement. One major barrier is a lack of broader policies and regulations that can incentivize or coerce healthcare into addressing their greenhouse gas emissions. For this paper, I interviewed multiple stakeholder groups in Minnesota hospitals and supporting organizations in healthcare sustainability to investigate how hospitals would respond to greenhouse gas emission tracking and reporting requirements. In doing so, I analyze how the existing barriers, voluntary programs, and incentives have impacted the way hospitals engage in climate mitigation. The general lack of guidance and incentives have made it difficult for hospitals to engage in change management, which is necessary for climate action to be integrated into hospitals. Consequently, health systems and hospitals that have begun change management are much more likely to meet requirements on greenhouse gas emission reporting than those that have not yet started. I recommend multiple strategies and actions hospitals and external support organizations can take to help Minnesota hospitals begin change management and collectively become environmental stewards.
Exploring Policy Recommendations for Promoting Climate Resilient Watersheds
(2022-05) Cullen, Sean; Dunn, Hannah; Fribley, Noah; Kirtz, Kayla; Lydon, Madeline K.
This report was prepared for the Board of Water and Soil Resources (BWSR) by students from the Humphrey School of Public Affairs. The goal of this report is to convey the results of our investigation of the extent to which currently published Comprehensive Watershed Management Plans (CWMPs) are addressing and/or incorporating climate resilience strategies, to support BWSR’s ultimate goal of creating more resilient watersheds throughout Minnesota, and to provide recommendations for encouraging increased adoption of climate resilience strategies. These recommendations are: (1) Do Not Require Climate Resilience; (2) Shift from Prioritization Framework to Risk Framework; (3) Improve Consultant Relationships ; (4) Leverage Regional BWSR Staff Involved in 1W1P; (5) Conduct a Climate and Equity Audit; (6) Increase Funding; (7) Provide Technical Resources; (8) Promote Climate Resilience Outside of BWSR; (9) Improve Public Engagement. We arrived at these recommendations after conducting an analysis of the 27 available CWMPs; a survey of 225 planning partners; and interviews with four consultants, one climate scientist, and BWSR staff.

University Digital Conservancy

University of Minnesota Twin Cities

Browse

Browsing Science, Technology, and Environmental Policy: Plan A and Plan B Papers by Title