Background:
I am pursuing a Ph.D. in Geography with a minor in Global Change at the University of Arizona. I received my Mater’s degree in Geography from The Ohio State University in 2005 with concentrations in Urban and Regional Systems (URS) and People, Society, and Environment (PSE). Before that, I used to spend time outdoors in the Texas Hill County at Texas State University—San Marcos as a Bachelors of Science student in Geography with a focus on Resource and Environmental Studies (2003). As a geographer through and through, I have always been interested in the intersections of social and physical systems, especially in urban areas of the U.S. When I finish graduate school, I would like to continue researching and teaching as a professor of Geography in the U.S. or abroad. I also hope to participate in some form of public service, whether it is through holding public office or serving as an advisor on community and environmental issues.
Research and Dissertation
My work examines the intersection of the state, society, and science through issues of climate governance. Drawing broadly on political geography, social theory, and political ecology, I attempt to understand the relationship between "nature" (as the non-human), state practices, and political institutions. I also consider how spaces of political authority are constituted by their interactions and encounters with the physical environment, other state institutions, and non-state actors. In particular, I am interested in the relationship between “global” climate change (that is the physical and social processes that are understood as global in nature) and “local” action / impacts (how we negotiate the particular social and ecological effects of climate change in situated spaces and practices).
My dissertation considers the role of "local" level climate change initiatives (such as the Mayors Climate Protection Agreement) in "global" climate governance. This includes an examination of the specific institutions and mechanisms of local climate governance, the political geographies and spatial imaginaries of the people and places involved, as well as the networks of humans and non-humans constituting climate policies. The challenges of relating the “global” and the “local” in climate change, or the rise in global environmental concerns more generally, raises some important questions regarding the scalar processes, both physical and social, that construct our understandings of globally diffuse environmental concerns and their particular physical and social effects. So too, increasingly neoliberal (market-based) reforms in environmental regulation introduce significant questions regarding the state’s ability to address urgent environmental concerns. I attempt to better understand the possibilities and limitations of climate governance by gaining a better understanding of how those involved in regulation understand the relationship between climate change and urban governance, as well as the physical processes that ultimately set the stage for these actions.
In essence, my work attempts to unravel the relationship between complex political practices and the physical systems they attempt to address in what might be thought of as a “post-Kyoto” world. Even with growing scientific consensus that “warming of the climate system is unequivocal” the best political and technical means for addressing climate change are uncertain at best, and as a result, my work examines to ecological and social implications of pursuing “sub-national” climate programs in the US, as well as how these might relate to the desire for a global climate program.
Toolkit Links
My toolkit consists of three main sections. The first is a whole slew of resources to learn more about the diversity of climate-oriented actions and programs in the U.S. The second has more general resources related to climate mitigation and the third provides some useful websites to help you learn how to deal with those pesky climate skeptics.
(1) Global Climate Change Policy in the U.S
PEW Center for Global Climate Change
PEW’s Summary on Regional Climate Programs in the US
PEW’s analysis of the Bush Administration’s voluntary approach to Climate Policy
Supreme Court Ruling Mass vs. EPA
PEW Center on Global Climate Change summary of the Supreme Court Ruling
Western Governors Association Clean and Diversified Energies Initiative (CDEi)
Western Regional Climate Action Initiative
US Mayors Climate Protection Agreement
UN Urban environmental Accords
(2) General Resources for Climate Regulation
Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC) Summary for Policy Makers
- Working Group I (Physical Science Basis)
- Working Group II (Impacts, Adaptation and Vulnerability)
- Working Group II (Mitigation of Climate Change)
United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change (UNFCC)- Climate Change Mitigation
Global Climate Governance: A Report on the Inter-Linkages between the Kyoto Protocol and other Multilateral Regimes
(3) Addressing Climate Skeptics
http://gristmill.grist.org/skeptics
http://illconsidered.blogspot.com/2006/02/how-to-talk-to-global-warming-sceptic.html
www.environmentaldefense.org/page.cfm?tagID=1011
www.sierraclub.ca/national/programs/atmosphere-energy/climate-change/ten-myths.html#cc3
www.realclimate.org