Authorities shrugging off risk—or ordering everyone to mask up. The virus surging in locales that dropped their guards too soon. Death rates that cut along racial lines, impacting African Americans with particular ferocity. What might sound like recent news stories from the COVID-19 pandemic describe the 1918 influenza pandemic just as well, according to a new study from a University of Maryland School of Public Health researcher, published this week…
Facing Daytime Discrimination Linked to Sleep Struggles
IRP Study Examines Overlooked Contributor to Racial Health Disparities Recent news coverage of the deaths of George Floyd, Ahmaud Arbery, and Breonna Taylor, along with statistics reporting startlingly disproportionate death rates among black Americans infected with COVID-19, have made it clear that racial biases can be a matter of life and death. Meanwhile, it can be easy to overlook other, more subtle ways that discrimination can affect health, such as new…
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Fighting climate change isn’t just an environmental issue — it’s a social justice issue too
We constantly hear the narrative that climate change impacts us all. And while that’s true, the issue is disproportionately impacting people of color, especially Black, Latino, and Native Americans. And when it comes to environmental justice, we just aren’t talking about social equity enough. A decade ago, Grist reporter Alan Durning wrote on the topic of climate change and race, “It’s 2010. Some things have changed; others have not. Racial discrimination has…
Study Examines Environmental Justice Impact of Senate Bill 181 in Colorado
National Science Foundation awards important grant to local researchers In Colorado, Senate Bill 181 (SB19-181) is changing the way oil and gas development is regulated, and one of the main effects of the bill is a large shift towards increased local control over siting decisions. In a first of its kind study, the National Science Foundation (NSF) has awarded researchers in Colorado a $730,000 grant to examine the impact of the bill and whether…
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Central Park: Black Bodies Green Spaces, White Minds
By JPB Fellow Jennifer D. Roberts The historical and contemporary use of white privilege for the exclusion of black bodies from green spaces in the United States Frederick Law Olmsted, the father of landscape architecture, may not have envisioned black bodies, like Christian Cooper, George Floyd, Breonna Taylor, or Ahmaud Arbery, enjoying a leisure day in New York City’s bucolic Central Park when he designed the space in 1857 to…
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Indigenous populations: left behind in the COVID-19 response
JPB Fellow Annie Belcourt described Native American populations in the USA as having lives that are “challenging and short”. Globally, across countries and populations, Indigenous peoples face a greater burden of disease than non-Indigenous peoples, including cardiovascular disease and HIV/AIDS and other infectious diseases, and have higher infant and maternal mortality and lower life expectancy. Their health is impacted by epigenetic stressors of generational oppression and violence, including disproportionate numbers…
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Article: Towards impactful energy justice research: Transforming the power of academic engagement
The field of energy justice is at a critical juncture. As the social dimensions of energy systems are becoming more salient, it is time to reflect on what has been achieved, and look towards a future of greater impact and transdisciplinary methods in energy justice research and practice. In the past 10 years, the energy justice literature has grown exponentially demonstrating the appeal and the value of its tangible, applicable…
New Publication: Park spaces and the human experience.
As a strategy for combating physical inactivity, obesity, and other health conditions, the apperception of greenspace and importance of human-nature relationship have increased in recent decades. With this raised awareness in greenspace, the development of park auditing tools has been positioned primarily in the material conditions (e.g., physical environmental conditions) of parks. An examination of existing park auditing tools has shown that by focusing on particular material conditions, built environment…
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Tree Deaths in Urban Settings Are Linked to Leaks from Natural Gas Pipelines Below Streets
A new study supported by the JPB Fellowship Program finds dying trees are 30 times more likely to have been exposed to methane-contaminated soil, confirming long-held suspicions that gas leaks kill plants. Natural gas leaks from underground pipelines are killing trees in densely populated urban environments, a new study suggests, adding to concerns over such leaks fueling climate change and explosion hazards. The study, which took place in Chelsea, Massachusetts,…
2020 Carson Prize to JPB Fellow Sara Wylie
We are delighted to announce that the 2020 Rachel Carson Prize goes to Sara Ann Wylie, for Fractivism: Corporate Bodies and Chemical Bonds (Duke University Press, 2018). The Award Committee received 78 books to consider for the prize and shortlisted 10 works for this year’s prize, evaluating books for their overall scholarly quality, their contributions to the field of Science and Technology Studies, and their capacity to cast social or political issues…
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