Richell Winkler (SS/GLRC) is the principal investigator on a project that has received $17,128 contract with the Western Upper Peninsula Planning and Development Regions (WUPPDR). The project is, “L’Anse Community Solar Study.”
This is a one year project.
Latika Gupta (SBE) and Nancy Langston (SS) discussed the Standing Rock Sioux and the Dakota Access Pipeline protests on Copper Country Today. The interview aired on Dec. 18 on WOLV FM, WHKB FM, and WCCY AM/FM.
Langston focused on sovereignty and environmental justice issues and Gupta provided an economic perspective. The entire interview can be found on the Copper Country Today website.
J
ohn Baeten, Nancy Langston, and Don Lafreniere recently published an article titled: “A Geospatial Approach to Uncovering the Hidden Waste Footprint of Lake Superior’s Mesabi Iron Range” published in The Extractive Industries and Society.
The article is available for download until January 26, 2017 at the following link: https://authors.elsevier.com/a/1UAjI,oMyQ5uEu
Article Abstract: “For decades, the Lake Superior Iron District produced a significant majority of the world’s iron used in steel production. Chief among these was the Mesabi Range of northern Minnesota, a vast deposit of hematite and magnetic taconite ores stretching for over 100 miles in length. Iron ore mining in the Mesabi Range involved three major phases: direct shipping ores (1893–1970s), washable ores (1907– 1980s), and taconite (1947–current). Each phase of iron mining used different technologies to extract and process ore. Producing all of this iron yielded a vast landscape of mine waste. This paper uses a historical GIS to illuminate the spatial extent of mining across the Lake Superior Iron District, to locate where low- grade ore processing took place, and to identify how and where waste was produced. Our analysis shows that the technological shift to low-grade ore mining placed new demands on the environment, primarily around processing plants. Direct shipping ore mines produced less mine waste than low-grade ore mines, and this waste was confined to the immediate vicinity of mines themselves. Low-grade ore processing, in contrast, created more dispersed waste landscapes as tailings mobilized from the mines themselves into waterbodies and human communities.”
Timothy Scarlett is the principal investigator on a research and development project that has received $149,564 from the U.S. Department of the Interior, National Park Service.
Steve Walton, Don Lafreniere, Sarah Fayen Scarlett, Melissa Baird, Laura Rouleau, Samuel Sweitz, and LouAnn Wurst are co-PIs on the project, “Archaeological and Historical Studies at Pullman National Monument.”
This is a three-year project.
Adam Wellstead co-authored an article, “Assisted Tree Migration in North America: Policy Legacies, Enhanced Forest Policy Integration and Climate Change Adaptation,” in the Scandinavian Journal of Forest Research. The article discusses how forest policy-making can effectively address climate change if the policy-making process shifts to a more integrated approach and the challenges associated with the shift.
Read the abstract here.
Chelsea Schelly (SS) and Aparajita Banerjee, who recently completed her PhD degree requirements in environmental and energy policy, published “Soft Energy Paths Revisited: Politics and Practice in Energy Technology Transitions” Challenges 2016, 7(2), 16; doi:10.3390/challe7020016
From Tech Today.
In August 2016, the Hiawatha National Forest partnered with Michigan Technological University sponsored a Passport In Time (PIT) project at the former logging settlement of Coalwood. The site was occupied by Finnish Immigrant families who cut cordwood for the Cleveland Cliffs Iron Company between 1900 and 1912. One goal of the project was to assess the damage caused by recent looting activities.
In an image provided by PIT, Professor LouAnn Wurst instructs members of the PIT Crew.
Keweenaw Time Traveler and National Park Service received media attention for their NSF-ITEST GRACE Project collaboration in Directions Magazine, a national GIS periodical. The article, G.R.A.C.E Project team creates ‘time machine’ with GIS, outlines some of the detail of the summer career education program that brought local high school students to work with the KHNP and the Keweenaw Time Traveler team as paid interns.
Positions currently available in the Department of Social Sciences at Michigan Tech:
Assistant Professor of Environmental/Energy Justice – Tenure Track – The Department of Social Sciences at Michigan Technological University invites applications for an Assistant Professor to join an interdisciplinary social sciences faculty. We seek a scholar specializing in environmental and/or energy justice. Candidates with strengths in policy analysis and/or spatial methodologies are especially encouraged to apply. Assistant Professor Environment_Energy Justic
Post Doctoral Position in Bioenergy Development and Sustainability – The Department of Social Sciences at Michigan Technological University invites applications for a one-and-a-half year Post–Doctoral Fellowship, beginning on or about January 1, 2017, focused on the socioecological impacts of sustainable bioenergy development across the Americas. MTU PIRE SE Post-Doc
Adam Wellstead (SS) co-authored “Structural-functionalism redux: adaptation to climate change and the challenge of a science-driven policy agenda” in Critical Policy Studies.
From Tech Today.