作者:汉娜·斯图尔特(Hannah Stewart)
今年春天, graduate students in the College of Media, 沟通 and Information took environmental justice into their own hands through the art of digital storytelling.
As part of an environmental studies graduate level course, students joined a state-led effort to address environmental injustice around 科罗拉多州. Their role was to research the histories and environmental issues in communities statewide, then compile it into online stories for 科罗拉多EnviroScreen, an interactive mapping and health screening tool launched in June.
“Stories are an important complement to [CO EnviroScreen] because they humanize the issues that communities are facing and place them into a con文本 of everyday life,迈克尔·沃伦·库克说, a PhD student in the communication department who participated in the project. “I think stories move audiences to empathy and action in ways that quantitative data alone cannot.”
The 科罗拉多州 Department of Public Health and Environment and a team from 科罗拉多州 State University launched CO EnviroScreen to help identify communities that have a heavier burden of negative health impacts caused by issues in their environments.
For many communities, systemic challenges create barriers to resolving the issues. The open-source tool could help people maximize funding efforts, 帮助避免, reduce and repair environmental harms, 根据CDPHE.
CO EnviroScreen opens with a map of 科罗拉多州 that displays counties on a scale from most to least burdened. Interactive graphs show how counties score based on a variety of factors, 比如环境暴露, climate vulnerability and sensitive populations.
But the project doesn’t just focus on data: It digs more deeply into the stories behind community health challenges and resiliency. 这就是CMCI加入的原因.
In the Foundations in Environmental Justice course, led by CMCI Associate Professor Phaedra C. Pezzullo, students drew on their training in environmental justice studies and multimedia storytelling to share the stories of communities disproportionately experiencing environment-related health impacts.
“People are proud of where they live and where they come from,安东尼·阿尔比德雷斯说, a journalism master’s student and the student lead for the project. “Learning firsthand about why people call a certain community home allows us greater insights into their lives as human beings.”
为了一个博彩app推荐 普韦布洛县, students researched the impacts of a historic 1921 flood, 超级基金网站, coal-based power plant and steel mill. They dove into water quality issues in the 下阿肯色河流域 and explained the impacts on agriculture and drinking water.
For each project, they created a unique ArcGIS StoryMap to share their work. 平台覆盖照片, 地图, 文本, 录音, web links and other elements to help readers explore each topic.
The StoryMaps show more about these communities than just data: They show history, 关系和弹性.
“There is a deficit framing that shows up in a lot of environmental work—e.g.“这地方怎么了??’”库克说。. “Although environmental injustices are critically important to highlight, this project also gave us the opportunity to hear about what people love about a place, and the ideas and solutions that communities are already proposing and implementing to address environmental injustices.”
This class was supported by a Payden Teaching Excellence Grant and a grant from Mission Zero, a Boulder-based organization aimed at combating climate change. 找到 此处发布的项目 by selecting the StoryMap layer on the interactive map, and explore the gallery of images below.
The Comanche 3 power plant in 普韦布洛县 is the state’s largest single emitter of greenhouse gas emissions. It is set to close by 2031, thus ending coal-generated electricity in 科罗拉多州. 来源:安东尼Albidrez
A freight train makes its way through Otero County, 科罗拉多州. Credit: 卡洛米. 海史密斯,国会图书馆
Otero County is prone to having droughts, which means water quality is an ongoing concern. Credit: 卡洛米. 海史密斯,国会图书馆
Ranchers in the semi-arid Lower Arkansas River Valley prioritize managing the environment to care for crops and livestock. Credit: 卡洛米. 海史密斯,国会图书馆
The Arkansas River picks up contaminants on its way from the Rocky Mountains to the eastern plains of 科罗拉多州. Credit: 卡洛米. 海史密斯,国会图书馆
Situated in 科罗拉多州’s eastern plains, the Lower Arkansas River Valley is subject to an unpredictable climate. 图片来源:梅丽莎Bukovsky
The Historic Arkansas Riverwalk of Pueblo broke ground in 1996 and was completed in 2000. It has become a symbol of community resilience and is key to economic growth. Credit: 卡洛米. 海史密斯,国会图书馆
The 科罗拉多州 State Fair, a staple of the Pueblo community, first began in October 1872. Credit: 卡洛米. 海史密斯,国会图书馆