The Michigan Daily — michigandaily.com
News
Thursday, September 14, 2017 — 3A
has determined climate change
poses a threat to the health and
well-being of the citizens it
serves. That decision was made
in 2007 in a Supreme Court case,
Massachusetts v. EPA, in which
the court decided, 5-4, that if
the EPA made such a finding of
endangerment, it was obligated
to regulate greenhouse gases
under the Clean Air Act.
One of the panelists, Roger
Martella, was serving as EPA
general counsel under former
President George Bush when
the decision was handed down.
The decision came as a complete
surprise to Martella: Rather than
trying to act on climate change
with existing laws, Martella said,
the general expectation was that
Congress would first have to pass
new ones.
“This is all probably totally
understood, second nature to
everybody today — 2007 doesn’t
seem like it was that long ago,
but it was 10 years ago,” he said.
“This kind of shocked everyone’s
universe. Environmental lawyers
will say they were thinking about
it, but the regulatory community
in the federal government didn’t
have any preparation for the
fact that we might actually be
addressing climate change based
on existing laws as opposed
to waiting for Congress to do
something.”
Following the decision, he
said, Bush favored making a big
push to begin regulation, but
concerns quickly arose about
the viability of passing such
complicated regulations in the
short period of time Bush had left
in his second term.
The Clean Air Act, passed by
Congress in 1963, was designed
to regulate specific and localized
air pollutants like lead, ozone and
particulate matter. Greenhouse
gases — which are emitted by
every gasoline- and diesel-fueled
vehicle on the road –– were not in
the initial picture.x
When Avi Garbow — one of the
panelists — arrived at the EPA
as the Obama administration’s
deputy general counsel, though
he was later promoted to general
counsel. His first task, after
verifying the integrity of the
science behind the endangerment
finding,
was
promulgating
regulations to reduce greenhouse
gas emissions.
The EPA’s first target was
mobile
source
emissions,
or
emissions from vehicles, which
Garbow said were relatively easy,
as they were predicated near
fuel-efficiency standards, which
allow people to save money on
gas. Garbow added that states
also carried some of the burden
of regulation.
“The statute allowed the state
of California, given some factors
that were ostensibly peculiar to
it — its size — to issue its own
regulations and standards,” he
said. “The world’s automakers
want to be able to sell cars not
just in California, but elsewhere,
so it really brought parties
together to try to make sure that
there were uniform standards.
You can’t put out a Nissan Sentra
that’s compliant in California
and a totally different one that’s
compliant in Virginia.”
Once the EPA began to shift
toward
regulating
stationary
sources of greenhouse gases,
like forcing power companies
to implement more renewable
energy, though, the public wasn’t
as supportive.
But the concept of the EPA
regulating
greenhouse
gases
began long before that. After a
tense encounter during a House
appropriations hearing, Jonathan
Cannon, a panelist and general
counsel to the EPA during the
Clinton administration, became
the lawyer in charge of providing
the initial legal argument that
the EPA had the authority to
regulate greenhouse gases.
“My boss, Carol Browner, who
was an administrator, was there
testifying on the agency budget,”
Cannon
said.
“Tom
DeLay,
who was the majority whip at
that time, came blustering into
the hearing with some EPA
document that he’d gotten and
he accosted the administrator
with his document in a question
saying, ‘Do you take the position
that the EPA has the authority
to address climate change under
the CAA?’ And she said, ‘Yes,
I believe it does.’ And he said,
‘Well I would like a legal opinion
on that issue.’ And she turned to
me and said, ‘Yes, a legal opinion
will be forthcoming.’ She had not
talked to me before that. I didn’t
have an opinion at that point.”
Though there is widespread
concern
over
the
intentions
of the Trump administration
and EPA Administrator Scott
Pruitt regarding climate action,
Cannon said that as long as the
endangerment finding remains
valid, the current administration
can’t
institute
any
dramatic
change.
“So far — and I could be wrong
— but my best information is
that so far, the administration
has not moved to withdraw the
endangerment finding,” he said.
“EPA Administrator Pruitt has
talked about some sort of science
review process that presumably
could lead up to that, but right
now they’re not disturbing that,
which means they have a set
of legal issues related to the
existence of that endangerment
finding on the books, upheld by
the D.C. circuit, creating certain
obligations under the clean air
act or arguably so.”
The other panelists agreed that
while there is cause for concern,
there are procedural roadblocks
in the administration’s way that
would slow any drastic actions,
and actions outside the federal
government could still outweigh
those.
Despite
President
Donald
Trump’s decision to leave the
Paris climate accord, Garbow
pointed out, due to provisions
within the accord, the earliest the
United States could withdraw is
Nov. 4, 2020 –– one day after the
next presidential election. And
Martella — currently the general
counsel for General Electric’s
Environment, Health and Safety
division — said “business is doing
what it needs to do” on climate
change.
Cannon agreed, stating he was
hopeful for the future.
“The hopeful thing is that
as the current administration
abdicates this place and begins to
withdraw these regulations there
are a lot of things happening
outside the federal regulatory
sphere,” he said. “So, although
regulation
will
remain
an
important component, these are
hopeful signs, and I think we all
ought to think about ways we can
support, foster and extend these
trends in a way that may make
what Washington does, at least
for the moment, less crucial.”
Campbell said she came away
from the panel having had her
faith in the legal system restored.
“I thought what was really
interesting was ... that we can’t
just depend on our political
system to solve all of our
problems and put all of our eggs
in that one basket, but that it is
also about community action at
the local and regional levels that
really can drive climate change
action forward, so there’s a lot of
hope there,” she said.
EPA
From Page 1A
interested in sciences, she recalls
preferring a hands-on research
approach to learning about said
interests.
“I realized more and more
what I wanted to do was work at
the nexus of human-environment
interactions … be the person
thinking about what actions we
take, how do we do things, how
we make policies,” Taylor said.
“The
field
of
environmental
sociology focuses on the social
aspect of how humans interact
with the environment.”
Taylor’s
research
has
concentrated on social factors
such as race, gender and class,
and their subsequent relation to
environmental issues. She noted
these components play into how
various demographics are affected
by the environmental obstacles
we
face
today,
exemplifying
the recent hurricanes as one of
many instances in which the
consequences are exponentially
higher
for
poorer,
minority
communities.
“You do get to see some of the
invisible institutional structures
or barriers, especially when you
look at these things historically,”
she said.
Taylor
has
authored
both
research reports and books, “Food
Availability and the Food Desert
Frame in Detroit: An Overview
of the City’s Food System” (2015)
and “The Rise of the American
Conservation Movement: Power,
Privilege,
and
Environmental
Protection” (2016) and various
similar works that explore social
issues and their relation to the
environment.
In addition to her work as a
professor, author and researcher,
Taylor is the University director
of the Doris Duke Conservation
Scholars
Program,
a
two-
year internship and research
program
for
undergraduate
students, including those of other
universities, who are otherwise
inadequately represented in the
environmental and conservation
field.
This past year, the second-
year students were taken to
the U.S. Virgin Islands to learn
about different ecosystems in a
hands-on learning experience
that combined the hard science of
survey data and actual interaction
with communities there.
So
far,
60
students
have
gone
through
the
program,
and
Taylor
emphasized
the
myriad
opportunities
made
known
to
these
students
following
this
experience,
including recruitments to the
University. Additionally, Taylor
is the principal investigator of the
Environmental Fellows Program,
which helps fund the expenses
of graduate school and prepares
students to be financially secure
at their completion of school,
with experience in the job market
and networking.
“These fellowship programs
are a direct result of the research
that we have done on diversity,
with the 2014 report (most
commonly referenced as Green
2.0 report), a group of graduate
students helped me collect the
data and we put out the national
report. It’s been a game changer,
with
the
garnered
publicity
we have been able to have
organizations open up positions
to hire students,” Taylor said.
Taylor is also the director of
Diversity, Equity and Inclusion
program
for
the
School
of
Environment, where her tasks
range from incorporating more
inclusive teaching techniques in
classrooms to helping recruit a
more diverse base of students.
“At
an
elite
university
like
Michigan,
we
have
to
ask ourselves: Are we only a
university for the rich? Or are
we going to take the mandate of
public education seriously? If we
do, then it behooves all of us to
think about ways of broadening
the audience we reach, the
students that get an opportunity
to come to schools like ours,” she
said.
Taylor
noted
the
growing
popularity of her undergraduate
courses on food justice and
insecurity, claiming that close to
500 undergraduates have gone
out to participate in and do their
own research.
“It’s been really quite amazing,
both in terms of being able to
teach and having students get
really excited about this topic,”
Taylor said.
An example of such students
includes University alum and
current Ypsilanti Mayor Amanda
Edmonds, who took the course on
food systems and later moved on
to create the nonprofit Growing
Hope, a program that helps
communities cultivate consistent
access to healthy food.
Taylor’s
food
project
has
additionally funded community
gardens
in
Ypsilanti,
Flint,
Grand Rapids and Lake Superior
State. For the past five years,
they have supported community
gardens that provide plots for low
income residents, and each year
has yielded food for at least 20
families.
“There are a lot of very
practical ways in which these
research papers translate in a way
that it positively impacts the lives
of students and the lives of the
community folks,” Taylor said.
RESEARCH
From Page 1A
setting that requires the practical
application of their valuable
language skills to work with
organizations
in
Washtenaw
County committed to a social
cause,” Andrasko wrote.
In the initial planning stages,
the team created a proposal
to develop an app to provide
its users an easier way to find
nutritious foods in Washtenaw
County. However, since they
lacked the coding knowledge
to design an app, they instead
explored other options.
Around the same time, the
team started making trips to
the Bryant Community Center,
one of their community center
partners.
Here,
they
saw
firsthand a need for something
like LingoMatch.
“It
has
been
especially
rewarding to see firsthand how
excited
Bryant
Community
Center clients are to be able
to speak their native language
with volunteers, which shows
how meaningful language can
be in connecting people and
promoting an environment of
inclusivity,” Andrasko wrote.
Since its launch, the program
has
already
hosted
several
projects, including the most
recent, which involved volunteers
translating a booklet on how
undocumented immigrants can
best protect their families during
immigration
raids.
Another
project
was
assisting
those
who do not speak English as
their first language during food
distribution days at food banks.
Furthermore, the program
plans to provide students with
valuable volunteering and cross-
cultural
language
experience
in addition to providing clients
with a safe and confidential
space where they can ask any
individual questions about the
application process while getting
personalized assistance in their
native language.
Though LingoMatch is still
in its initial phases, the team
members are very optimistic for
its potential growth.
“At the end of the day, making
and seeing an actual impact is
the true goal,” Andrasko wrote.
LSA junior Timberlee Whiteus
believes the program is beneficial
since it focuses on marginalized
citizens.
“It is imperative to make
refugees feel comfortable as
many have come from troubled
areas,” Whiteus said.
Andrasko agreed, noting the
social signifiance of volunteering
with the program as well.
“We provide interpretation
services for community centers
that have a clear commitment to
a social cause, such as working
with food banks, immigration
law
firms
or
resettlement
agencies,”
Andrasko
wrote.
“We act as a bridge between the
organization and the potential
student volunteers at U of M.”
PROGRAM
From Page 1A
after he was elected, Trump
suggested the possibility of a
Muslim registry and in January
of this year, Trump pushed
for a ban on travel from seven
majority-Muslim countries.
LSA
senior
Haleemah
Aqel,
Islamophobia
Working
Group
student
coordinator,
has
experienced
forms
of
discrimination she likened to
that
of
Japanese-Americans
during World War II. Despite
that, she did note “the severity
of our discriminations are on
different levels.”
“You sometimes feel as if
you don’t belong because of
certain policies, certain wars
and especially this year with the
Muslim registry. I have definitely
felt as if I’ve questioned, ‘Am
I
really
American?’”
Aqel
said. “We kind of all just feel
sometimes as if we don’t belong.”
“The Japanese race is an
enemy race,” wrote Lieutenant
General John DeWitt in 1942
in the Final Report: Japanese
Evacuation
from
the
West
Coast. “While many second and
third generation Japanese born
on American soil, possessed
of American citizenship, have
become
‘Americanized,’
the
racial strains are undiluted.”
Roosevelt
justified
the
internment
of
Japanese-
Americans by deeming them a
threat to national security and
labeled them “enemy aliens.”
Japanese-Americans
have
recognized similarities between
the
oppression
they
and
generations before them faced
during World War II and the
oppression Arab and Muslim
Americans face. The similarities
in
oppression
have
pushed
Japanese-Americans to stand
up for the rights of Arab and
Muslim Americans.
Matthew Stiffler, a researcher
at the Arab American National
Museum and lecturer at the
University of Michigan, noticed
the alliance form in the early ’90s,
long before the announcement
of the immigration ban from the
majority-Muslim countries.
“The Japanese and the Arab
community
specifically
and
the Japanese and the Muslim
community more broadly has
had an affinity not just since the
announcement of the Muslim
ban in January, but going back
a lot further,” Stiffler said. “So
the first case that I found of
cooperation was in 1991. That
was the run up to the first Gulf
War in Iraq.”
Stiffler added the support
for
the
Arab
and
Muslim
American communities started
with
a
Japanese-American
congressman.
“And during that time, the
FBI was going around and
interviewing
Arab
American
community leaders about the
run-up to the war in Iraq and
a Japanese-American, he was
a Congressman at the time,
former
Secretary
Norman
Mineta, spoke out very publicly
against this, as a Japanese-
American himself, whose family
was incarcerated during World
War II,” Stiffler said. “He said
we’re not going to go down that
road again.”
Aqel said alliances between
minority groups have more
power than one group standing
on its own.
“This
alliance
and
connections
and
solidarity
networks between groups have
been formed specifically since I
think a lot of people of color have
noticed that this discrimination
against them is so high that
sometimes we … think that
doing
things
by
ourselves
won’t go anywhere but forming
alliances will allow both of our
movements, both our voices, our
people to expand for others to
hear our struggle,” Aqel said.
LSA
junior
Maureen
O’Bryan, the co-event chair
for
the
Japanese
Student
Association, wrote in an email
interview
that
connecting
Japanese
discrimination
to
the discrimination of Arab and
Muslim Americans today puts
their reality in context.
“It’s
powerful
because
Japanese-Americans
have
(experienced) this and we say
never again should this happen,”
O’Bryan wrote. “I think if
the
Trump
administration
really wants to use Japanese
incarceration as precedent for
his Muslim ban, he’s going to
see a strengthening alliance
between
these
two
groups
because we’re not going to let
what happened to us be used
against another minority group
that is a supposed ‘threat’ to
national security because it was
found that Japanese-Americans
did not pose any threat to the
U.S. during WWII.”
Stiffler has personally seen
the alliance through his work
at the Arab American National
Museum.
The
museum
has
close ties with the Japanese
American
National
Museum
in Los Angeles, which helped
train some of the employees at
the Arab American National
Museum when it opened in
2005.
“We’ve
shared
exhibits,
we’ve hosted their staff here for
workshops, we’ve shared ideas.
So we feel that we’re very closely
aligned with them,” Stiffler
said. “We call them our sister
museum, just because there is
that shared history both what
it’s like to be an ethnic group in
the U.S. today but also an ethnic
group that has been targeted
for civil rights violations by the
federal government.”
There has been coordination
between
the
two
groups
on
campus,
according
to
O’Bryan. She said she saw
the alliance strengthen last
year
following
the
election
and the announcement of the
immigration ban.
“Just recently the Lebanese
Student Association reached out
to collaborate with the Japan
Student Association, and as the
external chair for JSA I plan
on pursuing this relationship,”
O’Bryan wrote. “I am hoping
that this friendship between
these two groups will continue
to grow on our campus and all
around the country. Even if it
is the Muslim ban that brought
us together, I hope even after
it is hopefully defeated we can
maintain a stronger alliance.”
SUPPORT
From Page 1A
major milestone in Parkinson’s
disease where quality of life goes
down, mortality goes up, injuries go
up — hip fractures, skull fractures,
things like that,” he said.
“(The symposium) is one of
many concrete mechanisms by
which we can get people in the
common space to begin talking
about these different ideas,” Dauer
said.
He said the center’s goal is
“to foster dialogue so people
with different perspectives can
challenge each other so that we
can come up with ideas that are not
obvious to one discipline by itself.
It’s sort of analogous to the idea
of neurochemicals — how do they
interact to create unique things?”
Speakers for the event included
researchers
from
various
departments at the University,
like the Department of Biomedical
Engineering, as well as researchers
from Michigan State University.
Presentations included molecular
research
to
optimize
animal
models,
as
well
as
imaging
techniques to better understand
the structures and mechanisms
involved in Parkinson’s disease.
In addition to inviting leading
researchers to the University from
local and national institutions,
Dauer emphasized the importance
of educating the future generation
in
research.
The
symposium
series provides a place for younger
researchers to present research
findings, engaging in the larger
research community.
“We saw this line drawn
between
these
presentations,
which
was
really
interesting,
but of course we all use different
techniques and strategies to get
at these questions,” said Matthew
Gaidica,
a
neuroscience Ph.D
candidate, in his presentation.
“Bringing those people together
— the ones that think about
molecules and chemicals and the
ones that think about circuits
and motor behavior — is really
important because we’re attacking
this disease on multiple fronts.”
Samuel
Pappas,
research
investigator and post-doctorate in
the Dauer Lab, echoed Gaidica’s
sentiments on the importance of
diversity in research.
“There
was
everything
from molecular work in new
animal
models
to
(positron
emission tomography) imaging
in humans and really modern
electrophysiology
and
new
techniques,”
Pappas
said.
“I
thought it was a great depth and
breadth of research and gave a nice
cross-section of the different types
of research that are done.”
Dauer emphasized the relevance
of
interdisciplinary
work
in
tackling complex diseases like
Parkinson’s.
“We want people to interact
so they can come up with ideas
that are not obvious to either one
alone,” he said. “This is a long-term
problem — we hope we can make
a dent in it, but we ain’t going to
solve the whole thing. We need
absolutely to educate people.”
SYMPOSIUM
From Page 1A
Read more at
MichiganDaily.com