The School of Natural Resources & Environment gathered experts and advocates for a conference this month to lay the groundwork toward developing policies to improve environmental quality around Michigan K-12 schools. SNRE Professor Paul Mohai, a noted scientist on environmental justice and the health-related aspects of school locations, co-organized the “Conference on Environmental Quality, Schools, and Health.”
The 2013 Harold R. Johnson Diversity Service Award went out to seven University of Michigan faculty members, one being SNRE's own Paul Mohai. The award, which comes from the Office of the Provost and Executive Vice President for Academic Affairs, honors faculty who have shown dedication to developing cultural and ethnic diversity at U-M.
In a live-tweeted lottery today at @umichresearch #mcubed, MCubed officials announced the first 50 projects to receive $60,000 seed grants in phase one of the program. The $15 million, two-year pilot will give out 200 more early-stage grants soon, in an effort to jumpstart innovative, interdisciplinary work. Projects by Mary Carol Hunter, Joan Nassauer, Josh Newell, Shelie Miller, Paul Mohai, and Brad Cardinale from U-M's School of Natural Resources and Environment were six of the 50 chosen.
The 112th Congress matches the 111th as including the largest number of Hispanic representatives in U.S. history with 31 members: two in the Senate and 29 in the House. According to recent research published by SNRE doctoral student Kerry Ard and Professor Paul Mohai, this diversification may bode very well for pro-environmental policy-making.
In the spring of 2011, Paul Mohai, SNRE professor, and Byoung-Suk Kweon, U-M research investigator, completed an extensive study that found that Michigan schools located in areas with the highest industrial air pollution levels had the lowest attendance rates—an indicator of poor health—as well as the highest proportions of students who failed to meet state educational testing standards even after controlling for factors such as school demographics, expenditures and location.That study, funded by the Kresge Foundation, was published in the journal Health Affairs and received wide media attention.
Air pollution from industrial sources near Michigan public schools jeopardizes children's health and academic success, according to a new study from University of Michigan researchers. The researchers found that schools located in areas with the state's highest industrial air pollution levels had the lowest attendance rates—an indicator of poor health—as well as the highest proportions of students who failed to meet state educational testing standards. The researchers examined the distribution of all 3,660 public elementary, middle, junior high and high schools in the state and found that 62.5 percent of them were located in places with high levels of air pollution from industrial sources.
Environmental Justice Professor Paul Mohai, along with Byoung-Suk Kweon, researcher and adjunct assistant professor; Sangyun Lee, research fellow; and doctoral student Kerry Joy Ard, used EPA data and a formula for measuring the impact of pollutants to evaluate the toxic burden of each zip code in Michigan.
Environmental injustice in people-of-color communities is as much or more prevalent today than 20 years ago, say researchers commissioned to conduct a follow-up to the 1987 landmark study, "Toxic Wastes and Race in the United States." The new report, "Toxic Wastes and Race at Twenty, 1987-2007: Grassroots Struggles to Dismantle Environmental Racism in the United States, " shows that 20 years later, disproportionately large numbers of people of color still live in hazardous waste host communities, and that they are not equally protected by environmental laws.
The University of Michigan's School of Natural Resources and Environment is the only graduate environmental school in the nation to combine natural science, social science and design into one shared research and educational enterprise. Nine faculty members representing multiple disciplines are hosting five symposia that address distinct and complex facets of sustainability science.