Scholarship & Research
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Item Breaking through: how documentary filmmakers expose and unravel the fossil fuel hegemony(Montana State University - Bozeman, College of Arts & Architecture, 2022) Dinner, Joshua; Chairperson, Graduate Committee: Theo LipfertBy analyzing contemporary environmental films within Antonio Gramsci's theoretical framework of hegemony, this MFA thesis highlights a path for storytellers and science communicators to overcome hidden barriers built into the language of environmental activism. Part one uses scientific papers, academic research, and my MFA thesis film 'No Time for Trees' (2022) to scrutinize the environmental stewardship activity of tree planting, which municipal governments and non-profit organizations often promote as a strategy to sequester atmospheric CO 2 emissions. It will contextualize the hegemonic "tree planting message" as a false narrative that empowers individuals to partake in ineffective strategies to combat global warming. Part two examines The 11th Hour (2007) to identify how a documentary's narration impacts how viewers assess their role in the environmental arena. It identifies the pronoun "we" as a small but influential element of the film's language that may connote hegemonic messaging that blames individuals for climate change and directs them to see it solved. Finally, part three examines several rhetorical film strategies used in 'Merchants of Doubt' (2014) to expose the fossil fuel industry's comprehensive history of deception. Even will limited visual evidence of hegemony, films can help viewers think critically about stories they hear in the news media or within publications that skew climate science to favor the continued use of fossil fuels.Item Creating space for science and celebrity in the public discussion of climate change(Montana State University - Bozeman, College of Arts & Architecture, 2006) DeWitt, Sarah Louise; Chairperson, Graduate Committee: David ScheererClimate change is one of the most prominent topics in news, politics, and popular culture today. For many years the topic has been presented as an unresolved debate between believers and skeptics, leading to a perpetual state of confusion and helplessness in the public eye. In the past eight months newspapers and magazines have begun to suggest that the climate change debate is over. The scientific consensus agrees that climate change is happening and it is the result of human influence on the Earth's atmosphere. Yet this consensus has not effectively translated into the public consciousness. This gap between scientific understanding and the public perception of climate change is partly a result of limitations in popular media. It also comes from scientific reluctance to embrace modern and popular cultural modes of communication such as feature films, television programs, books, and alternative news sources. This includes interaction with non-scientist communicators and spokespeople. By paying attention to popular culture events and spokespeople, being prepared to speak to a non-scientific audience, and reaching out directly to this audience, scientists can play a significant role in the evolving public dialogue on climate change.Item Temporal and spatial patterns at alpine treeline in the Sierra Nevada USA : implications for global change(Montana State University - Bozeman, College of Agriculture, 2004) Bunn, Andrew Godard; Chairperson, Graduate Committee: Lisa J. Graumlich.This work focuses on developing understanding of the role of climate variability in shaping montane landscapes. Due to the temperature-related stresses on treeline populations it is thought that change at treeline is an indicator of global warming. Interpretation of treeline changes has been hampered by issues of scale and the paucity of landscape-scale data. The application of remotely sensed imagery and computer-based mapping programs has filled this gap with datasets that have large extents and fine spatial grain. I used geospatial information about treeline in concert with population and paleoecological data to answer questions on ecological patterns and processes. My research focused on the treeline tree communities in the southern Sierra Nevada. There, on the eastern crest of the Sierra Nevada foxtail pine (Pinus balfouriana) forms an abrupt treeline in the vicinity of Sequoia National Park which gives way to a less well defined treeline of whitebark pine (P. albicaulis), limber pine (P. flexilis), and lodgepole pine (P. contorta) north to Yosemite National Park. By analyzing treeline growth patterns and spatial composition at the level of the region (109 m2), stand (103 m2), and organism (10-1 m2) I was able to make inference about the interactions of autecology, biophysical setting, and climate variability in shaping these subalpine forests over the last millennium. At the regional scale I improved paleoclimatic understanding derived from long chronologies of tree rings by relating species-specific differences in the climategrowth relationship over time to the realized niche space of each species in geographic space. At the level of the stand I was able to show how decadal versus centennial modes of growth and stand density vary with biophysical setting related to drought stress. At the level of the organism I was able to show that differences in tree growth and seedling patterns are related to fine scale physical variations in surrounding each tree as well as tree autecology. Over the course of my dissertation, I developed fresh insights into the complex interactions that govern the growth and structure of forests and improved the state-of-science for monitoring treeline as a critical indicator of global change.Item Water vapor profiling using a compact widely tunable diode laser differential absorption lidar (DIAL)(Montana State University - Bozeman, College of Engineering, 2008) Nehrir, Amin Reza; Chairperson, Graduate Committee: Kevin S. RepaskyAtmospheric water vapor is an important driver of cloud formation, precipitation, and cloud microphysical structure. Changes in the cloud microphysical structure due to the interaction of aerosols and water vapor can produce more reflective clouds, resulting in more incoming solar radiation being reflected back into space, leading to an overall negative radiative forcing. Water vapor also plays an important role in the atmospheric feedback process that acts to amplify the positive radiative forcing resulting from increasing levels of atmospheric CO2. In the troposphere, where the water vapor greenhouse effect is most important, the situation is harder to quantify. A need exists for tools that allow for high spatial resolution range resolved measurements of water vapor number density up to about 4 km. One approach to obtaining this data within the boundary layer is with the Differential Absorption Lidar (DIAL) that is being developed at Montana State University. A differential absorption lidar (DIAL) instrument for automated profiling of water vapor in the lower troposphere has been designed, tested, and is in routine operation. The laser transmitter for the DIAL instrument uses a widely tunable external cavity diode laser (ECDL) to injection seed two cascaded semiconductor optical amplifiers (SOA) to produce a laser transmitter that accesses the 824-841 nm spectral range. The DIAL receiver utilizes a 28-cm-diameter Schmidt-Cassegrain telescope, an avalanche photodiode (APD) detector, and a narrow band optical filter to collect, discriminate, and measure the scattered light. A technique of correcting for the wavelength-dependent incident angle upon the narrow band optical filter as a function of range has been developed to allow accurate water vapor profiles to be measured down to 225 m above the surface. Data comparisons using the DIAL instrument and co-located radiosonde measurements are presented demonstrating the capabilities of the DIAL instrument.Item ReDesign : for a new energy paradigm(Montana State University - Bozeman, College of Arts & Architecture, 2008) Lewton, Alexander Tripp; Chairperson, Graduate Committee: Christopher Livingston; Ralph Johnson (co-chair)The design community faces immense pressures amidst diminishing energy supplies and anthropogenic climate change. Increasing ecological and sociopolitical instability demand a fundamental change in how we design for the present and future. In an effort to reduce and reverse the cause of this effect, designers are uniquely positioned to bring about much needed change. The impact of this vantage point is directly proportional to a designer's understanding of the components that conspire to bring about our current climate and energy crisis. These same components are the crucial players that hold the promise for a reinvention, or re-design, of our present situation. Of particular interest within this discourse are the woven elements of municipal government, social, technical and economic systems as they relate to existing practices of building and infrastructure energy use. Within the U.S., many instances suggest the general public has lost sight of the industrial processes that support our way of life. The average U.S. citizen lacks even a basic understanding of their ecological 'footprint' and the industrial processes necessary to procure their quality of life. This gap in knowledge has resulted in a 'cultural numbness' for Americans while permitting these processes to remain disparate and disjointed. Poignant examples exist, however, ripe with intriguing solutions to reverse this trend, ranging from city wide energy conscious strategies to technological building efficiency solutions. The design conclusion of this thesis is a site strategy seeking to synthesize the City of Bozeman's solid waste and wastewater treatment processes - with the ultimate intent to sensitize users to its inherent use and function. Within the context of this strategy is a detailed design for a high performing solid waste handling unit. Of the many complexities addressed in this proposal, the primary objectives are to 1) site plan synergies that maximize energy recovery from waste materials, 2) provide electricity and district heat production, 3) create safe, inviting, and high-efficiency spaces for handling solid waste while serving a balance of municipal and public uses, 4) design for modular expansion, demountability, deconstruction and/or reuse, 5) design safe and dignified work environments.Item Prove It : climate change films and the skeptic(Montana State University - Bozeman, College of Arts & Architecture, 2009) Seyler, Amber Dawn; Chairperson, Graduate Committee: William Neff.Science and natural history documentaries can be an entertaining and effective way to teach the public about a scientific topic. The topic of climate change presents a unique set of problems that require that a successful climate change film must rethink how the science is presented. Climate change is unique in that it has been so politicized that not only is it controversial, but a whole segment of the population (including those in government) simply doesn't believe that climate change exists. So each climate change film must be seen as an argument, and as a political document, if its goal is to persuade a skeptic that climate change does exist and needs to be actively addressed by the public and by government. Aristotle's rhetoric is a valuable foundation for creating a persuasive climate change argument in a climate change film. Each of Aristotle's proofs provides a guideline for persuasion. But these proofs are not complete without knowing how to frame your argument. Framing is a valuable cognitive political tool, used by conservatives for decades, and because each climate change film is a political document, framing is a necessary tool for the climate change filmmaker to use.