SSI’s Aviva Wolf-Jacobs publishes book chapter

Population, Health and Place Ph.D. candidate Aviva Wolf-Jacobs has co-authored a chapter in the recently published book Storytelling to Accelerate Climate Solutions. The book is co-edited by Emily Coren and Hua Wang. Coren is with Stanford University and Wang is with the University at Buffalo, The State University of New York. The book is published by Springer.

Wolf-Jacobs wrote the chapter “Mapping Out Our Future: Using Geospatial Tools and Visual Aids to Achieve Climate Empowerment in the United States” with Nancy Glock-Grueneich and Nathan Uctmann.

The seeds for this book chapter originated with the experiences that Wolf-Jacobs had a few summers ago. She was working with Climate Health Equity Partnership (CHEP), a volunteer group of local climate activists in Santa Cruz, California. She described that the CHEP members include practicing physicians, climate illustrators, activists and students ranging in background and age. Despite these differences, they shared a common goal of climate empowerment and environmental equity at the local level.

From this experience, Wolf-Jacobs describes, “I was very inspired by my conversations with this group of passionate individuals to think more deeply about the role and importance of maps and geospatial tools in supporting climate empowerment. Along with Nancy Glock-Grueneich, Emily Coren and Nathan Uchtmann, I explored the various connections between geospatial tools and the creation and dissemination of local climate knowledge and action opportunities.”

She shares, “Our hope for this chapter is that it might inspire people to take advantage of the many spatial tools and platforms available to promote self-determination and community climate action in, and far beyond, Santa Cruz, California.”

Learn more about the research priorities of Wolf-Jacobs and others in the USC Spatial Sciences Institute Population, Health and Place Ph.D. program at https://dornsife.usc.edu/spatial/ph-d-population-health-and-place/.