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Protecting Natural Resources - Forever: The Obligations of State Officials to Uphold Forever Constitutional Provisions
Get PDFThis Article analyzes the attacks on a state constitutional conservation lands program since the election of a governor and state legislature opposed to environmental regulation in 2010 – a precursor to current happenings at the federal level under the Trump administration. Former Florida Governor Rick Scott and his administration have spent an average of over $40 million a year in taxpayer money to defend and, in most cases, pay judgments, in lawsuits challenging mandates of the Florida Constitution.
I examine this issue of ignoring or deliberately violating constitutional requirements through the lens of state constitutional provisions that protect natural resources, focusing on Florida and New York. Both states have explicit and specific protections for conservation and forest lands, which differ from constitutional provisions in other states that establish policies and delegate implementation authority to state legislatures. New York adopted its Forever Wild constitutional provision in 1894, and the text of that provision has remained intact, despite attempts to amend the provision or to pass legislation that would violate it.
In Florida, there are two constitutional provisions that protect conservation lands under the Florida Forever program. This program has widespread public support and, at its inception, had non-partisan political support as well, until Rick Scott was elected to be governor. During his tenure, there have been repeated attempts to sell or trade conservation lands protected under the Florida Constitution. Instead of spending taxpayer money to defend violations of these constitutional provisions, Florida state officials should uphold the oaths they made to “support, protect, and defend” the state constitution. Natural resource protections in the Florida and New York constitutions provide noteworthy guidance for other states to initiate constitutional amendments for similar protections. In addition, there should be personal repercussions for state officials who willfully violate these state constitutional commands and restitution of taxpayer money spent to defend unlawful behavior
Am I a Survivor? Illness Identity, Centrality, and Well-Being among Cancer Survivors
No full textSurviving cancer often involves identity reconstruction and the integration of the experience into one’s identity. The goal of this study was to contribute to the limited research on illness centrality among cancer survivors by examining the relationship between illness centrality and its effects on meaning in life, life satisfaction, and benefit finding. Contrary to what was hypothesized, illness centrality was positively related to meaning in life and unrelated to life satisfaction. However, as hypothesized, there was a significant positive association between illness centrality and benefit finding. As predicted, the relationship between illness centrality and both meaning in life and life satisfaction were moderated by stress-related growth, such that illness centrality was only related to higher meaning in life when stress-related growth was positive and was only related to lower life satisfaction when stress-related growth was negative. Research findings suggest that post-cancer, individuals may begin to reconstruct their identity by adopting cancer-related identity labels. Despite differing attitudes related to the term “cancer survivor,” this term can have positive associations with well-being. This study found that identifying as a cancer survivor was positively associated with stress-related growth, meaning in life, life satisfaction, and benefit finding. Furthermore, some research suggests that how cancer survivors respond to having had cancer varies across the lifespan. Young adults have been found to experience greater impacts associated with cancer and yet are not as extensively studied as their older counterparts. This study explored the relationship between age and this study’s main variables and found that age was negatively correlated with illness centrality but unrelated to well-being outcome variables
The Effects of Trauma and Stress on Tobacco Dependence Treatment Outcomes in Lower SES Individuals
No full textA significant proportion of individuals have experienced one or more traumatic event, and trauma exposure has been associated with increased smoking and greater difficulty quitting, yet the relationship between traumatic event exposure and smoking cessation outcomes has not been widely studied. Similarly, while the experience of stressful life events is nearly universal, and research suggests their effects may produce psychopathological outcomes similar to those of traumatic events, research on the relationship between stressful life event exposure and smoking cessation is sparse. The current study sought to investigate the effects of trauma and stress on tobacco dependence treatment outcomes in lower SES individuals, as well as whether trauma or stress moderated the effects of an adapted smoking cessation intervention. There were several notable findings with implications for future research, including a significant positive association between traumatic event exposure and cigarettes smoked at baseline, a significant relationship between stressful life event exposure and nicotine dependence, and a marginally significant association between stressful life event exposure and abstinence at week 15. However, we did not find significant evidence that either traumatic or stressful event exposure was associated with greater smoking, greater nicotine dependence, or worse tobacco cessation outcomes after smoking cessation treatment. Nor did we find that, in general, traumatic or stressful life event exposure significantly moderated the effects of the adapted smoking cessation treatment. The failure to identify a significant relationship between prior traumatic event or stressful life event exposure and treatment outcomes may indicate that the effects were too small to reliably detect or that such stressors do not effect response to smoking cessation treatment. Given the modest power of the current investigation, it is not possible to distinguish between these two possibilities. Findings are consistent with previous research in highlighting associations between trauma/stress and increased smoking behavior and dependence, as well as the potential impact of stress on cessation outcomes. Findings also support the need for further investigation of traumatic and stressful event exposure and their effects on smoking behavior and cessation, as well as reiterating the potential for incorporating stress reduction and stress management techniques into smoking cessation treatments
