JUST 357 midterm - Watkins

Environmental (in)justice

has taken on several new and different definitions due to its involvement in the political and social field.

Three points of Environmental Justice

1. distribution
2. procedure
3. recognition

Distribution

how harms and benefits are allocated among individuals and groups.
- dominant and most researched dimension of EJ

Procedure

how decisions are made, and by whom.
- governance, with emphasis on participation & the processes of policy-, rule-, & decision-making
- a form and function of freedom

Recognition

respect for difference and avoidance of domination.
- justice as recognition or participatory justice might be more important than distributive & procedural justice
- focusing solely on distributions & procedures obscures social structures & the institutional context in which environmental decisions are made

Three key mechanisms of malrecognition

1. Formal or customary institutions (land tenure systems dominated by males)
2. Cultural norms(e.g. leadership positions unavailable to women, minorities)
3. Forms of knowledge& related discourse(e.g. privileging of modern scientific knowledge systems & the formal economy or failure to recognize alternative or local knowledge systems & ways of life)
- Countered through participatory methods

Malrecognition

related to discrimination based on race, ethnicity, gender, socioeconomic status, etc.

1964-68 Culmination of US Civil Rights Movement

- civil rights act of 1964
- voting rights act of 1965
- civil (housing) rights act of 1968

1968 Memphis Sanitation Strike

700 of the 1300 black workers showed up to strike against their poor pay and dangerous working conditions and was the reason MLK's presence in Memphis where he was assassinated.
- early intersection of civil rights movement and environmental activism

1978 Love Canal

- Working-class neighborhood in Niagara Falls, NY
- Abandoned canal project-turned-chemical landfill
- Investigative journalism & grassroots door-to-door health surveys reveal high levels of rare illnesses
- 1980 Comprehensive Environmental Response, Compensation, and Liability Act—AKA Superfund
- Important early example effectiveness of grassroots organizing for EJ action

1982 Sit-in Against Warren County, NC PCB Landfill

- Toxic waste disposed in an African-American neighborhood with state support
- Galvanized research & activism into the unequal burdens of environmental degradation borne by minority & working-class communities

1987 Landmark Study by the Commission for Racial Justice, United Church of Christ

Toxic Wastes and Races in the US: A National Report on the Racial and Socio-Economic Characteristics of Communities with Hazardous Waste Sites:
- Race most significant among variables tested in association with the location of commercial hazardous waste facilities. Represents a consistent national pattern.
- Communities with the greatest number of commercial hazardous waste facilities had the highest composition of racial and ethnic residents. - In communities with two or more facilities or one of the nation's five largest landfills, the average minority percentage of the population was more than three times that of communities without facilities (38 percent vs. 12 percent).

1994 Clinton signs Executive Order 12898

Directed federal government to make environmental justice a part of the federal poicy-making process
- Created EJ offices in EPA, DOJ, & other agencies

Dr. Robert D. Bullard

academic/ activist called "the father of environmental justice"

Prominent topics of EJ research

-land use/land rights
-siting
-zoning
-gentrification
-access to public/private lands
-food justice/sovereignty/security
-climate justice
-struggles of indigenous people

Economic Development Indicators

Gross Domestic Product (GDP; value of all goods produced in the country) and Gross National Income (GNI; combines GDP with trade revenue from outside the country)

Human Development Indicators

Human Development Index (HDI; life expectancy, edu, literacy, gender equity, income)

Development Agendas of the Global North and South

North: Safeguard monetary interests, affluent lifestyles, & political hegemony; utilize Southern markets for labor & as waste sinks
South: Overcome poverty, achieve higher standards of living, receive technology transfers from North, & enter globalized markets

Ecological Agendas of the Global North and South

North: Prevent environmental degradation & catastrophes, protect nature, & conserve biodiversity
South: Sustain local environments, progress through sustainable development, and assert differentiated responsibilities

Unequal Ecological Exchange

economically wealthy & powerful centers of the world economy operate in ways that enable them to sustain their own high consumption levels while shifting the ecological burden onto less powerful places.
- an underlying source of most environmental distribution conflicts
- ex): relationship of beef consumption in the Global North with land grabbing & deforestation in the Global South (burden shifting)

Ecological Debt

liability of the most developed economies for the problems caused by resource plunder, waste dumping, and other environmental hazards, both within and outside of their borders.
- globalization of ecological responsibility
- ex): climate change/justice

Inequity

unfair distributions of burdens and benefits.

Dominance and Hegemony

unequal participation and lack of recognition and respect.

Ineffective Legal Institutions and Norms

deficient international treaties & lack of procedural remedies.
- Paris Agreement is an acceptable if long overdue beginning

Selective Victimization

the process by which communities of color are intentionally targeted for sites of environmentally hazardous industry (factories, oil extraction sites, etc.)

Environment

The biotic & abiotic surroundings of an organism or population.

Two Conceptual Dichotomies

1. Between nature and society
2. Between the west and the rest

Social Construction of Nature Reinforced by:

-Culture (concepts of "wilderness" and unspoiled "natural" world
- Politics and Economics ("mastery" of nature)
- Science and the Academy (natural and social sciences)

Nature-Society Hybrids or Couplings

humans are apart of the natural world

The Pristine Myth

"The belief that the Americas in 1491 were an almost unmarked, even endenic land 'untrammeled by man.'"

Terra Preta (Amazonian Dark Earths)

- Incorporated charcoal
- High levels of stable soil organic matter (SOM) -
- Highly fertile soil relative to surrounding soils
- Ability to persist in the landscape, up to 2,500 years

Traditional Ecological Knowledge

A cumulative body of knowledge, practices, & representations that describes the relationships of living beings with one another & with their physical environment, which evolved by adaptive processes & has been handed down through generations by cultural transmission.

Rio Earth Summit 1992 Declaration (Principal 22)

"Indigenous people & their communities & other local communities have a vital role in environmental management & development because of their knowledge& traditional practices. States should recognize & duly support their identity, culture & interests & enable their effective participation in the achievement of sustainable development."

Rio+20 conclusion

We affirm with one voice that it is time to assume the historical responsibilities to reverse centuries of predation, pollution, colonialism, the violation of rights & genocide. It is time to assume the responsibilities towards our future generations.
1. Culture as a fundamental dimension of Sustainable Development
2. Full exercise of our human & collective rights
3. Strengthening diverse local economies & territorial management

Critical Realism

All knowledge is "partial and contingent"
- learning multiple perspectives expands our knowledge horizon

Biosphere Reserves

are areas of terrestrial and coastal ecosystems promoting solutions to reconcile the conservation of biodiversity with its sustainable use. They are internationally recognized, nominated by national governments and remain under sovereign jurisdiction of the states where they are located.

Three Characteristics of ICCAs (Indigenous and Community Conserved Areas)

1. An indigenous people or local community has a strong & profound connection with a territory, area or species' habitat.
2. That people or community is a major player in decision-making & implementation of decisions (governance & management)regarding that territory, area or habitat
3. The people's or community's governance decisions & management efforts lead to the conservation of nature in the territory, area or habitat, and to the associated conservation of cultural values and community well-being

Extractive Reserves

Conservation territories in which local communities are allowed sustainable use of resources (e.g. harvesting rubber & nuts - Chico Mendes)

REDD+

Reducing Emissions from Deforestation & forest Degradation, plus the sustainable management of forests, & the conservation & enhancement of forest carbon stocks. (a scheme of PES)
- looked at as a failure of recognition
- Payments for intact or regenerated forests in the Global South
- Recognizes indigenous communities as vital stakeholders
- Commodifies forests & their "ecosystem services"

Participatory Mapping

A set of approaches & techniques that combines the tools of modern cartography with participatory methods to represent the spatial knowledge of local communities

Participatory Mapping Methods

Democratized research methods intended to subvert power-loaded research relationships by engaging in a process of knowledge co-production between researchers & research participants