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Studied by 45 people
Untitled Flashcards Set
Intro to Food Justice
· Food system
o Social, cultural, economic, political, labor, and environmental aspects of food, including production, harvest, gathering, processing, distribution, consumption, compost, and waste
o Inherent in that system = issues of environmental inequity, racism, classism, (in)justice
§ E.g. labor, land, healthy foods
o Responses to injustice: social movements toward food injustice and food sovereignty
· Global food regime
o Or the changing ways that the food system actually works:
o Rule-based structure of production and consumption of food on a global scale
§ Global, national, and local governance of food and agriculture (policies)
o Not only embedded in capitalism, but is a central mechanism that drives it
o Particular relations of food production and consumption are central to the functioning and reproduction of global capitalism
§ Original wealth comes from slave labor in colonies
o Food regimes over time:
§ 1st global food regime
· Late 1800s- Great Depression
· Food imports from Southern and American colonies fed European industrial expansion
· From colonies to Europe
§ 2nd global food regime
· Post-WWII – 70s/80s
· Reversed flow of food from Northern to Southern Hemisphere to fuel Cold War Industrialization in Global South (green revolution)
· Produced in the Global North exported to developing countries
§ Today’s corporate food regime (1980s-present)
· All-encompassing agri-food industrial complex
o E.g. Monsanto, ADM, Cargill, and Walmart
· Based on fossil fuels (chemicals and industry)
· Monopoly market power
· Mega-profits of agrifood MNCs
· GMOs and privatization
· Globalized meat production
· Concentrated land ownership
· Links between food and fuel (fossil fuel basis)
· Growing opposition (food movements)
· Influence governments and multilateral orgs that control rules for trade, labor, property and technology
· Supported by public and private institutions e.g. World Bank, IMF, World Food Program, USAID, the USDA, and big philanthropy
· Rise of the Corporate Food Regime
o Colonialism/Imperialism, 1500 - mid 19th century
§ Plantation monocultures and slave labor regimes
§ Debt bondage, still happens today
o Green Revolution, 1960 – 80s
§ Weakened peasant agriculture and empowered large landowners
§ Deepening of class, gender, and regional inequalities in agriculture
§ Cold war strategy to export US-based agriculture models to the rest of the world
· Industrial agricultural techniques
o Structural Adjustment Policies, 80s – 90s
§ Non-food export crops
§ Forced structural changes in local economies (systems based on TEK)
· Forced into industrial agricultural systems (broader than agriculture)
o Neoliberal Free Tradism, 1990s – present
§ WTO, FTAs (NAFTA, CAFTA, etc.)
§ Subsidies, surplus, dumping
§ Guarantees US agricultural products can be sold in other countries
· Devastates local economies, local producers cannot compete
· Countering hunger in the CFR
o Government, industry, big philanthropy, and global food regime institutions
§ Institutions, programs, and campaigns for food aid and agricultural development
§ Neoliberals see hunger and poverty as a business opportunity
· Neoliberal strategies (privatization and free trade), public-private partnerships, corporate efficiency and competitiveness
· Issue is in access
o Reformers seek to hold government and industry accountable for policies or enterprises that undermine the human right to food
§ Call for reinvestment in agriculture and revival of the Green Revolution
§ Often accomplished by calling for GMOs and occasionally reforms
§ Generally, apply a discourse of food security
· Dominant neoliberal trend in the CFR
o Food enterprise:
§ Dominant, corporate-driven food enterprise discourse anchored in neoliberal ideologies of privatization and free-market trade
· Food Regime Management
o Polanyi’s “double movement” and “self-regulating” market- a continual cycle
§ Liberalization period of unregulated markets and capital expansion, followed by surpluses and devastating busts
§ Reformist period of regulating markets, supply, and consumption to re-stabilize the regime
o Appear politically distinct, but are actually two cyclical, complementary sides of the same system
· Counter-movements to the CFR
o CFR’s persistent social and environmental failures have spurred tens of thousands of local, national, and international social movements concerned with food and agriculture
§ Land reform and food sovereignty
§ Sustainable and agroecological agriculture
§ “Good, clean and fair” food, or food justice
§ Fair trade
§ Local food
§ Slow food
§ Community food security
§ Alternative agriculture-agrifoods wing of the New Social Movements; the Transnational Social Movements; the World Social Forum’s “movement of movements” and parts of labor and class based “old social movements”
o Food justice
§ “The struggle against racism, exploitation, and oppression taking place in the food system that addresses inequality’s root causes both within and beyond the food chain”
§ “Concept and related movement that considers the social and political roots of inequities in the food and holds that these structural issues must be addressed to solve problems of disparate access to healthy foods and exploitative or unfair labor practices”
§ Fair distribution of benefits and risks of production, transport, distribution, access and consumption, without disparities or inequities
§ Works within CFR to reform mechanisms of production and consumption (progressive politics)
§ Associated (more or less) with the Global North
o Food sovereignty
§ People’s right to healthy and culturally appropriate food produced through ecologically sound and sustainable methods and their right to define their own food and agricultural systems
§ Radically disrupt the global system through anti-imperialist, anti-corporatist, and/or anti-capitalist movements and reforms (radical politics)
§ Associated (more or less) with the Global South
Week 10 Notes
10/22
The Green Revolution and its Discontents
· Green Revolution
o Philanthropic beginnings
§ Rockefellers, Fords, USAID
· Funded agricultural scientists led by Norman Borlaug
§ Rockefeller Mexican Agricultural Program (MAP) 1943
· Theory- can’t let Mexico fall to communism
· Seen as a success for increasing yields
o Exported it to the rest of the world
§ Cold War Green Revolution opposed to Red Revolutions
· US national security issue
§ Intensify production of world’s principal cereals:
· Maize, wheat, rice
§ US > Mexico > India > rest of the world
o Based on:
§ High-yield varieties (seeds)
§ Intensive irrigation
§ Synthetic fertilizers, herbicides, pesticides
§ Mechanization
§ Privatization
§ Fossil fuels
§ Shift to a global capitalism
o Plant breeding: high yield varieties
§ 1st generation (F1): hybrid vigor and greater yield
§ 2nd (F2): much lower vigor and yield than F1 or original varieties
· Mules
§ Improved****
§ Have to buy these seeds every year
o HYVs
§ Costly inputs reliant on fossil fuels
· Annual seed purchases
· Pesticides, herbicides made from petrochemicals
· Energy-intensive irrigation infrastructure
· Energy-intensive mechanization
· Wider transport networks
§ 1945-1994, global agricultural energy inputs up 400%, crop yields up 300%
§ Expensive, linked to price of oil, and unsustainable
§ Increased cost to farmers
§ Often higher yield (for a single crop under controlled conditions), but overall lower profit margin per acre
· Consequences of GR
o Reliance on costly inputs, fossil fuels
§ Irrigation, fertilizer, herbicides, pesticides
o Soil degradation (salinization) and erosion
o Chemical pollution
§ Soil and water
o Water depletion
o Blight susceptibility
§ Increases in pests and weeds
o Mechanization displaces human labor
o Rural-to-urban migration
o Weakens peasants and smallholders
o Favors those with concentrated land and capital
o Deepening of class, gender, and regional inequalities
o Erosion of (agro)biodiversity
§ Soil and “landraces”
o Erosion of Indigenous Knowledge, TEK
· Second Green Revolution
o Genetic engineering, rather than conventional plant breeding
o Genetically modified (GM) crops (GMOs)
§ “Roundup ready”: modified to resist herbicides
o Potential to again increase global harvest
o Potential to exacerbate **
o Reliance on purchased seeds and inputs
§ Energy, pollution, soil, equity concerns
o Empower multi-national seed and pharma corps
o Erosion of biodiversity (landraces)
o Privatize seeds
§ Limit farmer breeding rights
§ Proliferate across farms inadvertently
o Toxicity to humans?
§ Contentious, emergent research
o Reliant on fossil fuels, contemporary agroindustry remains unsustainable
· Discourse: Food (In)Security
o UN agencies 1970s
o Focus on general food supply and theoretical availability
§ Production-oriented policies and incentives
§ Yet famine and malnourishment continue despite ample food availability
§ Problem of food distribution and access
· Many Green Revolution
o GR as conventional agriculture
o GR as erasure of indigenous knowledge (TEK)
o GR as historical context- 1 of many leaps forward
§ Worldwide domestication of plants
§ European agricultural revolutions 18th c
§ Chinese improved rice varieties 1000 CE
§ Ongoing process rather than a single event
o GR enabled food production to exceed rapid population growth in Global South after 1950
o Increases yield, but not distribution to poor and vulnerable
§ What about alternatives?
Week 11 Notes
10/29
Greener Revolutions
· Modern science and indigenous agriculture
o Geographer Carol O. Sauer (1889-1975)
§ Warned of “ecological imbalances” of GR
§ “We present and recommend to the world a blueprint for what works well with us at the moment, heedless that we may be destroying wise and durable native ways of living with the land “(1956)
· Discourse: Food (In)Security
o UN agencies 1970s
o Focus on general food supply and theoretical availability
§ Production-oriented policies and incentives
§ Yet famine and malnourishment continue despite ample food availability
§ Problem of food distribution and access
o 2020: 1 in 6 US children (13M or 16.66%)
o 2021: 1 in 8 US children
o 2022: 1 in 5.5 US children
o 2023: 1 in 5 US children
· Ways forward?
o GMOs unnecessary
§ Do not raise intrinsic yields
§ Unable to dully address climate resilience
o Global governance tilted against small farms
§ Current forms of liberalized trade, subsidies, tariffs, all detrimental
o World spends $700 billion per year on agricultural subsidies; hidden costs of corporate, conventional agriculture = $12 trillion per year - $16 trillion by 2050
o Transformative potentials of agroecology and local food systems and economies
o Diversified agroecological systems could increase global food production by 50% to 4,381 kcal/person/day
§ Easily support a population peak of 10-11 billion people by 2100
· A Greener Revolution
o Viable alternative to agroindustry?
o Agroecology
§ The application of ecological concepts and principles to the design and management of sustainable agricultural ecosystems
§ A scientific discipline that uses ecological theory to study, design, manage, and evaluate agricultural systems that are productive but also resource conserving
· Agroecology
o Combines (agro)ecological science with indigenous and other traditional knowledge systems
o Led by thousands of farmers, social movements, NGOs, and (increasingly) some government and academic institutions
o Enhances food security while conserving natural resources, biodiversity, and soil and water throughout countless rural communities across all world regions
o Knowledge intensive (rather than capital intensive), tends toward small, highly diversified farms and emphasizes farmer-to-farmer research and collaboration within local communities
o Unlike uniform monocultures, diversified agroecological systems replace chemicals with organic inputs, optimize biodiversity and stimulate symbiotic interactions between species, as part of holistic strategies to build and manage productive and resilient agro-ecosystems
§ Resulting farms:
· Support biodiversity, rebuild soil fertility, and sustain yields
· Provide secure farm livelihoods, food security, diverse diets, and improved health for farmers and their consumers
· Principles of Agroecology
o Polycultures
§ Complex cropping systems of multiple crops
§ Competition or complementation, thus enhancing yields
o Crop rotations
§ Crop nutrients and breaking the life cycles of several insect pests, diseases, and weeds
o Animal integration
§ High biomass output and optimal recycling
o Agroforestry systems
§ Trees cultivated in integration with annual crops and/or animals
§ Complementary relations between plants and other components (soil, atmosphere, markets)
o Cover crops
§ Legumes and other annual plants under trees grown for fruit, timber, etc.
§ Improving soil fertility, enhancing biological control of pests, and modifying microclimates
· Agroecology
o Conventional wisdom (based on modernity and coloniality):
§ Small family farms and peasant agriculture = backward and unproductive
o Evidence: small farms can be and often are much more productive than large industrial farms
§ Esp. considering total output rather than yield from a single crop
o Outperform under environmental stress
o Benefits:
§ Food security
§ More sustainable energy inputs
§ Efficiency: reduced emission, pollution, and waste
· Indigenous agroecology
o Agroecology is not new
o Milpas
§ 3 sisters: Maize-beans-squash complex
§ Corn = structure for climbing beans
§ Beans add nitrogen to the soil
§ Squash suppresses weeds
§ Same essential proteins as meat and dairy
§ Basis of Mesoamerican societies
· Indigenous agricultural biodiversity
o ~5,000 varieties of potatoes
o Not only biotic creations, but botanical knowledge
§ Agricultural techniques and uses for varieties
§ Biodiversity as risk avoidance strategy
o Threats of disease or changing climates to wipe out varieties popular now?
§ Biodiversity protects numerous varieties with specific tolerances
· E.g. heat, drought, disease
o Protect agro-biodiversity
§ Social and botanical richness
· Organic agricultures
o USDA: “an ecological production management system that promotes and enhances biodiversity, biological cycles and soil biology activity. It is based on minimal use of off-farm inputs and on management practices that restore, maintain, and enhance ecological harmony”
§ Minimizes chemicals, enhances soil composition and function, and promotes biodiversity
o USDA certified organic:
§ Organic crops cannot be grown with synthetic fertilizers, synthetic pesticides or sewage sludge
§ Cannot be genetically engineered, modified, or irradiated
§ Animals must eat only organically grown feed (without animal byproducts) and cannot be treated with synthetic hormones or antibiotics
§ Animals must have access to the outdoors, and ruminants (hoofed animals, including cows) must have access to pasture
§ Animals cannot be cloned
o Organic agriculture and large industrial monocultures not mutually exclusive
o Agroecology often linked to organic production, but most organic food in US is not from agroecological or small farms
· Agroecology and food sovereignty
o A fork in the road forward:
§ Co-opt agroecology into the Green Revolution (conventional agriculture and the corporate food regime)
§ Center agroecology within a politically transformative peasant movement for food sovereignty
Week 12 Notes
11/5
Food Justice, Food Sovereignty
· Food (In)Security
o UN agencies 1970s:
§ Focus on general food supply and theoretical availability
· Production oriented policies and incentives
· Yet famine and malnourishment continue despite ample food availability
· Problem of food distribution and access
· Counter-movements to the CFR
o Food justice
§ “The struggle against racism, exploitation, and oppression taking place in the food system that addresses inequality’s root causes both within and beyond the food chain”
§ “Concept and related movement that considers the social and political roots of inequities in the food system and holds that these structural issues must be addressed to solve problems of disparate access to healthy food and exploitative or unfair labor practices”
§ Fair distribution of benefits and risks of production, transport, distribution, access and consumption, without disparities or inequities
§ Works within CFR to reform mechanisms of production and consumption (progressive politics)
§ Associated (more or less) with the Global North
o Food sovereignty
§ People’s right to healthy and culturally appropriate food produced through ecologically sound and sustainable methods and their right to define their own food and agriculture systems
§ Radically disrupt the global system through anti-imperialist, anti-corporatists, and/or anti-capitalist movements and reforms (radical politics)
§ Associated (more or less) with the Global South
· Food Justice, Distribution, and Procedure
o A few salient EJ issues:
§ Farming and land as a Civil rights issue
§ Food security and access
· Distribution of food to whom?
§ Food “deserts”
· Access to what food?
§ Food and farming regulations
§ US Farm Bill
· Lobbying effort- CFR
§ Farm subsidies
§ SNAP (food stamps program)
§ Food vs. fuel
· Ethanol, biodiesel, and food
· Food Deserts and Food Justice?
o Problematic terminology
§ Obscures vibrance
§ Naturalizes a social-political issue
§ USDA now describes access
o Food Apartheid
§ FJ activities e.g. Karen Washington
§ Black, Latinx neighborhoods, communities
§ Access, structural inequities as related to food systems
· Food Justice and Recognition
o Obscured historical contributions to foodways, cultures, and economies in the Americas
o Food, identity, and cultural descent:
§ Indigenous, African, Latinx, Asian, European, et al.
o What is American food?
o Who gets to claim it?
o How do we perceive it?
o How are our perceptions of food shaped by ideologies?
· Food Justice in Harrisonburg
o NCP: Vine and Fig, Jubilee Climate Farm
o Radical Roots Farm
o USDA, VA Dept. of Ag. & Consumers Services
o You
· Agroecology and Food Sovereignty
o A fork in the road forward:
§ Co-opt agroecology into the Green Revolution (conventional agriculture and the corporate food regime)
§ OR
§ Center agroecology within a politically transformative peasant movement for food sovereignty
· Agroecology and Food Justice
o The wealth of agricultural knowledge, science, and technology the world has built up should be targeted toward agroecology strategies that combine productivity with protecting natural resources like soils, water, forests, and biodiversity
o Research and development efforts must now target and include in a participatory manner small-scale and family famers, since they make up the major part of the poor and hungry, while they also represent the major part of the stewards for the environment
o Agricultural practices like organic, biodynamic, conservation, regenerative and agroecological are options that address the amin constraints to food and nutrition security as well as food sovereignty issues
· Food sovereignty
o Coined by La Via Campesina, global organization of small farmers
o “The right of peoples to healthy and culturally appropriate food produced through ecologically sound and sustainable methods (agroecology) and their right to define their own food and agricultural systems
o Food security is an economic measure, always the same everywhere
o Food sovereignty is place-based and adapted to local conditions, thus differs everywhere
o “Puts the aspirations and needs of those who produce, distribute and consume food at the heart of food systems and policies rather than demands of markets and corporations- focused on profit and economic growth”
o Defends the interests and inclusion of the next generation
o Prioritizes local and national economies and markets and empowers peasant and family farmer-driven agriculture, artisanal fishing, pastoralist-led grazing, and food production, distribution and consumption based on environmental, social, and economic sustainability
o Promotes transparent trade that guarantees just incomes to all peoples as well as the rights of consumers to control their food and nutrition
o Ensures that the rights to use and manage lands, territories, waters, seeds, livestock and biodiversity are in the hands of those of us who produce food
o Implies new social relations free of oppression and inequality between men and women, peoples, racial groups, social and economic classes and generations
· Six pillars of food sovereignty
o Focuses on food for peoples and the right to food, rather than export commodities
o Values food providers and respects their rights, rather than industrial systems that undervalue and prevent small and family scale farmers form maintaining their livelihoods
o Localizes food systems bringing food providers and consumers closer together and at the center of decision-making on food production and distribution issues
o Puts control locally by food providers, over territory, land, grazing, water, seeds, livestock, and fish populations
o Builds knowledge and skills in developing and managing local food production
o Work with nature in diverse, low external input agroecological production systems
· Implications of food sovereignty
o Priority to food production for domestic and local markets
o Fair prices for farmers
o Redistribution of resources
o Gender sensitivity
o Community control over productive resources (seeds, land, water, etc.)
o Protecting seeds and germplasm
o Complete opt out of GMOs
o Public investment in local markets
o Distributive, procedural, and recognition justice
Week 13 Notes
11/12
Global Climate Change: Science
· Global Climate Change
o Climate science
o Climate politics
o Climate justice
o Climate Solutions
§ Not mutually exclusive
· Climate science
o At least 97% (more likely >99%) of climate scientists agree that the Earth is warming, and human activity is primarily responsible
· Weather vs. Climate
o Weather:
§ State of the atmosphere in a particular place over short periods of time
§ Wind, temperature, humidity, atmospheric pressure, cloudiness, precipitation, etc.
§ Changes from moment to moment, day to day, and season to season
o Climate:
§ Long-term pattern of weather in a location or region at a particular time of the year
§ A region’s weather patterns, tracked and compiled for 30+ years
o Snowstorms and polar vortex
§ Six JMU snow days in 2014
§ Globally, January 2014 was the 4th hottest
· Since 1880, 134 years
· Living with the polar vortex
o “Warm temperatures in the Arctic cause the jet stream to take these wild swings, and when it swings farther south, that causes cold air to reach farther south”
o Increased temps in the Arctic due to global warming (CC) are disrupting climate patterns in the US, especially the eastern US, causing more frequent and extreme winter events and changing precipitation patterns
o Changes already linked to a decline in yields of 1-4%
· Climate science
o 2023 = warmest year in NOAA’s 174-year series
§ 2.12 degrees Fahrenheit above 20th-century average
o 10 warmest years all since 2014
o March 2024 was the 10th consecutive warmest month
o The first 12-month period to exceed 1.5 degrees Celsius as an average was Feb 2023-Jan 204, 1.52 degrees Celsius higher than 1850-1900
· Climate science: 9 facets of climate change
1. Global temperature rise
a. Warming since 1880, quickened in 1970s
b. Risen ~1.1 degrees Celsius since 1880s
c. Last 9 years = 9 hottest
d. 2015 = global average temps surpassed 1 degree Celsius above 1880-1899 average
2. Sea level rise
a. Rose 8 inches over last century
b. Over last 2 decades, rate nearly doubled
c. 4 inches since 1993, annual increases in rate
3. Warming oceans
a. Absorbed ~90% of the increased heat
b. Contributes to melting ice, rising seas via thermal expansion, storm intensity
4. Shrinking ice sheets
a. Greenland lost 279 B tons of ice between 1993 and 2019
b. Antarctica lost 148 B tons of ice between 1993 and 2019
5. Declining arctic sea ice
a. Extent and thickness declined rapidly 12.2% per decade since 1980
6. Glacial retreat
a. Glaciers retreating almost everywhere
b. Alps, Himalayas, Andes, Rockies, Alaska, and Africa
7. Extreme events
a. Since 1950, record high temperatures increasing, lows decreasing
b. Increased intense rainfall
c. More frequent and severe drought
8. Ocean acidification
a. Acidity of surface waters up ~30% since Industrial Revolution
b. Result of increased CO2 emissions absorbed into the oceans
c. Amount of CO2 absorbed by oceans 7.2 to 10.8 billion metric tons per year
9. Decreased snow cover
a. Spring snow cover decreasing over past 50 years, earlier melt
· Living with Sea Level Rise
o NY times, 10/13/19: Venice Flooding Brings City to “Its Knees”
§ High tides, not precipitation
§ Focus on:
· The big (global) picture
· The complexity and diversity of the global climate system
· The variability of effects
o NY times, 10/13/19: Miami, Sea-level rise, and Flooding
§ High tides, not precipitation
§ Focus on:
· The big (global) picture
· The complexity and diversity of the global climate system
· The variability of effects
o WaPost, 9/20/19: Climate Change and Flooding in Houston
§ Intense precipitation events
§ Focus on:
· The big (global) picture
· The complexity and diversity of the global climate system
· The variability of effects
· Climate Science
o Anthropogenic causes
§ Carbon dioxide, methane, other gases
§ Greenhouse effect- trapping heat
· Consensus in Climate Science
o 1,372 climate researchers and their publications show:
§ 97-98% of the climate researchers most actively publishing in the field support the tenets of anthropogenic climate change outlined by the IPCC
§ Relative climate expertise and scientific prominence of the unconvinced researchers substantially below that of the convinced researchers
· Confirmed by follow up-studies
· An analysis of the remaining 3% found them all severely flawed
o Powell 2016: Approaching unanimity
§ 99.9942% of climate scientists support thesis of ACC
§ Analyzed 24,210 articles by 69,406 authors in years 2013-2014
§ 5 articles rejected ACC
· = 1 article in 4,842 or 0.021%, together cited once
§ 4 authors reject ACC
· = 1 in 17,352 or 0.0058%
· Climate science
o IPCC
§ Prominent scientists from 195 countries:
· ACC is unequivocal
§ Human influence has been the dominant cause since the mid-20th century
§ Atmospheric concentrations of GHG, already at levels not seen in at least 800,000 years, will persist for many centuries
§ “Limiting climate change requires substantial and sustained reduction in greenhouse gas emissions”
· Disasters in the US
o $72 billion in damage in 2023
o $307 billion in damage in 2017
o 18 events >$1 billion each
o $265 billion from hurricanes
o Federal aid = $116.8 billion in 2017
§ 11 years: 2005-2016 = $350 billion
§ 7 years: 2015-2021 = $315 billion
o Externalities
· Strategic “Threat Multiplier”
o Climate change is impacting stability in areas of the world where our troops are operating today. It is appropriate for the COCOMS to incorporate drivers of instability that impact the security environment in their areas into their planning
o Climate change can be a driver of instability and the DoD must pay attention to potential adverse impacts generated by this phenomenon
· Climate politics
o Climate politics grounded in climate science
o How are the effects and projected effects differentiated across Earth?
o What are the effects and projections for less powerful places, peoples or nations? The global south?
o Debates: what can do about it? What should we do about it?
11/14
Global Climate Change: Politics
· Welcome to the Anthropocene?
o Anthropocene
§ Anthro = human; cene = new
§ Based on current geological age, Holocene
o “Recent global environmental changes suggest that Earth may have centered anew human- dominated geological epoch, the Anthropocene”
§ “Public death “of nature-society divide?
§ Reification of the nature-society divide?
o Indicators of the Anthropocene in sediments differ from Holocene signatures
§ Include unprecedented combinations of plastics, fly ash, radionuclides, metals, pesticides, reactive nitrogen and consequences of increasing GHG concentrations
§ Sediment core from west Greenland glacier retreat due to climate warming has resulted in an abrupt stratigraphic transition from proglacial sediments to nonglacial organic matter, effectively demarcating the onset of the Anthropocene
§ Fossil record dominated by remains of cattle, pigs, and especially chickens
o Earlier human influences?
§ Massive large-mammal extinctions
· 50,000-12,500 ybp
§ Major changes associated with spread of agriculture
· 11,000 ybp
· Spread of domesticated crops and livestock, land clearance, forest cutting, habitat transformations, irrigated rice paddies, soil erosion, and anthropogenic emissions of carbon dioxide and methane into the atmosphere
· Questioning the Anthropocene
o What is being the epochal shift in relations?
§ Officially rejected by the IUGS in 2024- largely due to disagreements on the issues of timing (i.e. when did it start?)
§ Anthropos- humanity as a whole is the source of the current ecological age/crisis?
§ Ignores social differences:
· Malrecognition of inequality, commodification, extractivism, imperialism, patriarchy, racism, etc.
· Capitalocene?
o What is being epochal shift in relations?
§ Moore proposes a Capitalocene that begins with the Columbian encounter (1492)
· Externalization, binarism, hierarchization, exploitation, appropriation presupposes conquest and extraction
· Strongly interrelated with and reproductive of coloniality
· Capitalism has re-ordered the global web of life
· Plantationocene
o Roots the current ecological crisis in the colonial-racial legacies of the plantation
o Crisis rooted in logics of environmental modernization, homogeneity, and control, which were developed on historical plantations
o Devastating transformation of diverse farms, pastures, and forests (agroecosystems) into extractive and enclosed plantations, relying on enslaved, exploited, and/or alienated labor
o Slave plantation system was the model and motor for the carbon-greedy mechanized industrial systems fundamental in the Anthropocene
o Modern relationship to environments, land, race, class, gender, labor, extraction, and profit all began on the plantation
o Common root of the inter-relationships between climate change, ecological collapse, capitalism, systemic racism/white supremacy, hierarchical labor relations, and structural inequities
§ These relationships underlie environmental racism, environmental injustices, the global climate crises and our responses to them
o Basis for colonialism:
§ Export plantation monocultures
o Enslaved labor, mostly African following Indigenous population declines
o Production system based on ecological (monoculture), social (stratification), and economic (inequality) transformations
o Coloniality: social, ecological, and economic patterns persist in many ways
· Anthropocene? Capitalocene? Plantationocene?
o Theoretical framework to comprehend and communicate relationships between people, (other) biota, ecosystems, and the Earth
o Varying perspectives on our current ecological relationships and interaction and the crises they generate
· Climate Science
o IPCC
§ Prominent scientists from 195 countries:
· ACC is unequivocal
§ Human influence has been the dominant cause since the mid-20th century
§ Atmospheric concentrations of GHG, already at levels not seen in at least 800,000 years, will persist for many centuries
§ “Limiting climate change requires substantial and sustained reduction in greenhouse gas emissions”
Week 14 Notes
11/19
Climate Politics
· Climate Science
o IPCC
§ Prominent scientist from 195 countries: Anthropogenic global climate change is unequivocal
§ Human influence is the dominant cause since the mid-20th century
§ Atmospheric concentrations of greenhouse gases, already at levels not seen in at least 800,000 years, will persist for many centuries
§ “Limiting climate change requires substantial and sustained reductions in greenhouse gas emissions”
· Politics of GCC in the US
o 14th November 2023, UN: national climate action plans remain insufficient to limit global temp. rise to 1.5 degrees Celsius and meet goals of the Paris Agreement
o Disconnect between science and electoral politics in the USA
o Why the refusal to act?
o US climate change countermovement (CCCM)
§ Large number of organizations, e.g. conservative think tanks, advocacy groups, trade associations, and conservative foundations, with strong links to sympathetic media outlets and conservative politicians
§ Efforts focus on continued justification for unlimited use of fossil fuels
§ Attempting to delegitimize or “muddy” GCC science
§ Manipulate and mislead the public on GCC science and threats posed by GCC
§ Some prominent groups, e.g., Koch and ExxonMobil Foundations, have decreased public funding, shifting to untraceable “dark money”
· With shift to dark money, amount of funding has increased dramatically
§ Citizens United v. FEC (2010)
· SC overturned campaign finance laws
· Declared unconstitutional the restriction of political donation by corporations, including nonprofits, labor unions, and other associations
o Internal corporate documents: fossil fuel industry has known about the reality of human-caused climate change for decades (1950s-80s)
§ Response: orchestrate and fund campaign of denial and disinformation to stifle political action and protect its status quo business operations
o FF industry and political allies attacked scientific consensus and exaggerated uncertainties
§ Offered no consistent alternative explanation for changing climate- goal to undermine public support for climate action- i.e., “muddy the waters”
o Strategy, tactics, infrastructure, rhetorical arguments, and techniques used to challenge GCC science- i.e., cherry picking, fake experts, and conspiracy theories- come straight from tobacco industry’s playbooks
o Carbon tracker- climate math
§ 320 more gigatons of carbon dioxide into the atmosphere by 2050 before 1.5-degree increase (Paris target)
· Current rates of emissions on track to exceed by 2030
§ ~3,700 gigatons of proven in fossil fuel reserves
· >10x allowance of 320
· Worth USD ~$100 trillion; already part of bottom line/share prices; companies can trade on/borrow against proven reserves
· McKibben: “economically above ground”
§ FF companies profited $2.8 b per day for 50 years (1972-2022)
§ IISD: G20 countries $584 b per year 2017-2019
o $306 billion in damage in 2017
§ 16 events > $1 billion each
§ $265 billion from hurricanes
§ Federal aid = $116.8 billion in 2017
· 2005-2016 $350 billion
§ Externality
o Country-level social cost of carbon
§ Combines climate models, empirical climate-driven economic damage estimations, and socio-economic projections
§ US 2nd only to India in anticipated costs
§ Russia dominates in anticipated gains
· Response to GCC
o What to do about it?
§ Mitigation:
· Reduce further climate changes
· Reduce emissions
§ Adaptation:
· Adapt to/live with a changing climate
· Agriculture infrastructure, etc.
§ Both rely on lots of money/effort
· The politics of GCC: International Debate on Limiting emissions
o Recent timeline
§ 1. Earth Summit 1992 Rio de Janeiro
§ 2. Kyoto Protocol 1997
· Carbon inequity- differences between developing and developed countries
· Climate justice
§ 3. December 2011 Durban Agreement
· Kyoto extended to 2015
· New agreement must include all countries
· $100 billion green fund for developing countries
· REDD program to counter deforestation and finance preservation (counterproductive)
§ 2014: US-China climate deal: A bilateral U.S.-China agreement set targets for CO2 emissions out to the year 2030
§ 2015: Pope Francis warns of an “unprecedented destruction of ecosystems” and “serious consequences for all of us” if humanity fails to act on climate change, in his encyclical on the environment
· 2015 Paris Agreement
o Countries should “pursue efforts” to limit at “1.5 degrees C”
§ Nationally Determined Contributions
o A balance between sources and sinks of GHGs should be reached by 2050
o “Stocktaking” (mitigation and adaption) every five years- report transparently
o Opportunities for “ratcheting” allowing countries to ramp emissions cuts (if newly possible) every decade
o Trillion of dollars of capital ($100 b annually) to be spent adapting to the effects of climate change- including infrastructure (e.g. sea walls and programs for poor soil) and developing renewable energy e.g. solar and wind power (vastly underfunded)
· 2021 COP26
o The Glasgow Climate Pact
§ Firm language of goal to limit warming to 1.5
· Reality: 1.5 is on life support- has a pulse but nearly dead
o New commitments moved from 2.7 to 2.4 degrees
§ Some progress on ending FF subsidies, but final deal fell short
· Intl Energy Agency: No room in 1.5 carbon budget for any new investments in FF
25 countries and dev. banks commit to no new international finance for FF project by the end of 2022
§ Non-binding declaration halting deforestation- 135 countries and 1.7 billion pledged for Indigenous comms
o Related to “race to zero” initiatives
§ The South Africa deal
· $8.5 billion in grants and cheap loans over the next 5 years
· Funded by US, UK, France, Germany, and the EU
· Designed to achieve 1.5 degrees
· 3 goals
o Early retirement of coal plants
o Building cleaner energy sources
o Transition for coal-dependent regions
· Loose model for just transitions more broadly?
· 2022 COP27
o “Loss and damage” fund for developing countries
§ Breakthrough or empty promise?
o Compensates vulnerable countries for cost of rising seas, stronger storms, etc.
o Agreement only to create fund, details to be worked out at COP28; kicked to COP29
11/21
Climate Justice
· Climate justice
o The triple inequality of climate change
§ Responsibility
· Which countries are most responsible?
§ Vulnerability
· Which countries will suffer the effects most profoundly?
§ Response
· Which countries will/should bear the cost?
o Impacts of climate change
§ Unevenly distributed
§ Poorest countries and most vulnerable people will be most adversely affected despite having contributed least to climate change
§ Climate justice
· Links human rights, development, and GCC
· Safeguards the rights of the most vulnerable
· Distributing the burdens and benefits of climate change and its resolutions equitably and fairly
o Variability of impacts
§ Variable physical geographies
· Sea levels, coastal erosion
· Aridity, drought, and disruption of precipitation patterns
o Perpetually shifting geographies
· Alpine glacial environments
o All continents
§ Variable histories
· Colonialism/coloniality
· Centuries of fossil fuel emissions and associated development
· Lowest emitters often most vulnerable
§ Uneven development
· Between and within nation-states
· Unequal access to wealth and resources
· High HDI = increased adaptive capacity?
o UNFCC signatories and enshrined in the Paris Agreement
§ CBDR + RC: Signatories should act to protect the climate (and economic) system guided by “the principle of equity and common but differentiated responsibilities and respective capabilities, in the light of different national circumstances…”
§ Taking into account the imperatives of a just transition of the workforce and the creation of decent work and quality jobs in accordance with nationally defined development priorities
§ Acknowledging that climate change is a common concern, parties should when taking action to address to climate change, respect, promote, and consider their respective obligation on human rights, the right to health, the rights of indigenous peoples, local communities, migrants, children, persons with disabilities and people in vulnerable situations and the right to development as well as gender equality, empowerment of women and intergenerational equity
· Human response to GCC
o Mitigation
§ Avoid the problems
§ Low-carbon economy
· Solar, wind, etc.
§ Energy efficiencies
§ Electrification
§ Reduce emissions
· Carbon markets
· Internalize carbon pricing
· Sequester emissions
§ Window for action closing fast
o Adaptation
§ Live with the problems
§ E.g. infrastructure
· Water control (drinking, irrigation, flood)
§ E.g. agriculture
· Agroecology
· Drought and pest resistant crop varieties
§ E.g. land tenure
· Forest biodiversity management
o Geoengineering
§ Fix the problems
§ Adaptations that mitigate
§ Deliberate, global-scale intervention in Earth’s climate
§ Uncertain, unproven, risky
· Climate coloniality vs. Climate Justice
o “Historical differences position colonial and imperial countries at greater advantages over post-colonial and presently occupied countries” Coloniality creates need for climate justice
o Climate coloniality maintained through:
§ Colonial logics of extractivism continue through neocolonial and development interventions and general hegemony of extractive capitalism
§ Ecologically unequal exchange between the Global South and Global North (ongoing colonial plunder of resources and labor from the Global South to North) (distribution)
§ The imperial structures of global trade (distribution)
§ Domination in setting policies and ideologies (procedure)
o Results: High levels of consumption in North drive extraction, dispossession, and vulnerability in South
o Arguments that North owes South a vast climate debt
· Governance Challenges of Climate Justice
o Climate change as a “perfect moral storm”
§ How to deal with widespread and unequal effects
o Past emissions
o Prospect of responsibility or “blame”
o Financial burdens of climate change
o Need for economic development, esp. in Global South
· Philosophies of Climate Change
o Polluters pay
§ Challenges: identifying polluters- diversity of actors over many centuries
o Beneficiaries pay
§ Challenges: how to locate benefits?
o Ecological debt/climate debt
§ Challenges: connect global economic system with colonialism and inequality
o Ability to pay principle
§ Challenges: inequality as fulcrum of justice; present and future instead of past
· Climate justice as a social and political movement
o According to scholar-activist Rebecca Hall, climate justice entails:
§ A focus on root causes
§ Making the systemic changes that are required
§ Addressing the disproportionate burden of the climate crisis on the poor and marginalized
§ A demand for participatory democracy in changing these economic and political systems
§ Climate justice lies at the intersection of social, economic, and environmental justice
o Climate justice as an intersectional movement and concept
o Just Transition:
§ Comprehensive framework for fairness and equity in the transition away from fossil fuels
§ First proposed by global trade unions in 1980s promoting “green jobs” as essential component of a transition away from fossil fuels
§ Now a labor and socioeconomic policy facet of/incentive for decarbonization policies
§ Potential for integrating economic, climate, energy, and environmental justice
§ Policies guiding a shift to an ecologically sustainable and equitable and just economy for all
§ Concept and movement that calls for policy-based shifts away from unhealthy relationship; from an extractive, colonial economy to a living, healthy, regenerative one
§ Viable jobs, livelihoods, communities
§ Transition is inevitable. Justice is not
§ Policies that incentivize shifts from:
· Fossil fuels to renewable sources of energy
· Waste creation to resource regeneration
· Industrial food systems to food sovereignty
· Gentrification to land reform
· Extractive development to ecosystem restorations, et al
§ Social movement and political structures based in ideals of justice:
· Deep democracy, cooperation, care, well-being, and healthy relationships
· prioritize community, rather than profit (through with opportunities)
· bolster the rights and inclusion of women, indigenous communities, and communities of color
· led by workers and communities impacted first and worst (fence line or frontline communities)
· Climate Justice
o Complex challenges requiring complex solutions based in cooperation and collaboration
o A global challenge
§ Nation-states inadequate
o A local challenge
§ All communities have value, roles to play
o A social-economic-biological-physiochemical-climate problem
§ Reductive sciences and disciplines inadequate
o Local, global, interdisciplinary solutions integrating:
§ Communities
§ Nation-states
§ Corporations and markets
§ Supranational organizations
§ Social sciences
§ Physical science
§ Bioscience
§ Applied science
o UNFCCC signatories and Paris Agreement
§ Development guided by “the principle of equity and common but differentiated responsibilities and respective capabilities”
§ Mitigate? Adapt? Geoengineer?
§ Justice for who? All?
§ Moral, ethical, and economic arguments:
· Justice? Equity? Human Rights? Inclusion?
· Climate risk, public funding, and public policy
· Markets and investments thrive on stability
Week 16 Notes
12/3
Global Climate Solutions
· Climate justice
o UNFCCC signatories and Paris Agreement
§ Should act to protect the climate system “on the basis of equality and in accordance with their common but differentiated responsibilities and respective capabilities”
· Climate action
o Community-based, or locally-led adaptation
§ E.g. infrastructure
· Water control (drinking, irrigation, flood)
§ E.g. agricultural
· Agroecology
· Drought and pest resistant crop
§ E.g. land tenure
· Forest biodiversity management
· Mitigation and Energy and 2 degrees
o Radically increase energy efficiency
§ Energy intensity of global economy must fall 2/3 by 2050
§ Electricity, transportation, buildings, and industry
o Radically increase renewable energy
§ Renewables (primarily wind and solar) must come to dominate electricity and fast
§ Must grow 5x faster than current rate, supplying 85% of global electricity by 2050
o Radical electrification
§ Move fossil fuels to electricity, esp. vehicles, home heating and colling, and lower intensity industry
o Negative emission
§ BECCS: bioenergy with carbon capture and sequestration (burning plants to generate electricity)
§ Growing plants absorb carbon; when burned (as fuel), carbon captured and buried
§ Electricity generated and carbon removed from the atmosphere
§ Along with afforestation, reforestation, and soil carbon sequestration
· Problem: Can reinforce plantation monocultures
· Agroecology as climate action
o (agro)biodiversity fortifies resilience to GCC and other shocks
§ Thus, an important form of adaptation
o Agroecology as mitigation to GCC
o Agroforestry within polycultures integrates trees into productive landscapes
§ Enhance afforestation and lower rates of deforestation
§ Protects soils from erosion, sequesters carbon, provides fruit and other non-timber products
o Gendered development increases agricultural output and community resilience
· Mitigation and adaptation
o Sustainable Intensification (SI)
§ Productive agricultural systems enhancing environmental outcomes
§ Without expanding land
§ No net environmental cost
§ Develops synergies (agroecological systems)
§ Emphasizes outcomes rather than means
§ Applicable to any size of enterprise
§ No predetermined technologies, production types, or design components
· Agroecology and food sovereignty
o A fork in the road forward:
§ Co-opt agroecology into the Green Revolution (conventional ag and the corporate food regime)
· Agroecology without justice
§ Or… center agroecology within a politically transformative peasant movement for food sovereignty
· Food sovereignty and climate justice
o Food sovereignty implies:
§ Human rights and autonomy
§ Land and water access
§ Food security
§ Economic stability
§ Biodiversity conservation
§ Climate adaption and mitigation
§ Too good to be true?
· Mitigation policies
o Carbon credit: permit to legally emit one metric ton of CO2 or equivalent GHG
§ Tradeable in cap-and-trade programs
o Carbon offset: one metric of GHG under protection through a voluntary scheme or initiative
§ Offsets an emission made elsewhere (e.g. REDD+)
· Conservation, Livelihoods, and Mitigation
o Studies show that community-managed forests consistently out-perform “protected” forests
o Landscapes managed by Indigenous, tradition, and local communities experienced lower and less variable annual deforestation rates than “protected” forests
o Higher levels of plant and animal biodiversity
· REDD+
o National-level initiative
§ UN deals with state actors
§ Payments for intact or regenerated forests in the Global South
§ Recognizes (to a degree) indigenous communities as vital stakeholders
§ Distributional and procedural justice in doubt
§ Commodifies forests and their “ecosystem services”
§ Restricts access and economic activity
§ Exacerbates inequalities within communities
§ Resistance from many or most indigenous groups
· Mitigation Justice
o Policy idea: formalized land tenure (land rights) of indigenous and other ancestral communities
§ Climate finance to support tenure-related issues
§ Safeguards CO2 in forests and other critical ecosystems
o IPCC special report Climate Change and Land
§ Indigenous and local communities customarily own more than 50% or worlds lands
§ Governments formally recognize ownership rights to 10%
o Policy ideas: RRI Consortium of indigenous and local groups
§ 1. Significantly scale up recognition of land and forest rights by increasing support to implement existing laws and advance legislation recognizing rights
· Includes recognition of the rights of communities to govern their lands
§ 2. Grant rights to free, prior, and informed consent (FPIC) within a continuous cycle of engagement for any activities taking place on or affecting customary lands
§ 3. Prioritize bilateral and multilateral investments in indigenous and community led initiatives to reduce emissions from deforestation, strengthen community-based conservation and restoration efforts, and sustainable land use
· Ensure international finance for climate mitigation reaches communities on the ground who can put it to best use
§ 4. End the criminalization and persecution of Indigenous people and local communities defending their lands, forest, and natural resources
§ 5. Develop partnerships that allow traditional knowledge and practical experiences with land and forest management to inform efforts to combat climate change
§ 6. Recognize and support indigenous and local community women’s rights to own, manage, and control land, forests, and resources which are bases for their livelihoods, community well-being, and food security
o Policy idea: Indigenous communities propose to protect 80% of Amazon by 2025 for people, biodiversity, and climate stability
§ “Sacred corridor of life and culture”
§ COICA- 511 nations, 300 languages in 9 countries
§ Across borders from the Andes to Atlantic
· Climate action
o Geoengineering
§ Adaptions that mitigate
§ Deliberate, global-scale intervention in Earth’s climate
§ Uncertain, unproven, risky
§ Converting airborne CO2 to liquid fuel
· No new CO2
§ Combined with carbon capture and sequestration
§ Potential transition
· Policy idea: Conservative, Republican, market-based mitigation
o 1. Gradually Increasing Carbon Fee (tax)
§ Begins at $40/ton
o 2. Carbon Dividends for all Americans
§ Family of four: $2000/yr (set to grow)
o 3. Border Carbon Adjustments
§ Adjustments for CO2 content of imports/exports
o 4. Regulatory Simplification
§ Phase-out prior CO2 policies; indemnify historical emissions
· Policy idea: American Energy, Jobs, and Climate Plan
o 3 GOP Senators propose a climate plan to reduce global emissions by 40% by 2050
§ “Worker-oriented” energy and climate plan
§ “All of the above” approach to energy that funds renewables and fossil fuels
§ Expand domestic manufacturing, mining, natural gas, and nuclear energy
§ Environmental deregulation (“permitting reform”)
· Policy idea: Green New Deal
o Decarbonization, jobs, and justice
§ Decarbonize the economy
· Beginning with the electricity sector
§ Federal jobs guarantee and large-scale public investments
· Address inequality, socioeconomic transformation
§ Just transition
· Protections for “low-income communities, communities of color, indigenous communities, and the front-line communities most affected by climate change, pollution, and other environmental harm”
· Inflation Reduction Act of 2022
o Clean electricity tax credits- $161 billion
o Air pollution, hazardous materials, transportation and infrastructure- $40 billion
o Individual clean energy incentives- $37 billion
o Clean manufacturing tax credits- $37 billion
o Clean fuel and vehicle tax credits- $36 billion
o Conservation, rural development, forestry- $35 billion
o Building efficiency, electrification, transmission, industrial, DOE grants/loans- $35 billion
o Other energy and climate spending- $14 billion
· Sustainability and Climate Justice
o If “sustainability” = long-term strategies for proliferating life and livelihoods on Earth
o No sustainability without climate justice
o No lasting social and environmental justice without climate justice
o Justice mitigation, adaptation sustainability justice
· Climate solutions
o Complex challenges requiring com
plex solutions forged in cooperation and collaboration
o A global challenge
§ Nation-states inadequate
o A social-economic-biological-physiochemical-climatic problem
§ Reductive sciences and disciplines inadequate
o Global, interdisciplinary solutions integrating:
§ Social sciences
§ Physical sciences
§ Biosciences
§ Applied sciences
§ Communities
§ Nation-states
§ Regions
§ Corporations and markets
§ Supranational organizations
