Equity and Social Justice Unit 3 Test Flashcards
Environmental Justice
Environmental Justice is the fair treatment and meaningful involvement of all people regardless of race, colour, national origin, or income with respect to the development, implementation, and enforcement of environmental laws, regulations, and policies.
Fair treatment
means that no group of people should bear a disproportionate share of the negative environmental consequences resulting from industrial, governmental and commercial operations or policies.
Meaningful involvement means that:
(1) people have an opportunity to participate in decisions about activities that may affect their environment and/or health
(2) the public contribution can influence the regulatory agency’s decision
(3) their concerns will be considered in the decision-making process
(4) the decision-makers involve those potentially affected
The environment
would include your home, place of work, schools, and community parks. These are the places you spend your time, and they play a big role in you’re overall health, happiness and well-being.
The concept of environmental justice began as a movement in the 1980s due to the realization that
a disproportionate number of polluting industries, power plants, and waste disposal areas were located near low-income or minority communities.
The environmental justice movement
was set in place to ensure fair distribution of environmental burdens among all people regardless of their background
These burdens can include
any environmental pollutant, hazard or disadvantage that compromises the health of a
community or its residents.
For instance, one of the environmental justice issues and examples is inadequate access to healthy food.
Certain communities, particularly lower-income or minority communities, often lack supermarkets or other sources of healthy and affordable foods.
Even clean, accessible water is an ongoing issue.
Our Areas of Examination:
The Privatization of Water
Unsustainable Oil Development
GMO Crop Development
Climate Change
How are the Social Justice and Environmental Justice movements connected?
That’s because virtually all environmental injustice is shaped by the same patterns of racism and inequality that have existed in the United States since its founding and continue to influence every facet of our society, from education to housing to health care.
According to Rockstrom, why are we in a water crisis?
According to Rockstrom, we are in a water crisis because we are misusing water, polluting water, and as a result of climate change, changing the whole hydrological cycle.
Can countries be “water independent”?
Can countries be “water independent”?
Countries cannot be water-independent because we depend on the water from neighbouring countries. What happens is that water is held in soils and delivered from transpiration in forests and other ecosystems, when plants take up water from the soil and release vapour into the air with their leaves.
How much do we spend on water subsidies for agriculture?
We spend $700 billion on water subsidies for agriculture to fuel the overconsumption of water.
How is our system of sanitation a problem?
Our system of sanitation is a problem because of the system developed countries use for their sewage. The issue resides in the fact that we use safe, fresh water to carry excreta, urine, nitrogen, and phosphorus. Then, we need to have inefficient wastewater treatment plants that leak 30% of all the nutrients into downstream aquatic ecosystems which destroys them and causes dead zones.
Of the Seven Calls to Action, which TWO do you think would have the greatest impact and why??
Out of the Seven Calls to Action, the two that I think will have the greatest impact are:
1) Take urgent action this decade on issues such as restoring wetlands and depleted groundwater resources; recycling the water used in industry; moving to precision agriculture that uses water more efficiently; and having companies report on their “water footprint”.
2) Manage the global water cycle as a global common good, to be protected collectively and in our shared interests
I think these will have the greatest impact because they require companies to be upfront about their water usage and shift the thought process surrounding water to one that urges for its protection on a global scale - as we all need it.
The Importance of Oil
The use of fossil fuels, especially oil, have allowed us to rapidly increase our birth rate, food production, quality of life and longevity.
Petroleum hydrocarbons are in virtually everything – from car fuel, to plastics, to phones, to computers, to fertilizers for food crops, to our medicines, to our clothing.
Oil/Gas Consumption Since 1800 & CO2 Levels & Methane in the Global Atmosphere
Have gone up drastically since the 2000s
Global Life Expectancy & Human Population
Have gone up since the 1900s
One barrel of oil contains the energy equivalent of
12.5 years of human labour.
That’s 25,000 hours of human work in each barrel.
Humans use
97,000,000 barrels A DAY.
97 million X 12.5 years = 1.2 billion years of labour EVERY DAY
The Canadian oil sands, also known as the tar sands, is the
largest industrial project on earth.
The oilsands brings over a
half million jobs to Canada, and is projected to bring in $1.2 trillion over the next 35 years.
Oil sands production emits
3 to 4 times more greenhouse gases than producing conventional crude oil. This makes it one of the world’s dirtiest forms of fuel.
The exploitation of the oil sands is the
primary reason Canada will fail to meet its own greenhouse gas reduction targets.
Canada’s climate performance is the
worst in the entire Western world.
In 46 years of development
only 0.15% of the environment disturbed is certified as “reclaimed.” In the end, there is no way to return the boreal forest to its natural state.
More than 600 million cubic feet of natural gas are used per day to extract and upgrade the oil from the tar sands. That’s enough to heat more than
3 million Canadian homes every day – almost every house in Western Canada.
Canadian federal taxpayers subsidize the oil industry
$3.3 billion a year.
71% of oil sands production is owned by foreign shareholders.
Norway has saved $644 billion in its petroleum production investment fund. Meanwhile, Alberta has only saved $16 billion. There is
no Canadian federal fund.
A higher than normal incidence of rare and deadly
cancers has been documented in First Nations communities downstream of the oil sands by doctors, the Alberta Health Department and First Nations since 2007.
Over 30 million birds
will be lost over the next 20 years due to tar sands development.
Under current oil sands expansion plans,
woodland caribou populations are expected to disappear.
Oil sands operators used approximately
170 million cubic metres of water yearly to extract bitumen.
95% of the water used in tar sands surface mining is so polluted it
as to be stored in toxic tailings ponds. That’s 206,000 litres of toxic waste discharged every day.
Canada is home to 2 of the top 3
largest tailings dams in the world. They’re used to hold back toxic sludge from the oil sands.
4 billion litres seeps out a year.
Fracking, or hydraulic fracturing, is the
process of extracting natural gas from shale rock layers deep within the earth.
Fracking makes it possible to
produce natural gas extraction in shale sites that were once unreachable with conventional technologies.
It can take 8 million gallons of water to
‘frack’ a site.
It also takes about 40,000 gallons of ‘fracking fluid’
– containing lead, ethylene glycol, uranium, mercury and other chemicals.
This fluid is shot into the ground at extreme pressures, which fractures the shale under the ground
There are 500,000 fracking sites in the US.
Each one uses about 8 million gallons of water, and 40,000 gallons of toxic fracking fluid.
do a lil math…
This is 72 trillion gallons of tainted water, and 360 billion gallons of chemical dumped into the environment. (estimated)
Extensive research over the last 10 years has shown that those who live near fracking sites are at risk for a
variety of health issues.
This knowledge comes with the ethical question of who is bearing this burden and if they have any input in what is being done.
The methane gas released and the chemicals used, contaminate the
ground water.
Dissolved methane is 17x times higher in wells around fracking sites.
The “Great Beast” is the idea that
the power within a society is actually within the hands of the people, not the wealthy because what happens when you deny the general public their basic needs like food and water? Outrage.
Your ability to live or die should not be based on a company’s profit.
What concerns do some scientists have with contaminants in our water system?
- It is expected that 500,000 - 7 million people may get sick from drinking tap water
- A lot of bugs are in our tap water system which can pass viruses
- Pesticides used for agriculture get into our tap system
- Hormones like estrogen can get into our water when people flush their birth control pills
- Exposer to pollutants from water actually mainly come from showering
- The chemicals we make get into our water
- The water from the sewage systems ends up back into the rivers we drink from
- All the makeup, other chemicals, etc that go down the drain end up back in our system and affect our bodies
- The chemical atrazine is our water and is demasculinizing male bodies and causing breast cancer in women
- Atrazine can travel 8000 miles in the rainwater and come back into the water system
Why do people in poorer (developing) countries choose dirty water? What are other problems with the privatization of water in developing countries?
- Unclear water kills more than war and AIDS combined
- Because if they don’t drink the dirty water then control of their water will be handed away to a developed country farther away - privatization
- Oftentimes the only choice for developing countries is to wake up and walk to the nearest source of water, if it is dirty, that is their only choice of drinking water for the day
- Bolivia did not want to have their water privatized but they had to have it privatized because it was forced on them by the World Bank, if they did not privatize it then they would be cut off from water loans from the bank
- Dirty water is the biggest source of the worst diseases
- Dirty water kills more than war and AIDS combined
- Privatization of water means that the water will be more expensive, and then the quality of the water will not improve, and there will be no policing for what is going on
- The people of poorer countries cannot afford to pay for water in the way that privatization will require
- You should not have to force people in developing countries to pay for water when they cannot afford it they are then forced to use the dirty water and blamed for being uncleanly
- Oftentimes when the World Bank and the International Trade Centre privatize a developing country’s water for money, the price goes up, and then when people can’t afford to pay for electricity because they are paying so much for water, they are asked to sell off their electricity and more and more to a developed country
Why is water dwindling in the U.S.?
- The major river systems in North America no longer make it to the ocean and are not able to continue the cycle
- Now the river just dries up
- Climate change is a real problem and it is making it so that the water that comes down from the mountains, highlands, etc, and into rivers and and out into the ocean is no longer happening
- We are running out of water
- Nobody cares because we can still turn on the tap and see it
- All of the water in the Colorado’s river is being used to supply golf courses
How is water becoming an industry?
- Water is a $400 billion dollar industry
- People are going to take advantage of the pollution happening
- Buying the companies that distribute our water supply
- If companies can make you pay for something you need to live then they will
Why do you use bottled water? Explain.
- Companies have advertised to us that bottled water is somewhat cleaner than tap water
- Show pictures of “mountains” etc
a. Why do people in New Orleans prefer bottled? Explain.
Oftentimes bottled water is just tap water or underground water and is not at all cleaner than tap water
b. How does bottled regulation compare to tap?
It is really the same but with a pretty bottle that makes you think it is cleaner
Why are we building dams? What are some concerns with this?
- Dams are being built to make sure there is a way for water to flow to rivers and oceans
- Because rivers are drying up in the US, dams built to aid with the control of water throughout the country hopefully
- It also provides a way for water to reach areas that lack access to water
- Furthermore, dams are built to hopefully filter the water that is flowing through, as well
- The concern with building dams is that:
- There could be a lot of destruction to nature by destroying ecosystems and disturbing the habitat of aquatic animals
- Dams also block the migration of fish and deplete aquatic species
- Increased dams could lead to more floods, which would ruin agriculture and crops nearby
Why is water considered property? Who benefits from water being a property? Defend your answer.
- The wealthy people running the corporations benefit from water being a property
- Companies controlling your money will inherently control how you live
- People will pay as much as they have to get this neccessity
- You have to get your food and water from a company and to get this money, you need to work for a company
- Humans need to work for their money all their life to live
How do bottling companies affect communities and ecosystems?
Plastic from bottled water affect ecosystems, as it does not break down naturally in our environment → they need to be burned
This causes health issues because burning plastic can cause lung health issues and cancer
What do you think is the greatest global concern regarding water? Defend your answer.
- I think the greatest global concern regarding water is how water is being sold in our free market economy today
- Because there are limited laws and regulations put on water, companies are using it as an opportunity to make money
- Companies do not see it as a human right for everyone and they will neglect the human need for water, if it means they will earn lots of money from privatizing it
- Moreover, bottled water companies like Nestle have a huge markup on their bottled water, which earns them lots of revenue per year. However, that money isn’t going towards any water relief programs in developing countries.
- They are using their money to provide bottled water for citizens, but not provide any help to those in need of water
Do you think clean, accessible water is a human right? Defend your answer.
Yes, I believe that clean, accessible water is a human right because everyone should be able to access this item that is essential to survival, regardless of who they are in the world. We are all considered to be seen equal under the law, why can’t the same thing apply to providing water? If something as essential as water is needed for humans, it should be part of our rights to have access to it. Certain groups and minorities should not be at a disadvantage simply because they are living in different countries that have different economic circumstances. Furthermore, those economic issues were not created by them, rather their government and leaders should be held accountable. The people should not need to suffer through the lack of water as a price to pay for something they did not do.
“The 21st century will be the century of the common people,” was a statement made at the end of the film by a man in a developing nation. Do you think his vision is a clear statement of the present? Do you think his statement is a true prediction of our future? Explain your view using current issues to support your answer. (This answer can relate to water or other global/national/local issues).
The statement, “The 21st century will be the century of the common people” implies that improvements in our current century will be made to benefit everyone in our world for the better. The statement suggests that there will be hope for humanity to solve and mitigate our world issues from the past. However, his vision is not a clear statement of the present and therefore will not be a true prediction of our future. Here are a few points of why my opinion is shown through our global issue of water currently. Water is a scarce resource and the scarcity of water will not be solved through replenishment. Many developing countries are suffering from a lack of water due to companies privatizing their water making them resort to drinking contaminated water. Furthermore, large amounts of water are being used to produce oil through oil sands production and fracking, which further contaminate clean water and dump them into our waters. In effect, we can see the melting glaciers and decreasing sea levels in various rivers in the US.
What is Food Insecurity?
- Food insecurity is defined as a lack of consistent access to enough food for every person in a household to live an active, healthy life. This can be a temporary situation for a household or can last a long time. Food insecurity is one way we can measure how many people cannot afford food.
- According to the USDA, more than 38 million people, including 12 million children experience food insecurity in the United States.
- In 2017-18, 1 in 8 households in Canada was food insecure, amounting to 4.4 million people, including more than 1.2 million children living in food-insecure households.
Number of People in Food-Insecure Households
Has become 4.4 million in 2018
Food Insecurity By Province/Territory
57% of Nunavut is food insecure.
78.7% of the children in Nunavut like in a “food insecure” environment.
The “Food Insecure” …
are generally employed
Food Insecurity By Ethnicity/Race
All ‘ethnicities’ are more likely to be food insecure, than “White”.
Food insecurity has major impacts on
mental health - increasing problems exponentially.
What Causes Food Insecurity?
The causes of food insecurity are complex. Some of the causes of food insecurity include:
- Poverty, unemployment, or low income
- Lack of affordable housing
- Chronic health conditions or lack of access to healthcare
- Systemic racism and racial discrimination
What are the Effects of Food Insecurity?
Food insecurity can have a wide impact, depending on each individual’s circumstances. Some of the most common, yet complex, effects of food insecurity include:
- Serious health complications - nutrient deficiency, neurological issues, hunger
- Damage to a child’s ability to learn and grow - learning doesn’t happen where hunger is present
- Difficult decisions such as choosing between paying for food or heat, electricity, rent, and transportation
- Increased family issues - parents working multiple jobs to provide for their families aren’t at home to assist with schooling, food insecure families are more likely to eventually divorce
Do animals have the right to a certain quality of life?
- Animals SHOULD have the right to a certain quality of life but with the current state of our food industry animals do not
- Cows live in their own manure
- Boy chickens are killed because they cannot lay eggs
- Beaks are taken off of them because chickens peck each other
- Chickens are mass-produced and are in their filth - like an assembly line in a factory,
- They’re forced to grow too fast, they cannot carry their weight and break their legs
Do people have the right to know what is in their food?
- People SHOULD have the right to know what is in their food but companies have made it so that we are naive to where our food comes from
- There are only a few companies and crops involved in the creation of all the food in our supermarkets
- Unknown to us, almost all of our food contains corn
- We feed corn to animals (chickens, cows, fish, etc) because it is cheap but it increases E. coli in their gut which is dangerous to us
- Cows are not supposed to eat corn but grass
- The E. coli in the cow manure gets into fruits and veggies because it’s used as fertilizer and water runoff from the manure gets into the crops
Who is responsible for keeping our food safe?
- Not farmers or people actually involved in the production of the food but rather lobbyists and CEOs
- The lobbyists and CEOs of Tyson - the biggest meat producer - take turns in government positions so that they can change the laws and make it easier for them to mass produce food
- They do not care about keeping our food safe, they care about making laws easier for meat-producing plants
When deciding what to eat, how much should we consider the workers who pick, process, and transport it?
- We SHOULD consider the actual workers we pick process and transport it BUT…
- The meat-packing companies got too big and cut wages, stopped unions, and created one of the most dangerous jobs
- These companies even went to Mexico to recruit illegal immigrants to work for them but now that there are too many the companies aren’t facing repercussions from the government, and the workers are
Does it matter to you which food companies produce your food?
It does but there are so few options, a lot of companies are bad
Should companies be able to own the DNA contained in plant seeds?
- I don’t think so, we are changing the genes of our crops
- Monsanto makes it so that they own the patent and thus farmers cannot plant their own seeds they have to repurchase them from Monsanto
- If you ever switched over to Monsanto you can never replant your own seeds now
- No more public seeds, Monsanto owns the intellectual property behind food
- Monsanto targets small farmers who replant their own seeds under things like encouraging others to plant their own seeds
- Now people don’t talk to those farmers
- It is often cheaper to pay a $25,000 fine
Should a company have the power to decide what information to give consumers about the food it produces?
- Companies should have to tell us everything but the people who should be fighting for the labelling, the government, are working for the companies
- The food industry has the power to sue people for speaking against their products - it is a felony to - criticize ground beef in Colorado
You can even show photos of a meat operation
Wild Grass Becomes Corn
In plants, all of our crops were developed over time by breeding wild plants together. Like Gregor Mendel, we would take the plants with the largest seeds, breed them with other variations that have large seeds, and over time a basic grass is transformed to corn
The Corn This changed their biology. And Ours.
- This is an Auroch. It is a cow, BEFORE it became a domesticated animal. Before we domesticated this, most adult humans could not digest lactose. Lactase is the enzyme that breaks down lactose. Most mammals only produce lactase when they are babies, which makes sense.
- Areas of the world that domesticated mammals and used them for milk production have far LOWER rates of lactose intolerance. People in those areas eventually evolved to continue the production of lactase into adulthood.
- Our biology changed to allow us to use milk as a food source.
Can you find where milk-producing animals were domesticated??
Europe
Selective Breeding
For thousands of years, humans have bred specific animals or plants in order to attain traits we wanted.
Natural genetic mutations are bred more or less often to attain this result.
Genetic Modification
The direct manipulation of a organism’s DNA in order to achieve the desired results.
Brazil Nut Soybean
- Pioneer Hi Bred developed a soy plant that also used Brazil nut genes
- Inserting brazil nut genes into soybeans
- Was not labelled on their products
- It triggered anaphylactic responses in children
- They pulled it out after several children nearly died
Maximiser Maize
- GMO maize (corn) that used an antibiotic marker gene
- Increased the use of antibiotics in the plant
- Overuse of antibiotics causes them to become less effective and eventually, not work at all
BT Cotton
- Cotton farming uses lots of pesticides
- Monsanto Engineering BT cotton is a plant that produces its own pesticide inside the plant
- Tolerant insects have already developed
- Eventually, this will make BT useless
- If we make it so that insecticides don’t work, then we have no protection against sickness or disease carried by insects
INGARD Cotton
- Specific type of Monsanto cotton
- First attempt by Monsanto to genetically modify cotton
- It was a GMO crop and it didn’t live up to any expectations and it had not been studied enough
- Farmers were angry and felt cheated
- It had diseases and made people sick - but it was illegal to sue Monsanto in the US
Round Ready Soy
Monoculture - planting and growing only one type of crop
- Roundup is a commonly used herbicide
- Monsanto developed soybean that was round-up resistant so that farmers can spray it on all fields, but it would just kill weeds
- This leads to a huge increase in roundup pollution and the runoff from the roundup will pollute rivers
- Superweeds are developing. It affects birds and insect life
Round Ready Gene Agreement
- Farmers must pay Monsanto for their seed
- This legal agreement says that Monsanto then controls every aspect of the seed, its growth and its usage
- Monsanto must be given access to the farm and any records of the farmer
- Monsanto can sue the farmer if they violate the contract. Many farmers have lost their farm
- They can take your land and take advantage of the farmer’s inability to get a legal team and have enough money to defend themselves
- The problem: seeds are travel through wind and birds
Terminator Gene
- A common GMO technique
- It makes the plant produce sterile seeds, so that the farmer must repurchase the seed every year
- Not letting a plant/species reproduce itself
- “War” on farming, agriculture
- Ex. seedless watermelon
- The companies claim it will help them control these genes, should they escape
- Others say it gives the company total control of essentially all food
Europe vs USA
- The EU has banned all GMOs until they can be proven to be safe
- Problems: it restricts your market (not necessarily legal under the WTO)
- USA will not ban GMOs until they are proven harmful
- See the two opposite takes?
- USA is considering suing the EU over WTO agreements.
- It says that the EU is not following WTO guidelines
- It hasn’t been to court yet - if it goes, there is good reason to think that the EU will lose.
- When this goes to the WTO, the USA has more power in there and most likely will win
Tomato Paste
- Hunt’s was the first to label that their product was genetically modified
- Clearly labelled GMO tomato paste has been selling very well. It has been tested, and it is clearly labelled as a GMO product
- It is subject to regulations and the customers have still purchased it
Labelling in Australia
- GMO products can be sold in Australia, but they must be clearly labelled.
- Businesses didn’t like this, because they saw it as discriminatory.
Regulation in Australia
Very highly controlled and well tested.
Large-scale impact assessments of health and environment done.
Should be used as a model in all countries.
Canada and the USA Labelling
GMO ingredients do not have to be labelled in Canada or the USA.
Climate Change
Weather records from across Canada show that every year since 1998—that’s over 20 years ago now—has been warmer than the 20th-century average. This means that a whole generation of Canadians has never experienced what most of modern history considered a “normal” Canadian climate.
How do they get these numbers?
Determining the average temperature of the entire planet is an amazing scientific achievement. The data used to calculate the average comes from a variety of sources. Air temperature is recorded around the world at weather stations and by weather balloons. Ocean temperatures are measured using thousands of buoys and ships. Orbiting satellites continually monitor the ocean and air temperatures all over the world.
Global Temperature, 1880 to 2017
- Has gone up dramatically
- This modern global warming is a sudden departure from the temperatures that have been typical for the past 10,000 years.
- Evidence shows that only increased concentrations of greenhouse gases in the atmosphere—specifically carbon dioxide concentrations—can explain Earth’s observed warming trend. Greenhouse gases are called that because they effectively act like a greenhouse or a layer of insulation for the Earth: they trap heat and warm the planet.
Carbon Dioxide Concentration, 1958 to 2018
Has gone up dramatically
The climate science community is made up of researchers from geology, astrophysics, oceanography, atmospheric physics and many other disciplines. Surveys show that
97% or more of these scientists agree that the planet is warming and that human beings are the cause.
For the past thirty years, the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC) has been assessing scientific evidence about climate change. The IPCC is an international panel of experts that rigorously reviews and interprets peer-reviewed climate science research.
We are on track for the
3-degree increase on average…
Climate Change Effect in Canada
- Melting permafrost, threatening northern buildings and transportation and releasing methane, which further accelerates global warming.
- East and West coast sea level rise, threatening to flood cities, increase storm damage, and accelerate erosion.
- Increased activity of pests and invasive species, posing risks to our ecosystems and our economy.
- More variable and more extreme weather, with increased risk of weather-related catastrophes such as droughts and floods.
- Hotter summers, bringing increased risks of heat-related health problems as well as longer and more severe forest fire seasons.
Water quality and quantity:
Contributing to a doubling of people living in water-stressed basins by 2050.
Food security:
In some African countries, yields from rain-fed agriculture may halve by 2030.
Control of infectious disease:
Increasing population at risk of malaria in Africa by 170 million by 2030, and at risk of dengue by 2 billion by 2080s.
Protection from disasters:
Increasing exposure to coastal flooding by a factor of 10, and land area in extreme drought by a factor of 10-30.
Every year - Climate Change
- Undernutrition kills 3.5 million.
- Diarrhoea kills 2.2 million.
- Malaria kills 900,000.
- Extreme weather events kill 60,000.
- All of these factors are made worse by climate change. As climate change continues, these numbers will grow if the issue is not addressed.
GHG Emissions (per capita)
The white rich countries produce the most
Mortality Rates from Climate Change
The people dying from Climate Change are poor, minority places like Africa and Asia
Because Climate Change….
- Will have the largest effect on those countries with the least amount of capital ($) to deal with it, it will disproportionately affect poor countries.
- Syria - many people have linked the Syrian Civil War and the resulting migration crisis with the drought that took place for 3 years before the conflict. An unstable government, religious discord, lack of wealth and resources all combined together with the massive, climate-change-induced, drought to reach this result…
Should access to healthy food be a right for everyone?
- Access to healthy food SHOULD be a right for everyone but it is often more costly so low-income communities are stuck eating unhealthy foods
- Food from the grocery store that is healthy is a lot of money
- Double cheeseburgers, chips, candy, etc are so much cheaper than healthy food Commodity crops
- Obesoty = lower income
- Not personal responsibility
- Healthy foods target your brain’s insulin needs for sugar, fat. and salt
