GEO Test 3 Flashcards

1
Q

Proximate & Structural Issues With Energy Currently

A

Proximate: Global increase dependence on energy (5GJ - 20GJ - 80GJ) consistently 80% fossil fuels causing GhG emissions & climate change

Energy transition is needed as fast as possible & cannot be solved by technical adjustments or changes in individual behavior, they require political, economic, social transformations to address structural drivers

Structural: Poised to continue or replicate unequal & unjust structures of Injustice, Extractivism, Colonialism, Racialization, must be held accountable with Climate Justice

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2
Q

Energy Sacrifice Zones + Bennett Dam

A

Energy Sacrifice Zones: areas that bear disproportionate health & environmental burdens of energy development in the name of larger national or international demands for energy

Bennett Dam on Peace River: large hydro dams viewed as progress, ushering prosperity, modernization in the post WW2, funded & executed by government to electrify province & industrial development, now part of BC Hydro: business + government organization created when private sector failed. Impacts on Tsay Keh Dene Peoples:
* Flooding → dispossession
* Have not received any benefits, no hydroelectricity
* Destroyed habitat, climate, debris, changing water levels
* Isolation from dangerous & un-navigable waters
* Lost autonomy, self-determination, dependence on wage labor & social assistance
* Negative health implications from dust & increased substance abuse
* World Commision on Dams: found dams understated negative social & environmental impacts, over-budget, doesn’t achieve their social goals. World Bank stops financing dams & becomes sunset sector until climate change resparked interest

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3
Q

Piikani Nation Oldman River Dam

A

Piikani Nation Oldman River Dam: in opposing resource extraction, Nations are enacting their own legal orders and are creatively expressing it in relation to multiple colonial legal orders
* Indigenous Legal Consciousness, formed within relationships with many legal orders,

Proposed in 1970 for additional irrigation capacity for agriculture, construction started 1986, completed 1991, hydro plant added 2003

Extractivism: Excluded financial participation in construction & operation → dam moved outside of reserve so benefits would not be given to Piikani, loss of access to water & treaty rights

Impacts on land: Forest seeds were no longer dispersed, Rainbow Trout population collapsed, constant flow of river isolating communities, breeding ground for Caribou lost, River has become a canal

Relationships Between Nation & River: Spiritual & Social, Source of Law, Relative, Resource, Source of Subsistence

Attempts to Challenge
* In Court: water rights case 1986, Piikani claims treaty rights & water was not surrendered
* Lonefighters Camp & Diversion of Oldman River: blocked set up by moving society, diverted the way of the water using bulldozers to traditional dormant water bed
* Participation in Environmental Assessment Review Panel: Federal review was deemed not needed. Dam finished 1990 before assessment was published 1992 enacted by a lawsuit
* Public hearing, formal presentations by elders & chiefs key themes of treaty rights not addressed in EARP process & impact on Piikani relationship with Oldman River
Recommendations: ineffective
- Decommission dam by low level diversion tunnels for unimpeded flow
- If not decommissioned, will be approved under condition of agreement with Piikani without treaty laws accounted for
- If Peigan obstruct process by discussion on their own terms, Minister will proceed as if agreement had been reached

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4
Q

Curly

A

CURLY - Resources = Colonialism. Idea of resources is a colonial construction consistent with genocide, displacement, exploitation & capitalism. Creates colonialscapes, displaces Indigenous ontologies (philosophies of existence) erasing kinship networks, transforming understandings of place, water & nonhuman relatives with notions of property

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5
Q

Colonialism

A

Colonialism is ongoing & built into institutions (legal, cultural, social, environmental) shaping how we transition to renewables, devalues certain groups, denies agency & sovereignty justified by racist logics

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6
Q

Hamouchene

A

HAMOUCHENE - A green and just transition must fundamentally transform and decolonize our global economic system AND overhauling the production and consumption patterns that are energy-intensive and utterly wasteful, especially in the global North. We need to break away from the imperial and racialized (as well as gendered) logic of externalizing costs that if left unchallenged, only generate green colonialism and a further pursuit of extractivism and exploitation (of nature and labor) for a supposedly green agenda
* Green Colonialism: further pursuit of extractivism and exploitation (of nature and labor) for a supposedly green agenda, necessitates overhauling of production with consumption patterns that are wasteful energy-intensive in Global North
* Just Green Transition: decolonize global economic system that does not serve the social, ecological & biological purpose

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7
Q

Sullivan & Hickel + Cliff Atleo

A

Sullivan & Hickel: poverty was produced through colonial & capitalist processes, making benefit hard to capture and cost easier to agree too by power relations and desperate need for revenue

Cliff Atleo: neoliberal capitalism, settler colonialism & resource extraction places Indigenous communities between the rock & a hard place

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8
Q

Anti-Colonial Analysis vs Environmental Justice Analysis + Navajo Nation Coal Mining Context

A

Anti-Colonial Analysis: when nature, ecologies, or relations are framed as resources they are being positioned in a colonial framework that renders the environment as inert matter to be exploited by humans, fundamentally shaping Indigenous institutions and governance, constraining the possibility to exercise sovereignty of self-determination
* Coal is the biggest employer in a region with an unemployment crisis, thus they are forced to work there despite the damaging effects on their health, elders say to stop but the youth want to work
* Residents trying to enact self determination, defend their land, told they are trespassing on their own land, police brutality
* Tribe elected to buy mine to keep it running to enact self-determination, as provides livelihood to small number of people, however constraints them further as all of them experience the environmental consequences, coal company put in the contract that they would not be held liable to any past, present or future for the effects on the community, shady deal the company fronts the money to buy the mine, with a hidden interest rate

Environmental Justice Analysis: environmental benefits & harms are unevenly distributed; environmental harms are often born by those most marginalized, while environmental benefits are enjoyed by the most privileged or wealthy
* No ability to stop the digging & excavation from reaching their house, or stopping the water from getting contaminated
* Provides cheap electricity at a high cost for Black Mesa & Navajo Nation Indigenous communities
* Urban oasis in the middle of the desert, powering most of the South West & profited by large energy corporations in the world at the cost of using the resource of the Navajo Nation for 6 decades, mined for its coal reserves
* Dust, fly ash, smoke, mercury emissions, dumps dangerous coal waste in storage ponds, seeps into ground water impacting health, asthma, eye conditions (ex. Black Lung, terminal conditions from long term exposure to coal dust)
* Billions of gallons of water from Black Mesa aquifer, sole drinking source of water, for coal slurry, drying up the mesa, must go to water pumps hours away for their animals and living

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9
Q

Green-Grabbing + International Financial Institutions + Context:Ouarzazate Solar Plant

A

Green-Grabbing: plant acquired 3000 hectares of land in an arid region seized & built on without permission from North Africa’s Indigenous Amazigh peoples who owned & managed communally the land where communities desperately need water which the plant requires mass amounts for cooling & cleaning the panels

Financed by International Financial Institutions: required public-private partnerships shifting monetary benefits of the project to international private firms

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10
Q

Extraction vs (Green) Extractivism

A

The massive technological transitioning needed for renewables in order to meet climate goals → just as massive amounts of minerals needed to be mined to produce the technology to transition

Extraction: not inherently damaging removal of matter form nature to be transformed into useful resources for humans

Extractivism: political & economic formation - a mode of accumulation - of hyper-extraction with lopsided benefits + costs; concentrated mass-scale removal of resources in Global South primarily for export with benefits largely accumulating far from sites of extraction to Global North. Green: solar, lithium batteries, hydroelectric dams

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11
Q

Critical Minerals

A

Critical Minerals: for national security, energy transition, subject to geographical constraints & scarcity where some are given more power over others on supply & control, government plays key role in extraction & securing resources in a highly competitive market

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12
Q

Lithium Triangle

A

60% of world’s lithium in the Lithium Triangle: Chile, Argentina, Bolivia eyed for mining & electromobility programs in Global North, already brought down governments, caused social & political unrest

Debates over distribution of benefits & costs:
Whose way of life & water will be sacrificed for wealthy Glob. N’s electromobility? Salt lakes attract tourists & salt mining is a key industry must not be destroyed, uncontaminated & unwasteful use of water for communities & agriculture industry, fragile ecosystem must be preserved
**Will these mines break or continue previous colonial patterns of extractivism? **Structural drivers must be addressed; overconsumption, locals must be entitled to the profits & have say in the development of the projects
Who decides, authority & decision making? Agreements must clearly define the roles of participants & the royalties for each group

Benefits: uplifting ailing economies of Global S. & allowing Global N. to transition to low emissions electric mobility faster

Costs: Extracting lithium is water intensive creating concern about impacts to ecosystems & livelihoods of other industries (agriculture, salt)

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13
Q

Inflation Reduction Act + Onshoring + Friendshoring

A

Inflation Reduction Act’s targeted investments incentivize onshoring manufacturing and building resilient supply chains in the United States, & contains measures that will provide Canadian miners & automakers advantages/friendshoring

Offshoring: movement of production to other countries for lower labor and costs
Onshoring: movement of production back inside national borders to reduce supply chain disruption and/or for job creation/political rationales
Friendshoring: policies that encourage companies to source materials & manufacturing from within countries viewed as like-minded friends or allies

Is mining better in the Global North than in the South?

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14
Q

Benefits vs Issues with Photovoltaic Modules

A

Benefits:
* To meet climate goals, exponential growth of solar panels is needed, PV dominates net capacity additions, if done right:
* Displaces the dirtiest forms of energy production:
* Cleaner air, fewer nitrogen oxide emissions, less particulate matter pollution
* Climate friendly: less GHG emissions, comes from transport & production
* Environmentally Just: reaches communities directly safely

Issues
* Demand for Production of PV energy is Rising Fast however, PV lasts only 25 years
* Disposal & recycling of PV technologies is a large scale problem, distant enough in future to not worry
* Overuse of water
* Land seized & exploited from Indigenous communities without permission
* Community doesn’t receive the benefits of the energy & profit of plant, lopsided distribution of benefits & costs

PV Waste throughout entire life cycle
* Early Waste Flows: production+transport defects
* Lifetime Damage: tornados, storms
* Toxicity: larger waste streams and landfills → groundwater chemical & toxicant contamination
* Emissions: trucked to landfills raising GHG emissions dramatically
* Depletion of Limited Rare Resources: continual production of PV modules, without recovery & reuse, production will be expensive & require expanded extraction
* End-of-life Recycling Issue: value of materials in PV decreases & laborious to recycle, thus less profitable, no incentive

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15
Q

Achiem

A

Racialized: reflects that races are socially constructed hierarchies, not essential to skin color

Structural Racism: refers to an array of dynamics – historical, cultural, institutional & interpersonal – that routinely produce cumulative & chronic adverse outcomes for people of color when compared to white people

Achium Report: an effort to explain patterns of injustice over a large swath of space & time
* Racialization is the foundation & justification of patterns of extractivism, produced in colonial era
* Extractivism relies upon & thrives within systemic racialized hierarchies

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16
Q

Environmental Racism vs Environmental Justice

A

Environmental Racism: practices, policies, laws which environmental burdens & benefits are unequally distributed, negatively impacting racialized & Indigenous peoples

Environmental Justice: social movement, a concept, and body of scholarship concerned with the distribution of environmental benefits & burdens as well as access to environmental resources, decision making processes & policy outcomes for different social groups

17
Q

4 Climate Justice Solutions

A
  1. Public Transit - ELLIS+WILT
  2. Leap Manifesto - AVI LEWIS
  3. Extended Producer Responsibility (EPR) - MULVANEY + SVTC
  4. Community Utility Ownership - HANNA (CCPR)
18
Q

Public Transit

A

ELLIS - Transit is a force implicated with many issues, policing, poverty, climate therefore its improvement would be a multisolvent, low cost & low carbon, supports growth & jobs through green infrastructure, reduces combats mobility poverty in the region.
WILT - Transit ridership is declining from failure of governments to prioritize or invest in making transit “reliable, efficient, affordable” through policy bias towards private transport by car
* Decommodify transportation into a right of the city & mobility for working class to exert power
* Public transit is an immediately buildable set of technologies that reduces emissions & undos structural inequalities like colonialism & racial economic hierarchies

19
Q

Leap Manifesto

A

Justice based set of solutions & strategy to build power around them
* Moral call for justice: those who contribute least to climate change are the most affected
* A lens to connect the climate emergency to other emergencies & dynamics of oppression & don’t see these issues as independent, find solutions that work multiple fronts at once, solving issues together
* **Political strategy: **connect the dots, build power between movements, organizations & communities to change the basis of economy & society

20
Q

Photovoltaic Justice Solutions

A

Silicon Valley Toxics Coalition (SVTC): research & advocacy organization, holds tech firms accountable for their environmental impacts using score cards, don’t want to solve the issue of climate change at the expense of other environmental issues, goal is to keep photovoltaics out of global e-waste streams by encouraging

1. Extended producer responsibility (EPR): “producer pay” makes sure burdens of impacts are felt by firms/producers, decrease total environmental impact of product by making manufacturer responsible for entire life-cycle of their produce, especially its take-back, recycling & final disposal (Ex. PV Cycle, European Union, certifies PV manufacturers & provides the infrastructure to dispose & recycle PV modules in Europe. Received a legal mandate from Waste from Electrical Electronic Directive accepted in EU law)
Not: a magic bullet policy fix, is a too in larger structural reforms addressing colonialism, racism, & sacrifice zones they create, can still propagate exploitation, beer bottles, consumers get paid back for returning, economic incentive for recycling
2. Preventing exports of e-waste: E-waste economics are unjust, unequal, informal, highly unsafe, exposure to temp, toxins & sharp environments
3. No prison labor in disassembling PV modules
4. Strong and enforced environmental health and worker protection standards for recycling can help minimize the toxic exposure and human rights abuses that currently plague the trade

Canada has no recycling facilities, government incentives for sustainable production nor EPR for PV, only option is to ship them abroad, omissions of a supposedly renewable & perpetuating unjust trade of e-waste

21
Q

Community Utility Ownership vs For Profit Energy Utilities

A

**Climate & Community Project Report: **publicly- cooperatively- owned energy utilities, can usher a climate transition but pushes must be done

Community Utilities: publicly & cooperatively owned
* Not guaranteed below points (ex. BC Hydro)
* For use value
* Can be subject to democratic control & community desires/demands
* Keep economic benefits in the community
* Combats rising issue of energy poverty
* Well positioned to begin as just & community controlled transition to renewables
* Need to keep in mind of: Blocking privatization; Deepening democratic governance; Renewable energy mandates; Renewable energy financial incentives; Public distributed renewable energy & electrification; Procurement programs; Public banking and finance; Supporting local innovation; Public finance for shifting IOUS into public & cooperative ownership

For-Profit Energy Utilities:
* For profit
* Serve interest of shareholders, not communities
* Profits leave communities
* Do not have to listen to community demands & desires such as transitioning to renewables

22
Q

Publicly Owned Utilities vs Cooperatively Owned Energy

A

Publicly owned utilities: owned by state operated by government not for profit to provide an essential service (ex. BC Hydro)
* Easily turned into private hands when issues arise
* Turns publicly money into private hand through procurement schemes: start to purchase energy from private producers
* Old, centralized, undemocratic industries, uneasily changes from Indigenous, public consultation & voices

Cooperatively Owned Energy: utilities are those that are owned by their users or members (ex. Nevada campaign - failed)
* Decentralized localized energy, control own energy decisions
* Trouble to establish themselves, blocked by existing regulations, charged, corporate power on political & social process of decommodification
* Those who build the panels get the benefit, employment
* Sustainable for future generations, passing knowledge
* Purchase public utilities that already exist

23
Q

Community Utility Owner Recommendation

A

Democratization: strengthening democratic structures and accountability within
community utilities and in the surrounding ecosystem
* Audits, reserved seats, reviews, training of Governance Boards
* Accountability & Transparency through autonomous community observatories, higher-level outside structures
* Establishing a core set of values and goals for a community utility through a democratic process to guide the utility’s activities with regards to democracy, the energy transition, economic development, and other activities; provide a set of benchmarks (beyond simple financial metrics) against which communities can measure progress(or lack thereof); and provide a degree of popular and democratic legitimacy to the decisions made by the utility provided they are in accordance with the values and goals