Unit 7: The Environmental Impacts of Industrial Development in the North Flashcards
List and explain three reasons why the Canadian North has been especially hit hard by environmental degradation.
- Vulnerability to global air and water currents
- Thinner ozone layer meaning climate change is faster here.
- Physical: Biological processes are delayed by cold climate and the permafrost is easily disturbed by industry.
Detail the concerns about PCBs in the North and provide examples of their effects.
1999 Canadian Environmental Protection Act is cornerstone of Canada environmental legislation. Before it chemicals, pollutants, and industrial remains littered sites and allowed companies to treat north like a dumping ground. 2005: over 3,000 contaminated large and small sites.
Remediation is very expensive.
Impact on Aboriginal Canadians
- –Polluted water sources
- –Contamination of wild animals and fish
- –Loss of hunting grounds
- –Threat to ontology of trust between Mother Earth and people.
Outline the concerns about mercury in the North. What is the relationship between mercury and UV radiation?
Studies have shown there is way more toxic metal being dumped in the Arctic than previously thought, notably mercury.
Scientists have observed that mercury in the air is released when reacting with UV rays, thus deposited on land and in water in forms that can be absorbed by living creatures.
Since this happens in spring and summer during height of animal and human activity, it shows that mercury can bioaccumulate much more effectively.
What are brominated flame retardants and what is the concern about them in relation to the north?
They are a chemical compound used in consumer items such as computers, televisions, furniture cushions, car upholstery, and building insulation.
There is a concern that they are increasingly penetrating into the animal wildlife in the north with harmful health effect.
What are exogenous and endogenous threats?
Endogenous threats originate from within a system.
Exogenous threats originate from outside a system.
What is the “shadow effect” as it relates to environmental impacts?
It refers to the lingering effect that pollutants have on the environment, even after production and emission of them is turned off. The idea is that they leave behind a shadow, because even if you turn the taps off, they still linger for decades with their associated harmful effects.
List and briefly describe the three main types of impact that industrial projects have on the northern environment.
- Linear Effects
–Small in area, but greater impact on environment than its physical footprint might suggest (e.g. highways, pipelines). - Areal Effects
–Industrial developments that affect huge geographic areas, causing drastic change (e.g. hydroelectric dams). - Cumulative.
–Caused by more than one project, combination over time.
–Frequent failure to assess these.
Describe three feedback loops associated with climate change that could affect the northern hemisphere.
- Melted Shield: Less ice to deflect sun means more sun to warm the land/water, which leads to more melt.
- Gulf Stream: Melting Arctic and Greenland freshwater ice disrupting the Gulf Stream, lowering temperatures in northern hemisphere if the stream is slowed enough.
- Permafrost: the more it melts, the more carbon and methane it releases which enhances greenhouse gas effect.
What is the grasshopper effect?
It is the cycle of long-range air transport and deposition that enables Toxic chemicals that are banned or restricted in Canada to make their way into our environment.
Pollutants evaporate out of the soil in warmer countries where they are used, travel through the atmosphere to cooler areas, condense out when temperature drops, thus hopping. Canada’s cold climate puts us on the receiving end of the grasshopper effect.
Describe the basic stages of environmental assessment
- Screening: determined if a project requires it.
- Scoping: scope of assessment is set for relevant impacts of concern.
- Assessment and evaluation of impacts to identify the magnitude of change if project were to be carried out. Alternative solutions, mitigation looked at
- Environmental impact statement is prepared for general audience
- Review of Environmental Impact Statement
- Decision-Making: Approval / Denial / Conditions
- Monitoring, compliance, enforcement, and auditing
Explain the level-playing field model.
A model that asserts that all parties must play by the same rules (e.g. government regulations).
For example, all resource companies must undertake at their expense an environmental review known as an Environmental Impact Assessment. If the proposal is approved, the company must ensure that it has the resources to clean up the project site once the resource is depleted.
Describe what Natcher identifies as the alternative to and impetus for co-management processes.
In recognizing that the alternative to co-management would be prolonged and costly litigation—in which the Aboriginal claimants would have a good chance of winning—the Canadian government chose, rather, to enter into arrangements that would provide the Cree and Inuit with public recognition and legislative authority in the management and utilization of their homelands.
How has the creation of the Porcupine Caribou Herd Management Board helped to protect barren-ground caribou in the Mackenzie Delta?
Primary duties and goals involved facilitating multi-level co-management and communication for the conservation of the heard.
Their big success was realized when they recognized that preservation of the herd was contingent on national and international agendas of national governments. that led to a lobbying campaign at that level for increased environmental cooperation internationally.
It helped shift the focus from wilderness preservation to that of cultural survival, a reorientation considered necessary when applying pressure to industrial shareholders with financial interests in the Refuge.
Describe various ways in which power plays out in co-management.
A. Self-Determination Path
B. Politicking to undermine co-management
C. Relative inexperience of Indigenous in system
Just as co-management can function as a vehicle to empower Indigenous self-determination, there are those who stand to lose out – namely, those who stand to benefit economically from a clearer path to opportunities like resource extraction – and will consequently use their political influence to undermine conservation efforts.
Nadasdy (2003) highlighted this in their case study of the Ruby Ridge Sheep Herd in Yukon, noting how outfitters – who wanted to expand exploitation of the herd – were able to outmanoeuver and undermine co-management and TEK through clever politicking.
Unfortunately, the asymmetry of both power and experience in manipulating these systems means Indigenous are at a disadvantage.
Identify and explain briefly the methodological obstacles to knowledge integration outlined by Nadasdy.
- Time
–Temporally limited scientific data was defaulted to despite better TEK. - Geography
–Biologists chose to use their own, geographically limited data because of dispute over knowledge systems. - Trust
–Scientists trusted non-scientific supported knowledge from westerners, but not from Indigenous.
