Joan Martinez-Alier Summer School Env Justice ICTA UAB 2012
The alliance between the Environmental Justice movements of the South,
and the small Degrowth movement in the North
Environmental Protection and Corporate Social Responsibility: the Chevron case Stefano Baldi
Lecture held during the 'ELSA Salerno Summer Law School on International and European Environmental Law' the 5th of July 2016. The case study highlights how Corporate Social Responsibility could be beneficial for Company's profits.
Indigenous Wisdom: Living in Harmony with Mother EarthKAIROS Canada
This new KAIROS publication explores how the ancestral wisdom of the Indigenous peoples of the Americas can guide us as we face unprecedented challenges from climate change and related ecological crises. It explores Andean peoples’ teachings on how to live well in harmony with the natural world and what Canadians can learn from these teachings.
Presentation delivered by Professor Joan Martinez-Alier
(ICTA, Universitat Autonoma de Barcelona) at the Rio+20 side event on the role of civil society and knowledge institutions in sustainable development: http://www.ipc-undp.org/PageNewSiteb.do?id=274&active=2
Prof.dr. halit hami öz sociology-chapter 20-population, urbanization, and the...Prof. Dr. Halit Hami Öz
KAFKAS ÜNİVERSİTESİ/KAFKAS UNIVERSITY
SOCIOLOGY
Course
LECTURE NOTES AND POWER POINT PRESENTATIONS
Prof.Dr. Halit Hami ÖZ
Kars, TURKEY
hamioz@yahoo.com
Environmental Protection and Corporate Social Responsibility: the Chevron case Stefano Baldi
Lecture held during the 'ELSA Salerno Summer Law School on International and European Environmental Law' the 5th of July 2016. The case study highlights how Corporate Social Responsibility could be beneficial for Company's profits.
Indigenous Wisdom: Living in Harmony with Mother EarthKAIROS Canada
This new KAIROS publication explores how the ancestral wisdom of the Indigenous peoples of the Americas can guide us as we face unprecedented challenges from climate change and related ecological crises. It explores Andean peoples’ teachings on how to live well in harmony with the natural world and what Canadians can learn from these teachings.
Presentation delivered by Professor Joan Martinez-Alier
(ICTA, Universitat Autonoma de Barcelona) at the Rio+20 side event on the role of civil society and knowledge institutions in sustainable development: http://www.ipc-undp.org/PageNewSiteb.do?id=274&active=2
Prof.dr. halit hami öz sociology-chapter 20-population, urbanization, and the...Prof. Dr. Halit Hami Öz
KAFKAS ÜNİVERSİTESİ/KAFKAS UNIVERSITY
SOCIOLOGY
Course
LECTURE NOTES AND POWER POINT PRESENTATIONS
Prof.Dr. Halit Hami ÖZ
Kars, TURKEY
hamioz@yahoo.com
Similar to 02 07-Joan Martinez-Alier The alliance between the Environmental Justice movements of the South, and the small Degrowth movement in the North
A photograph of the decisive decade we are facing, the perfect storm of environmental, economic and growth crisis we are facing and some possible ways to help the transition from this old unsustainable system to a new world order sustained by a new approach of global prosperity, justice and sustainability.
Bill Rees: The Vulnerability and Resilience of CitiesJoss Winn
Bill Rees, originator of the ecological footprint, says we are already into overshoot. We can plan to reduce our use of Earth's resources, or plunge through a series of disasters.
Full keynote speech from "Resilient Cities" conference. Vancouver, October 20th 2009
A critical analysis of the concept of sustainability arguing that the structure of capitalism is an inappropriate means to address the problems created by capitalism.
When Technology Fails: Self-Reliance and Coping with the Long Emergency, pres...Tahoe Silicon Mountain
Tahoe Silicon Mountain, a network of technology professionals who live and work in the Tahoe-Truckee area, is pleased to welcome Matthew Stein to present: “When Technology Fails: Self-Reliance and Coping with the Long Emergency.”
Have you ever thought about what would happen if society faced long-term failures of the electrical grid and other central services? Right now, there is a storm brewing on the horizon with six long-term global trends converging on collapse. Stein will discuss why he thinks our society is vulnerable and what we can collectively and individually do to be more self-reliant, sustainable, and better prepared to cope with this approaching storm.
Matthew Stein, local bestselling author, MIT-trained engineer and green builder, will discuss the scientific reasons that make this scenario not only possible, but highly likely, and what we can do about it on a personal, community, and global level.
You can learn more about Stein here: http://whentechfails.com and http://stein-design.com.
The meeting will be on Monday, February 9th, 6-8 pm at Pizza on the Hill, in Tahoe Donner at 11509 Northwoods Blvd., Truckee. A $5 fee includes pizza and salad. Before and after the presentation, there will be time for networking with other technology professionals who live and work in the Tahoe-Truckee region.
This month’s event is sponsored by New Leaders Accela.
You can find us on LinkedIn and Facebook and at TahoeSiliconMountain.com or sign up for email meeting announcements here: http://bit.ly/14XGofL.
Bright
Dark
Blues
Grays
Night
Assignment 1The Global Environment - An Emerging World View
Reading Assignment:
Article 2 “Global Warming Battlefields: How climate Change Threatens Security?” on pages 16-22 in the Annual Editions (11/12) textbook.
As you read, consider the following discussion points. Try to reconcile the "development" with the "sustainable" in the industry and communities. Development with capable of being continued with minimal long-term effect on the environment.Best way know to help the poor today; "economic growth" has to be handled with care otherwise it may end up with a degraded and devastated natural environment.Every generation should leave water, air, and soil resources as pure and unpolluted as when it came on earth!Win-win strategies for environmental issues, would it be possible?To help both economy and environment, environmentally harmful subsidies need to be reconsidered. According to the International Union for the Conservation of Nature "largest conservation group", Greens and businesses do not have the same objective but they can find common ground!2002 UN World Summit on sustainable development in South Africa - Johannesburg? Did it contribute any useful actions and policies?Kyoto Protocol (1997, Japan) a UN treaty on climate change/global warming to reduce greenhouse gases (GHGs) emissions 5% below of 1990 levels by 2012; what was the bitter test in many mouths in Kyoto?Two areas where concerns about human health and environmental overlap: improving access for the poor to cleanser energy and safe drinking water!India’s leader Mahatma Gandhi’s testimonial about industrial revolution in Asia? "God forbid that India should ever take to industrialization after the manner of the west…It took UK half of the resources of the plant to achieve their prosperity, so how many planets will a country like India require?". Economic growth comparison of China versus India.
Overview:
This lesson will illustrate increasing global perspective on environmental problems and the degree to which their solutions must be linked to political, economical, and social problems and solutions.
The societal effects of climate change are not limited to humanitarian disasters. It is likely that there will be an increase in ethnic conflict, insurgencies, and civil violence whenever climate change negatively affects supplies of vital resources.
Diminished rainfall and river flow, rising sea level, and more frequent and severe storms will cripple the ability of underdeveloped societies to meet even basic sustainability levels.
Topics Covered:
Climate Change
The Hardest Hits
On water scarcity
On food availability
On coastal inundation
Resources Wars
Watching the River Flow
The Mogadishu Effect
Migratory Conflicts
Looking Ahead
Instructor's Comments:
"Th.
Environmental Degradation
Environmental Sociology Essay
The Destruction Of The Environment
Environmental Degradation in Mumbai
What Is Environmental Degradation
Effects Of Land Degradation
Environmental Issue Essay
Urbanization and Environmental Degradation
Environmental Pollution and Degradation
Haiti Environmental Degradation
The Issue Of Environmental Degradation Essay
Environmental Degradation Of The Environment
Similar to 02 07-Joan Martinez-Alier The alliance between the Environmental Justice movements of the South, and the small Degrowth movement in the North (20)
GraphSummit Singapore | The Future of Agility: Supercharging Digital Transfor...Neo4j
Leonard Jayamohan, Partner & Generative AI Lead, Deloitte
This keynote will reveal how Deloitte leverages Neo4j’s graph power for groundbreaking digital twin solutions, achieving a staggering 100x performance boost. Discover the essential role knowledge graphs play in successful generative AI implementations. Plus, get an exclusive look at an innovative Neo4j + Generative AI solution Deloitte is developing in-house.
Pushing the limits of ePRTC: 100ns holdover for 100 daysAdtran
At WSTS 2024, Alon Stern explored the topic of parametric holdover and explained how recent research findings can be implemented in real-world PNT networks to achieve 100 nanoseconds of accuracy for up to 100 days.
Smart TV Buyer Insights Survey 2024 by 91mobiles.pdf91mobiles
91mobiles recently conducted a Smart TV Buyer Insights Survey in which we asked over 3,000 respondents about the TV they own, aspects they look at on a new TV, and their TV buying preferences.
Epistemic Interaction - tuning interfaces to provide information for AI supportAlan Dix
Paper presented at SYNERGY workshop at AVI 2024, Genoa, Italy. 3rd June 2024
https://alandix.com/academic/papers/synergy2024-epistemic/
As machine learning integrates deeper into human-computer interactions, the concept of epistemic interaction emerges, aiming to refine these interactions to enhance system adaptability. This approach encourages minor, intentional adjustments in user behaviour to enrich the data available for system learning. This paper introduces epistemic interaction within the context of human-system communication, illustrating how deliberate interaction design can improve system understanding and adaptation. Through concrete examples, we demonstrate the potential of epistemic interaction to significantly advance human-computer interaction by leveraging intuitive human communication strategies to inform system design and functionality, offering a novel pathway for enriching user-system engagements.
Removing Uninteresting Bytes in Software FuzzingAftab Hussain
Imagine a world where software fuzzing, the process of mutating bytes in test seeds to uncover hidden and erroneous program behaviors, becomes faster and more effective. A lot depends on the initial seeds, which can significantly dictate the trajectory of a fuzzing campaign, particularly in terms of how long it takes to uncover interesting behaviour in your code. We introduce DIAR, a technique designed to speedup fuzzing campaigns by pinpointing and eliminating those uninteresting bytes in the seeds. Picture this: instead of wasting valuable resources on meaningless mutations in large, bloated seeds, DIAR removes the unnecessary bytes, streamlining the entire process.
In this work, we equipped AFL, a popular fuzzer, with DIAR and examined two critical Linux libraries -- Libxml's xmllint, a tool for parsing xml documents, and Binutil's readelf, an essential debugging and security analysis command-line tool used to display detailed information about ELF (Executable and Linkable Format). Our preliminary results show that AFL+DIAR does not only discover new paths more quickly but also achieves higher coverage overall. This work thus showcases how starting with lean and optimized seeds can lead to faster, more comprehensive fuzzing campaigns -- and DIAR helps you find such seeds.
- These are slides of the talk given at IEEE International Conference on Software Testing Verification and Validation Workshop, ICSTW 2022.
Essentials of Automations: The Art of Triggers and Actions in FMESafe Software
In this second installment of our Essentials of Automations webinar series, we’ll explore the landscape of triggers and actions, guiding you through the nuances of authoring and adapting workspaces for seamless automations. Gain an understanding of the full spectrum of triggers and actions available in FME, empowering you to enhance your workspaces for efficient automation.
We’ll kick things off by showcasing the most commonly used event-based triggers, introducing you to various automation workflows like manual triggers, schedules, directory watchers, and more. Plus, see how these elements play out in real scenarios.
Whether you’re tweaking your current setup or building from the ground up, this session will arm you with the tools and insights needed to transform your FME usage into a powerhouse of productivity. Join us to discover effective strategies that simplify complex processes, enhancing your productivity and transforming your data management practices with FME. Let’s turn complexity into clarity and make your workspaces work wonders!
DevOps and Testing slides at DASA ConnectKari Kakkonen
My and Rik Marselis slides at 30.5.2024 DASA Connect conference. We discuss about what is testing, then what is agile testing and finally what is Testing in DevOps. Finally we had lovely workshop with the participants trying to find out different ways to think about quality and testing in different parts of the DevOps infinity loop.
The Art of the Pitch: WordPress Relationships and SalesLaura Byrne
Clients don’t know what they don’t know. What web solutions are right for them? How does WordPress come into the picture? How do you make sure you understand scope and timeline? What do you do if sometime changes?
All these questions and more will be explored as we talk about matching clients’ needs with what your agency offers without pulling teeth or pulling your hair out. Practical tips, and strategies for successful relationship building that leads to closing the deal.
A tale of scale & speed: How the US Navy is enabling software delivery from l...sonjaschweigert1
Rapid and secure feature delivery is a goal across every application team and every branch of the DoD. The Navy’s DevSecOps platform, Party Barge, has achieved:
- Reduction in onboarding time from 5 weeks to 1 day
- Improved developer experience and productivity through actionable findings and reduction of false positives
- Maintenance of superior security standards and inherent policy enforcement with Authorization to Operate (ATO)
Development teams can ship efficiently and ensure applications are cyber ready for Navy Authorizing Officials (AOs). In this webinar, Sigma Defense and Anchore will give attendees a look behind the scenes and demo secure pipeline automation and security artifacts that speed up application ATO and time to production.
We will cover:
- How to remove silos in DevSecOps
- How to build efficient development pipeline roles and component templates
- How to deliver security artifacts that matter for ATO’s (SBOMs, vulnerability reports, and policy evidence)
- How to streamline operations with automated policy checks on container images
Transcript: Selling digital books in 2024: Insights from industry leaders - T...BookNet Canada
The publishing industry has been selling digital audiobooks and ebooks for over a decade and has found its groove. What’s changed? What has stayed the same? Where do we go from here? Join a group of leading sales peers from across the industry for a conversation about the lessons learned since the popularization of digital books, best practices, digital book supply chain management, and more.
Link to video recording: https://bnctechforum.ca/sessions/selling-digital-books-in-2024-insights-from-industry-leaders/
Presented by BookNet Canada on May 28, 2024, with support from the Department of Canadian Heritage.
Communications Mining Series - Zero to Hero - Session 1DianaGray10
This session provides introduction to UiPath Communication Mining, importance and platform overview. You will acquire a good understand of the phases in Communication Mining as we go over the platform with you. Topics covered:
• Communication Mining Overview
• Why is it important?
• How can it help today’s business and the benefits
• Phases in Communication Mining
• Demo on Platform overview
• Q/A
GraphSummit Singapore | The Art of the Possible with Graph - Q2 2024Neo4j
Neha Bajwa, Vice President of Product Marketing, Neo4j
Join us as we explore breakthrough innovations enabled by interconnected data and AI. Discover firsthand how organizations use relationships in data to uncover contextual insights and solve our most pressing challenges – from optimizing supply chains, detecting fraud, and improving customer experiences to accelerating drug discoveries.
Dr. Sean Tan, Head of Data Science, Changi Airport Group
Discover how Changi Airport Group (CAG) leverages graph technologies and generative AI to revolutionize their search capabilities. This session delves into the unique search needs of CAG’s diverse passengers and customers, showcasing how graph data structures enhance the accuracy and relevance of AI-generated search results, mitigating the risk of “hallucinations” and improving the overall customer journey.
State of ICS and IoT Cyber Threat Landscape Report 2024 previewPrayukth K V
The IoT and OT threat landscape report has been prepared by the Threat Research Team at Sectrio using data from Sectrio, cyber threat intelligence farming facilities spread across over 85 cities around the world. In addition, Sectrio also runs AI-based advanced threat and payload engagement facilities that serve as sinks to attract and engage sophisticated threat actors, and newer malware including new variants and latent threats that are at an earlier stage of development.
The latest edition of the OT/ICS and IoT security Threat Landscape Report 2024 also covers:
State of global ICS asset and network exposure
Sectoral targets and attacks as well as the cost of ransom
Global APT activity, AI usage, actor and tactic profiles, and implications
Rise in volumes of AI-powered cyberattacks
Major cyber events in 2024
Malware and malicious payload trends
Cyberattack types and targets
Vulnerability exploit attempts on CVEs
Attacks on counties – USA
Expansion of bot farms – how, where, and why
In-depth analysis of the cyber threat landscape across North America, South America, Europe, APAC, and the Middle East
Why are attacks on smart factories rising?
Cyber risk predictions
Axis of attacks – Europe
Systemic attacks in the Middle East
Download the full report from here:
https://sectrio.com/resources/ot-threat-landscape-reports/sectrio-releases-ot-ics-and-iot-security-threat-landscape-report-2024/
GridMate - End to end testing is a critical piece to ensure quality and avoid...ThomasParaiso2
End to end testing is a critical piece to ensure quality and avoid regressions. In this session, we share our journey building an E2E testing pipeline for GridMate components (LWC and Aura) using Cypress, JSForce, FakerJS…
SAP Sapphire 2024 - ASUG301 building better apps with SAP Fiori.pdfPeter Spielvogel
Building better applications for business users with SAP Fiori.
• What is SAP Fiori and why it matters to you
• How a better user experience drives measurable business benefits
• How to get started with SAP Fiori today
• How SAP Fiori elements accelerates application development
• How SAP Build Code includes SAP Fiori tools and other generative artificial intelligence capabilities
• How SAP Fiori paves the way for using AI in SAP apps
02 07-Joan Martinez-Alier The alliance between the Environmental Justice movements of the South, and the small Degrowth movement in the North
1. Joan Martinez-Alier
Summer School Env Justice ICTA UAB 2012
The alliance between the
Environmental Justice
movements of the South,
and the small Degrowth
movement in the North
2. Social Metabolism
• Energy cannot be recycled, therefore even an
economy that would not grow but that would
use large amounts of fossil fuels, would need
“fresh” supplies coming from the commodity
frontiers.
• The same applies to materials, which in
practice are recycled only to some extent
(like copper, aluminium, steel or paper).
• When the economy grows, the search for
materials and energy sources is of course
even greater.
3. Social Metabolism
There is “accumulation by dispossession” (Harvey,
2003) or Raubwirtschaft (as geographers called it
100 years ago, e.g. Jean Brunhes),
and there is “accumulation through contamination”,
meaning that profits increase by the ability to
dispose of the “effluents of affluence” and other
waste (such as CO2) at zero or low cost.
This does not indicate so much a market failure as a
(provisional) cost-shifting success
4. The potential alliance of southern EJOs with
the Degrowth movement in the North
Common perspective against the hegemony
of economic accounting in favour of
pluralism of values,
defence of human rights, indigenous
territorial rights, and the Rights of Nature,
feminist Neo-Malthusianism,
recognition of environmental liabilities and
the climate debt, the critique of ecologically
unequal exchange because the export trade
in commodities goes together with socio-
environmental damage.
5. TRENDS: loss of biodiversity
• 20 years after the 1992 UN Rio de Janeiro
conference 1992, the EU and UN objective of
halting the loss of biodiversity by the year
2010 has not been achieved and it has been
ditched in practice.
• The HANPP (human appropriation of net
primary production) puts increasing pressure
on biodiversity. (Tree plantations, agro-fuels,
feedstuffs for cattle and pigs, land
grabbing…).
6. UN rhetoric
• In Rio 1992, “sustainable development”
• In Rio + 20, in 2012, “green economy”
improved human well-being and social equity,
while reducing environmental risks and scarcities
• In Rio + 40 in 2032, “sustainable economy”?
• In Rio + 60 in 2052, “green development”?
• Meanwhile …
8. TRENDS
• Biodiversity loss is sometimes seen as a market
failure to be corrected by suitable pricing. At
other times bad governance, unsuitable
institutions, and neoliberal policies are blamed.
• However, the main underlying cause of the loss
of biodiversity is the increased social
metabolism of the human economy.
• This would be similar under Keynesian social-
democratic policies, or indeed under communist
economic systems, if the technologies and levels
of population and per capita consumption were
as those of today.
9. TRENDS: increased concentration of
carbon dioxide in the atmosphere
• Until 2007 emissions of CO2 were increasing
by 3% per year. After a halt in 2008-09, they
are now bound to increase again unless
there is economic degrowth. They should
decrease as soon as possible by 50%
according to the IPCC.
• To the failure of the Kyoto agreement of 1997
(not ratified by the USA) was added the lack
of agreement on emission reductions in
Copenhagen in December 2009, in Cancun in
2010, in Durban in 2011 at the COP
(conference of polluters).
10. TRENDS
• CO2 concentration was about 300 ppm when
Arrhenius (1895) wrote about the enhanced
greenhouse effect; it is now reaching 400 ppm.
The yearly increase is 2 ppm. Little is done in
practice to reverse this trend.
• Most CO2 emissions by the economy are from
burning fossil fuels. Peak oil in the Hubbert curve
is now near. Natural (and shale?) gas peak
extraction perhaps in thirty-forty years.
• This means more burning of coal although the
production of CO2 per unit of energy from coal is
larger than for oil and gas.
11. TRENDS: towards degrowth in rich
economics leading to a steady state?
Taking into account other trends like the drop in
the availability of many edible species of fish, the
spread of nuclear energy and its military
proliferation, and the approaching “peak
phosphorous”,
it is time to go back to the debates of the
1970s on the desirability of a steady-state
economy in rich countries, and indeed of a
period of degrowth (décroissance,
decrescita) in terms of the use of energy and
materials in the economy.
12. Debates of the 1970s on GDP,
stationary state, degrowth
• People refer to Stiglitz/Sen in 2009 as
intellectual forces behind the critique of
GDP. Travesty of facts.
• From the 1970s, Georgescu-Roegen,
Roefie Hueting, Herman Daly… already
did this (and battled Stiglitz and Solow).
And Sicco Mansholt.
• And André Gorz, Ivan Ilich… or feminist
ecological economists like Marilyn
Waring’s Counting for nothing (1988).
13. Peak population: love one another
more, and do not multiply so much
• One welcome trend is the rapid decrease in
the rate of growth of the human population.
• Peak population, probably at 8.5 billion in
2045. Then, some degrowth.
• The debates between Malthusians and
Marxists, and between Malthusians and
economists who favour population growth,
are still relevant today as also the doctrines
of feminist Neo-Malthusians of 1880-1920.
15. One favourable trend
• Time for acknowledging Neo-
Malthusianism of the radical, feminist
type of 1880-1920 (Emma Goldmann,
Madeleine Pelletier, Maria Lacerda de
Moura).
• Depopulation studies, as a growing
academic subject.
16. Malthusianism of T.R. Malthus (1798)
Population undergoes exponential growth
unless checked by war and pestilence, or by
chastity and late marriages. Food grows less
than proportionately to the labour input,
because of decreasing returns. Hence,
subsistence crises.
To improve the situation of the poor was
useless because they immediately have more
children.
17. Varieties of Neo-Malthusianism
• NEO-MALTHUSIANISM OF 1900.- Human populations
could regulate their own growth through contraception.
Women’s freedom was required for this, and desirable
for its own sake. Poverty was explained by social
inequality but “conscious procreation” was needed to
prevent low wages and pressure on natural resources.
This was a successful bottom-up movement in Europe
and America against States and Churches. (In S. India,
E K Ramaswamy, “Periyar”: anti-caste, anti-religious Neo
Malthusian).
• NEO-MALTHUSIANISM AFTER 1970.- A doctrine and
practice sponsored by international organizations and
some governments. Population growth is seen as a main
cause of poverty and environmental degradation.
Therefore States must introduce contraceptive methods,
even without women’s prior consent.
18. THE ENVIRONMENTALISM OF
THE POOR, and the EJOs
• Another welcome trend is the growth of the
environmentalism of the poor and of
indigenous people.
• Activists and communities at the commodity
frontiers are sometimes able together with
EJOs and their netowrks to stop extraction of
minerals and destruction of habitats and
human livelihoods.
19. The environmentalism of the poor
• They exercise the right to previous consent
under Convention 169 of ILO applied to
indigenous communities, or they introduce
institutions such as local referendums on
mining (as in Esquel and Tambogrande)
• or develop new plans for leaving fossil fuels
in the ground as in the Yasuní oilfields in
Ecuador.
• Successful attempts have been made to
bring to court Shell for what it does in the
Niger Delta or Chevron-Texaco for what it did
in Ecuador.
• Women are often in the lead in such
movements.
20. Kalinganagar, Orissa, monument to those killed on
2 Jan.06 defeding their land against TATA
photo 2 Jan 2007: Leah Temper, UAB
21. Texaco – in the northern Amazonia of Ecuador
Texaco (Chevron) extracted 1.500 Milllion barrels of oil
La selva es nuestro hospital …
from 1965 to 1990. To save costs, the company threw the
“extraction water” to ponds that frequently overflow, and which
were not lined to prevent seepage.
Judge Zambrano’s decision of 14 Febr. 2011 quotes Chevron-
Texaco’s sources recognizing over 15 000 million galons.
la selva es nuestro mercado … Gas has been flared, but (different to the Delta of the Niger) this
has not been a matter of controversy in the court case.
Many indigenous groups living in the forest suffered very much:
Cofanes, Secoyas... Two groups (Tetetes i Sansahuari) went
extint.
Settlers were attracted by the roads openened by the oil
la selva es nuestra universidad …
company, they also suffered from pollution. The court case has
been supported by both indigenous and settler populations. One
main leader of the Frente is Luis Yanza, and the local lawyer is
Pablo Fajardo, both from settlers (colonos) families.
Fotos: KS, LS a Oil in Ecuador. A human energy story (H.Quante), www.texacotoxico.org
22. The Chevron-Texaco case in Ecuador,
the Shell case in Nigeria…
• What were the real costs of oil extracted in
Ecuador by Texaco (now Chevron) between
1965 and 1990? What are the real costs of oil
extracted by Shell in the Niger Delta since the
1970s?
• Both companies have offered a few million
dollars from time to time for remediation, but
both are now involved in court cases where the
costs are assessed (by the plaintiffs and/or the
judges) in billions of dollars.
23. The items in the compensation
in the Texaco Chevron case
• USD 600 million for cleaning up groundwaters
• USD 5.396 million to clean up the soils in and around the
wastewater ponds (based on the area in question).
• USD 200 million (10 million per year for 20 years) to
recuperate flora and fauna
• USD 150 million to bring drinkable water into the area.
• USD 1.400 millones for damages which cannot be
repaired such as lost health
• USD 100 million for cultural damages to indigenous
groups and for “ethnic restoration”
• USD 800 million to improve public health in the area.
• Then, 10% on top of the above sums was granted to the
Frente de Defensa de la Amazonia for management
expenditures.
24. A reasonable sentence
• It goes beyond “strict” liability (objective
damage), there is culpability, without any
admittance of guilt by Chevron-Texaco
• There was great environmental and social
damage, incuding irreparable damage. A
relatively small expenditure could have been
done easily to avoid risks.
• A fine of USD 9.5 billion (or double, if the
company did not apologize) is large, it will
make some impact on the company, but it
does not bankrupt the company.
25. Will environmental justice be done?
• I would like environmental justice to be done against
transnational companies in overseas territories, and also
against rich states in the climate justice issue.
• Instead, Lawrence Summers´ principle is applied as a
matter of course to resource extraction or waste
disposal.
• Nevertheless, for the analyst, if justice is not done, this is
also interesting. It supports the idea that the economy
regularly achieves cost-shifting succeses.
• So-called “externalities” should be the main topic of
study for students of economics. What is not counted in
money terms is possibly more important than what is
counted in money terms.
26. Why the increasing number of
ecological distribution conflicts?
• The increased social metabolism causes
resource extraction conficts (fossil fuels,
other minerals, biomass) and also
transport conflict and waste disposal
conflicts.
• The main waste disposal conflict is related
to the excessive amounts of greenhouse
gases. Who is the owner of the
atmosphere and the oceans as dumping
places for carbon dioxide? How to achieve
Climate Justice?
27. Conflicts on resource extraction, on
transport, on waste disposal
• Resource extraction: mining conflicts,
fossil fuels,biomass (paper, biomass for
agrofuels, fisheries…)
• Transport – new roads, etc (e.g. IIRSA in
Latin America and the Brazilian public
works “empreiteiras”)
• Waste disposal, greenhouse gases, also
shipbreaking, e-waste exports… (Basel
treaty)
28. Methods for the study of Social
Metabolism
• Increased Material Flows (in tons)
• Increased energy flows (and decreasing
EROI)
• Increased flows on “virtual water” in
exports of soybeans, ethanol, cellulose…
• Increased HANPP, including the
“embodied HANPP”
29. Political Ecology
• From case-studies we should move to
producing inventories and maps of
ecological distribution conflicts (as J F
Gerber on tree plantation conflicts, in
GEC, 2011), drawing on the activist
knowledge of the EJOs.
• This is what the EJOLT project, 2011-15,
will do, www.ejolt.org
31. REACTIONS & PROPOSALS
• In Peru, e.g., new environmental justice
organizations (CONACAMI), new
movements like Tierra y Libertad (Land
and Freedom) with Marco Arana.
• In Ecuador, a new post-extractivist
proposal (Alberto Acosta), the Yasuni ITT.
• In Latin America, Africa, claims for the
repayment of the Ecological Debt (as in
Copenhagen Dec. 2009).
32. YASUNIZANDO:
The Yasuni ITT proposal
• Ecuador proposed in 2007 to leave oil in the ground
(850 million barrels) in the Yasuni ITT field – to
respect indigenous rights, keep biodiversity, avoid
carbon emissions.
• They ask for partial outside compensation, 3.600 M
US$ – about one half of lost revenues.
• The Trust Fund under UNDP administration was set
up in August 2010. Investments would go for energy
transition and social investments.
• This is an initiative to be imitated. We cannot burn all
the oil, gas and coal in the ground at the presentr
speed because of climate change. How to select the
places where it is best to keep oil, gas or coal in the
ground? Are all values commensurable?
33.
34. The GDP of the Poor
• In the TEEB project (The Economics of
Ecosystems and Biodiversity) 2008-11,
sponsored by UNEP, the idea of the GDP of
the poor was introduced (based on
experience in India).
• People who are poor cannot buy clean water
(when the water is polluted by mining
companies), cannot acquire a new place to
live when they are displaced by a dam. Their
losses are unaccounted for.
• Therefore they complain. This is the
Environmentalism of the poor and the
Indigenous.
35. The Niyamgiri hill in Orissa is
sacred to the Dongria Kondh.
It was threatened by bauxite
mining by the Vedanta
company from London.
We could ask the Dongria
Kondh: How much for your
God? How much for the
services provided by your
God?
37. Valuation Languages
• Who has the right (or the power) to simplify
complexity and impose one language of
valuation?
• Incommensurability of values against
imposed commensuration, are at the root of
ecological economics (JMA, Ecological
Economics, 1987).
• Going back to the Socialist Calculation
Debate of the 1920s-30: Otto Neurath vs. Von
Mises and Hayek.
38. From activism to public policy and to science: the
Ecological Debt
39. The Climate Debt
• Not only the Climate Justice activists, also
many governments of relatively poor
countries now claim the repayment of the
ecological debt, a slogan first raised in Latin
America among the EJOs in 1991.
• The United States, the European Union and
Japan do not acknowledge this debt.
However, in Copenhagen in December 2009
at least 20 heads of government or ministers
explicitly mentioned the ecological debt (or
climate debt) in their speeches, some using
also the loaded word “reparations”.
40. The Climate Debt
• Pablo Solon, Bolivia’s ambassador to the UN, said
that "admitting responsibility for the climate crisis
without taking necessary actions to address it is like
someone burning your house and then refusing to
pay for it… It is entirely unjustifiable that countries
like Bolivia are now forced to pay for the crisis
• … Our glaciers dwindle, droughts become ever more
common, and water supplies are drying up. Who
should address this? To us it seems only right that
the polluter should pay, and not the poor. We are not
assigning guilt, merely responsibility. As they say in
the US, if you break it, you buy it."
41. The Climate Debt
The background to Solon’s speech was
Todd Stern’s statement (as US negotiator)
at a press conference in Copenhagen on
10th Dec. 2009: "We absolutely recognize
our historic role in putting emissions in the
atmosphere up there… But the sense of
guilt or culpability or reparations - I just
categorically reject that."
42. The Climate Debt: Bhagwati’s
rejoinder
• A rejoinder to this controversy came from an
unexpected author, economist Jagdish Bhagwati
(Financial Times, 22 Febr. 2010).
• Apparently unaware of the activist and academic
debate on the ecological debt since 1991, he wrote
that the U.S. in addressing domestic pollution
created the Superfund legislation in 1980 after the
Love Canal accident that requires hazardous waste
to be eliminated by the offending company.
• “This tort liability is also "strict", such that it exists
even if the material discharged was not known at the
time to be hazardous (as carbon emissions were
until recently). In addition, the people hurt can make
their own tort claims”.
43. The Climate Debt: Bhagwati’s
rejoinder (cont.)
• Rejecting this legal tradition in U.S. domestic
pollution, Todd Stern, the principal U.S. negotiator,
refused to concede any liability for past emissions
(…) Evidently, the U.S. needs to reverse this stand.
Each of the rich countries needs to accept a tort
liability which can be pro rata to the
Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change-
estimated share of historic world carbon emissions.
• Since the payment would be on the tort principle, the
idea that the funds would substitute for normal aid
would be outrageous: you do not take away the
pension of a person who has won a tort settlement.”
44. Environmental Liabilities
• Ecological Debts = Environmental Liabilities.
• Sometimes liabilities can be translated into a
money payment (compensatory and punitive)
for damages. This is appropriate in a forensic
context (Chevron, Shell).
• Sometimes, it is difficult to put a money
value – present value of damage to future
generations?, to disappearing unknown
species?
• Oil spill by BP in Gulf of Mexico, red mud
spill in Hungary, TEPCOS’s liabilities after
Fukushima nuclear disaster…
45. From science to activism: new proposals.
Sustainable peasant agriculture cools down the earth
46. The EROI of agriculture and the Via
Campesina
In the1970s, taking up H. T. Odum’s view of modern
agriculture as “farming with petroleum”, researchers did
accounts of the energetics of agricultural systems.
Pimentel (1973) in Science showed that the energy
output-input ratio of corn production in Iowa or Illinois
was lower than that for the old milpa corn production
system of rural Mexico.
From an economic point of view, modern agriculture
increased productivity per unit of labour and to
some extent per hectare but from a physical point of
view, it lowered the energy efficiency.
47. L’agricultura contadina rinfresca la
terra
• Via Campesina, a peasant and small farmer
international coalition is now very much
present in the climate change debate,
• its thesis: “sustainable peasant agriculture
cools down the earth”
• an argument partly based on the fact that
modern industrial agriculture is “no longer a
producer of energy but a consumer of
energy”. Studies on the EROI of agriculture
(the energy return on energy input) since the
1970s back up this position.
48. Some final comments on the
Alliance between the EJOs
(enviromental justice
organizations) and the small
Degrowth movement in the
North
50. Publication from Paris April 2008 conference
Special Issue, Journal of Cleaner Production (a journal of
industrial ecology) 2010
Crisis or Opportunity? Economic Degrowth for Social Equity and
Ecological Sustainability
Edited by F. Schneider, G. Kallis, J. Martinez-Alier
• Editorial - Serge Latouche
• Why environmental sustainability can most probably not be attained
with growing production, Roefie Hueting
• Energy transition towards economic and environmental
sustainability: feasible paths and policy implications, Simone
D’Alessandro Tommaso Luzzati Mario Morroni
• Relax about GDP growth: implications for climate and crisis, Jeroen
van den Bergh
• Impact caps: why population, affluence and technology strategies
should be abandoned, Blake Alcott…
• 12 articles and book reviews (incl. Tim Jackson, Peter Victor…)
51. Finances and (De)-Growth
• The economy has three levels (F. Soddy,
1926), the financial, the “productive”, and the
ecological.
• Debts increase exponentially, they can be
paid only by economic growth (or by
inflation, and by squeezing the debtors).
• However, economic growth of the productive
economy depends largely on the available
energy and materials. “The entropy law and
the economic process”, Georgescu-Roegen
(1971).
52. www.degrowth.eu
• Degrowth conference in Barcelona 26-29 March
2010 (500 activists and academics).
• From activism to a research programme on
the environmental, technological,
demographic, social, socio-psychological
aspects of “socially sustainable economic
degrowth leading to a steady-state
economy”. This largely overlaps with
research on “socio-ecological transitions”
• Special issues in Ecological Economics, Futures,
Journal of Cleaner Production…
53. Not all debts will be paid
• As we move into degrowth and then a
steady state, not all debts will be paid.
• Stupid excessive alarm about the end of
the EU (which is needed to stop
nationalisms is Europe). What is the
problem with a re-structuring of the debt in
Greece, Portugal…(I wrote two years
ago)? No problem.
54. The Southern EJOs’ potential alliance with
the small Degrowth movement in the North
• Economic growth cannot be stopped in the South.
• The alliance shares a common perspective
against the hegemony of economic
accounting in favour of pluralism of values,
support for bottom up feminist neo-
Malthusianism, defence of human rights,
indigenous territorial rights, and the Rights
of Nature, the recognition of environmental
liabilities and the climate debt,
• and the critique of ecologically unequal
exchange because the export trade in
commodities goes together with socio-
environmental damage.
55. Final thought: Degrowth in
London
• In Jan. 2010 there was a small conference in
on Degrowth (Décroissance) organized by
Hali Healy and the NEF in The Hub, London.
• A man from Oxfam blogged that Degrowth
was continental nonsense. We need to open
borders to exports from the South, he said.
He didn’t grasp the concepts of ecologically
unequal trade and ecological debt.
• Oxfam is an admirable organization. But we
call this attitude (Alf Hornborg’s term) “The
White Consumers’ Burden”.
56. Appendix
A comment on Tim Jackson’s
Prosperity without Growth
and its similarities and differences with
Degrowth
57. Coincidences and differences
with Tim Jackson’s Prosperity
without Growth
• Stop growth in rich countries. Degrowth in energy
and materials (and CO2 emissions) as a step
towards Daly’s “steady state”.
• Because of trend to increase labour productivity,
non-growth means increase in unemployment. For
TJ this is very important.
• For TJ – promote “Cinderella” (or News from
Nowhere) sector with low productivity but
satisfactory and useful work. Make ecological
investments of low profitability but labour intensive.
• For Degrowth, main policy: Basic Citizens’ Income.
• For both, Work Sharing is recommended.
58. TJ vs Degrowth
• TJ: impossibility of growth by showing the
implausible increase in carbon efficiency that
would be required. He also mentions
rebound effect. He does no emphasize
biodiversity loss.
• TJ acknowledges H. Daly but not NGR’s
Démain la Décroissance (1979).
• TJ almost unaware of K. Polanyi, A.Gorz, I.
Illich, M.Mauss,M. Sahlins, S. Latouche… i.e.
cultural critique from economic anthropology
against the generalized market system.
59. T.J. unaware of critiques of
development
• From the 1970s, critiques by Arturo Escobar,
Shiv Visvanathan, Ashish Nandy, Gustavo
Esteva… Development means a uniform
path. Serge Latouche belongs to this current.
• Now, new voices in the South – Alberto
Acosta, Eduardo Gudynas, “Buen Vivir”.
• This parallels but it is different (and older)
that the discussion on Easterlin paradox, the
Kahneman critiques…
60. TJ vs Degrowth
• TJ does not discuss Democracy and the Steady
State. He writes for economists. GDP is silly and
wrong, better use other indicators. This is agreed.
• Then, for instance, we see that Cuba does better
than expected by its GDP per capita with regard to
infant mortality. USA does worse.
• But no statistics on Cuban “life satisfaction” or
“happiness”. Why? Is the Cuban economy
desirable?
• Instead, there is a lively discussion on Democracy /
Autonomy in the Degrowth movement. TJ does not
quote Castoriadis.
61. TJ vs Degrowth
• TJ writes that “Degrowth is unstable”. This has been
quoted with relish by the partisans of a “green
economy” (which is the UNEP Rio+20 reincarnation
of “sustainable development”).
• TJ means that Degrowth leads to unemployment,
therefore lack of effective demand, more
unemployment, state expenditures for the
unemployed, fiscal crisis of the state…
• We know all this. Nobody is preaching Degrowth for
ever. False debate between Degrowth and Steady
State (going back to NGR excessive strictures
against Hermand Daly).
62. TJ vs Degrowth: ecological macroeconomics
and defaulting (to some extent) the debt
• TJ is better than the Degrowth literature in his
discussion of debt and money (although he does not
quote F. Soddy). He is very innovative (with Peter
Victor) in his post-Keynesian ecological
macroeconomics without growth.
• The Degrowth literature does not really engage with
macroeconomics (beyond criticism of GDP).
• However, TJ is politically careful: a) TJ is afraid to
call for debt default or restructuring (cf. with
Latouche’s advice to his Greek friends), b) he does
not explain how an economy without a positive profit
rate, a positive interest rate, and discounting, would
work, and if it woud still be a capitalist economy.
63. TJ vs Degrowth: money
• TJ talks about the money system (incuding
Daly’s proposal of 100% reserve system
for banks) but he does not take a cklear
position himself. For instance, banking as
a regulated public service.
• The Degrowth literature is very keen on
alternative local money systems, on barter
systems, but they do not really discuss
money is a world of interconnected states.
64. TJ and Degrowth:migration
• NGR had a clear position on migration. It was a
human right to live wherever you wanted to live.
• TJ and the Degrowth movt. are not so outspoken. TJ
does not mention migration. The Degrowth literature
says nothing. And Herman Daly is against migration
from South to North (this is linked to the Democracy
and Degrowth / Steady State discussion, because
allowing people to die in large quantities by
preventing migration is not democratic).
• One way out is to assume that a steady state or
degrowing economy in the North would indeed leave
more room for economic growth in the South and
therefore would level our the enormous economic
differences that exist at present.
65. TJ and Degrowth: on international
trade and Ecological Debt
TJ looks at flows of materials and energy, showing
how the rich areas depends on cheap imports. Also,
carbon intensity of exports from EU is larger than
carbon intensity of imports.
• Neither TJ nor Degrowth emphasize the movements
of the South demanding environmental justice,
complaining against ecologically unequal trade.
• TJ mentions “ecological debt” but prefers not to
frighten his readers, and he does not explain the
activist and scholarly debates on the Ecological Debt
(since 1991). But Latouche is not very good on this,
either.
66. TJ vs Degrowth: on population
• On population, TJ is perhaps too pessimistic –
probably “peak population” reached in 2045 at 8.5
billion . This is good for the Steady State.
• The Degrowth literature is not comfortable when
discussion population. They do not want to be seen
as “Malthusian”.
• Instead, both TJ and Degrowth should build on F.
d’Eaubonne’s ecofeminism, and on the radical, Neo-
Malthusian feminism of 1900 (Emma Goldman,
Madeleine Pelletier, Maria Lacerda de Moura).(In
India, E.K. Ramaswamy, “Periyar”).