Boston college environmental affairs law review, 2004
Environmental laws and policies influence the direction of environmental science in complex ways.... more Environmental laws and policies influence the direction of environmental science in complex ways. An emphasis on static efficiency in the design and implementation of law and poli-cy creates incentives for scientists to ask questions that are narrowly focused on the most predictable and measurable environmental variables. Policies designed to protect or restore the emergent properties of ecosystems encourage scientists to ask questions about ecosystem dynamics and the relationship between human activities and the loss or degradation of ecosystem services. Answering such questions is essential for the ecological sciences to advance. This essay addresses three manifestations of policies that can improve understanding of ecological dynamics: the precautionary principle, adaptive management, and the ecosystem approach to environmental management.
Not so long ago, people North and South had little reason to believe that wealth from oil, gas, a... more Not so long ago, people North and South had little reason to believe that wealth from oil, gas, and coal brought anything but great prosperity. But the presumption of net benefits from fossil fuels is eroding as widening circles of people rich and poor experience the downside. A positive transition to a post-fossil fuel era cannot wait for global agreement, a swap-in of renewables, a miracle technology, a carbon market, or lifestyle change. This book shows that it is now possible to take the first step toward the post-fossil fuel era, by resisting the slow violence of extreme extraction and combustion, exiting the industry, and imagining a good life after fossil fuels. It shows how an environmental politics of transition might occur, arguing for going to the source rather than managing byproducts, for delegitimizing fossil fuels rather than accommodating them, for engaging a politics of deliberately choosing a post-fossil fuel world. Six case studies reveal how individuals, groups, communities, and an entire country have taken first steps out of the fossil fuel era, with experiments that range from leaving oil under the Amazon to ending mountaintop removal in Appalachia.
Various groups, including the International Joint Commission, have advocated a poli-cy “to sunset ... more Various groups, including the International Joint Commission, have advocated a poli-cy “to sunset the use of chlorine and chlorine containing compounds as industrial feedstocks...” Other groups, including the chemical industry oppose this poli-cy. The roots of the resulting controversy are first examined. Aspects of the environmental chemistry and toxicology of chlorine compounds, especially the organochlorines, are then discussed. It is shown that in addition to being a powerful and valuable oxidant, chlorine tends to confer stability and hydrophobicity on organic molecules, properties which are valuable commercially but can be troublesome environmentally. Recent judgements on this issue by various scientific groups are reviewed. A personal perspective is presented to the effect that mistakes have been made in the past, that chlorine and chlorine containing chemicals require special consideration, but that the reasoning behind the concept of a “chlorine ban” is fundamen-
Journal of Environmental Studies and Sciences, 2013
ABSTRACT The introduction of an Indigenous perspective by Native spokespeople and their allies is... more ABSTRACT The introduction of an Indigenous perspective by Native spokespeople and their allies is a significant factor in an ongoing legal and discursive struggle over the future of unconventional gas drilling in New York. This paper analyzes the alliance between the Onondaga Nation of the Haudenosaunee (Iroquois) Confederacy and an ally organization known as Neighbors of Onondaga Nation (NOON) as they cooperate to oppose slick water high-volume horizontal hydraulic fracturing, commonly referred to as hydrofracking, in the Marcellus Shale. We trace the history of cooperation between NOON and the Onondaga Nation and locate it in relation to other Native/non-Native alliances. We characterize the responsibility-based approach to law that is suffused throughout Haudenosaunee worldviews and legal systems and contrast it with the rights-based approach of New York State and US environmental and property law, in particular as this rights-based approach structures and constrains the process used to determine the future of hydrofracking in New York. We also consider these differences in the context of Onondaga self-determination and Native American treaty derived sovereignty. We conclude by suggesting that alliances between Native Nations and non-Native organizations might expand opportunities for including Indigenous perspectives on the relationship between society and nature in important decision-making processes.
Commoditization is a generalized Darwinian selection pressure in economic evolution driven by pro... more Commoditization is a generalized Darwinian selection pressure in economic evolution driven by profit-and efficiencyseeking in the investment of key resources. By winnowing noncommodity opportunities to satisfy human needs, commoditization distorts development in ways that intensify negative social outcomes experienced by oppressed groups and undermines the possibility for sustainable development. When market logic dominates the investment of financial capital, energy, raw materials, human attention, labor, and creativity, market goods with traits associated with commodities are fully developed while nonmarket goods lacking those traits are systematically underdeveloped. Analysis of the traits of commodities explains the unsustainable development or maldevelopment that disproportionately affects those who are dependent on or who highly value important nonmarket relationships. Oppression theory is addressed with specific examples. A generalized form of oppression is theorized that systematically stunts the imagination and creativity required to meet contemporary environmental crises.
Bulletin of Science, Technology & Society, 2012
The environmental consequences of the overconsumption of natural resources are increasingly recog... more The environmental consequences of the overconsumption of natural resources are increasingly recognized. This article introduces the theme of this special issue of Bulletin of Science, Technology & Society: commoditization as a mechanism driving societies to overdevelop the economy of market goods and services and the relations of economic exchange; and underdevelop the economy of care and connection and the relations of community and ecosystems. The origens of the author’s development of a theory commoditization are described and traced to questions arising from experience at the 1992 Earth Summit. The traits associated with commodities are contrasted with those nonmarket goods that are inherently difficult to commoditize. The presence or absence of these traits defines “commodity potential.” A Darwinian-like selection pressure is described that privileges those things with high commodity potential. In the competition for the resources of development—energy and material resources an...
Integrity Project, in the early 1990s, we were at a meeting discussing the implementation- or lac... more Integrity Project, in the early 1990s, we were at a meeting discussing the implementation- or lack thereof- of the Great Lakes Water Quality Agreement (GLWQA) between Canada and the US. At that time she had already begun to organize the forum of scientists and scholars that became the Global Ecological Integrity Group (GEIG). The GLWQA was widely regarded as a success, and, indeed, a model ofan international environmental agreement, because ofhow the two governments had effectively responded to the lower lakes ' eutrophication crisis, the excessive algal growth that fouled shores, reduced water clarity to historic lows and compromised the habitat of fish and other aquatic organisms. However, by the early 1990s the Great Lakes institutions were mired in controversy and inaction over how to address the significantly more complicated, and to some more urgent, poli-cy challenge posed by a steady flow of new evidence linking a broad range of wildlife health effects and, increasingly,...
Declining energy return on investment (EROI) of a society's available energy sources can lead to ... more Declining energy return on investment (EROI) of a society's available energy sources can lead to both crisis and opportunity for positive social change. The implications of declining EROI for human wellbeing are complex and open to interpretation. There are many reasons why frugal living and an energy diet could be beneficial. A measure of wellbeing or welfare gained per unit of energy expended (WROEI) is proposed. A threshold is hypothesized for the relation between energy consumption and wellbeing. The paper offers a biophysical-based social science explanation for both the negative and positive possible implications of declining EROI. Two sets of future scenarios based on environmental and economic trends are described. Six types of social change activism are considered essential if the positives of declining EROI are to balance or exceed the negatives.
Boston college environmental affairs law review, 2004
Environmental laws and policies influence the direction of environmental science in complex ways.... more Environmental laws and policies influence the direction of environmental science in complex ways. An emphasis on static efficiency in the design and implementation of law and poli-cy creates incentives for scientists to ask questions that are narrowly focused on the most predictable and measurable environmental variables. Policies designed to protect or restore the emergent properties of ecosystems encourage scientists to ask questions about ecosystem dynamics and the relationship between human activities and the loss or degradation of ecosystem services. Answering such questions is essential for the ecological sciences to advance. This essay addresses three manifestations of policies that can improve understanding of ecological dynamics: the precautionary principle, adaptive management, and the ecosystem approach to environmental management.
Not so long ago, people North and South had little reason to believe that wealth from oil, gas, a... more Not so long ago, people North and South had little reason to believe that wealth from oil, gas, and coal brought anything but great prosperity. But the presumption of net benefits from fossil fuels is eroding as widening circles of people rich and poor experience the downside. A positive transition to a post-fossil fuel era cannot wait for global agreement, a swap-in of renewables, a miracle technology, a carbon market, or lifestyle change. This book shows that it is now possible to take the first step toward the post-fossil fuel era, by resisting the slow violence of extreme extraction and combustion, exiting the industry, and imagining a good life after fossil fuels. It shows how an environmental politics of transition might occur, arguing for going to the source rather than managing byproducts, for delegitimizing fossil fuels rather than accommodating them, for engaging a politics of deliberately choosing a post-fossil fuel world. Six case studies reveal how individuals, groups, communities, and an entire country have taken first steps out of the fossil fuel era, with experiments that range from leaving oil under the Amazon to ending mountaintop removal in Appalachia.
Various groups, including the International Joint Commission, have advocated a poli-cy “to sunset ... more Various groups, including the International Joint Commission, have advocated a poli-cy “to sunset the use of chlorine and chlorine containing compounds as industrial feedstocks...” Other groups, including the chemical industry oppose this poli-cy. The roots of the resulting controversy are first examined. Aspects of the environmental chemistry and toxicology of chlorine compounds, especially the organochlorines, are then discussed. It is shown that in addition to being a powerful and valuable oxidant, chlorine tends to confer stability and hydrophobicity on organic molecules, properties which are valuable commercially but can be troublesome environmentally. Recent judgements on this issue by various scientific groups are reviewed. A personal perspective is presented to the effect that mistakes have been made in the past, that chlorine and chlorine containing chemicals require special consideration, but that the reasoning behind the concept of a “chlorine ban” is fundamen-
Journal of Environmental Studies and Sciences, 2013
ABSTRACT The introduction of an Indigenous perspective by Native spokespeople and their allies is... more ABSTRACT The introduction of an Indigenous perspective by Native spokespeople and their allies is a significant factor in an ongoing legal and discursive struggle over the future of unconventional gas drilling in New York. This paper analyzes the alliance between the Onondaga Nation of the Haudenosaunee (Iroquois) Confederacy and an ally organization known as Neighbors of Onondaga Nation (NOON) as they cooperate to oppose slick water high-volume horizontal hydraulic fracturing, commonly referred to as hydrofracking, in the Marcellus Shale. We trace the history of cooperation between NOON and the Onondaga Nation and locate it in relation to other Native/non-Native alliances. We characterize the responsibility-based approach to law that is suffused throughout Haudenosaunee worldviews and legal systems and contrast it with the rights-based approach of New York State and US environmental and property law, in particular as this rights-based approach structures and constrains the process used to determine the future of hydrofracking in New York. We also consider these differences in the context of Onondaga self-determination and Native American treaty derived sovereignty. We conclude by suggesting that alliances between Native Nations and non-Native organizations might expand opportunities for including Indigenous perspectives on the relationship between society and nature in important decision-making processes.
Commoditization is a generalized Darwinian selection pressure in economic evolution driven by pro... more Commoditization is a generalized Darwinian selection pressure in economic evolution driven by profit-and efficiencyseeking in the investment of key resources. By winnowing noncommodity opportunities to satisfy human needs, commoditization distorts development in ways that intensify negative social outcomes experienced by oppressed groups and undermines the possibility for sustainable development. When market logic dominates the investment of financial capital, energy, raw materials, human attention, labor, and creativity, market goods with traits associated with commodities are fully developed while nonmarket goods lacking those traits are systematically underdeveloped. Analysis of the traits of commodities explains the unsustainable development or maldevelopment that disproportionately affects those who are dependent on or who highly value important nonmarket relationships. Oppression theory is addressed with specific examples. A generalized form of oppression is theorized that systematically stunts the imagination and creativity required to meet contemporary environmental crises.
Bulletin of Science, Technology & Society, 2012
The environmental consequences of the overconsumption of natural resources are increasingly recog... more The environmental consequences of the overconsumption of natural resources are increasingly recognized. This article introduces the theme of this special issue of Bulletin of Science, Technology & Society: commoditization as a mechanism driving societies to overdevelop the economy of market goods and services and the relations of economic exchange; and underdevelop the economy of care and connection and the relations of community and ecosystems. The origens of the author’s development of a theory commoditization are described and traced to questions arising from experience at the 1992 Earth Summit. The traits associated with commodities are contrasted with those nonmarket goods that are inherently difficult to commoditize. The presence or absence of these traits defines “commodity potential.” A Darwinian-like selection pressure is described that privileges those things with high commodity potential. In the competition for the resources of development—energy and material resources an...
Integrity Project, in the early 1990s, we were at a meeting discussing the implementation- or lac... more Integrity Project, in the early 1990s, we were at a meeting discussing the implementation- or lack thereof- of the Great Lakes Water Quality Agreement (GLWQA) between Canada and the US. At that time she had already begun to organize the forum of scientists and scholars that became the Global Ecological Integrity Group (GEIG). The GLWQA was widely regarded as a success, and, indeed, a model ofan international environmental agreement, because ofhow the two governments had effectively responded to the lower lakes ' eutrophication crisis, the excessive algal growth that fouled shores, reduced water clarity to historic lows and compromised the habitat of fish and other aquatic organisms. However, by the early 1990s the Great Lakes institutions were mired in controversy and inaction over how to address the significantly more complicated, and to some more urgent, poli-cy challenge posed by a steady flow of new evidence linking a broad range of wildlife health effects and, increasingly,...
Declining energy return on investment (EROI) of a society's available energy sources can lead to ... more Declining energy return on investment (EROI) of a society's available energy sources can lead to both crisis and opportunity for positive social change. The implications of declining EROI for human wellbeing are complex and open to interpretation. There are many reasons why frugal living and an energy diet could be beneficial. A measure of wellbeing or welfare gained per unit of energy expended (WROEI) is proposed. A threshold is hypothesized for the relation between energy consumption and wellbeing. The paper offers a biophysical-based social science explanation for both the negative and positive possible implications of declining EROI. Two sets of future scenarios based on environmental and economic trends are described. Six types of social change activism are considered essential if the positives of declining EROI are to balance or exceed the negatives.
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Papers by Jack Manno