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ENVIRONMENTAL JUSTICE
Placing Environmental Reform in a Justice Context
Environmental Justice and Environmental Law, Alice Kaswan, Questions, p. 238
1. How does the author explain the limited success of the environmental justice
movement? Of regulatory efforts to address climate change? Why does she think the
two will have better success in combination?
Environmental justice has had limited success because the civil rights community has
insufficient power. Additionally the movement is too decentralized to be influential in key
national decision making. It also lacks resources – both technical and financial. Permitting
2. What ethical theory aligns best with environmental justice? Is there a theory that might
embrace both models?
3. Research: Are both industry and congressional forces working to block EPA initiatives
and attacking the agency? If so, who is making the argument and what evidence is
being offered to support it?
A web search will lead to several articles on this topic, including:
Food Security and Sustainability
Climate Change, Food Security and Agrobiodiversity: Towards a Just, Resilient and
Sustainable Food System, Carmen G. Gonzalez, Questions, p. 242
1. Identify the crises that Gonzalez mentions, and describe how she views them as
interconnected.
The crises are the narrow, genetic uniformity of the world’s food crop and world hunger.
Increased food production. Measures designed to curb hunger actually increase the loss of
2. According to Gonzalez, what are the root causes of food insecurity?
3. Why is agriculture “the single largest source of anthropogenic GHG emissions?
Agriculture is responsible for 13.5% of GHG emissions, primarily methane and nitrous oxide.
4. Research: Find out more about La Via Campensina, and the various forms the food
sovereignty movement has taken in Venezuela, Ecuador, Nicaragua, and Bolivia.
For more information visit the website:
5. Research: Gonzalez points out that it has been proposed that the successor agreement
to the Kyoto Protocol provide the financing, technology, and research and development
necessary to promote climate change mitigation and adaptation through small-scale
sustainable agriculture. Has this idea come to fruition?
Here is a link to the conference regarding revisions:
CHAPTER PROBLEMS
1. Research: Locate a shareholder resolution dealing with environmental issues. Did it
make it onto the proxy statement for voting? If so, with what result?
2. Research: What are some of the best practices of the C40 Cities group? Is your city
part of the group? What reduction in greenhouse gas emissions take place when people
choose an urban, as opposed to a suburban lifestyle?
3. In July 2013, as part of a countersuit against dozens of people associated with the
Ecuadorian case, Chevron was granted access to more than 100 email accounts of
attorneys, environmental activists and journalists.
(a) What arguments have been made against this corporate access to metadata?
There are several web articles available on this issue including:
There are a variety of arguments, including a potential violation of First Amendment rights.
This access also discourages people from speaking out against environmental destruction.
(b) What reasons has Chevron given for not paying the judgment and for its
counterattacks?
There are also several articles available regarding Chevron’s position, including:
The basis of Chevron’s argument is that the judgment was based on fraud and bribery.
Chevron also contends that state-owned Petroecuador is responsible for most of the pollution.
(c) What happened in June 2013 when the plaintiffs in the contamination case tried to
obtain $96 million that Chevron was awarded by a U.S. Federal Court on an
unrelated claim against the Ecuadorian government?
The plaintiffs were awarded the rights to the funds:
(d) Why is Chevron named as one of the ‘rogue” fossil-fuel companies by
environmental activist Bill McKibben in his 2012 Rolling Stones article “Do the
Math”?
According to McKibben, the fossil-fuel industry is more reckless than any other force on
earth and threatens our survival. Chevron is one of six companies named in the article:
4. Research: Most Americans support the Endangered Species Act (ESA) and want to see
it strengthened. But some want it weakened or repealed. Find out why.
Opponents see the act as expensive and ineffective. They claim it provides no positive
incentives, destroys industries and takes away property rights:
5. Research: What can you find out about the negotiations at the U.N. Biodiversity
Summit in Hyderabad, India in 2012?
One result was an agreed increase in the funding for biodiversity. An article discussing the
negotiations is found here:
6. Research: Find out where the U.S. stands on the environmental performance index.
7. Research: What can you find out about the progress of climate adaptation?
There are several articles available. The EPA site has extensive information:
8. Research: What can you find out about the environmental justice and the following
groups in the aftermath of the gulf spill?
There are several web articles relating to these groups, including those listed below. Some
are specific and others address more than one of the groups.
(a) The African American commercial fishing community:
(b) Southeast Asian fishing families:
(c) The United Houma Nation:
9. Research:
(a) What happened in Kiobel v. Royal Dutch Shell Petroleum?
The Supreme Court held that the Alien Tort Statute did not allow the Nigerian immigrants to
sue Shell for human rights abuses that occurred in Nigeria:
(b) Should global corporations be held responsible for activities like Royal Dutch
Petroleum’s in the Ogoni Delta? Should their corporate leaders be prosecuted
criminally? Should “ecocide” be added to the list of crimes against humanity?
10. Research: Find out whether the EPA has blocked the Aleknagik mine under the Clean
Water Act.
As of February 2014, the EPA is planning to begin a Clean Water Act process that could
result in stopping the mine:
