Nancy Langston
- Published in print:
- 2017
- Published Online:
- May 2018
- ISBN:
- 9780300212983
- eISBN:
- 9780300231663
- Item type:
- book
- Publisher:
- Yale University Press
- DOI:
- 10.12987/yale/9780300212983.001.0001
- Subject:
- Environmental Science, Nature
Sustaining Lake Superior asks, What can we learn from the conservation recoveries of Lake Superior over the past century as we face new challenges of persistent pollutants that are mobilizing with ...
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Sustaining Lake Superior asks, What can we learn from the conservation recoveries of Lake Superior over the past century as we face new challenges of persistent pollutants that are mobilizing with climate change? Communities around Lake Superior have long struggled to address pollution concerns, and local, regional, and international efforts met with significant successes in the twentieth century. Pollution—and concerns about that pollution—have a complex history in the Great Lakes. As soon as industrial development burgeoned in the region during the nineteenth century, people began trying to comprehend and control industrial wastes. Some of the earliest efforts to control pollution worked surprisingly well, for they rested on understandings of natural resiliency that made a great deal of sense at the time—and still have much to teach us. The nature of pollutants has changed since World War II, but, nevertheless, exploring the success—and failures—of pollution control in the past can help us devise resilient strategies for facing the challenges of pollution in a globalized, warming world.Less
Sustaining Lake Superior asks, What can we learn from the conservation recoveries of Lake Superior over the past century as we face new challenges of persistent pollutants that are mobilizing with climate change? Communities around Lake Superior have long struggled to address pollution concerns, and local, regional, and international efforts met with significant successes in the twentieth century. Pollution—and concerns about that pollution—have a complex history in the Great Lakes. As soon as industrial development burgeoned in the region during the nineteenth century, people began trying to comprehend and control industrial wastes. Some of the earliest efforts to control pollution worked surprisingly well, for they rested on understandings of natural resiliency that made a great deal of sense at the time—and still have much to teach us. The nature of pollutants has changed since World War II, but, nevertheless, exploring the success—and failures—of pollution control in the past can help us devise resilient strategies for facing the challenges of pollution in a globalized, warming world.
Anna Lora-Wainwright
- Published in print:
- 2017
- Published Online:
- January 2018
- ISBN:
- 9780262036320
- eISBN:
- 9780262341097
- Item type:
- book
- Publisher:
- The MIT Press
- DOI:
- 10.7551/mitpress/9780262036320.001.0001
- Subject:
- Political Science, Environmental Politics
Pollution is one of the most pressing issues facing contemporary China and among the most prominent causes for unrest. Much of industry and mining takes place in rural areas, yet we know little about ...
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Pollution is one of the most pressing issues facing contemporary China and among the most prominent causes for unrest. Much of industry and mining takes place in rural areas, yet we know little about how rural communities affected by severe pollution make sense of it and the diverse form of activism they embrace. This book describes some of these engagements with pollution through three in-depth case studies based on the author’s fieldwork and an analysis of “cancer villages” examined in existing social science accounts. It challenges assumptions that villagers are ignorant about pollution or fully complicit with it and it looks beyond high-profile cases and beyond single strategies. It examines how villagers’ concerns and practices evolve over time and how pollution may become normalised. Through the concept of “resigned activism”, it advocates rethinking conventional approaches to activism to encompass less visible forms of engagement. It offers insights into the complex dynamics of popular contention, environmental movements and their situatedness within local and national political economies. Describing a likely widespread scenario across much of industrialised rural China, this book provides a window onto the staggering human costs of development and the deeply uneven distribution of costs and benefits. It portrays rural environmentalism and its limitations as prisms through which to study key issues surrounding contemporary Chinese culture and society, such as state responsibility, social justice, ambivalence towards development and modernisation and some of the new fault lines of inequality and social conflict which they generate.Less
Pollution is one of the most pressing issues facing contemporary China and among the most prominent causes for unrest. Much of industry and mining takes place in rural areas, yet we know little about how rural communities affected by severe pollution make sense of it and the diverse form of activism they embrace. This book describes some of these engagements with pollution through three in-depth case studies based on the author’s fieldwork and an analysis of “cancer villages” examined in existing social science accounts. It challenges assumptions that villagers are ignorant about pollution or fully complicit with it and it looks beyond high-profile cases and beyond single strategies. It examines how villagers’ concerns and practices evolve over time and how pollution may become normalised. Through the concept of “resigned activism”, it advocates rethinking conventional approaches to activism to encompass less visible forms of engagement. It offers insights into the complex dynamics of popular contention, environmental movements and their situatedness within local and national political economies. Describing a likely widespread scenario across much of industrialised rural China, this book provides a window onto the staggering human costs of development and the deeply uneven distribution of costs and benefits. It portrays rural environmentalism and its limitations as prisms through which to study key issues surrounding contemporary Chinese culture and society, such as state responsibility, social justice, ambivalence towards development and modernisation and some of the new fault lines of inequality and social conflict which they generate.
David M. Williams and Andrew P. White
- Published in print:
- 1991
- Published Online:
- September 2018
- ISBN:
- 9780969588504
- eISBN:
- 9781786944931
- Item type:
- chapter
- Publisher:
- Liverpool University Press
- DOI:
- 10.5949/liverpool/9780969588504.003.0025
- Subject:
- History, Maritime History
A bibliography of post-graduate theses concerning Oil, subdivided into Historical and Modern Studies, and exploring the topics as follows: Seabed Exploitation; Offshore Operations; the North Sea; and ...
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A bibliography of post-graduate theses concerning Oil, subdivided into Historical and Modern Studies, and exploring the topics as follows: Seabed Exploitation; Offshore Operations; the North Sea; and Other Locations.Less
A bibliography of post-graduate theses concerning Oil, subdivided into Historical and Modern Studies, and exploring the topics as follows: Seabed Exploitation; Offshore Operations; the North Sea; and Other Locations.
Simon Avenell
- Published in print:
- 2017
- Published Online:
- September 2017
- ISBN:
- 9780824867133
- eISBN:
- 9780824873721
- Item type:
- chapter
- Publisher:
- University of Hawai'i Press
- DOI:
- 10.21313/hawaii/9780824867133.003.0002
- Subject:
- History, Asian History
The chapter explores the roots of Japanese activists’ environmental injustice paradigm in the country’s industrial pollution crisis of the 1960s and early 1970s. The chapter pays particular attention ...
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The chapter explores the roots of Japanese activists’ environmental injustice paradigm in the country’s industrial pollution crisis of the 1960s and early 1970s. The chapter pays particular attention to the Research Committee on Pollution, a group of leading antipollution advocates whose involvement in the domestic movement as scientific and professional specialists deeply shaped their approach to environmental problems and nurtured a desire to communicate Japan’s traumatic experience to the world. The chapter shows how their experiences with local industrial pollution victims combined with their scientific training had the capacity to stimulate transnational activism.Less
The chapter explores the roots of Japanese activists’ environmental injustice paradigm in the country’s industrial pollution crisis of the 1960s and early 1970s. The chapter pays particular attention to the Research Committee on Pollution, a group of leading antipollution advocates whose involvement in the domestic movement as scientific and professional specialists deeply shaped their approach to environmental problems and nurtured a desire to communicate Japan’s traumatic experience to the world. The chapter shows how their experiences with local industrial pollution victims combined with their scientific training had the capacity to stimulate transnational activism.
John Waldman
- Published in print:
- 2012
- Published Online:
- May 2013
- ISBN:
- 9780823249855
- eISBN:
- 9780823252589
- Item type:
- book
- Publisher:
- Fordham University Press
- DOI:
- 10.5422/fordham/9780823249855.001.0001
- Subject:
- History, Environmental History
New York Harbor is a sprawling network of tidal bays, inlets, channels, and creeks set within both the broader Hudson Estuary and the urban matrix of New York City. Many natural habitats may be ...
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New York Harbor is a sprawling network of tidal bays, inlets, channels, and creeks set within both the broader Hudson Estuary and the urban matrix of New York City. Many natural habitats may be found in the Harbor, from freshwater and brackish wetlands, to boulder and bedrock shores, to sand beaches, that together with strong seasonal temperature swings results in high biodiversity. This diversity includes odd tropical fishes that arrive via the Gulf Stream, local fish and shellfish of high historical or contemporary importance for food and sport such as oysters, sturgeon, eels, and striped bass, and recovered populations of wading birds such as herons, egrets, and ibis. With the great immigrant waves at the end of the nineteenth century New York's population swelled, but with no sewage treatment, all human wastes entered the Harbor's waters in raw form and accreting to as much as ten-feet thick, overwhelming the Harbor's animal life. This ecological and human health crisis led to slow actions and improvements in controlling pollution, but none more so than the Clean Water Act of 1972. New York Harbor has experienced profound physical alteration since the Colonial era, including dredged channels, filling of wetlands, creation of artificial islands, construction of piers and sea walls, and the blasting of reefs hazardous to navigation, such as in Hell Gate in the East River. A recent emphasis on habitat restoration is partly the product of cleaner water allowing the return of life. The state of the environment of New York Harbor is very different from its pre-Colonial condition but it has recovered to a reasonable level of ecological functionality. Its legacy of polluted sediments remains but is slowly improving, as are other indicators of overall ecological health, but it still faces concerns such as climate change, sea level rise, alien species, combined sewer overflows, and lingering chemical contamination. The Harbor also has been rediscovered as a recreational and educational amenity.Less
New York Harbor is a sprawling network of tidal bays, inlets, channels, and creeks set within both the broader Hudson Estuary and the urban matrix of New York City. Many natural habitats may be found in the Harbor, from freshwater and brackish wetlands, to boulder and bedrock shores, to sand beaches, that together with strong seasonal temperature swings results in high biodiversity. This diversity includes odd tropical fishes that arrive via the Gulf Stream, local fish and shellfish of high historical or contemporary importance for food and sport such as oysters, sturgeon, eels, and striped bass, and recovered populations of wading birds such as herons, egrets, and ibis. With the great immigrant waves at the end of the nineteenth century New York's population swelled, but with no sewage treatment, all human wastes entered the Harbor's waters in raw form and accreting to as much as ten-feet thick, overwhelming the Harbor's animal life. This ecological and human health crisis led to slow actions and improvements in controlling pollution, but none more so than the Clean Water Act of 1972. New York Harbor has experienced profound physical alteration since the Colonial era, including dredged channels, filling of wetlands, creation of artificial islands, construction of piers and sea walls, and the blasting of reefs hazardous to navigation, such as in Hell Gate in the East River. A recent emphasis on habitat restoration is partly the product of cleaner water allowing the return of life. The state of the environment of New York Harbor is very different from its pre-Colonial condition but it has recovered to a reasonable level of ecological functionality. Its legacy of polluted sediments remains but is slowly improving, as are other indicators of overall ecological health, but it still faces concerns such as climate change, sea level rise, alien species, combined sewer overflows, and lingering chemical contamination. The Harbor also has been rediscovered as a recreational and educational amenity.
Katy Layton-Jones
- Published in print:
- 2016
- Published Online:
- May 2016
- ISBN:
- 9780719099694
- eISBN:
- 9781526104038
- Item type:
- chapter
- Publisher:
- Manchester University Press
- DOI:
- 10.7228/manchester/9780719099694.003.0004
- Subject:
- History, British and Irish Modern History
Throughout the eighteenth and nineteenth centuries, improvements to urban landscapes, their profitability, and populations were made across Great Britain. Some took the form of new commercial ...
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Throughout the eighteenth and nineteenth centuries, improvements to urban landscapes, their profitability, and populations were made across Great Britain. Some took the form of new commercial facilities, such as docks and warehouses, while others served the physical and psychological needs of residents and took the form of walks, public parks, cemeteries, and hospitals. Chapter three traces the ways in which such improvements influenced the changing form and representation of British provincial towns. Contrary to received historical wisdom that presumes many such improvements were conceived as antidotes to urbanization, this chapter will demonstrate how green spaces, docks, chimneys, and colleges were designed and represented as equal and intrinsic components of the urban realm.Less
Throughout the eighteenth and nineteenth centuries, improvements to urban landscapes, their profitability, and populations were made across Great Britain. Some took the form of new commercial facilities, such as docks and warehouses, while others served the physical and psychological needs of residents and took the form of walks, public parks, cemeteries, and hospitals. Chapter three traces the ways in which such improvements influenced the changing form and representation of British provincial towns. Contrary to received historical wisdom that presumes many such improvements were conceived as antidotes to urbanization, this chapter will demonstrate how green spaces, docks, chimneys, and colleges were designed and represented as equal and intrinsic components of the urban realm.
John Waldman
- Published in print:
- 2012
- Published Online:
- May 2013
- ISBN:
- 9780823249855
- eISBN:
- 9780823252589
- Item type:
- chapter
- Publisher:
- Fordham University Press
- DOI:
- 10.5422/fordham/9780823249855.003.0004
- Subject:
- History, Environmental History
With the great immigrant waves at the end of the nineteenth century New York's population swelled, but with no sewage treatment, all human wastes entered the Harbor's waters in raw form, overwhelming ...
More
With the great immigrant waves at the end of the nineteenth century New York's population swelled, but with no sewage treatment, all human wastes entered the Harbor's waters in raw form, overwhelming its ecology. In some places raw sewage was as much as ten feet thick. This ecological and human health crisis led to slow actions and improvements in controlling pollution, but none more so than the Clean Water Act of 1972. One irony is that the foul waters protected the Harbor's piers from marine borers, which became a problem as water quality rebounded. However, dead end systems such as Gowanus Canal and Newtown Creek still suffer substantial water quality degradation.Less
With the great immigrant waves at the end of the nineteenth century New York's population swelled, but with no sewage treatment, all human wastes entered the Harbor's waters in raw form, overwhelming its ecology. In some places raw sewage was as much as ten feet thick. This ecological and human health crisis led to slow actions and improvements in controlling pollution, but none more so than the Clean Water Act of 1972. One irony is that the foul waters protected the Harbor's piers from marine borers, which became a problem as water quality rebounded. However, dead end systems such as Gowanus Canal and Newtown Creek still suffer substantial water quality degradation.
Jussi Parikka
- Published in print:
- 2018
- Published Online:
- May 2020
- ISBN:
- 9781474420570
- eISBN:
- 9781474453905
- Item type:
- chapter
- Publisher:
- Edinburgh University Press
- DOI:
- 10.3366/edinburgh/9781474420570.003.0010
- Subject:
- Philosophy, Aesthetics
In this chapter Jussi Parikka discusses air pollution and waste as media, data and environmental art created in the contemporary smart city. The way these, otherwise unwanted, elements are sensed and ...
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In this chapter Jussi Parikka discusses air pollution and waste as media, data and environmental art created in the contemporary smart city. The way these, otherwise unwanted, elements are sensed and perceived unveil the political subjectivity in an urban context and as data feedback from various readings, understandings and governance of the city. This sort of a materiality is one that is about folds between architectures, data and the chemistry of the air -a sort of a media ecology of multiple materialities. The creative power of smog that intertwines old computational infrastructures of urban pollution and new infrastructures such as monitors, programming and data storage is explained. The chapter focuses on urban environments as defined by the emergence of new forms of measurement of the city -and its airborne pollution - through smog sensors. The smart, modern city as defined through its unwanted elements, in this case, pollution and waste, are further discussed.Less
In this chapter Jussi Parikka discusses air pollution and waste as media, data and environmental art created in the contemporary smart city. The way these, otherwise unwanted, elements are sensed and perceived unveil the political subjectivity in an urban context and as data feedback from various readings, understandings and governance of the city. This sort of a materiality is one that is about folds between architectures, data and the chemistry of the air -a sort of a media ecology of multiple materialities. The creative power of smog that intertwines old computational infrastructures of urban pollution and new infrastructures such as monitors, programming and data storage is explained. The chapter focuses on urban environments as defined by the emergence of new forms of measurement of the city -and its airborne pollution - through smog sensors. The smart, modern city as defined through its unwanted elements, in this case, pollution and waste, are further discussed.
Louise Edwards
- Published in print:
- 2013
- Published Online:
- January 2014
- ISBN:
- 9789888139972
- eISBN:
- 9789888180967
- Item type:
- chapter
- Publisher:
- Hong Kong University Press
- DOI:
- 10.5790/hongkong/9789888139972.003.0010
- Subject:
- Society and Culture, Asian Studies
This chapter shows how Cao Xueqin used food and beverages to mark boundaries between the pure and the profane in the Jia clan mansions. The division between purity and profanity in the novel stands ...
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This chapter shows how Cao Xueqin used food and beverages to mark boundaries between the pure and the profane in the Jia clan mansions. The division between purity and profanity in the novel stands as the core of the moral and spiritual problems it explores. Previous research has explored the roles of sex, age, space and art, for example, in signalling shifts in the stability of the distinction between purity and profanity. This paper extends that framework to examine the role that food and drink play in the pollution of the protected world of Daguan yuan (Prospect Garden). It argues that Cao Xueqin provided readers with keys presaging the dismantling of the garden and the decline of the Jia family in his use of food and drink and in the discussion about their exchange and consumption.Less
This chapter shows how Cao Xueqin used food and beverages to mark boundaries between the pure and the profane in the Jia clan mansions. The division between purity and profanity in the novel stands as the core of the moral and spiritual problems it explores. Previous research has explored the roles of sex, age, space and art, for example, in signalling shifts in the stability of the distinction between purity and profanity. This paper extends that framework to examine the role that food and drink play in the pollution of the protected world of Daguan yuan (Prospect Garden). It argues that Cao Xueqin provided readers with keys presaging the dismantling of the garden and the decline of the Jia family in his use of food and drink and in the discussion about their exchange and consumption.
Ramprasad Sengupta
- Published in print:
- 2013
- Published Online:
- May 2013
- ISBN:
- 9780198081654
- eISBN:
- 9780199082407
- Item type:
- chapter
- Publisher:
- Oxford University Press
- DOI:
- 10.1093/acprof:oso/9780198081654.003.0009
- Subject:
- Economics and Finance, Development, Growth, and Environmental
The chapter discusses the resource balance between the demand and availability of water – a critical resource for agriculture and livelihood security – in global as well as Indian context. The data ...
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The chapter discusses the resource balance between the demand and availability of water – a critical resource for agriculture and livelihood security – in global as well as Indian context. The data and discussion of basin wise balances of surface and ground water indicate widely varying severity of ecological limitations of water resources over regions due to uneven spatial and temporal distribution of precipitation in India. It critically discusses all the important options of water resource development – like large storage development, inter-river linking, micro water shed development, and ground water conservation. It further reviews the ground water revolution of India augmenting agrarian productivity as well as its attendant problem of conflicts over the rights of its use, and policy issues relating to water institutions for equitable sharing of the scarce resource. It further discusses the sources of qualitative degradation of the resource, its valuation and control including government policies and actions.Less
The chapter discusses the resource balance between the demand and availability of water – a critical resource for agriculture and livelihood security – in global as well as Indian context. The data and discussion of basin wise balances of surface and ground water indicate widely varying severity of ecological limitations of water resources over regions due to uneven spatial and temporal distribution of precipitation in India. It critically discusses all the important options of water resource development – like large storage development, inter-river linking, micro water shed development, and ground water conservation. It further reviews the ground water revolution of India augmenting agrarian productivity as well as its attendant problem of conflicts over the rights of its use, and policy issues relating to water institutions for equitable sharing of the scarce resource. It further discusses the sources of qualitative degradation of the resource, its valuation and control including government policies and actions.
Ramprasad Sengupta
- Published in print:
- 2013
- Published Online:
- May 2013
- ISBN:
- 9780198081654
- eISBN:
- 9780199082407
- Item type:
- chapter
- Publisher:
- Oxford University Press
- DOI:
- 10.1093/acprof:oso/9780198081654.003.0012
- Subject:
- Economics and Finance, Development, Growth, and Environmental
The chapter focuses on the analysis of energy resource balance and the ecological limits on energy resources with special reference to the oil crisis in both the global and the Indian context. It ...
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The chapter focuses on the analysis of energy resource balance and the ecological limits on energy resources with special reference to the oil crisis in both the global and the Indian context. It discusses the roles of fossil fuels, nuclear energy, hydro resources, renewables like biomass, bioliquids and other aboitic renewables particularly wind and solar energy resources in providing the energy security for India with some sectorwise details as well as their implications in respect of environmental degradation over the full life cycle of their respective uses. The chapter further discusses the economic effects of the ecological limits as expressed in the forms of resource scarcity and environmental pollution. It then reviews the trend of past energy and carbon efficiency of India and the projections of the same in future as per the study of the expert group of the planning commission and discusses their policy implicationsLess
The chapter focuses on the analysis of energy resource balance and the ecological limits on energy resources with special reference to the oil crisis in both the global and the Indian context. It discusses the roles of fossil fuels, nuclear energy, hydro resources, renewables like biomass, bioliquids and other aboitic renewables particularly wind and solar energy resources in providing the energy security for India with some sectorwise details as well as their implications in respect of environmental degradation over the full life cycle of their respective uses. The chapter further discusses the economic effects of the ecological limits as expressed in the forms of resource scarcity and environmental pollution. It then reviews the trend of past energy and carbon efficiency of India and the projections of the same in future as per the study of the expert group of the planning commission and discusses their policy implications
Mukul Sharma
- Published in print:
- 2017
- Published Online:
- March 2018
- ISBN:
- 9780199477562
- eISBN:
- 9780199090969
- Item type:
- book
- Publisher:
- Oxford University Press
- DOI:
- 10.1093/oso/9780199477562.001.0001
- Subject:
- History, Indian History, Social History
Rarely do Indian environmental discourses examine nature through the lens of caste. Whereas nature is considered as universal and inherent, caste is understood as a constructed historical and social ...
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Rarely do Indian environmental discourses examine nature through the lens of caste. Whereas nature is considered as universal and inherent, caste is understood as a constructed historical and social entity. Mukul Sharma shows how caste and nature are intimately connected. He compares Dalit meanings of environment to ideas and practices of neo-Brahmanism and certain mainstreams of environmental thought. Showing how Dalit experiences of environment are ridden with metaphors of pollution, impurity, and dirt, the author is able to bring forth new dimensions on both environment and Dalits, without valourizing the latter’s standpoint. Rather than looking for a coherent understanding of their ecology, the book explores the diverse and rich intellectual resources of Dalits, such as movements, songs, myths, memories, and metaphors around nature. These reveal their quest to define themselves in caste-ridden nature and building a form of environmentalism free from the burdens of caste. The Dalits also pose a critical challenge to Indian environmentalism, which has, until now, marginalized such linkages between caste and nature.Less
Rarely do Indian environmental discourses examine nature through the lens of caste. Whereas nature is considered as universal and inherent, caste is understood as a constructed historical and social entity. Mukul Sharma shows how caste and nature are intimately connected. He compares Dalit meanings of environment to ideas and practices of neo-Brahmanism and certain mainstreams of environmental thought. Showing how Dalit experiences of environment are ridden with metaphors of pollution, impurity, and dirt, the author is able to bring forth new dimensions on both environment and Dalits, without valourizing the latter’s standpoint. Rather than looking for a coherent understanding of their ecology, the book explores the diverse and rich intellectual resources of Dalits, such as movements, songs, myths, memories, and metaphors around nature. These reveal their quest to define themselves in caste-ridden nature and building a form of environmentalism free from the burdens of caste. The Dalits also pose a critical challenge to Indian environmentalism, which has, until now, marginalized such linkages between caste and nature.
Anna Lora-Wainwright
- Published in print:
- 2017
- Published Online:
- January 2018
- ISBN:
- 9780262036320
- eISBN:
- 9780262341097
- Item type:
- chapter
- Publisher:
- The MIT Press
- DOI:
- 10.7551/mitpress/9780262036320.003.0002
- Subject:
- Political Science, Environmental Politics
Chapter 2 examines the emergence of China’s “cancer villages”—village-sized clusters of high cancer incidence—and their significance. It overviews how media accounts discursively shaped their social, ...
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Chapter 2 examines the emergence of China’s “cancer villages”—village-sized clusters of high cancer incidence—and their significance. It overviews how media accounts discursively shaped their social, political and epistemological nature. It develops a typology of cancer villagers based on a close analysis of a selected number of cases examined in recent qualitative research (Chen et al 2013). These relatively high-profile, politically active cases provide a useful background against which to compare the less visibly active case studies examined in later chapters. They illustrate a broader range of activist practices, but they also show that such strategies are often ineffective. Ultimately, these examples suggest that “cancer villages” are not an epidemiologically uncontested label but rather a cultural, social, economic and political phenomenon. Further, they prove that scientific evidence is not the most important element in gaining redress. Rather, it is socio-economic contexts, the persistence of the local population’s complaints and their ability to threaten social stability which largely determines the ways in which polluting firms and the local government may respond. This point is further supported by the book’s three case studies, in which scientific evidence plays a relatively minor role in villagers’ reckonings about environmental health effects and in their demands for redress.Less
Chapter 2 examines the emergence of China’s “cancer villages”—village-sized clusters of high cancer incidence—and their significance. It overviews how media accounts discursively shaped their social, political and epistemological nature. It develops a typology of cancer villagers based on a close analysis of a selected number of cases examined in recent qualitative research (Chen et al 2013). These relatively high-profile, politically active cases provide a useful background against which to compare the less visibly active case studies examined in later chapters. They illustrate a broader range of activist practices, but they also show that such strategies are often ineffective. Ultimately, these examples suggest that “cancer villages” are not an epidemiologically uncontested label but rather a cultural, social, economic and political phenomenon. Further, they prove that scientific evidence is not the most important element in gaining redress. Rather, it is socio-economic contexts, the persistence of the local population’s complaints and their ability to threaten social stability which largely determines the ways in which polluting firms and the local government may respond. This point is further supported by the book’s three case studies, in which scientific evidence plays a relatively minor role in villagers’ reckonings about environmental health effects and in their demands for redress.
Donald Worster
- Published in print:
- 1994
- Published Online:
- November 2020
- ISBN:
- 9780195092646
- eISBN:
- 9780197560693
- Item type:
- chapter
- Publisher:
- Oxford University Press
- DOI:
- 10.1093/oso/9780195092646.003.0015
- Subject:
- Environmental Science, Environmentalist Thought and Ideology
The first thing to know when starting to climb a hill is where the summit lies. The second is that there are no completely painless ways to get there. Failing to know ...
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The first thing to know when starting to climb a hill is where the summit lies. The second is that there are no completely painless ways to get there. Failing to know those things may lead one up a deceptively easy path that never reaches the top but meanders off into a dead-end, frustrating the climber and wasting energy. The currently popular slogan of “sustainable development” threatens to become such a road. Though appealing at first view, it appeals particularly to people who are disheartened by the long, arduous hike they see ahead of them or who don’t really have a clear notion of what the principal goal of environmental politics ought to be. After much milling about in a confused, contentious mood, they have discovered what looks like a broad easy path where all kinds of people can walk along together, and they hurry toward it, unaware that it may be going in the wrong direction. When contemporary environmentalism first emerged in the 1960s and ′70s, and before its goals became obscured by political compromising and diffusion, the destination was more obvious and the route more clear. The goal was to save the living world around us, millions of species of plants and animals, including humans, from destruction by our technology, population, and appetites. The only way to do that, it was easy enough to see, was to think the radical thought that there must be limits to growth in three areas—limits to population, limits to technology, and limits to appetite and greed. Underlying that insight was a growing awareness that the progressive, secular, and materialist philosophy on which modern life rests, indeed on which Western civilization has rested for the past three hundred years, is deeply flawed and ultimately destructive to ourselves and the whole fabric of life on the planet. The only true, certain way to the environmental goal, therefore, was to challenge that philosophy at its foundation and find a new one based on material simplicity and spiritual richness—to find other ends to life than production and consumption.
Less
The first thing to know when starting to climb a hill is where the summit lies. The second is that there are no completely painless ways to get there. Failing to know those things may lead one up a deceptively easy path that never reaches the top but meanders off into a dead-end, frustrating the climber and wasting energy. The currently popular slogan of “sustainable development” threatens to become such a road. Though appealing at first view, it appeals particularly to people who are disheartened by the long, arduous hike they see ahead of them or who don’t really have a clear notion of what the principal goal of environmental politics ought to be. After much milling about in a confused, contentious mood, they have discovered what looks like a broad easy path where all kinds of people can walk along together, and they hurry toward it, unaware that it may be going in the wrong direction. When contemporary environmentalism first emerged in the 1960s and ′70s, and before its goals became obscured by political compromising and diffusion, the destination was more obvious and the route more clear. The goal was to save the living world around us, millions of species of plants and animals, including humans, from destruction by our technology, population, and appetites. The only way to do that, it was easy enough to see, was to think the radical thought that there must be limits to growth in three areas—limits to population, limits to technology, and limits to appetite and greed. Underlying that insight was a growing awareness that the progressive, secular, and materialist philosophy on which modern life rests, indeed on which Western civilization has rested for the past three hundred years, is deeply flawed and ultimately destructive to ourselves and the whole fabric of life on the planet. The only true, certain way to the environmental goal, therefore, was to challenge that philosophy at its foundation and find a new one based on material simplicity and spiritual richness—to find other ends to life than production and consumption.
Sigmund F. Zakrzewski (ed.)
- Published in print:
- 2002
- Published Online:
- November 2020
- ISBN:
- 9780195148114
- eISBN:
- 9780197565629
- Item type:
- chapter
- Publisher:
- Oxford University Press
- DOI:
- 10.1093/oso/9780195148114.003.0017
- Subject:
- Chemistry, Environmental Chemistry
Coal is now used mainly as fuel for the production of electricity. Worldwide about 28% of commercial energy production depends on coal. In the United States it is ...
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Coal is now used mainly as fuel for the production of electricity. Worldwide about 28% of commercial energy production depends on coal. In the United States it is about 31% and in some coal rich but oil poor countries such as China, Germany, Poland and the Czech Republic the figures are 73%, 56%, 95% and 86%, respectively (1). Because of the ample supply of available coal, dependence on coal as an energy source will probably remain high for some time to come. However, coal is the most polluting of all fuels; its main pollutants are sulfur dioxide and suspended particulate matter (SPM). Depending on its origin, coal contains between 1 and 2.5% or more sulfur. This sulfur comes in three forms: pyrite (FeS2), organic bound sulfur, and a very small amount of sulfates (2). Upon combustion, about 15% of the total sulfur is retained in the ashes. The rest is emitted with flue gases, mostly as SO2 but also, to a lesser extent, as SO3. This mixture is frequently referred to as SOx (2). The three basic approaches to the control of SOx emission are prepurification of coal before combustion, removal of sulfur during combustion, and purification of flue gases. The first approach, referred to as a benefication process, is based on a difference in specific gravity between coal (sp gr = 1.2–1.5) and pyrite (sp gr = 5). Although the technical arrangements may vary, in essence the procedure involves floating the crushed coal in a liquid of specific gravity between that of pure coal and that of pyrite. Coal is removed from the surface while pyrite and other minerals settle to the bottom. Coal benefication can reduce sulfur content by about 40% (2). Although gravity separation is presently the only procedure in use, research was initiated on microbial purification of coal. A research project conducted by the Institute of Gas Technology, with funding from the U.S. Department of Energy, was aimed at the development of genetically engineered bacteria capable of removing organic sulfur from coal. Inorganic sulfur can be removed by the naturally occurring bacteria Thiobacillus ferrooxidans, Thiobacillus thiooxidans, and Sulfolobus acidocaldarius (3).
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Coal is now used mainly as fuel for the production of electricity. Worldwide about 28% of commercial energy production depends on coal. In the United States it is about 31% and in some coal rich but oil poor countries such as China, Germany, Poland and the Czech Republic the figures are 73%, 56%, 95% and 86%, respectively (1). Because of the ample supply of available coal, dependence on coal as an energy source will probably remain high for some time to come. However, coal is the most polluting of all fuels; its main pollutants are sulfur dioxide and suspended particulate matter (SPM). Depending on its origin, coal contains between 1 and 2.5% or more sulfur. This sulfur comes in three forms: pyrite (FeS2), organic bound sulfur, and a very small amount of sulfates (2). Upon combustion, about 15% of the total sulfur is retained in the ashes. The rest is emitted with flue gases, mostly as SO2 but also, to a lesser extent, as SO3. This mixture is frequently referred to as SOx (2). The three basic approaches to the control of SOx emission are prepurification of coal before combustion, removal of sulfur during combustion, and purification of flue gases. The first approach, referred to as a benefication process, is based on a difference in specific gravity between coal (sp gr = 1.2–1.5) and pyrite (sp gr = 5). Although the technical arrangements may vary, in essence the procedure involves floating the crushed coal in a liquid of specific gravity between that of pure coal and that of pyrite. Coal is removed from the surface while pyrite and other minerals settle to the bottom. Coal benefication can reduce sulfur content by about 40% (2). Although gravity separation is presently the only procedure in use, research was initiated on microbial purification of coal. A research project conducted by the Institute of Gas Technology, with funding from the U.S. Department of Energy, was aimed at the development of genetically engineered bacteria capable of removing organic sulfur from coal. Inorganic sulfur can be removed by the naturally occurring bacteria Thiobacillus ferrooxidans, Thiobacillus thiooxidans, and Sulfolobus acidocaldarius (3).
Nancy Langston
- Published in print:
- 2017
- Published Online:
- May 2018
- ISBN:
- 9780300212983
- eISBN:
- 9780300231663
- Item type:
- chapter
- Publisher:
- Yale University Press
- DOI:
- 10.12987/yale/9780300212983.003.0003
- Subject:
- Environmental Science, Nature
For fifty years, paper towns along Lake Superior boomed: Marathon, Terrace Bay, Thunder Bay, Ontonagon, Munising. But the human and environmental costs of intensive pulp production began to emerge ...
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For fifty years, paper towns along Lake Superior boomed: Marathon, Terrace Bay, Thunder Bay, Ontonagon, Munising. But the human and environmental costs of intensive pulp production began to emerge soon after World War II. Anishinaabe communities were displaced from forests, suffering intense poverty and social displacement. First Nations communities in Grassy Narrows, Ontario, suffered mercury poisoning from the chlor-alkali plants needed for paper bleaching. Dioxin and PCBs created poison legacies that still confound the region. The paper and pulp industry brought three decades of economic growth that benefited many—but certainly not all—of the people living in the Lake Superior basin. Yet the pollution legacies from that boom era have persisted far longer than the economic benefits.Less
For fifty years, paper towns along Lake Superior boomed: Marathon, Terrace Bay, Thunder Bay, Ontonagon, Munising. But the human and environmental costs of intensive pulp production began to emerge soon after World War II. Anishinaabe communities were displaced from forests, suffering intense poverty and social displacement. First Nations communities in Grassy Narrows, Ontario, suffered mercury poisoning from the chlor-alkali plants needed for paper bleaching. Dioxin and PCBs created poison legacies that still confound the region. The paper and pulp industry brought three decades of economic growth that benefited many—but certainly not all—of the people living in the Lake Superior basin. Yet the pollution legacies from that boom era have persisted far longer than the economic benefits.
Nancy Langston
- Published in print:
- 2017
- Published Online:
- May 2018
- ISBN:
- 9780300212983
- eISBN:
- 9780300231663
- Item type:
- chapter
- Publisher:
- Yale University Press
- DOI:
- 10.12987/yale/9780300212983.003.0005
- Subject:
- Environmental Science, Nature
By the late 1950s, the taconite boom that Reserve Mining Company stimulated was having a profound effect on the region’s economy, just as the pulp and paper boom had stimulated the Canadian economy ...
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By the late 1950s, the taconite boom that Reserve Mining Company stimulated was having a profound effect on the region’s economy, just as the pulp and paper boom had stimulated the Canadian economy along Lake Superior. Towns thrived; new cars filled the parking lots where well-paid union workers toiled in the taconite facilities. Schools improved, funded by abundant tax receipts. Harms to the lake from the taconite boom were subtle and hard to pin down whereas the benefits were clear to see: jobs for miners and economic development for the region. Throughout the 1950s, as evidence accumulated that taconite was causing pollution problems, state agencies continued to insist that the industry was harmless. Only after scientists found that asbestos had been mobilized from taconite disposal into the drinking water and bodies of urban residents distant from the disposal site did the federal and state governments question the risks from taconite.Less
By the late 1950s, the taconite boom that Reserve Mining Company stimulated was having a profound effect on the region’s economy, just as the pulp and paper boom had stimulated the Canadian economy along Lake Superior. Towns thrived; new cars filled the parking lots where well-paid union workers toiled in the taconite facilities. Schools improved, funded by abundant tax receipts. Harms to the lake from the taconite boom were subtle and hard to pin down whereas the benefits were clear to see: jobs for miners and economic development for the region. Throughout the 1950s, as evidence accumulated that taconite was causing pollution problems, state agencies continued to insist that the industry was harmless. Only after scientists found that asbestos had been mobilized from taconite disposal into the drinking water and bodies of urban residents distant from the disposal site did the federal and state governments question the risks from taconite.
Nancy Langston
- Published in print:
- 2017
- Published Online:
- May 2018
- ISBN:
- 9780300212983
- eISBN:
- 9780300231663
- Item type:
- chapter
- Publisher:
- Yale University Press
- DOI:
- 10.12987/yale/9780300212983.003.0008
- Subject:
- Environmental Science, Nature
By the 1960s, the failures of research and cooperative pragmatism to control Great Lakes pollution were becoming painfully evident. In 1972 Canada and the United States signed the Great Lakes Water ...
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By the 1960s, the failures of research and cooperative pragmatism to control Great Lakes pollution were becoming painfully evident. In 1972 Canada and the United States signed the Great Lakes Water Quality Agreement. The agreement was groundbreaking in its focus on cleaning up existing pollution and preventing new pollutants, but the International Joint Commission has no authority to force the two nations to implement recommendations. Therefore, when Canada or the United States refuses to abide by the Great Lakes Water Quality Agreement (in its various revisions), very little happens in response—besides calls for more research.Less
By the 1960s, the failures of research and cooperative pragmatism to control Great Lakes pollution were becoming painfully evident. In 1972 Canada and the United States signed the Great Lakes Water Quality Agreement. The agreement was groundbreaking in its focus on cleaning up existing pollution and preventing new pollutants, but the International Joint Commission has no authority to force the two nations to implement recommendations. Therefore, when Canada or the United States refuses to abide by the Great Lakes Water Quality Agreement (in its various revisions), very little happens in response—besides calls for more research.
Jessica Smartt Gullion
- Published in print:
- 2015
- Published Online:
- September 2016
- ISBN:
- 9780262029766
- eISBN:
- 9780262329798
- Item type:
- chapter
- Publisher:
- The MIT Press
- DOI:
- 10.7551/mitpress/9780262029766.003.0004
- Subject:
- Environmental Science, Environmental Studies
This chapter deals specifically with the reported health concerns related to natural gas development (fracking). Included is a discussion of chemicals and pollution and concurrent health effects; ...
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This chapter deals specifically with the reported health concerns related to natural gas development (fracking). Included is a discussion of chemicals and pollution and concurrent health effects; carcinogens; air, water, food, and soil contamination; and cancer clusters.Less
This chapter deals specifically with the reported health concerns related to natural gas development (fracking). Included is a discussion of chemicals and pollution and concurrent health effects; carcinogens; air, water, food, and soil contamination; and cancer clusters.
Jessica Smartt Gullion
- Published in print:
- 2015
- Published Online:
- September 2016
- ISBN:
- 9780262029766
- eISBN:
- 9780262329798
- Item type:
- chapter
- Publisher:
- The MIT Press
- DOI:
- 10.7551/mitpress/9780262029766.003.0009
- Subject:
- Environmental Science, Environmental Studies
This chapter presents a sociology of community-level health threats. A community-level health threat is an event (such as pollution or infectious disease) that has the potential to harm the health of ...
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This chapter presents a sociology of community-level health threats. A community-level health threat is an event (such as pollution or infectious disease) that has the potential to harm the health of any resident in that community. This theory described the ways in which communities react in the face of such a threat, using natural gas developing (fracking) in North Texas as a case study.Less
This chapter presents a sociology of community-level health threats. A community-level health threat is an event (such as pollution or infectious disease) that has the potential to harm the health of any resident in that community. This theory described the ways in which communities react in the face of such a threat, using natural gas developing (fracking) in North Texas as a case study.
