Environmental Engineering Reference
In-Depth Information
jobs and investments made by foreign companies and nations, many of
these gains are modest at best. As the case of the Niger Delta suggests,
investments can leave a legacy of environmental degradation and reinforce
social and ethnic inequalities. Similarly, the case of the Hoodia illustrates
how bioprospecting was pursued without consideration of local San
values and not only affected land claims, but ignored existing social,
ethnic, and cultural norms. Ultimately, this contributed to dissention,
factions, and schisms within traditional communities. Further, the case
of climate injustice in Durban demonstrates the presence of a fundamental
irony. On the one hand, the global North is investing in green technology
and promoting local development in the global South while, on the other
hand, the North continues to engage in consumption patterns that are
placing an extraordinary climate burden on this part of the world.
A second pattern, highlighted by Widener in chapter 8, is that inequal-
ities are not limited to relations between the global North and South,
but are taking place across developing nations. The extractive practices
of multinational corporations, the siting of waste facilities, and reliance
on inexpensive labor continue to promote environmental inequalities
between developed and developing nations. However, the case of China
provides an important counterpoint since it shows how the rise of nations
committed to development, but not to international agreements, envi-
ronmental quality, and human rights, is altering global dynamics. Rather
than focus on how to develop in an environmentally sound fashion,
many developing countries are seeking to provide goods and services at
a rapid rate regardless of the environmental and social impacts. The
result is that while some developed countries are striving to alter their
behavior, some developing countries are perpetuating patterns of global
environmental and social inequality.
Environmental justice scholarship often examines how corporations
and governments are the culprits of inequalities. The cases presented in
this topic are no exception. Quite a few of the chapters draw on exam-
ples from extractive industries. Whether explicit or implicit, they dem-
onstrate that remote demand leads corporations, and in some instances
foreign governments, to initiate activities in distant places. Since many
of the countries where extraction is taking place have rudimentary or no
environmental and labor regulations, several of the chapters affi rm long-
standing patterns where corporate activities reinforce existing legacies of
poverty and pollution.
While traditional pathways of inequality are explored, a third dimen-
sion highlighted by the chapters is that it is important to look beyond
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