8. Environmental conflicts and controversies

Question 1

Define what Ecological Distribution Conflicts are

Answer 1

• Ecological Distribution Conflict arise over the unequal distribution of environmental benefits,
• as well as over unequal and unsustainable allocations of environmental burdens, such as pollution or waste.


OR:

• Ecological distribution conflicts are conflicts that arise over the unfair distribution of environmental ‘goods’, such as clean water and air, access to fertile land, and ‘bads’ such as exposure to pollution, health risks, social and cultural identities.
• Martinez-Alier and O’Connor (1996) coined the term ecological distribution conflicts. It described social conflicts arising over the unequal distribution of environmental benefits. These conflicts cannot be solved with money.

Question 2

How do ecological distribution conflicts affect sustainability transitions?

Answer 2

1. Changes in socio‑metabolic configurations redefine distribution of environmental benefits and burdens
2. Ecological distribution conflicts mobilize environmental justice movements
3. Environmental justice movements can support sustainability transitions in various ways
4. Sustainability transitions reshape socio-metabolic configurations

Question 3

What are externalities and what was Kapp’s (1963) argument?

Answer 3

• Externalities are environmental costs that are shifted onto society. Neoclassical economics speaks of externalities as a market failure.
• However, as Kapp (1963) argues, actually externalities are the reasons for market success. Thanks to externalities producers can maximize profits by shifting costs. This way Global North was able to dump waste etc. to Global South.

Question 4

Provide an example of an environmental conflict.

Answer 4

• Standing Rock
• Cochamomba water conflicts
• Masaai warriors in Tanzania
• Israel-Palestina because of control over water resources.
• Wars in Iraq, conflict around control of mineral resource

Question 5

How do Scheidel et al. (2020) define environmental conflicts?

Answer 5

Scheidel et al. (2020 define environmental conflicts as social conflicts related to the environment.

Question 6

Name two characteristics about water grabbing

Answer 6

• Water appropriation can happen through infrastructure, pollution, a shift to water-demanding crops, afforestation.
• Often people that do not have the power to create conflict are the victims
• It is a kind of war on the poor

Question 7

What is social metabolism?

Answer 7

• Social metabolism is society’s processes of extraction, trade and disposals of material and energy. This multidisciplinary concept allows characterizing and quantifying the material and energy exchange processes for specific socio-economic processes as well as different types of societies. Beyond its biophysical dimension, it is shaped by social, political and economic dimensions.

Question 8

Name one limitation of EJAtlas

Answer 8

• Some regions such as parts of Asia have limited coverage. This may result in underrepresentation of actors.
• Some countries are mapped in more detail than others because of better data availability. This makes it hard to compare countries and continents.
• EJAtlas has limited information on environmental conflicts in war zones.

Question 9

What are the three most frequent reported sectors for environmental conflicts?

Answer 9

1. Mining (21%)
2. Energy (17%)
3. Biomass and land use (15%)
   (Scheidel et al., 2020)

Question 10

What is an environmental defender?

Answer 10

Environmental human rights defenders are anyone who is defending environmental rights, including constitutional rights to a clean and healthy environment, when the exercise of those rights is being threatened whether or not they self-identify as human rights defenders. Many environmental defenders engage in their activities through sheer necessity. (UNEP, 2018)

Environmental defenders are individuals and collectives who protect the environment and protest unjust and unsustainable resource uses because of social and environmental reasons. (Scheidel, et al. 2020)

Question 11

Where did environmental justice movements arise

Answer 11

Environmental justice movements arised in the US in the early 1980s. This movement defended people of color against environmental and health damage. (Scheidel, 2018)

Question 12

What do Scheidel et al. say about using different mobilization forms?

Answer 12

• Using different mobilization forms is more effective.
• This is called tactical diversity It reflects a range of skills available in the movement, allows more people to participate in a diverse range of protest activities, and it may turn mobilizations more resilient as claimants can move between protest forms in case of repression of a particular one.
  (Scheidel et al., 2020)

Question 13

What do Scheidel et al. say about alliances?

Answer 13

• Through alliances, mobilizations against unsustainabilities can go beyond Not In My Backyard (NIMBY). (Scheidel, 2018)

Question 14

Why is it easier to halt a project during planning?

Answer 14

It is easier to stop a project during the planning phase because more leverage points exist for groups to intervene, fewer resources have been invested so that the cancellation costs are lower, and a longer timeframe for negotiating and creating alternatives is available. (Scheidel et al., 2020)

Question 15

Which sector is most associated with assassinations of environmental defenders?

Answer 15

Agriculture (Scheidel et al., 2020)

Question 16

Name 3 types of direct violence against environmental defenders listed by Scheidel et al., 2020.

Answer 16

• Assassination
• Structural violence (violence that is ingrained in the social, political and economic structures)
• Cultural violence (when cultural elements are used to legitimize violence)
• Slow violence (daily exposure to contamination from for example mining)
• Physical violence against activists
• Criminalization of environmental defenders

Question 17

What is significant about Scheidel’s 2018 paper?

Answer 17

• In MSD, removing a conflict when there is injustice means choosing side with the oppressor.
• Scheidel however, argues that conflict can be a driver for environmental justice. This is groundbreaking.

Question 18

What is meant with Polanyi’s (1944) double movement?

Answer 18

A self-protection of society against the commodification of life and nature.

Question 19

Provide three examples for non-violent and three examples of violent forms of protest

Answer 19

Non violent:

• Protest and persuasion (formal petitions, public campaigns, street protests)
• Non-cooperation (strikes, boycotts, refusal of compensation payments)
• Non-violent intervention (lawsuits, objections to EIAs, creation of new knowledge and alternative proposals, road blockades, occupation of buildings, land occupation, self-sacrifice)

Violent (rare):

• Property damage
• Sabotage
• Threats to use arms

Question 20

What is the risk spiral described by Scheidel (2018)?

Answer 20

• Sometimes a transition leads to an alternative socio-metabolic configuration that is just as problematic
• E.g. a shift to biofuels and green grabs, in which resources are grabbed from local users for for example CO2 sequestration)
• Sieferle and Muller-Herold (1996) warn for a risk spiral in sustainability, where the reduction of one risk causes another risk to become larger.
• Scheidel, 2018: Our results show that environmental conflicts do not disappear with economic development but are shifted to new sectors, following the changes in resource uses.
• In other cases, the matter is solved entirely, such as the case with CFCs in the 90s.
• To avoid risk spirals, we need to reduce our social metabolism in absolute terms. The degrowth movement is our best option for this.

Question 21

What is the main message from Scheidel, et al. (2020)?

Answer 21

Scheidel et al. seek to find global trends in data from the EJAtlas. First, they found that violence occurs mostly in mining and land conflicts when Indigenous people are involved. Second, strategies pursuing preventive mobilizations, diversification of protest, and legal actions are the most important drivers to achieve positive outcomes. Finally, a substantial downscaling on global social metabolism is needed to relieve environmental pressures and prevent conflicts.

Question 22

What is the main message from Scheidel (2018)?

Answer 22

Scheidel argues that socio-metabolic configurations drive ecological distribution conflicts, which drive environmental justice movements, which drives sustainability transitions. This idea, that conflicts drive sustainable transitions, is ground breaking. However, they warn for a risk spiral where the reduction of one sustainability problem causes the next one. To overcome this, we should reduce our biophysical throughput by degrowing our economies.