Chapter 15 - Environment Flashcards

Question

Treadmill of production

Answer 1

Marxist-inspired conflict theory On the capitalist treadmill, firms must use and degrade natural resources to sustain their profits. Because of the constant pressure to expand profits, they are forced to compete with others by running faster and faster, producing more and more, and drawing ever more resources. If they don’t, they will go bankrupt and “fall off the treadmill.” In this process, firms face no choice but to externalize environmental and social costs or lose out to firms that do.

Answer 2

Marxists who focus on the environment argue that if we do not steer our societies toward an alternative economic system, they will collapse. Their solution is a massive radical movement toward a system that focuses on communal needs and the balance between human and nature.

Answer 3

unlike eco-Marxists, maintain that societies have the potential to develop “ecological rationality”—decision making that incorporates ecological concerns—to replace the old model of modernization, which focuses only on economic growth and industrial development. The proponents of ecological modernization argue that humans are smart enough to internalize the negative externalities—to shoulder the costs of conducting their business in ecologically friendly ways—through new technologies, social innovations, and better management. Researchers found that some European countries, such as Germany and the Netherlands, have successfully achieved economic growth while lowering environmental impact through better product design, clean technology, and government incentives for innovation. Argue that a different modernization is possible for the United States and the rest of the world without having to overthrow capitalism

Answer 4

Does not happen in a vacuum There are many factors going into what you buy, why you buy, and how you buy. For sociologists, the central tenet is that consumption is not an individual but a social process.

Answer 5

Thorstain Veblen's book 1899 Came up with the concept of conspicuous consumption - the practise of spending money for the purpose of demonstrating or enhancing social prestige has ecological implication as this competition creates momentous to constantly elevate te consumption level leading to increasing environmental degrdation

Answer 6

allows consumers to "vote with their pockets" and to engage in social change through the marketplace if you care about the environment, you should shop accordingly

Answer 7

certification process is expensive and privileges larger producers Credibility - For consumers, labeling does not always provide useful information but sometimes gives us an illusion that we’re choosing something environmentally friendly. Do you know the difference between Rainforest Alliance certified and U.S. Department of Agriculture organic? Even worse, the standard may be so loose that the ecolabel does not mean anything.

Answer 8

a public relations campaign that promotes an environmentally friendly, positive image whose environmental practises are not in line with the image

Answer 9

In his book, Shopping Our Way to Safety: How We Changed from Protecting the Environment to Protecting Ourselves, Andrew Szasz (2007) uses the term “inverted quarantine” to illustrate this idea. Normally, we quarantine bad things from our clean environment, but as our environment is increasingly polluted, many of us have started to quarantine ourselves from the unsafe environment. For example, people worried about the chemicals in the municipal water supply protect themselves from it by buying bottled water. efforts distract us from carrying out necessary political actions (not to mention that some bottled water is just tap water put into bottles or the environmental harm created through producing, packaging, and distributing bottled water). He points out that we could be using our resources more effectively by pressuring elected officials to pass legislation to improve the quality and infrastructure of public water supply systems.

Answer 10

mid-2014 the city switched its municipal water source from the Detroit water system to the Flint River. Before long, local citizens started to complain about the strange color and foul smell of the tap water. A few months later, people began to report rashes, hair loss, and vision problems. It turns out the water is seriously contaminated with lead—a persistent pollutant that can accumulate in the body over time and have devastating effects. The Environmental Protection Agency has set a goal to eliminate lead in drinking water and takes action if it is higher than 15 parts per billion. In some homes in Flint, the lead level was as high as 10,000 parts per billion. Government officials did not, at first, take the concerns of Flint’s residents seriously. They allowed residents to continue to drink lead-tainted water. It was not until researchers from outside the community verified the lead poisoning—and held a news conference about it—that government officials began to acknowledge and address the issue a case of environmental injustice. Flint residents, who are majority Black or African American and among the most impoverished of any metropolitan area in the United States, did not enjoy the same degree of protection from environmental and health hazards as that provided to other communities.

Answer 11

Flint is no isolated case. Across the United States and the world, low-income and minority communities do not receive the same level of environmental protection as Whiter, wealthier communities. As in the case of Flint, Michigan, they often bear disproportionate burdens of environmental harm.

Answer 12

Sociologists focused on work to document the social inequality in the environmental realm and promote more just environmental policies and laws

Answer 13

has the goal of ending the practise of using poor and racial and ethnic minority areas as dumping grounds for environmental hazards

Answer 14

12898, signed by President Bill Clinton, mandates “fair treatment and meaningful involvement of all people regardless of race, color, national origin, or income with respect to the development, implementation, and enforcement of environmental laws.” The recognition of environmental justice issues has led mainstream environmental groups to make greater efforts to diversify their membership and goals.

Answer 15

2007). In many cases, when a company appears to make progress in its environmental practices in developed countries, it just moves the dirty parts to developing countries, where the costs of pollution are cheaper. Ex. Olusosun landfill in Nigeria is one sacrifice zone. The largest waste dumpsite in Africa, it is located right in the heart of Lagos, the largest city in Africa. Approximately 500 container ships, each carrying about 500,000 used computers and other electronic equipment, enter the port of Lagos every month from the United States, Europe, and Asia. Workers, very often with their bare hands, strip down discarded electronic devices to recover the lead, gold, copper, and other metals they contain. During the process, they are exposed to harmful metals like lead and mercury, and the nearby soil and water bodies are all contaminated, too

Answer 16

Online data collection currently lists more than 2,700 cases of environmental injustice incidents around the world, ranging from land grabbing and mega-mining to biodiversity and conservation conflicts. Environmental issues are essentially a problem of global inequality, with lower income people burdened with more environmental hazards than others.

Answer 17

highlights the fact that climate change relates to global inequality, in its creation and its impact. Countries have made vastly different contributions to the problem. The per capita carbon emission of the average person in the United States is about ten times that of the average Indian! Furthermore, if we look at the greenhouse gases in the atmosphere, most were released by Western countries over the history of industrialization,