Canadian Environmental
Practices, 1994
Percent
100
Recycles paper,
glass
83
80
71
Regularly
lowers home
temp
Uses low-flow
shower head
60
42
40
21
20
0
Does not drive
to work
21st century Neo-liberalism
1. Increased competition among cities to
attract capital
2. Businesses for generating employment
and sources of undermine tax revenues
3. Widening inequalities between groups
and individuals,
4. Discrepancies in the level of essential
services provided to citizens
Commodified Natural
Resources
•
•
•
•
•
WATER
ELECTRICITY
LUMBER
MINERALS
Commodification of basic resources-is
exploitative…
21st century=privatization
1. Privatisation of water and
sanitation a reality
2. The right to adequate housing
lost
3. Health care-two tier
4. Education- only for the wealthy
Privatized Global Economy
• In fact, corporate
globalisation, is one of the
greatest threats to
universal access to clean
drinking water and
sanitation
Environmental Theories
1. Sustainable Development &
Modernization (Structural functional)
2. Environmental Management (structural
functional)
3. Political economy-Dependency
(conflict)
4. Deep Ecology-Bio Centric (symbolic
interactionist)
5. Eco-feminism (Feminist Conflict)
Structural Functionalism
• Globalization is part of the adaptive
historical process of modernization
• Global integration occurs through
processes of adaptation within institutions.
• Symbiosis-Politics, economics, religion
are separate institutions.
1a. Functionalism=
Sustainable development
• Functionalists argue that the system
is working….
• Environment will be cared for on a
needs basis.
• Incremental changes only-Ie. Automobile
green plan
1b. Sustainable development
• -Functionalists view globalization
in terms of sustainable
development,
• Conservationists- refer
to“managed” natural resources
by applying modern engineering
and administrative techniques.
1c. Sustainable opportunities
• The system provides opportunities, if
we don’t get on the bandwagon we will be
lost.
• Functionalists and conservatives are in
favour of free market economics.
• The free market will take care of itself.
• Ie. dictate demand and pricing.
2. Environmental
management
• Environmental management-calls
for moderate government interventions
• Some limited protection to the
environment without seriously curtailing
economic activity
Environmental management
• Keep private enterprises
running but apply some
universal tax to make the
system fairer for all.
• .
3. Marxist Dependency
Theory International
• -First vs Third World
• Exploitation, global Apartheid
3b. Marxist Dependency
Theory: Canada
• Canadian industrialization created
an industrial capitalist class
and a proletariat, class
relationships are the main force
in Canadian history.
• Canadian capitalism-now driven
to global parameters
• Stanley Ryerson used this type
of Marxist analysis:
4. Marxist Political Economy• Socialist-Alan Schnailberg’s
From Surplus to Scarcity
• Production and Consumption
Cycle
• The Problem is man’s
productive activities &
advertising.
From Surplus to Scarcity
• Schnailberg calls this..The
Treadmill of Production
consumerism=producerism.
• Corporate producers create
demand for new products through
the medium
• .
Global Exploitation
• Other writers have argued that Canada is
part of the first world
• Canada exploits third world or poorer
countries, especially in the Caribbean and
in parts of South America
• FOR MARXISTS:
• THE GLOBAL VILLAGE is THE
GLOBAL EXPLOITATIVE MARKET
• FREE ENTERPRISE IS AN ILLUSION’
• FREE FOR WHO?
Surplus Value (conflict
theory)
• To maximise profits , services and
water quality are put at risk
• Profits lead to understaffing; thus
lay-offs
• Double negative impact as they
hurt consumers as well as the
workers involved.
Capitalism and Profit
1. Local crops are replaced by
specialized industries
2. Standard of living may go up
for some,
3. For most others there is
increasing exploitation.
4. Instead of goods exchanged
through barter,
5. Individuals must work for a company
and pay for goods in cash.
6. This has been linked to patriarchy
and alienated labour.
Average Annual Income,
by Country, 2003
Less than US $430
US $430 - 1,110
US $1,110 - 2,350
US $2,350 - 7,490
US $7,490 or more
No data
World Map
(with area a function of percent of each country’s
population living on less than US $2/day, 2003)
4. Deep Ecology -Leftist
liberal
• SEE WEBER on values…
• Deep Ecology Movement- founded by
Arne Naess Norweign (1970)
• Like Weber and SI• Deep ecology theory is about human
values and beliefs
4. Deep Ecology -Leftist
liberal
• Like Weber- their concern is about
the increasing rationalization of the
world through capitalistic activities
• Globalization imprisons us like
an iron cage
Deep Ecocologybio-centric approach
• Ecological thinkers Americans Bill Devall
and George Sessions (1985)-apply a biocentric approach• “We are all rooted in ecology” and we
have a “moral obligation”
• Both to other human beings and to plants
and animals
•
Colonial Legacy-The New
Imperialism
• In the twentieth century, this colonial
and elite legacy became associated
with strong central state and a form of
liberalism associated with the United
States.
Imperialism entails that..
• Slowly=US liberalism,
capitalism and globalization
supercede environment issues.
• .
5..Ecofeminism• Radical Feminism and the
Wiccan Movement
• An alternative eco-philosophy
who believe that the oppression
and exploitation of women and
the environment are related.
Women and Nature
• Androcentricism is the culprit…Women
are more innately attuned to nature than
men
• Impacts on women (more
oppressed category like racial and
ethnic minorities)
• Women, work and family affected in
three ways:
Ester Boserup (1970)
• An Eco-feminist…
• Wrote an important book entitled,
Women’s Role in Economic Development,
• She argues that modernization has
contributed to a decline in women’s
status.
Patriarchy and alienated
labour.
• Instead of goods exchanged through
barter, individuals must work for a
company and pay for goods in cash.
• Exchanging capital has been linked to
patriarchy and alienated labour.
Development Programs and
Capitalization
1. Women face discrimination:
2. Women not compensated at the
same rate as men
3. Husbands unwilling to accept
domestic responsibility
4. Women have not gained political
power
3 Issues
Globalization and Women
• 1. Land is taken away from women
and local men who’ve worked together
and is given over to a few men-owners of
the means of production
Women’s Work (domestic)
• 2. As local men’s activities become
concentrated on growing more crops
for export -pushes women into the home
(division of labour)
• 3. As men seek employment in larger
markets, household tasks such as
cleaning, gathering fuel, hauling water
become solely performed by women in the
household
Global Priorities (in $US billions)
Good or Service
Annual Cost
Basic education for everyone in the world
6
Cosmetics in the United States
8
Water and sanitation for everyone in the world
9
Ice cream in Europe
11
Reproductive health for all women in the world 12
Perfumes in Europe & the United States
12
Basic health & nutrition for everyone in world
13
Pet foods in Europe and the United States
17
Business entertainment in Japan
35
Cigarettes in Europe
50
Alcoholic drinks in Europe
105
Narcotic drugs in the world
400
Military spending in the world
780
Modernization Theory
Global inequality results from inadequacies
in poor societies:
1. Lack of capital
2. Lack of Western business techniques
3. Lack of stable governments
Western Ideas (natural)







•
Lack of Western mentality
Western values= savings,
investment,
innovation,
education,
high achievement,
self-control in having children
How Semi-Peripheral Countries
Differ from Peripheral Countries
Type of colonialism
 infrastructural support?
Geopolitical position?
 helpful to USA
State policy
 statist, pro-growth?
Social structure
 land reform; homogeneous?
Privatisation and the
poor
• Privatisation often results in
reduced access by the poor to basic
social services.
• Meters on Shacks!!!@
Global Slums 3rd world
• In many cities and towns in developing
countries,
• Between 50% and 70% of the population
live in slums and squatter settlements
• Without adequate housing or basic
services.
• Many of the poor end up paying up to
twenty times more than the rich for
water.[
Regressive taxation
• A regressive tax is a tax imposed in such
a manner that the tax rate decreases as
the amount subject to taxation increases.
• In simple terms, it imposes a greater
burden (relative to resources) on
the poor than on the rich.
Trade-related competition for
basic necessities
• Trade-related competition for
water resources
• Corruption in the privatisation
process, where the system of checks
and balances is weak.
• Capitalism is about egoism not self
regulation..
Gross Domestic Product Per Person, World
Regions, 1975-2005 (in 2005 US dollars)
2.0%
1975
2005
High-income countries
Central & Eastern Europe and
Fromer Soviet Union
Latin America & Caribbean
Arab States
East Asia & Pacific
South Asia
Sub-Saharan Africa
30000The average annual growth rate for each region is shown at the top
each set of columns. GDP per person is calculated in terms of
25000of2005
purchasing power. Absolute decline in Sub-Saharan Africa;
percent increase by far in East Asia; by far highest income in
20000biggest
OECD countries.
15000
1.4%
0.7%
10000
0.7%
6.1%
2.6%
5000 -0.5%
0
Region
Canada as a SemiPeripheral Country
Type of colonialism: White settler society in
which settlers reinvested rather than sending
wealth back to Europe.
Geopolitical position: Useful ally of global
powers (France, Britain, USA).
State policy: Occasionally protective of
Canadian industry (National Policy in the 1870s,
Auto Pact in the 1960s, NEP (1980s)
Social structure: French–English conflict has
drawn attention away from development policy.
Dependency Theory
• Part of the Conflict approach
• Dependency Theory used to examine the
`uneven’ development of capitalism
• Dependency theory can be domestic or
international in its focus.
Dependency Theory I
 For 250 years, the most powerful
countries in the world have
impoverished the least powerful
countries as a matter of state policy.
Dependency Theory II
 Early industrialization allow for
 The first world to accumulate
90% of the worlds wealth.
 Later in industrialism has led to
increasing dependency of
uncolonized parts of the world.
Dependency Theory II
 Industrialized countries established
powerful armed forces to subdue and then
annex or colonize most of the rest of
the world between the middle of the 18th
and the middle of the 20th century.
 Main exception: Japan (considered less
valuable than China and India)
Dependency Theory IV
Neo-colonialism established by creating
a system of dependency involving
three main elements:
1. Substantial foreign investment
2. Support for authoritarian governments
3. Mounting debt
Third World
 Countries of the “Third World” or “Global
South” accounted for 73% of world
industrial production in 1750.
 Only 7.5% in 1913;
 In 1913, the world’s 12 richest countries
accounted for 90% of world industrial
production.
Core, Periphery and Semiperiphery
(Immanuel Wallerstein)
 Core: major sources of capital and
technology (USA, Japan, Germany)
 Periphery: major sources of raw materials
and cheap labour (most former colonies)
 Semiperiphery: former colonies that are
making considerable headway in their
attempts to become prosperous (South
Korea, Taiwan, Singapore; Israel; more
recently, China, India, Brazil)
How Semi-Peripheral Countries
Differ from Peripheral Countries
Type of colonialism
 infrastructural support?
Geopolitical position?
 helpful to USA
State policy
 statist, pro-growth?
Social structure
 land reform; homogeneous?
Water
Maude Barlow
• The Council of Canadians’ water
campaign is calling for a national water
policy.
• According to Maude Barlow the State
needs to protect Canada’s water from bulk
exports and privatization,
Reason for Gov’t Protection
1. The free market doesn’t
guarantee access to water;
2. Bulk exports could open the
floodgates to trade challenges;
3. Canada’s water supply is
limited;
4. Public water is safer, cleaner and
more affordable; and
5. Water is essential for people and
nature.
Huge profits/eco
imbalance
• Corporations are in a rush to
obtain access to water, which they
can sell at huge profits.
• Mass extraction of water from its
natural sources
• Ecological imbalances
• Aquifer depletion
• Groundwater contamination
Scarce Resources as
Commodities
• By turning a social good and scarce
resource into an economic
commodity
• The world’s economic and policy
planners claim that… “existing
water resources can be managed and
consumed”….?
The World Bank
• The World Bank and regional
development banks often advocate
for “unbundling” of services
• Separates the profitable and
unprofitable areas for the delivery of
water and sanitation services
Layoff in Public Works
• Privatisation often leads to job
losses.
• Massive layoffs are common as
companies try to minimise costs
•
Summary
• Globalization is a process linked to the
issue of modernization (post modernism)
• Globalization is Imperialism and
Americanization=universal products and
commodity fetishism
• Neoliberal policies generate a system in
favor of the rich and the corporation at
the expense of the poor.
90
80
70
60
East
West
North
50
40
30
20
10
0
1st Qtr
2nd Qtr
3rd Qtr
4th Qtr
Environmental Sociology
Issues and Perspectives
“In the long run, do you think the scientific
advances we are making will help or harm
mankind?” 1981-2000 (percent “harm”)
Percent
This graph shows that (1)
Americans are among the most 50
optimistic people in the world
concerning the effects of
40
science on humanity; (2)
Americans and the citizens of
30
other rich countries such as
Canada were more pessimistic
about the effects of science on 20
humanity at the end of the 20th
century than they were in 1981; 10
(3) the citizens of countries that
are not rich were more
0
optimistic about the effects of
1981
science on humanity
at the end of the 20th century
than they were in 1981.
USA
CANADA
Rich countries
minus USA
Countries that
are not rich
1991
19951997
19992000
Important Terms
 Technology is traditionally defined as the
application of scientific principles to the
improvement of human life.
Global Warming and Polar Ice
1.
2.
3.
4.
5.
6.
Heat-trapping gases produced mainly by human activity collect
in the atmosphere (CO2, methane, etc.)
The sun heats the surface of the earth.
More heat enters the atmosphere than escapes because some of
it is absorbed and some of it is reflected back by the blanket of
heat-trapping gases.
Heat melts ice, revealing tundra and creating water.
Tundra releases methane, a more effective heat-trapping gas
than CO2.
Water reflects less heat than ice because it’s darker than ice.
Heat-trapping gases (C02, methane, etc.)
(2)
Ice
(3)
(4)
(5)
Tundra
(1) Gases from
burning fossil
fuels, etc.
(6)
Water
Annual Mean Global Surface Air Temperature
and Carbon Dioxide Concentration, 1880-2007
CO2, parts per million
Mean Temperature, C
382
24
x
352
22
Carbon dioxide concentration
x
20
x
18
x
x
322
292
262
x
16
14
x
x
232
202
12
Surface air temperature
10
172
142
8
1880
1943
Year
2007
Worldwide Insured Losses Due to
Natural and Human Catastrophes,
1970-2006 (in 2005 $US billions)
60.6
$US billions
60
40
24
20
8
0
1970-1986
average
1987-2003
average
2004-06
average
Sea Ice in Retreat
http://www.nytimes.com/interactive/2007/10/01/science/20071002_ARCTIC_GRAPHIC.html?th&emc=th#
Important Terms
 Genetic pollution refers to the
health and ecological dangers that
may result from artificially splicing
genes together.
 Recombinant DNA is a technique
that involves The term normal
accident recognizes that the very
complexity of modern technologies
ensures they will inevitably fail,
though in unpredictable ways.
 A risk society is a society in which
technology distributes danger and
Environmental racism: the tendency to
heap environmental dangers on the
disadvantaged.
Total particulate matter, short tons per capita
6
Northwest Territories
4
Yukon
Alberta Saskatchewan
2
Manitoba
0
0
20
40
60
Aboriginals as percent of population
80
Trucks in China
http://www.nytimes.com/interactive/2007/12/08/world/asia/choking_on_growth_7.html#story4
Top Ten CO2 Emitters, 2007
(percent of world emissions/percent of
world population=index of irresponsibility)
1. USA
2. China
3. Russia
4. Japan
5. India
6. Germany
7. Canada
8. UK
9. Italy
10. South Korea
21.4/4.6 =
18.8/20.4 =
5.8/2.2 =
4.6/2.0 =
4.2/17.0 =
3.0/1.3 =
2.0/0.5 =
2.0/0.9 =
1.7/0.9 =
1.7/0.8 =
4.7
0.9
2.6
2.3
0.2
2.3
4.0
2.2
1.9
2.1
Climate Change Performance, 2007
Top Ten Countries
1. Sweden
2. Germany
3. Iceland
4. Mexico
5. India
6. Hungary
7. UK
8. Brazil
9. Switzerland
10. Argentina
Bottom Ten Countries
47.
48.
49.
50.
51.
52.
53.
54.
55.
56.
Ukraine
Kazakhstan
Malaysia
Russia
South Korea
Luxembourg
Canada
Australia
United States
Saudi Arabia
Bali 2007 opponents of binding CO2
emission cuts of 25-40% for industrialized
countries by 2020 (by rank on climate
change performance, n=56)
30.
42.
50.
53.
55.
56.
New Zealand
Japan
Russia
Canada
United States
Saudi Arabia
Why the market and high technology can’t
solve the problems of environmental
degradation on their own:
 Price signals are imperfect.
 Political pressure is needed.
 The pace of change is too slow.
Renewable Resources, World,
% Decrease, 1990-2010
Percent decrease
0
-5
-10
-15
fish
irrigable
catch
land
-20
-25
crop land
rangeland,
pasture
-30
-35
forests
What needs to be done
 Reduced consumption of just about everything by
people in rich countries
 Increased investment in energy-saving technologies
and environmental cleanup
 Subsidization of environmentally friendly
industrialization in the developing countries
 Renewed commitment to voluntary efforts, new laws
and enforcement bodies to ensure compliance
 Higher taxes
 More careful assessment of risks associated with
biotechnology projects, and public consultation before
such projects go forward
 Sharing of profits from genetic engineering with
donors of genetic material
 Immediate action
Preconditions for action
 Awareness of the gravity of the
environmental problem
 Belief in the capacity of people and their
governments to solve the problem
 Willingness to make substantial economic
sacrifices to get the job done.