Environmental Conflicts, Environmental Justice, and Valuation

In this article some historical and contemporary environmental conflicts are described. The international environmental liability of mining corporations is discussed. Comparisons are made with conflicts in the United States and in South Africa which fall under the rubric of the Environmental Justice movement. Such conflicts are fought out in many languages, and the economic valuation of damages is only one of such languages. Who has the power to impose particular languages of valuation? Who rules over the ways and means of simplifying complexity, deciding that some points of view are out of order? Who has power to determine which is the bottom-line in an environmental discussion?Ecological Distribution Conflicts, Environmentalism of the Poor, Environmental Justice, Environmental Liability, Copper mining, Gold mining, Ecological economics, Valuation

Ecological Economics

a subsystem of a larger finite global ecosystem. Ecological economists question the sustainability of the economy because of its environmental impacts and its material and energy requirements, and also because of the growth of population. Attempts at assigning money values to environmental services and losses, and attempts at correcting macroeconomic accounting, are part of ecological economics, but its main thrust is rather in developing physical indicators and indexes of sustainability. Ecological economists also work on the relations between property rights and resource management, they model the interactions between the economy and the environment, they study ecological distribution conflicts, they use management tools such as integrated environmental assessment and multi-criteria decision aids, and they propose new instruments of environmental policy.

Ecological Conflicts and Valuation - mangroves vs. shrimp in the late 1990s

Shrimps are produced in two different ways. They are fished in the sea (sometimes at the cost of turtle destruction) or they are "farmed" in ponds in coastal areas. Such aquaculture is increasing around the world as shrimps become a valuable item of world trade. Mangrove forests are sacrificed for commercial shrimp farming. This paper considers the conflict between mangrove conservation and shrimp exports in different countries.Who has title to the mangroves, who wins and who loses in this tragedy of enclosures? Which languages of valuation are used by different actors in order to compare the increase in shrimp exports and the losses in livelihoods and in environmental services? The economic valuation of damages is only one of the possible languages of valuation which are relevant in practice. Who has the power to impose a particular language of valuation?Mangroves, Shrimps, Ecological distribution conflicts, Tragedy of enclosures,Valuation, Environmentalism of the poor, Trade and environment

"Concious procreation": Neo-Malthusianism in southern Europe and Latin America around 1900

One main concern of Ecological Economics is the balance between human population and natural resources. This is rightly named “the Malthusian question” because Malthus predicted that human populations, if unchecked, would grow exponentially while agricultural production (and other land-based productions) would be subject to decreasing returns to the labour input. This article shows that over one hundred years ago, there was in Europe and America a successful social movement that called itself “Neo-Malthusianism”. In contrast to Malthus’ pessimism, it believed that population growth could be stopped among the poor classes by voluntary decisions. Women were entitled to choose the number of children they wanted to have. The movement did not appeal to the State to impose restrictions on population growth. On the contrary, in Southern Europe it was based on “bottom up” activism against governments and the Catholic Church.Population growth. Demographic transition. Malthus. Feminist neo-malthusianism. Birth control. Anarchism.

La UAB farà inventari dels conflictes ecològics d'arreu del món

A mesura que l'economia mundial utilitza més materials i energia creixen els conflictes sobre l'extracció de recursos naturals i la disposició de residus. L'Institut de Ciència i Tecnologia Ambientals de la UAB (ICTA) coordinarà, al llarg dels propers 4 anys, el projecte EJOLT, amb la participació de 23 organitzacions, que crearà noves bases de dades, mapes i indicadors ambientals relacionats amb els conflictes ecològics d'arreu del món. L'objectiu últim és transformar els conflictes en forces de canvi cap a la sostenibilitat ambiental.A medida que la economía mundial utiliza más materiales y energía, crecen los conflictos sobre la extracción de recursos naturales y la disposición de residuos. El Instituto de Ciencia y Tecnología Ambientales de la UAB (ICTA) coordinará en los próximos 4 años, el proyecto EJOLT, con la participación de 23 organizaciones, que creará nuevas bases de datos, mapas e indicadores ambientales relacionados con los conflictos ecológicos alrededor del mundo. El objetivo último es transformar los conflictos en fuerzas de cambio hacia la sostenibilidad ambientaAs the use of material and energy grows globally, so do conflicts on the extraction of natural resources and the handling of residues. The UAB Institute of Environmental Science and Technology (ICTA) will spend the next four years coordinating the EJOLT project, with the participation of 23 organisations which will be designing new databases, maps and environmental indicators related to the ecological conflicts existing throughout the world. The ultimate objective of the project is to transform these conflicts into forces which can be steered towards environmental sustainabilit