Law Commons^™

An Environmental Justice Critique Of Biofuels, Carmen G. Gonzalez

Carmen G. Gonzalez

The Abstract Subject Of The Climate Migrant: Displaced By The Rising Tides Of The Green Energy Economy, Dayna Scott, Adrian A. Smith

Dayna N. Scott

A controversial proposal to build the mammoth ‘Site C’ dam on the Peace River in northwestern Canada offers an opportunity to explore the intersections of climate and migration issues under debate in international environmental governance circles. Site C threatens to flood traditional fishing spots and traplines of Indigenous peoples in the name of the ‘green energy’ economy. We consider how people displaced by renewable energy projects justified as climate mitigation policies might constitute a different kind of ‘climate refugee’ in that they are ‘displaced without moving’ – the connections between the land and the people are severed to the extent …

“Sacrifice Zones” In The Green Energy Economy: Toward An Environmental Justice Framework, Dayna Scott, Adrian A. Smith

Dayna N. Scott

The environmental justice movement validates the grassroots struggles of residents of places which Steve Lerner refers to as “sacrifice zones”: low-income and racialized communities shouldering more than their fair share of environmental harms related to pollution, contamination, toxic waste, and heavy industry. On this account, disparities in wealth and power, often inscribed and re-inscribed through social processes of racialization, are understood to produce disparities in environmental burdens. Here, we attempt to understand how these dynamics are shifting in the green energy economy under settler colonial capitalism. We consider the possibility that the political economy of green energy contains its own …

The North-South Divide In International Environmental Law: Framing The Issues, Carmen G. Gonzalez, Sumudu Atapattu

Carmen G. Gonzalez

The unprecedented degradation of the planet’s vital ecosystems is among the most pressing issues confronting the international community. Despite the proliferation of legal instruments to combat environmental problems, conflicts between rich and poor nations (the North-South divide) have compromised the effectiveness of international environmental law, leading to deadlocks in environmental treaty negotiations and non-compliance with existing agreements. Through contributions from scholars based in five continents, International Environmental Law and the Global South examines both the historical origins of the North-South divide in European colonialism as well as its contemporary manifestations in a range of issues, including food justice, energy justice, …

International Environmental Law And The Global South, Carmen G. Gonzalez

Carmen G. Gonzalez

The unprecedented degradation of the planet’s vital ecosystems is among the most pressing issues confronting the international community. Despite the proliferation of legal instruments to combat environmental problems, conflicts between rich and poor nations (the North-South divide) have compromised the effectiveness of international environmental law, leading to deadlocks in environmental treaty negotiations and non-compliance with existing agreements. Through contributions from scholars based in five continents, International Environmental Law and the Global South examines both the historical origins of the North-South divide in European colonialism as well as its contemporary manifestations in a range of issues, including food justice, energy justice, …

Environmental Justice, Human Rights, And The Global South, Carmen G. Gonzalez

Carmen G. Gonzalez

From the Ogoni people devastated by oil drilling in Nigeria to the Inuit and other indigenous populations threatened by climate change, communities disparately burdened by environmental degradation are increasingly framing their demands for environmental justice in the language of environmental human rights. Domestic and international tribunals have concluded that failure to protect the environment violates a variety of human rights (including the rights to life, health, food, water, property, and privacy; the collective rights of indigenous peoples to their ancestral lands and resources; and the right to a healthy environment). Some scholars have questioned the utility of the human rights …

Energy Poverty And The Environment, Carmen G. Gonzalez

Carmen G. Gonzalez

Nearly 3 billion people in Asia, Africa, and Latin America (the Energy Poor) face daily hardships due to lack of modern energy for cooking, heating, sanitation, lighting, transportation, and basic mechanical power. Despite their minimal greenhouse gas emissions, the Energy Poor will be disproportionately burdened by the floods, droughts, rising sea levels, and other disturbances caused by climate change. Although climate change has been framed as an issue of climate debt and climate justice, the plight of the Energy Poor has received short shrift in the climate change negotiations. Will efforts to reduce greenhouse gas emissions consign the Energy Poor …

Bridging The North-South Divide: International Environmental Law In The Anthropocene, Carmen G. Gonzalez

Carmen G. Gonzalez

The failure of international law and institutions to address global environmental degradation has significant implications for law and society as the planet’s ecosystems approach irreversible tipping points. According to a recent study published in the journal Science, the global economy has transgressed four of the nine “planetary boundaries” critical to the planet’s self-regulating capacity. Climate change, deforestation, species extinction, and the runoff of phosphorus and nitrogen into regional watersheds and oceans have exceeded safe biophysical thresholds. Scientists refer to the current geologic era of human-induced environmental change as the Anthropocene. These environmental problems are inextricably intertwined with patterns of trade, …

Environmental Justice And International Environmental Law, Carmen G. Gonzalez

Carmen G. Gonzalez

Environmental justice lies at the heart of many environmental disputes between the global North and the global South as well as grassroots environmental struggles within nations. However, the discourse of international environmental law is often ahistorical and technocratic. It neither educates the North about its inordinate contribution to global environmental problems nor provides an adequate response to the concerns of nations and communities disproportionately burdened by poverty and environmental degradation. This article examines some of the root causes of environmental injustice among and within nations from the colonial period to the present, and discusses several strategies that can be used …

Fairness In The Bay: Environmental Justice And Nutrient Trading, Rena I. Steinzor, Robert R.M. Verchick, Nicholas W. Vidargas, Yee Huang

Rena I. Steinzor

Maryland, Virginia, Pennsylvania and other states in the Chesapeake Bay region, with support from the Environmental Protection Agency, are working toward developing water quality trading programs intended to help meet federal pollution limits for the Bay. This white paper from the Center for Progressive Reform warns that even if a trading system succeeds in reducing overall pollution in the Bay, it might still have a dire effect on low-income and minority communities in the Bay region. If trading programs are not carefully designed and monitored, trading can cause localized concentrations of nutrients and accompanying contaminants in local waters, posing a …

The Global Food System, Environmental Protection, And Human Rights, Carmen G. Gonzalez

Carmen G. Gonzalez

The global food system is exceeding ecological limits while failing to meet the nutritional needs of a large segment of the world’s population. While law could play an important role in facilitating the transition to a more just and ecologically sustainable food system, the current legal framework fails to regulate food and agriculture in an integrated manner. The international legal framework governing food and agriculture is fragmented into three self-contained regimes that have historically operated in isolation from one another: international human rights law, international environmental law, and international trade law. International trade law has taken precedence over human rights …

Organismos Genéticamente Modificados (Ogm) Y Justicia: Implicaciones De La Biotecnología Para La Justicia Ambiental Internacional, Carmen G. Gonzalez

Carmen G. Gonzalez

En septiembre del 2006, un panel de resolución de controversias de la Organizacón Mundial del Comercio (OMC) emitió su fallo a favor de los Estados Unidos en la disputa entre EE.UU y la Unión Europea sobre los organismos genéticamente modificados (OGM). El fallo se basó en limitadas determinaciones procedimentales, y no abordó el tema de la seguridad de los OGM, el derecho de los países de reglamentar los productos genéticamente modificados más rigurosamente que sus equivalentes convencionales, ni la coherencia de la legislacion europea con las obligaciones del OMC. El continuo conflicto entre los Estados Unidos y la Unión Europea …

The Global Politics Of Food: Introduction To The Theoretical Perspectives Cluster, Carmen G. Gonzalez

Carmen G. Gonzalez

The corporate-dominated, fossil-fuel dependent model of agricultural production has produced chronic undernourishment, an epidemic of obesity and diet-related diseases, and unprecedented ecological devastation. In May 2010, the Universidad Interamericana in Mexico City hosted an international conference on The Global Politics of Food: Sustainability and Subordination. Sponsored by Latina and Latino Critical Legal Theory, Inc. and by Seattle University School of Law, the conference took place under the auspices of the South-North Exchange on Theory, Culture and Law (SNX), a yearly gathering of scholars in the Americas that seeks to foster transnational, cross-disciplinary and inter-cultural dialogue on current issues in law, …

Access To Parkland: Environmental Justice At East Bay Parks, A Report By Golden Gate University School Of Law, Paul Stanton Kibel

Paul Stanton Kibel

No abstract provided.

Following Up The Aals Symposium: An Environmental Justice Network, Zygmunt J.B. Plater, Charlie Lord, William Shutkin

Zygmunt J.B. Plater

No abstract provided.