13nfl3-Environment v. Resource Extraction

LINCOLN-DOUGLAS | January/February 2014
Resolved: Developing countries should prioritize environmental protection over resource extraction when the two are in conflict.
Victory Briefs Topic Analysis Book: Lincoln-Douglas January/February 2014 13NFL3-Environment v. Resource Extraction 2013 Victory Briefs, LLC Victory Briefs Topic Analysis Books are published by: Victory Briefs, LLC 925 North Norman Place Los Angeles, California 90049 Publisher: Victor Jih | Managing Editor: Adam Torson | Editor: Adam Torson | Topic Analysis Writers: Monica Amestoy, Stephen Babb, Dan Miyamoto, Scott Phillips, Liz Scoggin, Allie Woodhouse | Evidence: Rebecca Kuang, Scott Phillips For customer support, please email help@victorybriefs.com or call 310.472.6364.
13NFL3-Environment v. Resource Extraction www.victorybriefs.com
Page 2 of 224
TABLE OF CONTENTS
TABLE OF CONTENTS .................................................................................................. 2 TOPIC ANALYSIS BY MONICA AMESTOY .................................................................... 7 TOPIC ANALYSIS BY STEPHEN BABB ....................................................................... 14 TOPIC ANALYSIS BY DAN MIYAMOTO ...................................................................... 27 TOPIC ANALYSIS BY SCOTT PHILLIPS...................................................................... 40 TOPIC ANALYSIS BY LIZ SCOGGIN ........................................................................... 53 TOPIC ANALYSIS BY ALLIE WOODHOUSE................................................................ 63 AFFIRMATIVE EVIDENCE ........................................................................................... 72
LIFEBOAT ETHICS............................................................................................................................. 72
FINITE RESOURCES DEMAND LIFEBOAT ETHICS ...................................................................................72
CONFLICT WITH ENVIRONMENT ......................................................................................................... 73

NATURAL RESOURCE EXTRACTION HARMS THE ENVIRONMENT. ......................................................73 COMPUTER PRODUCTION IS UNIQUELY BAD FOR THE ENVIRONMENT. ............................................74 RESOURCE EXTRACTION ENABLES FURTHER ENVIRONMENTAL DEGRADATION. ...........................75 MINING IN TANZANIA CAUSES SEVERE ENVIRONMENTAL DEGRADATION. ........................................76
EXTINCTION ..................................................................................................................................... 77
ENVIRONMENTAL DESTRUCTION CAUSES EXTINCTION .......................................................................77
OCEANS .......................................................................................................................................... 78
OIL SPILLS WILL POLLUTE ENTIRE OCEANS ...........................................................................................78
BIODIVERSITY .................................................................................................................................. 79
BIODIVERSITY SOLVES EXTINCTION-KEY TO AG AND MEDICINE ........................................................79 OCEAN BIODIVERSITY KEY TO PREVENT EXTINCTION..........................................................................81 BIODIVERSITY LOSS CAUSES EXTINCTION .............................................................................................82 LOSS OF BIODIVERSITY CAUSES EXTINCTION .......................................................................................83 BIODIVERSITY HOTSPOTS KEY TO SOLVE EXTINCTION........................................................................84
DISEASE .......................................................................................................................................... 85
ENVIRONMENTAL POLLUTION CAUSES DISEASE. ..................................................................................85
RESOURCE CURSE .......................................................................................................................... 86

RESOURCE ABNUNDANCE HAS NOT SPURRED ECONOMIC GROWTH IN DEVELOPING COUNTRIES- THE OPPOSITE HAS OCCURRED. ......................................................................................86 EMPIRICAL EVIDENCE IS CONCLUSIVE THAT NATURAL RESOURCES HAVE NOT HELPED THE ECONOMIES OF DEVELOPING COUNTRIES. ............................................................................................87 RESOURCES BOOMS LEAD TO AND ARE MADE USELESS BY DYSFUNCTIONAL STATE BEHAVIOR. .......................................................................................................................................................................88
Page 3 of 224
RESOURCE BOOMS CREATE ECONOMIC INEFFICIENCY- STUDIES PROVE. ......................................89 RENTIER STATE THEORYRESOURCE EXTRACTION HINDERS DEMOCRACY ..................................90 CAPITAL APPROACH- RESOURCES MIGHT TRANSLATE INTO GDP GROWTH WITHOUT CONTRIBUTING TO SUSTAINABLE ECONOMIC DEVELOPMENT. ..........................................................91 HISTORY PROVESRESOURCE CURSE HAPPENED TO EARLY MODERN SPAIN IN THE SEVENTEENTH CENTURY. .........................................................................................................................92 THE BEST ECONOMIC STUDY TO DATE FOUND THAT RESOURCE EXTRACTION HAD A NEGATIVE CORRELATION WITH CAPITAL SAVINGS. .................................................................................................93
VIOLENCE ........................................................................................................................................ 94
RESOURCE EXTRACTION IS HIGHLY CORRELATED WITH VIOLENCE. ................................................94 MILITARY ACTION IS A KEY DRIVER OF FURTHER ENVIRONMENTAL DEGRADATION.......................95 THE NATURAL RESOURCE INDUSTRY BASE IN MANY DEVELOPING COUNTRIES IS CENTERED AROUND VIOLENCE. ...................................................................................................................................96 MANGANESE EXTRACTION HAS CAUSED VIOLENT CONFLICT IN ASIA. ..............................................97 MANGANESE EXTRACTION HAS CAUSED VIOLENT CONFLICT IN BRAZIL...........................................98 COPPER EXTRACTION HAS CAUSED VIOLENT CONFLICT IN INDONESIA. ..........................................99 COPPER MINING HAS CAUSED VIOLENT CONFLICT IN MULTIPLE OTHER AREAS. ..........................100
CAPITALISM ................................................................................................................................... 101

RESOURCE EXTRACTION CAUSES UNSUSTAINABLE GROWTH WHICH FEEDS CAPITALISM. ........101 DIRTY TECHNOLOGY HARMS THE ENVIRONMENT AND FEEDS CAPITALISM. ..................................102 RESOURCE EXTRACTION FOR PROFIT SANITZES CAPITALIST MANAGERIALISM ...........................103 REFUSAL OF RESOURCE EXTRACTION CAN HELP DECONSTRUCT CAPITALIST CONTROL ..........105
COLONIALISM................................................................................................................................. 106
MINING IN AFRICA IS A PRODUCT OF COLONIALISM AND EXPLOITATION. .......................................106 COLONIALISM HAS ALL BUT RETURNED IN CONFLICT ZONES. ..........................................................107 FEW BENEFITS ARE REALIZED BY THE COUNTRIES THEMSELVES OR LOCAL COMMUNITIES. ....108 INDUSTRIAL POLICIES ARE MOST DEFINITELY IMPERIALIST..............................................................109 WESTERN ECONOMIC DEVELOPMENT CONTINUES COLONIAL DOMINATION .................................110 BLANKET REJECTION OF WESTERN MODERNITY FAILS .....................................................................111 BLANKET REJECTION OF WESTERN THOUGHT REPRODUCES ERRORS OF COLONIALISM ..........113 THEIR VISION OF COLONIALISM IS POLITICALLY DISEMPOWERING .................................................116 WHOLESALE REJECTION OF WESTERN MODERNITY IS WORSE THAN INSTRUMENTAL DEPLOYMENT ............................................................................................................................................117
VALUE TO LIFE ............................................................................................................................... 119

RESOURCE EXTRACTION REDUCES THE WORLD TO A STANDING RESERVE. THIS DESTROYS VALUE TO LIFE...........................................................................................................................................119 ENVIRONMENTALLY CONSCIOUS EXTRACTION IS IMPOSSIBLE- USING NATURE ENTAILS DOMINATION ..............................................................................................................................................121 QUESTIONS OF ONTOLOGY MUST BE ASKED AND ANSWERED FIRST .............................................122 LOSS OF BEING OUTWEIGHS NUCLEAR WAR .......................................................................................123
INDIGENOUS GROUPS .................................................................................................................... 124

RESOURCE EXTRACTION HAS NEGATIVELY IMPACTED INDIGENOUS GROUPS. ............................124
Page 4 of 224
MINING IN TANZANIA HAS NEGATIVELY IMPACT LOCAL COMMUNITIES. ..........................................125 MINING EXPLOITS AND DISPLACES LOCAL INHABITANTS...................................................................126
A2 GREAT POWER WARS ............................................................................................................... 127

NO GREAT POWER WAR- INTERDEPENDENCE, DETERRENCE, DEMOCRACY .................................127 NO MISCALCULATION ...............................................................................................................................128 INTERVENING ACTIONS CHECK CONFLICT ESCALATION....................................................................129
A2 NUCLEAR EXTINCTION .............................................................................................................. 130

NUCLEAR WAR DOESN'T CAUSE EXTINCTION ......................................................................................130 STUDIES PROVE NO NUKE WINTER .......................................................................................................131
CUBA ............................................................................................................................................ 132

CUBA IS A BIODIVERSITY HOTSPOT .......................................................................................................132 CUBA KEY TO GLOBAL OCEAN BIODIVERSITY ......................................................................................133 CUBAN BIODIVERSITY KEY TO US FISHING INDUSTRY........................................................................134 CUBAN OCEAN BIODIVERISTY KEY TO GLOBAL OCEAN ECOSYSTEMS ............................................135 CARIBBEAN BIODIVERSITY KEY TO GLOBAL OCEAN ECOSYSTEMS .................................................136 EXPANSION OF CUBAN OFFSHORE OIL DRILLING INEVITABLE NOW ................................................137 CUBAN DRILLING TECHNOLOGY INSUFFICIENT TO PREVENT AN OIL SPILL FROM NEW DRILLING .....................................................................................................................................................................138 CUBAN OIL SPILLS WILL WRECK GULF BIODIVERSITY ........................................................................139 CUBAN OIL SPILLS WRECK GULF BIODIVERSITY ..................................................................................140
CHAD ............................................................................................................................................ 141

RESOURCE EXTRACTION HAS NOT BENEFITED CHAD........................................................................141
NEGATIVE EVIDENCE ............................................................................................... 142

ECONOMY ..................................................................................................................................... 142
MINING HAS CONTRIBUTED GREATLY TO GHANAS ECONOMY. ........................................................142 MINING IS AN IMPORTANT PART OF ZIMBABWES ECONOMY. ...........................................................143 ECONOMIC GROWTH CAUSES CONSCIOUSNESS SHIFT TOWARDS ENVIRONMENTAL PROTECTION .............................................................................................................................................144 ECONOMIC SLOWDOWN WORSENS ENVIRONMENTAL IMPACTS ......................................................146 GLOBAL TECHNOLOGY CHECKS ENVIRONMENTAL COLLAPSE .........................................................147 GROWTH SOLVES ENVIRONMENT- TECH AND RESOURCE CONSERVATION ...................................148
INCOME ......................................................................................................................................... 149

MINING IN TANZANIA BENEFITS THE INCOME OF LOCALS. .................................................................149 MINING IS CREATED ECONOMIC OPPORTUNITIES FOR NATIVES OF TANZANIA. ............................150
SMALL-SCALE MINING .................................................................................................................... 151

SMALL SCALE/ARTISANAL MINING IS A UNIQUE FORM OF RESOURCE EXTRACTION. ...................151 SMALL SCALE MINING HAS PROVIDED EMPLOYMENT FOR MILLIONS OF AFRICANS. ....................152 IN ADDITION TO ECONOMICALLY BENEFITING LOCALS, SMALL-SCALE MINING ALSO ENCOURAGES FOREIGN TRADE. ............................................................................................................153
Page 5 of 224
ARTISANAL MINING IS A PERMANENT, DEEP ROOTED PART OF MANY LOCAL ECONOMIES. ........154 JOB OPPORTUNITIES ASIDE FROM SMALL-SCALE MINING ARE RARE AND UNDESIRABLE. ..........155 SMALL-SCALE MINING IS THE BEST CHOICE OF EMPLOYMENT FOR SOME. ....................................156 SMALL-SCALE MINING IS NECESSARY FOR STABLE INCOMES FOR WOMEN. .................................157 RECOGNITION OF SMALL-SCALE MINING IS NECESSARY FOR IT TO FLOURISH. ............................158 SMALL-SCALE MINING CONTRIBUTES IMMENSELY TO LIVELIHOODS OF AFRICANS. .....................159 SMALL SCALE MINING PLAYS A LARGE ROLE IN POVERTY REDUCTION. .........................................160 SMALL SCALE MINING COMMUNITIES ARE AMONG THE MOST FINANCIALLY VULNERABLE. ........161 MINING REDUCES VULNERABILITY. ........................................................................................................162 IN ADDITION TO BENEFITING MANY, THE DOWNSIDES OF ARTISANAL MINING ARE BEING ADDRESSED THROUGH LEGAL REFORMS. ...........................................................................................163 ARTISANAL MINING HAS HAD A HUGE IMPACT FOR CHINAS ECONOMIC DEVELOPMENT.............164 GOLD-MINING IS AN INTEGRAL PART OF BURKINA FASOS ECONOMY. ............................................165 MINING CAMPS ARE A REFUGE FOR THOSE WHO HAVE LOST THEIR JOBS. ...................................166 MINING CAMPS OFFER A SHOT AT FINANCIAL FREEDOM FOR WOMEN. ..........................................167 INCOME FROM MINING CAMPS BENEFITS AFRICAN WOMEN. ............................................................168 MINING CAMPS ARE A PLACE WHERE WOMEN CAN BREAK FREE OF THEIR GENDER ROLES. ....169 GOLD MINES GIVE WOMEN OPPORTUNITES THAT OTHERWISE MIGHT NOT BE AVAILABLE TO THEM. ..........................................................................................................................................................170 ALTERNATIVE FORMS OF EMPLOYMENT FOR YOUNG WOMEN ARE NOT AS ATTRACTIVE. ..........171
COLONIALISM................................................................................................................................. 172
THEIR NARRATIVE ABOUT ECOLOGICAL PRESERVATION FUELS COLONIALISM ............................172 WESTERN RHETORIC ABOUT ENVIRONMENTAL PROTECTION FEEDS COLONIALISM....................174 COLONIALITY NATURALIZES VIOLENCE.................................................................................................176 THE ALTERNATIVE IS TO RESIST ECO-COLONIALISM AT THE LEVEL OF THOUGHT .......................179 DEBATE IS A KEY SITE FOR RESISTING COLONIALISM........................................................................181 WESTERN EPISTEMOLOGY IS THE ROOT CAUSE OF GENOCIDE AND ENVIRONMENTAL DESTRUCTION ...........................................................................................................................................186 RESISTING COLONIALISM IS THE ONLY WAY TO GIVE MEANING TO YOUR BALLOT .......................187 USE THE BALLOT TO SIGNAL RESISTANCE TO COLONIAL KNOWLEDGE STRUCTURES ................188 EPISTEMOLOGY COMES FIRST- ITS CRUCIAL TO RESIST COLONIALISM .........................................189 FEAR OF ENVIRONMENTAL CATASTROPHE REINFORCES MILITARY CONTROL .............................190 THE AFFIRMATIVE SPEAKS FOR DEVELOPING COUNTRIES- ITS A FORM OF COLONIALISM .........191 THOUGH WELL INTENTIONED AFFIRMATIVE DISCOURSE REPLICATES COLONIALISM ..................193
AT GLOBAL WARMING ................................................................................................................... 195

GLOBING WARMING IS A MYTH. ..............................................................................................................195 STUDIES DEMONSTRATING THE THREAT OF WARMING ARE FLAWED. ............................................196
AT RESOURCE CURSE ................................................................................................................... 197

THERE IS NO EMPIRICAL EVIDENCE FOR RENTIER STATE THEORY. ................................................197
AT IMPERIALISM............................................................................................................................. 198
Page 6 of 224
LOCAL MINERS HAVE ACTUALLY FOUGHT TO KEEP MINES. ..............................................................198
A2 BIODIVERSITY ........................................................................................................................... 199

HUMAN EXPANSION MAKES BIODIVERSITY LOSS INEVITABLE ..........................................................199 NO IMPACT TO BIODIVERSITY LOSS ......................................................................................................200 ENVIRONMENTAL DECLINE WON'T CAUSE EXTINCTION .....................................................................201 NO HUMAN EXTINCTION- WE CAN ADAPT TO SPECIES LOSS ............................................................202 BIODIVERSITY IS RESILIANT- NO EXTINCTION ......................................................................................203 BIODIVERSITY IS A CONSTRUCT THAT NATURALIZES ECO MANAGEMENT .....................................204
A2 DEFORESTATION....................................................................................................................... 205
STATUS QUO EFFORTS STOP DEFORESTATION ..................................................................................205 DEFORESTATION IS DECLINING NOW ....................................................................................................206 NO IMPACT TO DEFORESTATION - THEIR STUDIES ARE FLAWED .....................................................207
A2 ENVIRONMENTAL EXTINCTION ................................................................................................... 208

THEIR ENVIRONMENT IMPACTS ARE DOOMSAYING ............................................................................208 ENVIRONMENTAL DESTRUCTION DOESN'T CAUSE EXTINCTION .......................................................209 MULTIPLE FACTORS MAKE ENVIRONMENTAL DESTRUCTION INEVITABLE ......................................210 AFFIRMATIVE IMPACTS ARE HYSTERIA- EMPIRICS REJECT ECO DOOM ..........................................213 ALL INDICATORS SHOW ENVIRONMENTAL IMPROVEMENT ................................................................214 NO IMPACT TO ENVIRONMENTAL DAMAGE ...........................................................................................215 TECH SOLVES ENVIRONMENT IMPACT- HUMANS NO LONGER NEED THE ENVIRONMENT ...........218 NO DOOMSDAY ENVIRONMENT IMPACT ................................................................................................219 EMPIRICS DISPROVE ECO DOOMSAYING ..............................................................................................220
AT CIVIL WARS.............................................................................................................................. 221

THE LITERATURE IS INCONCLUSIVE ON WHETHER RESOURCE ABUNDANCE CAUSES CIVIL CONFLICT. ..................................................................................................................................................221
A2 CUBA ....................................................................................................................................... 222

NO CUBA OIL DRILLING ............................................................................................................................222 US TECH SOLVES CUBAN OIL SPILLS ....................................................................................................223 CUBAN DRILLING WILL MEET HIGHEST SAFETY STANDARDS ............................................................224
Page 7 of 224
Topic Analysis by Monica Amestoy

I. Definitions
I think that one of the first steps to understanding a topic and executing good strategy is having a good grasp of what the definitions of the words in the topic are. In this topic we have three big concepts that will be important to understand: (1) Developing countries, (2) environmental protection and (3) rescore extraction. At first these concepts may make the topic seem a little tricky. Who decided what is a developing country? Does environmental protection require taking action to fix the environment or simply stopping a process that harms the environment? And how do we determine when these are in conflict? I will analyze these terms below in a way that hopefully makes this topic make more sense.
A. Developing countries
I think that this definition can make or break the topic. If this is a definition debate the lasts more than a couple of tournaments then we are doing the topic wrong. The most common definition of a developing country involves an analysis of the economic prosperity of countries. The IMF (International Monetary Fund) publishes each year a list of developing countries. This list considers analytic and financial criteria. The IMF breaks down their classification of developing countries in three ways: ( 1) per capita income level, (2) export diversificationso oil exporters that have high per capita GDP would not make the advanced classification because around 70% of its exports are oil, and (3) degree of integration into the global financial system.
1
What is cool about using the IMF definition is that the IMF publishes a list of developing countries. This means that as community we can narrow our affs down to a very specific list of countries, and as we narrow down more words in the resolution the list becomes pretty workable. Additionally, the majority of the topic literature and scholarly articles discussing the topic uses the IMF definition in their discussion of developing countries. One interesting debate will be over the plural countries. To me it seems that the plural term countries just sets a limit to which actors the aff can defend, but there will definitely be some tension between affs being allowed to limit it to one specific country or being
1
"Q. How does the WEO categorize advanced versus emerging and developing economies?" International Monetary Fund. Retrieved July 20, 2009.
Page 8 of 224
forced to defend multiple countries taking an action. Plan based affs should be prepared to either have this topicality debate if they defend one country taking an action or a multi actor fiat debate if they defend multiple countries taking an action.
B. Environmental protection A quick Google search of environmental protection comes up with the Glossary of Environment Statistics definition based on activities named in the United Nations methodology for integrated environmental and economic accounting. They define it as: Any activity to maintain or restore the quality of environmental media through preventing the emission of pollutants or reducing the presence of polluting substances in environmental media. It may consist of:
(a) changes in characteristics of goods and services, (b) changes in consumption patterns, (c) changes in production techniques, (d) treatment or disposal of residuals in separate environmental protection facilities, (e) recycling, (f) prevention of degradation of the landscape and ecosystems
2
This definition is pretty broad so debaters should work to find different definitions to support their strategy. Affs should figure out if they are banning certain practices or passing specific policies that take action to protect the environment.
C. Resource extraction
Wikipedia defines resource extraction:
Resource extraction involves any activity that withdraws resources from natureExtraction produces raw material which is then processed to add value. Examples of extractive industries are hunting and trapping, mining, oil and gas drilling,
Glossary of Environment Statistics, Studies in Methods, Series F, No. 67, United Nations, New York, 1997.
13NFL3-Environment v. Resource Extraction www.victorybriefs.com and forestry.

3
Page 9 of 224
Now it is easy to see how resource extraction and environmental protection can come in conflict.
II.
Aff Positions
A. Environment Impact Heavy
The most common argument for affs in the immediate literature and what I would expect to be in the first couple of tournaments on the topic will be affs that focus heavily on the importance of protecting the environment. These affs will probably be filled with horror stories of what will happen if we dont help the environment or why resource extraction (like oil mining) will end the world. The question here will be if the aff has to defend solvency. Finding environment horror stories is as easy as looking in your environmental studies textbook, but finding ways in which developing countries specifically will be able to solve these problems will be a bit harder. I think in order to win these debaters, debaters will have to find nuanced scenarios about the environment and really work on their in round weighing. Simply throwing out words like magnitude and time frame wont cut it in these rounds . No matter what neg you are reading on the topic you should have a large AT Environment Impact file.
B. Plan Affs
These will be the trickiest to get access to but very successful if executed well. This may be an uphill battle because there are a lot of procedural arguments that may prevent these affs. If affs defend a single country taking an action they should be prepared to hit topicality because the plural countries would mean that they have to defend multiple states. They also should be prepared to hit the stock plans bad theory shell because of the long list of developing countries that negatives would have to prep for. However, I think a good aff should be able to come up with theoretical reasons as to why either (a) there are only a certain amount of countries with specific conflicts between their environment and resource extraction and (b) why limiting it to one country is actually a good thing. There is a lot of good quality discussion about specific countries and their actions. I think if the aff can win these interpretations that we can have some really in depth discussion about countries that are often being talked about (China, India, Chile, Brazil etc.) and their environmental policies. For example, Chiles parliament is currently at odds about their glacier protection laws and their
3
"Natural Resource." Wikipedia. Wikimedia Foundation, 12 Oct. 2013. Web.
13NFL3-Environment v. Resource Extraction www.victorybriefs.com key mining industry. I think the best interpretation would look something like:
Page 10 of 224
Only developing countries currently considering legislation that both protects the environment and limits extraction
This probably means that only a 3-5 affs are topical. But this would limit the resolution in ways that would create a lot of knowledge about the specific politics of a small group of countries and the consequences of their actions.
One way to avoid topicality would be to have an international organization do the aff. (i.e. the Arab League, African Union etc.) There are a lot of these that are currently considering regulations and treaties about the environment a lot of topic literature about why certain countries in these international communities shouldnt do the aff (which could lead to some cool PICs.) The issue with this is a lot of them disagree a lot about the topic and usually the solvency is weak. Affs will also have to be prepared for a multi actor fiat debate.
C. Kritikal Affs
Let all the K debaters rejoice, there are a ton of really good kritikal arguments for the aff on this topic.
The first that comes to mind is anthropocentrism. The book to read for this would be John Grays Straw Dogs. In which he argues that anthropocentrism is the idea that our current environmental issues (Global warming, loss of biodiversity) is based on the false assumption that humans have the right to dominate the earth. This right is based off of evolutionary standards that are similar to those used to justify racism, sexism and classism. We must recognize that there is no real distinction between humans and the environment and that the attempt to make this distinction is what results in harms to our environment. Affs can read this as a critical reason as to why we have to affirm the topic. Debaters can also tie in ontological arguments about why rejecting anthropocentrism is key to understanding our environment and thus the self. This would make the environment a perquisite to even understanding the impacts of resource extraction.
Ecofeminism will also likely be a common kritikal aff on the topic. The book to read for deep ecology and ecofeminism would be Irene Dimonds Reweaving the World: The Emergence of Ecofeminism. Ecofeminism is about reorientation to Others in all forms. This means that because nature is associated with the female gender, our domination and harassment of nature in the form of extraction or penetration of resources is inherently patriarchal and
Page 11 of 224
representative of the way society views women. Ecofeminism is a feminist criticism of the patriarchal systems, which run our lives, but with a distinctly ecological slant. As a result, the human/Other dichotomy is broken down in an ecofeminism lens whereas most standard feminist views are merely a question of human gender.
III. Neg positions
A. Resource extraction good
A common neg on this topic will be a general argument about why resource extraction is a good thing. These arguments will include debates about whats good for the economy, (and why the economy is key to preventing big impact scenarios) why resource extraction is key to environmental protection or some nuance about the needs of developing countries.
B. Disadvantages and Counterplans
If debaters execute the topic right and if while you are negating you hit a policy styled aff there are a lot of really fun disadvantages and counterplans on this topic for the neg to read.
Econ DA:
This will probably be the most common DA on the topic. The uniqueness would be about a certain countrys economy being reliant on resource extraction and that the aff would result in the tanking of their economy. This would result in a plethora of everyones favorite economic collapse means nuclear, proxy and resource wars.
Russia Oil DA:
I expect this to be a pretty common DA on the topic. Currently the main reason why Putin is still in power is because the Russian economy is artificially large because of their oil exports coming from developing countries. Meaning, if the aff happens then Russias economy starts to slip. This means one of two things, either (a) Putin has to create an artificial conflict in order to save face or (b) a more economically conservative party takes over. These parties particularly hate the United States and the risk of a conflict would be high.
Politics DA:
Page 12 of 224
I put this one in here not because I expect them to be popular on the topic or to be easy to execute, but if done well there could be some really cool politics DAs. A lot of countries are having elections or passing important policies this upcoming new year. I think after negs get a feel for what countries are popular on the aff, it would be cool to read arguments that link into the politics of that country.
Counterplans:
I expect there to be a lot of cool counterplans on this topic. The biggest issue here will have to be if the negative has to defend the converse of the resolution. If they do I expect to see a lot of counterplans about resource extraction that can help the environment. If not, the negative can find a ton of ways that probably solve the aff, (i.e. a different way of protecting the environment, signing of a certain treaty, involving already developed countries or other international actions) these counterplans coupled with one of the DAs above could make for a really solid neg strategy.
D. Kritiks
There is a little bit of K ground on this topic. I think kritiks will be most strategic as link or impact turns to kritikal affs and as a response to more straight up affs.
Kritiks of environment impacts:
There are quite a few authors who discuss the way in which we talk about the environment impacts. These authors often criticize the approach to which we attempt to solve environmental issues (I.e. geo-engineering to solve issues created by engineering) or the discourse in which we discuss environmental impacts. (Arguments analyzing the alarmism rhetoric) I think the biggest issue with negative kritiks, especially environment ones, will be competition and solvency. Debaters reading these strategies will need to prep a lot of answers to perms and solvency for their alternatives.
Tragedy of the commons:
This argument basically says that agents who share a common pool of resources, even rational agents, are incentivized to over consume to ensure that they harvest their fair share. The issue is that this quickly leads to resource scarcity in the commons as individuals over harvest for
Page 13 of 224
personal gain. Once the commons collapse, all individuals no longer have access to the given resources. A good example of this would be fisheries; to a rational agent it is important to harvest as much fish as possible to maintain personal gain. The result, however, is that the fisheries become depleted. Inevitably the actions of agents in this world will no longer have access to fish. The solution is for agents to not behave in ways that are personally optimal. Rather, it serves as a justification for action based on a consideration of societal consequences. This could function as a negative argument about why resource extraction may be key to the way in which we think about our resources. Kritiks of the term developing country
Everyone loves a good language k right? I expect this to be a common kritik on the topic. Basically the term developing country implies inferiority based on a Western model of economic development. There are tons of authors who talk about the problems of Western colonization in our economics systems. I think there are two ways to approach the alternative. One, would be to embrace another system that is less based in western ideals or second, changing the terms in which we use to describe developing countries (global south or emerging economies).
C. Philosophical Negs I think this topic doesnt open its self up to the same philosophy debates that we are used to in LD. In order to justify these NCs it will require a lot of rethinking about the resolution. I expect there to be a lot of realism or sovereignty NCs on the topic that discuss states right. I also expect there to be a few libertarian NCs on the topic that deal with the property rights of states to do what they want with their resources.
IV.
Conclusion
Let the topic literature guide your argumentation, your cases should write themselves with this topic. I think this topic has the potential to be one of the most interesting ones we have had in a while. Good luck to everyone!
Page 14 of 224
Topic Analysis by Stephen Babb

Developing Countries & Other Wording Matters
Sometimes referred to less optimistically as lesser developed nations, developing countries are classified as such because their economies are less industrialized and their citizens enjoy lower standards of living when compared to the most powerful and economically sophisticated nations. It's a category that's almost inherently controversial both because it divides "haves" and "havenots" and because it does so along primarily economic lines. Given the concept's centrality to debate on this topic, critically oriented debaters could have a field day challenging the preconceived notions embedded in any affirmation of the resolution. There's a very real sense in which the topic's mere utterance already presupposes certain judgments about developing countries and the kinds of choices they may (uniquely) face. While there are certainly ways of interpreting development that have less to do with economics (e.g. how "happy" a population is), there's little doubt this topic is about economics given the contraposition of development and the environment. Insofar as indictments of terminology could come at the expense of substantive debates on behalf of the environment or other progressive priorities, there's good reason for debaters to stay focused on the topic rather than rejecting it wholesale.
Engaging in critical debate isn't the only thing at stake with this kind of definition. Any parametric specification or use of plans will force debaters to pursue or eschew consensus on whether the countries in question truly qualify as "developing." Unfortunately, debaters finding themselves in these shoes won't find an objective source to provide much clarification. There may be schools of thought and analysis that roughly agree on what it means for a country to be developing, but appealing to such schools stills begs the question of why they deserve preference over alternative metrics. The easiest approach may simply be the process of exclusion. Some nations areby virtually any metric clearly developed. The United States, Canada, Japan, Australia, New Zealand, Israel, South Africa and most of Europe are all typically considered developed. Other countries are sometimes described as "emerging markets" or countries in "transition." Those labels might account from countries ranging from Russia to South Korea. Reports from institutions like the IMF may be useful in distinguishing between advanced economies and those that are still in some phase of development.
Outside of indisputably advanced economies, there's an incredibly wide range of development found across the globe. In cases like China, there are also vast discrepancies internally wherein some regions are highly developed and others not so much. For the sake of clear debate, its
Page 15 of 224
worth working under the assumption that not all developing countries are equal. Accordingly, the stakes of favoring environmentally friendly policies arent equal either. What ranks as a tolerable economic sacrifice in one context may be far more unacceptable in other contexts. On the one hand, this makes plan debate especially attractivethe differences between developing countries dont matter as much if weve settled on discussing just one of them. On the other hand, though, this is a reason that debaters who dont run plans should be especially attentive to making their arguments broad enough to encompass countries at different stages of development. In other words, if your 1AC isnt a plan, you need to make sure you arent relying on evidence that only defends environmental protection among relatively developed developing countries. After all, its the worst case scenarios in which the conflict between environmental protection and resource extraction is most acute. The cant-miss phrasing in the topic is of course when the two are in conflict. This demands that debaters go beyond listing the advantages or harms of environmental protection and resource extraction. That information is for all intents and purposes incomplete without actual comparison. That comparison neednt necessarily be quantitative (see discussion on utilitarianism below), but it needs to happen one way or the other. Its not enough to say the environment is really important or that access to resources is really important. Their respective importance is a given we wouldnt need to rank them were it not for the fact that both matter self-evidently.
That not only puts a premium on comparative analysis during the debate (what most debaters think of when they hear be comparative!), but also means that positions should be structured comparatively to begin with. To whatever extent its possible, evidence should be comparative as well. Another takeaway from the topics wording is that a prioritization must actually be made. Its not enough to negate by arguing that environmental protection and resource extraction should be valued equally or differently from one situation to the next. The topic addresses conflict scenarios, so something has to give in these scenarios. Negating means pursuing resource extraction at the expense of environmental protectionend of story.
Standards for Prioritization
This resolution doesn't include any evaluative wording like "justice" or "morality." It doesn't even use the morally loaded "ought." That leaves debaters considerable leeway when qualifying what it means to say a developing country "should" prioritize either environmental protection or resource extraction, and it goes without saying that leeway is a double-edged sword. On the one hand, the
Page 16 of 224
normative freedom is always a refreshing alternative to topics broaching close-ended philosophical questions. On the other, though, open-ended topics always run the real risk of stimulating endless framework debate and virtually irresolvable philosophical dilemmas.
Unless a negative debater respects an affirmative debater's framework choice or both debaters tacitly agree a utilitarian "policy debate" is in order, don't be surprised to see something of a philosophical quandary emerge. It's a tendency that's plagued Lincoln-Douglas debate from its "value debate" origins, frequently shifting debate away from the topic itself and toward timeless questions about the constituent elements of just governments and moral orders. Inclusion of such questions isn't entirely a bad thing, but it's a shame when they come to dominate debates that should in theory speak more to the unique topic at hand.
Fortunately, this topic at least centers around a question with indisputable policy dimensions. It clearly isn't about individual ethics. The fact that topic framers opted for the word "should" instead of "ought" might also be interpreted as reason to eschew broader moral standards in favor of clean-cut utilitarian debate. Moreover, the topic involves multiple countries such that any single nation's laws or constitution can't serve as a normative guide for action. The generality of the topic's wording suggests a need for similarly universal and uncontroversial normative architecture, and there's nothing like utilitarianism to do the job. In general, governments strive to provide for citizens, maintain stability and otherwise make the best of what they have to work with. That's not to say corruption and inefficiencies don't get in the way when it comes to execution, but it's more accurate to describe policy-making as a utilitarian endeavor than it is to associate it with a more particular moral philosophy. Even if there's a time and place for such philosophiesand there almost certainly isthis is a different domain.
To be fair, there's certainly a good argument to be made on behalf of certain broadly humanitarian constraints. Even if we generally accept that states behave in utilitarian ways, we also tend to accept that the "good of the many" can't ignore timeless admonitions against the vilest of state actions. Indeed, you'd be hard-pressed to find many self-described utilitarians who'd admit that something like genocide could even be done in the name of utility. They'd argue that such practices would (and should) be condemned no matter what, even and especially on utilitarian grounds.
My biases aside, there are of course still arguments to be made about whether governments should behave in strictly utilitarian fashion and, if so, what exactly that means. The point here is merely to suggest that they're mostly utilitarian excepting (1) specific constitutional constraints that fly beneath this topic's radar and (2) nearly categorical humanitarian constraints that arguably
13NFL3-Environment v. Resource Extraction www.victorybriefs.com figure into utilitarian calculations anyway.
Page 17 of 224
Applied to the topic, utilitarianism also makes for a good standard because it appeals to plenty of ground on both sides of the debate. The great majority of people are impacted by development and environment alike. Determining which is ultimately more important for those people would make for a good debate. It's not the only normative debate to be sure, but it's a clean one in which both sides have access to sound and strategic positions. It also obviates the need for potentially messy discussions in which debaters attempt to apply ill-fitting ethical paradigms to state policy.
Even under the guise of utilitarianism, though, potential conceptual difficulties remain. A commitment toroughly speakingdoing the greatest good for the greatest many still begs the question of which many we're talking about. That's especially true when borders are involved, especially in a world in which those borders traditionally have been used to distinguish interests that matter from interests that don't (at least in the eyes of the state in question). In other words, should the governments assessing developmental and environmental policies be concerned exclusivelyor even principallywith their own citizens' interests? Or should they look beyond their borders to how policies impact the rest of the globe? A purely utilitarian calculus would ostensibly ignore borders and weigh as many interests as possible, but you'd be hard pressed to find governments that operate like that.
The best debates on this topic will take these kinds of things into consideration, but they won't do so to a fault. To whatever extent it's possible, simpler is bettereven if that means yet another debate about body counts or minimizing suffering.
Core Affirmative Strategies While its not enough to argue that environmental protection matters, thats precisely where good affirmative positions will have to start. The presumption is that economic development is a more immediate and tangible interest, at least as far as human beings are concerned. Extracting resources puts money in pockets and food on the table. It improves access to things much of the developed world takes for grantedlike housing, health care and education. It lays the building blocks for further development, securing an upward spiral toward economic competitiveness. On the macro level, economic development also correlates with more legitimate political systems, which is another way of saying developed nations tend to be more free and less corrupt. In short, economic development is a gateway to lots and lots of good stuff.
13NFL3-Environment v. Resource Extraction www.victorybriefs.com So about that environment protection
Page 18 of 224
This topic wouldnt be debatable were there not compelling affirmative arguments, but it goes without saying affirmative debaters dont have much to take for granted. The first step is making environmental concerns feel real and immediate. Easy as it is to make arguments about future generations, those arguments arent very persuasive when stacked up against arguments about the suffering of current and future generations alike. Its not as if development only benefits people who are alive now, so sound comparative arguments in the AC cant simply rely on the value of long-term thinking. Both sides do good things for the future.
Nor are complicated arguments about ecosystems and biodiversity very compelling unless there are very real, short-term, credible risks demonstrated. Chances are those kinds of risks wont be demonstrated. Species go extinct all the time and have for millions of years. The notion that were on the brink of some kind of catastrophe should one more species bite the dust doesnt sound very plausible.
The most persuasive affirmative arguments will probably have to do with climate change. One very possible impact of warning, for example, is that droughts will become more pervasive and severe. As important as resource extraction is to emerging economies, access to clean water and healthy crops is a pretty big deal tooespecially for those who would be hit the hardest: the poorest of the poor. What makes this argument even more compelling is that it neednt depend on a worst-case scenario. The worst-case scenarios are even more dire: more catastrophic storms orworse yeta global freeze like the one portrayed in Hollywoods The Day After Tomorrow. Ice age paranoia probably wont get you very far with most judges, but it could be useful to illustrate a continuum of risks. Things like runaway droughts are plenty catastrophic in their own right, but the main point is that theyre also fairly probable. When featured alongside less probable but more disastrous risks of the Hollywood variety, your judge has a more complete picture of what were up against. Even if the less probable risks seem ou tlandish, you can admit as much while insisting that the more probable risks are still intolerable. It wouldnt be the first time a debate mentioned an unlikely impact, but youre doing yourself a big favor by not relying exclusively on wildest scenarios.
Once a plausible impact scenario (or continuum of scenarios) is established, the trick is stringing together the internal links. These will likely depend on which specific conflicts the AC opts to address whichin turndepends on whether the position affirms via a plan or by defending the whole resolution. Plansas well discuss laterwill likely only engage one or two conflict scenarios and the internal links will proceed accordingly. Attempts to defend the whole resolution
Page 19 of 224
will likely have to do so on broader, philosophical groundsperhaps using some conflict scenarios as examples of what it really means to protect the environment at the expense of resource extraction. The flip side to defending the entire resolution is that it may be more difficult to generate credible internal links to advantages. Whereas an affirmative world may be more credible in a topic whereas the agent of action is a single actor like the United States, an affirmative world in which all developing countries prioritize environmental protection is nothing short of fanciful.
So how do you get from resource extraction to global climate change? Most of the factors contributing to warming stem from the use of resources rather than their extraction. The exception is deforestation wherein the wholesale removal of trees damages a process called biosequestration. Thats when carbon dioxide is captured and stored, thus hedging against the greenhouse effect caused by excessive carbon dioxide in the atmosphere. Forests are one of natures best guards against global warming, and deforestation has become one of the single most significant man-made causes of global warming. It may not be the sexiest conflict between environmental protection and resource extraction, but keeping our forests intact could become one of the ACs most strategic arguments.
Best Laid Plans
If you're one of the few who remains categorically opposed to the use of plans in LD debate, this conversation is a non-starter. Otherwise, it's probably worth thinking about what will make for a goodand fairplan. At least if you care about that sort of thing (and you probably should).
There will almost certainly be plans in which the agent of action is a single country, but that doesn't necessarily mean there should be. With the topic text very obviously referring to countries in the plural, plans failing to enumerate multiple actors run into serious textual issues. They can dismiss the plural "countries" as an unnecessary generalization or blame it colloquial wording, but it's hard to deny what's in plain writing. Unfortunately, plans are theoretically constrained to doing just that by any traditional metric. Because of the theoretical taboo that is "multiple actor fiat," it seems impossible on face to write a plan that's both textually topical and theoretically coherent.
But is it?
One surefire way of meeting both textual and fiat requirements would be to isolate an entity like OPEC. While OPEC is comprised of multiple countries (thus remaining textual), it's also a body capable of enacting policy. The AC could also defend some kind of international or UN mandate
Page 20 of 224
directed at developing countries in the plural. Though the topic specifies that developing countries are the ones making the prioritization in question, that doesnt necessarily mean that prioritization has to be 100% voluntary. Or, in any event, the idea neednt have originated with the developing countries themselves. A nudge in the right direction from the international community may be the 1ACs best hope for plan ground thats both textual and fair. Despite the difficulties associated with running into multiple-actor fiat, there areas usualplenty of reasons introducing a plan text into the debate is advisable in terms of both pedagogy and competitive equity. Debating this topic in the abstract robs participants of important educational opportunities to discuss how policy decisions actually play out on the topic. Thats a generic justification, but its as true in this instance as it ever is. Moreover, the 1ACs use o f a plan gives 1NCs a very concrete chance to defend quantifiable harms to economic development. Thats not a reason plans arent strategicits just a reason they maintain a fair playing field. Were all familiar with the supposed real-world benefits of plan debate, but those are worth mentioning here too. The tension between environmental protection and economic growth has become one of the defining political dilemmas of our generation, and the discussion only promises to grow louder in the near future as emerging economies increasingly begin to face the kinds of choices the United States has faced for the last few decades. With greater wealth comes better technology and pressure for more robust regulations. Even if these matters are largely resolved in the developed world, the important question from a global standpoint is how everyone else follows suit.
From a practical standpoint, plan-focused debate also helps clarify what kind of advantages the AC can actually claim. Even if the topic wording creates some confusion about the textuality of a single actor implementing the plan, its probably less confusion than wed face trying to debate the topic whole res. It just doesnt make sense to imagine a world in which every developed country prioritizes either environmental protection or resource extraction. Each countrys policy will invariably be different from one another, prioritizing one interest or the other and to varying degrees. Much as some NCs may complain about the feasibility of a plan, its hard to argue the alternative is comparatively better for debate.
Core Negative Strategies You should already have a pretty good grasp of why economic development matters. Thats the easy part. There are still some important questions for negative debaters to answer, though: Namely, why is resource extraction essential to some countries economic development?
Page 21 of 224
In other words, why cant these countries just find other ways to stimulate their economies? Why is resource extraction particularly valuable? To this end, its important to remember that most developing countries dont have much choice about the direction of their development. If they did, theyd probably already be more developed. One of the characteristics that is common to most developing countries is a dependence on a limited set of core industries. In other words, their economies tend to be far less diversified than their developed counterparts. Whereas the United States excels in finance, technology and a broad array of service industries, most developing countries are doing well just to have relatively robust manufacturing capabilities. The U.S. could find ways to survive without its auto industry, but that same auto industry would be a make-orbreak feature to many economies. For many of the countries who rely on things like petroleum extraction to fuel their economies, there simply isnt much of a Plan B when it comes to developing on the backs of alternative industries. Once youve established why certain resources can be so essential a developing countrys economy, the next step is establishing why economic interests are so paramount. How you go about doing so of course depends on your approach to the standards debate, but there are at least a couple of arguments to be made in almost any context.
1. The implications of economic development are less speculative than harms caused to the environment. This is your opportunity to weigh in terms of probability and magnitude. Though economic gains dont always trickle down to those who need it most (especially in developing countries), it goes without saying that the have-nots will have less without wealth on the national scale. Things like food, shelter, health care and education all cost money, and a healthy economy is essential to a healthy population.
2. Development leads to environmental protection in the long-term. Economic growth puts countries in position to implement and enforce more stringent environmental regulations. Without firm fitting in an export market, for example, many developing countries can ill-afford to incur the costs of environmental protection. Growth also gives countries the opportunity to develop or purchase technology enabling cleaner industry. Some debaters will maintain that this kind of argument obviates the conflict between environmental protection and resource extraction, but there are at least a couple of reasons that conflict still exists: (1) there will never be perfect harmony between resource extraction and the environment its a matter of mitigating the harms with better practices; and (2) the conflict still fully exists in the short-term, so resource extraction only becomes extra-topical long after the topics been resolved in any hypothetical instance.
Page 22 of 224
3. Its more difficult to control for environmental harms. Whereas theres a very direct relationship between (cheap and efficient) resource extraction and economic development, its typically more difficult to ensure a clean environment. While its true that resource extraction isnt the only variable associated with economic development, there are far more variables associated with environmental protectionincluding other aspects of economic growth like factory pollution.
The Realism NC
What would a defense of utilitarian standards be without a subsequent discussion of positions that completely abandon said standards? Much as I love a straightforward policy debate, it's impossible to ignore the role borders play in conditioning the formation of those policies. In short, it's impossible to ignore realism. You should be prepared to answer it whenever negating, and you'd be wise to consider it as the foundation for one of your affirmative positions. If you're going to get philosophical, this is probably the most straightforward and coherent way to do so when affirming.
Whereas most moral theories speak to the behavior of individuals, political theories like realism are interested in how states work. Realism argues that governments live in a moral vacuum wherein it would be unreasonable to expect any kind of policy that comes at the expense of security or other especially strategic interests (like economic development). That's in large part because individual governments arent subject to global arbiters in the same way individual people are. There's no international social contract outside of the real, concrete agreements made between governments. Accordingly, we can't expect governments to give up their virtually absolute autonomy, because they can't be certain other governments will behave in kind. It's one thing to tell individual citizens they can't have tanks when the ones with the tanks (e.g. the federal government) prevent every other citizen from acquiring tanks. But when that kind of monopoly on power is replaced by anarchy on the international scale, all bets are off.
Or so the story goes.
Realism isn't a perfect description of how governments act, and it may not even attempt to describe how they should act. For example, domestic politics often play a significant role in government behavior, and those politics may be significantly more altruistic than governments are "supposed" to be according to realism. Additionally, the extent to which international relations seem anarchic really depends on what country were talking about. Nations that refuse any involvement in the international community (e.g. North Korea) take a far more realist approach than nations that subscribe to international norms. Those norms (whether codified or not) speak
13NFL3-Environment v. Resource Extraction www.victorybriefs.com to a less and less realist interaction between nations.
Page 23 of 224
Nevertheless, theres still a strong argument to be made that countries should more or less be able to prioritize their interests. Theres little doubt that prioritizing environmental protection can make some countries less competitive economically, perhaps threatening to drive them out of some industries altogether. That competition factor is important here. It would be one thing is developing countries were choosing between worlds where the only difference was a marginal increase or decrease in GDP. Thats not reality, though. In reality, the ability to extract resources at low cost often translates into the ability to sell those resources at lower costs. That, in turn, may be the difference between exporting and not exporting those resources at all. If price points arent competitive and there are alternative suppliers, a country may be crowded out of a market altogether. Though these kinds of economic pressures often create races to the bottom in which countries pursue environment deregulation among other things (e.g. lower taxes, less restrictive laws), thats the reality faced by developing countries. It isnt pretty, but it also isnt easy to change. Such is the fact of life that is realism. Even if its not a perfect description of states behave or ought to behave, its accurate enough to help build a sound defense of resource extraction and other development-first policies.
Conflict Scenarios
There are a number of potential conflict scenarios, including the deforestation discussed in the context of affirmative strategies. But there are three significant examples that help illustrate how some debates might play out.
Petroleum
The most obvious environmental risks associated with the petroleum industry are oil spills. The most recent of note happened in 2010 when the Deepwater Horizon oil rig sank and gushed oil into the Gulf of Mexico for nearly three months. Such spills are obvious because they're also catastrophic in terms that typically aren't limited to the environment alone. The 2010 spill cost 11 lives, gave oil giant BP a black eye and amounted to many billions in monetary losses. But all it takes is one look at BP's subsequent environmentally friendly ad campaign to remember why petroleum tops our list of topical resources.
Of course, the BP spill happened off the coast of the most developed nation in the world. There
Page 24 of 224
are a number of ways in which developing countries come into the mix. On the one hand, we've seen oil production play a central role in the ongoing development of OPEC nations whose economies rise and fall with the price of petroleum. On the other hand, a number of countries also outsource oil exploration and extraction to companies that originate in wealthier nations like the United States or Russia. Either way, much of the developing world is responsible for ensuring the planet's most important resource makes its way out of the ground and eventually into the hands of consumers. Its important, however, to distinguish between environmental risks. Most impacts that would implicate climate change stem from the actual use of petroleume.g. the carbon dioxide or acid rain thats produced when petroleum is burned off into the atmosphere. You could argue that extraction is an essential precondition to all of that happening, but the real pr oblem isnt so much the extraction itself as it is what happens after that. Though its possible to argue that all phases of oil production should be rejected by every party involved, thats a hefty burden for the 1AC to take on. It also poses all sorts of practical difficulties. How could the AC possibly fiat all of that actually happening? How much control do governments really have over an industry thats arguably the most powerful on the planetespecially the governments of developing countries? Even if developing countries are responsible for the lions share of petroleum extraction, its the developed world that drives the demand for that petroleum. Telling the worlds most powerful nations no probably isnt an option.
None of that means talking about petroleum is off limits. It just means impact scenarios need to be commensurate with the link story. Discussing the risks of oil spills is totally fair game. Pretending to solve the principal driver of climate change isnt.
Mining
It will be tempting for negative positions to adopt ground that focuses on the risks associated with mining diamonds and other minerals. Much of that temptation, however, is a strategic one: Many of these mining operations wind up directly or indirectly contributing to bloody conflicts in regions least able to afford (or contain) them. As far as this topic is concerned, what's gained strategically by running these positions may come at the expense of topicality. Unless the AC is demonstrating a clear environmental conflict, discussing these atrocious circumstances won't fall within the purview of the topic. Though much diamond mining is closely regulated, thats not the case in the kind of African countries were conflicts are also most prevalent. Affirmative positions could certainly advocate the flat-out abolishment of poorly regulated diamond mines in Africa, solving environmental risks to inadequately rehabilitated topsoil while also accruing the extra-topical
Page 25 of 224
advantage of ending the bloody conflicts associated with diamond extraction in those regions.
Though diamond discussion is probably the flashiest of mining topics, coal mining may be the most relevant environmentally. Just like petroleum, however, its important to distinguish between impacts stemming from burning coal and actually extracting (mining) it. Indeed, in an effort to the mine cleaner-burning (low-sulfur) coal, mining companies have increasingly turned to mining techniques like mountaintop removal that pose environmental risks of their own. Like other surface mining methods, mountaintop removal runs high risks of polluting air and water alike and threatening nearby communities in the process. Theres plenty of research demonstrating everything from decreased wildlife biodiversity to increased cancer rates in humans. From a debate standpoint, the upside to these arguments is that they involve harms that are actually felt as opposed to long-term, hypothetical risks.
Other kinds of coal mining like open-pit methods can divert water from other nearby uses (like agriculture). Strip mining can dramatically alter land and make it temporarily unusable for other important economic and life-sustaining activities like farming or ranching. Surface mining techniques can similarly make soil unusable for agriculture. In each of these cases, the environmental disturbance is real and immediate. And all of these problems stem from mining itself, not from burning coal.
Broadly speaking, all kinds of mining have the potential to pose severe environmental risks. While those risks are typically mitigated in wealthier nations thanks to wide-ranging regulations, the same cant be said for all developing countries. Higher costs or reduced efficiency may create disincentives for less wealthy countries to legislate or enforce environmental regulations. It would make a lot of sense for affirmative positions to merely advocate stringent regulations rather than the absolute cessation of mining activities.
Fishing
Protecting the environment is one thing, but when it comes to fishing practices we're just as concerned about the future of fishing as we are any immediate consequences. The old adage that there are "plenty of fish in the sea" isn't as true as it used to be, at least if taken literally. Before you dismiss this as a scenario that has more to do with conservation than the environment, it's worth arguing that the two priorities aren't entirely unrelated. Some fishing practiceslike deep-sea trawlingimpact fishing habitats and those habitats' long-term ability to sustain comparable numbers of fish. Similarly, overfishing can disrupt ecosystems and ecology and thus jeopardize future generations' access to the fish we currently enjoy.
Page 26 of 224
The fact that today's environmental goals overlap with tomorrow's economic ones doesn't mean that there isn't still a very real topical conflict in the here and now between the environment and development. Suggesting that such conflicts are really between developing now and developing later is reductionist. There's no reason nations can't (or shouldn't) be interested in the environment and future development alike. Indeed, that future development may be one of the best reasons for a particular nation to care about the environment. If more prudent fishing practices involve some current economic sacrifice, then it's probably fair to say those practices are fair game for debate.
These kinds of topicality dilemmas won't be limited to fishing. Being prepared to debate the theoretical propriety of using these borderline issues is one thing, but debaters should also be prepared to discuss the issues themselves. Even if fishing practices don't rank atop your list of topical conflicts, it still merits serious research.
Underview
As is the case with most topics, your arguments will only go as far as you can sell them. That means writing arguments that makes sense and describing impacts that will resonate with your judges. Easier said than done, to be sure. Economic arguments often involve complicated discussions about the inner workings of industry, and environmental arguments often involve science. Neither domain is inherently familiar to the average debate judge, but nor do they need to be completely inaccessible. Part of being persuasive is being clear, and part of being clear is ensuring you understand your own arguments inside and outso no short-cuts when it comes to doing your research, even if not especially when it comes to doing the dreaded, boring background research. Finally, dont take anything for granted. In addition to fully explaining your arguments, ma ke sure you complete each step of your important arguments and dont assume your judge will do the rest of the work for you. Judge biases wont come into play as much on this topic as they might on others. Resource extraction might seem like the pet project of big corporations, but good 1NCs will explain how it also benefits the poorest of the poor in very real ways. Environmental protection might seem like something only a leftist would love, but good 1ACs will explain environmental harms in terms that even the most hardened right-winger would care about. Failure to cover your bases will result in decisions you didnt see coming. You've been warned.
Page 27 of 224
Topic Analysis by Dan Miyamoto

While the resolution posed is an expansive one, a focus on economic development is clear. Hence, when determining whether developing countries ought to prioritize environmental protection over resource extraction careful consideration must be given to whether environmental protections are worth the cost to such countries and justify the expansion of state power necessary to promulgate and enforce such protections. Though environmental protection may be justified on a solely ecological basis, this brief will primarily consider economic consequences of the resolution.
A primary argument in favor of environmental protection is conservation of resources. Resources may be either renewable or nonrenewable. Renewable resources such as timber, fish, or game may potentially be exploited faster than they are renewed resulting in their depletion. Nonrenewable resources likewise are depleted as they are extracted. The result can be the total exhaustion of that resource stock with major consequences such as material deprivation, conflicts over remaining scarce resources, or, in the case of food supplies, famine and starvation.
Ignoring the threat of depletion of already existing and utilized resources, a significant consequence of the environmental degradation stemming from resource extraction is the loss of potential new resources not yet known:
The unfathomable mysteries of the tropics and the seas will be lost to bioprospecting. The potential cures found from amphibians, snake venom, the herbal and plant knowledge of indigenous humans and other species (such as primates, birds and elephants) will be lost to the pharmaceutical companies. For consumers of the rich world, the discovery of new delicacies like goji and acai berries, rooibos tea or the ornamental multiculturalism used to market commodities may grind to a halt.
4
The loss of such potential resources is difficult to quantify but potentially limitless. While the loss of new delicacies is of relatively little importance, the loss of potential medicines has far-reaching implications for public health and social welfare.
Intangibles resources such as the beauty of a natural scene or the wonder of diverse flora and fauna should not be overlooked as a source of economic value. Such aspects of nature are not
Lilley et al.
Page 28 of 224
often recognized or their value incorporated by the market. However, in some locales, ecotourism has managed to put a quantifiable economic value on the splendor of nature:
Major international conservation organizations have initiated ecotourism-linked departments, programs, studies, and field projects, and many are conducting nature tours, adventure tours, or ecotours for their members. International lending and aid agencies, under the banner of sustainable rural development, local income generation, biodiversity, institutional capacity building, poverty alleviation, and infrastructure development, pump billions of dollars into projects with tourism components; most of these are described as ecotourism or sustainable tourism projects. According to a 2005 analysis, twelve international donor agencies, including the World Bank, US Agency for International Development (USAID), UN Development Program (UNDP), and InterAmerican Development Bank (IDB), were giving almost $10 billion to some 370 tourismrelated projects.
5
Aside from threat of depletion, the process of resource extraction contributes creates considerable carbon emissions as the extraction of resources is energy intensive. Furthermore, for countries with a significant endowment of fuel, such as coal or oil, there is little incentive to use such energy efficiently:
Governments are under pressure to offer uneconomic subsidies to citizens who expect to benefit from their nations natural resource, and cheap fuel crowds out demand for other forms of energy production such as renewables. Each of these pushes the countrys carbon intensity (measured in CO2 emissions per unit of GDP) far higher than comparable countries that lack natural resources.
6
The catastrophes posed by climate change are drastic and alarming. Hunger, resulting from climate change, could kill billions and is considered plausible enough for policymakers to plan for such contingencies:
The most severe prognostications of climate induced food collapse project that four billion could die of hunger in the twenty-first century. Due to the extreme political and social disorder that food insecurity on this scale would produce, militaries worldwide are already modeling scenarios based on such prognostications. Among the countries most vulnerable to food crisis, the nuclear powers China and India are both facing catastrophic
5 6
Honey Parker
Page 29 of 224
depletions of water and arable land. Needless to say, political and military elites are paying close attention to apocalyptic scenarios involving these countries.
7
Another potential consequence of climate change is the inundation of coastal cities by rising sea levels. Even before these areas are made uninhabitable, anticipation of such events will reduce the value of threatened real estate causing financial chaos:
In addition to the food crisis, the scientific consensus is that many coastal cities will become uninhabitable due to rising sea levels, including New York, London, Shanghai, and Miami. In particular, nine of the ten most endangered cities are in Asia; many of them are relatively new urban agglomerations that are home to tens of millions of people. Long before actual evacuation is necessary, however, much coastal property will be uninsurable. This will have a massive impact on the world financial system, as the real estate values of many entire metropolitan areas will be massively written down. This scenario represents a convergence of environmental and economic catastrophisms, and is being vigorously discussed within the global reinsurance industry.
8
In consideration of these dire scenarios, an important standard for weighing the tradeoff between environmental protection and resources extraction is the notion of a precautionary principle. The precautionary principle may take two similar but distinct forms. The weak version, stand[s] for the proposition that regulators should be empowered to address risk in contexts of scientific uncertainty -- that is, even before regulators fully understand the nature of extent of risk. Whereas, the strong precautionary principle, suggests that some precautionary regulation should be a default response to serious risks under conditions of scientific uncertainty. The strong precautionary principle is particularly notable in that it shifts the burden of proof from proving that there are unacceptable disadvantages to proving the absence of unacceptable disadvantages.
9
These principles are especially important because of the difficulty in quantifying a threshold for unacceptable and irreversible damage to the environment. According to the principle, the absence of such a clear threshold need not foreclose the possibility of regulations as the potential harms to the environment, though uncertain, are of such great consequence that it is better to be safe than sorry.
7 8
Lilley ibid. 9 Sachs
Page 30 of 224
The imposition of regulations, however, is not without costly consequences themselves. All efforts at conversation mandated by states have the effect of skewing investment away from what the free market might allocate, thereby increasing inefficiency, and distorting the operation of the market:
Not only is the announced aim of conservation laws to aid the future at the expense of the present illegitimate, and the arguments in favor of it invalid, but compulsory conservation would not achieve even this goal. For the future is already provided for through present saving and investment. Conservation laws will indeed coerce greater investment in natural resources: using other resources to maintain renewable resources and forcing a greater inventory of stock in depletable resources. But total investment is determined by the time preferences of individuals, and these will not have changed. Conservation laws, then, do not really increase total provisions for the future; they merely shift investment from capital goods, buildings, etc., to natural resources. They thereby impose an inefficient and distorted investment pattern on the economy.
10
Such distortions in the market can unintentionally create perverse incentives that defeat the original goals of the policy. One especially salient example involves the issuance carbon credits for the destruction of a waste by-product in the manufacture of a coolant gas. The effect of the carbon credit regime was to increase the production of the coolant for the purpose of destroying the by-product as the carbon credits were actually more profitable than coolant.\footnote{Rosenthal and Lehren}
11
Furthermore, the enactment of environmental protection in the form of conservation has the real effect of granting a state-sponsored privilege to the owners of land and resources already in production, further eroding competition and distorting the efficiency of the market: Conservation laws, we must note, have a very practical aspect. They restrict production, i.e., the use of a resource, by force and thereby create a monopolistic privilege, which leads to a restrictionist price to owners of this resource or of substitutes for it. Conservation laws can be more effective monopolizers than tariffs because, as we have seen, tariffs permit new entry and unlimited production by domestic competitors. Conservation laws, on the other hand, serve to cartelize a land factor and absolutely restrict production, thereby helping to insure permanent (and continuing) monopoly gains for the owners. These monopoly gains, of course, will tend to be capitalized into an
10 11
Rothbard Rosenthal and Lehren
Page 31 of 224
increase in the capital value of the land. The person who later buys the monopolized factor, then, will simply earn the going rate of interest on his investment, even though the monopoly gain will be included in his earnings.
12
It is easy to see why owners of land and resource reserves already in production in both the developed and developing worlds might be eager for strong environmental protection since it would instantly increase the value of their property and decrease competition.
This appreciation is not costless, however. It comes directly from reducing the standard of living for laborers and those not fortunate to receive such privileges from the state:
Land, on the other hand, cannot be increased; restriction of the supply of land, therefore, also confers a restrictionist price of land above the free-market price. The same is true for depleting natural resources, which cannot have their supply increased and are therefore considered part of land. If the government forces land or natural resources out of the market, therefore, it inevitably lowers the supply available on the market and just as inevitably confers a monopoly gain and a restrictionist price on the remaining landowners or resource owners. In addition to all of their other effects, conservation laws force labor to abandon good lands and, instead, cultivate the remaining submarginal land. This coerced shift lowers the marginal productivity of labor and consequently reduces the general standard of living.
13
Efforts at environmental protection then woefully misunderstand the economic reality of the situation. Environmental policies designed to protect people from the consequences of their action represent a paternalistic intervention by the state. Implicit in this logic is the idea that private individuals and organizations are less cognizant of their own best interests than the state:
Most conservationist arguments evince almost no familiarity with economics. Many assume that entrepreneurs have no foresight and would blithely use natural resources only to find themselves some day suddenly without any property. Only the wise, providential State can foresee depletion. The absurdity of this argument is evident when we realize that the present value of the entrepreneurs land is dependent on the expected future rents from his resources. Even if the entrepreneur himself should be unaccountably ignorant, the market will not be, and its valuation (i.e., the valuation of interested experts with money at stake) will tend to reflect its value accurately. In fact, it is
12 13
Rothbard ibid.
Page 32 of 224
the entrepreneurs business to forecast, and he is rewarded for correct forecasting by profits. Will entrepreneurs on the market have less foresight than bureaucrats comfortably ensconced in their seizure of the taxpayers money?
14
With the understanding that the free market best allocates resources to their best use, there can be no rational standard by which to judge how much environmental protection is beneficial or needed: How many writers have wept over capitalisms brutal ravaging of the American forests! Yet it is clear that American land has had more value-productive uses than timber production, and hence the land was diverted to those ends that better satisfied consumer wants. What standards can the critics set up instead? If they think too much forest has been cut down, how can they arrive at a quantitative standard to determine how much is too much? In fact, it is impossible to arrive at any such standard, just as it is impossible to arrive at any quantitative standards for market action outside the market. Any attempt to do so must be arbitrary and unsupported by any rational principle.
15
Consequently, in the absence of the market mechanism, utilitarian calculus fails, for:
We want the maximum good per person; but what is good? To one person it is wilderness, to another it is ski lodges for thousands. To one it is estuaries to nourish ducks for hunters to shoot; to another it is factory land. Comparing one good with another is, we usually say, impossible because goods are incommensurable. Incommensurables cannot be compared.
16
Lack of a rational standard for determining a proper balance between environmental protection and resource extraction begs the question: how much protection is needed? Given that many throughout the world are without basic human necessities despite ongoing resource extraction and production, the logic of environmental protection would seem implies the restriction of all production and consumption. If the environment or environmental integrity is to be valued over ameliorating the status of those worst off, there is little reason to allow any industry: As Scott aptly asks: Why agree to preserve resources as they would be in the absence of their human users? And further: Most of [our] progress has taken the form of
14 15
ibid. Rothbard 16 Hardin
Page 33 of 224
converting natural resources into more desirable forms of wealth. If man had prized natural resources above his own product, he would doubtless have remained savage, practicing conservatism. If the logic of tariffs is to destroy the market, then the logic of conservation laws is to destroy all human production and consumption.
17
To advocate the prioritization of environmental protection over other considerations runs the very real risk of condemning already impoverish developing countries to an existence of perpetual poverty. To deny developing countries aspirations to affluence and prosperity on account of environmental protection ignores the large role developed countries have already played in engendering current ecological devastation:
The solution offered by global elites to the catastrophe is a further program of austerity, belt-tightening, and sacrifice, the brunt of which will be borne by the world's poor. Unsurprisingly, this program has not been embraced with enthusiasm by publics anywhere. In the Global South, two billion people do not have basic food security and it is obscene that the IMF, multinational corporations, and wealthy nations continue to demand even more immiseration and exploitation. Even for those not in abject poverty, the poor majorities do not see the justice of abstaining from their first experiences of automobilism, air conditioning, and consumer goods to order to pay the climate debt accrued by their former colonial overlords.
18
Indeed, to deny developing countries full use of their natural resources is to deny them significant growth opportunities. Resource extraction provides a vital material basis for economic growth of developing countries and without growth there is a limited ability to deal with other pressing issues including environmental protection: Like the Great Depression, the current economic slump has fanned the fires of nationalist, ethnic, and religious hatred around the world. Economic hardship is not the only cause of these social and political pathologies, but it aggravates all of them, and in turn they feed back on economic development. They also undermine efforts to deal with such global problems as environmental pollution, the production and trafficking of drugs, crime, sickness, famine, AIDS, and other plagues. Growth will not solve all those problems by itself. But economic growth -- and growth alone -- creates the additional resources that make national and collective security, a healthier environment, and a more liberal and open economies and societies.
19
17 18
Rothbard Lilley et al. 19 Silk
Page 34 of 224
Furthermore, without such growth, social cohesion is threatened as fear of scarcity may tear asunder developing countries and lead to civil war or regional wars for limited resources:
By the same token, slow economic growth, especially stemming from slow productivity growth, weakens social cohesion. Simple adding to inputs of labor and capital, without improving living standards or adding to economic and personal security, will cause fears about the future, for oneself, and one's children, to heighten the competition for access to jobs and land and shares of the national budget -- or even lead to a breakup of the nation-state and civil war, as happened in former Yugoslavia. An even-worse ripping apart of social cohesion could occur in other states of Eastern Europe and the former Soviet Union, if greater economic progress is not achieved.
20
Moreover, economic growth in general and resource extraction specifically can have a liberalizing effect. Contrary to beliefs that resource wealth sustains authoritarian governments, there is evidence to suggest that oil and mineral reliance erode dictatorships. According to one study, Our results indicate that oil and mineral reliance does not promote dictatorship over the long run. If anything, the opposite is true. These results hold even when we search for a host of conditional effects suggested by the literature.
21
Indeed, it has been hypothesized that the process of industrialization and the social structures built to extract and bring coal to market were themselves responsible for the evolution of mass democracy in the West as the vital importance of energy to modern economies gives trade unions significant bargaining power:
What was missing was not consciousness, not a repertoire of demands, but an effective way of forcing the powerful to listen to those demands. The flow and concentration of energy made it possible to connect the demands of miners to those of others, and to give their arguments a technical force that could not be easily ignored. Strikes became effective, not because of mining's isolation, but on the contrary because of the flows of carbon that connected chambers beneath the ground to every factory, office, home or means of transportation that depended on steam or electric power.
22
20 21
ibid. Haber and Menaldo 2011 22 Mitchell
Page 35 of 224
Both Trinidad and Tobago and Australia provide specific historical examples of this liberalizing effect of substantial resource endowment:
Trinidad and Tobago, for example, was populated in the nineteenth century by indentured Indian and Chinese laborers who toiled in a kind of quasi-slavery on the islands sugar plantations and were subject to apartheid-like laws. The growth of its middle class, and its democracy, was fueled by the subsequent discovery of oil and gas. Australia was set up as a penal colony, but it became democratic when it filled up with settlers attracted by its gold and copper wealth.
23
More stridently, appeals to apocalyptic spectres to justify state power for the purpose of enacting environmental protection policies and regulations greatly undermine liberal projects. Such appeals to fear of scarcity uniquely benefit authoritarian right-wing and nationalist circles:
In this crowded field, increased awareness of environmental crisis will not likely translate into a more ecological lifestyle, let alone an activist orientation against the root causes of environmental degradation. In fact, right-wing and nationalist environmental politics have much more to gain from an embrace of catastrophism. This is especially true if the invocation of fear is the primary rhetorical device. Fear, as Rainer Werner Fassbinder pointed out, can "eat the soul." Fear is not a stable place to organize a radical politics, but it can be a very effective platform from which to launch a campaign of populist xenophobia or authoritarian technocracy under the sign of scarcity.
24
Considered in the context of resolution, the end result then of prioritizing environmental protection in developing countries would be to ensconce the privileged position of developed ones that have already gone through their period of environmentally-destructive industrialization and foreclosing or at least diminishing the prospects of development -- both economic and political -- for the rest.
However, resource extraction might well increase short-term growth and provide immediate income, there is a strain of thought that suggests it threatens diminishing long-term growth prospects. Countries endowed with abundant resource reserves will seek to develop those reserves by investing in their extraction. The costs of these investments, however, include forgoing investment in other areas such as education or the development of other industries. As a result, economic development and growth may stall out as there is little immediate incentive for innovation. Resource poor countries such as Japan, Singapore, or Switzerland have nevertheless
23 24
Haber and Menaldo 2010 Lilley et al.
Page 36 of 224
been able to develop advanced and wealthy economies focusing on investments in human capital such as education. Additionally, exportation of resources (or commodities in general) increases the value of the local currency making other forms of production for export more expensive and hence less competitive. Thus, a country heavily reliant on resource extraction will have tremendous difficulty developing other sectors of its economy such as manufacturing. Indeed, over-reliance by developing countries on the extraction and export of natural resources and a lack of diversity in their economies puts such countries at the mercy of the vicissitudes of the market and the volatility of global prices for resources. Furthermore, despite claims of the efficiency of the free market, the notion of truly free market exists. Governments across the globe regularly intervene with taxes, regulations, and subsidies, resulting in an already distorted market. Furthermore, in the absence of effective property rights, the markets will fail to incorporate the costs of harm to the environment as they are not directly borne by the producer or consumer. Often, in the course of resource extraction, this takes the form of the ``tragedy of the commons'':
The tragedy of the commons develops in this way. Picture a pasture open to all. It is to be expected that each herdsman will try to keep as many cattle as possible on the commons. Such an arrangement may work reasonably satisfactorily for centuries because tribal wars, poaching, and disease keep the numbers of both man and beast well below the carrying capacity of the land. Finally, however, comes the day of reckoning, that is, the day when the long-desired goal of social stability becomes a reality. At this point, the inherent logic of the commons remorselessly generates tragedy. As a rational being, each herdsman seeks to maximize his gain. Explicitly or implicitly, more or less consciously, he asks, "What is the utility to me of adding one more animal to my herd?" [. . .] Adding together the component partial utilities, the rational herdsman concludes that the only sensible course for him to pursue is to add another animal to his herd. And another; and another... But this is the conclusion reached by each and every rational herdsman sharing a commons. Therein is the tragedy. Each man is locked into a system that compels him to increase his herd without limit--in a world that is limited. Ruin is the destination toward which all men rush, each pursuing his own best interest in a society that believes in the freedom of the commons. Freedom in a commons brings ruin to all.
25
25
Hardin
Page 37 of 224
A similar dynamic occurs with regards to pollution that accompanies resource extraction:
In a reverse way, the tragedy of the commons reappears in problems of pollution. Here it is not a question of taking something out of the commons, but of putting something in-sewage, or chemical, radioactive, and heat wastes into water; noxious and dangerous fumes into the air, and distracting and unpleasant advertising signs into the line of sight. The calculations of utility are much the same as before. The rational man finds that his share of the cost of the wastes he discharges into the commons is less than the cost of purifying his wastes before releasing them. Since this is true for everyone, we are locked into a system of "fouling our own nest," so long as we behave only as independent, rational, free-enterprisers.
26
No one owns the atmosphere or ocean, so none have any direct material incentive towards safeguarding such common resources. Ownership encourages stewardship as ``nobody ever washed a rented car''. A consequence of this is that the varied and numerous external costs, even when care is taken, of resource extraction are not incorporated by the market: Resource extraction, even when as clean as technologically conceivable, produces significant externalities. In the clean version these externalities are limited to dramatic landscape transformation, significant increase in the movement of heavy machinery and heavy loads, increases in noise pollution, the presence of large scale installations on previously rural landscapes and the arrival of new sources of risk and uncertainty in the landscape (in the form of large scale tailings ponds that might breach, pipelines that might leak, waste-waters that might escape, etc.). In the dirty version of extraction, the externalities can involve adverse impacts on water quality and quantity; careless management of tailings, waste rock and waste waters with implications for pollution; and adverse social impacts (prostitution, night-life, new diseases) in human settlements near sites of extraction. In either version it is probably also the case that there are localized effects on the political economy with inflation of land and labour costs (with typically adverse effects for local labour intensive agriculture, as well as for general patterns of access to housing as it becomes more expensive) and increased opportunities for criminal activities. There is ample evidence of this latter effect, whether in the form of tapping of oil pipelines in Nigeria (Watts, 2004; Kashi and Watts, 2008) or of mafia presence in the economy of service provision to sites of extraction (Arellano-Yanguas, 2012).
26 27 27
ibid. Bebbington
Page 38 of 224
As had been previously asserted, while free markets may allocate resources in the most socially efficient manner, this relies on a robust and universal system of property rights. An absence of such a regime along with the presence of state-sponsored privileges provides incentives to entrepreneurs that tend towards the pursuit of short-term private gain at the expense of long-term public (and private) benefit:
Capital valorizes and instrumentalizes the diversity of nature, but this impulse is overwhelmed by its short-term logic of destruction. This contradiction is leaving capital with less and less hope for new magic bullets to appear from the outside. Thus, the effort by some sectors of capital to save tropical rainforests is at odds with the short-term imperative to clear these forests for biofuel, palm oil, and soy plantations. In this contest of interest groups, it is clear that short-term pillaging has greater influence than prudent managerialism at the present time. Neoliberal capitalism has produced neoliberal nature and this has impoverished the capacity for adaptation that may be this epochs only hope. Understanding this process is not just a matter of social pathology or regulatory failure, though those are certainly factors. The underlying problem is that capital tends to degrade the conditions of its own production, and these kinds of catastrophes are not readily solved by market solutions. The strip mining of biodiversity should clearly be seen as a catastrophe for the reproduction of capitalism, but it barely registers as a problem in boardrooms or the business press. As it stands, agribusiness concerns, wildlife traffickers and cattle ranchers have more sway than eco-tourism brokers and bioprospecting pharmaceutical companies, and the resulting impoverishment of ecosystems and cultures is a catastrophe that may not be fully recognized until it is too late.
28
Though the issues and dynamics involved are complex, in answering the dilemma posed by the resolution substantial importance for proponents of environmental protection will be on whether or not the market for resources can be trusted to self-regulate and act in their best long term interest. Likewise, for opponents of the resolution, whether or not environmental protection is worth the cost and whether or not such protection is worth the liberty of private actors and unrestricted operation of the free market will be key.
28
Lilley et al.
13NFL3-Environment v. Resource Extraction www.victorybriefs.com Bibliography
Page 39 of 224
Bebbington, Anthony. Natural resource extraction and the possibility of inclusive development, Effective States and Inclusive Development Working Paper No. 21. June 2013.
Lilley, Sasha and David McNally et al., Catastrophism: The Apocalyptic Politics of Collapse and Rebirth, 2012. Haber, Stephen and Victor Menaldo. Do Natural Resources Fuel Authoritarianism?, American Political Science Review, Feb 2011. Haber, Stephen and Victor Menaldo. Lifting the Resource Curse, Hoover Digest, No. 4, Sep 39, 2010. Hardin, Garett. The Tragedy of the Commons, Science, Dec 13, 1968.
Honey, Martha. Ecotourism and Sustainable Development, Second Edition: Who Owns Paradise?, 2008.
Mitchell, Timothy. Carbon Democracy, 2011. Parker, Michael. Break the carbon curse to curb global emissions, The Conversation, Aug 22, 2013.
Rothbard, Murray. Man, Economy, and State, with Power and Market, 2009. Sachs, Noah. Rescuing the Precautionary Principle from Its Critics University of Illinois Law Review, Aug 1, 2011.
Silk, Solomon. People: From Impoverishment to Empowerment, 1995.
Page 40 of 224
Topic Analysis by Scott Phillips

This resolution is somewhat of an enigma - it offers a policy style topic without selecting a specific agent. As much as I love theory debates, theory will probably play a major role due to a lack of clash between tiny specific affirmatives and tiny specific negatives. What I would like to do with this topic analysis is highlight some things that can be done in order to both prepare for these tiny cases and facilitate clash. This will influence the discussions as we proceed from defining the terms, to thinking about topic specific ethical arguments, to talking about critiques.
Topic Terms
Let us briefly discuss some of the key terms in the resolution. "Developing countries" has a few possible meanings. In the abstract most will agree that it refers to economic modernization- the US has a functioning market economy in ways that Mali does not. Exactly what criteria measure this economic modernization is a hotly contested topic of debate but includes things like: life expectancy, GNI per capita, degree of market openness, enforcement of the rule of law/private property protection, and often times political liberalization. I will leave it to you to Wikipedia the term and get the Cliffs Notes version, I would like here to focus on a few different contextual definitions. Perhaps the most common and easy to use is the World Bank's development index: For operational and analytical purposes, the World Banks main criterion for classifying economies is gross national income (GNI) per capita. In previous editions of our publications, this term was referred to as gross national product, or GNP. (Learn more about this change in terminology.) Based on its GNI per capita, every economy is classified as low income, middle income (subdivided into lower middle and upper middle), or high income. Other analytical groups based on geographic regions are also used. 29
30
As of March 2013 the World Bank considered 145 nations to be "developing" . This World Bank list is updated periodically- both who is on it and what exact criteria are used to label a nation as developing. It is by far the gold standard used in international political economy literature to define development. As such, it would be very easy to structure a debate argument about why this is the best definition. Alternative definitions are far less predictable because they either use a single criterion or they don't offer a coherent definitional structure. For example, many definitions of
29 30
http://data.worldbank.org/about/country-classifications
https://www.google.com/url?sa=t&rct=j&q=&esrc=s&source=web&cd=6&ved=0CFgQFjAF&url=htt p%3A%2F%2Fwww.ish.org.uk%2Fdownload.aspx%3Fid%3D134&ei=3ymqUvuVFsLxoATA_YDg Bw&usg=AFQjCNGhLCU95dFo9GLQafmIgdwtT18l3Q&sig2=rSB3Aps5-WuL9mhlGuA3_g
13NFL3-Environment v. Resource Extraction www.victorybriefs.com developed use ease of transport as a criteria; if a country is largely rural with no
Page 41 of 224
highways/airports/railways than it is not considered developed. Based on these sort of random criteria however, many have argued that the United States is not a developed country ("The United States is a developing country in terms of rail, Ansgar Brockmeyer, head of public transit business for Siemens, said in an interview aboard the Russian test train, as wooden country homes and birch forests flickered by outside the window ") because we have never placed a large emphasis on high speed rail. The World Bank definition gives the best way to avoid these pitfalls.
31
The major criticism of the World Bank definition is that it is politicized: the World Bank is a "development" organization-i.e. its business is to help nations pursue a certain kind of western development. As such, the standards it uses and the definitions made from those standards adhere to certain western notions of what development should be. Critical affirmatives will very likely pick nations not on the World Bank's list and try to argue some form of kritik of the World Bank's ranking system. While the example above about the US seems silly because it is about trains there is a mountain of articles about income inequality in the US. Some people argue that income inequality should be a major factor in our determinations about development and by that metric the US is not a developed country.
32
If you plan to read the World Bank list as your
interpretation you should make sure you cut some cards defending the Bank and its views on development.
The second way to define "developing country" would be to look to US law. Now, the US is not the actor of the resolution and that certainly undercuts the central place US definitions should have somewhat. However, given the debaters are all citizens of the US debating in the US there is still a strong case to be made about why US definitions will be the best. According to US law "According to 7 USCS 5602(2), the term developing country means a country that: (A) has a shortage of foreign exchange earnings and has difficulty accessing sufficient commercial credit to meet all of its food needs, as determined by the Secretary; and (B) has the potential to become a commercial market for agricultural commodities. This definition is less precise than the list offered by the World Bank, but it has a key advantage: it narrows the economic scope of development to focus on access to food as a key factor. The resolution is agnostic on the question of what kind of resources it is discussing for extraction - this allows for a huge number of cases about oil, diamonds, timber etc. Limiting the discussion to food would be a great way to
33
31 32
http://www.nytimes.com/2009/09/25/business/global/25train.html?_r=0 http://www.theguardian.com/world/2013/dec/08/david-simon-capitalism-marx-two-americaswire 33 http://definitions.uslegal.com/d/developing-country/
Page 42 of 224
focus the topic and allow for more meaningful clash. Access to food also eliminates cases that try and tinker with GNI numbers to show that the US is a developing nation or other critical cases.
The last kind of definition, that I would like to caution you against using, is a context specific definition. These usually appear in law reviews or think tank briefs and say something like "for the purposes of this paper the term developing country means". These definitions are not a great guide to what a debate topic should look like for at least two reasons. First, there are hundreds of them if not more. Being told in a debate that you should have adhered to the definition of developing country in article X instead of article Y is a path to massive frustration for all parties. Second, these definitions are relatively arbitrary in that often the article using that definition is examining a specific element of development not debating it in the abstract. As such a paper about port access may use a definition of development organized around access to sea commerce- that doesn't mean it's predictable for all debaters to assume the topic is about ships.
One final note about development- the "dirty word" critique has become increasingly popular in LD debate over the last few years. This argument strategy gained prominence on a college policy topic about development because so many authors write about the term development itself. Here is a short example, " The term 'developing country' has a number of weaknesses. For example, the term is often seen as having the connotation that Western economic life should be the goal of all countries, and the term obscures the fact that not all such countries are actually improving economically. Alternative names include, 'less economically developed countries', or just 'poor countries'. A useful term for the very worst off countries is 'least developed countries' or LDCs." I would like to give you two tips for preparing for this inevitable negative argument. First, this critique somewhat gets the topic backwards. Critics of the term development are saying that western nations use development as a tool to exploit 3rd world countries through economic practices like trade agreements. This is the opposite of what the affirmative will be saying on this topic- they will be saying countries SHOULD NOT sell their resources to rich nations but should instead conserve them to protect the environment. While the word "development" is problematic in certain contexts, it is not problematic the way it is used in this resolution. Second, there are many people (both western and indigenous) who defend the concept of development and think it is important. You should cut cards on this to defend your discourse. Here is a short example of what I mean: In the world of International Development, weve got a bit of a problemwhat should we call the countries where we work... The difficulty with terms like Third World is that they suggest a ranking, that the First World is better than the Third World. A lot of people think
34 34
http://misionrenacer.org/index.php/media-center/did-you-know
Page 43 of 224
that the term Third World comes from a ranking of economic success. But, the term is actually a legacy from the Cold War: Third World countries were nations that were not aligned with either the Capitalist (First) world or Communist (Second) world... Developing Country The term Developing Country is hopeful it implies that the current state of the country is not permanent...The short story is that we dont have a perfect term for what we mean. But, we are generally talking about the same thingcountries that have high levels of extreme poverty.
35
So, against critics of the term you would basically be arguing that the negative, dirty connotations of development only apply in certain contexts. Since you don't use the term in that way, your use is a hopeful one- one that assumes countries can progress towards social equality and justice, and that this powerful use of the term reappropriates harmful development discourse.
The other key term in the resolution is "resource extraction". A broad view of this term would be any time a country uses some sort of resource it is considered extraction - farming, logging, even some forms of human capital could be included. I think this term offers you a chance to craft a more limited version of the topic, however, or at least give you a good topicality argument to keep as a negative generic. The US SEC has tangentially defined resource extraction in other areas to include oil, natural gas, and minerals - which would exclude any sort of agricultural case. A more high tech version of topicality would rely on the distinction between resource "production" and resource "extraction" . This argument would in essence say that the affirmative can literally only say resources should not be taking out of the ground. To see what I mean let's look at oil. An affirmative case could say oil consumption is producing global warming so we should stop developing countries from exporting oil. What this T argument would say is that global warming comes from production, not extraction. Production is converting oil into a useable fuel and then burning it. The affirmative can only say extracting oil is bad, anything that comes after that is not topical affirmative ground. This could be used to create competition for a CP that allows extraction in the developing world but prohibits production/consumption in the developed world to solve for the environmental harms. This distinction is widely written about but is not necessarily clear cut as the process of production/extraction often becomes a cloudy area:
37 36
35 36
http://blog.becauseiamagirl.ca/what-does-developing-country-really-mean/ http://www.iasplus.com/en/publications/us/heads-up/2012/heads-up-2014-sec-issues-final-rulerequiring-resource-extraction-issuers-to-disclose-certain-payments
37
http://eprints.lse.ac.uk/18908/1/__Libfile_repository_Content_Neumayer,%20E_On%20the%20m ethodology%20of%20ISEW,%20GPI%20and%20related%20measures_On%20the%20methodol ogy%20of%20ISEW,%20GPI%20and%20related%20measures%20(LSE%20RO).pdf
Page 44 of 224
The history of consumption and product of energy in the United States since 1950 is shown in Figure 1.8. In this figure, and elsewhere in this text, energy production refers to the mining of coal and the bringing of oil and natural gas to the earths surface, or to the making of useful energy by nuclear power, hydroelectric power, geothermal power, biomass fuel, solar collectors, and other means. Energy consumption occurs when the fossil fuel is burned or when energy is put to use by the consumer.
38
Resource extraction also allows for potential squirrel affirmative cases, "When we use the term "resource extraction industry" many people think of activities like logging, commercial fishing, mining or the production of fossil fuels. Nature photography would likely be one of the last things that would come to mind. But perhaps it should. And, as nature photographers, we have a responsibility to ensure that we operate our industry in a sustainable fashion! " This makes it important that you plan to have some sort of negative strategy- either T or something else- ready in case you debate such a small and unpredictable case.
39
Ethics
There are two issues that will be important related to the topic and morality specifically: life boat ethics and anthropocentrism. Life boat ethics is a branch of utilitarianism that evolved in the 70's in the debate about population growth. The basic premise of life boat ethics is this: the environment places limits on our ability to fulfill our obligations towards others, and when the environment comes into conflict with human well being oftentimes we must side with the environment.
What if our present moral code is ecologically unsustainable? A widely cited article from the journal Science gives us one answer. Garrett Hardin's "The Tragedy of the Commons" (1968) demonstrated that when natural resources are held in common -freely available to everyone for the taking -- the incentives that normally direct human activity lead people to steadily increase their exploitation of the resources until they are inadequate to meet human needs. The exploiters generally do not intend to cause any harm; they are merely taking care of their own needs, or those of others in want. Nevertheless, the entire system moves inexorably to disaster. Everyone in the world shares in the resulting tragedy of the commons...Social justice requires an expanding pie to share with those who are less fortunate. Progress is growth...It is not important that
38
Ristinen, professor of physics University of Colorado, and Kraushaar, professor of physics University of Colorado, 99 (Robert A. and Jack J., Energy and the environment, p. 21) 39 http://www.naturalart.ca/voice/resourceextract.html
Page 45 of 224
you agree with the premise. What is important is that you help debate the alternatives. An ethics of the commons would require a change in the criteria by which moral claims are justified. You may believe that current rates of population growth and economic expansion can go on forever -- but debate with us what alternative ethical theories would arise if they cannot. Our thesis is that any ethical system is mistaken and immoral if its practice would cause an environmental collapse
40
This was illustrated by an analogy to the capacity of a lifeboat: imagine you and 8 other people are in a life boat that has a capacity of 10 people. In the water that surrounds the boat there are hundreds of people drowning. Many different moral systems would say you have some sort of obligation to assist those who are drowning. Consequentially, if you help more than 1 person the result will be disastrous, the boat will sink and everyone will die. The lifeboat in this analogy is the planet. The more people we assist the more people we are trying to bring into the lifeboat. An example on the resource extraction topic could be agriculture. In many developing countries for a variety of reasons they no longer have a stable, functioning agricultural system. Oftentimes as a result they turn to unsustainable farming practices like slash and burn agriculture. These allow them to get a large amount of food quickly but prevents them from having a long term farming policy. In this instance lifeboat ethicists would say it is more moral to allow a smaller number of people to die now than to delay that suffering a few years but end up killing more people. These arguments are fundamentally related to the "Malthus" argument you may be familiar with and are often used as the ethical justification for letting people die. Since many affirmatives will be about the tension between human development and environmental protection lifeboat ethics will be a useful philosophy. The other thing that makes lifeboat ethics a useful debate argument is that there are a large number of articles that address "meta ethical" issues related to why lifeboat ethics is theoretically justified position. What I mean is that in addition to descriptive evidence about why lifeboat ethics is correct, there is also a great deal of literature about why its a superior system to common debate alternatives like deontology or Levinasian ethics.
Correct ethical behavior can no longer be deduced from a set of principles, rights, and obligations which are invariant in time and universal in application. Instead, ethical behavior must be relative to its most important goal -- to protect and sustain the Earth's diverse yet mutually supporting system of living things. Thereafter the secondary goal of ethics may be addressed, namely, to maximize the quality of human life. The systemdependent nature of moral behavior entails decisive changes in ethical theory or in the decisions that affect the do's and don't's of daily life.
40 41 41
... The primary World Bank
http://dieoff.org/page121.htm Ibid
Page 46 of 224
collection of development indicators, compiled from officially-recognized international sources, presents the most current and accurate global development data available. World Development Indicators (WDI) is the World Bank's flagship statistical database and establishes the benchmark against which development progress is measured.
42
Lifeboat ethics will likely be an affirmative argument in favor of conserving natural resources. Its strength would be against the sort of east coast metaethics cases people ran on the animal rights topic like practical reason, autonomy etc. These cases are, as they are deployed in debate, basically a thinly veiled form of rational egoism (whateva, I do what I want). The only response these cases really have to Lifeboat is "is/ought fallacy", which is responded to extensively by Lifeboat authors. The weakness of Lifeboat is that at its core it's simply a consequential framework so any disadvantage the negative reads you will have to answer- this will be discussed more in the policy arguments section.
The second ethical issue for this topic will be environmental ethics like deep ecology. In short, these arguments argue that traditional ways of thinking about morality privilege humans at the expense of the natural environment.
We argue for the rejection of an anthropocentric and instrumental system of normative ethics. Moral arguments for the preservation of the environment cannot be based on the promotion of human interests or goods. The failure of anthropocentric arguments is exemplified by the dilemma of Third World development policy, e.g., the controversy over the preservation of the Amazon rain forest. Considerations of both utility and justice preclude a solution to the problems of Third World development from the restrictive framework of anthropocentric interests. A moral theory in which nature is considered to be morally considerable in itself can justify environmental policies of preservation, even in the Third World. Thus, a nonanthropocentric framework for environmental ethics should be adopted as the basis for policy decisions.
43
These sorts of arguments lend themselves to a variety of critical affirmatives that argue against neoliberal resource extraction policies but also against common NC's that rely on human centered morality (not only practical reason but also things like Bostrom). These cases would argue that currently we don't factor environmental costs into resource decisions because we don't value animal lives or the natural world. If we did, we would radically curb our resource extraction rates to better protect the natural environment. As the evidence above indicates, this could also
42 43
http://data.worldbank.org/about/world-development-indicators-data http://www.umweltethik.at/download.php?id=392
Page 47 of 224
be a negative argument against a traditional util/maximize human lives AC. The negative would argue that even though the affirmative comes to the right conclusion- limit resource extraction, they do so for the wrong reasons. By focusing exclusively on the human benefit of changing resource policy they reinforce the anthropocentric hierarchy that is the root cause of environmental degradation in the first place.
Policy Arguments
One important thing should be mentioned before we go into tips for debating policy arguments. The high school policy topic overlaps this LD topic which means there are huge policy files available to lazy LDers who want to cut and paste a case with no thought. These cases will most likely have to do with oil development in Mexico, Cuba, and Venezuela. You can easily get evidence to answer all these cases from the NDCA open evidence website so don't be caught unprepared.
Let's start with some tips for debating this topic from the affirmative perspective. What I would like to do is give you some advice about how you should debate your cases environment advantage vs. negative disadvantages. The fundamental problem with environment advantages is that they are long term whereas negatives usually try and explain whatever their disad is as being a short term war impact. There are three tips I would like to give you. First, read evidence about how "war is obsolete" . This evidence argues that for a variety of reasons, most often increased economic interdependence, spread of democracy, and nuclear deterrence, that a large scale war is unlikely to occur. In order to win their disad outweighs your case it will not be enough for the negative to win a small scale conflict killing thousands of people will happen. You should be reading evidence that the environment is an extinction impact. To outweigh that the negative should have to win that their disad is a world ending affair. The war obsolete articles argue that we will never see a major war like this again. This is basically a probability indict- your case may be more long term but it is much higher probability. Second, answer hyperbolic terminal nuclear impacts. The negative will have to read evidence like "nuclear war causes nuclear winter and extinction" or some similar impact to win war causes extinction. Make sure you are reading evidence to respond to this that says nuclear war won't escalate
45 44
or won't kill that many people.
A major component of this is answering "disad turns the case"- the negative will basically read a card that says if there was a full scale nuclear war with thousands of weapons getting used th at would be bad for the environment". Well.... duh? Obviously if the negative wins every nuclear
44 45
http://www.pols.boun.edu.tr/uploads%5Cfiles%5C1099.pdf http://www.acceleratingfuture.com/michael/blog/2010/04/dispelling-stupid-myths-about-nuclearwar/
Page 48 of 224
weapon on the planet gets detonated as a result of the disad you have probably lost- but your other arguments should be mitigating the disad so that this is not the case. Most affirmatives, however, just drop disad turns the case arguments and judges then find the rest of their arguments irrelevant. To answer disad turns the case make sure you are reading the defense described above, explaining why that means the disad doesn't turn the case, and then arguing that in fact the opposite is true- that environmental destruction is the leading cause of war.
46
Tips
1 and 2 address the probability and magnitude components of a disad, when you argue this way you should also indict the concept of timeframe as the most important element in a judge's decision. These can be analytic arguments about debate theory or evidence about how policy makers should consider environmental impacts- the important thing is that you are aggressive about contesting timeframe because it is a hook judges love to hang their hat on. The third tip is don't get caught off guard and lose to "environment bad". That sounds crazy, but with policy back files crossing over into LD it is something that is increasingly likely to happen. In policy debate there are impact turns to just about any environment impact: global warming, acid rain, deforestation, biodiversity loss, water pollution etc. These arguments are obviously of terrible, terrible quality. Nevertheless they win a lot of debates by catching people unprepared. So if you plan to run a util style case, make sure you have a thorough defense of whatever environmental impact you plan on reading.
Similarly, let's look at three tips for policy negative arguments. First, have a good generic impact defense frontline. What I mean by this is that there are a lot of smart people who make generic arguments about why we should not be overly concerned with damage to the environment (resiliency, adaption, market solves etc). No matter what random country or random resource the affirmative reads their terminal environment impact will basically be the same. If you are ready to soundly defeat this impact than you will not have to win as large of a disadvantage to convince the judge to vote negative. Having a 5-10 card frontline that you can get through in 2 minutes makes the 1AR's job a nightmare if they plan to extend their case. Since you are conceding their consequential framework you have plenty of time to indict their case, so make sure you have the ammunition to do so. Second, have a counterplan or some similar "solves the case" argument. A good example of what I mean would be to research a counterplan that negotiates an international climate agreement like Kyoto. You can find evidence that such an agreement would solve almost every single environmental problem: warming, biodiversity, acid rain, deforestation, nuclear power etc. So this one broad counterplan would give you a way to address almost any affirmative advantage claim you come up against without directly having developing countries change their policy. The net benefit could be a development disad that said extracting resources is key to
46
http://www.worldwatch.org/bookstore/publication/worldwatch-paper-162-anatomy-resourcewars
Page 49 of 224
development, and development solves war/better protects the environment etc. The net benefit could also be a colonialism critique which we will discuss later. These kind of broad counterplans will give you good defense when the aff has an advantage you are having a hard time winning defense against. The third tip is to prepare for all the disad answers explained above. Solidly winning your disad will win you 9/10 debates if you can answer the tricks explained above. You can research direct answers to all those points (or find them in policy files) but there are a few counter tricks you can use yourself. "War obsolete" makes the argument that no one would decide to go to war because people are rational. Make your disad impact about nuclear terrorism and you avoid this indict. If you can link your impact to nuclear proliferation you can say prolif causes accidental nuclear use so things like rational disincentives don't apply. If a team reads a bunch of nuclear war indicts read a bioweapons impact and say they will mutate out of control. Having a diverse amount of impact arguments will make it impossible due to the time constraints of LD for the affirmative to keep up.
These tips have given you ammunition to argue about the importance of the environment, it's entirely possible that teams will avoid talking about the environment entirely just to try and get to scary war impacts. If that is their choice remember that is the link to the anthropocentrism argument explained above- that we only value the environment in terms of what it can do for humans.
Kritiks on the topic
The k is increasingly becoming a go to argument for many squads in LD- its broad links and ability to help you control the central question of the debate make it a good generic to help you cope with a large number of affirmative cases. Debates about economics and environmental protection offer some of the deepest and most equal K debates possible in that there is a sustained back and forth between academics on the opposing sides. Let's look at a few of these in depth before briefly going over some others you are likely to hear.
Colonialism
This topic does not have an "actor" per se; it is likely that the resolution implies that individual countries should make the choice to prioritize environmental protection. Nevertheless, the affirmative team will be making a normative argument about what developing countries should do. Potential caveats about their identity aside, the affirmative debater is someone residing in the US, a privileged first world country. From that position they will be arguing about what the governments of developing countries should do. Colonialism, broadly, is a critique of the idea that
Page 50 of 224
people/leaders in the first world should not proscribe policy for people in the developing world. People in first world countries generally live relatively comfortable lives- they are not faced daily with hunger, insecurity, or the tough choices that accompany such conditions. Critics of colonialism
47
point to these privileges as a reason why people in the first world are not well
48
situated to dictate to developing countries how they should live. To give a relatively simple example let's examine climate change discourse . People in America are generally much more concerned with climate change than citizens in developing countries- why might this be? Citizens in America generally have access to low cost energy, food, and housing because our country has already undergone its industrial revolution and our developed market economy provides these goods at low cost. When the countries of the world attempted in the 90's to negotiate a global climate accord developed countries took the position that all countries should be subject to the same emissions limits-i.e. each country should make the same percentage reduction in global emissions. Developing countries criticized this approach by pointing out a few flawed assumptions. First, developed countries are in a position to more easily make emissions reductions- they can afford expensive renewable energy technology whereas developing countries are more reliant on cheap but dirty fossil fuels. Second, developed countries have historically emitted a much higher percentage of greenhouse gas emission than developing countries. Starting emissions targets from an allegedly neutral baseline and requiring all countries to make the same reductions punishes developing countries unfairly . Finally, the reason countries in the west are developed is that they already went through an intense process of resource extraction to power up their economies , new agreements that would prevent developing countries from doing something similar would in essence lock them in to their current level of poverty. Broadly, environmental colonialism would argue that the claims made by ecoactivists come from a privileged western standpoint and do not reflect the views of people in the developing nations: The greatest current efforts to save Africa arc associated with contemporary environmentalism. The results have not been as devastating as the experience of slavery, yet they have often served Western interests and goals much more than the interests of ordinary Africans. In some cases, local populations have been displaced and impoverished in order to create national parks and to serve other conservation objectives. Under the banner of saving the African environment, Africans in the last half century have
50 49
47 48
http://knowledge.sagepub.com/view/ethics/n286.xml http://politicalcontext.org/blog/2011/07/environmental-colonialism-in-the-climate-struggle/ 49 http://globalisation-and-the-environment.blogspot.com/2006/12/environmental-colonialismchina-blame.html 50 http://infochangeindia.org/trade-a-development/analysis/industrialisation-or-environmentalcolonialism.html
Page 51 of 224
been subjected to a new form of environmental colonialism.... environmental activism exhibits a neocolonial character in Africa. Raymond Bonner, for example, came newly to the African scene in the early 1990s from a long career in investigative journalism. He found that most of his preconceptions about African wildlife management typical of popular attitudes shaped by conservation organizations and an uncritical Western mediawere wrong. Indeed, he would write that the longer I stayed in Africa, . . . the more I realized that the issues werent so simple. ... I realized that the way I, a Westerner, looked at wildlife wasnt necessarily the way Africans did (1993, 7). As Africans achieve greater political maturity, however, Bonner thought, they will no longer allow themselves to be dominated by Europe and the United States (286). They threw off colonialism once, and Bonner now predicted that one day they will throw off' eco-colonialism (286) in the management of their wildlife and other aspects of the environment.
51
You can think of the affirmative as being somewhat similar to the western negotiators pushing for international climate agreements. They, from their privileged perspective, try to dictate to the developing world how they should run their economies, and in so doing decide that it is more important for them to protect their environments than it is for them to develop economically. As discussed previously, the affirmative may pick from dozens of different countries or dozens of commodities to deal with in their AC- the colonialism critiques value stems from its broad applicability for all of these cases- no matter what is discussed the basic link that the affirmative is the first world dictating to the developing world will still apply.
Debates about colonialism will not be one sided though. Traditionally the process of colonialism was about powerful countries conquering weaker countries to extract resources from them. As such, some specific affirmatives may even be able to claim a colonialism advantage. This will be highly dependent on what countries they chose and what commodities they focus on, but let's look at oil as an example. Usually when we think about oil we think about countries like Saudi Arabia or Russia. While it would be possible in some limited sense to think of them as "exploited, for the most part their oil gives them a huge amount of international influence and power. Not all oil producing countries, however, garner similar benefits from their exports. For many smaller countries that export oil they do not do so in large enough quantities to capture major power and influence. They do, however, generally get most of the downsides of an oil driven economyinstability due to price fluctuations, civil unrest over how oil profits are spent, and attempt at manipulation by outside powers. The oil economics of Mexico and Venezuela fit into this category and are cases you are likely to hear about because they are cases on the current high school
51
http://www.independent.org/pdf/tir/tir_08_1_5_nelson.pdf
Page 52 of 224
policy topic; meaning there is a variety of free camp evidence available for people to construct cases out of.
Both Mexico and Venezuela are less free market oriented than the United States. Specifically, their oil sectors are "privatized" meaning they are owned and operated by the government. There are a lot of people who would like to see this situation changed- since the oil industries are owned by the government outside powers (read: western companies) cannot go into those countries, invest in oil development, and make profits. Mexico's oil is constitutionally regulated to be owned by the government and for profits to be used for the people. There is currently an agreement between the US and Mexico that the US congress is considering that would work towards privatizing Mexican oil (the company is called PEMEX) so that US companies can participate and earn a profit. So what an affirmative might say is that oil development in these countries is a threat to the environment and should be stopped. Their advantage, however, would not come from protecting the environment but instead from resisting attempts at western development.
Good luck!
Page 53 of 224
Topic Analysis by Liz Scoggin

I. Introduction
To begin, I think it is great that this topic is not the environment vs. the economy like the January/February 2004 topic, but the environment vs. the very specific practice of resource extraction. Im not sure why the committee chose resource extraction (maybe because of the fracking debates that have been in the media) but whatever the reason is, it gives the affirmative a very broad, abstract concept to defend, while the negative must defend the specific, concrete practice of resource extraction.
The most important piece of making this topic enjoyable to judge is making sure the two positions clash. In prioritization topics like this one, an unfortunate strain of cases along the lines of but environmental protection lets us extract more resources! or resource extraction means we can have a better environment! inevitably develops. Dont do that. The topic says when the two are in conflict for a reason, so stick to instances where doing one action cant promote the other. Otherwise, you arent being topical, and no one is happy.
Also, debaters should tailor their offense to advantages/disadvantages for developing countries. Environmental protection means something much different to countries that havent yet industrialized, and dont have access to green technology. There is a lot of literature talking about environmental protection or resource extraction in the abstract, but the best offense will be specifically discussing those impacts in developing nations.
II. Definitions There are three terms that need to be defined at the beginning of every round: de veloping countries, environmental protection, resource extraction. I think there could be some discussion about what it means to prioritize something over something else, but I dont imagine thats going to be a main focus in most rounds.
A. Developing countries
First, please be sensitive in your use of the term developing countries, because debates about the third world can often border on (or unfortunately cross the line far into) racist. Personally, I think its a little troubling to call a country less developed because of their economic situation, but I dont have to debate this! You do. Just be aware that people are critical of a model that
Page 54 of 224
relies on economic metrics to determine how developed a country is. I would imagine we will see a critique or two focused on this terminology.
International organizations have adopted different definitions for developing countries. There is no established convention for the designation of developed and developing countries or areas in the United Nations system.
53 52
The World Trade Organization also does not set out any definition
of developing countries, but allows members to designate themselves as developed or developing.
In common practice, Japan, Canada, the United States, Australia, New Zealand and Europe are considered developed regions or areas.
54
In international trade, the Southern African Customs

55
Union and Israel are also considered developed. states.

56
The remaining countries are classified as
least developed countries, landlocked developing countries, and small island developing
Generally speaking, developing countries do not have the economic power or advantages of countries like the United States, Canada, or Australia. Of course, developing countries face dramatically different problems, and have wildly varying economies. Tuvalu, a small developing island state, is facing a tremendous climate change problem, and may have to relocate its entire population in upcoming years. Zimbabwe, a landlocked developing country, is trying to cope with the devastating consequences of 2008, when inflation reached 231,000,000%. The problems facing each developing economy are unique, and debaters should make sure to avoid overly broad claims about the nature of developing countries.
I think there are two approaches to take to define developing countries. First, debaters take an abstract approach that says something along the lines of generally speaking, developing countries arent as wealthy as developed nations. You can talk about the import ance of environmental protection or resource extraction in countries with that particular characteristic. I
52
United Nations. Department of Economic and Social Affairs. Composition of macrogeographical (continental) regions, geographical sub-regions, and selected economic and other groupings . October 31, 2013. 53 World Trade Organization. Development: Definition. 2013. http://www.wto.org/english/tratop_e/ devel_e/d1who_e.htm. A WTO member can challenge the decision of another member to designate themselves as developing. Being a developing nation gives countries some advantages in WTO agreements, which is why another nation might want to challenge its designation. 54 Supra note 1. 55 Id. 56 Id.
Page 55 of 224
think that would make for a fine round, even if it does seem detached from the actual political debates surrounding resource extraction and environmental protection.
In the alternative, debaters can research more specific qualities about developing nations, for example, in what economic areas they tend to be lacking. For example, although Cubas economy has a low GDP which would likely classify it a s developing, Cubans also have access to universal education and health care. A definition that includes more specific characteristics than just poverty could make each side able to better tailor their advantages to what they term developing countries. The definition of developing countries will impact the affirmatives ability to mitigate the economic harms to a country from prioritizing environmental protection. If the definition generally includes wealthier countries that have easier access to green technology, that will probably help the affirmative out. If the definition is limited to poorer countries, the economic harms of limiting resource extraction will probably be more severe.
B. Environmental protection
There are multiple types of environmental regulations available to affirmative debaters. I think advocating a specific plan is ideal (which will be discussed more below) so debaters can claim specific impacts without falling into the trap of well, sometimes environmental protection helps , sometimes it doesnt. It will also help eliminate horrible solvency debates.
Environmental protection can either be voluntary or mandatory. Voluntary regulations typically include some standard negotiated by regulators and industry specialists, and are administered either by the industry experts themselves or a third party.
In developing countries, voluntary agreements are typically focused on remedying noncompliance with mandatory regulations.
57
There is serious debate about the efficacy of voluntary
arrangements in developing countries, and the agreements dont always interfere with resource extraction so they wouldnt be topical. However, there is a lot of literature out there about the impact of voluntary vs. mandatory regulations, and affirmatives who are considering a more planbased advocacy need to decide between the two.
57
Blackman, Allen. Can Voluntary Environmental Regulation Work in Developing Countries? Environment for Development: Working Paper Series. October 2007. http://rff.org/rff/Documents/RFF-DP-07-10-REV.pdf
Page 56 of 224
Although mandatory environmental protection agreements do exist in developing countries, they tend to be dramatically under-enforced. Developing countries tend to have limited resources, weak institutions and limited political will to protect the environment.
58
Whichever type of environmental protection you decide to advocate, make sure it (a) influences resource extraction (b) makes sense in a developing country. The last time this topic came up, people would talk about the successes of the EPA in the United States. It is tempting to do this, because the majority of the literature on environmental protection in the U.S. revolves around big, well-established regulatory agencies. This does not mean that regulatory options (a) are possible or (b) would work well in developing countries. Dont make that mistake!
C. Resource extraction
First, the literature surrounding resource extraction almost exclusively discusses the extraction of natural resources. You could theoretically talk about intellectual or political resources, but that strays pretty far from the topic literature, and Im not sure how their extraction would come in conflict with environmental protection.
Debaters should pay attention not only to the act of resource extraction, but also who is extracting resources. Hopefully not surprisingly, resource extraction industries have been shifting their focus from developed to developing countries.
59
Resource extraction operations can be incredibly
expensive, and often, developing countries cant afford to tap their own natural resources. Debaters should consider the impact not only of resource extraction itself, but also of corporate influence in foreign countries.
Resource extraction comes in all shapes and sizes: logging, mining, oil and gas drilling, etc. In each of those large categories, there are several different methods of extraction. For example, mountaintop removal is a much more controversial type of extraction than open-pit mining. Most countries already have regulations in place to address resource extraction, or some type of permitting system. Make sure youre aware of the specific type of resource extraction your evidence is discussing.
III. Affirmative Positions

58
Blackman, Allen et. al. Voluntary Environmental Agreements in Developing Countries. Environment for Development: Discussion Paper Series. February 2012. http://www.rff.org/RFF/Documents/EfD-DP-12-04.pdf 59 Reed, Darryl. Resource Extraction Industries in Developing Countries . Journal of Business Ethics. Vol. 39, No. 3. September 2002.
Page 57 of 224
The affirmative can either take an abstract approach, or advocate a specific economic protection plan that would limit resource extraction. Either can be successful, depending on your style. The former will require debaters to explain the underlying value of environmental protection, without relying on specific advantages. The latter approach will require a lot of specific research about the pros and cons of their method of environmental protection. It will also require research that is specific to developing nations, rather than one that attempts to impose an environmental protection regime from developed countries onto nations that may lack the infrastructure necessary for environmental protection.
A. Environmental Justice
The environmental justice movement, in a nutshell, focuses on the inequity in the distribution of environmental harms.
60
Waste dumps, air pollution, water pollution, chemical accidents, etc. all
tend to disproportionately impact the poor. Wealthier communities are much more capable of wielding whatever regulatory instruments they have available to them, like zoning laws, to prevent resource extraction from taking place in their backyards. The consequence is that poor communities, who tend to reap the least economic benefits from resource extraction, also suffer the environmental consequences.
61
A focus on fairness, or the equity in harm/benefit distribution, underlies the environmental justice movement. So, even if the negative can prove that resource extraction will make a trillion dollars without environmental limits, it wont matter under this affirmative framework unless the negative can also prove that disadvantaged communities will see a boon rather than a benefit. A framework that focuses on protecting the most disenfranchised members of society (particularly indigenous peoples that have almost no political power in developing countries) should help the aff.
These affirmative positions need to not only prove that resource extraction is bad for disadvantaged populations (which honestly should not be too hard) but also prove that prioritizing environmental protection will help alleviate the problems of resource extraction. Environmental regulations can also be harmful to indigenous peoples, especially because of the limitations they can put on indigenous economies. Ideally, your affirmative will not just gloss over this issue. Rather, it will acknowledge the potential economic harms and weigh them against the economic
60
For a far more in-depth analysis of the environmental justice movement, see Scholsberg, David, Defining Environmental Justice: Theories, Movement and Nature, 2009. 61 White, Rob. Resource Extraction Leaves Something Behind: Environmental Justice and Mining. International Journal for Crime and Justice. 2013.
Page 58 of 224
benefits. That way, instead of having to ad-lib in the 1ar, you have evidence that does the weighing for you!
B. Climate Change, Water Pollution, And Other Big Impacts
Here is just an abbreviated list of some of the potential harms from coal-seam gas wells: (1) contaminated underground aquifers (2) accelerated climate change from leaked methane gas into the atmosphere (3) earthquakes (4) depressed land values and (5) crippling the economy by doubling or even tripling the price of domestic gas.
62
Environmentalists, and affirmatives, have the benefit of huge, terrifying, apocalyptic impacts on their side. Most, if not all forms of resource extraction come at a cost to the environment. My bet is that many affirmative cases will be formulated as follows: (1) resource extraction causes really bad things (2) those really bad things will cause extinction, or mass death, or some other massive harm if we dont change it (3) environmental protection is key to stopping the harms of resource extraction, and therefore extinction, mass death, etc. This is a pretty typical case formulation, and it wins a lot, but I think there are a couple of things debaters can do to make this style of case slightly less predictable (and therefore, more successful). First, make sure that you arent only attacking one particularly egreg ious type of resource extraction in an effort to indict the entire practice. Often, I see overbroad claims like resource extraction causes x harm. All types of resource extraction probably dont cause that particular harm. For example, if you claim that frac sand mining causes groundwater pollution, and that groundwater pollution kills people, a smart negative can handle this position in two ways. First, the negative can simply cede the position. Even if environmental protection should be prioritized over frac sand mining, this does not mean environmental protection should be prioritized over resource extraction as a whole. Second, the negative can argue that frac sand mining actually does lot of good things for the economy. This requires the affirmative to handle too much in the already-strained 1AR.
Second, make sure you can solve! If I can ask one thing of affirmatives that are running these utilitarian positions, it is make sure you have a credible solvency advocate. Too often on these comparative topics, I see people spend their entire time indicting the other side, without explaining how their side can possibly solve. Even if the judge concludes that resource extraction is incredibly evil, that doesnt say anything about environmental protection. Th is might be the most difficult piece for affirmatives, because the research on environmental protection is (a)
62
Cleary, Paul. Mine-Field: The Dark Side of Australias Resources Rush. 2012.
Page 59 of 224
highly politicized and (b) not necessarily conducted with the developing world in mind. There are resources out there, so please take advantage of them!
IV. Negative Positions I think the negative position can get itself in big trouble if it doesnt explain how resource extraction can help alleviate poverty in developing countries. Being honest with you all, resource extraction tends to make a lot of money for big corporations in already-developed countries like the United States. This isnt a very compelling position to take (maybe for some judges who just love corporate revenues!), and negatives shouldnt let themselves get pigeonholed.
Debaters can focus on several different theoretical benefits for developing countries from resource extraction. The big ones, namely, jobs, revenue generation and economic growth, are all potential long-term benefits for developing nations.
I think there are two approaches negatives can take, much like the affirmative. They can either talk about the potential benefits in the abstract, with a simple link chain (resource extraction -> money -> poverty reduction), or they can advocate a particular type of resource extraction, maybe even a particular industry in a specific developing region. I think the latter would be preferable for reasons I will list below, but I think both can work to win you the round.
A. Job Growth
One of the most popular positions in the topic literature is that resource extraction leads to job growth, which in turn leads to poverty reduction, in developing countries. Mineral resources could theoretically provide poorer countries with large revenue streams, which could in turn be used to alleviate poverty. This is especially true when countries have lucrative natural resources like copper, diamonds or gold.
63
Affirmatives will argue that the recent empirical record demonstrates that mining is more likely to lead to poverty exacerbation than it is to poverty reduction.
64
Debaters taking this position may
have to rely on more theoretical arguments for resource extraction as a path out of poverty. Alternatively, debaters could advocate a specific (and please, realistic!) plan that would actually create jobs, even if it hurt the environment. The debaters would then have to weigh the benefits of
63
Pegg, Scott. Mining and Poverty Reduction: Transforming rhetoric into reality , Journal of Cleaner Production. 2006. 64 Id.
Page 60 of 224
the negatives resource extraction plan against the harms to the environment. This seems like an awesome round to judge (at least to me!) because it would provide clear benefits, clear disadvantages, and would definitely be topical.
Advocates for job growth will likely want to focus on the advantages of small-scale mining operations in developing countries. Small-scale mining provides direct employment for about 13 million workers worldwide, while large-scale mining only provides for about 2-3 million workers. that resource extraction generates. The jobs also arent necessarily long-term. I would suggest using job growth as one of the many potential advantages to resource extraction.
65
Unfortunately, these job numbers arent very impressive, especially given the amount of revenue
B. Revenue Generation
Resource extraction can also make a contribution to poverty reduction by helping governments take the revenues generated from resource extraction and use them to combat poverty. This rests on two assumptions. First, the government has to receive substantial revenues in exchange for allowing their resources to be extracted. Second, the government has to choose to use those resources, or even have the capacity to use those resources for good.
Getting money to developing governments can be tough, because the policies that encourage resource extraction in particular locations, like low corporate income taxes, prevent the government from cashing in on their resources. However, the revenues generated by resource extraction are tremendous, and even a fraction of the total revenues could do incredible things for a developing economy.
If the debater makes a good case that governments will in fact be able to see the revenues from resource extraction, the next question is how to make sure revenues get used effectively. One suggestion is to directly distribute revenues from resource extraction to citizens.
67 66
Another
suggestion is to use international institutions to guarantee good governance, or least a more equitable distribution of extraction revenues. There are a lot of options for debaters on this front,
and a good case that explains how poorer countries can capitalize on their resources to help alleviate poverty would likely be very persuasive to many judges.
65 66
Id. Oil to Cash: Fighting the Resource Curse through Cash Transfers , Center for Global Development (2009). 67 Keenan, Patrick. International Institutions and the Resource Curse. University of Illinois College of Law. January 2013.
13NFL3-Environment v. Resource Extraction www.victorybriefs.com C. Comparisons
Page 61 of 224
For either of the above positions, debaters must be ready to compare the advantages to those of environmental protection. Affirmative positions will likely be very apocalyptic (as an aside, I remember when I was debating this topic, there was some card that said something along the lines of if we cut down 500 more trees, the world will end) and job improvements or economic growth will likely not outweigh their claims.
Although I think debaters can definitely win under a consequentialist framework on the negative, I think an egalitarian standard might greatly benefit advocates for resource extraction. It is much easier for countries that have already undergone an industrial revolution and who have stable economies to advocate for environmental protection. Developing nations would have to forfeit the tremendous wealth potential in their resources, in order to do the world a service and protect the environment. A standard that focuses more on protecting citizens in developing countries, and less on the broader global consequences of resource extraction vs. environmental protection, would likely be helpful to the negative.
V. Conclusion If I havent said it enough, Ill say it again; this topic is all about solid evidence. To win under a consequentialist framework (which I imagine will be common), you are going to need recent studies from reputable sources to make the claims you want to make. This will make weighing much easier for you, and more importantly, for your judge. Although you are all very smart people, I do not trust your analysis of the long-term impacts of the use of flocculants on groundwater. This ultimately a topic rooted in scientific claims, and you should let the scientists make them.
Secondly, you need to weigh! Again, good evidence will make this easier for you. This is a prioritization topic, and simply highlighting flaws in the other side will not get you where you want to go. If youre going to make big claims like resource extraction leads to the end of the world (which I am absolutely positive you will hear), please explain how environmental protection is essential to preventing those harms.
Finally, please be sensitive. The vast majority of debaters are not from developing countries, and this lack of first-hand knowledge can make people insensitive. Use your words thoughtfully and carefully. Best of luck!
Page 62 of 224
Page 63 of 224
Topic Analysis by Allie Woodhouse

This topic analysis will cover material on the January/February 2013 Lincoln-Douglas debate topic, resolved: Developing countries should prioritize environmental protection over resource extraction when the two are in conflict. I will first discuss definitions and topical interpretations, and then move on to a discussion over the main arguments on the topic, organized by potential affirmative and negative case options.
Definitions/ Topical Interpretations:
Developing countries: Scholars in the international academic community draw a distinction between developing countries (think Uganda, Colombia, and Sri Lanka) and developed countries (think France, America, and China). Also of note, the term developing country is often used synonymously with the term least developed country (LDC) and the term developed country is often used synonymously with the term more developed country (MDC). One of the most qualified and respected sources on definitions for these terms is the United Nations, which uses the terms LDCs and MDCs. They define LDCs in a very specific manner, which is described on their Development Policy and Analysis Division website . They explain: Currently, the following criteria are used to classify countries as least developed: Gross national income per capita Human Assets Index Economic Vulnerability Index
68
In addition, low income countries with population larger than 75 million inhabitants are not eligible to be considered for inclusion. The United Nations Department of Economic and Social Affairs website LDCs, as: The group of least developed countries, as defined by the United Nations General Assembly in its resolutions (59/209, 59/210 and 60/33) in 2007, comprises 49 countries, of which 33 are in Africa, 10 in Asia, 1 in Latin America and the Caribbean, and 5 in Oceania. The group includes 49 countries - Afghanistan, Angola, Bangladesh, Benin,
68 69
offers a full list of
United Nations. LDC information: The criteria for identifying least developed countries, The United Nations Development Policy and Analysis Division. August 3, 2013. http://www.un.org/en/development/desa/policy/cdp/ldc/ldc_criteria.shtml 69 United Nations. Definition of major areas and regions, The United Nations Department of Economic and Social Affairs. 2009. http://esa.un.org/wup2009/unup/index.asp?panel=5
Page 64 of 224
Bhutan, Burkina Faso, Burundi, Cambodia, Central African Republic, Chad, Comoros, Democratic Republic of the Congo, Djibouti, Equatorial Guinea, Eritrea, Ethiopia, Gambia, Guinea, Guinea-Bissau, Haiti, Kiribati, Lao People's Democratic Republic, Lesotho, Liberia, Madagascar, Malawi, Maldives, Mali, Mauritania, Mozambique, Myanmar, Nepal, Niger, Rwanda, Samoa, So Tom and Prncipe, Senegal, Sierra Leone, Solomon Islands, Somalia, Sudan, Timor-Leste, Togo, Tuvalu, Uganda, United Republic of Tanzania, Vanuatu, Yemen and Zambia. These countries are also included in the less developed regions.
The same website offers a definition of the More Developed Regions: They comprise all regions of Europe plus Northern America, Australia/New Zealand and Japan
70
Prioritize/ when the two are in conflict: Merriam Webster
defines prioritize as, to organize
(things) so that the most important thing is done or dealt with first. This and the phrase when the two are in conflict seems to definitively indicate that the burdens should force a comparative debate over resource extraction and environmental protection when they conflict, rather than a complete endorsement of one and a complete rejection of the other. This means that, for instance, the affirmative does not have to prove that resource extraction is intrinsically wrong in all cases, but rather that we ought to prioritize environmental protection over resource extraction when the two conflict.
71
Environmental protection: Merriam Webster from harm, loss, etc. and

72
defines protection as, the state of being kept
environment as the complex of physical, chemical, and biotic
factors (as climate, soil, and living things) that act upon an organism or an ecological community and ultimately determine its form and survival. This should be fairly straightforward. Environmental protection in the topic literature most commonly refers to preservation of things vital to the environments health (i.e. habitats, species, and global commons).
Resource extraction: The dictionary definition of resources is broad and focuses on anything a country can use to increase wealth, but the topic literature is more specific to natural resources like coal, diamonds, timber, etc. Enrique Calfucura et al
70 71 73
did a study on 12 natural resource
http://www.merriam-webster.com/dictionary/prioritize http://www.merriam-webster.com/dictionary/protection 72 http://www.merriam-webster.com/dictionary/environment 73 Calfucura, Enrique, Ortiz, Astrid Martinez, Sanborn, Cynthia, and Da mmert, Juan Luis. Natural Resource Extraction: The Good, The Bad, and the Ugly, Americas Quarterly. Winter 2013.
Page 65 of 224
extraction investments in three countriesfour each in Chile, Colombia and Peru. All but two of them (a timber investment in Chile and a natural gas project in Peru) were mining projects. This provides us with some helpful examples of types of resource extraction common in the real world.
Possible Affirmative Cases:
The topic literature focuses primarily on debates over the economy, the environment, and state stability. Subsequently, utilitarian ACs will likely be very popular on this topic. Common wordings of utilitarian criterions include: minimizing suffering, maximizing the protection of life, and maximizing expected well-being.
There are 2 main link arguments that form the basis for the majority of the affirmative utilitarian impact scenarios: 1. The resource curse: This is a term used to describe an argument that explains that relying on natural resources is a curse, not a blessing. Although John Tierney
74
is
skeptical of the resource curse, he summarizes the argument from proponents succinctly, as, The easy money from natural resources helped finance civil wars and also weakened civil institutions by enabling repressive governments to buy off opponents and stay in power despite policies that stifled the rest of the economy. 2. Resource extraction leads to environmental degradation: This argument is pretty straightforward it argues that things like deforestation, mining, and oil extraction harm the environment.
The following is a list of the many options of utilitarian impact scenarios that can arise from the aforementioned links:
Biodiversity loss o The main topic-relevant causes of biodiversity loss include habitat destruction and pollution and contamination of environments. As a result, species that are key to the ecosystem can be killed, causing a rippling effect that can disrupt
http://americasquarterly.org/charticles/natural-resource-extraction-chile-peru-colombia/pdf/AQNatural-Resource-Extraction.pdf 74 Tierney, John. Rethinking the Oil Curse, The New York Times. May 5, 2008. http://tierneylab.blogs.nytimes.com/2008/05/05/rethinking-the-oil-curse/?_r=0
Page 66 of 224
entire food chains, potentially effecting humans as well. The Center for Biological Diversity
75
list a few of the ways that mining contributes to a loss of biodiversity:
cyanide spills; wildlife habitat destruction and fish kills caused by poisoned waters; and water pollution caused by acid mine drainage, which leaches potentially toxic heavy metals like lead, copper, and zinc from rocks.
Global warming o Resource extraction can lead to global warming in a myriad of ways ranging from mining releasing pollutants that contribute to the greenhouse effect to oil refineries pumping carbon dioxide into the air. Global warming can lead to droughts and floods that lead to habitat destruction and subsequent species loss.
Pollution o Pollution can have major impacts on human health by releasing toxic substances that can cause disease, brain damage, and even cancer. The Center for Biological Diversity points out how mining can release substances that can be harmful to our health, Hardrock mining releases more toxic substances such as mercury, arsenic, lead, and cyanide than any other industry in the United States.
Violence and conflict o An article by Liam Downey et al

76
suggests that reliance on natural resources
leads countries to resort to using armed violence to protect their resources.
Wide-scale war o A book entitled Petro-Aggression: When Oil Causes War, by Jeff Colgan
77
takes this idea of armed violence a step further by explaining instances when oil reliance can incentivize aggression to the point of full-scale war.
75
Center for Biological Diversity. Mining, Center for Biological Diversity. https://www.biologicaldiversity.org/programs/public_lands/mining/ 76 Downey, Liam, Bonds, Eric, and Clark, Katherine. Natural Resource Extraction, Armed Violence, and Environmental Degradation, US National Library of Medicine National Institutes of Health. September 8, 2011. http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC3169238/
Page 67 of 224
Slow economic growth o Some argue that resource dependence hampers economic growth by decreasing growth in other non-resource sectors of the economy.
Another option would be an accountability/ oppression AC, which would argue that it is important for governments to ensure freedom of their citizens and not oppress them. This can link into many different frameworks including ones about respecting agency, preventing oppression, and promoting democracy. It is also relevant to note that a lot of these criterions can also have utilitarian justifications. For instance, you can argue that promoting democratic governance reduces the likelihood of war and violence. Terra Lawson-Remer reported on the link between resource dependence and accountability, saying that, Natural resource dependence insulates leaders from public pressure and accountability. Troublingly, Freedom House rates only five of the world's 20 top oil-producing countries as "free". In many countries with significant natural resources, important checks on government power, such as a long democratic culture and a vociferous civil society, are in short supply.
In a similar vein, a corruption AC seems viable as well. Lawson-Remer also points out that, Corruption is endemic in many of Africa's most resource-rich countries. Rather than invest resource revenues into infrastructure and education, crooked politicians, often in collusion with the companies mining the resources, siphon proceeds from the continent's mineral and petroleum wealth into their own pockets.
As well as pointing out empirical examples of corrupt countries The mix of resource abundance and poor governance is especially lethal in resource rich Africa. As a share of GDP, sub-Saharan African resource rents are higher than those of any other region in the world, according to the World Bank. Rents are defined as the difference between the value of production at world prices and the total cost of production for oil, natural gas, minerals, coal, and forests. For example, the Republic of Congo has the highest total resource rents as percentage of GDP in Africa (64%) and one of the
77
Colgan, Jeff. Petro Aggression: When Oil Causes War. N.p.: Cambridge, 2013. Print.
Page 68 of 224
lowest control of corruption scores. Equatorial Guinea, with a government widely seen as autocratic, has the worst control of corruption score among African countries. It also has very high resource rents as a share of GDP, at 47%.
These arguments would be relevant under many frameworks, and especially ones about the social contract (with respect to obligations to reflect the voices of citizens rather than merely the voices of the rich and powerful).
An international law AC also seems plausible, as there have been numerous treaties and agreements focused on the protection of the environment, in the forms of habitat preservation, limits on deforestation, and limits of carbon dioxide production and pollution.
78
A potential critical affirmative would be an eco-feminism AC. Lois Ann Lorentzen main thrust behind the eco-feminist movement:
explains the
Ecofeminism is an activist and academic movement that sees critical connections between the domination of nature and the exploitation of women three connections seem central to ecofeminist theorythe empirical, the conceptual and/or cultural/symbolic, and the epistemological. The empirical claim is that in most parts of the world environmental problems generally disproportionately affect women. The increased burdens women face result not from environmental deterioration per se, but from a sexual division of labor found in most societies that considers family sustenance to be womens work. It is increasingly difficult for women in such societies to provide food, fuel, or water. Empirical data supports this claim.
14
A second claim is that women and nature
are connected conceptually and/or culturally/symbolically. These connections are articulated in several ways. Many agree with Ruether that Western cultures present ideas about the world in a hierarchical and dualistic manner that is lived out in the way the world is organized. The claim is that dualist conceptual structures identify women with femininity, the body, Earth, sexuality, and flesh; and men with masculinity, spirit, mind, and power This implies that men have innate power over both women and nature The ecofeminist epistemological claim follows from the connections noted between women and nature. The fact that women are most adversely affected by environmental problems makes them better qualified as experts on such conditions and therefore places them in a position of epistemological privilege; that is, women have more knowledge
78
Lorentzen, Lois Ann and Eaton, Heather. Ecofeminism: An Overview, The Form on Religion and Ecology at Yale. 2002. http://fore.research.yale.edu/disciplines/gender/
Page 69 of 224
about earth systems than men. This means that these women are in a privileged position to aid in creating new practical and intellectual ecological paradigms.
From this definition, the contention level arguments seem fairly intuitive. The negative would defend that, when in conflict, resource extraction should be prioritized over environmental protection. That advocacy seems to implicitly endorse the idea that the developing countries extracting resources should have domination over the environment, subsequently justifying that men should have domination over women. On top of this, you can argue that the environmental destruction perpetuated by resource extraction disproportionately harms women, furthering their oppression. The framework for this type of case would focus on rejecting or decreasing sexism/ sexist ideologies.
Possible Negative Cases:
A common negative position will be a utilitarian NC. This would have similar impacts as affirmative utilitarian cases, but primarily focusing on the economic benefits of prioritizing resource extraction over environmental protection. An Economist article
79
summarizes research
from popular negative authors, Brunnschweiler and Bulte, who find that resource abundance can actually lead to income growth and less conflict: When using the new World Bank variable to proxy for resource abundance, we find that the direct effect of resource wealth (particularly the subset of mineral resource wealth) on income growth is positive and significant. All things considered, an increase in subsoil wealth by one standard deviationroughly the difference between Senegal and Sweden would have brought Senegals growth performance on a par with that of Mozambique or Kenya; not a huge improvement, but certainly not a growth curse. Similarly, resource wealth also attenuated the risk of conflict. This is due to a positive indirect effect: Resource wealth raises income, and higher incomes, in turn, reduce the risk of conflict. Again, although the aggregate impact of resource abundance is slight amounting to less than a 5% reduction in the risk of war in case of a standard-deviation increase in resourcesit is still statistically significant.
One type of policy-style negative case is an anti-corruption counterplan. This would answer aff cases that point to evidence about the resource course, by responding with the argument that resource extraction is only counterproductive when countries are already corrupt, and removing
79
Are the Resource Wealthy Cursed? The Economist. May 7, 2008. http://www.economist.com/blogs/freeexchange/2008/05/are_the_resource_wealthy_curse
Page 70 of 224
corruption allows resource extraction to actually be beneficial. There is ample evidence on this matter, with authors like Terra Lawson-Remer pointing out counter-examples of countries that both heavily extract resources and are not corrupt, But resources do not automatically lead to poor outcomes. For instance, North America produces more oil than Africa, but it has the lowest resource rents as a share of GDP and has good governance ratings. Canada remains among the top ten world oil producers, according to the US Department of Energy, but has one of the least corrupt governments in the world, also according to the World Bank. Norway is one of the top ten exporters of crude oil in the world, while maintaining its stature as a perennial leader of the United Nations Human Development Index.
Lawson-Remer continues to argue that, The resource curse is avoidable. Africa could be prosperous if it practised good governance: transparency in its dealings with mining, oil and gas companies; stronger disclosure and anti-corruption rules; and economic policies that promote diversified economies and discourage dependence on resource rents. Transnational companies could be compelled to play a more important role, too, by enforcing and strengthening existing transparency rules.
80
Michael Warner
writes an article entitled, Reversing the Curse: Five Principles for Beating the
Natural Resource Curse, which explains that we must focus on, 1. Upgrading the Regulatory Framework 2. Sequencing Your Economic Policy 3. Customising Your Revenue Management Strategies 4. Strengthening Transparency, Accountability and Democratic Governance 5. Re-aligning Aid. Warners advocacy could also function as a comprehensive counterplan text that could solve a lot of affirmative critiques about the resource curse.
80
Warner, Michael. Reversing the Curse: Five Principles for Beating the Natural Resource Curse, The Overseas Development Institution. March 2006. http://www.odi.org.uk/publications/1416-reversing-curse-five-principles-beating-natural-resourcecurse
Page 71 of 224
This counterplan would be able to solve for the times when resource extraction fails, ensuring that all instances of resource extraction are successful. Another possible policy-style negative case is a developing countries word plan inclusive counterplan (PIC). A word PIC advocates doing the entirety of the AC, but changing one word or phrase in the AC advocacy to something else, usually because that word or phrase is argued to be oppressive or offensive. Thus, the point of a word PIC is to critique the phrasing, rather than the action of the AC advocacy. Some critical theorists believe that the term developing countries is demeaning and oppressive. Tricia Wang
81
explains the implicit connotation of the term:
Labeling a country developing or developed is a dichotomy that places the West (Europe, US, sometimes Japan, Canada and Australia) to be the First Worldmodels for all aspiring nation-states. And then everywhere else outside of the developed world are black holes of underdevelopment or regions in the process of developing into a First World nation. This dichotomy assumes a linear trajectory with all non-developed or developing nations aiming to become more developed. The word is a politically correct post-colonial stand-in for concepts around civilizing the other, the savages, the Indians.
These impacts would be particularly relevant under frameworks involving resisting neocolonialism and oppression. You can argue that referring to these countries as developing leads to trying to make them conform to western standards of good governance, which historically leads to colonialism and repression of nonwestern values. Wang advocates for alternative terms to replace developing such as transitioning, transforming, and under -served. So the counterplan text of such a word PIC would read something like, Transitioning countries should prioritize environmental protection over resource extraction when the two are in conflict.
81
Wang, Tricia [Visiting scholar at NYUs Information Telecommunication Program and a fellow at Harvard Universitys Berkman Center for Internet Studies. Her work has been featured in The Atlantic, Al Jazeera, Fast Company, Makeshift, and Wired]. http://culturalbyt.es/post/102341281/interrogating-the-developing-vs-developed-country
Page 72 of 224
AFFIRMATIVE EVIDENCE
LIFEBOAT ETHICS FINITE RESOURCES DEMAND LIFEBOAT ETHICS Elliott, 97 Professor Emeritus of Philosophy @ University of Florida (Herschel, A General Statement of the Tragedy of the Commons, http://dieoff.org/page121.htm) Human beings are in a unique and fortunate position among all living things in that they have language, memory, and intelligence. These abilities allow them to accumulate factual knowledge. And this knowledge, in turn, makes it possible for them to break out the patterns of behavior normally determined by habit, culture, religion, and genetic endowment. When knowledge of the structure and limits of the Earth's biosystem is gained and acted on, it can lead people to live as sustaining members of the Earth's biotic community. People can maintain a limited, stable population; they can minimize their use of physical and biological resources. There is, however, no assurance that people will allow ecological knowledge to direct their moral behavior rather than let it be controlled by a priori assumptions or appeals to habit and tradition. Nevertheless the challenging possibility exists: moral behavior can avoid the tragedy of the commons even while it is directed, secondarily, to the task of steadily improving the quality of human life. As in Hardin's original essay, the general statement of the tragedy of the commons also demonstrates that ethical behavior requires holistic or societal control. In the case of many nations, the most effective means for them to learn the need for societal constraint may be for others to do nothing but stand back and watch. Just as a good parent may let a child fall down and get up and fall again as it learns to walk, so, too, many nations may only discover the need to reduce their populations and to limit their use of natural resources by allowing their people to suffer through the task of learning to live within the carrying capacity of their nation's boundaries. The means which Hardin recommends, for protecting the commons is deliberate, societal coercion. Preferably it is mutual restraint, mutually agreed on, and mutually enforced. Furthermore, knowledge of the most effective and humane means of societal coercion is empirical knowledge. And like all empirical knowledge, it requires constant experimentation, revision, and correction. As such, it can never be certain; it can never be final. And since final truth concerning matters of morality is impossible, the moral choice, as Hardin has so aptly emphasized, can never be between perfectly just coercion and none at all for then people will be free to cause the collapse of the environmental commons and the end of nature's experiment with human kind. Clearly imperfect forms of coercion are preferable to none at all. They are like mistaken theories in science -- at some future time they can be refuted and corrected or discarded. Imperfectly just coercive measures can be improved indefinitely. Thus it is important to note that the need for control does not make any claim about the type of coercion that different societies must practice. The moral challenge is to make the coercion as painless, as humane, and as unobtrusive as possible as long as it accomplishes the necessary holistic goal: it must prevent the tragedy of the commons and preserve the dynamic stability of the Earth's system of living things. And after this primary goal is secure, the secondary moral goal can be addressed -- that of improving the quality of life as people learn to unfold the evolving potential of being human. There is, however, no assurance that people have the will and the intelligence to live within the necessary limits of nature. To do so is the difficult but challenging task of ethics.
13NFL3-Environment v. Resource Extraction www.victorybriefs.com CONFLICT WITH ENVIRONMENT
Page 73 of 224
NATURAL RESOURCE EXTRACTION HARMS THE ENVIRONMENT. Liam Downey [associate professor of sociology at the University of Colorado at Boulder], Eric Bonds [doctoral student at the University of Colorado at Boulder], and Katherine Clark [graduate student in environmental studies at the University of Colorado at Boulder], "Natural Resource Extraction, Armed Violence, and Environmental Degradation", Organic Environ. 2010 December, vol. 23(4):417-445. Moreover, because natural resources are the ultimate source of all the energy and goods we produce, consume, and throw away, natural resource extraction harms the environment not only at the point of extraction but globally as well. Thus, the grave environm ental problems associated with industrial production and consumption (in both capitalist and noncapitalist societies) would not exist, or would not exist in their current form, if industrial societies were unable to efficiently extract and safely transport vast quantities of natural resources.
13NFL3-Environment v. Resource Extraction www.victorybriefs.com COMPUTER PRODUCTION IS UNIQUELY BAD FOR THE ENVIRONMENT.
Page 74 of 224
Liam Downey [associate professor of sociology at the University of Colorado at Boulder], Eric Bonds [doctoral student at the University of Colorado at Boulder], and Katherine Clark [graduate student in environmental studies at the University of Colorado at Boulder], "Natural Resource Extraction, Armed Violence, and Environmental Degradation", Organic Environ. 2010 December, vol. 23(4):417-445. Computer production, for example, could not occur without the extraction of minerals, fossil fuels, and other natural resources from around the world. One such category of resources is rare earth minerals, which are mined primarily in China (NRC, 2008). The mining of rare earth minerals produces as much as 2,000 tons of solid waste, including toxic heavy metals and radioactive thorium, for every ton of rare earth mineral produced (Farago, 2009; Rong & Yu, 2009). In China, it also results in topsoil loss, erosion, and widespread silting and contamination of rivers and reservoirs used for drinking and irrigation (Xu & Liu, 1999).2 Computers also harm the environment during the production, assembly, consumer use, shipping, disposal, and recycling stages of their lives and thus affect the environment and human health around the world. Environmental impacts during these stages of a computers life include abiotic depletion, global warming, the release of toxins into the environment, human exposure to highly toxic materials, acidification, ozone depletion, the formation of photoxidants, and water eutrophication (Choi, Shin, Lee, & Hur, 2006). Because computing power is so critical to globalization and economic growth, computer use also helps foster environmental problems associated with these phenomena.
Page 75 of 224
RESOURCE EXTRACTION ENABLES FURTHER ENVIRONMENTAL DEGRADATION. Liam Downey [associate professor of sociology at the University of Colorado at Boulder], Eric Bonds [doctoral student at the University of Colorado at Boulder], and Katherine Clark [graduate student in environmental studies at the University of Colorado at Boulder], "Natural Resource Extraction, Armed Violence, and Environmental Degradation", Organic Environ. 2010 December, vol. 23(4):417-445. It would be difficult to argue, therefore, that the environmental problems associated with computer use and production are confined solely to the resource extraction stage of the commodity chain or that the environmental problems associated with the remaining stages of a compute rs life would exist without the extraction of the minerals, fuels, and other natural resources needed to produce, ship, use, recycle, and dispose of computers. This is true, of course, of all the products we use and produce, including weapons systems, automobiles, solar panels, and cell phones. Thus, resource extraction is a pivotal link in the chain connecting human activity and social organization to environmental degradation.
13NFL3-Environment v. Resource Extraction www.victorybriefs.com MINING IN TANZANIA CAUSES SEVERE ENVIRONMENTAL DEGRADATION.
Page 76 of 224
A.G.N. Kitula [Sokoine University of Agriculture, Morogoro, Tanzania], "The environmental and socio-economic impacts of mining on local livelihoods in Tanzania: A case study of Geita District," Journal of Clear Production 14, 2005. Some of the typical environmental impacts caused by artisanal mining activities include diversion of rivers, water siltation, landscape degradation, deforestation, destruction of aquatic life habitat, and widespread mercury pollution. Since amalgamation is simple, in- expensive and does not require skilled labour, it is the gold concentration method mostly used by local miners. The process employs metallic mercury to trap fine gold from ore pulp. During the process, mercury is often discharged with contaminated tailings; the usual practice is to burn the amalgam in open fire. When this happens, mercury accumulates in the lungs and kidneys of miners. Metallic mercury discharged into the environment (air, water, tailings) can be transformed by biochemical processes into methylmercury, which is readily available and may be found at elevated concentrations in higher levels of the food chain, particularly in aquatic systems (i.e. it is biomagnified). Individuals reliant on fish may be particularly susceptible to exposure to accumulated dangerous levels of methylmercury. Cases of acute intoxication, muscular atrophy, seizures and mental disturbance are prominent. Meth- ylmercury is easily transferred from women to the fetus, with effects ranging from sterility, spontaneous abor- tion, and from mild-to-severe neurological symptoms. Open pit mining similar to the activities of the Geita Gold Mine potentially generates enormous quantities of waste for each gram of gold recovered: for every 5e8 g of gold recovered, there is a potential waste material produced, amounting to 1 ton of ore disposed into the environment. For example, in the United States gold mining industry, each ton of gold mined generates 3 million tons of waste [27]. The wastes contain toxic elements and minerals, which may interact with water to generate contaminated fluids that can pollute soils, rivers, and large water bodies like Lake Victoria. During heavy rains, fluids, which are highly alkaline often, contain various forms of cyanide, and depending on the waste source, may be a potential source of pollution to the Lake. Although tailings are often deposited in lined facilities, leaks are not uncommon. Most of Lake Victoria Gold Fields contain sulphide minerals associated with gold. After gold extraction, the decomposition of sulphide minerals releases acid waters in the form of acid mine drainage. Such drainage, which is now common in the old Geita Mine (mined before independence in 1960s), can contaminate nearby streams and ground water for centuries after a mine has closed. The formation of acid mine drainage is accelerated by high rainfall and high temperatures, reminiscent of the climate of Geita. The acids tend to leach heavy elements in tailings and mine waste dumps to produce toxic solutions which comprise heavy metals. Cyanide used by large-scale mines and mercury used by ASM can potentially cause deleterious impacts in the Geita District. When exposed to sunlight, some forms of cyanide break down and can be easily recovered and recycled, while others do not and may persist in the environment for decades. Once exposed to the open environment, mercury vaporizes to the atmosphere to contaminate the environment. This can pose a serious health threat to the communities surrounding mining regions. Tailings and mine wastes containing heavy metals and cyanides may negatively impact aquatic life even if water standards are closely followed and monitored. Because many metals bio-accumulate in humid environments, consumption of contaminated foodstuffs and fish can be harmful. Cyanide and mercury leakage or spillage, and improper disposal of mine wastes, can be deadly to humans and can poison ground water, farming land and the resources in water bodies which the livelihood of the majority of Sukuma Tribe depend on for their survival. Since most of the water resources in mining areas are used as sources of drinking water for inhabitants and livestock, pollution of water sources by cyanide and mercury can be a burden to the women and children who collect it for the household and livestock in rural communities.
13NFL3-Environment v. Resource Extraction www.victorybriefs.com EXTINCTION ENVIRONMENTAL DESTRUCTION CAUSES EXTINCTION
Page 77 of 224
Anne Ehrlich & Paul Ehrlich, Professor of Biology and Senior Research Scientist at Stanford, 1/9/13 (Can a collapse of global civilization be avoided?,Proceedings of the Royal Society Biological Sciences, Proc. R. Soc. B 2013 280) But today, for the first time, humanitys global civilizationthe worldwide, increasingly interconnected, highly technological society in which we all are to one degree or another, embeddedis threatened with collapse by an array of environmental problems. Humankind finds itself engaged in what Prince Charles described as an act of suicide on a grand scale [4], facing what the UKs Chief Scientific Advisor John Beddington called a perfect storm o f environmental problems [5]. The most serious of these problems show signs of rapidly escalating severity, especially climate disruption. But other elements could potentially also contribute to a collapse: an accelerating extinction of animal and plant populations and species, which could lead to a loss of ecosystem services essential for human survival; land degradation and land-use change; a poleto-pole spread of toxic compounds; ocean acidification and eutrophication (dead zones); worsening of some aspects of the epidemiological environment (factors that make human populations susceptible to infectious diseases); depletion of increasingly scarce resources [6,7], including especially groundwater, which is being overexploited in many key agricultural areas [8]; and resource wars [9]. These are not separate problems; rather they interact in two gigantic complex adaptive systems: the biosphere system and the human socio-economic system. The negative manifestations of these interactions are often referred to as the human predicament [10], and determining how to prevent it from generating a global collapse is perhaps the foremost challenge confronting humanity. The human predicament is driven by overpopulation, overconsumption of natural resources and the use of unnecessarily environmentally damaging technologies and socio-economic-political arrangements to service Homo sapiens aggregate consumption [1117]. How far the human population size now is above the planets long -term carrying capacity is suggested (conservatively) by ecological footprint analysis [18 20]. It shows that to support todays population of seven billion sustainably (i.e. with business as usual, including current technologies and standards of living) would require roughly half an additional planet; to do so, if all citizens of Earth consumed resources at the US level would take four to five more Earths. Adding the projected 2.5 billion more people by 2050 would make the human assault on civilizations life-support systems disproportionately worse, because almost everywhere people face systems with nonlinear responses [11,2123], in which environmental damage increases at a rate that becomes faster with each additional person. Of course, the claim is often made that humanity will expand Earths carrying capacity dramatically with technological innovation [24], but it is widely recognized that technologies can both add and subtract from carrying capacity. The plough evidently first expanded it and now appears to be reducing it [3]. Overall, careful analysis of the prospects does not provide much confidence that technology will save us [25] or that gross domestic product can be disengaged from resource use [26]
13NFL3-Environment v. Resource Extraction www.victorybriefs.com OCEANS OIL SPILLS WILL POLLUTE ENTIRE OCEANS
Page 78 of 224
Allen, 12 (Greg, NPR, U.S. Watches Closely As Oil Drilling Begins Off Cuba, 2/13, http://www.npr.org/2012/02/13/146635957/u-s-watches-closely-as-oil-drilling-begins-off-cuba) There are big plans for oil exploration in the Caribbean, not far off the coast of Florida. A Spanish company recently began drilling in Cuban waters just 55 miles from Key West. The well is the first of several exploratory wells planned in Cuba and the Bahamas. The drilling has officials and researchers in Florida scrambling to make plans for how they'll respond in case of a spill. The U.S. currently doesn't allow any drilling for oil off its Atlantic coast or in the eastern Gulf of Mexico. One reason is what's at stake. Florida's tourism-based economy depends on its beaches, fishing and clear Caribbean water. Environmental Concerns The U.S. ban on drilling off of Florida, however, doesn't affect America's Caribbean neighbors. The exploratory well being drilled off of Cuba has many here concerned, including people like Richard Dodge. Dodge is the dean of Nova Southeastern University's Oceanographic Center in Dania Beach, near Fort Lauderdale, and what he's really concerned about is coral. At the school, Dodge and his graduate students raise staghorn coral in outdoor saltwater tanks. Live coral grow in the crystal-clear water, some just finger length. "These are relatively new ones that we're starting out," Dodge says. "But over here, these are ones we'll be transplanting to the wild." In another tank, large branches of coral will soon be used to help restore damaged reefs. Florida is home to more than threequarters of the nation's coral reefs and they haven't been doing so well. Development and warming oceans have already weakened many. On a map, Dodge points out the location of what he believes is an even bigger potential threat the spot where Cuba has approved offshore oil drilling. "The site that will be drilled," he says, "is only about 50 miles from Key West." The rig drilling off Cuba's northern coast is operating in water that is more than a mile deep. But it's not the depth that concerns Dodge. In the case of a blowout, it's the operation's proximity to the Gulf Stream. "We're worried that it could get into that stream fast and therefore, within days, impact our coastal ecosystem and coastline," Dodge says. A spill could potentially affect hundreds of miles of beaches, mangroves and estuaries from the Keys to Palm Beach. Dodge and other marine scientists in Florida are asking the federal government to fund research that would help identify the resources most at risk, and develop guidelines to protect them. Embargo Could Complicate Cleanup Complicating matters is the fact that this new well is being drilled in the waters of a country that's under a strict U.S. embargo. Unless they apply for and receive special permission from the government, U.S. companies are banned from doing any work on the well even if there's a spill.
13NFL3-Environment v. Resource Extraction www.victorybriefs.com BIODIVERSITY BIODIVERSITY SOLVES EXTINCTION-KEY TO AG AND MEDICINE
Page 79 of 224
Mittermeier 11(et al, Dr. Russell Alan Mittermeier is a primatologis t, herpetologist and biological anthropologist. He holds Ph.D. from Harvard in Biological Anthropology and serves as an Adjunct Professor at the State University of New York at Stony Brook. He has conducted fieldwork for over 30 years on three continents and in more than 20 countries in mainly tropical locations. He is the President of Conservation International and he is considered an expert on biological diversity. Mittermeier has formally discovered several monkey species. From Chapter One of the book Biodiversity Hotspots F.E. Zachos and J.C. Habel (eds.), DOI 10.1007/978-3-642-20992-5_1, # Springer-Verlag Berlin Heidelberg 2011. This evidence also internally references Norman Myers, a very famous British environmentalist specialising in biodiversity. available at: http://www.academia.edu/1536096/Global_biodiversity_conservation_the_critical_role_of_hotspot s) Extinction is the gravest consequence of the biodiversity crisis, since it is irreversible. Human activities have elevated the rate of species extinctions to a thousand or more times the natural background rate (Pimm et al. 1995). What are the consequences of this loss? Most obvious among them may be the lost opportunity for future resource use. Scientists have discovered a mere fraction of Earths species (perhaps fewer than 10%, or even 1%) and understood the biology of even fewer (Novotny et al. 2002). As species vanish, so too does the health security of every human. Earths species are a vast genetic storehouse that may harbor a c ure for cancer, malaria, or the next new pathogen cures waiting to be discovered. Compounds initially derived from wild species account for more than half of all commercial medicines even more in developing nations (Chivian and Bernstein 2008). Natural forms, processes, and ecosystems provide blueprints and inspiration for a growing array of new materials, energy sources, hi-tech devices, and other innovations (Benyus 2009). The current loss of species has been compared to burning down the worlds libraries without knowing the content of 90% or more of the books. With loss of species, we lose the ultimate source of our crops and the genes we use to improve agricultural resilience, the inspiration for manufactured products, and the basis of the structure and function of the ecosystems that support humans and all life on Earth (McNeely et al. 2009). Above and beyond material welfare and livelihoods, biodiversity contributes to security, resiliency, and freedom of choices and actions (Millennium Ecosystem Assessment 2005). Less tangible, but no less important, are the cultural, spiritual, and moral costs inflicted by species extinctions. All societies value species for their own sake, and wild plants and animals are integral to the fabric of all the worlds cultures (Wilson 1984). The road to extinction is made even more perilous to people by the loss of the broader ecosystems that underpin our livelihoods, communities, and economies(McNeely et al.2009). The loss of coastal wetlands and mangrove forests, for example, greatly exacerbates both human mortality and economic damage from tropical cyclones (Costanza et al.2008; Das and Vincent2009), while disease outbreaks such as the 2003 emergence of Severe Acute Respiratory Syndrome in East Asia have been directly connected to trade in wildlife for human consumption(Guan et al.2003). Other consequences of biodiversity loss, more subtle but equally damaging, include the deterioration of Earths natural capital. Loss of biodiversity on land in the past decade alone is estimated to be costing the global economy $500 billion annually (TEEB2009). Reduced diversity may also reduce resilience of ecosystems and the human communities that depend on them. For example, more diverse coral reef communities have been found to suffer less from the diseases that plague degraded reefs elsewhere (Raymundo et al.2009). As Earths climate changes, the roles of species and ecosystems will only increase in their importance to humanity (Turner et al.2009). In many respects, conservation is local. People generally care more about the biodiversity in the place in which they live. They also depend upon these ecosystems the most and, broadly speaking, it is these areas over which they have the most control. Furthermore, we believe that all biodiversity is important and that every nation, every region, and every community should do everything possible to conserve their living resources. So, what is the importance of setting global priorities?
Page 80 of 224
Extinction is a global phenomenon, with impacts far beyond nearby administrative borders. More practically, biodiversity, the threats to it, and the ability of countries to pay for its conservation vary around the world. The vast majority of the global conservation budget perhaps 90% originates in and is spent in economically wealthy countries (James et al.1999). It is thus critical that those globally exible funds available in the hundreds of millions annually be guided by systematic priorities if we are to move deliberately toward a global goal of reducing biodiversity loss. The establishment of priorities for biodiversity conservation is complex, but can be framed as a single question. Given the choice, where should action toward reducing the loss of biodiversity be implemented rst? The eld of conservation planning addresses this question and revolves around a framework of vulnerability and irreplaceability (Margules and Pressey2000). Vulnerability measures the risk to the species present in a region if the species and ecosystems that are highly threatened are not protected now, we will not get another chance in the future. Irreplaceability measures the extent to which spatial substitutes exist for securing biodiversity. The number of species alone is an inadequate indication of conserva-tion priority because several areas can share the same species. In contrast, areas with high levels of endemism are irreplaceable. We must conserve these places because the unique species they contain cannot be saved elsewhere. Put another way, biodiversity is not evenly distributed on our planet. It is heavily concentrated in certain areas, these areas have exceptionally high concentrations of endemic species found nowhere else, and many (but not all) of these areas are the areas at greatest risk of disappearing because of heavy human impact. Mye rs seminal paper (Myers1988) was the rst application of the principles of irreplaceability and vulnerability to guide conservation planning on a global scale. Myers described ten tropical forest hotspots on the basis of extraordinary plant endemism and high levels of habitat loss, albeit without quantitative criteria for the designation of hotspot status. A subsequent analysis added eight additional hotspots, including four from Mediterranean-type ecosystems (Myers 1990).After adopting hotspots as an institutional blueprint in 1989, Conservation Interna-tional worked with Myers in a rst systematic update of the hotspots. It introduced two strict quantitative criteria: to qualify as a hotspot, a region had to contain at least 1,500 vascular plants as endemics ( > 0.5% of the worlds total), and it had to have 30% or less of its original vegetation (extent of historical habitat cover)remaining. These efforts culminated in an extensive global review (Mittermeier et al.1999) and scientic publication (Myers et al.2000) that introduced seven new hotspots on the basis of both the better-dened criteria and new data. A second systematic update (Mittermeier et al.2004) did not change the criteria, but revisited the set of hotspots based on new data on the distribution of species and threats, as well as genuine changes in the threat status of these regions. That update redened several hotspots, such as the Eastern Afromontane region, and added several others that were suspected hotspots but for which sufcie nt data either did not exist or were not accessible to conservation scientists outside of those regions. Sadly, it uncovered another region the East Melanesian Islands which rapid habitat destruction had in a short period of time transformed from a biodiverse region that failed to meet the less than 30% of original vegetation remaining criterion to a genuine hotspot.
13NFL3-Environment v. Resource Extraction www.victorybriefs.com OCEAN BIODIVERSITY KEY TO PREVENT EXTINCTION
Page 81 of 224
Craig, 3 - Attorneys Title Professor of Law and Associate Dean for Environmental Progr ams at Florida State University (Robin Kundis, ARTICLE: Taking Steps Toward Marine Wilderness Protection? Fishing and Coral Reef Marine Reserves in Florida and Hawaii, McGeorge Law Review, Winter 2003, 34 McGeorge L. Rev. 155) Biodiversity and ecosystem function arguments for conserving marine ecosystems also exist, just as they do for terrestrial ecosystems, but these arguments have thus far rarely been raised in political debates. For example, besides significant tourism values - the most economically valuable ecosystem service coral reefs provide, worldwide - coral reefs protect against storms and dampen other environmental fluctuations, services worth more than ten times the reefs' value for food production. n856 Waste treatment is another significant, non-extractive ecosystem function that intact coral reef ecosystems provide. n857 More generally, "ocean ecosystems play a major role in the global geochemical cycling of all the elements that represent the basic building blocks of living organisms, carbon, nitrogen, oxygen, phosphorus, and sulfur, as well as other less abundant but necessary elements." n858 In a very real and direct sense, therefore, human degradation of marine ecosystems impairs the planet's ability to support life. Maintaining biodiversity is often critical to maintaining the functions of marine ecosystems. Current evidence shows that, in general, an ecosystem's ability to keep functioning in the face of disturbance is strongly dependent on its biodiversity, "indicating that more diverse ecosystems are more stable." n859 Coral reef ecosystems are particularly dependent on their biodiversity. [*265] Most ecologists agree that the complexity of interactions and degree of interrelatedness among component species is higher on coral reefs than in any other marine environment. This implies that the ecosystem functioning that produces the most highly valued components is also complex and that many otherwise insignificant species have strong effects on sustaining the rest of the reef system. n860 Thus, maintaining and restoring the biodiversity of marine ecosystems is critical to maintaining and restoring the ecosystem services that they provide. Non-use biodiversity values for marine ecosystems have been calculated in the wake of marine disasters, like the Exxon Valdez oil spill in Alaska. n861 Similar calculations could derive preservation values for marine wilderness. However, economic value, or economic value equivalents, should not be "the sole or even primary justification for conservation of ocean ecosystems. Ethical arguments also have considerable force and merit." n862 At the forefront of such arguments should be a recognition of how little we know about the sea - and about the actual effect of human activities on marine ecosystems. The United States has traditionally failed to protect marine ecosystems because it was difficult to detect anthropogenic harm to the oceans, but we now know that such harm is occurring - even though we are not completely sure about causation or about how to fix every problem. Ecosystems like the NWHI coral reef ecosystem should inspire lawmakers and policymakers to admit that most of the time we really do not know what we are doing to the sea and hence should be preserving marine wilderness whenever we can especially when the United States has within its territory relatively pristine marine ecosystems that may be unique in the world.
13NFL3-Environment v. Resource Extraction www.victorybriefs.com BIODIVERSITY LOSS CAUSES EXTINCTION
Page 82 of 224
Takacs, 96 - Environmental Humanities Professor at CSU Monterey Bay (David, The Idea of Biodiversity: Philosophies of Paradise pg. 200-01) So biodiversity keeps the world running. It has value and of itself, as well as for us. Raven, Erwin, and Wilson oblige us to think about the value of biodiversity for our own lives. The Ehrlichs rivet popper trope makes this same point; by eliminating rivets, we play Russian roulette with global ecology and human futures: It is likely that destruction of the rich complex of species in the Amazon basin could trigger rapid changes in global climate patterns. Agriculture remains heavily dependent on stable climate, and human beings remain heavily dependent on food. By the end of the century the extinction of perhaps a million species in the Amazon basin could have entrained famines in which a billion human beings perished. And if our species is very unlucky, the famines could lead to a thermonuclear war, which could extinguish civilization. 13 Elsewhere Ehrlich uses different particulars with no less drama: What then will happen if the current decimation of organic diversity continues? Crop yields will be more difficult to maintain in the face of climatic change, soil erosion, loss of dependable water supplies, decline of pollinators, and ever more serious assaults by pests. Conversion of productive land to wasteland will accelerate; deserts will continue their seemingly inexorable expansion. Air pollution will increase, and local climates will become harsher. Humanity will have to forgo many of the direct economic benefits it might have withdrawn from Earth's wellstocked genetic library. It might, for example, miss out on a cure for cancer; but that will make little difference. As ecosystem services falter, mortality from respiratory and epidemic disease, natural disasters, and especially famine will lower life expectancies to the point where cancer (largely a disease of the elderly) will be unimportant. Humanity will bring upon itself consequences depressingly similar to those expected from a nuclear winter. Barring a nuclear conflict, it appears that civilization will disappear some time before the end of the next century - not with a bang but a whimper.
13NFL3-Environment v. Resource Extraction www.victorybriefs.com LOSS OF BIODIVERSITY CAUSES EXTINCTION
Page 83 of 224
Nautiyal & Nidamanuri, 10 Sunil, Centre for Ecological Economics and Natural Resources at Institute for Social and Economic Change, and Rama Rao, Department of Earth and Space Sciences at Indian Institute of Space Science and Technology (Conserving Biodiversity in Protected Area of Biodiversity Hotspot in India: A Case Study, International Journal of Ecology and Environmental Sciences, 36 (2-3): 195-200, 2010) The hotspots are the worlds most biologically rich areas hence recognized as important ecosystems not important only for the rich biodiversity but equally important for the human survival as these are the homes for more than 20% of the worlds population. India got recognition of one of the mega-diversity countries of world as the country is home of the two important biodiversity hotspots: the Himalaya in north and the Western Ghats in the southern peninsula. Policy makers and decision takers have recognized the importance of biodiversity (flora and fauna) and this has resulted to segregate (in the form of protected areas) the rich and diverse landscape for biodiversity conservation. An approach which leads towards conservation of biological diversity is good efforts but such approaches should deal with humans equally who are residing in biodiversity hotspots since time immemorial. In this endeavor, a study was conducted in Nagarahole National Park of Nilgiri Biosphere Reserve, in Karnataka. Our empirical studies reveal that banning all the human activities in this ecosystem including agriculture, animal husbandry has produced the results opposite to the approach multiple values of national park. To monitor the impact, existing policies have been tested from an economic and ecological view-point. Unfortunately, the local livelihoods (most of them belongs to indigenous tribes) in the area have received setbacks due to the implementation of the policies, though unintentionally. However, the ecological perspective is also not showing support for the approach and framework of the current policies in the hotspots. Satellite data showed that the temporal pattern of ecosystem processes has been changing. An integrated approach for ecosystem conservation and strengthening local institutions for sustainable ecosystem management in such areas is therefore supported by this study.
13NFL3-Environment v. Resource Extraction www.victorybriefs.com BIODIVERSITY HOTSPOTS KEY TO SOLVE EXTINCTION
Page 84 of 224
Kunich, 1 Associate Professor of Law, Roger Williams University School of Law (John, 52 Hastings L.J. 1149, Lexis) It is rather well known, even beyond the scientific community, that many of the world's species have either gone extinct or are on the road to extinction. It is much less well known, but equally important, that enormous numbers of these species are confined to a few hotspots" of biodiversity, far beyond the norm for the average region of comparable size. These hotspots are the key to the future of life on this planet. To understand why, we must first examine the degree of risk to which earth's biodiversity is exposed today.
13NFL3-Environment v. Resource Extraction www.victorybriefs.com DISEASE ENVIRONMENTAL POLLUTION CAUSES DISEASE.
Page 85 of 224
A.G.N. Kitula [Sokoine University of Agriculture, Morogoro, Tanzania], "The environmental and socio-economic impacts of mining on local livelihoods in Tanzania: A case study of Geita District," Journal of Clear Production 14, 2005. Environmental pollution is a major problem in the mining areas of Geita District. Continuous disposal of mine wastes contributes to air and water contamination, which are detrimental to human health, livestock and wildlife biodiversity, and have serious effects on the welfare of the mining communities, especially groups of women and children. The health and safety of miners and the nearby communities are at risk from a variety of factors, ranging from the inhalation of mercury fumes and dust, to water contamination and poor safety procedures. Unprotected pits, for instance, during the Table 9 Surveyed responses on the impacts of mining on human health A.G.N. Kitula / Journal of Cleaner Production 14 (2006) 405e414 411 Variable Community status Total (n Z 148) 42 (28.4) 13 (8.8) 11 (7.4) 30 (20.3) 9 (6.1) 9 (6.1) c2Value 0.011* 0.042* 0.028* 0.014* 0.733ns 0.302ns Mining community (nZ74) Non-mining community (nZ74) 14 (18.9) 3 (4.1) 2 (2.7) 21 (28.4) 8 (10.8) 6 (8.1) Common diseases STD/HIV Water borne Air borne Malaria Worms Bilharzias 28 (37.8) 10 (13.5) 9 (12.2) 9 (12.2) 1 (7.74) 3 (4.1) Source: Field survey (2002). Figures in parentheses are percentages and those out of parentheses are frequencies. *Significant at P ! 0.05, ns Z Non-significant at P O 0.05. rainy seasons, form breeding grounds for disease vectors such as mosquitoes and housefly e the agents that spread malaria and water borne diseases. Table 9 indicates some of the common diseases mentioned in the study area. The dust pollution mainly originating from explosives in Nyakabale village has been reported by local people to increase the rate of female miscarriage and air borne infections. Migration of young ladies into mining centres in search of non-existent jobs according to District medical officer has increased prostitution and the spread of venereal diseases including HIV and AIDS in mining regions (Table 9).
13NFL3-Environment v. Resource Extraction www.victorybriefs.com RESOURCE CURSE
Page 86 of 224
RESOURCE ABNUNDANCE HAS NOT SPURRED ECONOMIC GROWTH IN DEVELOPING COUNTRIES- THE OPPOSITE HAS OCCURRED. Gilles Carbonnier, Natascha Wagner, and Fritz Brugger, [The Graduate Institute of Geneva Center on Conflict, Development and Peacebuilding], "Oil, Gas, and Minerals: The Impact of Resource-Dependence and Governance on Sustainable Development", The Centre on Conflict, Development, and Peacebuilding Working Paper, 2011. Intuition suggests that states with abundant sub-soil assets in the form of oil, gas and minerals are in a position to draw large revenues from extraction that can in turn spur economic development. In other words, resource abundance should be a blessing. Experiences to date display a mixed record. Industrialized countries like Australia, Canada and the United States succeeded in turning resource extraction into economic growth and development. Developing countries like Botswana, Chile, Malaysia or South Africa have all joined the category of uppermiddle income economies, in part thanks to the exploitation of natural resources. But other resource-rich economies such as the Democratic Republic of the Congo and Niger could not emulate these successes. They keep ranking among low-income countries and epitomize the so-called resource curse.
Page 87 of 224
EMPIRICAL EVIDENCE IS CONCLUSIVE THAT NATURAL RESOURCES HAVE NOT HELPED THE ECONOMIES OF DEVELOPING COUNTRIES. James A. Robinson [Harvard University Department of Government], Ragnar Torvik [Department of Economics, Norwegian University of Science and Technology], Thierry Verdier [DELTA-ENS], "Political Foundations of the Resource Curse", Journal of Development Economics 79, 2006. Scholars of the industrial revolution and economic historians traditionally emphasized the great benefits which natural resources endowed on a nation.1 Paradoxically however, it is now almost conventional wisdom that resources are a dcurseT for currently developing countries. This claim is supported both by some basic facts, for example, for OPEC as a whole GDP per capita on average decreased by 1.3% each year from 1965 to 1998 (Gylfason, 2001), and by crosscountry empirical work (Sachs and Warner, 1995, 1999; Busby et al., 2004; Mehlum et al., 2006). Moreover, numerous case studies of resource dependent economies have linked resource abundance to poor development (Gelb, 1988; Karl, 1997; Ross, 1999, 2001).
Page 88 of 224
RESOURCES BOOMS LEAD TO AND ARE MADE USELESS BY DYSFUNCTIONAL STATE BEHAVIOR. James A. Robinson [Harvard University Department of Government], Ragnar Torvik [Department of Economics, Norwegian University of Science and Technology], Thierry Verdier [DELTA-ENS], "Political Foundations of the Resource Curse", Journal of Development Economics 79, 2006. The key question is what are the mechanisms linking natural resource endowments and their prices to development. Interestingly, the evidence seems overwhelming that bad economic policies are correlated with resource rents. The empirical literature on the resource curse consistently emphasizes that resource dependent economies and resource booms seem to lead to highly dysfunctional state behavior, particularly large public sectors and unsustainable budgetary policies. For instance, Newberry (1986, p. 334) argues that economists have had a missing element in their interpretation of the bad performance of many resource abundant countries since they assume a world with no government while bTheir behaviour is really the key elementQ. He notes that bIt is also I suppose encouraging for economists because it must surely be very easy to go round and advise countries that experience booms to do various things which would clearly make things better. They make such large and obvious mistakes.Q The large and obvious dmistakesT are those made clear by different case studies, in particular the study of six oil exporting countries (Algeria, Ecuador, Indonesia, Nigeria, Trinidad and Tobago and Venezuela) by Gelb (1986). Summarizing the experiences from the case studies Gelb (1988, p. 139) concludes that bthe most important recommendation to emerge from this study is that spending levels should have been adjusted to sharp rises in income levels more cautiously than they actually were.Q (italics in original). The large World Bank project overseen by Lal and Myint (1996) came to the same conclusion since they bidentify policy failure as the prime cause of the underperformance of the resource abundant countriesQ and the collection of case studies in Auty (2001) shows the same picture for those resource abundant countries that has failed to grow in that there seems to be (p. 132) ba chronic tendency for the state to become overexpanded.
13NFL3-Environment v. Resource Extraction www.victorybriefs.com RESOURCE BOOMS CREATE ECONOMIC INEFFICIENCY- STUDIES PROVE.
Page 89 of 224
James A. Robinson [Harvard University Department of Government], Ragnar Torvik [Department of Economics, Norwegian University of Science and Technology], Thierry Verdier [DELTA-ENS], "Political Foundations of the Resource Curse", Journal of Development Economics 79, 2006. We emphasized several results which come from our model. First, resources tend to be overextracted by politicians because they discount the future by the probability they remain in power. Second, permanent resource booms, because they increase the value of being in power lead politicians to allocate more resources to staying in power. As a result they tend to discount the future less and this leads to more efficient resource extraction. The fact that booms increase the probability of staying in power tends to counteract the inefficiency stemming from the fact that politicians discount the future too much. Third, we showed that despite this optimistic result, resource booms tend to create inefficiency in the rest of the economy because they encourage politicians to engage in inefficient redistribution to influence elections. However, the extent to which this phenomenon actually leads to a resource curse (which we defined as a situation where a resource boom leads to lower GDP) depends on the quality of institutions. In countries with institutions which limit the ability of politicians to use clientelism to bias elections, resource booms tend to raise national income. When such institutions are absent, the perverse political incentives may dominate and income can fall there is a resource curse.
Page 90 of 224
RENTIER STATE THEORYRESOURCE EXTRACTION HINDERS DEMOCRACY Gilles Carbonnier, Natascha Wagner, and Fritz Brugger, [The Graduate Institute of Geneva Center on Conflict, Development and Peacebuilding], "Oil, Gas, and Minerals: The Impact of Resource-Dependence and Governance on Sustainable Development", The Centre on Conflict, Development, and Peacebuilding Working Paper, 2011. This is why research has come to stress the political dimension of the resource curse, looking in particular at the role of the state. The rentier state theory, for example, holds that mineral rents reduce the necessity of the government to levy domestic taxes, rendering leaders less accountable to citizens and more prone to rent-seeking, corruption and patronage politics (Mahdavy, 1970; Beblawi and Luciani, 1987; Clark, 2007; Yates, 1996; Karl, 1996). This has led to the finding that oil hinders democracy (Ross, 2001) and that presidential democracies are more likely to face a resource curse than parliamentarian democracies (Andersen and Aslaksen, 2008).
Page 91 of 224
CAPITAL APPROACH- RESOURCES MIGHT TRANSLATE INTO GDP GROWTH WITHOUT CONTRIBUTING TO SUSTAINABLE ECONOMIC DEVELOPMENT. Gilles Carbonnier, Natascha Wagner, and Fritz Brugger, [The Graduate Institute of Geneva Center on Conflict, Development and Peacebuilding], "Oil, Gas, and Minerals: The Impact of Resource-Dependence and Governance on Sustainable Development", The Centre on Conflict, Development, and Peacebuilding Working Paper, 2011. Most of the resource-curse literature follows Sachs and Warner by assessing development outcome in terms of GDP growth. This focus on growth in output and value added neglects variations in stocks. The exploitation of oil, gas and minerals translates into immediate GDP growth without considering the concomitant depletion of the natural capital base, in particular the reduction of national sub-soil wealth. In addition, mineral resources are non-renewable. The exploitation of oil, gas and minerals in low-income countries offers a time-bound opportunity to mobilize domestic finance for development, since the extractive rent will die off at some point, depending on the abundance of mineral deposits or oil reserves and the pace of extraction (Stevens, 2011). In the long run, the development outcome is closely tied to the allocation of the resource rents between consumption and investment. In fragile states, the rents are all too often misappropriated and invested in patronage politics and political repression rather than in infrastructure, health services and education. This extractive windfall often leads political leaders to overspend on consumption and non-productive assets, as illustrated by lavish presidential palaces and sumptuary monuments built across gas-rich Turkmenistan. These expenditures contribute to GDP growth but certainly not to sustainable development. The rent tends to be perceived as a prize that can be captured through corruption and armed violence (Humphreys et al., 2007).
Page 92 of 224
HISTORY PROVESRESOURCE CURSE HAPPENED TO EARLY MODERN SPAIN IN THE SEVENTEENTH CENTURY. Gilles Carbonnier, Natascha Wagner, and Fritz Brugger, [The Graduate Institute of Geneva Center on Conflict, Development and Peacebuilding], "Oil, Gas, and Minerals: The Impact of Resource-Dependence and Governance on Sustainable Development", The Centre on Conflict, Development, and Peacebuilding Working Paper, 2011. The resource-curse literature highlights four critical institutional variables: (i) political constraints on the executive power and effective checks and balances, (ii) the level and type of corruption, (iii) regime types, and (iv) armed violence and conflict. The first widely-cited example of the resource curse is the rapid decline of early modern Spain in the seventeenth century. Castile suffered from Dutch disease and the rentier-state syndrome as a direct result of the extraordinary amount of precious metals it extracted from its Latin American colonies. Drelichman and Voth (2008) show how the silver windfall eroded Spanish institutions at a critical point in time. The country was evolving in the direction of limiting the power of the king in favor of the Cortes, a quasi-parliamentary body with representatives of the main cities of Castile, in which an emerging merchant class was to gain influence. But the revenues from the Latin American silver bonanza, which amounted up to a third of Spains total revenues, allowed the king to set policies unchecked by any powerful actor outside the monarchy and to embark in costly war enterprises. This turned out to be fatal in Spains competition with England and Flanders that succeeded in establishing effect checks-and-balance mechanisms on the power of the executive.
Page 93 of 224
THE BEST ECONOMIC STUDY TO DATE FOUND THAT RESOURCE EXTRACTION HAD A NEGATIVE CORRELATION WITH CAPITAL SAVINGS. Gilles Carbonnier, Natascha Wagner, and Fritz Brugger, [The Graduate Institute of Geneva Center on Conflict, Development and Peacebuilding], "Oil, Gas, and Minerals: The Impact of Resource-Dependence and Governance on Sustainable Development", The Centre on Conflict, Development, and Peacebuilding Working Paper, 2011. There is general agreement that governance matters a great deal for development, especially in resource-rich economies. Yet, it is hard to disentangle the direct effect of governance on development outcomes in empirical studies. In a novel approach we use the relative size of the youth bulge as instrument not only for armed conflict but also for the quality of governance to assess the impact of extractive resource dependence on sustainable development as measured by per capita ANS. This papers examines the dynamic relationship between resource extraction, institutional quality, armed violence and sustainable development with a panel data covering 108 developing countries over 24 years. While the literature shows mixed outcomes of resource dependance on GDP growth in developing countries, our results highlight a negative relationship between resource extraction and genuine savings. This is not surprising since, ceteris paribus, natural resource extraction reduces genuine savings. Yet, as the Bostwana example illustrates and our results indicate, this relationship is not systematic: it can be averted if appropriate governance mechanisms and institutional arrangements are nurtured.
13NFL3-Environment v. Resource Extraction www.victorybriefs.com VIOLENCE RESOURCE EXTRACTION IS HIGHLY CORRELATED WITH VIOLENCE.
Page 94 of 224
Liam Downey [associate professor of sociology at the University of Colorado at Boulder], Eric Bonds [doctoral student at the University of Colorado at Boulder], and Katherine Clark [graduate student in environmental studies at the University of Colorado at Boulder], "Natural Resource Extraction, Armed Violence, and Environmental Degradation", Organic Environ. 2010 December, vol. 23(4):417-445. Of course, there would be no point in doing this if resource extraction activities were rarely associated with armed violence. Thus, in addition to developing our theoretical argument, we also demonstrate that an important empirical link exists between natural resource extraction and armed violence. To establish this link, we use a recent National Research Council (NRC; 2008) study to identify 10 minerals that are critical to the functioning of the U.S. economy and/or military (platinum, palladium, rhodium, manganese, indium, niobium, vanadium, titanium, copper, and rare earth elements) and then ask whether the extraction of these minerals has involved the use of armed violence at any point in the past 10 to 15 years. We define armed violence as violence and threatened violence perpetrated by military, police, mercenary, and rebel forces, and thus we investigate violent acts such as military and police forces beating, arresting, or firing weapons at protestors, the use of mercenaries to provide mine security, the forced removal of local populations, and the use of forced labor to carry out resource extraction activities. We supplement this descriptive, but decontextualized, analysis with a set of case studies that examine more fully the violent activities associated with the extraction of two of these minerals (manganese and copper) and then briefly discuss examples of armed violence associated with the worlds three largest mining companies, with African mines that receive World Bank funding, and with petroleum and rainforest timber extraction. Presenting these case studies and briefly discussing these companies, mines, and nonmineral resources allows us to (a) empirically evaluate aspects of our theoretical model that we are otherwise unable to evaluate, (b) address a slight bias in the critical mineral data that we discuss in a subsequent section of the article, and (c) illustrate more clearly some of the ways in which violence is associated with natural resource extraction.
Page 95 of 224
MILITARY ACTION IS A KEY DRIVER OF FURTHER ENVIRONMENTAL DEGRADATION. Liam Downey [associate professor of sociology at the University of Colorado at Boulder], Eric Bonds [doctoral student at the University of Colorado at Boulder], and Katherine Clark [graduate student in environmental studies at the University of Colorado at Boulder], "Natural Resource Extraction, Armed Violence, and Environmental Degradation", Organic Environ. 2010 December, vol. 23(4):417-445. As previously noted, environmental sociologists have paid relatively little attention to the role that armed violence and military activity play in damaging the environment and ensuring the profitable extraction and transport of natural resources (Hooks & Smith, 2004, 2005; Jorgenson & Clark, 2009). In recent years, however, a handful of environmental sociologists, including several ecological unequal exchange researchers, have begun to argue that military activity may be a key driver of environmental degradation. These researchers have noted, for example, that military equipment, military bases, weapons production and disposal, and war all produce severe environmental degradation that cannot be attributed solely to the pursuit of capital accumulation (Hooks & Smith, 2004, 2005), that powerful nations often use military coercion to maintain disproportionate access to natural resources (Jorgenson & Clark, 2009; Jorgenson, Clark, & Kentor, 2010; York, 2008), and that military power was one of the key factors that allowed Western Europe to exploit its colonies labor and natural resource wealth, thereby enriching Western Europe, impoverishing much of the rest of the world, and severely degrading the environment (Foster, 1994). Researchers have also argued that war and debt played an important role in ensuring British control over Peru and Chiles 19th-century natural fertilizer trade (Clark & Foster, 2009) and that imperialism and militarism have played an integral role in cementing U.S. power over global petroleum supplies (Foster, 2008; OConnor, 1998).
Page 96 of 224
THE NATURAL RESOURCE INDUSTRY BASE IN MANY DEVELOPING COUNTRIES IS CENTERED AROUND VIOLENCE. Liam Downey [associate professor of sociology at the University of Colorado at Boulder], Eric Bonds [doctoral student at the University of Colorado at Boulder], and Katherine Clark [graduate student in environmental studies at the University of Colorado at Boulder], "Natural Resource Extraction, Armed Violence, and Environmental Degradation", Organic Environ. 2010 December, vol. 23(4):417-445. The evidence presented in this article clearly demonstrates that armed violence is associated with the extraction of many critical and noncritical natural resources, suggesting quite strongly that the natural resource base upon which industrial societies stand is constructed in large part through the use and threatened use of armed violence. The evidence also demonstrates that when armed violence is used to protect resource extraction activities, it is often employed in response to popular protest or rebellion against these activities. These findings, and the theoretical model set forth in this article, extend prior sociological thinking and research on the environment in several important ways. First, as we previously noted, very few environmental sociologists have examined armed violence and militarism, and those that have done so have generally restricted their attention to the direct environmental consequences of weapons production, military activity, and war. Thus, this article establishes more clearly than prior environmental sociology research the degree to which armed violence underpins the current ecological crisis. Second, in identifying armed violence as an important mechanism promoting ecological unequal exchange, and theorizing that armed violence works in concert with other institutional, organizational, ideological, legal, and technological mechanisms to ensure core nation access to and control over vital natural resources, this study contributes to the literature on ecological unequal exchange, which has focused more attention on establishing the existence of ecological unequal exchange than on identifying the mechanisms responsible for it.
13NFL3-Environment v. Resource Extraction www.victorybriefs.com MANGANESE EXTRACTION HAS CAUSED VIOLENT CONFLICT IN ASIA.
Page 97 of 224
Liam Downey [associate professor of sociology at the University of Colorado at Boulder], Eric Bonds [doctoral student at the University of Colorado at Boulder], and Katherine Clark [graduate student in environmental studies at the University of Colorado at Boulder], "Natural Resource Extraction, Armed Violence, and Environmental Degradation", Organic Environ. 2010 December, vol. 23(4):417-445. Manganese is a widely used mineral essential for making steel. It is also used to produce nonsteel alloys and batteries (USGS, 2006). According to the NRC (2008), the United States is almost entirely dependent on imported manganese, for which there are no known technical substitutes. In 2006, the leading producers of manganese ore were South Africa (19%), Australia (18%), China (13%), Brazil (12%), and Gabon (11%; USGS, 2006). Armed violence is directly associated with manganese extraction in at least two of these countries (China and Brazil) and indirectly in a third (Gabon). For example, in Xiushan County, China, there are 41 licensed and more than 200 unlicensed manganese mines, which in 2008 accounted for a large share of Chinas total manganese production (Jigang & Chuhua, 2008). These mines have drained the regions aquifers and illegally dumped tons of toxic waste into the regions waterways. As a result, local wells run dry when rainfall is low, local rivers and irrigation water are severely polluted, and the regions rice harvest has been cut in half. In addition, constant mine blasts have cracked the foundations of residents homes and impaired local air quality (Jigang & Chuhua, 2008). To protect their livelihoods and health, some county residents confronted local authorities in 2005 by blockading mine entrances and demanding the enforcement of environmental regulations. They also sought adequate compensation for their losses. One notable blockade, which lasted more than a month, was mounted by 40 elderly women (Jigang & Chuhua, 2008). Mine authorities responded to these actions by hiring thugs to beat protesters, and Chinese police responded by raiding the town of Gaodong and detaining all townsmen older than 16 years of age for interrogation (Jigang & Chuhua, 2008). Elsewhere in China, residents of Xialei, in Guangxi Province, conducted a nonviolent sit-in protest in 2006 to stop development of a local manganese electrolysis plant (Xi, 2006). Manganese mining already polluted the communitys drinking water, which comes from the Heishui River. Thus, the goal of the protest was to prevent further pollution by blocking development of the plant (Xi, 2006). When two of the protesters were arrested, more than 1,000 Xialei residents gathered in front of the town hall to demand their release. In response, Chinese authorities mobilized several hundred police officers from surrounding communities, who beat the protestors and shocked them with electric batons (Xi, 2006). Five residents associated with the protest were arrested and charged with gathering a crowd to attack a state organ (BBC, 2006).
13NFL3-Environment v. Resource Extraction www.victorybriefs.com MANGANESE EXTRACTION HAS CAUSED VIOLENT CONFLICT IN BRAZIL.
Page 98 of 224
Liam Downey [associate professor of sociology at the University of Colorado at Boulder], Eric Bonds [doctoral student at the University of Colorado at Boulder], and Katherine Clark [graduate student in environmental studies at the University of Colorado at Boulder], "Natural Resource Extraction, Armed Violence, and Environmental Degradation", Organic Environ. 2010 December, vol. 23(4):417-445. Manganese extraction is also associated with armed violence in Brazil. Brazils largest manganese deposit, in the Carajas region of the Amazonian Basin in Para state, is mined by Companhia Vale do Rio Doce (CVRD/Vale) at its Azul mine (USGS, 2006) and by Prometel Produtos Metalurgicos (PPM) at its Buritirama mine (Mining Magazine, 1993). Prior to the 1970s, the Carajas region was very remote and difficult to reach. However, the largest iron ore deposit in the world was discovered there in the 1960s; in 1971, manganese ore was discovered in the region; and in 1978, CVRD/Vale undertook a massive project, which received considerable state financing and foreign capital, to build a railway link between Carajas and the Atlantic Ocean (Shaw, 1990). The project, which was completed in 1985, severely degraded the environment. It also led to the involuntary removal of many indigenous people from their land due to the granting of hundreds of prospecting concessions in the newly opened area (Rocha, 1986) and a massive influx of miners, loggers, ranchers, and settlers. The massive influx of new people into the region not only pushed indigenous people from their land, it also made them the victims of violent attacks in the scramble for land and resources (Survival International, 2000). Peasants and indigenous people in the region have also suffered violent attacks at the hands of the Brazilian government. For example, upon completion of the Carajas Grande Project, Brazil sold a great deal of land in the region to large corporations, including one parcel that it sold to CVRD/Vale. When CVRD/Vale evicted farmers from this parcel, the farmers and other peasants mounted a road blockade to pressure the government and CVRD/Vale to provide compensation for their loss of land and livelihoods (Amnesty International, 1998). Military Police, who were transported to the area in CVRD/Vale vehicles, responded by beating and shooting the protesters, leaving 19 dead and wounding an unspecified number of others (Amnesty International, 1998).
13NFL3-Environment v. Resource Extraction www.victorybriefs.com COPPER EXTRACTION HAS CAUSED VIOLENT CONFLICT IN INDONESIA.
Page 99 of 224
Liam Downey [associate professor of sociology at the University of Colorado at Boulder], Eric Bonds [doctoral student at the University of Colorado at Boulder], and Katherine Clark [graduate student in environmental studies at the University of Colorado at Boulder], "Natural Resource Extraction, Armed Violence, and Environmental Degradation", Organic Environ. 2010 December, vol. 23(4):417-445. Copper is essential to the functioning of the U.S. and global economies because of its importance in the building and construction industries, the manufacturing of transportation equipment, industrial equipment, and machinery, and the generation and transmission of electricity. To some extent, substitutes are available for some of these end uses, but there is no substitute for electricity generation and transmission (NRC, 2008), without which the U.S. and global economies would ground to a halt. Copper mining is very much associated with armed violence and military activity. Nowhere is this association more clear than in West Papua, Indonesia. Freeport-McMoRan first began mining copper and gold in West Papua in 1972 but significantly ramped up its West Papuan production when it undertook development of its Grasberg mine in 1988 (in partnership with Rio Tinto and the Indonesian government). The Grasberg mine is one of the largest copper mines in the world, producing approximately 1,644 tons of copper and 700,000 tons of mine waste a day (Freeport-McMoRan, 2007; Perlez, 2006a).13 This waste is carried away by rivers into wetlands and estuaries, which at one time were among the most productive fisheries in the world. However, mining pollution caused massive fish die-offs and few fish live in the polluted waterways today (Perlez & Bonner, 2005). Moreover, because of acid leaching, mine waste will remain dangerous for years to come (Perlez & Bonner, 2005).
Page 100 of 224
COPPER MINING HAS CAUSED VIOLENT CONFLICT IN MULTIPLE OTHER AREAS. Liam Downey [associate professor of sociology at the University of Colorado at Boulder], Eric Bonds [doctoral student at the University of Colorado at Boulder], and Katherine Clark [graduate student in environmental studies at the University of Colorado at Boulder], "Natural Resource Extraction, Armed Violence, and Environmental Degradation", Organic Environ. 2010 December, vol. 23(4):417-445. Copper mining is associated with military activity and armed violence in other locations as well. For instance, Rio Tintos experiences as a partner in the Grasberg mine are not so different from its experiences at its Panguna copper mine in the now-autonomous region of Bougainville, Papua New Guinea. Although not currently operational, the Panguna mine was once the largest open-pit copper mine in the world, producing tremendous revenue for Rio Tinto and Papua New Guinea. However, as a consequence of mine construction and production, thousands of acres of rainforest were cut down and billions of tons of mine waste were dumped into local rivers and the surrounding ocean, degrading drinking water quality and destroying fisheries and local fishing economies (Klare, 2001; Langston, 2004). Mine pollution may also have increased death rates on the island, especially among children (James, 2006). In addition, villagers living on or near the mine property were forcibly removed from the area to make way for the mine (James, 2006), and thousands of foreign miners were brought to the island, threatening traditional cultures and ways of life (Langston, 2004). When some Bougainvillians sought to rectify this situation by attacking the mine, closing it, and declaring independence from Papua New Guinea, the Papuan government responded by invading Bougainville (Klare, 2002). Some people believe that the invasion was carried out at the behest of Rio Tinto, which may also have helped transport Papuan troops to Bougainville during the conflict (Langston, 2004). The resulting war left 15,000 to 20,000 dead (Economist, 2008).
13NFL3-Environment v. Resource Extraction www.victorybriefs.com CAPITALISM
Page 101 of 224
RESOURCE EXTRACTION CAUSES UNSUSTAINABLE GROWTH WHICH FEEDS CAPITALISM. Andrew W. Jones, [Department of Sociology, St. Lawrence University] "Solving the Ecological Problems of Capitalism: Capitalist and Socialist Possibilities", Organization Environment 2011 24:54. Unlike the bourgeois economists, Marx does not treat growth and its limits in absolute terms; the potential for growth, and hence the carrying capacity, of any system of production depends on the technology employed, the relations of production, and its relations with nature. And yet (as will be shown in more detail later), growth becomes a problem when it is reduced to the simple accumulation of capitalan accumulation that does not take into consideration the qualitative needs of nature or of humanity. It is precisely the structure of capital accumulation, and its exclusive emphasis on quantitative growth, that leads to the fracturing of essential qualitative relations in the humannature metabolism, between consumers and the labor process, and workers in the labor process that result in the capitalist pathologies of metabolic rift, commodity fetishism, and alienation. For Marx, it is qualitative considerations that allow an understanding of the limits to growth for production in general rather than the limits specific to capitalism (Bur- kett, 2005; Foster, 2008b). Thus, a postcapitalist, ecological socialist mode of production would have a different (presumably greater) carrying capacitymore potential for sustainable growth than in capitalism, because ecological considerations would be built into planning decisions from the outset. However, the growth problem would be transformed because the understanding of growth would itself be infused by qualitative considerations: the meeting of human needs would not be limited (as it is in capitalism) to the purchase of commodities, nor would human needs be placed outside relations with nature. A focus on qualitative relations means that human needs are defined by broadly defined use-values, and thus include the quality of the labor process and relations with nature. Thus, it is through qualitative considerations that growth would be limited under ecosocialism rather than through arbitrary quantitative restrictions. However, the logic of capital accumulation systematically excludes qualitative considerations. Thus, the growth problem is not solvable under the capitalist mode of production; the growth problem is not solvable when it is treated as an accumulation problem. Though the ecosocialist resolution of the growth problem is primarily qualitative, the fallacy of capitalisms unending growth can be in capitalisms own quantitative terms. The growth problem is that capitalism must continually grow and yet operates within an ecological system that has limited resources and capacity to absorb pollution. This problem in its general form is inherent to capitalism and is not subject to reform; to reform capitalism to zero growth, if such reform were possible, would be the end of capitalism; capitalism must either grow or die. And though capitalisms environmental problems appear to be ameliorated through greater efficiencies of production, they cannot be solved; capitalism requires constant increases in consumption, so increased efficiencies buy time, but their benefits are eroded over the long term by constant growth. Thus, the growth problem is not solvable under capitalism. This, however, has not prevented arguments to the contrary.
Page 102 of 224
DIRTY TECHNOLOGY HARMS THE ENVIRONMENT AND FEEDS CAPITALISM. Andrew W. Jones, [Department of Sociology, St. Lawrence University] "Solving the Ecological Problems of Capitalism: Capitalist and Socialist Possibilities", Organization Environment 2011 24:54. Solving the technology problem partly takes pressure off the environmental degradation caused by the growth problem, and this can partly be done under capitalism, as new technologies develop their own class interests. There is some evidence that once new technologies are developed, capitalist class interests will be divided between newer, greener technologies and dirtier, older ones. Thus, renewable energy industries would be at odds with fossil fuel industries, and the organic farming industry would be at odds with chemical-based agribusiness. Thus, instead of class unity among the capitalist class, there would be class cleavages. This is in fact the case for what happened within the oil industry, where ExxonMobil pursued a dirtier strategy and Shell and BP pursued a strategy that kept open the option for alternative energy (Pulver, 2007). How- ever, this suggests that these divisions would prevail only in cases where dirty industry was in the process of being replaced by a profitable cleaner technology. An attempt at closing down or cleaning up of a dirty technology, without a profitable replacement, would likely lead to capitalist class unity in opposition. For these reasons, and the political power of the vested interests, it is likely that the technology problemthe terribly destructive technologies unleashed by the industrial revolution on the environmentcan only be fully solved under socialism. And Jevonss paradox illustrates that even if the technology problem were solvable under capitalism, the growth problem is not, thus any ecological efficiency gains made from greener technology would soon be overwhelmed by their sheer growth in scale. The logic of capitalist growth means, under capitalism, the development of ecologically sustainable technologies is severely constrained by the profit motive, and the abandonment of hazardous technologies is almost beyond the pale.4
Page 103 of 224
RESOURCE EXTRACTION FOR PROFIT SANITZES CAPITALIST MANAGERIALISM Luke in 2k2 (Timothy W., [Program Chair of the Government and International Affairs Program, School of Public and International Affairs at Virginia Polytechnic Institute and State University], eco-managerliasim: Environmental Studies as a Power/Knowledge formation," http://web.archive.org/web/20030802005346/http://aurora.icaap.org/2003Interviews/luke.html,) Before scientific disciplines and industrial technologies turn its' matter and energy into products, nature must be transformed by discursive processes into natural resources. Once nature is rendered intelligible through such practices, it is used to legitimize many political projects. I think one site for generating, accumulating, and circulating such knowledge about nature, as well as determining which human beings will be to society, is the modern research university, where we sit. As a primary structure for credentialing individual learners and legitimating collective teaching, universities help to construct our understanding of the natural world. Over the past generation, advanced study in environmental sciences on many university campuses, especially in the United States, has become a key source of key representations for the environment, as well as the home base of those scientific disciplines that generate analyses of nature's meanings. These educational operations also produce eco-managerialists, or those professional technical workers with specific knowledge as it has been scientifically or organizationally validated, and the operational power as it is institutionally constructed in governments at various levels, to cope with "environmental problems" on what are believed to be sound scientific and technical grounds. Professional technical experts working on and off campus create disciplinary articulations of various knowledge to generate performative techniques of power over, but also within and through, what is worked up as nature in the managerial structures of modern economies and societies. These institutionalized attempts to capture and contain the forces of nature underpin the strategies of eco-managerialism. Techno-scientific knowledge about the environment, however, is and always has been evolving with changing interpretive fashions, shifting political agendas, developing scientific advances. Such variations, as Foucault asserts designate a will to knowledge that is anonymous, polymorphous, and susceptible to regular transformations, and determined by the play of identifiable dependencies. What are some of these dependencies and perhaps some of these transformations? In this polymorphous combination of anonymous scientific environmental knowledge, with organized market and state power, as Foucault indicates, we find that it traverses and produces things. It needs to be considered as a productive network which runs through the whole social body, much more than a negative instance, whose function is repression. Schools of environmental studies and colleges of natural resources often provide the networks in which the relations of this productive power set the categories of knowledge and the limits of professional practice through the training of eco-managerialism. In accord with the prevailing regimes of truth within science, academic centres of environmental studies reproduce these bodies of practice and types of discourse, which in turn the executive personnel managing contemporary state and social institutions, what they regard as objective, valid, or useful, to facilitate economic growth. From these discourses, one can define, as Foucault suggests, the way in which individuals or groups represent words to themselves, utilize their forms and meanings, compose real discourse, reveal and conceal it in what they are thinking or saying, perhaps unknown to themselves, more or less than they wish, but in any case leaving massive verbal traces of those thoughts which must be deciphered and restored as far as possible in their representative vivacity. So given these tendencies, might we look at the workings of eco-managerialism? Where life, labour, and language can join in a discourse of environmental studies, one finds another formation of power knowledge which shows how man and his being can be concerned with the things he knows, and know the things that in positivity determine his mode of being in highly vocalized academic constructions of "the environment." Instead, the environment emerges in part as a historical artifact of expert management that is constructed by these kinds of scientific interventions. And in this network of interventions, there is a simulation of spaces and intensification of resources and incitement of discoveries, and a formation of special knowledges that strengthen the control that can be linked to one another as the impericities of nature for academic environmental sciences and studies. And probably in many ways, the key impericity here I would say, is the process of what I call the resourcification of nature. How does
Page 104 of 224
nature get turned into resources? The new impericities behind eco-managerialism more or less presumes that the role of nature is one of a rough and ready resourcification for the global economy and national society. That is, the earth must be re-imagined to be little more than a standing reserve, a resource supply centre, a waste reception site. Once presented in this fashion, nature then provides human markets with many different environmental sites for the productive use of resourcified flows of energy, information, and matter, as well as the sinks, dumps, and wastelands for all of the by-products that commercial products leave behind. Nature then is always a political asset. Still, its fungiblization, its liquidification, its capitalization, and ecomanagerialism cannot occur without the work of experts whose resourcifying activities prep it, produce it, and then provide it in the global marketplace. The trick in natural resources or environmental affairs education is to appear to be conservationist, while moving in fact, many times, very fast to help fungiblize, liquefy, or capitalize natural resources for a more thorough, rapid, and perhaps intensive utilization.
Page 105 of 224
REFUSAL OF RESOURCE EXTRACTION CAN HELP DECONSTRUCT CAPITALIST CONTROL Luke 2001 (Timothy [Department of Political Science, Virginia Polytechnic];Education, Environment and Sustainability: what are the issues, where to intervene, what must be done?; Educational Philosophy and Theory, Vol. 33, No. 2;) To create a truly more sustainable society, environmental education must unravel the complicated cycles of production and consumption, which are interwoven through most technological and economic practices in contemporary transnational commerce and this unravelling must show how these cycles are verging upon almost complete chaos. Highly planned programmes for economic growth are creating many unintended and unplanned outcomes of environmental destruction, boosting society s already high ecological risks to even higher levels. Most steps taken to mitigate these risks will not be executed with much certainty of successfully gaining their intended ends. Doing anything could make everything worse, doing nothing might make something better. At this juncture, environmental education must redefine some shared values for an ecological society. Unfortunately, most academic disciplines, from ecology to economics, are shackled by a set of disciplinary practices that constrain the imagination to t the approved scope and correct method of normal disciplinary inquiry. When Eugene Odum, for example, asserts that ecology is a `major interdisciplinary science that links together the biological, physical, and social sciences (Odum, 1975), very few biological, physical, or social scientists accept this broad interdisciplinary charge. Any ecology worth of its name would concede immediately that the economy and society are the Earth s main environments. This reality is acknowledged by Moscovici in his re ections about the question of nature in the contemporary world system. That is, science and technology have reconstituted humanity as a new material force, working on planetary basis. Ìn 200 T. W. Luke short , he asserts, `the state of nature is not now just an economy of things; it has become at the same time the work of human beings. The fact is that we are dealing with a new nature (Moscovici, 1990). This fact and how the work of human beings continuously remediates this new nature are what environmental education must address to attain sustainability. Without sinking into a green foundationalist stance, environmental education must weave an analysis of power, politics and the state into an ecology s sense of sustainability, survival and the environment. This kind of interdisciplinary effort could develop a deeply contextual understanding of nature and society as holistic cluster of interdependent relations. This view should integrate a clear sense of how ecological constraints must reshape social/political/economic/cultural practices to move past the technological and environmental failings of the present global economy. In turn, this critical account of humanity s ecological failings, once it came common in environmental education classes, should open broader dialogues about how individuals, as both citizens and consumers, can intervene as defenders of their local habitats in many corners of today s global economy
13NFL3-Environment v. Resource Extraction www.victorybriefs.com COLONIALISM
Page 106 of 224
MINING IN AFRICA IS A PRODUCT OF COLONIALISM AND EXPLOITATION. Suzanne Dansereau, [Assistant Professor, International Development Studies, Saint Mary's University, Halifax], "Win-Win or New Imperialism? Public-Private Partnerships in Africa Mining", Review of African Political Economy No. 103:47-622, 2005. Mining in Africa has rarely had a glorious history. Several mining and other extractive companies have been criticised, both during and since colonialism, for their use of mercenaries, warlords and corruption to gain access to lucrative oil and mineral deposits, resulting in a welldocumented history of intrigue and abuse in Africa and in other developing countries (Drohan, 2003; Moody, 1991 & 1992; Gjording, 1991; Hochschild, 1998; van Onselen, 1980; Cronje & Gillian, 1976). More recently, a growing illicit trade in natural resources, particularly diamonds, has been cited as contributing to conflicts in Sierra Leone and the Democratic Republic of the Congo (DRC) while making peace-building more difficult. Some NGOs and community groups even doubt that mining can contribute to sustainable development, referring to what is sometimes called a 'resource curse': developing countries with large mining sectors are found to have less resilient and diversified economies and are generally economically worse off than countries without large mining sectors (Ross, 2001 in Weitzner, 2002:9).
13NFL3-Environment v. Resource Extraction www.victorybriefs.com COLONIALISM HAS ALL BUT RETURNED IN CONFLICT ZONES.
Page 107 of 224
Suzanne Dansereau, [Assistant Professor, International Development Studies, Saint Mary's University, Halifax], "Win-Win or New Imperialism? Public-Private Partnerships in Africa Mining", Review of African Political Economy No. 103:47-622, 2005. In conflict zones, the transfer of state functions to private companies and deregulation of mining activity has gone much further. Mining companies are gaining access to vast mining concessions, returning to colonial practices. Meanwhile, in Sierra Leone the collection of diamond mining receipts and the enforcement of security was divested to a paramilitary force, Sunshine Broulle of Texas. In the Democratic Republic of Congo, a UN report stated that at least US$5 billion worth of state mining assets had been transferred to foreign companies including companies from Zimbabwe and Uganda (UN, 2001).
Page 108 of 224
FEW BENEFITS ARE REALIZED BY THE COUNTRIES THEMSELVES OR LOCAL COMMUNITIES. Suzanne Dansereau, [Assistant Professor, International Development Studies, Saint Mary's University, Halifax], "Win-Win or New Imperialism? Public-Private Partnerships in Africa Mining", Review of African Political Economy No. 103:47-622, 2005. On the other hand, we saw few benefits derived by the state. There were few direct benefits to state revenues, nor many indirect development outcomes in the form of enhanced employment. The capacity to regulate in Zimbabwe has been severely curtailed by cuts to government budgets, especially in health and safety. There are fears that the South African government might not be able to maintain spending levels for its own services, especially in the inspectorate. Neither country has been able to significantly regulate its informal mining activity, thus reducing employment outcomes and poverty alleviation. In both Zimbabwe and South Africa, companies resisted greater taxes and royalty payments to the national state. Nor are there great benefits derived by affected communities. We did not see any significant participation and regulation provided by community groups through enhanced transparency of companies or governments. Nor did we see the establishment of partnerships with mining companies as a way of enhancing sustainable development and poverty alleviation. This is particularly disconcerting when we note that community empowerment and participation was meant to compensate for reduced state regulations.
13NFL3-Environment v. Resource Extraction www.victorybriefs.com INDUSTRIAL POLICIES ARE MOST DEFINITELY IMPERIALIST.
Page 109 of 224
Suzanne Dansereau, [Assistant Professor, International Development Studies, Saint Mary's University, Halifax], "Win-Win or New Imperialism? Public-Private Partnerships in Africa Mining", Review of African Political Economy No. 103:47-622, 2005. Is this a new renewed imperialism? To the extent that mining companies can move around with less restraint than previously, making it easier to 'high-grade' (work only the high grade deposits and move on), industrial policies are definitely more imperialist and less developmental. The conflict zones are the most illustrative of these trends, as mining companies are now returning to the age-old practice of exploiting vast unregulated mineral concessions with little state intervention. However, there are degrees of regulation. While state withdrawal is accentuated in conflict zones, some countries like Ghana and Zimbabwe have been able to impose some limits, and South Africa has fared somewhat better. Yet these are weakened by the requirements to replace state regulation by voluntary measures as well as engage in consultation and partnership with private sector companies required by the World Bank. These measures, situated within the language of governance, sustainable development and poverty alleviation provide an intellectual veneer to company operations without fundamentally affecting the way they do business.
Page 110 of 224
WESTERN ECONOMIC DEVELOPMENT CONTINUES COLONIAL DOMINATION Escobar 10 PhD in Philosophy, Policy, and Planning (Arturo, 7 June 2010, 'WORLD AND KNOWLEDEGES OTHERWISE, Cultural Studies, 21: 2, 179 210, http://www.unc.edu/~aescobar/text/eng/escobar.2007.CulturalStudies.21-2-3.pdf) The modernity/coloniality research program Why, one may ask, do these group of Latin Americans and Latin Americanists feel that a new understanding of modernity is needed? To fully appreciate the importance of this question, it is instructive to begin by discussing the dominant tendencies in the study of modernity from what we can call intramodern perspectives (the term will become clear as we move along). I am very much aware that the view of modernity to be presented below is terribly partial and contestable. I am not presenting it with the goal of theorizing modernity, but rather in order to highlight, by way of contrast, the stark difference that the MC program poses in relation to the dominant inquiries about modernity. In the last instance, the goal of this brief excursus into modernity is political. If, as most intra-modern discussion suggest, globalization entails the universalization and radicalization of modernity, then what are we left with? How can we think about social change? Does radical alterity become impossible? More generally, what is happening to development and modernity in times of globalization? Is modernity finally becoming universalized, or is it being left behind? The question is the more poignant because it can be argued that the present is a moment of transition: between a world defined in terms of modernity and its corollaries, development and modernization, and the certainty they instilled a world that has operated largely under European hegemony over the past two hundred years if not more; and a new (global) reality which is still difficult to ascertain but which, at opposite ends, can be seen either as a deepening of modernity the world over or, on the contrary, as a deeply negotiated reality that encompasses many heterogeneous cultural formations and of course, the many shades in between. This sense of a transition is well captured by the question: Is globalization the last stage of capitalist modernity, or the beginning of something new? As we shall see, intra-modern and MC perspectives on modernity give a very different answer to this set of questions.
13NFL3-Environment v. Resource Extraction www.victorybriefs.com BLANKET REJECTION OF WESTERN MODERNITY FAILS
Page 111 of 224
Gidwani 2 [Vinay, Department of Geography, Institute for Global Studies, University of Minnesota, Progress in Planning 58, The unbearable modernity of `development'? Canal irrigation and development planning in Western India, p. 11-13] In other words, the critique of development elaborated by the new critics is, ultimately, a critique of modern reason. In his recent book, Seeing Like a State, James C. Scott offers a formidable catalogue of schemes hatched under the guiding eye of reason that have failed and oppressed. His critique, like that of Escobar and his compatriots, builds in the distinguished traditions of the Frankfurt School and the French poststructuralists, who also set themselves the task of exposing the dark underbelly of Enlightenment reason. But each of these critiques oddly presupposes that reason (in its various forms: instrumental, substantive, communicative) is a property of the West; and that modernity, as we conventionally understand it (vide Touraine's synopsis), is a Western phenomenon.2 In a recent article in the The New York Review of Books, Amartya Sen questions the plausibility of the premise that reliance on reasoning and rationality is a particularly `Western' way of approaching social issues (Sen, 2000: 35). Through an examination of the Mughal emperor Akbar's edicts and policies Sen attempts to show that reason as the foil of passion, prejudice, and particularism has transcended cultures; that, in fact, the mental and geographic separation of reason and culture is based on a selective and subordinating interpretation of nonwestern societies by western writers. The `West' as the (secure) home of Reason and the Èast' as the (unruly) den of culture awaiting the stamp of ordering reason is orientalism at its discursive best (Said, 1978; Gellner, 1992; Appadurai, 1996; Clifford, 1997). I make this point not to defend the virtues of reason (indeed, I think it is vitally important to understand the limits of reason, as `critical theory' urges upon us); nor do I necessarily wish to re-claim its universality (although this seems inevitable once we `provincialize' Europe and its exclusive claim to modernity).3 My modest point is merely that post-development scholarship, despite its attacks on Eurocentrism and modernization theory, remains trapped within the straightjacket of Eurocentric, modernist thinking. There is a corollary point: namely, that in reading development as the symptom of a Eurocentric modernity, the new critics not only assume implicitly that notions of development as popularly understood in the industrialized West had no precursors in non- European contexts (a point to which I am largely persuaded); but also that modernity had no non-European cognates (a prospect I am far less willing to concede). In fact, there is considerable archival evidence to indicate that the rationalizing processes within economy and society that we typically associate with modernity (trends toward capitalist production, division of labour, contractual exchange, bureaucratic administration, the mapping of people and places, the disjuncture between state and civil society, the practice of `historicizing', and the purposive application of `science' without assuming that any of these processes is culture-neutral) have sprouted at different times, over different scales, and in different cultural forms in various regions of the world, quite autonomously of European influence (Gidwani and Sivaramakrishnan, 2001).2 Scholars of different theoretical persuasion have recognized, for instance, the distinctive historical processes contributing to the construction of Indian modernities. Chatterjee (1997: 198) has recently illustrated this point in his discussion of nation-states and modernity where he says: [T]here cannot be just one modernity irrespective of geography, time, environment and social conditions. The forms of modernity will have to vary among different countries depending upon specific circumstances and social practices.3 Similarly, development as a process of directed social change with a moral subtext (to improve the general welfare and habits of target publics) has a long history. In the Indian context it is not just a colonial history (on colonial `regimes of development', see Ludden, 1992, 1999), but a precolonial one as well (cf. Sen's article, Habib, 1997, and Alam and Subrahmanyam, 1998). The new critics could quibble about the genealogical differences, the discursive coherence, and the impact of non-European regimes of development as compared to the European (and I would concede that there were in fact no non-European semiotic equivalents to Ènlightenment reason' and `progress' that anchor the western notion of `development'), but surely this would miss the larger point: namely, that modernity and development manifest themselves in time-space as modernities and developments. To summarize, while PD scholars perform a valuable service in urging us to provincialize the West and cast a critical gaze on
Page 112 of 224
Western-led processes of development (projects that I am entirely in sympathy with); but they remain trapped within Eurocentric critiques of modernity and development that ironically reinforce the orientalist discourse they want to expose. When we add to this the polyvalent understandings, disparate impacts, and varied abductions of precolonial, colonial, and postcolonial development programs across and within areas, we have a far more complex and uneven picture of societal modernization. To say less consigns us contra the anti-development other constructed by the new critics of development to peculiar accounts of subaltern agency. The subjects of development come to us in their narratives as ìndigenous' groups, `peasants', and `subalterns' problematical categories that are never problematized by the new critics who either inertly accept (as `victims of development') or openly reject (as `defenders of tradition') the rationalizing onslaughts of modernity and development. Are these the only two political spaces the subjects of development can inhabit, and can they only inhabit them as subjectivated subjects? Curiously, Escobar seems aware of the need for middle ground; he approvingly cites study of development (Pigg, 1992) (bikas) in Nepal, where, in words of Escobar (1995: 49), Pigg demonstrates: how the culture of development works within and through local cultures14[and argues that the] development encounter14should be seen not so much as the clash of two cu ltural systems but as an intersection that creates situations in which people come to see each other in certain ways. Escobar then discusses study of Kulick (1992) of development (kamap) in the village of Gapun in Papua New Guinea. The people of Gapun encounter development as a `religious metamorphosis', and have gathered its elements such as the introduction of tarred highways, rice cultivation, canned mackerel, and Nescafe coffee into à sort of sophisticated cargo cult.' (Escobar, 1995: 50). While this apparent reification of externally introduced `development' by Gapuners may leave us uneasy about the prospects of survival of some of their older traditions and customs, because and let us be clear on this we, not they, suffer from fear of loss, there is little evidence to suggest that Gapuners are victims of modernity. In fact, Escobar's conclusion on Kulick's findings are that `Gapuners have a clear idea about what development means and where it leads, even if couched in a strikingly different language and different cultural practices' (Escobar, 1995: 50). Since Escobar obviously recognizes the complexity of development, and argues that we need to better understand the `cultural productivity' of the hybrid social forms that emerge through the interpenetration of development practices with local practices (Escobar, 1995: 50, 219) it is puzzling, then, why he and his colleagues (a) reject development altogether; (b) attribute to the western discourse of development a hegemonic potency that exceeds other historical forces of domination (such as tradition or colonialism); and (c) identify anti-development (selectively portrayed as the defense of cultural difference and resistance to the market) as the only desirable alternative. Development in any cultural shape and form merits scrutiny, but the normative stance of the new critics threatens to diminish the imaginations and capacity for agency that subjects of developments can exercise their abilities to creatively impede, appropriate and reinvent programs that are imposed upon them.
Page 113 of 224
BLANKET REJECTION OF WESTERN THOUGHT REPRODUCES ERRORS OF COLONIALISM Gidwani 2 [Vinay, Department of Geography, Institute for Global Studies, University of Minnesota, Progress in Planning 58, The unbearable modernity of `development'? Canal irrigation and development planning in Western India, p. 2-6] In recent years, we have witnessed a minor tidal wave of books and articles that have cast aspersion on the concept and practice of `development'. Development is viewed as an extension of colonialism, backed by an institutional apparatus nearly as hegemonic as colonialism in its control of resources, and perhaps more so in its control of imaginations. According to the new critics of development henceforth, the `post-development' (PD) scholars ideas such as `progress', `growth', `poverty' and ùnderdevelopment', which now possess a normative and taken-for-granted salience in popular consciousness as goals worthy of engagement through targeted policy interventions, are artifacts of a discourse of development that has imposed its normalizing and teleological vision on the world (for representative summaries of `postdevelopment', see the edited collections by Sachs, 1992; Rahnema and Bawtree, 1997). Discourse is understood, vide Foucault, as an ensemble of social institutions, semiotic categories, and practices that regulate the realms of thought, subjectivity, and action. It is a continuous process of demarcating what is possible and what is not: of positing the sense of limits that constitute social reality. But discourse is simultaneously a mode of productive as opposed to merely repressive power that enables desire and longing: in other words, the aspirations and normativity that underlie actions. It is precisely this limiting and enabling aspect of `discourse' that motivates PD scholars to speak of development as discourse. Development is, after all, about longing and aspiring for a better way of life. More tellingly, who could not want development? The question itself seems to defy common sense. From the perspective of Arturo Escobar (1995) one of the most visible of the new critics the organizing premises of the discourse of `development' were established in the 1940s and 1950s, with the formation of international organizations like the United Nations, with its array of technical agencies; and the Bretton Woods institutions, most prominently, the International Monetary Fund and the International Bank for Reconstruction and Development (now the World Bank). According to Escobar, these agencies were charged with prosecuting the notion that only through industrialization and urbanization could countries achieve overall modernization; that capital investment was the key ingredient for economic growth; that, hence, ability to mobilize ample supplies of capital and the entrepreneurship to deploy it were the primary societal constraints to be overcome. Development was effectively reduced to growth in per capita income or consumption.2 Given the pervasive influence at the time of the Hicks and Harrod-Domar models of savings, investment, and growth; Hoselitz's (1952) and Leibenstein's (1963) famous declarations on cultural barriers to economic growth in `backward societies'; the Lewis (1954) and Jorgensen (1961) (and, later, Ranis/Fei) dual economy models, with their identification of industry as the urban/modern/dynamic sector and agriculture as the rural/traditional/stagnant sector;2 Rostow's (1960) stages-of-growth taxonomy, with an industrialized, mass-consumption society (suspiciously like the United States) representing the apex of development; and the balanced and unbalanced growth models, respectively, of Rosenstein-Rodan (1943) and Hirschman (1958) that advocated the creation of strategic linkages between dynamic and lagging sectors as the primary mandate of development planning, it is no surprise that Escobar and his fellow PD critics (such as Gustavo Esteva, Ivan Illich, Madhu Suri Prakash, Majid Rahnema, Wolfgang Sachs, and Vandana Shiva) pinpoint the 1940s and 1950s as the historical watershed in the emergence of an institutionally backed development orthodoxy the period when a systematic ensemble of òbjects, concepts, and strategies' congealed into, what they evocatively term, `the discourse of development'.3 I intend this essay as a provisional and, in many ways, an admiring critique of `post- development' theory. But let there be no mistake: it is a critique. I plan to show, with the help of a detailed case study of irrigation and development planning from Gujarat, India, that while the general critique of post-World War II development presented by PD scholars is substantially correct in many respects, the criticisms they launch are neither novel; nor, more damagingly, are their understandings of development processes particularly nuanced. Morever,
Page 114 of 224
PD critics are presumptive in their discussions of modernity and reason, which are implicitly and erroneously posited as phenomena peculiar to and centered in Europe. Since the primary purpose of `post-development' theory is to expose the Eurocentrism of development discourse and its pernicious operations as a power/ knowledge complex, it is, to say the least, ironic that the new critics: - never entertain the possibility that modernity, managerial rationality, historicism, and institutional practices that we collectively and commonsensically anoint as the constitutive elements of `development' may not only exist in the plural, in geographically and temporally varied forms; but, more profoundly, that - what we understand, from a Western standpoint epistemology, as a singular and European `modernity' and a `discourse of development' rooted in that modernity may have emerged as recent scholarship suggests (Wolf, 1982; Blaut, 1993; Coronil, 1997; Dussel, 1999; Mignolo, 2000; Chakrabarty, 2000) from the relational dynamics (cultural trafcandasymmetricrelationsofextractionandregulation) between, what after the 15th century morphed into, a world system structured as a western European `core' and a nonEuropean `periphery' (Wallerstein, 1974; Dussel, 1999). This view, which stresses the interaction and mutually constitutive nature of `center' and `margin' (indeed, the very emergence of `history' as a category for the West's self-understanding of its modernity and superiority) renders the PD analysis of `development' and, particularly, the focus on 19451955 as a watershed in development practice incomplete at best. I address these theoretical issues in greater detail in Chapter 1, enroute to my argument that the outcomes of development should be interpreted (vide Parkin, 1995; Arce and Long, 2000) as `counterwork': the syncretic product of interactions between dominant actors and those in positions of subalternity.2 I want to be clear: I am not asserting in opposition to PD theorists that development is unambiguously `good' (a positive signier); but I am asserting, contrary to PD theorists, that development is not unambiguously `bad' (a negative signifier), or that it is always a process of embattled resignation for people who encounter it. Rather, I maintain that development is always anchored to a moral geography of place-making (Sack, 1992); and that its evaluation is, therefore, inseparable from the freedoms it either enables or curtails. I further contend that `development' can and should be principally understood as a placeholder concept that denotes regulatory ideals about a `better life' (or freedoms) within specific time-space contexts.3 It may transpire that the development norms that congeal in particular contexts through the hegemonizing efforts of socially powerful actors happen to coincide with the progressivist modernization doctrines promoted by western institutions like the World Bank, and which the PD scholars so relentlessly critique. However, it seems only prudent to recognize that the World Bank's regulatory ideals of the `better life', while undoubtedly dominant hence, defining of development òrthodoxy' are far from `doxic' (Bourdieu, 1977). There are competing development ideologies, which revise, re-imagine, or reject development orthodoxy without discarding the placeholder concept of `development'. Indeed, I would argue that: 1. It is precisely the existence of a development heterodoxy that furnishes the conditions of possibility for a normative critique of development orthodoxy; and that, 2. To proceed, as PD scholars do, on the assumption that `development' is a self-evident process, everywhere the same and always tainted by its progressivist European provenance rather than a placeholder concept with multiple accents is to succumb to the same kind of epistemological universalism that PD theorists, with their celebration of a `politics of difference', are at such pains to reject. This, then, is the theoretical dilemma of `post-development'. The normative and empirical predicament of `post-development' scholars is their uncritical equation of the `local', the `popular', and the ànti-market' with the `democratic' and the `progressive'; and their selective, rather limited, presentation of empirical evidence whether historical, ethnographic, or quantitative in support of their sweeping claims. I am not the first to point this out. Schuurman (1993b), Gardner and Lewis (1996), Grillo and Stirrat (1997), Lehmann (1997), Simon (1997), Corbridge (1998), Edelman (1999), Blaikie (2000), Moore (2000) and Pieterse (2001) have previously rebuked PD scholars for their general lack of concern about spatial and semantic disjunctures in processes of change; their stilted interpretations of world historical events; their undiscriminating affirmation of so-called `new social movements'; their stylized representations of development, and failure to recognize it as a differentiated, multifaceted, and ambivalent phenomenon. However, it also bears mention that most critiques of PD and certainly mine here proceed in the spirit of admiration and disappointment: admiration for the theoretical insights and political convictions of PD scholars; disappointment that despite their acuity of thought they have arrived at the
Page 115 of 224
surprisingly simplistic conclusion that to move beyond development orthodoxy is to hoist the banner of ànti-development' (Escobar 1995, Chapter 7; Esteva and Prakash 1996; Rahnema 1997). Isn't this rejection based on the assumption that `development' is a singular process, and isn't the anti-universalism that follows from this problematic assumption merely another universalism in the guise of difference?
13NFL3-Environment v. Resource Extraction www.victorybriefs.com THEIR VISION OF COLONIALISM IS POLITICALLY DISEMPOWERING
Page 116 of 224
Grossberg (Distinguished Professor of Communication Studies and Cultural Studies, and Adjunct Distinguished Professor of American Studies, Anthropology, and Geography at the University of North Carolina) 10 (Lawrence, Cultural Studies in the Future Tense, pg. 265) This key notion of the colonial difference is described in different ways, although it is centrally articulated as the exteriority of the other. This is, for the various authors, the necessary conclusion of the fact that their critique of modernity is undertaken from the perspective of coloniality" (Escobar 2007, 188), "from its underside, from the perspective of the excluded other" (187). Nevertheless, the notion of the colonial difference is elaborated in a number of different ways. Maldonado-Torres's (1997) notion of the "coloniality of power seems to suggest that the difference is an ontological "excess." Dussel's (1996; 2000) notion of "transmodernity" suggests a different kind of modernity itself. But the dominant position seems to be what can be described as an "interior exteriority," a kind of hybridity, which stands both within and outside of modernity.4 One can imagine Maldonado-Torres agreeing with Escobar that "In no way should this exteriority be thought of as a pure outside, untouched by the modern" (2007, 186). But he might be less confident with a move that seems to me to involve reading that exteriority back into a decidedly poststructuralist, or even Hegelian, logic of negativity: "The notion of exteriority does not entail an ontological outside; it refers to an outside that is precisely constituted as difference by a hegemonic discourse'' (186). And it is not clear how this can be reconciled with the further claim that "By appealing from the exteriority in which s/he is located, the Other becomes the original source of an ethical discourse vis a vis a hegemonic totality. This interpellation of the Other comes from outside or beyond the system's institutional and normative frame"
Page 117 of 224
WHOLESALE REJECTION OF WESTERN MODERNITY IS WORSE THAN INSTRUMENTAL DEPLOYMENT de Vries 7 [Pieter, Department of Rural Development Sociology at Wageningen University, Third World Quarterly, Vol. 28, No. 1, Dont Compromise Your Desire for Development! A Lacanian/Deleuzian rethinking of the anti-politics machine, p. 39-41] However, not all Andeans chose to follow this path. Thus in some areas, rather than subjecting themselves to the imperatives of the development apparatus, villagers chose to organise themselves within their indigenous community organisations and thus to reinforce their own structures of leadership and accountability. At the same time they pressed government institutions to channel reconstruction money into tangible development structures (buildings, roads, markets), rather than into intangible activities such as workshops in participatory planning. The point not to be lost was that the villagers refused to compromise on their desire for development. Rather than letting the promise of development be banalised by neoliberal discourses of responsible citizenship and the latest fads in development thinking, they insisted in demanding the real thing. They refused to become trapped in this perverse logic of victimisation and instead pressed claims on the state to restitute land and build the infrastructure that had been promised to them, thus persevering in their own fantasies of development. This example raises important questions for an ethics of development, one based on peoples aspirations and dreams that foregrounds their capacity to desire. This is what authors such as Zizek, Zupancic and Badiou call the Ethics of the Real, an ethics encapsulated by the Lacanian maxim dont compromise your desire.33 If it is true that the development apparatus sustains its hegemony through the generation and banalisation of hope, then not compromising your desire means refusing to accept the betrayal of development by the anti-politics machine. This is an ethics of sustaining the capacity to desire, of demanding that what the development apparatus promises but is not capable of delivering. This is an ethics that demands the realisation of the impossible through its insistence on the real thing, an ethics that believes in the existence of miracles. For, in the eyes of Andean villagers, there is nothing so excessive and miraculous as development itself. This I think is a good example of what Zizek calls an Ethics of the Real which, in opposition to a depoliticised ethics of human rights, does not assume that there is any guarantee for its existence in an external humanitarian gaze, or in universal norms of victimisation.34 This entails a radical politicisation of ethics. An Ethics of the Real is an ethics of taking risks and making radical decisions, of not compromising a fundamental desire. For Andeans this means holding to defined images and practices of community institutions and fair access to land and other natural resources, as against state programmes of land privatisation and neoliberal governance. This stance of not compromising on the desire for development runs counter to the global consensus that establishes that development is about the production of responsible and calculating individual citizens subject to forms of governmentality epitomised by depoliticised notions such as cost-sharing and financial transparency. Are such examples of intransigence, then, not really small miracles, in the sense that they attest to the capacity of development subjects to insist on their own utopian imaginations of development, and to act upon such desires? Conclusion: the Ethics of the Real, or dont compromise your desire This article has argued that the development apparatus is both instrumental in the production of the desire for development and of its banalisation, and that the disavowal of the promise of development has its price in the return of the repressed object in the guise of all sorts of spectral apparitions: images of famished populations in drought areas, of violent youth in the rainforests taking Rambo as their example, of massacres and mutilated bodies, of genocide and ethnic cleansing and of irrational fundamentalist movements. As Duffield argues, development was rediscovered in an utterly opportunistic and cynical way as a project of deep social transformation by the international community as a means of making an end to the irrationalities of the South. The Lacanian Ethics of the Real differs greatly from the ethics currently dominant in development circles, one that invites us to have soliditarity with the suffering of the victimised other on the basis of a presumed universal human capacity to empathise. This is a logic of victimisation that is correlative with a passive subject, a subject who is satisfied with the right to narrate her suffering. This, as Zizek argues, is the position of a spurious universality, one which presupposes the existence of an
Page 118 of 224
outsider (the West, NGOs, humanitarian organisations, etc) who is entitled to determine who the victims are. In other words, it presumes the existence of a development apparatus with the right to ascertain this status of victim.35 Contrary to this spurious human rights ethics, I have argued for an ethics that takes as its point of departure the viewpoint of those who refuse to play the game of victimisation, an ethics that refuses to engage in the banalisation of the promises of development. As Zizek puts it, the truly traumatic thing is that miraclesnot in the religious sense but in the sense of free actsdo happen, but its very difficult to come to terms with them.36 Perhaps we should search for such miracles in the capacity of those who refuse to subordinate themselves to the gaze of the development apparatus, who persist in and act upon their desire for development. Perhaps the Zapatista uprising of 1 January 1994 in Mexico, occurring on the same day that the North American Free Trade Association treaty was installed, was just such an example of a miraculous, yet traumatic, event that came to symbolise the spurious universality of the global neoliberal project.
13NFL3-Environment v. Resource Extraction www.victorybriefs.com VALUE TO LIFE
Page 119 of 224
RESOURCE EXTRACTION REDUCES THE WORLD TO A STANDING RESERVE. THIS DESTROYS VALUE TO LIFE McWhorter, Professor of Philosophy at Northeast Missouri State, 92 (LaDelle, Heidegger and the Earth, ed: McWhorter, p. vii-viii) Today, on all sides of ecological debate we hear, with greater and greater frequency, the word management. On the one hand, business people want to manage natural resources so as to keep up profits. On the other hand, conservationists want to manage natural resources so that there will be plenty of coal and oil and recreational facilities for future generations. These groups and factions within them debate vociferously over which management policies are the best, that is, the most efficient and manageable. Radical environmentalists damn both groups and claim it is human population growth and rising expectations that are in need of management. But wherever we look, wherever we listen, we see and hear the term management. We are living in a veritable age of management. Before a middle class child graduates from high school she or he is already preliminarily trained in the arts of weight management, stress management, and time management, to name just a few. As we approach middle age we continue to practice these essential arts, refining and adapting our regulatory regimes as the pressures of life increase and the body begins to break down. We have become a society of managers of our homes, careers, portfolios, estates, even of our own bodies - so is it surprising that we set ourselves up as the managers of the earth itself? And yet, as thoughtful earth-dwellers we must ask, what does this signify? In numerous essays - in particular the beautiful 1953 essay, "The Question Concerning Technology" - Heidegger speaks of what he sees as the danger of dangers in this, our, age. This danger is a kind of forgetfulness - a forgetfulness that Heidegger thought could result not only in nuclear disaster or environmental catastrophe, but in the loss of what makes us the kind of beings we are, beings who can think and who can stand in thoughtful relationship to things. This forgetfulness is not a forgetting of facts and their relationships; it is a forgetfulness of something far more important and far more fundamental than that. He called it forgetfulness of `the mystery'. It would be easy to imagine that by `the mystery' Heidegger means some sort of entity, some thing, temporarily hidden or permanently ineffable. But `the mystery' is not the name of some thing; it is the event of the occurring together of revealing and concealing. Every academic discipline, whether it be biology or history, anthropology or mathematics, is interested in discovery, in the revelation of new truths. Knowledge, at least as it is institutionalized in the modern world, is concerned, then, with what Heidegger would call revealing, the bringing to light, or the coming to presence of things.. However, in order for any of this revealing to occur, Heidegger says, concealing must also occur. Revealing and concealing belong together. Now, what does this mean? We know that in order, to pay attention to one thing, we must stop paying close attention to something else. In order to read philosophy we must stop reading cereal boxes. In order to attend to the needs of students we must sacrifice some of our research time. Allowing for one thing to reveal itself means allowing for the concealing of something else. All revealing comes at the price of concomitant concealment. But this is more than just a kind of Kantian acknowledgment of human limitation. Heidegger is not simply dressing up the obvious, that is, the fact that no individual can undergo two different experiences simultaneously. His is not a point about human subjectivity at all. Rather, it is a point about revealing itself. When revealing reveals itself as temporally linear and causally ordered, for example, it cannot simultaneously reveal itself as ordered by song and unfolding in dream. Furthermore, in revealing, revealing itself is concealed in order for what is revealed to come forth. Thus, when revealing occurs concealing occurs as well. The two events are one and cannot be separated. Too often we forget. The radiance of revelation blinds us both to its own event and to the shadows that it casts, so that revealing conceals itself and its self-concealing conceals itself, and we fall prey to that strange power of vision to consign to oblivion whatever cannot be seen. Even our forgetting is forgotten, and all traces of absence absent themselves from our world. The noted physicist Stephen Hawking, in his popular book A Brief History of Time, writes, "The eventual goal of science is to
Page 120 of 224
provide a single theory that describes the whole universe. Such a theory, many people would assert, would be a systematic arrangement of all knowledge both already acquired and theoretically possible. It would be a theory to end all theories, outside of which no information, no revelation could, or would need to, occur. And the advent of such a theory would be as the shining of a light into every corner of being. Nothing would remain concealed. This dream of Hawking's is a dream of power; in fact, it is a dream of absolute power, absolute control. It is a dream of the ultimate managerial utopia. This, Heidegger would contend, is the dream of technological thought in the modern age. We dream of knowing, grasping everything; for then we can control; then we can manage, everything. But it is only a dream, itself predicated, ironically enough, upon concealment, the self-concealing, of the mystery. We can never control the mystery, the belonging together of revealing and concealing.
Page 121 of 224
ENVIRONMENTALLY CONSCIOUS EXTRACTION IS IMPOSSIBLE- USING NATURE ENTAILS DOMINATION McWhorter, Professor of Philosophy at Northeast Missouri State, 92 (LaDelle, Heidegger and the Earth, ed: McWhorter, p. vii-viii) PARADOX IS THE TITILLATING OTHER OF ALL LOGICS rooted in the law of non-contradiction. It is Other because it is unassimilable; it is titillating because it is transgressive. Most of us enjoy an occasional encounter with paradox the way we enjoy a good joke - but rarely do we take paradoxes seriously. Our enjoyment, in fact, depends upon our thinking's maintaining itself within the logic of non-contradiction and viewing the paradoxical from that perspective rather than our immersing ourselves in the paradoxical on its own terms. However, when we think with Heidegger, especially when that thinking concerns itself with what we might loosely refer to as ecology, we find ourselves called upon to think with and within the paradoxical - or, at least, what appears paradoxical from the perspective of the logic of non-contradiction. When we attempt to think ecologically and within Heidegger's discourse (or perhaps better: when we attempt to think Heideggerly within ecological concerns), the paradoxical unfolds at the site of the question of human action. Thinking ecologically - that is, thinking the earth in our time - means thinking death; it means thinking catastrophically; it means thinking the possibility of utter annihilation not just for human being but for all that lives on this planet and for the living planet itself. Thinking the earth in our time means thinking what presents itself as that which must not be allowed to go on, as that which must be controlled, as that which must be stopped. Such thinking seems to call for immediate action. There is no time to lose. We must work for change, seek solutions, curb appetites, reduce expectations, find cures now, before the problems become greater than anyone's ability to solve them - if they have not already done so. However in the midst of this urgency, thinking ecologically, thinking Heideggerly, means rethinking the very notion of human action. It means placing in question our typical Western managerial approach to problems, our propensity for technological intervention, our belief in human cognitive power, our commitment to a metaphysics that places active human being over against passive nature. For it is the thoughtless deployment of these approaches and notions that has brought us to the point of ecological catastrophe in the first place. Thinking with Heidegger, thinking Heideggerly and ecologically, means paradoxically, acting to place in question the acting subject, willing a displacing of our will to action; it means calling ourselves as selves to rethink our very selves, insofar as selfhood in the West is constituted as agent, as actor, as controlling ego, as knowing consciousness. Heidegger's work calls us not to rush in with quick solutions, not to act decisively to put an end to deliberation, but rather to think, to tarry with thinking unfolding itself, to release ourselves to thinking without predetermined aim. The thinkers whose work makes up this book have felt called to think as Heidegger attempted to think. The essays presented here are responses to that call; they are attempts to take seriously what presents itself to us first of all as paradox; they are attempts to allow thinking to immerse itself in itself at the site of the very difficult question of how thinking might release itself to think the earth. Thus, this volume unfolds itself at the edge of paradox. It comprises discussions of how we as active agents might come to hold ourselves resolutely open for the occurring of non-technological, non-managerial, non-agential thought, of how it might come about that speaking, thinking, and living might occur differently, of how we might begin now to undergo the loss of our delusion of impending omnipotence and perhaps escape that delusion's nihilistic results. The conversants are not environmental experts armed with information about particular crises or the consequences of particular techniques. They are philosophers struggling to open thinking toward paths that will affirm, rather than destroy, the earth.
13NFL3-Environment v. Resource Extraction www.victorybriefs.com QUESTIONS OF ONTOLOGY MUST BE ASKED AND ANSWERED FIRST Dillon, (Prof of Politics, University of Lancaster), 99 (Moral Spaces, p. 97-98).
Page 122 of 224
Heirs to all this, we find ourselves in the turbulent and now globalized wake of its confluence. As Heidegger-himself an especially revealing figure of the deep and mutual implication of the philosophical and the political4-never tired of pointing out, the relevance of ontology to all other kinds of thinking is fundamental and inescapable. For one cannot say anything about anything that is, without always already having made assumptions about the is as such. Any mode of thought, in short, always already carries an ontology sequestered within it. What this ontological turn does to other regional modes of thought is to challenge the ontology within which they operate. The implications of that review reverberate throughout the entire mode of thought, demanding a reappraisal as fundamental as the reappraisal ontology has demanded of philosophy. With ontology at issue, the entire foundations or underpinnings of any mode of thought are rendered problematic. This applies as much to any modern discipline of thought as it does to the question of modernity as such, with the exception, it seems, of science, which, having long ago given up the ontological questioning of when it called itself natural philosophy, appears now, in its industrialized and corporatized form, to be invulnerable to ontological perturbation. With its foundations at issue, the very authority of a mode of thought and the ways in which it characterizes the critical issues of freedom and judgment (of what kind of universe human beings inhabit, how they inhabit it, and what counts as reliable knowledge for them in it) is also put in question. The very ways in which Nietzsche, Heidegger, and other continental philosophers challenged Western ontology, simultaneously, therefore reposed the fundamental and inescapable difficulty, or aporia, for human being of decision and judgment. In other words, whatever ontology you subscribe to, knowingly or unknowingly, as a human being you still have to act. Whether or not you know or acknowledge it, the ontology you subscribe to will construe the problem of action for you in one way rather than another. You may think ontology is some arcane question of philosophy, but Nietzsche and Heidegger showed that it intimately shapes not only a way of thinking, but a way of being, a form of life. Decision, a fortiori political decision, in short, is no mere technique. It is instead a way of being that bears an understanding of Being, and of the fundaments of the human way of being within it. This applies, indeed applies most, to those mock innocent political slaves who claim only to be technocrats of decision making.
13NFL3-Environment v. Resource Extraction www.victorybriefs.com LOSS OF BEING OUTWEIGHS NUCLEAR WAR
Page 123 of 224
Zimmerman, (Professor of Philosophy at Tulane), 94 (Michael, Contesting the Earths Future, p. 104). Heidegger asserted that human self-assertion, combined with the eclipse of being, threatens the relation between being and human Dasein.53 Loss of this relation would be even more dangerous than a nuclear war that might "bring about the complete annihilation of humanity and the destruction of the earth."54 This controversial claim is comparable to the Christian teaching that it is better to forfeit the world than to lose one's soul by losing one's relation to God. Heidegger apparently thought along these lines: it is possible that after a nuclear war, life might once again emerge, but it is far less likely that there will ever again occur an ontological clearing through which such life could manifest itself. Further, since modernity's one-dimensional disclosure of entities virtually denies them any "being" at all, the loss of humanity's openness for being is already occurring.55 Modernity's background mood is horror in the face of nihilism, which is consistent with the aim of providing material "happiness" for everyone by reducing nature to pure energy.56 The unleashing of vast quantities of energy in nuclear war would be equivalent to modernity's slow-motion destruction of nature: unbounded destruction would equal limitless consumption. If humanity avoided nuclear war only to survive as contented clever animals, Heidegger believed we would exist in a state of ontological damnation: hell on earth, masquerading as material paradise. Deep ecologists might agree that a world of material human comfort purchased at the price of everything wild would not be a world worth living in, for in killing wild nature, people would be as good as dead. But most of them could not agree that the loss of humanity's relation to being would be worse than nuclear omnicide, for it is wrong to suppose that the lives of millions of extinct and unknown species are somehow lessened because they were never "disclosed" by humanity.
13NFL3-Environment v. Resource Extraction www.victorybriefs.com INDIGENOUS GROUPS
Page 124 of 224
RESOURCE EXTRACTION HAS NEGATIVELY IMPACTED INDIGENOUS GROUPS. Liam Downey [associate professor of sociology at the University of Colorado at Boulder], Eric Bonds [doctoral student at the University of Colorado at Boulder], and Katherine Clark [graduate student in environmental studies at the University of Colorado at Boulder], "Natural Resource Extraction, Armed Violence, and Environmental Degradation", Organic Environ. 2010 December, vol. 23(4):417-445. Mining activities have also resulted in the forced removal of indigenous people from their homes and the destruction of areas that hold religious and cultural significance to them. In addition, forced removal and environmental degradation have resulted in economic hardship and loss of subsistence livelihoods for indigenous people who live near the mine (Walton, 2001).
13NFL3-Environment v. Resource Extraction www.victorybriefs.com MINING IN TANZANIA HAS NEGATIVELY IMPACT LOCAL COMMUNITIES.
Page 125 of 224
A.G.N. Kitula [Sokoine University of Agriculture, Morogoro, Tanzania], "The environmental and socio-economic impacts of mining on local livelihoods in Tanzania: A case study of Geita District," Journal of Clear Production 14, 2005. A pair-wise ranking of problems, which elicited local peoples perceptions on the problems experienced in mining communities, indicates that the most pressing problems in mining regions are pollution of water sources from mercury and cyanide, dust, mine pits, cracking and the collapse of buildings (Table 8). According to the Nyakabale village executive officer, since the inauguration of the Geita Gold Mine near the village in June 2000, local people have reported approximately 52 cases of housing collapse resulting from mine-induced explosions. Mineral extraction involves the excavation of underground pits and the destruction of rocks using explosives, which has caused regional land degradation. The number of pits in the small-scale mining areas lies between 100 and 1000, at shaft depths ranging between 10 and 100 m; both agricultural and grazing lands have been destroyed. In Mugusu village, there are some 800 mine pits, of which 230 remain active. Inactive pits visited in Mugusu and Nyarugusu had not yet been A pair-wise ranking of problems, which elicited local peoples perceptions on the problems experienced in mining communities, indicates that the most pressing problems in mining regions are pollution of water sources from mercury and cyanide, dust, mine pits, cracking and the collapse of buildings (Table 8). According to the Nyakabale village executive officer, since the inauguration of the Geita Gold Mine near the village in June 2000, local people have reported approximately 52 cases of housing collapse resulting from mine-induced explosions. Mineral extraction involves the excavation of underground pits and the destruction of rocks using explosives, which has caused regional land degradation. The number of pits in the small-scale mining areas lies between 100 and 1000, at shaft depths ranging between 10 and 100 m; both agricultural and grazing lands have been destroyed. In Mugusu village, there are some 800 mine pits, of which 230 remain active. Inactive pits visited in Mugusu and Nyarugusu had not yet been recovered and protected by miners, thus resulting in honeycombed structures (Plate 1). Moreover, stockpiles of excavated materials were observed in mine camps. According to mineworkers, abandoned pits are not seen as a serious problem, although they have caused disturbances to livestock keepers and farmers in the mining areas. Unprotected mining pits may possibly account for the fewer respondents (2.7%) undertaking agriculture and livestockmanagement tasks in mining areas, compared to the 10.8% in surveyed non-mining areas (Table 3). At the local level, the uncontrolled digging and abandoning of pits has caused destruction of land beyond economic and technical reclamation. Mine pits not only make land unfavourable for agricultural activities following closure but also adversely impact livestock and wildlife resources, which, in turn, affects locals, who depend on power and animal manure. Within the agro-pastoral systems in the Iringa and Mbeya regions of Tanzania, livestock contributes directly to food production by providing manure (fertilizer and power), milk and meat [26].
13NFL3-Environment v. Resource Extraction www.victorybriefs.com MINING EXPLOITS AND DISPLACES LOCAL INHABITANTS.
Page 126 of 224
A.G.N. Kitula [Sokoine University of Agriculture, Morogoro, Tanzania], "The environmental and socio-economic impacts of mining on local livelihoods in Tanzania: A case study of Geita District," Journal of Clear Production 14, 2005. Mineral exploitation involves the appropriation of lands from indigenous people and massive displacement of settlements. In rural communities, locals depend on the land as a source of livelihood. According to the District mine engineer; some 1800 villagers were forcibly displaced in Mtakuja, Nyamalembo and Nyamange villages in Mtakuja Ward, following the establishment of the Geita Gold Mine. The displacement threatened peoples livelihoods and has resulted in confrontation between the local people and staff at the Geita Gold Mine. An influx of foreign mining companies has made it even more difficult for locals to secure land. In the 1980s, the Tanzanian government amended mineral policies for the sole purpose of creating a favourable investment climate for foreign mining companies. As a result, several small-scale miners and farmers have lost their mine sites, agricultural and grazing lands. The long-term implications of such displacement include accelerated food insecurity to landless classes, increased poverty and intensified environmental degradation. Displacement has already caused conflicts between the local people and the mine operators. There have since been additional social conflicts between small-scale miners and the large-scale mining companies, as the (small-scale) miners have begun to find that areas previously open to prospecting and mining of gold is now under the control of a private foreign company. Mihayo [28], for example describes the nature of disputes that have occurred at the Kahama, Merelani and Mara mines. Profound conflict among mineral stakeholders suggests that there is a weak or inadequate enforcement of natural resources policies in Tanzania.
13NFL3-Environment v. Resource Extraction www.victorybriefs.com A2 GREAT POWER WARS
Page 127 of 224
NO GREAT POWER WAR- INTERDEPENDENCE, DETERRENCE, DEMOCRACY Robb 2012 [Doug, US Navy Lieutenant, Now Hear This Why the Age of Great-Power War Is Over, May, 5/2012 [Lieutenant, US Navy, , US Naval Institute, http://www.usni.org/magazines/proceedings/2012-05/now-hear-why-age-great-power-war-over] In addition to geopolitical and diplomacy issues, globalization continues to transform the world. This interdependence has blurred the lines between economic security and physical security. Increasingly, great-power interests demand cooperation rather than conflict. To that end, maritime nations such as the United States and China desire open sea lines of communication and protected trade routes, a common security challenge that could bring these powers together, rather than drive them apart (witness Chinas response to the issue of piracy in its backyard). Facing these security tasks cooperatively is both mutually advantageous and common sense. Democratic Peace Theorychampioned by Thomas Paine and international relations theorists such as New York Times columnist Thomas Friedmanpresumes that great-power war will likely occur between a democratic and non-democratic state. However, as information flows freely and people find outlets for and access to new ideas, authoritarian leaders will find it harder to cultivate popular support for total waran argument advanced by philosopher Immanuel Kant in his 1795 essay Perpetual Peace. Consider, for example, Chinas unceasing attempts to control Internet access. The 2011 Arab Spring demonstrated that organized opposition to unpopular despotic rule has begun to reshape the political order, a change galvanized largely by social media. Moreover, few would argue that China today is not socially more liberal, economically more capitalistic, and governmentally more inclusive than during Mao Tse-tungs regime. As these trends continue, nations will find large-scale conflict increasingly disagreeable. In terms of the military, ongoing fiscal constraints and socio-economic problems likely will marginalize defense issues. All the more reason why great powers will find it mutually beneficial to work together to find solutions to common security problems, such as countering drug smuggling, piracy, climate change, human trafficking, and terrorismmissions that Admiral Robert F. Willard, former Commander, U.S. Pacific Command, called deterrence and reassurance. As the Cold War demonstrated, nuclear weapons are a formidable deterrent against unlimited war. They make conflict irrational; in other words, the concept of mutually assured destructionhowever unpalatableactually had a stabilizing effect on both national behaviors and nuclear policies for decades. These tools thus render great-power war infinitely less likely by guaranteeing catastrophic results for both sides. As Bob Dylan warned, When you aint got nothing, you aint got nothing to lose. Great-power war is not an end in itself, but rather a way for nations to achieve their strategic aims. In the current security environment, such a war is equal parts costly, counterproductive, archaic, and improbable.
13NFL3-Environment v. Resource Extraction www.victorybriefs.com NO MISCALCULATION
Page 128 of 224
Quinlan 2009 [Sir Michael, visiting professor at King's College London, Permanent UnderSecretary at the Ministry of Defence and former senior fellow at the International Institute of Strategic Studies, Thinking About Nuclear Weapons: Principles, Problems, Prospects, Oxford University Press] One special form of miscalculation appeared sporadically in the speculations of academic commentators, though it was scarcely ever to be encounteredat least so far as my own observation wentin the utterances of practical planners within government. This is the idea that nuclear war might be erroneously triggered, or erroneously widened, through a state under attack misreading either what sort of attack it was being subjected to, or where the attack came from. The postulated misreading of the nature of the attack referred in particular to the hypothesis that if a delivery systemnormally a missilethat was known to be capable of carrying either a nuclear or a conventional warhead was launched in a conventional role, the target country might, on detecting the launch through its early warning systems, misconstrue the mission as an imminent nuclear strike and immediately unleash a nuclear counter-strike of its own. This conjecture was voiced, for example, as a criticism of the proposals for giving the US Trident SLBM, long associated with nuclear missions, a capability to deliver conventional warheads. Whatever the merit of those proposals (it is not explored here), it is hard to regard this particular apprehension as having any real-life credibility. The ight time of a ballistic missile would not exceed about thirty minutes, and that of a cruise missile a few hours, before arrival on target made its character conventional or nuclearunmistakable. No government will need, and no nonlunatic government could wish, to take within so short a span of time a step as enormous and irrevocable as the execution of a nuclear strike on the basis of early-warning information alone without knowing the true nature of the incoming attack. The speculation tends moreover to be expressed without reference either to any realistic political or conict-related context thought to render the episode plausible, or to the manifest interest of the launching country, should there be any risk of doubt, in ensuringby explicit communication if necessarythat there was no misinterpretation of its conventionally armed launch.
13NFL3-Environment v. Resource Extraction www.victorybriefs.com INTERVENING ACTIONS CHECK CONFLICT ESCALATION
Page 129 of 224
Trachtenberg 2000 (Prof of History, Pennsylvania (Marc, The "Accidental War" Question, http://www.sscnet.ucla.edu/polisci/faculty/trachtenberg/cv/inadv(1).pdf) The second point has to do with how much risk there really is in situations of this sort. It should not be assumed too readily that states underestimate the degree to which they lose control of the situation when they engage in a crisis. States can generally pull back from the brink if they really want to; prestige will be sacrificed, but often states are willing to pay that price. The history of international politics in the century that just ended is full of crises that were liquidated by one side accepting what amounted to defeat, sometimes even humiliating defeat; and in the July Crisis in 1914, the German government chose at the most critical moment to let the war come rather than press for a compromise solution.9 The key thing here is that in 1914 and 1939 political leaders had not totally lost control, but had chosen to accept war rather than back off in a crisis. Their aversion to war was not overwhelming. But when both sides very much want to avoid a full-scale armed conflict, the story is very different. This was the case during the Cold War. People sometimes seem to assume that peace was hanging by a thread during that conflict, and that we were lucky to make our way through it without a thermonuclear holocaust. But I don't think this is true at all: and in general I think it is very unlikely that a great war would break out if both sides are determined to avoid it. These arguments about how war could break out almost by accident were frequently made during the Cold War itself--and indeed were made by responsible and experie nced officials. A British document from March 1946, for example, argued that the Soviets did not want war, but the kind of tactics they used with the West might lead to a war that neither side wanted: "although the intention may be defensive, the tactics will be offensive, and the danger always exists that Russian leaders may misjudge how far they can go without provoking war with American or ourselves."10 A year later, a British Foreign Office official warned that the fact that the Soviets had military superiority in Europe might make them careless, and that they might "misjudge what measures can safely be taken without producing a serious crisis." Events might get out of control and a situation might develop that could "lead to disaster."11 What is wrong with this point of view? It assumes that the Soviets would not be cautious, that they would not frame their actions very carefully with an eye to the American reaction, that in deciding how far to go they would not gauge very closely how the Americans reacted to the measures they had taken up to that point. This point of view assumes also that the Soviets would find it very hard to draw back if it became clear that they had overstepped the bounds and had thought the American reaction would not be as vigorous as it in fact was--or indeed that they had not made the mental reservation that they could draw back, in necessary, when they decided to embark on a provocative course of action. Basically the assumption is that the Soviets did not care enough about what a war would entail to take these rather elementary and normal precautions. This point of view also assumes that the American response would be very rigid and "spring-loaded": a slight Soviet infringement, and the Americans immediately take the plunge into general war--as though there are no intermediate measures of a political or military nature that would be taken, no process that would unfold within which the two sides would test each other out before resorting to extreme measures. To my mind, anyone with any sense should know that things would never move directly and mechanically from initial provocation to full-scale war, that things would unfold almost inevitably in a more complex way--or, in short, that enough "cushioning" exists in the system to keep relatively minor provocations from leading directly to general war.
13NFL3-Environment v. Resource Extraction www.victorybriefs.com A2 NUCLEAR EXTINCTION NUCLEAR WAR DOESN'T CAUSE EXTINCTION
Page 130 of 224
Socol 2011 (Yehoshua (Ph.D.), an inter-disciplinary physicist, is an expert in electro-optics, highenergy physics and applications, and material science and Moshe Yanovskiy, Jan 2, Nuclear Proliferation and Democracy, http://www.americanthinker.com/2011/01/nuclear_proliferation_and_demo.html, CMR) Nuclear proliferation should no longer be treated as an unthinkable nightmare; it is likely to be the future reality. Nuclear weapons have been acquired not only by an extremely poor per capita but large country such as India, but also by even poorer and medium-sized nations such as Pakistan and North Korea. One could also mention South Africa, which successfully acquired a nuclear arsenal despite economic sanctions (the likes of which have not yet been imposed on Iran). It is widely believed that sanctions and rhetoric will not prevent Iran from acquiring nuclear weapons and that many countries, in the Middle East and beyond, will act accordingly (see, e.g., recent Heritage report). Nuclear Warfare -- Myths And Facts The direct consequences of the limited use of nuclear weapons -- especially low-yield devices most likely to be in the hands of non-state actors or irresponsible governments -- would probably not be great enough to bring about significant geopolitical upheavals. Casualties from a single 20-KT nuclear device are estimated [1] at about 25,000 fatalities with a similar number of injured, assuming a rather unfortunate scenario (the center of a large city, with minimal warning). Scaling the above toll to larger devices or to a larger number of devices is less than linear. For example, it has been estimated that it would take as many as eighty devices of 20-KT yield each to cause 300,000 civilian fatalities in German cities (a result actually achieved by Allied area attacks, or carpet-bombings, during the Second World War). A single 1-MT device used against Detroit has been estimated by U.S. Congress OTA to result in about 220,000 fatalities. It is anticipated that well-prepared civil defense measures, based on rather simple presently known techniques, would decrease these numbers by maybe an order of magnitude (as will be discussed later). There is little doubt that a nation determined to survive and with a strong sense of its own destiny would not succumb to such losses. It is often argued that the fallout effects of even the limited use of nuclear weapons would be worldwide and would last for generations. This is an exaggeration. The following facts speak for themselves. -- In Japan, as assessed by REFR, less than 1,000 excess cancer cases (i.e., above the natural occurrence) were recorded in over 100,000 survivors over the past sixty years -- compared with about 110,000 immediate fatalities in the two atomic bombings. No clinical or even sub-clinical effects were discovered in the survivors' offspring. -- In the Chernobyl area, as assessed by IAEA, only fifteen cancer deaths can be directly attributed to fallout radiation. No radiation-related increase in congenital formations was recorded. Nuclear Conflict -- Possible Scenarios With reference to a possible regional nuclear conflict between a rogue state and a democratic one, the no-winner (mutual assured destruction) scenario is probably false. An analysis by Anthony Cordesman, et al. regarding a possible Israel-Iran nuclear conflict estimated that while Israel might survive an Iranian nuclear blow, Iran would certainly not survive as an organized society. Even though the projected casualties cited in that study seem to us overstated, especially as regards Israel, the conclusion rings true. Due to the extreme high intensity ("aboveconventional") of nuclear conflict, it is nearly certain that such a war, no matter its outcome, would not last for years, as we have become accustomed to in current low-intensity conflicts. Rather, we should anticipate a new geo-political reality: the emergence of clear winners and losers within several days, or at most weeks after the initial outbreak of hostilities. This latter reality will most probably contain fewer nuclear-possessing states than the former.
13NFL3-Environment v. Resource Extraction www.victorybriefs.com STUDIES PROVE NO NUKE WINTER
Page 131 of 224
Seitz 2011 (Russell, Harvard University Center for International Affairs visiting scholar, Nuclear winter was and is debatable, Nature, 7-7-11, Vol 475, pg37, accessed 9-27-11, CMR) Alan Robock's contention that there has been no real scientific debate about the 'nuclear winter' concept is itself debatable (Nature 473, 275276; 2011). This potential climate disaster, popularized in Science in 1983, rested on the output of a one-dimensional model that was later shown to overestimate the smoke a nuclear holocaust might engender. More refined estimates, combined with advanced three-dimensional models (see http://go.nature.com.libproxy.utdallas.edu/kss8te), have dramatically reduced the extent and severity of the projected cooling. Despite this, Carl Sagan, who co-authored the 1983 Science paper, went so far as to posit the extinction of Homo sapiens (C. Sagan Foreign Affairs 63, 75 77; 1984). Some regarded this apocalyptic prediction as an exercise in mythology. George Rathjens of the Massachusetts Institute of Technology protested: Nuclear winter is the worst example of the misrepresentation of science to the public in my memory, (see http://go.nature.com.libproxy.utdallas.edu/yujz84) and climatologist Kerry Emanuel observed that the subject had become notorious for its lack of scientific integrity (Nature 319, 259; 1986). Robock's single-digit fall in temperature is at odds with the subzero (about 25 C) continental cooling originally projected for a wide spectrum of nuclear wars. Whereas Sagan predicted darkness at noon from a USSoviet nuclear conflict, Robock projects global sunlight that is several orders of magnitude brighter for a PakistanIndia conflict literally the difference between night and day. Since 1983, the projected worst-case cooling has fallen from a Siberian deep freeze spanning 11,000 degree-days Celsius (a measure of the severity of winters) to numbers so unseasonably small as to call the very term 'nuclear winter' into question.
13NFL3-Environment v. Resource Extraction www.victorybriefs.com CUBA CUBA IS A BIODIVERSITY HOTSPOT
Page 132 of 224
The Waitt Foundation, an initiative of the National Geographic Society and the Waitt Institute, 2013 [CUBAS UNIQUE MARINE RESOURCES, Waitt Foundation, http://waittfoundation.org/cubas-unique-marine-resources] Jardines de la Reina is located 60 miles off the coast of central Cuba and spans more than 837 sq miles. Often called the Pearl of the Antilles, Cuba is by far the most biologically rich and diverse island in the Caribbean. It is home to crucial nesting sites for the critically endangered hawksbill turtle and has a healthy fish and shark population including the endangered Nassau grouper. Resilient coral reefs, and robust populations of sharks and other finfish have led scientists to describe the region as a window to the past, conjuring comparisons to what the Caribbean may have looked like 50 to 100 years ago. Only 90 miles from Florida, Cuba is a world apart a step back in time with the most intact coral reefs in the region. With 3,000 miles of coastline, the island has mountain rainforests and wetlands abundant with rare plants and animals, some of which are found nowhere else. Isolated lagoons and coral gardens like the famed Gardens of the Queen harbor an amazing array of shark species - Silky, Caribbean Reef, Blacktip, Lemon, Nurse and Whale Sharks - a sign of ecosystem health and resilience.
13NFL3-Environment v. Resource Extraction www.victorybriefs.com CUBA KEY TO GLOBAL OCEAN BIODIVERSITY
Page 133 of 224
The Waitt Foundation, an initiative of the National Geographic Society and the Waitt Institute, 2013 [CUBAS UNIQUE MARINE RESOURCES, Waitt Foundation, http://waittfoundation.org/cubas-unique-marine-resources] Cubas natural marine environment is world class, but at a critical juncture. During five decades of isolation from mass tourism and rapid economic development, Cubas marine and coastal resources have thrived. Its coral reefs, seagrass beds and mangroves abound with beauty and biodiversity, providing shelter and sustenance to more than 200 species of valuable fish, crustaceans, mollusks and sponges. As both the gateway to the Gulf of Mexico and the crown jewel of the Caribbean, Cuba and its natural resources provide important regional benefits to the United States and Mexico as well as the rest of the insular Caribbean. The majority of Cubas commercially important fish stocks, however, are in critical condition. About half may be fully exploited and 40% are overfished, with consistently declining catches. This decline in productivity represents a major environmental and economic threat for both Cuba and the United States. With Cuba just 90 miles from the Florida Keys, the health of our marine ecosystems is tightly interconnected. Cubas thousands of islets, keys and reefs provide important spawning grounds for lobster and reef fish that help populate waters along the southeast U.S. and in the Gulf of Mexico. Cubas southern archipelagos, especially the remotely situated Jardines de la Reina is one of the most outstanding jewels of the Caribbean islands and has been declared an IUCN Category II National Park. A very popular area for diving and fly fishing, Jardines de la Reina is mostly untouched and boasts the largest and best preserved (and least studied) coral reef system of the entire insular Caribbean.
13NFL3-Environment v. Resource Extraction www.victorybriefs.com CUBAN BIODIVERSITY KEY TO US FISHING INDUSTRY
Page 134 of 224
IUCN, The International Union for Conservation of Nature is an international organization dedicated to finding pragmatic solutions to our most pressing environment and development challenges, 5/1/09 [Cuba - The Crown Jewel of the Caribbean - But for how much longer?, IUCN, http://www.iucn.org/news_homepage/all_news_by_region/news_from_central_america/?3116/CU BA---The-Crown-Jewel-of-the-Caribbean---But-how-much-longer] Cuba's coastal waters are also vital to healthy fisheries and fishing communities along the southeastern coast of the United States. The island's 4,200 islets and keys support important commercial reef fish species like snapper and grouper and not to mention other marine life like sea turtles, dolphins and manatees. Prevailing ocean currents carry fish larvae into U.S. waters, making the protection of Cubas coastal ecosystems critical to replenishing our ailing fisheries. In many ways, Cuba sets an example to its Caribbean neighbors in terms of biodiversity conservation. In 2007, Cuba helped establish the first Caribbean Island Biological Corridor with the Dominican Republic and Haiti in order to contribute to the reduction of biodiversity loss and to facilitate the human-nature relationship. The corridor offers important linkages among landscapes, ecosystems, habitats and cultures to maintain essential and evolutionary ecological processes and environmental services and to promote sustainable development. Cuba has a centralized and well-coordinated institutional arrangements for the management of protected areas and its academic and public research institutions are some of the most active in conservation and natural resource management in the Caribbean. However, there has been limited scope for community-based initiatives.
13NFL3-Environment v. Resource Extraction www.victorybriefs.com CUBAN OCEAN BIODIVERISTY KEY TO GLOBAL OCEAN ECOSYSTEMS
Page 135 of 224
Dr. Rene Capote, PhD Natural Sciences (2007, Germany) Organization/ Institutional Management (2005, Cuba) International Program Development Studies (2004, Germany). Environmental Management (2001, Cuba), Global Product Officer Coffee. Fairtrade International FLO e.V. Germany. (since Dec. 2009), 1/24/12 [Resilience of Mangroves on the South Coast of Havana province, Cuba, ausdruckerei der Universitt Bonn, http://www.zef.de/module/register/experts_details.php?pk=498] Mangroves are important worldwide for a wide range of ecosystem services that contribute to human well-being (e.g., food and water consumption, recreation). However, 35% of documented mangrove vegetation disappeared in 1980-2005 mainly due to direct and indirect human impacts. Mangrove resilience typically manifests as regeneration of mangrove vegetation, either naturally or promoted by restoration. The thesis addresses five study cases in Cuba, Mexico and USA. The cases are examples illustrating mangrove resilience through natural regeneration and restoration activities. Changes in vegetation, ground altitude and inundation as well as institutional aspects of mangrove restoration are addressed. The study proposes a methodological approach, based on qualitative mathematical modelling (loop analysis), for improving the assessment and management of resilience of environmental systems. The approach is presented through empirical data obtained in Cuban mangroves.
13NFL3-Environment v. Resource Extraction www.victorybriefs.com CARIBBEAN BIODIVERSITY KEY TO GLOBAL OCEAN ECOSYSTEMS
Page 136 of 224
United Nations Environment Progamme 11, an international institution (a programme, rather than an agency of the UN) that coordinates United Nations environmental activities, assisting developing countries in implementing environmentally sound policies and practices. It was founded as a result of the United Nations Conference on the Human Environment in June 1972 and has its headquarters in the Gigiri neighborhood of Nairobi, Kenya. UNEP also has six regional offices and various country offices, 2011 [Caribbean Biological Corridor, UNEP, http://www.unep.org/disastersandconflicts/CountryOperations/Haiti/Internationalcooperation/Carib beanBiologicalCorridor/tabid/106585/Default.aspx] The Caribbean islands are one of the most important biodiversity hotspots in the world. Studies (Myers et al, 2000) show that the exceptional diversity of ecosystems in the area make the Caribbean islands one of the 7 points with the highest concentration of biodiversity. The establishment of a Caribbean Biological Corridor in the insular Caribbean provides an appropriate platform for collaboration among all initiatives being developed or that could be developed within the limits of the Caribbean Biological Corridor (CBC), thereby driving long-term integration of conservation actions between island states and thus contributing to the preservation of global biodiversity. The CBC , therefore, provides a framework for cooperation among the countries of the insular Caribbean for protecting and reducing the loss of biodiversity, by rehabilitating the environment, developing livelihood alternatives -particularly in Haiti-, and alleviating poverty as a mean to reduce the pressure on biological resources. For the Caribbean Biological Corridor, the pressure that biological resources are suffering due to natural factors is compounded by human action and, on occasion, their uncontrolled use of the ecosystem. The fragility of the ecosystem richness has been aggravated in recent years due to the poverty in which the inhabitants of the area live, and due to the lack of resources made available to provide alternative livelihoods those communities. Significantly, the Corridor area is characterized by a high density of inhabitants per square km, compounding the destructive effect of human activity on biodiversity of the area (see the table below). For now, the area delineated as the Caribbean Biological Corridor includes three countries: Haiti, Cuba and Dominican Republic. These countries are very vulnerable to extreme weather such as hurricanes and tropical storms. Haiti in particular has been the most affected by a natural phenomenon: the earthquake that caused massive destruction in 2010. On the other hand the three countries share other traits as its connectivity and its potential for regional cooperation, both with regard to technology transfer and training tools and the methodologies transfer for the improvement of the environmental sustainability. Finally, it should be stressed that the cooperation between Cuba, Haiti and the Dominican Republic, with respect to the establishment of the Caribbean Biological Corridor is being advanced with the financial support from the European Commission and UNEP. This support is contributing to preserve the Caribbean biodiversity, which in turn contributes directly to two of the Millennium Development Goals (MDGs): eradicate extreme poverty and ensure environmental sustainability on earth.
13NFL3-Environment v. Resource Extraction www.victorybriefs.com EXPANSION OF CUBAN OFFSHORE OIL DRILLING INEVITABLE NOW
Page 137 of 224
Bert and Clayton 12 Melissa, 2011-12 Military Fellow, U.S. Coast Guard, and Blake, Fellow for Energy and National Security (Addressing the Risk of a Cuban Oil Spill, March, http://www.cfr.org/cuba/addressing-risk-cuban-oil-spill/p27515) Defending U.S. Interests An oil well blowout in Cuban waters would almost certainly require a U.S. response. Without changes in current U.S. law, however, that response would undoubtedly come far more slowly than is desirable. The Coast Guard would be barred from deploying highly experienced manpower, specially designed booms, skimming equipment and vessels, and dispersants. U.S. offshore gas and oil companies would also be barred from using well-capping stacks, remotely operated submersibles, and other vital technologies. Although a handful of U.S. spill responders hold licenses to work with Repsol, their licenses do not extend to well capping or relief drilling. The result of a slow response to a Cuban oil spill would be greater, perhaps catastrophic, economic and environmental damage to Florida and the Southeast. Efforts to rewrite current law and policy toward Cuba, and encouraging cooperation with its government, could antagonize groups opposed to improved relations with the Castro regime. They might protest any decision allowing U.S. federal agencies to assist Cuba or letting U.S. companies operate in Cuban territory. However, taking sensible steps to prepare for a potential accident at an oil well in Cuban waters would not break new ground or materially alter broader U.S. policy toward Cuba. For years, Washington has worked with Havana on issues of mutual concern. The United States routinely coordinates with Cuba on search and rescue operations in the Straits of Florida as well as to combat illicit drug trafficking and migrant smuggling. During the hurricane season, the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA) provides Cuba with information on Caribbean storms. The recommendations proposed here are narrowly tailored to the specific challenges that a Cuban oil spill poses to the United States. They would not help the Cuban economy or military. What they would do is protect U.S. territory and property from a potential danger emanating from Cuba. Cuba will drill for oil in its territorial waters with or without the blessing of the United States. Defending against a potential oil spill requires a modicum of advance coordination and preparation with the Cuban government, which need not go beyond spill-related matters. Without taking these precautions, the United States risks a second Deepwater Horizon, this time from Cuba.
Page 138 of 224
CUBAN DRILLING TECHNOLOGY INSUFFICIENT TO PREVENT AN OIL SPILL FROM NEW DRILLING CDA, 12 Center for Democracy in the Americas, nonprofit devoted to changing American policy towards the countries of the Americas (Not Like Oil and Water: Cuba and the U.S. Ca n Cooperate on Drilling,http://cubacentral.wordpress.com/2012/09/07/not-like-oil-and-water-cubaand-the-us-can-cooperate-on-drilling/) The Environmental Defense Fund recently released a report called Bridging the Gulf in which we concluded that current U.S. foreign policy on Cuba creates a conspicuous blind spot that is detrimental to the interests of both countries. A failure to cooperate on oil spill planning, prevention, and response in the Gulf of Mexico could result in devastating environmental and economic impacts on a scale greater than the 2010 BP oil disaster. Recently, I witnessed a potential bright spot in US-Cuba relations that could lead to real and meaningful cooperation in protecting Cuban and American shores from future oil spills. As the Venezuelan state oil company PDVSA was preparing to drill off of Cubas northwest coast in August, U.S. and Cuban negotiators met in Mexico City to discuss how to work together to prevent and respond to future oil spills in the Gulf of Mexico and the Caribbean Sea. The meeting was the fourth in a series of landmark talks hosted by the International Maritime Organization (IMO), and included officials from Mexico, Jamaica, Bahamas, and other countries in the region. I was among the handful of industry and environmental representatives invited to attend. I was struck by the candid backand-forth discussions on the risks involved in deep water oil drilling and by the constructive exchanges between delegates from Cuba and the United States. I came away convinced that negotiators from both countries are operating in good faith and are committed to making progress on this issue. That being said, more needs to be done. Attendees agreed that the BP oil disaster was a wake-up call and that failure to heed the lessons learned from it would be an inexcusable and costly mistake. Chief among those lessons is that oil spills do not observe political boundaries and, as such, joint planning among all countries in the region is critical. The event also taught us that sufficient public and private resources must be available to contain and cleanup oil pollution as soon as possible. In fact, the scale of response needed for the BP spill was unprecedented6,500 vessels, 125 planes, 48,000 responders, and equipment resourced globally. Several presenters in Mexico City emphasized that full and timely access to private sector equipment and response personnel, wherever they are located, is fundamental to responding effectively to future oil spills. This lesson is particularly relevant to the current U.S.Cuba talks. If a major oil spill were to occur in Cuban waters anytime soon, the U.S. Coast Guardas incident commanderwould be able to marshal the resources needed to address oil pollution after it enters our waters. The agency has neither the authority nor the mandate, however, to support response and clean-up activities in Cuban waters. Furthermore, the Cuban government would be hamstrung in its ability to solicit direct help from private sector oil spill response companies in the United States. Currently, only a few American companies are licensed by the U.S. government to work in Cuba (actual names and numbers of license holders are not a matter of public record.). The Obama Administration could solve this problem by directing the Treasury Department to adopt a new category of general licenses to allow U.S. individuals from qualified oil services and equipment companies to travel to Cuba and provide technical expertise in the event of an oil disaster. The Administration should also direct the Commerce Department to pre-approve licenses for the temporary export of U.S. equipment, vessels, and technology to Cuba for use during a significant oil spill.
13NFL3-Environment v. Resource Extraction www.victorybriefs.com CUBAN OIL SPILLS WILL WRECK GULF BIODIVERSITY
Page 139 of 224
Stephens and Colvin, 11 Sarah, Executive Director of the Center for Democracy in the America, and Jake, VP for Global Trade Issues at the National Foreign Trade Council (US-Cuba policy, and the race for oil drilling, 9/29, http://thehill.com/blogs/congress -blog/foreignpolicy/184661-us-cuba-policy-and-the-race-for-oil-drilling) To protect the national interest and for the sake of Florida's beaches and the Gulf of Mexicos ecosystem it is time to stop sticking our heels in the sand when it comes to U.S.-Cuba policy. Before the end of the year, a Chinese-made drilling platform known as Scarabeo 9 is expected to arrive in the Gulf. Once it is there, Cuba and its foreign partners, including Spains Repsol, will begin using it to drill for oil in waters deeper than Deepwater Horizons infam ous Macondo well. The massive rig, manufactured to comply with U.S.-content restrictions at a cost of $750 million, will cost Repsol and other companies $407,000 per day to lease for exploration. They are taking this financial risk because Cuba needs the oil and its partners Spain, Norway, Russia, India, Vietnam, Malaysia, Canada, Angola, Venezuela, and possibly China believe that drilling in waters said to contain undiscovered reserves of approximately 5 billion barrels of oil is good business. In virtually every other country in the world, developments like these would prompt high-level discussions about how to exploit these resources safely or to anticipate a crisis were a disaster to strike. Experts who have studied the currents say a spill in Cuban waters would send 90% of the oil into the Keys and up the East Coast of Florida. But the embargo leaves Floridas sensitive coastal resources defenseless. Due to the fact that the drilling involves Cuba, American companies and workers cannot lend their expertise to what could be a risky operation. U.S. economic sanctions prevent our private sector from helping Cuba drill safely and paralyze the U.S. government, which ought to be convening bilateral discussions on best practices and coordinating disaster response. In fact, the U.S. has no emergency response agreement with Cuba for oil spills. While some specific licenses have been granted to permit U.S. firms to conduct limited transactions with Cuba, current sanctions bar the United Statesfrom deploying the kind of clean-up equipment, engineers, spare parts for blow-out prevention, chemical dispersants, and rigs to drill relief wells that would be needed to address an oil crisis involving Cuba.
13NFL3-Environment v. Resource Extraction www.victorybriefs.com CUBAN OIL SPILLS WRECK GULF BIODIVERSITY
Page 140 of 224
Thompson, 11- Freelance writer focused on science, environmental, and outdoor stories (Kaylee, What if Cubas Offshore Oil Project, Only 100 Miles From Florida, Goes Wrong?, Popular Mechanics, November 2, 2011, http://www.popularmechanics.com/science/energy/coaloil-gas/what-if-cubas-offshore-oil-project-only-100-miles-from-florida-goes-wrong) Cubas enormous offshore oil potential, discovered several years ago, lies in Gulf waters even deeper than those where BPs Deepwater Horizon operated. Not long after the reserve w as found, the Cuban national oil company, Cubapetroleo, briefed a number of environmental scientists on the projected aftereffects of the event they hope will never occur: a large-scale blowout. "Their models showed that 90 percent of an oil spill would end up in the Florida Straights, which becomes the Gulf Stream," says David Guggenheim, a marine biologist who has spent more than a decade working in Florida. A potential spill would hit the most sensitive areas in the Florida Keys before rounding the east coast of Florida, and heading farther north. "Its coral reefs; its mangroves. Shallow areas that are very sensitive and already have gone through an incredible degradation over the last few years," Guggenheim says. "Almost half of that coral reef has died now due to other stresses. This could be the final blow." Geography is only part of the problem. More than half a century has passed since the U.S. severed diplomatic relations with Cuba, which the State Department considers a State Sponsor of Terrorism. Disaster-response experts from industry, academia, and government are all concerned that the political standoff could hinder response should the worst happen. "To enter Cuban waters as a citizen, you need to have a license. To send equipment, you need special export licenses. We have a lot of items that youd think would be totally innocuous that we cannot ship," Guggenheim says. The Coast Guard and other U.S. agencies dont have authorization to operate in a foreign exclusive economic zone, and it could take hoursor worse, daysafter a spill has taken place just to get that permission. And for a worst-case scenario, thats just not fast enough. "Its pretty ugly," Guggenheim says. "Those currents move so fast we would have to react incredibly quickly if we were going to deploy skimmers, say, to take some oil up." In the year and a half since the BP oil spill in the Gulf of Mexico, advanced planning for future accidents has improved, according to John Slaughter, chief of planning, readiness, and response for the 7th Coast Guard District, which includes Florida, Georgia, and South Carolina. Local stakeholders have developed regional plans to deal with pollution nearing shore, while organizations such as the Coast Guard are drawing up separate plans to deal with offshore oil. "When you get into an offshore environment, its kind of a new animal," Slaughter says. "Youre talking about offshore skimmers, dispersant use, in situ burning." The U.S. has a written contingency plan with Mexico that prescribes how the two nations would work together to respond to an offshore spill. But as for a spill originating in Cuban seas? "Clearly, there are advantages in being able to address pollution at its source. We may or may not be able to do that immediately," Slaughter says. The moment a spill reaches U.S. waters, though, the green light is on. "We have a robust response plan put together by the Coast Guard with industry to address any pollution in U.S. waters."
13NFL3-Environment v. Resource Extraction www.victorybriefs.com CHAD RESOURCE EXTRACTION HAS NOT BENEFITED CHAD.
Page 141 of 224
Suzanne Dansereau, [Assistant Professor, International Development Studies, Saint Mary's University, Halifax], "Win-Win or New Imperialism? Public-Private Partnerships in Africa Mining", Review of African Political Economy No. 103:47-622, 2005. Chad's experience with its new oil sector is another example of the development challenges associated with these policies. Oil was discovered in 1973, but conflict prevented extraction until a peace accord in 1996, six years after the current government took control by force. Rebels remained active nonetheless in the region until suppressed by government in 1998. World Bank involvement has now made possible the largest private investment project on the African continent, exploited by Exxon-Mobil. Eighty per cent of revenues are earmarked for development, yet few development benefits have accrued. The government was awarded a $25 million bonus from the oil deal which it spent on arms and military hardware. One-time cash settlements were paid to farmers along the oil pipeline but little long term employment has been created. A steady flow of revenue needed for local development has not yet occurred but a regional development plan is being crafted - overseen by the state and civil society representatives. Yet members of the national monitoring board and local authorities are appointed by central government, and civil society organisations have only sprung up since 1999 and lack technical capacity and experience. They thus have no clout and have been inadequate to enable transparency nor any way of finding out how much money the government is receiving in oil revenues (Brottem, 2004).
Page 142 of 224
NEGATIVE EVIDENCE
ECONOMY MINING HAS CONTRIBUTED GREATLY TO GHANAS ECONOMY. Benjamin N.A. Aryee, [Minerals Commission], "Ghana's mining sector: its contribution to the national economy," Resources Policy 27 (2001) 61-75). The information presented in this sub-section represents the responses received from 11 gold mines and a bulk mineralbauxite mine which operated in Ghana during the survey period 1996 98. Table 4 summarises the results of the survey. The survey showed that over the period, of the total revenue of US$1.2 billion generated by the mines, about US$290 million (23%) went into making contributions of various sorts to the economy. A total of US$79 million was paid as government revenue in respect of required corporate contributions (corporate income tax, royalties, dividends, customs & excise duties). The most significant of these direct contributions was royalties of US$42 million, followed by dividends of US$19 million and also customs & excise duties of US$17 million. It is noteworthy that 10% of the royalties is recycled to the local communities through the Minerals Develop- ment Fund3 (MDF) to supplement the developmental efforts of areas in close proximity to the mines. Indirectly, US$25 million also flowed into the government chest through PAYE4 payments made by employees of the mines.
13NFL3-Environment v. Resource Extraction www.victorybriefs.com MINING IS AN IMPORTANT PART OF ZIMBABWES ECONOMY.
Page 143 of 224
Samuel J. Spiegel, [Geography Department, University of Cambridge], "Resource policies and small-scale gold mining in Zimbabwe," Resources Policy 34, 2009. Mining has long been recognized as an important component of Zimbabwes national development. It is often said that one of the key enduring legacies of colonization was the prioritization of mining as a pillar in the national economy (Hollaway, 1997). Zwane et al. (2006) observe that the Mines and Minerals Actyremains the most powerful legislation such that mining laws continue to override policies for other resource sectors and in other institutions (e.g. agriculture, tourism, etc.). They note how, historically, mining development interests have been given priority status in land disputes. Structural Adjustment Programs implemented by the Government of Zimbabwe under the auspices of the World Bank were largely intended to provide a favorable climate for foreign mining investment in order to boost economic growth. However, as Chifamba (2000) observes, the liberalized structure of Zimbabwes mining industry manifested as an oligopolistic mining industry that favored foreign companies instead of indigenous workers. Dreschler (2001) has likewise noted that the countrys mineral industry is dominated by large mining companies, even though ASM involves a much larger labour force.
Page 144 of 224
ECONOMIC GROWTH CAUSES CONSCIOUSNESS SHIFT TOWARDS ENVIRONMENTAL PROTECTION Rifkin, President of the Foundation on Economic Trends, 10 [Jeremy Rifkin, 1-11-10, The Huffington Post, 'The Empathic Civilization': Rethinking Human Nature in the Biosphere Era, online: http://www.huffingtonpost.com/jeremy-rifkin/the-empathic-civilization_b_416589.html] The pivotal turning points in human consciousness occur when new energy regimes converge with new communications revolutions, creating new economic eras. The new communications revolutions become the command and control mechanisms for structuring, organizing and managing more complex civilizations that the new energy regimes make possible. For example, in the early modern age, print communication became the means to organize and manage the technologies, organizations, and infrastructure of the coal, steam, and rail revolution. It would have been impossible to administer the first industrial revolution using script and codex. Communication revolutions not only manage new, more complex energy regimes, but also change human consciousness in the process. Forager/hunter societies relied on oral communications and their consciousness was mythologically constructed. The great hydraulic agricultural civilizations were, for the most part, organized around script communication and steeped in theological consciousness. The first industrial revolution of the 19th century was managed by print communication and ushered in ideological consciousness. Electronic communication became the command and control mechanism for arranging the second industrial revolution in the 20th century and spawned psychological consciousness. Each more sophisticated communication revolution brings together more diverse people in increasingly more expansive and varied social networks. Oral communication has only limited temporal and spatial reach while script, print and electronic communications each extend the range and depth of human social interaction. By extending the central nervous system of each individual and the society as a whole, communication revolutions provide an evermore inclusive playing field for empathy to mature and consciousness to expand. For example, during the period of the great hydraulic agricultural civilizations characterized by script and theological consciousness, empathic sensitivity broadened from tribal blood ties to associational ties based on common religious affiliation. Jews came to empathize with Jews, Christians with Christians, Muslims with Muslims, etc. In the first industrial revolution characterized by print and ideological consciousness, empathic sensibility extended to national borders, with Americans empathizing with Americans, Germans with Germans, Japanese with Japanese and so on. In the second industrial revolution, characterized by electronic communication and psychological consciousness, individuals began to identify with like-minded others. Today, we are on the cusp of another historic convergence of energy and communication--a third industrial revolution--that could extend empathic sensibility to the biosphere itself and all of life on Earth. The distributed Internet revolution is coming together with distributed renewable energies, making possible a sustainable, post-carbon economy that is both globally connected and locally managed. In the 21st century, hundreds of millions--and eventually billions--of human beings will transform their buildings into power plants to harvest renewable energies on site, store those energies in the form of hydrogen and share electricity, peer-to-peer, across local, regional, national and continental inter-grids that act much like the Internet. The open source sharing of energy, like open source sharing of information, will give rise to collaborative energy spaces--not unlike the collaborative social spaces that currently exist on the Internet. When every family and business comes to take responsibility for its own small swath of the biosphere by harnessing renewable energy and sharing it with millions of others on smart power grids that stretch across continents, we become intimately interconnected at the most basic level of earthly existence by jointly stewarding the energy that bathes the planet and sustains all of life. The new distributed communication revolution not only organizes distributed renewable energies, but also changes human consciousness. The information communication technologies (ICT) revolution is quickly extending the central nervous system of billions of human beings and connecting the human race across time and space, allowing empathy to flourish on a global scale, for the first time in history. Whether in fact we will begin to empathize as a species will depend on how we use the new distributed communication medium. While distributed communications technologies-and, soon,
Page 145 of 224
distributed renewable energies - are connecting the human race, what is so shocking is that no one has offered much of a reason as to why we ought to be connected. We talk breathlessly about access and inclusion in a global communications network but speak little of exactly why we want to communicate with one another on such a planetary scale. What's sorely missing is an overarching reason that billions of human beings should be increasingly connected. Toward what end? The only feeble explanations thus far offered are to share information, be entertained, advance commercial exchange and speed the globalization of the economy. All the above, while relevant, nonetheless seem insufficient to justify why nearly seven billion human beings should be connected and mutually embedded in a globalized society. The idea of even billion individual connections, absent any overall unifying purpose, seems a colossal waste of human energy. More important, making global connections without any real transcendent purpose risks a narrowing rather than an expanding of human consciousness. But what if our distributed global communication networks were put to the task of helping us re-participate in deep communion with the common biosphere that sustains all of our lives? The biosphere is the narrow band that extends some forty miles from the ocean floor to outer space where living creatures and the Earth's geochemical processes interact to sustain each other. We are learning that the biosphere functions like an indivisible organism. It is the continuous symbiotic relationships between every living creature and between living creatures and the geochemical processes that ensure the survival of the planetary organism and the individual species that live within its biospheric envelope. If every human life, the species as a whole, and all other life-forms are entwined with one another and with the geochemistry of the planet in a rich and complex choreography that sustains life itself, then we are all dependent on and responsible for the health of the whole organism. Carrying out that responsibility means living out our individual lives in our neighborhoods and communities in ways that promote the general well-being of the larger biosphere within which we dwell. The Third Industrial Revolution offers just such an opportunity. If we can harness our empathic sensibility to establish a new global ethic that recognizes and acts to harmonize the many relationships that make up the life-sustaining forces of the planet, we will have moved beyond the detached, self-interested and utilitarian philosophical assumptions that accompanied national markets and nation state governance and into a new era of biosphere consciousness. We leave the old world of geopolitics behind and enter into a new world of biosphere politics, with new forms of governance emerging to accompany our new biosphere awareness. The Third Industrial Revolution and the new era of distributed capitalism allow us to sculpt a new approach to globalization, this time emphasizing continentalization from the bottom up. Because renewable energies are more or less equally distributed around the world, every region is potentially amply endowed with the power it needs to be relatively self-sufficient and sustainable in its lifestyle, while at the same time interconnected via smart grids to other regions across countries and continents.
13NFL3-Environment v. Resource Extraction www.victorybriefs.com ECONOMIC SLOWDOWN WORSENS ENVIRONMENTAL IMPACTS
Page 146 of 224
Monbiot, The Guardian, columnist 9 [George Monbiot, has held visiting fellowships or professorships at the universities of Oxford (environmental policy), Bristol (philosophy), Keele (politics), Oxford Brookes (planning), and East London (environmental science), 8-17-09, The Guardian, Is there any point in fighting to stave off industrial apocalypse?, http://www.guardian.co.uk/commentisfree/cif-green/2009/aug/17/environment-climate-change] The interesting question, and the one that probably divides us, is this: to what extent should we welcome the likely collapse of industrial civilisation? Or more precisely: to what extent do we believe that some good may come of it? I detect in your writings, and in the conversations we have had, an attraction towards almost a yearning for this apocalypse, a sense that you see it as a cleansing fire that will rid the world of a diseased society. If this is your view, I do not share it. I'm sure we can agree that the immediate consequences of collapse would be hideous: the breakdown of the systems that keep most of us alive; mass starvation; war. These alone surely give us sufficient reason to fight on, however faint our chances appear. But even if we were somehow able to put this out of our minds, I believe that what is likely to come out on the other side will be worse than our current settlement. Here are three observations: 1 Our species (unlike most of its members) is tough and resilient; 2 When civilisations collapse, psychopaths take over; 3 We seldom learn from others' mistakes. From the first observation, this follows: even if you are hardened to the fate of humans, you can surely see that our species will not become extinct without causing the extinction of almost all others. However hard we fall, we will recover sufficiently to land another hammer blow on the biosphere. We will continue to do so until there is so little left that even Homo sapiens can no longer survive. This is the ecological destiny of a species possessed of outstanding intelligence, opposable thumbs and an ability to interpret and exploit almost every possible resource in the absence of political restraint.
13NFL3-Environment v. Resource Extraction www.victorybriefs.com GLOBAL TECHNOLOGY CHECKS ENVIRONMENTAL COLLAPSE
Page 147 of 224
Gorman University of Virginia Science and Technology Professor 7 [Michael E, 2006, Cognition, Environment and the Collapse of Civilizations, https://www.google.com/url?sa=t&rct=j&q=&esrc=s&source=web&cd=1&ved=0CC8QFjAA&url=ht tp%3A%2F%2Frepont.sts.virginia.edu%2Fhomepage%2Fmg%2Fpublications%2Fmbrchina_MS.doc&ei=vzpUcnKE8aIiAKu34GoDg&usg=AFQjCNHENR9d6O5-xiIGhmpLpa0_I9ncQ&sig2=AdySoESFpTTrtfN52ACYQQ&bvm=bv.49478099,d.cGE,] Technology promises to extend human capabilities to realms reserved for Gods in traditional stories, giving human beings the ability to: Control evolution Change human nature by altering our own genetic code and making ourselves into cyborgs(Haraway, 1997). Manage the global ecosystem Civilizations that race ahead with these developments and seek to protect their gains will achieve a temporary advantage, but the spread of nuclear weapons and the rise of terrorism show the limits to this strategy. All civilizations are not only part of a single ecosystem, they are also connected by distributed, high-speed communications and are part of an increasingly global economy. Not everyone has the opportunity to participate in this new interconnected world, and those who cannot will resent and resist it as another device by which the powerful and rich get stronger at the expense of othersa global imperialistic trading zone. To constitute progress, technological development should enhance freedom and opportunity worldwide. This kind of progress will require us to engage in moral imagination, developing new stories for a global civilization that is involved in constant transformation and self-examination. Of Diamonds five factors that determine the fate of civilizations, the last onecivilizations responseis the most important one. Human beings can see the system of which they are a part, can look critically at their own actions, collective and individual. Modeling is an important tool for imagining the consequences of present actions, or failures to act. If civilization survives, it will be radically altered by the accelerating pace of technological development. Part of this development will be extraordinary new tools for modeling, that will help us manage the future we create. Such modeling tools could even facilitate moral imagination. Arizona State Universitys Decision Theater (http://dt.asu.edu/) is an example. This environment allows stakeholders to envision the consequences of different development plans for Phoenix. This system could evolve into one that allows stakeholders to visualize their imagine desirable futures, share them with others, and modify them on the fly, based on discussion. Modeling tools alone cannot span incommensurable ideological divides. But they can facilitate the development of trading zones over the challenges and opportunities that face our increasingly global civilization.
Page 148 of 224
GROWTH SOLVES ENVIRONMENT- TECH AND RESOURCE CONSERVATION Indur M. Goklany, 8/30/12, Analyst for the Department of Interior, Economic Growth and the State of Humanity, PERC, http://perc.org/articles/economic -growth-and-state-humanity-no-21 Improvements specific to health, food, and agriculture also benefit from a larger, more general cycle in which broad technological change, economic growth, and global trade reinforce each other. Other technologiesinvented for other reasonshave led to medical advances and improved productivity or reduced the environmental impacts of the food and agricultural sector. For example, computers, lasers, and global positioning systems per-mit precision agriculture to optimize the timing and quantities of fertilizers, water, and pesticides, increasing productivity while reducing environmental impacts. Plasticsessential for food packaging and preservation also Increase productivity of the food and agricultural sector. Transportation of every land increases the abiWto move inputs and outpuWfrom farms to mar-kets, and vice versa. Broad advances in physics and engmeenng have led to new or Improved medical technologies, including elec-tnaty (without which virtually no present day hospithl or operat; mg room could fimction), x-rays, nuclear magnetic resonance; lasers, and refngeratio . These specific impacts do not exhaust the benefits of broad economic growth, technological change, and global trade. Tech=I nological change in general reinforces economic growth (Barr997;Goldany 1998)Allowing countries more resources to research and develop technological improvement(Gbklany 1995) and to increase education.
13NFL3-Environment v. Resource Extraction www.victorybriefs.com INCOME MINING IN TANZANIA BENEFITS THE INCOME OF LOCALS.
Page 149 of 224
A.G.N. Kitula [Sokoine University of Agriculture, Morogoro, Tanzania], "The environmental and socio-economic impacts of mining on local livelihoods in Tanzania: A case study of Geita District," Journal of Clear Production 14, 2005. An analysis of variance (Appendix 2) on income from agriculture and mining indicated that in mining and non- mining communities, respectively, average household income from mining was US$361.47 and US$15.04, and US$88.32 and US$358.89 from agriculture. As shown in Table 7, a complementary relationship exists between agriculture and mining within the study areas. Approx- imately 66% and 3% of average household income in mining and non-mining communities, respectively, is derived from mining. On the other hand, agriculture contributes 16% and 75% to total household income in surveyed mining and non-mining regions, respectively. The results suggest that while local people employed in mining obtain direct income as mining wages, non- miners increase their income through different socio- economic activities, including sales from food crops and menial business activities. These results parallel those from other ASM regions, such as those within Bolivia, where McMahon and Remy [25] report that wages earned by employees at mining operations are spent on goods and services produced by local people, which, in turn, increases the incomes of local populations. At the national level, figures indicate a contribution of less than 5% to total GDP of the country, meaning that, the industry has not yet significantly increased sustainable income since the enactment of the mineral policy.
Page 150 of 224
MINING IS CREATED ECONOMIC OPPORTUNITIES FOR NATIVES OF TANZANIA. A.G.N. Kitula [Sokoine University of Agriculture, Morogoro, Tanzania], "The environmental and socio-economic impacts of mining on local livelihoods in Tanzania: A case study of Geita District," Journal of Clear Production 14, 2005. The evidence from Table 6 indicates that approximately 93% and 80% of respondents in mining and non- mining communities, respectively, benefit differently from the existence of mining activities ( p ! 0.001). Within mining areas, some 42% of respondents benefit from sources of mining employment; 20.3% from improved road networks, water and school construction; 11% from food crop sales; and 8.1% from subsistence (petty) business. It was found that only 8.1% of respondents in non-mining areas benefit from direct mining activities as a source of alternative employment, while 37.8% benefit indirectly from food crop sales, and 25.7% from subsistence (petty) business. The results indicate that mining activities have created a multitude of income opportunities for the inhabitants of Geita District. There were significant differences in the benefits provided by the large-scale Geita Gold Mine Company to mining and non-mining area in terms of improved roads and water services ( p ! 0.001); specifically, non- mining communities appear to be more neglected than mining communities. The findings are supported by IDRC [24], which portrayed mining communities as the beneficiaries of a wide range of new services, including improved access to education and health services. The presence of mining activities in Geita District has created market opportunities for local farmers. As indicated in Table 6, approximately 11% and 38% of respondents in mining and non-mining communities, respectively, secure markets for their agricultural crops through their mining activities. Within surveyed mining communities, the average annual income earned from agriculture was reported to be US$88.32, compared to US$358.89 in the non-mining areas surveyed (Appendix 2). The influx of newcomers in search of employment at mine sites has increased demand for goods, thus improving opportunities for local people to sell their food crops. The market for agricultural crops may also explain why 47.3% of respondents indicated having a dependency on agriculture, while only 34% of local people interviewed near to mine centres reported being engaged directly in mining activities as a major source of income. The findings imply that mining significantly contributes to the incomes of local people employed in agriculture by providing markets to their agricultural products.
13NFL3-Environment v. Resource Extraction www.victorybriefs.com SMALL-SCALE MINING
Page 151 of 224
SMALL SCALE/ARTISANAL MINING IS A UNIQUE FORM OF RESOURCE EXTRACTION. Gavin Hilson, [School of Agriculture, Policy and Development, The University of Reading], "Smallscale mining, poverty and economic development in sub-Saharan Africa: An Oveview], Resources Policy 34 (2009). The term small-scale mining first surfaced in the United Nations publication, Small -Scale Mining in the Developing Countries (UN, 1972). Although the topic was very much an afterthought on the donor agenda at the time, the report nevertheless proved extremely important: it highlighted, for the first time, the economic significance of small-scale mining in developing countries, and underscored the importance of facilitating the design and implementation of relevant laws and policies through the identification and description of the sectors significant characteristics (UN, 1972, p. 1). The message resonating in policymaking circles at the time was that artisanal and small-scale mining (ASM) is populated by businessmen looking to get rich quick. The sector continued to be strongly associated with entrepreneurship throughout the late-1970s and 1980s. Similar views were expressed in the literature at the time. Alpan (1986, p. 95), for example, pointed out that in contrast with many other rural development schemes, small -scale miners generally are self- motivated and start their enterprise without government encouragement and assistance. Similarly, No etstaller (1987), who produced the seminal report, SmallScale Mining: A Review of the Issues on behalf of the World Bank, argued that the small enterprise segment has consistently been identified as a fertile ground for the growth of indigenous entrepreneurshipy[that] in mining, this is particularly true for the artisanal operations (No etstaller, 1987, p. 16). These, and allied, discussions, would inform a policy dialogue that called for improved productivity and efficiency in the activities of these entrepreneurs, its main manifestations being improved equipment and other forms of technical extension.
Page 152 of 224
SMALL SCALE MINING HAS PROVIDED EMPLOYMENT FOR MILLIONS OF AFRICANS. Gavin Hilson, [School of Agriculture, Policy and Development, The University of Reading], "Smallscale mining, poverty and economic development in sub-Saharan Africa: An Oveview], Resources Policy 34 (2009). In the 1990s, however, the perception of ASM began to change. Th e sectors rapid expansion, particularly in sub-Saharan Africa, and accounts of it providing employment to vulnerable groups, including women and children (Hilson, 2008a, 2008b; Hilson and Banchirigah, 2009), suggested that its existence was linked strongly to peoples hardship. This forced policymakers to think more dynamically about its existence. In Ghana, for example, as many as one million people (or in the range of five percent of countrys population) could be directly employed in the sector (Banchirigah, 2008). The employment estimates presented for a number of other countries, despite being outdated in many instances, further underscore the sectors growing economic importance in rural sub-Saharan Africa: Tanzania, 500,000 (Fisher, 2007); Mali, 200,000 (Keita, 2001); Burkina Faso, 200,000 (Gueye, 2001); and Sierra Leone, 500,000 (Maconachie and Binns, 2007). The majority of Africas artisanal miners are employed at operations engaged in the extraction of gold but there are also significant pockets of people working deposits of alluvial gemstones and diamonds in countries such as Sierra Leone, Madagascar and The Democratic Republic of Congo.
Page 153 of 224
IN ADDITION TO ECONOMICALLY BENEFITING LOCALS, SMALL-SCALE MINING ALSO ENCOURAGES FOREIGN TRADE. Gavin Hilson, [School of Agriculture, Policy and Development, The University of Reading], "Smallscale mining, poverty and economic development in sub-Saharan Africa: An Oveview], Resources Policy 34 (2009). The idea that ASM, in many cases, is poverty-driven and has become an integral segment of the developing world economys rural fabric was first brought to the fore at the International Roundtable on Informal Mining in Washington DC in May 1995 (Barry, 1996). It was also argued at the time that in addition to providing obvious employment benefits for citizens, a formalized ASM sector could be a major coup for governments: gold and gemstones are more or less a standard currencyy the produced value is equivalent to extra foreign incomey[that] the value of artisanally produced gold [and gemstones] can be considered as a net contribution to foreign income, as freely convertible currency is produced with pure local input (Hentschel et al., 2002, p. 52). Thus, it was argued, if captured, the product emanating from ASM camps could make significant contributions to foreign exchange.
Page 154 of 224
ARTISANAL MINING IS A PERMANENT, DEEP ROOTED PART OF MANY LOCAL ECONOMIES. Gavin Hilson, [School of Agriculture, Policy and Development, The University of Reading], "Smallscale mining, poverty and economic development in sub-Saharan Africa: An Oveview], Resources Policy 34 (2009). The second view contests that artisanal mining has rapidly become a permanent segment of Africas rural economy and is becoming increasingly important economically. Proponents of this position argue that despite being fuelled by poverty, artisanal mining is more than just a rush activity: that it is a deeply rooted industry (Barry, 1996; Keita, 2001; Kambani, 2003; Childs, 2008), its low barriers to entry enabling people to rapidly escape poverty and which offers a range of economic opportunities for people from all walks of life (see e.g. Yakovleva, 2007; Banchirigah and Hilson, 2009). This school contends that those who have diversified into artisanal mining from farming now view the former as their principal means of livelihood, and engage in the latter solely for subsistence purposes. Petra Tschakert, for example, argues in the fourth paper in this special issue that many artisanal miners operating in Ghana are unlikely to engage in the fashionable agricultural-based alternative options (which aim to discourage illegal mining activity) being introduced by external agenciesfindings which complement Hilson and Banchirigahs, (2009) analysis. The artisanal gold and diamond mining economy in the Mwanza Region of Tanzania appears to be equally deeply rooted. As Eleanor Fisher, Rosemarie Mwaipopo, Wilson Mutagwaba, David Nyange and Gil Yaron explain in the fifth paper in this special issue, people engaged in ASM activities in this locality are less likely to be impoverished than those employed in other industries: based upon interview feedback with industry operators, it is apparent that in an otherwise- impoverished rural environment, the sector serves as an important buffer to the regions livelihood shocks.
Page 155 of 224
JOB OPPORTUNITIES ASIDE FROM SMALL-SCALE MINING ARE RARE AND UNDESIRABLE. Petra Tschakert, [Department of Geography and Alliance for Earth Sciences, Engineering, and Development in Africa], "Recognizing and nuturing artisanal mining as viable livelihood", Resources Policy 34 (2009). It is worth noting that not a single miner suggested any of the exotic alternative livelihood options that are currently promoted by the governments, NGOs, and research groups. While half of all interviewees has heard about snail and mushroom farming and grasscutter rearing, only three actually knew a person that had switched from mining to one of these occupations. Yet, most stated that they would be willing to try, under the condition that start-up capital was provided. Those who were most skeptical about these unorthodox income-generating activities referred to low profits and bad losses of those who had taken the risk as major disincentives. In contrast, driving a taxi, welding, carpentry, tailoring, and poultry farming were much appreciated, not necessarily because of high profits but because of the regular income and the permanency associated with the jobs. This was particularly true for older miners. Other positive aspects included having an occupation that was recognized and valued by society, being part of a family business, better food and health, and spiritual protection.
Page 156 of 224
SMALL-SCALE MINING IS THE BEST CHOICE OF EMPLOYMENT FOR SOME. Petra Tschakert, [Department of Geography and Alliance for Earth Sciences, Engineering, and Development in Africa], "Recognizing and nuturing artisanal mining as viable livelihood", Resources Policy 34 (2009). The findings from this study suggest that most miners prefer galamsey work over less risky activities such as poultry farming, taxi driving, masonry, construction work, petty trading, and cocoa farming, not out of conviction but of necessity. At least compared to employment in large mining companies, these other professions do not require special skills or advanced educational backgrounds. Providing attractive options and well-being within the ASM sector would require committed efforts to raise its profile and to nurture it as a respectable sector that merits constructive engagement (Tschakert and Singha, 2007). This, in turn, would necessitate a radical re-imagination of recognition of thousands of currently misrecognized men and women.
Page 157 of 224
SMALL-SCALE MINING IS NECESSARY FOR STABLE INCOMES FOR WOMEN. Petra Tschakert, [Department of Geography and Alliance for Earth Sciences, Engineering, and Development in Africa], "Recognizing and nuturing artisanal mining as viable livelihood", Resources Policy 34 (2009). As for the women, alternative job opportunities are exceedingly dire (Fig. 5). The option that seemed most appealing to the women miners was cocoa farming, although it was considered as hazardous as mining, mainly because of potential snakebites. Also, as most women do not own property in Ghana, cocoa farming was understood as wage labor on a cocoa farm. Teaching, dressmaking, hairdressing and trading with underwear also seemed attractive, although the income is similar or less than that of mining. While various types of petty trading (food, earrings, plastic buckets, umbrellas, cell phone accessories, and cosmetics) essentially exhaust the realistic job opportunities for these female miners, given their low level or lack of formal education, other professions such as nurse, newscaster/journalist, and teacher embodied a distressing castle-in-the-sky-mentality as most of these young women will likely be denied any better future. Only one of the two additional women interviewed claimed to have heard about batik making, although both expressed interest, envisioning stable incomes and, by implication, a secured future.
Page 158 of 224
RECOGNITION OF SMALL-SCALE MINING IS NECESSARY FOR IT TO FLOURISH. Petra Tschakert, [Department of Geography and Alliance for Earth Sciences, Engineering, and Development in Africa], "Recognizing and nuturing artisanal mining as viable livelihood", Resources Policy 34 (2009). What, then, are the processes that are needed to encourage and sustain a flourishing ASM sector in Ghana? In recent debates on social and environmental justice, recognition and participation emerge as key ingredients. Young (1990) and Fraser (1998, 2000), two social theorists, as well as others (Honneth, 2001; Taylor, 1994; Schlosberg, 2004), have identified the lack of recognition, often expressed as devaluation and disfranchisement, as harmful and constraining to people as it prevents them from participating in decision-making processes. Young (1990) stresses that recognition is not just a thing to be distributed, but a relationship, a social norm embedded in social practice. Put simply, if one is not recognized, he or she cannot participate; by the same token, without participation there is no recognition. Consequently, institutional exclusion and a social culture of misrecognition undermine democratic and participatory decision-making processes. Fraser (2000), in particular, advocates conceptualizing peoples struggles for recognition as to better combine them with struggles of distribution in environmental and social justice claims. Furthermore, to counteract social subordination, as well as other practices and institutionalized cultural norms that devalue and deny a certain group of people the status of a full partner in social interactions, Fraser (2006) stresses the need for parityfostering alternatives. She argues that, in a period of neoliberal hegemony, a radical reimagination and the revival of egalitarian projects of redistribution and politics of recognition define the new understanding of justice, equality, and democracy in the 21st century.
Page 159 of 224
SMALL-SCALE MINING CONTRIBUTES IMMENSELY TO LIVELIHOODS OF AFRICANS. Eleanor Fisher et al, [Centre for Development Studies, Swansea University], "The ladder that sends us to wealth": Artisanal mining and poverty reduction in Tanzania," Resources Policy, 2009. Research on artisanal and small-scale mining (ASM) in Africa suggests it is a livelihood activity with poverty reduction potential (Noetstaller et al., 2004). It has been identified as an important economic opportunity for people in rural areas, which provides income for household livelihoods (Hentschel et al., 2002; Dreschler, 2001; Maconachie and Binns, 2007). However, improved livelihood security from ASM is not straightforward; evidence also shows it can contribute to poverty, and expose people to income vulnerability and health and safety risks (Hilson and Pardie, 2006; Noetstaller et al., 2004). In seeking to steer a course through conflicting evidence, the lack of knowledge on poverty dynamics within ASM communities is apparent. This includes weak statistical information on the demographics of mining populations (Hilson, 2005), lack of longitudinal data (Noetstaller, et al., 2004), and inadequate understanding of the relationship between ASM and wider livelihood processes (Hentschel et al., 2002; Labonne, 2002b). The absence of such baseline information hinders informed decision making on the future development of the sector and the design of appropriate poverty reduction strategies (Hilson, 2005; Labonne, 2002a).
13NFL3-Environment v. Resource Extraction www.victorybriefs.com SMALL SCALE MINING PLAYS A LARGE ROLE IN POVERTY REDUCTION.
Page 160 of 224
Eleanor Fisher et al, [Centre for Development Studies, Swansea University], "The ladder that sends us to wealth": Artisanal mining and poverty reduction in Tanzania," Resources Policy, 2009. Economic policies for mineral sector development in Tanzania have historically been isolated from policies for human development and social service provision. Until the 2000s, this remained the case, but change is gradually occurring. The mineral sector is today identified as a priority area for national economic growth and poverty reduction (IDA/IMF/URT, 2005; MEM, n.d.). How this poverty reduction potential is realised is a major question facing the government. The issue of leverage from mineral sector development, to encourage growth in other sectors and to ensure that benefits are broadly shared and poverty reduction potentials realised, is a substantial challenge. This is complicated by the fact that although the mineral sector has recorded the highest level of sectoral growth since 1990, the proportion of GDP remains small (IDA/IMF/URT, 2005). In this respect, the governments strategy for rural growth and poverty reduction remains focused on agricultural development (IDA/IMF/URT, 2005, p. 26).
Page 161 of 224
SMALL SCALE MINING COMMUNITIES ARE AMONG THE MOST FINANCIALLY VULNERABLE. Eleanor Fisher et al, [Centre for Development Studies, Swansea University], "The ladder that sends us to wealth": Artisanal mining and poverty reduction in Tanzania," Resources Policy, 2009. Through the household survey and semi-structured interviews, our research sought to understand what factors contribute to vulnerability and how they impact on mining households in the study areas. From the survey, households in the three villages reported various types of risks experienced as shocks (Table 3). These results indicate that some risks are localised while others are common to all villages. Despite commonalties, however, there is a statistically significant association between incidence of risk and location. Two highly significant common sources of risk that households had experienced as shocks within the last year were food shortage and serious sickness of a household member (including but not exclusively HIV/AIDS). In Mabuki, with households particularly dependent on the agricultural harvest for their consumption needs, and following a period of drought in 2003/2004, food shortage was a particularly significant shock that challenged households capacity to cope. Other risks were more specific to gold-mining areas, with a low price for products and mine-related health problems being notable. Here, we should be wary of the figures, because diamond miners can receive a poor price for produce but be less aware of it than gold miners. Drought was not an issue of concern, except in Mabuki, where agriculture is prominent and there is a correlation to food shortage. In this area, ASM based on infrequent diamond finds does not provide regular income to overcome food shortage.
13NFL3-Environment v. Resource Extraction www.victorybriefs.com MINING REDUCES VULNERABILITY.
Page 162 of 224
Eleanor Fisher et al, [Centre for Development Studies, Swansea University], "The ladder that sends us to wealth": Artisanal mining and poverty reduction in Tanzania," Resources Policy, 2009. This article has focused on whether ASM has the potential to contribute to poverty reduction, an issue of contemporary relevance across sub-Saharan Africa. This research suggests that in the study areas, people working in mining or related services are less likely to be in poverty than people who are with other occupations in the sample sites. Although published literature widely associates ASM with vulnerability, the data demonstrate that a regular income from gold mining may also reduce vulnerability within mining households. Production from diamond mining is too sporadic to provide a dependable income to buffer households against vulnerability to livelihood shocks. The issue of vulnerability is complex, however, because peoples access to a mineral claim, and capacity to securely exploit and develop that claim, affects their ability to attain livelihood security.
Page 163 of 224
IN ADDITION TO BENEFITING MANY, THE DOWNSIDES OF ARTISANAL MINING ARE BEING ADDRESSED THROUGH LEGAL REFORMS. Lei Shen [Institute of Geographic Sciences and Natural Resource Research], Tao Dai [Department of Mining Engineering, University of British Columbia], and Aaron James Gunson [Communities and Small-Scale Mining Regional Network in China], "Small-scale mining in China: Assessing recent advances in the policy and regulatory framework." Resources Policy 34 (2009). Artisanal and small-scale mining (ASM) has long proved to be economically important in many countries (Davidson, 1993; Shen and Gunson, 2006). From a structural and technical perspective, the sector encompasses rudimentary operations extracting valuable minerals from primary and secondary ore bodies, using basic tools such as picks and shovels, and occasionally, mechanized equipment (Kambani, 2003), and is characterized by the lack of long-term mine planning and control. It can be illegal or legal, formal or informal and can include everything from individual gold panners to operations employing thousands of people (Hilson, 2002). The sector has provided millions of people with employment around the world while also contributing to national mineral exports and foreign exchange earnings. There is, however, an obvious need to address many negative aspects arising from ASM, including environmental damage (Crispin, 2003), an appal- ling mine safety record, low recovery of resources (Heemskerk, 2001), negative heath and social impacts on local communities, and widespread illegal mining. A clear and effective legal structure for ASM is necessary to mitigate these impacts (Maponga and Ngorima, 2003). Over the years, formal and informal international groups have drawn up agendas, guidelines and programs for effective regulation (Labonne, 1994), but few governments have implemented them with any measure of sustained success (Bugnosen, 1998). One obstacle is that small- scale mining requires a simple system of laws and regulations (Andrews-Speed et al., 2003a, b, c), in addition to institutional support from the government to implement these laws and regulations. Two good practices could be found in the cases of Colombia and Zimbabwe. The Colombian example shows how an intensive period of government action funded by royalties paid by large-scale mines brought great benefits to the small-scale coal mining sector in a relatively short period of time (Espinosa and Bula, 2000; Zamora, 2000). The Zimbabwean experience indicates how public pressure can impose self-regulation on small-scale mines, which reduces the cost of governmental regulation (Holl- away, 2000).
13NFL3-Environment v. Resource Extraction www.victorybriefs.com ARTISANAL MINING HAS HAD A HUGE IMPACT FOR CHINAS ECONOMIC DEVELOPMENT.
Page 164 of 224
Lei Shen [Institute of Geographic Sciences and Natural Resource Research], Tao Dai [Department of Mining Engineering, University of British Columbia], and Aaron James Gunson [Communities and Small-Scale Mining Regional Network in China], "Small-scale mining in China: Assessing recent advances in the policy and regulatory framework." Resources Policy 34 (2009). The size and importance of ASM in China developed a school of its own. In 2006, Chinas ASM sector employed more than 5 million people and produced over half its mineral production (see Table 1). ASM in China might be considered to make unique contributions to rural economic development. It could employ millions of people in often remote areas, and often invests income in other local industry promoting diversification and provides mineral and energy raw materials to areas where transportation problems might otherwise make local industry prohibitively expensive. Chinas ASM, however, has also a staggering health and environmental impact. For example, small scale coal mines in China alone have thousands of deaths from accidents each year. They might degrade surface and ground water, soils, air, and could destroy valuable deposits through poor practice. As a result, ASM in China is often thought to be illegal, employ migrant workers, and contribute to smuggling and other negative social impacts. These negative impacts resulted in capriciously strict policies and regulations on ASM in China.
13NFL3-Environment v. Resource Extraction www.victorybriefs.com GOLD-MINING IS AN INTEGRAL PART OF BURKINA FASOS ECONOMY.
Page 165 of 224
Katja Werthmann, [Department of Anthropology and African Studies, University of Mainz], "Working in a boom-town: Female perspectives on gold-mining in Burkina Faso], Resources Policy 34, 2009. The majority of Burkina Fasos citizens (more than 80%) are subsistence farmers. Besides cotton and livestock, gold constitutes a major export product. Present-day artisanal gold-mining in Burkina Faso began in the northern parts of the country around 1980 during a drought that affected several West African countries.2 Informal gold-mining gradually spread over several regions of Burkina Faso and reached the southern and western parts of the country by the end of the 1990s (Werthmann, 2000, 2003a, 2005). Today, gold-mining is pursued both as a dry-season activity by farmers and as a full-time occupation by itinerant gold diggers. Mining camps also attract providers of goods and services who are equally mobile. According to IMF estimates for the year 2006, 200,000 people were working in 200 non-industrial gold mines in Burkina Faso.3
Page 166 of 224
MINING CAMPS ARE A REFUGE FOR THOSE WHO HAVE LOST THEIR JOBS. Katja Werthmann, [Department of Anthropology and African Studies, University of Mainz], "Working in a boom-town: Female perspectives on gold-mining in Burkina Faso], Resources Policy 34, 2009. Gold-mining is a transnational phenomenon. Many gold diggers in Burkina Faso come from the neighbouring countries Niger, Mali, Ivory Coast, Ghana, Benin, or Nigeria, just as gold diggers from Burkina Faso are going to those countries. As in other migratory settings, people from one particular region sometimes form networks, associations or neighbourhoods in a mining camp. People from all walks of life come to the mining camps: farmers during the dry season, labourers who have lost their jobs, unemployed school leavers, and ex-convicts. A mining camp can have several thousand inhabitants and thus attain urban dimensions. Likewise, patterns of consumption and leisure are urban: in the shops and stalls of a mining camp, even if located in a remote rural area, one can purchase products such as bottled beer, instant coffee, white bread, cigarettes, manufactured clothing and shoes, and electronic gadgets.
13NFL3-Environment v. Resource Extraction www.victorybriefs.com MINING CAMPS OFFER A SHOT AT FINANCIAL FREEDOM FOR WOMEN.
Page 167 of 224
Katja Werthmann, [Department of Anthropology and African Studies, University of Mainz], "Working in a boom-town: Female perspectives on gold-mining in Burkina Faso], Resources Policy 34, 2009. Their reasons for coming to the mining camp emerge quite clearly from the songs they sing while they are working and are sometimes more explicit than answers to interview questions (Werthmann, 2008). These songs are based on traditional songs for work or ceremonies, but individual singers improvise new words and melodies, and the refrain is quickly picked up by their work fellows. The songs deal with some of the problems that force girls and women to look for work in the mining camps, but they also hint at the attractive factors, or satirize life in the mining camp. The problems alluded to in the songs are poverty, marital disputes, or the jealousy of cowives. In Dagara villages, girls and women work for their fathers or their husbands. They do not have independent access to land and only limited possibilities of earning an own income by selling sorghum beer, snacks, clay pots, or baskets (Wildemann, 1999a, b). Girls and women who come to a mining camp for the first time often say that they want to earn just enough money to buy something specific such as clothes or cooking pots, just as young men want to earn money for a cow or a moped.
13NFL3-Environment v. Resource Extraction www.victorybriefs.com INCOME FROM MINING CAMPS BENEFITS AFRICAN WOMEN.
Page 168 of 224
Katja Werthmann, [Department of Anthropology and African Studies, University of Mainz], "Working in a boom-town: Female perspectives on gold-mining in Burkina Faso], Resources Policy 34, 2009. A daily wage of 10001500 CFA (ca. 2.303.45$) for pounding ore may not seem much, but it is in fact more than what women can earn from the sale of bean cakes or sorghum beer on market days, or what a migrant girl would earn as a waitress in a city per day.15 Moreover, money earned in the mining camp is frequently spent on the spot, for instance for second-hand clothes. Thus, the earnings are protected from claims by household heads or other relatives who ask for help. In addition, girls and women are much less inclined than men to spend money on things that are immediately consumed such as beer, grilled meat, and cigarettes.
Page 169 of 224
MINING CAMPS ARE A PLACE WHERE WOMEN CAN BREAK FREE OF THEIR GENDER ROLES. Katja Werthmann, [Department of Anthropology and African Studies, University of Mainz], "Working in a boom-town: Female perspectives on gold-mining in Burkina Faso], Resources Policy 34, 2009. Last but not least, the gold mines as a socio-cultural milieu also attract people who were already marginalized in their communities because they do not comply with the norms. Women who refuse to get or to remain married, who quarrel frequently and loudly with husbands, relatives and co-wives, who have sexual relationships outside marriage, whose jokes are too rude, whose consumption of alcohol surpasses what is accepted, or who are otherwise beyond the norm, may feel more in tune with life in the mining camps. Women in mining camps can behave in ways that are disapproved of in their home towns or villages. In Mossi villages, for instance, even a married woman will not look at her husband directly in public, and she has to kneel down when greeting or serving him. In mining camps, men and women flirt openly, and couples are seen walking arm-inarm, or quarreling in public.
Page 170 of 224
GOLD MINES GIVE WOMEN OPPORTUNITES THAT OTHERWISE MIGHT NOT BE AVAILABLE TO THEM. Katja Werthmann, [Department of Anthropology and African Studies, University of Mainz], "Working in a boom-town: Female perspectives on gold-mining in Burkina Faso], Resources Policy 34, 2009. Women in rural areas of southwestern Burkina Faso rarely have independent access to farmland and are less involved in cash crop production than men. They are normally less educated than men and more likely to pursue informal economic activities that only yield very small profits such as the sale of sorghum beer, processed food, or pottery. For women, the discovery of a mining site near their villages may offer income generating opportunities that would otherwise only be accessible through labour migration to more distant locations. Like many young men, girls and young women are also drawn to the mining camps because they offer access to modern consumer goods or alternative life-styles. However, their motives for going to the camps and the consequences this may have are not the same as for the young male gold miners. Girls and women aim at greater economic and social independence, but if they want to return to their communities eventually, they have to take care not to ruin their reputation. However, the very fact of going to the mines may suffice to do precisely that. The decision to go to the mines is thus much more ambivalent for girls and women. This ambivalence is clearly expressed in songs performed by the Dagara girls and women who earn money by pounding ore.
Page 171 of 224
ALTERNATIVE FORMS OF EMPLOYMENT FOR YOUNG WOMEN ARE NOT AS ATTRACTIVE. Katja Werthmann, [Department of Anthropology and African Studies, University of Mainz], "Working in a boom-town: Female perspectives on gold-mining in Burkina Faso], Resources Policy 34, 2009. Banchirigha (2008, p. 36) has pointed out that alternative livelihoods promoted by government or aid agencies are often unattractive for people working in mining camps simply because earnings from mining and mining-related activities are higher. Some development organizations are introducing credit schemes coupled with training measures in mining areas in order to encourage women to pursue alternative occupations (e.g. PACT, n.d.). In at least one case in Guinea, women in fact used those credits to continue mining (Sow, 2003). As DSouza (2002) has pointed out, improving informal mining in order to integrate it with other measures of poverty reduction and sustainable development requires an approach that tackles all its dimension at the same time. It also requires better communication between the different actors involved: state bureaucracies, aid agencies, trade boards, miners associations, etc. Womens needs, in particular, will not be met if one focuses on one issue and leaves out others.
13NFL3-Environment v. Resource Extraction www.victorybriefs.com COLONIALISM
Page 172 of 224
THEIR NARRATIVE ABOUT ECOLOGICAL PRESERVATION FUELS COLONIALISM Molyneux and Steinberg 1995 [Maxine and Deborah Lynn, Mies and Shivas Ecofeminism: a new testament? Published Feminist Review Spring 1995 no. 49] As the opening quote of this paper suggests, narratives are essential to the way we know and understand the world in which we live. That is, narratives describe the ontological structure of the world in which we live and provide guidelines for how we know that world. Epistemological and ontological foundations are often hidden in narratives. These hidden foundations within narratives deny differences and devalue the interrelated, ongoing process of all creation if the particularity of the narrative is forgotten. That is, their (ideal) epistemological claims lose touch with the (material) ontological context in which they are made. When knowledge claims no longer claim particularity, but universality, they deny their contextuality and claim a knowledge boundary beyond which no one can see and which must be assumed rather than critically engaged.2 They then lead to hegemonic knowledge claims that centralize knowledge, agency, and the capacity for truth in the claimer of an assertion.3 In other words, they idealize the material world and all life therein and colonize that world with their own truth claims.4 Both idealism and materialism are in this sense, idealistic: all reality is made to fit one, human, eco -socially located explanation. Or, put another way, both are reductionistic: they try to reduce all reality to a human idea(l). Contrarily, epistemological and ontological narratives that recognize the postfoundational, contextual nature of knowledge often recognize and respect differences and particularity precisely because they focus on the contexts of knowledge (thereby exposing foundations as partial rather than universal).5 These epistemologies are more conducive to knowledge claims about ontology that recognize agency (and thus value) in the other and lead to understandings of truth as a communicative and dialogical process (rather than a monological claim). That is, through a dialogical process, these claims remain open to the evolving material world and others knowledge claims therein. They value both the material and the ideal aspects of life. Furthermore, by acknowledging the tentative nature between knowing and reality, these postfoundational knowledge claims require us to take responsibility for our knowledge assertions and our actions based on these knowledge assertions.6 These narratives, then, have implications for anthropology and ethics. Many postcolonial, feminist, mujerista, latina/o, womanist, and other critical discourses share in this form of epistemological/ontological respect of diversity and taking responsibility for knowledge claims. These critical discourses have uncovered the hidden assumptions about race, class, gender, in hegemonic narratives. Why, then, do I focus on social/ist ecofeminism?7 Social/ist ecofeminist epistemologies/ontologies inherently focus on the relationships among human beings (gender, race, class, etc.), and on the relationships between humans and the rest of the natural world. That is, they see humans as part of the rest of the natural world and not as an exception to the rest of the natural world. Although the ecofeminists whose work I examine can be grouped under the category of social/ist ecofeminism, they are by no means a homogeneous group of thinkers. What does unite them is a respect for the agential capacities and value of all life on the planet along with respect for the inherent diversity of life on the planet. Likewise, they claim that nature-culture, self-other, conscious-matter are coconstitutive, constructed categories. A view of nature can be seen as a projection of human perceptions of self and society onto the cosmos. Conversely, theories about nature have historically been interpreted as containing implications about the way individuals or social groups behave or ought to behave.8 For humans, there is no getting outside the textof nature -culture.9 These social/ist ecofeminists challenge foundationalism that asserts a one-to-one relationship between thought and reality, and nonfoundationalism that claims that all reality is made through language systems alone. In layers of history, layers of biolo gy, layers of natureculture, complexity is the name of our game.10 Rather than a Platonic (and in many cases Christian) valuing of the ideal over the material or a physicalist reduction of the ideal to the material (which is also an idealism, if one considers that reality is idealmaterial), these ecofeminists assert that nature-culture, ideal-material, mindbody, spirit-flesh, are the starting points for reflection on the
Page 173 of 224
world in which we humans live. This is the exact type of starting point, for instance, that Rosemary Ruether suggests in the title (and content) of her book Gaia (earth/material) and God (ideal/prophetic).11 It is what I am referring to in this article as a social/ist ecofeminist ecoontology. Far from being relativists, these ecofeminists argue that human beings must take responsibility for our beliefs about the world and the actions that ensue from those beliefs. Neither universality (a form of hyperidealism) nor relativity (also a form of hyperidealism) allow for this type of epistemic responsibility. Relativism and totalization are both god tricks promising vision from everywhere and nowhere equally and fully.12 Both universality and relativity lead to a denial of the eco-social contextual subject. If one posits no foundation, then neither relativity nor universality makes any sense; rather, contextuality is the name of the game. For ecofeminists, the ecological is just as important as the social/historical when talking about epistemological locatedness: There is no epistemic process to which we have access that is not a matter of embodiment within an ecological niche.13
Page 174 of 224
WESTERN RHETORIC ABOUT ENVIRONMENTAL PROTECTION FEEDS COLONIALISM Smith 97 [Andy Smith, Ecofeminism through an anti-colonial framework, published in Ecofeminism: Women, Culture, Nature, pgs. 21-47] For Native American women, sexism oppression often seems secondary to colonial oppression. As Lorelei Means states, We are American Indian women, in that order. We are oppressed, first and foremost, as American Indians, as peoples colonized by the United States of America, not as women. As Indians, we can never forget that. Our survival, the survival of every one of us-man, woman and child-as Indians depends on it. Decolonization is the agenda, the whole agenda, and until it is accomplished, it is the only agenda that counts for American Indians.5 Many Native women completely dismiss feminism in light of colonization.6 I do not necessarily see one oppression as more important than others. However, most Native women probably feel the impact of colonization on our everyday lives more than other forms of oppression. One reason why colonization seems to be the primary issue for Native women is that most forms of oppression did not exist in most Native societies prior to colonization.7 As Paula Gunn Allen and Annette Jaimes have shown, prior to colonization, Indian societies were not male dominated. Women served as spiritual, political, and military leaders. Many societies were matrilineal and matrilocal. Violence against women and children was unheard of. Although there existed at division of labor between women and men, women's labor and men's labor were accorded similar status. Environmental destruction also did not exist in Indian societies. As Winona LaDuke states, Traditionally, American Indian women were never subordinate to men. Or vice versa, for that matter. What native societies have always been about is achieving balance in all things, gender relations no less than any other. Nobody needs to tell us how to do it. We've had that all worked out for thousands for years. And, left to our own devices, that's exactly how we'd be living right now.8 With colonization begins the domination of women and the domination of nature. As Allen argues, subjugating Indian women was critical in our colonizers' efforts to subjugate Indian societies as a whole: "The assault on the system of woman power requires the replacing of a peaceful, nonpunitive, nonauthoritarian social system wherein women wield power by making social life easy and gentle with one based on child terrorization, male dominance and submission of women to male authority."9 Other women, particularly white women, may not experience colonization as a primary form of oppression to the degree that Native women do. However, I do believe it is essential that ecofeminist theory more seriously grapple with the issues of colonization, particularly the colonization of Native lands, in its analysis of oppression. One reason why this is necessary is because Native lands are the site of the most environmental destruction that takes place in this country. About 60 percent of the energy resources (i.e., coal, oil, uranium) in this country are on Indian land. 10 In addition, 100 percent of uranium production takes place on or near Indian land.11 In the areas where there is uranium mining, such as Four Corners and the Black Hills, Indian people face skyrocketing incidents of radiation poisoning and birth defects.12 Many Navajo traditionalists are speculating that the "mystery virus" that is afflicting people in Arizona may be related to the uranium tailings left by mining companies. They think that the uranium has poisoned rats in the area.13 Children growing up in this area are developing ovarian and testicular cancers at fifteen times the national average.14 Indian women on Pine Ridge experience a miscarriage rate six times higher than the national average.15 Native reservations are often targeted for toxic waste dumps, since companies do not have to meet the same EPA standards that they do on other lands.16 Over fifty reservations have been targeted for waste dumps.17 In addition, military and nuclear testing takes place on Native lands. For instance, there have been at least 650 nuclear explosions on Shoshone land at the Nevada test site. Fifty percent of the underground tests have leaked radiation into the atmosphere.18 At the historic People of Color Environmental Summit held in October 1991 in Washington, D.C., Native people from across the country reported the environmental destruction taking place on Indian lands through resource development. The Yakima people in Washington State stated that nuclear wastes coming from the Hanford nuclear reactor had been placed in such unstable containers that they were now leaking, and they believed that their underground water was contaminated. They said it would cost $150 billion to clean up these wastes,19 and plans were being made to relocate the wastes to a repository on Yucca Mountain, where the Shoshone live, at a cost of
Page 175 of 224
$3.25 billion. Yucca Mountain is on an active volcanic zone. Kiloton bombs are also exploded nearby, thus increasing the risks of radioactive leakage.20 The Inuit of Canada reported that NATO war exercises had been wreaking environmental havoc where they live. The 8,000 low-level flights that had already taken place over Inuit land had created so much noise from sonic booms that it had disrupted the wildlife and impaired the hearing of the Inuit. Furthermore, oil falling from the jets had poisoned the water supply. The Shoshone reported that low-level flying also takes place over their land. One man was killed when his horse threw him because it was frightened by the noise of the jets. They reported that the flying had been scheduled to take place over the cattle range until the Humane Society interceded, saying this would be inhumane treatment of the cattle. Consequently, the war exercises were redirected to take place over Indian people instead. The delegates all reported that they were having an exceedingly difficult time in getting the U.S. government to acknowledge the effects of radiation on their people, despite the obvious and widespread effects in the region. If the United States recognizes one case of radioactive poisoning, it will have to recognize thousands. 21 Because Native people suffer the brunt of environmental destruction, it is incumbent upon ecofeminist theorists to analyze colonization as a fundamental aspect of the domination of nature. This is true not just because we should all be concerned about the welfare of Native people but also because what befalls Native people will eventually affect everyone. Radiation will not stay nicely packaged on Indian land it will eventually affect all of the land.
13NFL3-Environment v. Resource Extraction www.victorybriefs.com COLONIALITY NATURALIZES VIOLENCE
Page 176 of 224
Maldonado-Torres 2008 [Nelson. Against War : Views from the Underside of Modernity Durham, NC, USA: Duke University Press, 2008. p 215-217 http://site.ebrary.com/lib/utexas/Doc?id=10217191&ppg=52] Dussel, Quijano, and Wynter lead us to the understanding that what happened in the Americas was a transformation and naturalization of the non-ethics of war which represented a sort of exception to the ethics that regulate normal conduct in Christian countries into a more stable and long-standing reality of damnation, and that this epistemic and material shift occurred in the colony. Damnation, life in hell, is colonialism: a reality characterized by the naturalization of war by means of the naturalization of slavery, now justified in relation to the very constitution of people and no longer solely or principally to their faith or belief. That human beings become slaves when they are vanquished in a war translates in the Americas into the suspicion that the conquered people, and then non-European peoples in general, are constitutively inferior and that therefore they should assume a position of slavery and serfdom. Later on, this idea would be solidified with respect to the slavery of African peoples, achieving stability up to the present with the tragic reality of different forms of racism. Through this process, what looked like a state of exception in the colonies became the rule in the modern world. However, deviating from Giorgio Agambens diagnosis, one must say that the colony long before the concentration camp and the Nazi politics of extermination served as the testing ground for the limits and possibilities of modernity, thereby revealing its darkest secrets.61 It is race, the coloniality of power, and its concomitant Eurocentrism (and not only national socialisms or expressed forms of fascism) that allow the state of exception to continue to define ordinary relations in this, our so -called postmodern world. Race emerges within a permanent state of exception where forms of behavior that are legitimate in war become a natural part of the ordinary way of life. In that world, an otherwise extraordinary affair becomes the norm and living in it requires extraordinary effort.62 In the racial/ colonial world, the hell of war becomes a condition that defines the reality of racialized selves, which Fanon referred to as the damns de la terre (condemned of the earth). The damn (condemned) is a subject who exists in a permanent hell, and as such, this figure serves as the main referent or liminal other that guarantees the continued affirmation of modernity as a paradigm of war. The hell of the condemned is not defined by the alienation of colonized productive forces, but rather signals the dispensability of racialized subjects, that is, the idea that the world would be fundamentally better without them. The racialized subject is ultimately a dispensable source of value, and exploitation is conceived in this context as due torture, and not solely as the extraction of surplus value. Moreover, it is this very same conception that gives rise to the particular erotic dynamics that characterize the relation between the master and its slaves or racialized workers. The condemned, in short, inhabit a context in which the confrontation with death and murder is ordinary. Their hell is not simply other people, as Sartre would have put it at least at one point but rather racist perceptions that are responsible for the suspension of ethical behavior toward peoples at the bottom of the color line. Through racial conceptions that became central to the modern self, modernity and coloniality produced a permanent state of war that racialized and colonized subjects cannot evade or escape. The modern function of race and the coloniality of power, I am suggesting here, can be understood as a radicalization and naturalization of the non-ethics of war in colonialism.63 This non-ethics included the practices of eliminating and enslaving certain subjects for example, indigenous and black as part of the enterprise of colonization. From here one could as well refer to them as the death ethics of war. War, however, is not only about killing or enslaving; it also includes a particular treatment of sexuality and femininity: rape. Coloniality is an order of things that places people of color within the murderous and rapist view of a vigilant ego, and the primary targets of this rape are women. But men of color are also seen through these lenses and feminized, to become fundamentally penetrable subjects for the ego conquiro. Racialization functions through gender and sex, and the ego conquiro is thereby constitutively a phallic ego as well.64 Dussel, who presents this thesis of the phallic character of the ego cogito, also makes links, albeit indirectly, with the reality of war. And thus, in the beginning of modernity, before Descartes discovered . . . a terrifying anthropological dualism in Europe, the Spanish conquistadors arrived in America. The phallic
Page 177 of 224
conception of the European-medieval world is now added to the forms of submission of the vanquished Indians. Males, Bartolom de las Casas writes, are reduced through the hardest, most horrible, and harshest serfdom; but this only occurs with those wh o have remained alive, because many of them have died; however, in war typically they only leave alive young men (mozos) and women.65 The indigenous people who survive the massacre or are left alive have to contend with a world that considers them to be dispensable. And since their bodies have been conceived of as inherently inferior or violent, they must be constantly subdued or civilized, which requires renewed acts of conquest and colonization. The survivors continue to live in a world defined by war, and this situation is peculiar in the case of women. As T. Denean SharpleyWhiting and Rene T. White put it in the preface to their anthology Spoils of War: Women of Color, Cultures, and Revolutions: A sexist and/or racist patriarchal culture and order posts and attempts to maintain, through violent acts of force if necessary, the subjugation and inferiority of women of color. As Joy James notes, its explicit, general premise constructs a conceptual framework of male [and/or white] as normative in order to enforce a political [racial, economic, cultural, sexual] and intellectual mandate of male [and/or white] as superior. The warfront has always been a feminized and colored space for women of color. Their experiences and perceptions of war, conflict, resistance, and struggle emerge from their specific racial-ethnic and gendered locations. Inter arma silent leges: in time of war the law is silent, Walzer notes. Thus, this volume operates from the premise that war has been and is presently in our midst.66 The links between war, conquest, and the exploitation of womens bodies are hardly accidental. In his study of war and gender, Joshua Goldstein argues that conquest usually proceeds through an extension of the rape and exploitation of women in wartime.67 He argues that to understand conquest, one needs to examine: 1) male sexuality as a cause of aggression; 2) the feminization of enemies as symbolic domination; and 3) dependence on the exploitation of womens labor including reproduction.68 My argument is, first, that these three elements came together in a powerful way in the idea of race that began to emerge in the conquest and colonization of the Americas. My second point is that through the idea of race, these elements exceed the activity of conquest and come to define what from that point on passes as the idea of a normal world. As a result, the phenomenology of a racial context resembles, if it is not fundamentally identical to, the phenomenology of war and conquest. Racism posits its targets as racialized and sexualized subjects that, once vanquished, are said to be inherently servile and whose bodies come to form part of an economy of sexual abuse, exploitation, and control. The coloniality of power cannot be fully understood without reference to the transformation and naturalization of war and conquest in modern times. Hellish existence in the colonial world carries with it both the racial and the gendered aspects of the naturalization of the non-ethics of war. Killability and rapeability are inscribed into the images of colonial bodies and deeply mark their ordinary existence. Lacking real authority, colonized men are permanently feminized and simultaneously represent a constant threat for whom any amount of authority, any visible trace of the phallus is multiplied in a symbolic hysteria that knows no limits.69 Mythical depiction of the black mans penis is a case in point: the black man is depicted as an aggressive sexual beast who desires to rape women, particularly white women. The black woman, in turn, is seen as always already sexually available to the rapist gaze of the white, and as fundamentally promiscuous. In short, the black woman is seen as a highly erotic being whose primary function is fulfilling sexual desire and reproduction. To be sure, any amount of penis in either one represents a threat, but in his most familiar and typical forms the black man represents the act of raperapingwhile the black woman is seen as the most legitimate victim of rapebeing raped. In an antiblack world black women appear as subjects who deserve to be raped and to suffer the consequences in terms of a lack of protection from the legal system, sexual abuse, and lack of financial assistance to sustain themselves and their families just as black men deserve to be penalized for raping, even without having committed the act. Both raping and being raped are attached to blackness as if they form part of the essence of black folk, who are seen as a dispensable population. Black bodies are seen as excessively violent and erotic, as well as being the legitimate recipients of excessive violence, erotic and otherwise.70 Killability and rapeability are part of their essence, understood in a phenomenological way. The essence of blackness in a coloni al anti-black world is part of a larger context of meaning in which the death ethics of war gradually becomes a constitutive part of an allegedly normal world. In its modern racial and colonial connotations and uses, blackness
Page 178 of 224
is the invention and the projection of a social body oriented by the death ethics of war.71 This murderous and raping social body projects the features that define it onto sub-Others in order to be able to legitimate the same behavior that is allegedly descriptive of them. The same ideas that inspire perverted acts in war particularly slavery, murder, and rape are legitimized in modernity through the idea of race and gradually come to be seen as more or less normal thanks to the alleged obviousness and non-problematic character of black slavery and anti-black racism. To be sure, those who suffer the consequences of such a system are primarily blacks and indigenous peoples, but it also deeply affects all of those who appear as colored or close to darkness. In short, this system of symbolic representations, the material conditions that in part produce and continue to legitimate it, and the existential dynamics that occur therein (which are also at the same time derivative and constitutive of such a context) are part of a process that naturalizes the non-ethics or death ethics of war. Sub-ontological difference is the result of such naturalization and is legitimized through the idea of race. In such a world, ontology collapses into a Manicheanism, as Fanon suggested.72
Page 179 of 224
THE ALTERNATIVE IS TO RESIST ECO-COLONIALISM AT THE LEVEL OF THOUGHT Mignolo 09 (Walter, Professor of literature-Duke University, Ph.D. from the Ecole des Hautes Etudes, academic director of Duke in the Andes, an interdisciplinary program in Latin American and Andean Studies in Quito, Ecuador at Pontificia Universidad Catlica del Ecuador and the Universidad Politcnica Salesiana, Epistemic Disobedience, Independent Thought and De Colonial Freedom ,Theory, Culture & Society 2009) ONCE UPON a time scholars assumed that the knowing subject in the disciplines is transparent, disincorporated from the known and untouched by the geo-political configuration of the world in which people are racially ranked and regions are racially configured. From a detached and neutral point of observation (that Colombian philosopher Santiago Castro-Gmez (2007) describes as the hubris of the zero point), the knowing subject maps the world and its problems, classifies people and projects into what is good for them. Today that assumption is no longer tenable, although there are still many believers. At stake is indeed the question of racism and epistemology (Chukwudi Eze, 1997; Mignolo, forthcoming). And once upon a time scholars assumed that if you come from Latin America you have to talk about Latin America; that in such a case you have to be a token of your culture. Such expectation will not arise if the author comes from Germany, France, England or the US. In such cases it is not assumed that you have to be talking about your culture but can function as a theoretically minded person. As we know: the first world has knowledge, the third world has culture; Native Americans have wisdom, Anglo Americans have science. The need for political and epistemic delinking here comes to the fore, as well as decolonializing and de-colonial knowledges, necessary steps for imagining and building democratic, just, and non-imperial/colonial societies. Geo-politics of knowledge goes hand in hand with geo-politics of knowing. Who and when, why and where is knowledge generated (rather than produced, like cars or cell phones)? Asking these questions means to shift the attention from the enunciated to the enunciation. And by so doing, turning Descartess dictum inside out: rather than assuming that thinking comes before being, one assumes instead that it is a racially marked body in a geo-historical marked space that feels the urge or get the call to speak, to articulate, in whatever semiotic system, the urge that makes of living organisms human beings. By setting the scenario in terms of geo - and body-politics I am starting and departing from already familiar notions of situated knowledges. Sure, all knowledges are situated and every knowledge is constructed. But that is just the beginning. The question is: who, when, why is constructing knowledges (Mignolo, 1999, 2005 [1995])? Why eurocentered epistemology carefully hidden (in the social sciences, in the humanities, in the natural sciences and professional schools, in think tanks of the financial sector and the G8 or G20), its own geo-historical and bio-graphical locations Occidentales), that created the conditions for Orientalism; distinguished the South of Europe from its center (Hegel) and, on that long history, remapped the world as first, second and third during the Cold War. Places of nonthought (of myth, non-western religions, folklore, underdevelopment involving regions and people) today have been waking up from the long process of westernization. The anthropos inhabiting nonEuropean places discovered that s/he had been invented, as anthropos, by a locus of enunciations self-defined as humanitas. Now, there are currently two kinds or directions advanced by the former anthropos who are no longer claiming recognition by or inclusion in, the humanitas, but engaging in epistemic disobedience and de-linking from the magic of the Western idea of modernity, ideals of humanity and promises of economic growth and financial prosperity (Wall Street dixit). One direction unfolds within the globalization of a type of economy that in both liberal and Marxist vocabulary is defined as capitalism. One of the strongest advocates of this is the Singaporean scholar, intellectual and politician Kishore Mahbubani, to which I will return later. One of his earlier book titles carries the unmistakable and irreverent message: Can Asians Think?: Understanding the Divide between East and West (2001). Following Mahbubanis own terminology, this direction could be identified as de-westernization. Dewesternization means, within a capitalist economy, that the rules of the game and the shots are no longer called by Western players and institutions. The seventh Doha round is a signal example of de-westernizing options. The second direction is being advanced by what I describe as the decolonial option. The de-colonial option is the singular connector of a diversity of de-
Page 180 of 224
colonials. The de-colonial path has one thing in common: the colonial wound, the fact that regions and people around the world have been classified as underdeveloped economically and mentally. Racism not only affects people but also regions or, better yet, the conjunction of natural resources needed by humanitas in places inhabited by anthropos. Decolonial options have one aspect in common with de-westernizing arguments: the definitive rejection of being told from the epistemic privileges of the zero point what we are, what our ranking is in relation to the ideal of humanitas and what we have to do to be recognized as such. However, decolonial and de-westernizing options diverge in one crucial and in - disputable point: while the latter do not question the civilization of death hidden under the rhetoric of modernization and prosperity, of the improvement of modern institutions (e.g. liberal democracy and an economy propelled by the principle of growth and prosperity), de-colonial options start from the principle that the regeneration of life shall prevail over primacy of the production and reproduction of goods at the cost of life (life in general and of humanitas and anthropos alike!). I illustrate this direction, below, commenting on Partha Chatterjees re-orienting eurocentered modernity toward the future in which our modernity (in India, in Central Asia and the Caucasus, in South America, briefly, in all regions of the world upon which eurocentered modernity was either imposed or adopted by local Mignolo Epistemic Disobedience, Independent Thought and . . . 3 actors assimilating to local histories inventing and enacting global designs) becomes the statement of interconnected dispersal in which de-colonial futures are being played out. Last but not least, my argument doesnt claim originality (originality is one of the basic expectations of modern control of subjectivity) but aims to make a contribution to growing processes of decoloniality around the world. My humble claim is that geo- and body-politics of knowledge has been hidden from the self-serving interests of Western epistemology and that a task of decolonial thinking is the unveiling of epistemic silences of Western epistemology and affirming the epistemic rights of the racially devalued, and de-colonial options to allow the silences to build arguments to confront those who take originality as the ultimate criterion for the final judgment.
13NFL3-Environment v. Resource Extraction www.victorybriefs.com DEBATE IS A KEY SITE FOR RESISTING COLONIALISM
Page 181 of 224
Shahjahan 2011 [Riyad Ahmed, Assistant Professor of Higher, Adult, and Lifelong Education (HALE) at Michigan State University. Ph.D. at the OISE/University of Toronto in Higher Education. Decolonizing the evidence-based education and policy movement: revealing the colonial vestiges in educational policy, research, and neoliberal reform Online publication date: 22 March 201, Journal of Education Policy, 26: 2, 181 206 http://dx.doi.org/10.1080/02680939.2010.508176] Revisiting histories of colonial educational policy in schooling helps us contextualize and demonstrate how evidence-based education, tied to high-stakes testing and neoliberalism, reproduces past colonial ideologies with respect to developing colonized labor. Throughout European colonialism, schooling was not only used to colonize the minds to force cultural assimilation or acceptance of colonial rule, but also to produce a reservoir of subservient labor that would harvest and mine commodities for the imperial economy. For instance, in North America, colonial schooling introduced the concept of forced labor as part of Indian education, transforming the ostensibly moral project of civilizing Indians into a for -profit enterprise (Grande 2004, 13). In boarding schools, part of the most important feature of the colonialist curriculum was the inculcation of the industrial or Protestant work ethic (13). In the Belgian Congo, Darwins scientific racism was the dominant discourse among Belgian colonizers, and it influenced their colonial educational policy. For the Belgian government and leaders of industry, the Congolese was to learn in school a work ethos that clearly catered to the economic endeavor, and to mold the Congolese playfulness and laziness into a life of progress, orde r and discipline (Seghers 2004, 465). In Hawaii, colonial schools became less a means of religious conversion and more a site for socializing Hawaiian and immigrant children for work on the plantation (Kaomea 2000, 322). In Africa in general, Urch notes: The demand for skilled native labor by the white settlers and commercial leaders caused the colonial administrators to reevaluate the educational program of the missions. Education solely for proselytization was not considered sufficient to enable the colonies economy to expand. Government officials saw the need for an educational process that would help to break down tribal solidarity and force the African into a money economy. (1971, 252) In short, colonial schooling played a significant role in disciplining the minds and bodies of the colonized for imperial profit. Interestingly, when it came to pillars of the curriculum, what was common among many colonial environments, were religion and the legendary 3Rs [Reading, (W)riting and Rithmetic] (Sjstrm 2001, 79). These pillars of the curriculum very much parallel, with a slight change, the curriculum that is tested via PISA and TIMSS which concentrates on reading, math, and science. In the contemporary context, science has replaced the pillar of religion in the curriculum. Also, in the present context, the neoliberal economy has replaced the old imperial economy, but the objective for schooling still stays the same, which is to produce a labor force for the global economy. As Lipman points out, these accountability reforms certify that students that graduate from schooling will have [the] basic literacies and disciplined dispositions needed for a global workforce (2003, 340). International organizations such as the OECD and the World Bank, have replaced the old adage protestant work ethic of colonial schooling, with the knowledge and skills to function in the knowledge economy, such as literacy to manipulate information, problem solving, math, and science (Spring 2009). In other words, like colonial schooling, education via neoliberal reform is working towards reproducing a labor force and objectification of the colonized. Ceasires argument of thingification fits very well with the colonizi ng of bodies in neoliberal educational reform. Teachers, students, and education in general are all objectified and reduced to commodities to serve the global economy. To this end, Lipman states: Students are reduced to test scores, future slots in the labor market, prison numbers, and possible cannon fodder in military conquests. Teachers are reduced to technicians and supervisors in the education assembly line objects rather than subjects of history. This system is fundamentally about the negation of human agency, despite the good intentions of individuals at all levels. (2004, 179) Global colonialism continues with the evidence-based education movement, as education is increasingly reduced into standardized packages that can be sold in the global marketplace, while at the same time promoting a system of education that is focused on training
Page 182 of 224
a skilled workforce that will operate in the global labor market (Lipman 2004; Berry 2008; Spring 2009; Rizvi and Lingard 2010). To this end, Fanon states: I came into the world imbued with the will to find a meaning in things, my spirit filled with the desire to attain to the source of the world, and then I found that I was an object in the midst of other objects. (1967, 109). The desires and agencies of many teachers, students, and educational leaders are being stripped away, while at the same time they are turned into an object in the midst of other objects through the neoliberal logic of evidence-based education. In summary, the neoliberal agenda, currently dominant in education systems around the world, reproduces colonial educational policies. Within the evidence-based education movement, the epistemic and material are not separate but are intertwined in colonial discourse and history. As this section demonstrates, evidence-based education not only colonizes education epistemologically, but also perpetuates materialist power relations and disciplines bodies of the colonized to serve the global economy. Concluding remarks and implications [U]nless educational reform happens concurrently with analysis of the forces of colonialism, it can only serve as a insufficient Band-aid over the incessant wound of imperialism. (Grande 2004, 19) Grande eloquently summarizes the intention behind this article, which is to offer a conceptual map linking events of the colonial past with a present movement that continues to perpetuate colonial discourses and practices within educational policy. My hope is that the analysis presented in this paper provides an alteration in terms on what is unsaid or left out in educational policy and bolsters a critical analysis of power in educational policy. I argue in this paper that the evidence-based education movement is very much tied to multiple colonial discourses, which can be traced back to a colonial history that has simply been ignored in the literature. In other words, this article challenges us to move beyond the confines of Eurocentrism and historical amnesia to critically examine evidence-based education and to contextualize this movement within colonial discourses and histories. It is my hope that this article demonstrates the usefulness of the anticolonial lens in examining educational policy. This framework foregrounds the intersections between knowledge, power, Eurocentrism, colonial history, and political economy, in educational policy. The epistemic, cultural, and material perspectives in anticolonial thought are applicable to policy analysis. This is evident in the way that educational research, evidence, curriculum, and learning outcomes are being defined and re-imagined in evidence-based education, as these are ultimately shaped by material relations of power that are colonizing. For instance, common to any colonial discourse is the rationale for purifying administration in the name of efficiency, and a binaristic civilizing narrative is used in this regard. By naming and representing education as a field in chaos, evidencebased education proponents, with good intentions, are justifying actions and measures to make education systems more evidencebased and in turn standardize and rationalize complex educational processes. As this paper demonstrates, many proponents of evidence-based education profess an educational policy with the intention of improving learning for all students (which may be their full intent), but their discourse continues to perpetuate colonized power relationships. In other words, they are unknowingly striving to control and tame education through evidence-based education. An anticolonial lens also reminds us how social hierarchies and knowledge systems were used to justify colonial interventions with the objective of reshaping society in order to exploit the labor and material resources of the colonized, and allow for certain power relations to be legitimized. In the evidence-based education movement, we see the mobilization of colonial discourse with regard to the way evidence and learning is being constructed and used to purify the production of knowledge to meet neoliberal ends of education. Furthermore, the anticolonial lens reveals the commodification, objectification, and dehumanization of bodies and knowledge systems in colonial processes. This article demonstrates how this thingification occurs in evidence-based education for teachers, students, and educational leaders. An anticolonial lens cannot separate the political economy from the epistemic issues. To this end, this paper demonstrates how evidence-based education is part of a neoliberal agenda which is also tied to global colonialism and the production of colonized labor. In short, an anticolonial lens helps to bring forward the socialhistoricalpolitical processes that stem from colonial relations of power and informs contemporary knowledge production, validation, and dissemination in educational policy. An anticolonial lens also stresses that colonial discourses and material relations of power are not absolute, and that the colonized also have discursive and material agency. To this end, one of the limitations of my analysis is
Page 183 of 224
that it overlooks the agency among the colonized, and has presented evidence-based education as a monolithic discourse with homogenizing effects, rather than a partial discourse that is contested and lived differently from its intentions. Historically, and in present contexts, imperialism and colonialism were never monolithic or unidirectional, and the boundaries between colonizers and colonized were not clearly demarcated (see Cooper and Stoler 1997; Young 2001; Bush 2006). Similarly, evidence-based education is not an absolute, unidirectional discourse. From an anticolonial lens, we need to look for those sites of resistance and discrepancies to highlight the limitations/ inequities of evidence-based education and bring those struggles to the foreground. To this end, I will now discuss some examples of the tensions and resistances to evidence-based education. For instance, in Canada, the British Columbia Teachers Federation has led a campaign to resist the Foundations Skills Assessment instituted by the provincial government (http://www.bctf.ca/fsa.aspx). In Ontario, African- Canadian parents are frustrated with the Toronto public schooling system failing to respond to the needs of Black youth and are demanding Africentric schools from the Toronto District School Board (Adjei and Agyepong 2009). In the USA, Fine et al. (2007) describe, how schools, communities, parents, and grandparents are engaged in active resistance to such accountability measures and schooling. Chicago residents of Little Village have launched an organizing campaign for a local high school dedicated to culture, community, and activism, which culminated in a 19-day hunger strike by Latino high school students, educators, community organizers, residents, and even grandmothers. Similarly, in a California community, largely populated by migrant families, the school district, joined by nine other districts and civil rights organizations, sued the state over the improper use of English-language assessments to test English Language Learners and the sanctions they face under NCLB (Fine et al. 2007). Teachers also have the agency to interpret, disseminate, and act on the information based on such accountability policies (Lipman 2002; Ball 2003; Sloan 2007). Some teachers have left the profession as an act of resistance because these accountability trends no longer reflect their critical educational philosophy (McNeil 2000; Lipman 2002; Ball 2003). Other teachers enact resistance by subverting the official test-based curriculum. For instance, as one Chicago school teacher put it: I think that we are having a rough time, that sometimes we may lean a little bit more towards CPS policies and other times we lean a little bit more to screw CPS and focus on critical thinking skills. (Lipman 2002, 392) Some still display ambivalence towards teaching for the test for the purpose of surveillance: I have mixed feelings about it I think its how we interpret the results. If we use it to say our school is better than yours, then I dont want to do it. If we use it so that we can help the teachers program better for the kids, then that is more useful as a tool. (Canadian Grade 3 teacher, cited in Childs and Fung 2009, 9) In short, teachers, students, parents, families, and community activists have demonstrated the agency to negotiate and contest these colonial discourses in every day practice. Accountability reforms, tied with evidence-based education, depending on context, have also had multiple effects on schools and curricula, and also have critics from within. Scholars have noted how the colonizing effects of accountability reform on schooling and resistance to these reforms depend on the context and the questions of race, class, language, and localized policies (Lipman 2002, 2003; Earl and Fullan 2003; Maxcy 2006). For instance, in her study on the impact of accountability reform for four Chicago schools, Lipman notes how these schools responses to accountability are closely linked to past and present race and class advantages, the relative political power of their communities, and new forms of racialization (2003, 338). Moreover, in a significant minority of cases, high -stakes testing has led to curricular content expansion, the integration of knowledge, and more studentcentered, cooperative pedagogies, such as in secondary social studies and language arts (Au 2007). Hence, the nature of high-stakes-test-induced curricular control is highly dependent on the structures of the tests themselves (Au 2007). In summary, high-stakes testing does not produce a monolithic effect, but has heterogeneous results depending on questions of social difference and context. Furthermore, proponents of evidence-based education are not monolithic and that at least some of them are open to dialog on the issues on which we disagree (Maxwell 2004, 39). In short, an acknowledgment of the colonial historical legacy of the evidence-based education movement may help us move beyond a discourse of sameness in colonial discourse, and start thinking about the possibilities, interruptions, contestations, and resistances to the colonizing effects of evidence-based education. Recently, there has been
Page 184 of 224
growing ethnographic studies that examine such sites of resistance and contradictions at the ground level. These spaces are where future studies and dialog could focus their attention. In terms of policy and educational practice, an anticolonial lens motivates us to ask a different set of questions and re-imagine educational research, practice, and policy. For instance, what is being left out in the discussion of evidence-based education movement is the glaring systemic inequities that are privileging some bodies (students, teachers, and administrators) and knowledge systems (language, curricula, and culture) over others (see McNeil 2000; Lipman 2004; Valuenzela 2005; Maxcy 2006), that are tied to the global economy (Stewart-Harawira 2005). Rather than blaming students, teachers, and administrators for progress in public tests, and working from a deficit model, we need to shift our attention towards deploying significant material and intellectual resources to serve diverse needs and minoritized bodies (Lipman 2002, 2003), and challenge global economic systems. Furthermore, instead of looking for the pitfalls of educational practice, we could ask and explore the following questions (see Asa Hilliard cited in Lemons-Smith 2008; Hood and Hopson 2008): How does academic excellence flourish in schools attended mostly by minoritized students? How do teachers who reject the status quo and define excellence as responding to community needs, find ways to promote excellence for all students regardless of their circumstances? Student achievement at what cost [Michael Dantley, personal communication]? What ideological paradigms underlie teacher education? What is the role of teacher preparation programs in perpetuating and promoting these values of equity and social justice? Finally, in terms of educational policy, we may ask: whose cultural assumptions and histories inform such accountability systems, evidence, data, and learning outcomes? Whose notions of evidence matter most? And to whom does evidence matter most? (Hood and Hopson 2008, 418). According to Stanfield (1999) and Gillborn (2005), educational policy and research continue to impose the standards and products of White supremacy on the racially minoritized. As Stanfield states: Implicit White supremacy norms and values contribute to Eurocentric concepts and measurement epistemolog ies, techniques, and interpretations Concretely, in the United States and elsewhere in the West, it has been considered normative to consider Eurocentric notions and experiences as the baseline, as the yardstick to compare and contrast the notions and experiences of people of color. This is most apparent in designing, implementing, and interpreting standardized tests and survey instruments. (1999, 421) I would argue that we need to reappropriate evidence -based education to include a broader array of evidence, experiences, and cultural knowledges (Luke 2003, 98; see also Stanfield 1999; Valuenzela, Prieto, and Hamilton 2007). Finally, borrowing the words of Asa Hilliard III, we need to ask, do we have the will to educate all children (cited in Lemons-Smith 2008, 908), to respond to the needs, survival, self-determination, and sovereignty of their respective communities and the planet? (see also Dei 2000; Grande 2004). In an era of transnational capital, where [g]lobalized dis courses and agendasetting and policy pressures now emerge from beyond the nation(Rizvi and Lingard 2010, 1415), we need to have transnational dialogs (Mohanty 2003) on the impact of evidence-based education and neoliberal reform across borders and social institutions. This is because such transnational alliances and solidarity are needed to contest global forces informed by transnational corporations as well as international organizations such as the World Bank and OECD. What is noteworthy and rarely discussed, are the similarities and differences in the discourses and effects of evidence-based education movement across the three nation-states analyzed in this paper. Future research could speculate and study how these ideas of evidence-based education circulate and move across borders (see Rizvi and Lingard 2010). Finally, as someone who has had the privilege to teach research methodology to graduate students (including teachers, teacher educators, principals, and superintendents), I am alarmed by how many of my students grumble about standardized testing, and some even focus their research on such topics. What is also disconcerting is how many of my students have a hard time imagining research and evidence that go beyond numbers because of the numbers game they must play in their daily working lives. These trends are not a reflection of my students inabilities to see beyond numbers, but a testament to the hegemony of the structural environment that reminds them of what constitutes valid knowledge every day. Also of great concern is the speed at which educational leaders, students, and teachers are being rushed through standardized processes that leave little time for reflection, authenticity, and healing. Many of my students have shared
Page 185 of 224
these accounts in my classroom, with me in person, and in their reflection papers. For instance, one student who is currently a high school teacher commented in a recent email: The standards and objectives themselves work to eliminate any third space or anticolonial space. We read, write, process for the sole purpose of testing and not for liberation. In this regard, I propose that we need to slow down in educational practice and policy. To this end, I am reminded of t he words of Malidoma Some, an African Shaman healer, who stated while that the indigenous world looks, the industrial world over looks (emphasis added). Educators, teachers, students, and policy-makers need time, not to be given more information for decision-making or learning, but more importantly to assess what we are overlooking in educating future generations. For instance, we need more time to come together, dialog, heal, build reciprocity, understand difference, and re-imagine educational policy and practice for the benefit of future generations. It is only by slowing down that we will realize that our students, educational researchers, teachers, and administrators are not uncultivated soil, in the words of La Casas, but rather se eds with the power within to germinate on their own if they are provided the freedom, resources, and time. Slowing down is what I believe decolonizing education means in this era of neoliberal policies and transnational capital!
Page 186 of 224
WESTERN EPISTEMOLOGY IS THE ROOT CAUSE OF GENOCIDE AND ENVIRONMENTAL DESTRUCTION Breidlid 13 (Anders, Professor, Master programme in Multicultural and International Education, Oslo University College, Education, Indigenous Knowledge, and Development in the Global South, p. 18) The close relationship between Western epistemology with its universalistic truth claims modernity, and colonialism resulted in hegemonic control of epistemologies that did not have universalist pretensions. According to the Orientalist discourse, the Western worldview and epistemic foundations were rational, dynamic, civilized, scientific, and progressive. Since the Wests truth claims were indisputable, epistemologies with no universalistic truth claims were easily colonized, Orientalized, and rubbished. As Arturo Esco- bar states, the seeming triumph of Eurocentered modernity can be seen as the imposition of a global design by a particular local history, in such a way that it has dislocated other local histories and designs (2004, p. 217). The perception of non-European epistemologies and ontologies as inferior, less evolved, and primitive suggested that they were obstacles to development and modernity. Through epistemological colonization the West imposed its authority to authenticate or invalidate knowledge systems other than its own, which implied invalidation and resulted in epistemic genocide across the globe. As Griffiths and Knezevic state, Even societies that were widely recognized for their social sophistication were deemed incapable of progress without the European universalism of modernity..(2009, p. 67). The presumed superiority of Western epistemology is not a phenomenon of the past. It is mainstream thinking in the West today. Charles Taylor, for one, argues that Western superiority in weapon technology commands attention in a quite nontheoretical way ( 1982, p. 104). Employed against both the Zulu and the Ashanti in the 19th century, the effective Gatling gun helped the British to conquer these subSaharan territories with their weapons designed for mass killings. The advanced weapon technology embodied in the Gatling gun was based on what Taylor terms the superiority of Western epistemology. As stated by James Maffie: Taylors might makes right argument confounds military subjugation with philosophical refutation (2009, p. 1). Writing in the same vein as Taylor, Ernest Gellner states: The cognitive and technological superiority of [the scientific-industrial] form of life is so manifest, and so loaded with implications for the satisfaction of human wants and needs ... that it simply cannot be questioned (Gellner, 1973, 71-72). The arguments of epistemological superiority articulated by Taylor and Gellner are unmistakably written within the tradition of the hegemonic knowledge monopoly tradition, which until recently has not been seriously interrogated. Taylor openly admits that the so-called epistemic superiority belongs to the legacy of colonialism and imperialism. Other scholars, nota- bly Zygmunt Bauman (1989), claim that the Holocaust should be seen as deeply implicated with modernity, and its focus on rationality. Following a similar line of argument, Aime Cesaire (2000) noted, in his Discourse on Colonialism, that the Jewish Holocaust was not unique phenomenon in European history, but rather represented a continuation of the crimes committed by the colonial powers in the global South. With this legacy of human suffering and misery, there is an urgent need to question the epistemological assumptions of Western science and technology. The urgency of this query is also related to the contemporary ecological degradation of the planet, where Western science is the major accomplice and culprit. Clearly global warming, paradoxically evidenced by the best Western scientists in the world, challenges the epistemological and scientific superiority claim of Taylor, implying that the same scientists who work within the Western scientific framework question some of its major consequences. The price paid for the blessings of scientific progress has been high in terms of ecological devastation and destruction. Nevertheless, the epistemic penetration of Western hegemony has been so successful that it seems difficult to perceive alternatives or supplements to Western epistemic domination. In the next subsection the universality and truth claims of Western scientific research and epistemology are discussed.
Page 187 of 224
RESISTING COLONIALISM IS THE ONLY WAY TO GIVE MEANING TO YOUR BALLOT Harzenski 2003 professor of law at Temple Law School [sharon, post-colonial studies: terrorism, a history, stage two, temple international and comparative law journal, fall, 2003, 17 temp. Int'l & comp. L.j. 351,] Michel Foucault tells us that even as a child he knew that knowledge could "do nothing for transforming the world."n318 Two years before his death he expressed continuing confidence in his early perception. His personal experience had led him to conclude that knowledge could do nothing for us and that political power might destroy us. n319 Yet Foucault was not decrying the personal search for knowledge that mapped his life. The knowledge that could do nothing to transform the world was not so powerless when it came to transforming the self.n320 This transformation of self through one's own knowledge is what Foucault refers to as an aesthetic, n321 and what he identifies as a personal ethic. n322 According to Foucault, we are required to build our own ethics out of our examination of the world of our experience subjected to our search for knowledge. n323 In his case, as in mine, what was learned in this process of examination and reflection is that we risk dominating others or exercising a tyrannical power over them when we carelessly, inattentively, or indulgently take care of self so that we, our personalities, become enslaved to desire and/or fear.n324 Inverting that statement to reflect the history unveiled in this paper, when fear or desire, a compulsion to control, or greed energizes action that action is already corrupted. In our personal lives, we must learn to manage ourselves appropriately, we must learn to behave independently in relation to external events and responsibly in relation to our emotions. n325 An individual who justifies imposing her wishes and designs on others is overreaching. As Aime Cesaire taught us, a society that justifies imposing itself and its values, its wishes and designs, on others, regardless of the justification, is sick, is morally diseased. n326 What I attempted to do in this paper is document a few of the facts of a process of imposition and overreaching that lasted for centuries and shaped the world we share presently. And, because the process shaped the world, it shaped the world's inhabitants. In the simplest possible terms, that means each of us is shaped by the forces of that process. Our lives and our relationships are shaped by that process. Our realities, our perceptions, our beliefs and values, and the way we think about ourselves and others are shaped by that process. To end this paper I want to tell one more story. [*406] And, the story I want to tell comes out of my recent life and is shared with you as a testament to the shaping I have been speaking about.
Page 188 of 224
USE THE BALLOT TO SIGNAL RESISTANCE TO COLONIAL KNOWLEDGE STRUCTURES Escobar 10 PhD in Philosophy, Policy, and Planning (Arturo, 7 June 2010, 'WORLD AND KNOWLEDEGES OTHERWISE, Cultural Studies, 21: 2, 179 210, http://www.unc.edu/~aescobar/text/eng/escobar.2007.CulturalStudies.21-2-3.pdf) In short, the perspective of modernity/coloniality provides an alternative framework for debates on modernity, globalization and development; it is not just a change in the description of events, it is an epistemic change of perspective. By speaking of the colonial difference, this framework brings to the fore the power dimension that is often lost in relativistic discussions of cultural difference. More recent debates on interculturality, for instance in Ecuadors current political and cultural scene, deepens some of these insights (Walsh 2003). In short, the MC research program is a framework constructed from the Latin American periphery of the modern colonial world system; it helps explain the dynamics of eurocentrism in the making of modernity and attempts to transcend it. If it reveals the dark sides of modernity, it does not do it from an intra-epistemic perspective, as in the critical European discourses, but from the perspective of the receivers of the alleged benefits of the modern world. Modernity/coloniality also shows that the perspective of modernity is limited and exhausted in its pretended universality. By the same token, it shows the shortcomings of the language of alternative modernities in that this latter incorporates the projects of the non-moderns into a single project, losing the subaltern perspectives and subordinating them, for even in their hybridity subaltern perspectives are not about being only modern but are heteroglossic, networked, plural. In highlighting the developmentalist fallacy, lastly, modernity/coloniality not only re-focuses our attention on the overall fact of development, it provides a context for interpreting the various challenges to development and modernity as so many projects that are potentially complementary and mutually reinforcing. Beyond Latin America, one may say, with Mignolo (2000), p. 309), that this approach is certainly a theory from/of the Third World, but not only for the Third World. ... Third World theorizing is also for the First World in the sense that critical theory is subsumed and incorporated in a new geocultural and epistemological location.7 Finally, there are some consequences of this groups work for Latin American Studies in the US, Europe, and elsewhere. The MC perspective moves away from viewing Latin America as an object of study (in relation to which US -based Latin American Studies would be the knowing subject), towards an understanding of Latin America as a geo historical location with and within a distinct critical genealogy of thought. Modernity/Coloniality suggests that globalization must be understood from a geo-historical and critical Latin American perspective. With this the MC approach proposes an alternative to the genealogy of the modern social sciences that are still the foundation of Latin American Studies in the US. In this way, Latin American Studies in, say, North America and Europe, and Critical Social Thought in Latin America (which offers the epistemic grounding for the MC group) emerge as two complementary but distinct paradigms.8 This also means that, as an epistemic perspective, the MC research program is not associated with particular nationalities or geographical locations. To occupy the locus of enunciation crafted by the MC project, in other words, one does not need to be a Latin American nor live in the continent. Latin America itself becomes a perspective that can be practiced from many spaces, if it is done from counter-hegemonic perspectives that challenge the very assumption of Latin America as fully constituted object of study, previous to, and outside of, the often imperialistic discourses that construct it.
13NFL3-Environment v. Resource Extraction www.victorybriefs.com EPISTEMOLOGY COMES FIRST- ITS CRUCIAL TO RESIST COLONIALISM
Page 189 of 224
Escobar 10 PhD in Philosophy, Policy, and Planning (Arturo, 12 January 2010, 'LATIN AMERICA AT A CROSSROADS', Cultural Studies, 24: 1, 1 65, http://www.unc.edu/~aescobar/text/eng/escobar.2010.CulturalStudies.24-1.pdf) Despite the contradictory and diverse forms it has taken in the present decade, the so-called turn to the Left in Latin America suggests that the urge for a re-orientation of the course followed over the past three to four decades is strongly felt by many governments. This is most clear in the cases of Venezuela, Bolivia, and Ecuador; to a greater or lesser extent, Argentina, Paraguay, Nicaragua, Honduras, and El Salvador; and in the cases of Brazil, Chile, and Uruguay, which make up what some observers have called the pragmatic reformers. Why is this happening in Latin America more clearly than in any other world region at present is a question I cannot tackle fully here, but it is related to the fact that Latin America was the region that most earnestly embraced neo-liberal reforms, where the model was applied most thoroughly, and where the results are most ambiguous at best. It was on the basis of the early Latin American experiences that the Washington Consensus was crafted. The fact that many of the reforms of the most recent years are referred to as anti-neoliberal seems particularly apposite. Whether these countries are entering a post-neoliberal let alone, post-liberal social order remains a matter of debate. There is also an acute sense that this potential will not necessarily be realized, and that the projects under way, especially in their State form, are not panaceas of any sort; on the contrary, they are seen as fragile and full of tensions and contradictions. But the sense of an active stirring up of things in many of the continents regions, from southern Mexico to the Patagonia, and e specially in large parts of South America, is strong. How one thinks about these processes is itself an object of struggle and debate, and it is at this juncture that this paper is situated. Is it possible to suggest ways of thinking about the ongoing transformations that neither shortcut their potential by interpreting them through worn out categories, nor that aggrandize their scope by imputing to them utopias that might be far from the desires and actions of the main actors involved? Is it enough to think from the space of the modern social sciences, or must one incorporate other forms of knowledge, such as those of the activistintellectuals that inhabit the worlds of many of todays social movements? In other words, the questions of where one thinks from , with whom, and for what purpose become important elements of the investigation; this also means that the investigation is, more than ever, simultaneously theoretical and political. This specificity also has to do with the multiplicity of long-term histories and trajectories that underlie the cultural and political projects at play. It can plausibly be argued that the region could be moving at the very least beyond the idea of a single, universal modernity and towards a more plural set of modernities. Whether it is also moving beyond the dominance of one set of modernities (Euromodernities), or not, remains to be seen. Although moving to a post-liberal society does not seem to be the project of the progressive governments, some social movements could be seen as pointing in this direction. A third layer to which attention needs to be paid is, of course, the reactions by, and projects from, the right. State, social movements, and the right appear as three inter-related but distinct spheres of cultural-political intervention. Said differently, this paper seeks to understand the current conjuncture, in the sense of a description of a social formation as fractured and conflictual, along multiple axes, planes and scales, constantly in search of temporary balances or structural stabilities through a variety of practices and processes of struggle and negotiation(Grossberg 2006, p. 4). Latin America can be fruitfully seen as a crossroads: a regional formation where critical theories arising from many trajectories (from Marxist political economy and post-structuralism to decolonial thought), a multiplicity of histories and futures, and very diverse cultural and political projects all find a convergence space. As we shall see, the current conjuncture can be said to be defined by two processes: the crisis of the neo-liberal model of the past three decades; and the crisis of the project of bringing about modernity in the continent since the Conquest.
Page 190 of 224
FEAR OF ENVIRONMENTAL CATASTROPHE REINFORCES MILITARY CONTROL Virilio in 1990 (Paul; Popular Defense and Ecological Struggles; p. 64-7) THE SUPPRESSION OF NATIONAL BOUNDARIES AND the hyper-communicability of the world do not enlarge the space of freedom. They are, rather, a sign of its disappearance, its collapse, before the expansion of an all-too-tangible totalitarian power, a technological control over civilized societies that is growing ever more rapid and refined. Thus, step by step, we see the realization of the plan elaborated in 1973 by NATO and its "Committee on the Challenge of Modern Society," whose aim was to universally map out the circulation of persons and commodities. In March of 1978, that same NATO intervened directly in the Aldo Moro affair. Meanwhile, the reinstitution of torture in South America, the furious multiplication of kidnappings, the scandalous exhibition of Red Brigade prisoners chained in a cage during their trial in Turin, are not by chance: they restore, in midtwentieth century, the age-old image of the human commodity, degraded and reduced to helplessness by the military master. But this social treatment corresponds to a territorial treatment: on French television, a Coast Guard officer spoke about the black tide that was ravaging the Brittany coast, remarking how spectacularly beautiful it was. Thus, just as during the reign of Fascism, "the disappearance of nature" becomes "an artistic experience" for the warrior elites, and the ecological catastrophe a simple work of pathos. We must therefore get it out of our heads that the military rushes to the aid of civilians, sets up emergency medical units and encampments for disaster victims, runs airlifts and clearing operations on the sites of great natural or man-made cataclysms out of pure philanthropy. Ecological catastrophes are only terrfying for civilians. For the military, they are but a simulation of chaos, and consequently a subject of study and an opportunity for large-scale maneuvers in open terrain, beyond the constraints of national boundaries. Even better: in the state of undeclared war in which we live, this study is not only useful but indispensable, since the extreme rudimentariness of the arms and destructive means currently deployed in local conflicts deprives the military cadres of the state-of-the-art experimentation that has always constituted the concrete basis of their knowledge and pushed Headquarters to send observers out onto the battlefield. More than ever before, the experimental sciences are trying to justify an art of warfare which is becoming all the more autonomous as the political State dies out. Removed from the historical conceptualizer and from national and other ideologies, it becomes once more a pure operation, a phenomenon without true intelligence. And the haphazardness of great ecological catastrophes perfectly foreshadows what could result - on the social, economic, industrial or biological level - from a nuclear postwar which the technicians themselves qualify as unthinkable, but which they nonetheless refer to more and more frequently. This was no doubt the most frightening aspect of the American involvement in Vietnam, in which destruction stopped being simply urban or logistical, as it had been prior to this, but instead spread over the entire territory. Beyond the defoliation and relentless destruction of the agricultural environment, didn't one American general even recommend covering the entire world with cement, paving it over, to have done with popular resistance once and for all?
Page 191 of 224
THE AFFIRMATIVE SPEAKS FOR DEVELOPING COUNTRIES- ITS A FORM OF COLONIALISM Linda Martn Alcoff (Department of Philosophy at Syracuse University. The Problem of Speaking For Others Cultural Critique Winter 1991-92, pp. 5-32.) Feminist discourse is not the only site in which the problem of speaking for others has been acknowledged and addressed. In anthropology there is similar discussion about whether it is possible to speak for others either adequately or justifiably. Trinh T. Minh-ha explains the grounds for skepticism when she says that anthropology is "mainly a conversation of ùs' with ùs' about `them,' of the white man with the white man about the primitive-nature man...in which `them' is silenced. `Them' always stands on the other side of the hill, naked and speechless...`them' is only admitted among ùs', the discussing subjects, when accompanied or introduced by an ùs'..."4 Given this analysis, even ethnographies written by progressive anthropologists are a priori regressive because of the structural features of anthropological discursive practice. The recognition that there is a problem in speaking for others has followed from the widespread acceptance of two claims. First, there has been a growing awareness that where one speaks from affects both the meaning and truth of what one says, and thus that one cannot assume an ability to transcend her location. In other words, a speaker's location (which I take here to refer to her social location or social identity) has an epistemically significant impact on that speaker's claims, and can serve either to authorize or dis-authorize one's speech. The creation of Women's Studies and African American Studies departments were founded on this very belief: that both the study of and the advocacy for the oppressed must come to be done principally by the oppressed themselves, and that we must finally acknowledge that systematic divergences in social location between speakers and those spoken for will have a significant effect on the content of what is said. The unspoken premise here is simply that a speaker's location is epistemically salient. I shall explore this issue further in the next section. The second claim holds that not only is location epistemically salient, but certain privileged locations are discursively dangerous.5 In particular, the practice of privileged persons speaking for or on behalf of less privileged persons has actually resulted (in many cases) in increasing or reenforcing the oppression of the group spoken for. This was part of the argument made against Anne Cameron's speaking for Native women: Cameron's intentions were never in question, but the effects of her writing were argued to be harmful to the needs of Native authors because it is Cameron rather than they who will be listened to and whose books will be bought by readers interested in Native women. Persons from dominant groups who speak for others are often treated as authenticating presences that confer legitimacy and credibility on the demands of subjugated speakers; such speaking for others does nothing to disrupt the discursive hierarchies that operate in public spaces. For this reason, the work of privileged authors who speak on behalf of the oppressed is becoming increasingly criticized by members of those oppressed groups themselves.6 As social theorists, we are authorized by virtue of our academic positions to develop theories that express and encompass the ideas, needs, and goals of others. However, we must begin to ask ourselves whether this is ever a legitimate authority, and if so, what are the criteria for legitimacy? In particular, is it ever valid to speak for others who are unlike me or who are less privileged than me? We might try to delimit this problem as only arising when a more privileged person speaks for a less privileged one. In this case, we might say that I should only speak for groups of which I am a member. But this does not tell us how groups themselves should be delimited. For example, can a white woman speak for all women simply by virtue of being a woman? If not, how narrowly should we draw the categories? The complexity and multiplicity of group identifications could result in "communities" composed of single individuals. Moreover, the concept of groups assumes specious notions about clear-cut boundaries and "pure" identities. I am a Panamanian-American and a person of mixed ethnicity and race: half white/Angla and half Panamanian mestiza. The criterion of group identity leaves many unanswered questions for a person such as myself, since I have membership in many conflicting groups but my membership in all of them is problematic. Group identities and boundaries are ambiguous and permeable, and decisions about demarcating identity are always partly arbitrary. Another problem concerns how specific an identity needs to be to confer epistemic authority. Reflection on such problems quickly reveals that no easy
Page 192 of 224
solution to the problem of speaking for others can be found by simply restricting the practice to speaking for groups of which one is a member.
Page 193 of 224
THOUGH WELL INTENTIONED AFFIRMATIVE DISCOURSE REPLICATES COLONIALISM Linda Martn Alcoff (Department of Philosophy at Syracuse University. The Problem of Speaking For Others Cultural Critique Winter 1991-92, pp. 5-32.) (1) The impetus to speak must be carefully analyzed and, in many cases (certainly for academics!), fought against. This may seem an odd way to begin discussing how to speak for, but the point is that the impetus to always be the speaker and to speak in all situations must be seen for what it is: a desire for mastery and domination. If one's immediate impulse is to teach rather than listen to a less-privileged speaker, one should resist that impulse long enough to interrogate it carefully. Some of us have been taught that by right of having the dominant gender, class, race, letters after our name, or some other criterion, we are more likely to have the truth. Others have been taught the opposite and will speak haltingly, with apologies, if they speak at all.16 At the same time, we have to acknowledge that the very decision to "move over" or retreat can occur only from a position of privilege. Those who are not in a position of speaking at all cannot retreat from an action they do not employ. Moreover, making the decision for oneself whether or not to retreat is an extension or application of privilege, not an abdication of it. Still, it is sometimes called for. (2) We must also interrogate the bearing of our location and context on what it is we are saying, and this should be an explicit part of every serious discursive practice we engage in. Constructing hypotheses about the possible connections between our location and our words is one way to begin. This procedure would be most successful if engaged in collectively with others, by which aspects of our location less obvious to us might be revealed.17One deformed way in which this is too often carried out is when speakers offer up in the spirit of "honesty" autobiographical information about themselves, usually at the beginning of their discourse as a kind of disclaimer. This is meant to acknowledge their own understanding that they are speaking from a specified, embodied location without pretense to a transcendental truth. But as Maria Lugones and others have forcefully argued, such an act serves no good end when it is used as a disclaimer against one's ignorance or errors and is made without critical interrogation of the bearing of such an autobiography on what is about to be said. It leaves for the listeners all the real work that needs to be done. For example, if a middle class white man were to begin a speech by sharing with us this autobiographical information and then using it as a kind of apologetics for any limitations of his speech, this would leave to those of us in the audience who do not share his social location all the work of translating his terms into our own, apprising the applicability of his analysis to our diverse situation, and determining the substantive relevance of his location on his claims. This is simply what less-privileged persons have always had to do for ourselves when reading the history of philosophy, literature, etc., which makes the task of appropriating these discourses more difficult and time-consuming (and alienation more likely to result). Simple unanalyzed disclaimers do not improve on this familiar situation and may even make it worse to the extent that by offering such information the speaker may feel even more authorized to speak and be accorded more authority by his peers. (3) Speaking should always carry with it an accountability and responsibility for what one says. To whom one is accountable is a political/epistemological choice contestable, contingent and, as Donna Haraway says, constructed through the process of discursive action. What this entails in practice is a serious commitment to remain open to criticism and to attempt actively, attentively, and sensitively to "hear" the criticism (understand it). A quick impulse to reject criticism must make one wary. (4) Here is my central point. In order to evaluate attempts to speak for others in particular instances, we need to analyze the probable or actual effects of the words on the discursive and material context. One cannot simply look at the location of the speaker or her credentials to speak; nor can one look merely at the propositional content of the speech; one must also look at where the speech goes and what it does there. Looking merely at the content of a set of claims without looking at their effects cannot produce an adequate or even meaningful evaluation of it, and this is partly because the notion of a content separate from effects does not hold up. The content of the claim, or its meaning, emerges in interaction between words and hearers within a very specific historical situation. Given this, we have to pay careful attention to the discursive arrangement in order to understand the full meaning of any given discursive event. For example, in a situation where a well-meaning First world person is speaking for a person or group in the
Page 194 of 224
Third world, the very discursive arrangement may reinscribe the "hierarchy of civilizations" view where the U. S. lands squarely at the top. This effect occurs because the speaker is positioned as authoritative and empowered, as the knowledgeable subject, while the group in the Third World is reduced, merely because of the structure of the speaking practice, to an object and victim that must be championed from afar. Though the speaker may be trying to materially improve the situation of some lesser-privileged group, one of the effects of her discourse is to reenforce racist, imperialist conceptions and perhaps also to further silence the lesser-privileged group's own ability to speak and be heard.18 This shows us why it is so important to reconceptualize discourse, as Foucault recommends, as an event, which includes speaker, words, hearers, location, language, and so on. All such evaluations produced in this way will be of necessity indexed. That is, they will obtain for a very specific location and cannot be taken as universal. This simply follows from the fact that the evaluations will be based on the specific elements of historical discursive context, location of speakers and hearers, and so forth. When any of these elements is changed, a new evaluation is called for.
13NFL3-Environment v. Resource Extraction www.victorybriefs.com AT GLOBAL WARMING GLOBING WARMING IS A MYTH.
Page 195 of 224
Patrick J. Michaels, [senior fellow in environmental studies] "Global-Warming Myth", Washington Times, May 16, 2008. On May Day, Noah Keenlyside of Germanys Leipzig Institute of Marine Science, published a paper in Nature forecasting no additional global warming over the next decade. Al Gore and his minions continue to chant that the science is settled on global warming, but the only thing settled is that there has not been any since 1998. Critics of this view (rightfully) argue that 1998 was the warmest year in modern record, due to a huge El Nino event in the Pacific Ocean, and that it is unfair to start any analysis at a high (or a low) point in a longer history. But starting in 2001 or 1998 yields the same result: no warming. Science no longer provides justifica tion for any rush to pass drastic global warming legislation. The Keenlyside team found that natural variability in the Earths oceans will temporarily offset global warming from carbon dioxide. Seventy percent of the Earths surface is oceanic; hence, what happens there greatly influences global temperature. It is now known that both Atlantic and Pacific temperatures can get stuck, for a decade or longer, in relatively warm or cool patterns. The North Atlantic is now forecast to be in a cold stage for a decade, which will help put the damper on global warming. Another Pacific temperature pattern is forecast not to push warming, either. Science no longer provides justification for any rush to pass drastic global warming legislation. The Climate Security Act, sponsored by Joe Lieberman and John Warner, would cut emissions of carbon dioxide the main global warming gas by 66 percent over the next 42 years. With expected population growth, this means about a 90 percent drop in emissions per capita, to 19th-century levels.
13NFL3-Environment v. Resource Extraction www.victorybriefs.com STUDIES DEMONSTRATING THE THREAT OF WARMING ARE FLAWED.
Page 196 of 224
Patrick J. Michaels, [senior fellow in environmental studies] "Global-Warming Myth", Washington Times, May 16, 2008. Other regulatory dictates are similarly unjustified. The Justice Department has ruled that the Interior Department has until May 15 to decide whether or not to list the polar bear as an endangered species. Pressure to pass impossible-to-achieve legislation, like LiebermanWarner, or grandstanding political stunts, like calling polar bears an endangered species even when they are at near record-high population levels, are based upon projections of rapid and persistent global warming. Proponents of wild legislation like to point to the 2007 science compendium from the U.N. Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change, deemed so authoritative it was awarded half of last years Nobel Peace Prize. (The other half went to Al Gore.) In it there are dozens of computer-driven projections for 21st-century warming. Not one of them projects that the earths natural climate variability will shut down global warming from carbon dioxide for two decades. Yet, that is just what has happened. If you think about it, all we possess to project the future of complex systems are computer models. Therefore, if the models that serve as the basis for policy do not work and that must be the conclusion if indeed we are at the midpoint of a two-decade hiatus in global warming then there is no verifiable science behind the current legislative hysteria. What does this mean for the future? If warming is temporarily offset for two decades, does all the offset warming suddenly appear with a vengeance, or is it delayed? Computer models, like the one used by Keenlyside, et al., rely on positive feedbacks to generate much of their warming. First, atmospheric carbon dioxide warms things up a bit. Then the ocean follows, raising the amount of atmospheric water vapor, which is a greater source of global warming than carbon dioxide. When the ocean does not warm up, it seems that the additional warming is also delayed. All of this may mean that we have simply overestimated the amount of warming that results from increases in atmospheric carbon dioxide.
13NFL3-Environment v. Resource Extraction www.victorybriefs.com AT RESOURCE CURSE THERE IS NO EMPIRICAL EVIDENCE FOR RENTIER STATE THEORY.
Page 197 of 224
Gilles Carbonnier, Natascha Wagner, and Fritz Brugger, [The Graduate Institute of Geneva Center on Conflict, Development and Peacebuilding], "Oil, Gas, and Minerals: The Impact of Resource-Dependence and Governance on Sustainable Development", The Centre on Conflict, Development, and Peacebuilding Working Paper, 2011. There is a consensus on the positive correlation between institutional quality and the development outcome of resource extraction. Yet, authors disagree on whether the quality of institutions prior to windfall revenues is decisive or whether extractive rents deteriorate otherwise good institutions (Mehlum et al., 2006; Robinson et al., 2006; Pessoa, 2008; Sala-iMartin and Subramanian, 2003; Collier, 2007; Van der Ploeg and Poelhekke, 2010; Brambor, 2008). A recent survey of the resource-curse literature concludes: The proposition that oil abundance induces extraordinary corruption, rentseeking, and centralized interventionism and that these processes are necessarily productivity-and growth-restricting is not supported by comparative or historical evidence (...) The extent to which mineral and fuel abundance generate developmental outcomes depends largely on the nature of the state and politics as well as the structure of the ownership in the export sector. (Di John, 2011)
13NFL3-Environment v. Resource Extraction www.victorybriefs.com AT IMPERIALISM LOCAL MINERS HAVE ACTUALLY FOUGHT TO KEEP MINES.
Page 198 of 224
Anthony Bebbington et al, [Professor of nature, Society, and Development in IDPM, University of Manchester], "Contention and Ambiguity: Mining and the Possibilities of Development," Development and Change 39(6):965-992 (2008). Yet the arguments are never as simple as suggested by the emblematic examples. Indeed, within several of the cases just noted lie seeds of compli- cation. For even if the mining sector left so little behind in British regional economies, mineworkers fought to the bitter end to defend the industry and the regional cultures it had sustained. In Bolivia, mineworkers unions were among the most potent sources for progressive political change in the twentieth century. Even in La Oroya, as smelters contaminate childrens blood and teenager cancer rates chill the observers, much of the population defends the continued existence of the smelter and of the regional mining economy with which it is symbiotically linked (Fraser, 2006). Such defence of the industry that scars both landscapes and lungs is found throughout time and across space. The pacts between populations and the mining economy seem, then, Faustian in the extreme. But pacts they are, and benefits do flow in both directions, even if unevenly so. As June Nash (1979/1993) so percep- tively titled her classic study of mining cultures and political economies in highland Bolivia: We eat the mines and the mines eat us.1
13NFL3-Environment v. Resource Extraction www.victorybriefs.com A2 BIODIVERSITY HUMAN EXPANSION MAKES BIODIVERSITY LOSS INEVITABLE
Page 199 of 224
Diversitas, 10 International collaborative project with the goal of providing accurate scientific information and predictive models of the status of biodiversity and sustainability (Continuing biodiversity loss predicted but could be slowed, 10-26-10, Phys.org, http://phys.org/news/201010-biodiversity-loss.html#nRlv) A new analysis of several major global studies of future species shifts and losses foresees inevitable continuing decline of biodiversity during the 21st century but offers new hope that it could be slowed if emerging policy choices are pursued. Led by experts Henrique Miguel Pereira and Paul Leadley, the 23-member scientific team from nine countries, under the auspices of DIVERSITAS, UNEP-WCMC and the secretariat of the CBD compared results from five recent global environmental assessments and a wide range of peer-reviewed literature examining likely future changes in biodiversity. Published today in the journal Science, the analysis found universal agreement across the studies that fundamental changes are needed in society to avoid high risk of extinctions, declining populations in many species, and large scale shifts in species distributions in the future. Says Dr. Leadley, of the University Paris-Sud, France: "There is no question that business-as-usual development pathways will lead to catastrophic biodiversity loss. Even optimistic scenarios for this century consistently predict extinctions and shrinking populations of many species."
13NFL3-Environment v. Resource Extraction www.victorybriefs.com NO IMPACT TO BIODIVERSITY LOSS
Page 200 of 224
NSF, 12 National Science Foundation (Stemming the Tide of Biodiversity Loss on Earth, National Science Foundation, September 24, http://www.nsf.gov/news/news_summ.jsp?cntn_id=125495) Biodiversity research has often focused on a single dimension. For example, investigators have concentrated on the taxonomic diversity or phylogenetic history of a clade (an ancestor and all its descendants), the genetic diversity of a population or a species, or the functional role of a taxon (a group of one or more populations of organisms) in an ecosystem. Although this research has yielded important advances, huge gaps exist in our understanding of biodiversity. We know little about how these various dimensions, individually and in concert, contribute to environmental health, ecosystem stability, productivity and resilience, and biological adaptation to rapid environmental change.
13NFL3-Environment v. Resource Extraction www.victorybriefs.com ENVIRONMENTAL DECLINE WON'T CAUSE EXTINCTION
Page 201 of 224
Guterl, 2/22 executive editor of Scientific American and author of The Fate of the Species (Fred, Can Humans Go Extinct?, Slate, February 22, 2013, http://www.slate.com/articles/health_and_science/animal_forecast/2013/02/human_extinction_co uld_a_mass_extinction_kill_homo_sapiens.html)//VP Mass extinctions have happened five or six times (depending on how you count). Its a kind of wiping the slate clean and starting anew. The death of the dinosaurs and the rise of mammals came from such an event 66 million years ago, when a meteorite fell in what is now the Yucatan. Many scientists believe that there may now be a new mass extinction event under way, caused by Homo sapiens. Ever since humans fanned out from Africa and began to take over the world, many species have disappeared. The mammals that inhabited the Pleistocene until about 11,700 years agothe wooly mammoths and the saber-toothed tigersdied most likely at the hands of human hunters. The passenger pigeon, which once numbered in the billions, is gone.* The rhinos days appear to be numbered, as do the bluefin tunas, and so forth. The current rate of species loss, by some estimates, is 200 a day, but nobody knows with any precision. Whether this trajectory takes us to mass extinction is not something science can answer definitively at the moment. No extinction- humans can adapt and empirics prove Guterl, 12 executive editor of Scientific American and author of The Fate of the Species (Fred, The Fate of the Species: Why the Human Race May Cause its Own Extinction and How We Can Stop It, Bloomsbury Publishing, p. 84-85) Humans are a hardy species, and weve thrived in part because we are so adaptable to circumstances. We are capable of eating just anything and everything. In a recent study of the Sanak Island ecosystem, in Alaska, over the past six thousand years or so, huntergatherers have a unique place vis--vis other species. Jennifer Dunne, an ecologist at the Sante Fe Institute in New Mexico, has been working up a mathematical model of the Sanak ecosystem, and its apparent from her work why humans have done so well. The Sanak archipelago stretches westward from Alaska across the Pacific Ocean toward Siberia. The settlers there came over when the glaciers of the last ice age covered most of the northern hemisphere, and stayed, living off the bounty of the intertidal pools, and the seals and sea lions and fish off shore, the salmon of the freshwater streams, and bird eggs of the tundra. A quick survey of hunter-gatherers on Sanak makes it clear that they were both super-generalists and super-omnivores. As super-generalists, they ate a wide variety of different things than most other species. As super-omnivores, they ate more things at every level of the food web, from seaweed at the bottom to sea lions at the top, and just about everything in between. Dunne and her colleagues are finding that in a huntergatherer society, this quality works to the advantage of an ecosystem. Dunne has been reconstructing the seafood menu of the typical Sanak hunter-gatherer of six thousand years ago, and more generally on what all the creatures on hat menu ate. Much of this information is already in the scientific literature; what researchers dont find there they look for in the field. Theyll sweep a net through a stream to catch aquatic insects and dissect them to see whats in their guts. But data on the role of humans in the ecosystem had not been gathered before. Dunne and the other Sanak researchers went to a wide variety or sources to glean what they could about the fish and plants that Sanak hunter-gatherers ate. They talked to the archaeologists, ethnographers, and present-day Aleuts who live in the region. They dug into ancient trash heaps of discarded shells and fish bones and excrement, preserved over the millennia, for clues as to what the Sanaks ate. They took inventory of all the species that inhabit the archipelagos now and what they know existed a few thousand years ago. They found that the food system in Sanak has been remarkably stable for thousands of years, which is surprising considering how radically the rest of the world has change.
13NFL3-Environment v. Resource Extraction www.victorybriefs.com NO HUMAN EXTINCTION- WE CAN ADAPT TO SPECIES LOSS
Page 202 of 224
Guterl, 12 executive editor of Scientific American and author of The Fate of the Species (Fred, The Fate of the Species: Why the Human Race May Cause its Own Extinction and How We Can Stop It, Bloomsbury Publishing, p. 85-86) Dunne is one of a relatively new breed of ecologist who has a numbers sense. Shes an expert in the mathematical relationships that describe networks- the same mathematics that underlies social networks such as Facebook and the phone network, but also networks of plants and animals that eat each other. You can look at food networks as a simple hierarchy, with plankton at the bottom and humans at the top, but those simple food webs dont describe the real world very well. Humans, for instance, feed at all levels. We eat predators at the top, plants at the bottom (think seaweed), and even fungus (mushrooms). We eat herbivores (cows) and the plants they eat (corn grass).
13NFL3-Environment v. Resource Extraction www.victorybriefs.com BIODIVERSITY IS RESILIANT- NO EXTINCTION
Page 203 of 224
Economist, 09 Multinational media company specialized in international business and world affairs information (Second Life Biologists Debate the Scale of Extinction in the Worlds Tropical Forests, The Economist, January 15, http://www.economist.com/node/12926042) A RARE piece of good news from the world of conservation: the global extinction crisis may have been overstated. The world is unlikely to lose 100 species a day, or half of all species in the lifetime of people now alive, as some have claimed. The bad news, though, is that the lucky survivors are tiny tropical insects that few people care about. The species that are being lost rapidly are the large vertebrates that conservationists were worried about in the first place. This new view of the prospects for biodiversity emerged from a symposium held this week at the Smithsonian Institution in Washington, DC, but the controversy over how bad things really are has been brewing since 2006. That was when Joseph Wright of the Smithsonian Tropical Research Institute in Panama and Helene Muller-Landau of the University of Minnesota first suggested that the damage might not be as grim as some feared. They reasoned that because population growth is slowing in many tropical countries, and people are moving to cities, the pressure to cut down primary rainforest is falling and agriculturally marginal land is being abandoned, allowing trees to grow. This regrown secondary forest is crucial to the pa ir's analysis. Within a few decades of land being abandoned, half of the original biomass has returned. Depending on what else is nearby, these new forests may then be colonised by animals and additional plants, and thus support many of the species found in the original forest. Dr Wright and Dr Muller-Landau therefore reckon that in 2030 reasonably unbroken tropical forest will still cover more than a third of its natural range, and after that date its areaat least in Latin America and Asiacould increase. Much of this woodland will be secondary forest, but even so they suggest that in Africa only 16-35% of tropical-forest species will become extinct by 2030, in Asia, 21-24% and, in Latin America, fewer still. Once forest cover does start increasing, the rate of extinction should dwindle.
Page 204 of 224
BIODIVERSITY IS A CONSTRUCT THAT NATURALIZES ECO MANAGEMENT Takeshita 2001 Science and Technology Studies @ Virginia Polytechnic Institute (Chikako, Alternatives 26, pg.259-292) This section focuses on the construct of the rhetoric of bioprospecting and the effects of its discursive powers over indigenous peoples and their affairs, starting from the analysis of the notion of biodiversity. Although biodiversity has concrete biophysical constructs, it should also be seen as a discursive invention of recent origin. 12 A popular view of biodiversity has been produced by dominant institutions such as the World Bank and the environmental NGOs and supported by G-7 countries, where biodiversity represents the threatened ha bitats of diverse, rare, and useful microorganisms, plants, and animals. Based on the recognition that these threatened habitats require protection the discourse of biodiversity conservation also offers a set of prescriptions for the conservation and sustainable use of resources at the international, national, and local levels and suggests appropriate mechanisms for biodiversity management. 13 The prevailing idea behind this notion of biodiversity is that nature should be preserved and managed sustainably as if it were resource for capital. To use political economist Martin OConnors terminology, capital has entered a new ecological phase.14 The supply -side crisis of environmental resources caused by overexploitation and the rise of social movements against environmental destruction have led to the modification of the dynamic of capitalism. Because it has become costly to treat nature as an external and exploitable domain, nature is now redefined as itself a stock of capital, and the biological m ilieu is codified as tradable goods.15
13NFL3-Environment v. Resource Extraction www.victorybriefs.com A2 DEFORESTATION STATUS QUO EFFORTS STOP DEFORESTATION
Page 205 of 224
Erickson, 13 Senior Public Relations Representative, University of Michigan News Service (Jim, Good News Blog: Protected areas successfully prevent deforestation in Amazon rainforest, University of Michigan, 3/12, http://www.rightsandresources.org/blog.php?id=1685) Strictly protected areas such as national parks and biological reserves have been more effective at reducing deforestation in the Amazon rainforest than so-called sustainable-use areas that allow for controlled resource extraction, two University of Michigan researchers and their colleagues have found. In addition, protected areas established primarily to safeguard the rights and livelihoods of indigenous people performed especially well in places where deforestation pressures are high. The U-M-led study, which found that all forms of protection successfully limit deforestation, is scheduled for online publication March 11 in the Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences.The lead author is Christoph Nolte, a doctoral candidate at the U-M School of Natural Resources and Environment. Co-authors include Arun Agrawal, a professor of natural resources at SNRE.Perhaps the biggest surprise is the finding that indigenous lands perform the best when it comes to lower deforestation in contexts of high deforestation pressure, Agrawal said. Many observers have suggested that granting substantial autonomy and land rights to indigenous people over vast tracts of land in the Amazon will lead to high levels of deforestation because indigenous groups would want to take advantage of the resources at their disposal.This study shows that based on current evidence such fears are misplaced, he said.Preventing deforestation of rainforests is a goal for conserving biodiversity and, more recently, for reducing carbon emissions in the Brazilian Amazon, which covers an area of nearly 2 million square miles. After making international headlines for historically high Amazon deforestation rates between 2000 and 2005, Brazil achieved radical reductions in deforestation rates in the second half of the past decade. Although part of those reductions were attributed to price declines of agricultural commodities, recent analyses also show that regulatory government policies including a drastic increase in enforcement activities and the expansion and strengthening of protected-area networks all contributed significantly to the observed reductions.In their study, the U-M researchers and their colleagues used new remote-sensing-based datasets from 292 protected areas in the Brazilian Amazon, along with a sophisticated statistical analysis, to assess the effectiveness of different types of protected areas. They looked at three categories of protected areas: strictly protected areas, sustainable use areas and indigenous lands.Strictly protected areas state and national biological stations, biological reserves, and national
13NFL3-Environment v. Resource Extraction www.victorybriefs.com DEFORESTATION IS DECLINING NOW
Page 206 of 224
AP, 12 (Associated Press, Amazon deforestation hits record low, The Guardian, 11/28, http://www.guardian.co.uk/environment/2012/nov/28/amazon-deforestation-record-low) Deforestation in Brazil's Amazon rainforest has dropped to its lowest level in 24 years, the government said on Tuesday. Satellite imagery showed that 1,798 square miles (4,656 square kilometres) of the Amazon were deforested between August 2011 and July 2012, environment minister, Izabella Teixeira said, 27% less than the 2,478 sq miles (6,418 sq km) deforested a year earlier. Brazil's National Institute for Space Research said the deforestation level is the lowest since it started measuring the destruction of the rainforest in 1988. Sixty-three percent of the rainforest's 2.4m sq miles (6.1m sq km) are in Brazil. The space institute said that the latest figures show that Brazil is close to its 2020 target of reducing deforestation by 80% from 1990 levels. Up to July 2012, deforestation dropped by 76%. George Pinto, a director of Ibama, Brazil's environmental protection agency, told reporters that better enforcement of environmental laws and improved surveillance technology are behind the drop in deforestation levels. Pinto said that in the 12-month period a total of 2,000 square metres of illegally felled timber were seized by government agents. The impounded lumber is sold in auctions and the money obtained is invested in environmental preservation programmes. Teixeira said that starting next year, Brazil will start using better satellite monitoring technology to detect illegal logging and slash-and-burn activity and issue fines. "Over the past several years Brazil has made a huge effort to contain deforestation and the latest figures testify to its success," said Adalberto Verssimo, a senior researcher at Imazon, an environmental watchdog agency. "The deforestation figures are extremely positive, for they point to a consistent downward trend." "The numbers disprove the argument that deforestation is necessary for the country's economy to grow," he said. "Deforestation has been dropping steadily for the past four years while the economy has grown."
13NFL3-Environment v. Resource Extraction www.victorybriefs.com NO IMPACT TO DEFORESTATION - THEIR STUDIES ARE FLAWED
Page 207 of 224
Wang, 9 Science and technology journalist (Ucilia, Deforestation: Not So Bad for the Climate? Green Tech Media, 11/4, http://www.greentechmedia.com/articles/read/deforestation-not-so-badfor-the-climate) An oft-quoted figure to demonstrate amount of emissions caused by deforestation is an exaggeration, according to a research published by journal Nature Geoscience. A 2007 report by the U.N.'s Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change said destroying forests in places such as Brazil had contributed 20 percent of the manmade carbon dioxide emissions. The figure became widely used to stress the importance of forest protection. But new research by Guido van der Werf at the VU University of Amsterdam shows that the figure should be around 12 percent (see his research page). Van der Werf said the IPCC report used wrong or outdated data. Specifically, the international team of scientists who worked on that report used figures that exaggerated the rate of tropical forest destruction. He told the U.K. Guardian: "It's a tough message because everybody would like to see forests better protected and it is difficult to tell them that carbon dioxide emissions are less important than assumed. Still, the good news of lower emissions is no bad news for the forests."
13NFL3-Environment v. Resource Extraction www.victorybriefs.com A2 ENVIRONMENTAL EXTINCTION THEIR ENVIRONMENT IMPACTS ARE DOOMSAYING
Page 208 of 224
Dutton, 1 Professor of Philosophy, University of Canterbury, New Zealand (Dennis, Greener Than You Think, The Washington Post, 10-21, http://www.washingtonpost.com/ac2/wpdyn?pagename=article&node=& contentId=A12789-2001Oct18) That the human race faces environmental problems is unquestionable. That environmental experts have regularly tried to scare us out of our wits with doomsday chants is also beyond dispute. In the 1960s overpopulation was going to cause massive worldwide famine around 1980. A decade later we were being told the world would be out of oil by the 1990s. This was an especially chilly prospect, since, as Newsweek reported in 1975, we were in a climatic cooling trend that was going to reduce agricultural outputs for the rest of the century, leading possibly to a new Ice Age. Bjorn Lomborg, a young statistics professor and political scientist at the University of Aarhus in Denmark, knows all about the enduring appeal -- for journalists, politicians and the public -- of environmental doomsday tales, having swallowed more than a few himself. In 1997, Lomborg -- a self-described left-winger and former Greenpeace member -- came across an article in Wired magazine about Julian Simon, a University of Maryland economist. Simon claimed that the "litany" of the Green movement -- its fears about overpopulation, animal species dying by the hour, deforestation -- was hysterical nonsense, and that the quality of life on the planet was radically improving. Lomborg was shocked by this, and he returned to Denmark to set about doing the research that would refute Simon. He and his team of academicians discovered something sobering and cheering: In every one of his claims, Simon was correct. Moreover, Lomborg found on close analysis that the factual foundation on which the environmental doomsayers stood was deeply flawed: exaggeration, prevarications, white lies and even convenient typographical errors had been absorbed unchallenged into the folklore of environmental disaster scenarios.
13NFL3-Environment v. Resource Extraction www.victorybriefs.com ENVIRONMENTAL DESTRUCTION DOESN'T CAUSE EXTINCTION
Page 209 of 224
Easterbrook, 3 Distinguished Fellow, Fulbright Foundation (Gregg, Were All Gonna Die!, Wired Magazine, July, http://www.wired.com/wired/archive/11.07/doomsday.html?pg=1&topic=&topic_set=) If we're talking about doomsday - the end of human civilization - many scenarios simply don't measure up. A single nuclear bomb ignited by terrorists, for example, would be awful beyond words, but life would go on. People and machines might converge in ways that you and I would find ghastly, but from the standpoint of the future, they would probably represent an adaptation. Environmental collapse might make parts of the globe unpleasant, but considering that the biosphere has survived ice ages, it wouldn't be the final curtain. Depression, which has become 10 times more prevalent in Western nations in the postwar era, might grow so widespread that vast numbers of people would refuse to get out of bed, a possibility that Petranek suggested in a doomsday talk at the Technology Entertainment Design conference in 2002. But Marcel Proust, as miserable as he was, wrote Remembrance of Things Past while lying in bed.
Page 210 of 224
MULTIPLE FACTORS MAKE ENVIRONMENTAL DESTRUCTION INEVITABLE RCF, 13 Rainforest Conservation Fund (5) Causes of Recent Declines in Biodiversity, 2013, Rainforest Conservation Fund, http://www.rainforestconservation.org/rainforest-primer/2biodiversity/g-recent-losses-in-biodiversity/5-causes-of-recent-declines-in-biodiversity) The major causes of biodiversity decline are land use changes, pollution, changes in atmospheric CO2 concentrations, changes in the nitrogen cycle and acid rain, climate alterations, and the introduction of exotic species, all coincident to human population growth. For rainforests, the primary factor is land conversion. Climate will probably change least in tropical regions, and nitrogen problems are not as important because growth in rainforests is usually limited more by low phosphorus levels than by nitrogen insufficiency. The introduction of exotic species is also less of a problem than in temperate areas because there is so much diversity in tropical forests that newcomers have difficulty becoming established (Sala, et al., 2000). a. Human population growth: The geometric rise in human population levels during the twentieth century is the fundamental cause of the loss of biodiversity. It exacerbates every other factor having an impact on rainforests (not to mention other ecosystems). It has led to an unceasing search for more arable land for food production and livestock grazing, and for wood for fuel, construction, and energy. Previously undisturbed areas (which may or may not be suitable for the purposes to which they are constrained) are being transformed into agricultural or pasture land, stripped of wood, or mined for resources to support the energy needs of an ever-growing human population. Humans also tend to settle in areas of high biodiversity, which often have relatively rich soils and other attractions for human activities. This leads to great threats to biodiversity, especially since many of these areas have numerous endemic species. Balmford, et al., (2001) have demonstrated that human population size in a given tropical area correlates with the number of endangered species, and that this pattern holds for every taxonomic group. Most of the other effects mentioned below are either consequent to the human population expansion or related to it. The human population was approximately 600,000 million in 1700, and one billion in 1800. Just now it exceeds six billion, and low estimates are that it may reach 10 billion by the mid-21st century and 12 billion by 2100. The question is whether many ecological aspects of biological systems can be sustained under the pressure of such numbers. Can birds continue to migrate, can larger organisms have space (habitat) to forage, can ecosystems survive in anything like their present form, or are they doomed to impoverishment and degradation? b. Habitat destruction: Habitat destruction is the single most important cause of the loss of rainforest biodiversity and is directly related to human population growth. As rainforest land is converted to ranches, agricultural land (and then, frequently, to degraded woodlands, scrubland, or desert), urban areas (cf. Brasilia) and other human usages, habitat is lost for forest organisms. Many species are widely distributed and thus, initially, habitat destruction may only reduce local population numbers. Species which are local, endemic, or which have specialized habitats are much more vulnerable to extinction, since once their particular habitat is degraded or converted for human activity, they will disappear. Most of the habitats being destroyed are those which contain the highest levels of biodiversity, such as lowland tropical wet forests. In this case, habitat loss is caused by clearing, selective logging, and burning. c. Pollution: Industrial, agricultural and wastebased pollutants can have catastrophic effects on many species. Those species which are more tolerant of pollution will survive; those requiring pristine environments (water, air, food) will not. Thus, pollution can act as a selective agent. Pollution of water in lakes and rivers has degraded waters so that many freshwater ecosystems are dying. Since almost 12% of animals species live in these ecosystems, and most others depend on them to some degree, this is a very serious matter. In developing countries approximately 90% of wastewater is discharged, untreated, directly into waterways. d. Agriculture: The dramatic increase in the number of humans during the twentieth century has instigated a concomitant growth in agriculture, and has led to conversion of wildlands to croplands, massive diversions of water from lakes, rivers and underground aquifers, and, at the same time, has polluted water and land resources with pesticides, fertilizers, and animal wastes. The result has been the destruction, disturbance or disabling of terrestrial ecosystems, and polluted, oxygen-depleted and atrophied water resources. Formerly, agriculture in different regions of the world was relatively independent and local. Now, however, much of it
Page 211 of 224
has become part of the global exchange economy and has caused significant changes in social organization. Earlier agricultural systems were integrated with and co-evolved with technologies, beliefs, myths and traditions as part of an integrated social system. Generally, people planted a variety of crops in different areas, in the hope of obtaining a reasonably stable food supply. These systems could only be maintained at low population levels, and were relatively nondestructive (but not always). More recently, agriculture has in many places lost its local character, and has become incorporated into the global economy. This has led to increased pressure on agricultural land for exchange commodities and export goods. More land is being diverted from local food production to cash crops for export and exchange; fewer types of crops are raised, and each crop is raised in much greater quantities than before. Thus, ever more land is converted from forest (and other natural systems) for agriculture for export, rather than using land for subsistence crops. The introduction of monocropping and the use of relatively few plants for food and other uses at the expense of the wide variety of plants and animals utilized by earlier peoples and indigenous peoples is responsible for a loss of diversity and genetic variability. The native plants and animals adapted to the local conditions are now being replaced with foreign (or exotic) species which require special inputs of food and nutrients, large quantities of water. Such exotic species frequently drive out native species. There is pressure to conform to crop selection and agricultural techniques all is driven by global markets and technologies. e. Global warming: There is recent evidence that climate changes are having effects on tropical forest ecology. Warming in general (as distinct from the effects of increasing concentrations of CO2 and other greenhouse gases) can increase primary productivity, yielding new plant biomass, increased organic litter, and increased food supplies for animals and soil flora (decomposers). Temperature changes can also alter the water cycle and the availability of nitrogen and other nutrients. Basically, the temperature variations which are now occurring affect all parts of forest ecosystems, some more than others. These interactions are unimaginably complex. While warming may at first increase net primary productivity (NPP), in the longer run, because plant biomass is increasing, more nitrogen is taken up from the soil and sequestered in the plant bodies. This leaves less nitrogen for the growth of additional plants, so the increase in NPP over time (due to a rise in temperature or CO2 levels) will be limited by nitrogen availability. The same is probably true of other mineral nutrients. The consequences of warming-induced shifts in the distribution of nutrients will not be seen rapidly, but perhaps only over many years. These events may effect changes in species distribution and other ecosystem processes in complex ways. We know little about the reactions of tropical forests, but they may differ from those of temperate forests. In tropical forests, warming may be more important because of its effects on evapotranspiration and soil moisture levels than because of nutrient redistribution or NPP (which is already very high because tropical temperatures are close to the optimum range for photosynthesis and there is so much available light energy). And warming will obviously act in concert with other global or local changes increases in atmospheric CO2 (which may modify plant chemistry and the water balance of the forest) and land clearing (which changes rainfall and local temperatures), for examples. (For an excellent discussion of these issues, see Shaver, et al., 2000.) Root, et al.(2003) have determined that more than 80%of plant and animal species on which they gathered data had undergone temperature-related shifts in physiology. Highland forests in Costa Rica have suffered losses of amphibian and reptile populations which appear to be due to increased warming of montane forests. The golden toad Bufo periglenes of Costa Rica has become extinct, at least partly because of the decrease in mist frequency in its cloud forest habitat. The changes in mists appear to be a consequence of warming trends. Other suspected causes are alterations in juvenile growth or maturation rates or sex ratios due to temperature shifts. Parmesan and Yohe (2003), in a statistical analysis, determined that climate change had biological effects on the 279 species which they examined. The migratory patterns of some birds which live in both tropical and temperate regions during the year seem to be shifting, which is dangerous for these species, as they may arrive at their breeding or wintering grounds at an inappropriate time. Or they may lose their essential interactions with plants which they pollinate or their insect or plant food supplies. Perhaps for these reasons, many migratory species are in decline, and their inability to cordinate migratory clues with climatic actualities may be partly to blame. The great tit, which still breeds at the same time as previously, now misses much of its food supply because its plant food develops at an earlier time of year, before the birds have
Page 212 of 224
arrived from their wintering grounds. Also, as temperatures rise, some bird populations have shifted, with lowland and foothill species moving into higher areas. The consequences for highland bird populations are not yet clear. And many other organisms, both plant and animal, are being affected by warming. An increase in infectious diseases is another consequence of climate change, since the causative agents are affected by humidity, temperature change, and rainfall. Many species of frogs and lizards have declined or disappeared, perhaps because of the increase in parasites occasioned by higher temperatures. As warming continues, accelerating plant growth, pathogens may spread more quickly because of the increased availability of vegetation (a density effect) and because of increased humidity under heavier plant cover. As mentioned above, the fungus Phytophtora cinnamoni has demolished many Eucalyptus forests in Australia. In addition, the geographical range of pathogens can expand when the climate moderates, allowing pathogens to find new, nonresistant hosts. On the other hand, a number of instances of amphibian decline seem to be due to infections with chrytid fungi, which flourish at cooler temperatures. An excellent review of this complex issue may be found in Harvell, et al., (2002). There may be a link between augmented carbon dioxide levels and marked increase in the density of lianas in Amazonian forests. This relationship is suggested by the fact that growth rates of lianas are highly sensitive to CO2 levels. As lianas become more dense, tree mortality rises, but mortality is not equal among species because lianas preferentially grow on certain species. Because of this biodiversity may be reduced by increased mortality in some species but not others (Phillips, et al., 2002). f. Forest fragmentation: The fragmentation of forests is a general consequence of the haphazard logging and agricultural land conversion which is occurring everywhere, but especially in tropical forests. When forests are cut into smaller and smaller pieces, there are many consequences, some of which may be unanticipated. i) Fragmentation decreases habitat simply through loss of land area, reducing the probability of maintaining effective reproductive units of plant and animal populations. Most tropical trees are pollinated by animals, and therefore the maintenance of adequate pollinator population levels is essential for forest health. When a forest becomes fragmented, trees of many species are isolated because their pollinators cannot cross the unforested areas. Under these conditions, the trees in the fragments will then become inbred and lose genetic variability and vigor. Other species, which have more wide-ranging pollinators, may suffer less from fragmentation. For instance, the pollen of several species of strangler figs (the fruit of which is an essential element in the diets of many animals) is dispersed by wasps over distances as great as 14.2 km (Nason, Herre, & Hamrick, 1998). Thus breeding units of these figs are extremely large, comprising hundreds of plants located in huge areas of forest. Isolated fig populations seem to survive and help to maintain frugivore numbers (if not diversity), so long as the number of trees within the range of the wasps does not fall below a critical minimum. Most species are not so tolerant, however. Animals, particularly large ones, cannot maintain themselves in small fragmented forests. Many large mammals have huge ranges and require extensive areas of intact forest to obtain sufficient food, or to find suitable nesting sites. Additionally, their migrations may be interrupted by fragmentation. These animals are also much more susceptible to hunting in forest fragments, which accounts for much of the decline in animal populations in rainforests. Species extinctions occur more rapidly in fragments, for these reasons, and also because species depend upon each other. The dissection of forests into fragments in certain parts of the Amazon has led to extreme hunting pressures on peccaries, for instance, and in some places where they are locally extinct, three species of frogs have also disappeared, since they depended upon peccary wallows for breeding ponds. The absence of large predator species leads to imbalances in prey populations, and, since many of the prey species are seed-eaters, to declines in the population levels of many plant species. The prey, now at high population levels, consume most available seeds, leaving few to germinate. On small islands created after dam construction on the Chagres River in Panama, even large seed predators could not survive, and after 70 years, the former mixed tropical forest has become a forest of large-seeded plants only (Terborgh, 1992b). As Terborgh states, and we should attend to this lesson, Distortions in any link of the interaction chain will induce changes in the remaining links. (p. 289)
13NFL3-Environment v. Resource Extraction www.victorybriefs.com AFFIRMATIVE IMPACTS ARE HYSTERIA- EMPIRICS REJECT ECO DOOM
Page 213 of 224
Kaleita, 07 Environmental Studies Fellow and Assistant Professor of agricultural and biosystems engineering at Iowa State University (Amy, "Hysteria's History: Environmental Alarmism in Context," Pacific Research Institute, http://www.pacificresearch.org/docLib/20070920_Hysteria_History.pdf) Apocalyptic stories about the irreparable, catastrophic damage that humans are doing to the natural environment have been around for a long time. These hysterics often have some basis in reality, but are blown up to illogical and ridiculous proportions. Part of the reason theyre so appealing is that they have the ring of plausibility along with the intrigue of a horror flick. In many cases, the alarmists identify a legitimate issue, take the possible consequences to an extreme, and advocate action on the basis of these extreme projections. In 1972, the editor of the journal Nature pointed out the problem with the typical alarmist approach: [Alarmists] most common error is to suppose that the worst will always happen.82 But of course, if the worst always happened, the human race would have died out long ago. When alarmism has a basis in reality, the challenge becomes to take appropriate action based on that reality, not on the hysteria. The aftermath of Silent Spring offers examples of both sorts of policy reactions: a reasoned response to a legitimate problem and a knee-jerk response to the hysteria. On the positive side, Silent Spring brought an end to the general belief that all synthetic chemicals in use for purposes ranging from insect control to household cleaning were uniformly wonderful, and it ushered in an age of increased caution on their appropriate use. In the second chapter of her famous book, Carson wrote, It is not my contention that chemical insecticides must never be used. I do contend that we have allowed these chemicals to be used with little or no advance investigation of their effect on soil, water, wildlife, and man himself. Indeed, Carson seemed to advocate reasoned response to rigorous scientific investigation, and in fact this did become the modern approach to environmental chemical licensure and monitoring. An hour-long CBS documentary on pesticides was aired during the height of the furor over Silent Spring. In the documentary, Dr. Page Nicholson, a water-pollution expert with the Public Health Service, wasnt able to answer how long pesticides persist in water once they enter it, or the extent to which pesticides contaminate groundwater supplies. Today, this sort of information is gathered through routine testing of chemicals for use in the environment. Ironically, rigorous investigation was not used in the decision to ban DDT, primarily due to the hysteria Silent Spring generated. In this example, the hysteria took on a life of its own, even trumping the authors original intent. There was, as we have seen, a more sinister and tragic response to the hysteria generated by Silent Spring. Certain developing countries, under significant pressure from the United States, abandoned the use of DDT. This decision resulted in millions of deaths from malaria and other insect-borne diseases. In the absence of pressure to abandon the use of DDT, these lives would have been spared. It would certainly have been possible to design policies requiring caution and safe practices in the use of supplemental chemicals in the environment, without pronouncing a death sentence on millions of people. A major challenge in developing appropriate responses to legitimate problems is that alarmism catches peoples attention and draws them in. Alarmism is given more weight than it deserves, as policy makers attempt to appease their constituency and the media. It polarizes the debaters into groups of believers and skeptics, so that reasoned, fact -based compromise is difficult to achieve. Neither of these aspects of alarmism is healthy for the development of appropriate policy. Further, alarmist responses to valid problems risk foreclosing potentially useful responses based on ingenuity and progress. There are many examples from the energy sector where, in the presence of economic, efficiency, or societal demands, the marketplace has responded by developing better alternatives. That is not to say that we should blissfully squander our energy resources; on the contrary, we should be careful to utilize them wisely. But energy-resource hysteria should not lead us to circumvent scientific advancement by cherry-picking and favoring one particular replacement technology at the expense of other promising technologies. Environmental alarmism should be taken for what it is a natural tendency of some portion of the public to latch onto the worst, and most unlikely, potential outcome. Alarmism should not be used as the basis for policy. Where a real problem exists, solutions should be based on reality, not hysteria.
13NFL3-Environment v. Resource Extraction www.victorybriefs.com ALL INDICATORS SHOW ENVIRONMENTAL IMPROVEMENT
Page 214 of 224
Lomberg 10Ph.D in pol science (4/21, Bjorn Earth Day: Smile, don't shudder; Ignore doomsday environmentalists. Things aren't so bad. And if rich countries would worry about the right things, all the better, USA Today, LexisNexis) Given all the talk of impending catastrophe, this may come as a surprise, but as we approach the 40th anniversary of the first Earth Day, people who care about the environment actually have a lot to celebrate. Of course, that's not how the organizers of Earth Day 2010 see it. In their view (to quote a recent online call to arms), "The world is in greater peril than ever." But consider this: In virtually every developed country, the air is more breathable and the water is more drinkable than it was in 1970. In most of the First World, deforestation has turned to reforestation. Moreover, the percentage of malnutrition has been reduced, and ever-more people have access to clean water and sanitation. Apocalyptic predictions from concerned environmental activists are nothing new. Until about 10 years ago, I took it for granted that these predictions were sound. Like many of us, I believed that the world was in a terrible state that was only getting worse with each passing day. My thinking changed only when, as a university lecturer, I set out with my students to disprove what I regarded at the time as the far-fetched notion that global environmental conditions were actually improving. To our surprise, the data showed us that many key environmental measures were indeed getting better. ,
13NFL3-Environment v. Resource Extraction www.victorybriefs.com NO IMPACT TO ENVIRONMENTAL DAMAGE
Page 215 of 224
Sagoff 97 Mark, Senior Research Scholar Institute for Philosophy and Public policy in School of Public Affairs U. Maryland, William and Mary Law Review, INSTITUTE OF BILL OF RIGHTS LAW SYMPOSIUM DEFINING TAKINGS: PRIVATE PROPERTY AND THE FUTURE OF GOVERNMENT REGULATION: MUDDLE OR MUDDLE THROUGH? TAKINGS JURISPRUDENCE MEETS THE ENDANGERED SPECIES ACT, 38 Wm and Mary L. Rev. 825, March, L/N Note Colin Tudge - Research Fellow at the Centre for Philosophy at the London School of Economics. Frmr Zoological Society of London: Scientific Fellow and tons of other positions. PhD. Read zoology at Cambridge. Although one may agree with ecologists such as Ehrlich and Raven that the earth stands on the brink of an episode of massive extinction, it may not follow from this grim fact that human beings will suffer as a result. On the contrary, skeptics such as science writer Colin Tudge have challenged biologists to explain why we need more than a tenth of the 10 to 100 million species that grace the earth. Noting that "cultivated systems often out-produce wild systems by 100-fold or more," Tudge declared that "the argument that humans need the variety of other species is, when you think about it, a theological one." n343 Tudge observed that "the elimination of all but a tiny minority of our fellow creatures does not affect the material well-being of humans one iota." n344 This skeptic challenged ecologists to list more than 10,000 species (other than unthreatened microbes) that are essential to ecosystem productivity or functioning. n345 "The human species could survive just as well if 99.9% of our fellow creatures went extinct, provided only that we retained the appropriate 0.1% that we need." n346 [*906] The monumental Global Biodiversity Assessment ("the Assessment") identified two positions with respect to redundancy of species. "At one extreme is the idea that each species is unique and important, such that its removal or loss will have demonstrable consequences to the functioning of the community or ecosystem." n347 The authors of the Assessment, a panel of eminent ecologists, endorsed this position, saying it is "unlikely that there is much, if any, ecological redundancy in communities over time scales of decades to centuries, the time period over which environmental policy should operate." n348 These eminent ecologists rejected the opposing view, "the notion that species overlap in function to a sufficient degree that removal or loss of a species will be compensated by others, with negligible overall consequences to the community or ecosystem." n349 Other biologists believe, however, that species are so fabulously redundant in the ecological functions they perform that the life-support systems and processes of the planet and ecological processes in general will function perfectly well with fewer of them, certainly fewer than the millions and millions we can expect to remain even if every threatened organism becomes extinct. n350 Even the kind of sparse and miserable world depicted in the movie Blade Runner could provide a "sustainable" context for the human economy as long as people forgot their aesthetic and moral commitment to the glory and beauty of the natural world. n351 The Assessment makes this point. "Although any ecosystem contains hundreds to thousands of species interacting among themselves and their physical environment, the emerging consensus is that the system is driven by a small number of . . . biotic variables on whose interactions the balance of species are, in a sense, carried along." n352 [*907] To make up your mind on the question of the functional redundancy of species, consider an endangered species of bird, plant, or insect and ask how the ecosystem would fare in its absence. The fact that the creature is endangered suggests an answer: it is already in limbo as far as ecosystem processes are concerned. What crucial ecological services does the black-capped vireo, for example, serve? Are any of the species threatened with extinction necessary to the provision of any ecosystem service on which humans depend? If so, which ones are they? Ecosystems and the species that compose them have changed, dramatically, continually, and totally in virtually every part of the United States. There is little ecological similarity, for example, between New England today and the land where the Pilgrims died. n353 In view of the constant reconfiguration of the biota, one may wonder why Americans have not suffered more as a result of ecological catastrophes. The cast of species in nearly every environment changes constantly-local extinction is commonplace in nature-but the crops still grow. Somehow, it seems, property values keep going up on Martha's Vineyard in spite
Page 216 of 224
of the tragic disappearance of the heath hen. One might argue that the sheer number and variety of creatures available to any ecosystem buffers that system against stress. Accordingly, we should be concerned if the "library" of creatures ready, willing, and able to colonize ecosystems gets too small. (Advances in genetic engineering may well permit us to write a large number of additions to that "library.") In the United States as in many other parts of the world, however, the number of species has been increasing dramatically, not decreasing, as a result of human activity. This is because the hordes of exotic species coming into ecosystems in the United States far exceed the number of species that are becoming extinct. Indeed, introductions may outnumber extinctions by more than ten to one, so that the United States is becoming more and more species-rich all the time largely as a result of human action. n354 [*908] Peter Vitousek and colleagues estimate that over 1000 non-native plants grow in California alone; in Hawaii there are 861; in Florida, 1210. n355 In Florida more than 1000 non-native insects, 23 species of mammals, and about 11 exotic birds have established themselves. n356 Anyone who waters a lawn or hoes a garden knows how many weeds desire to grow there, how many birds and bugs visit the yard, and how many fungi, creepy-crawlies, and other odd life forms show forth when it rains. All belong to nature, from wherever they might hail, but not many homeowners would claim that there are too few of them. Now, not all exotic species provide ecosystem services; indeed, some may be disruptive or have no instrumental value. n357 This also may be true, of course, of native species as well, especially because all exotics are native somewhere. Certain exotic species, however, such as Kentucky blue grass, establish an area's sense of identity and place; others, such as the green crabs showing up around Martha's Vineyard, are nuisances. n358 Consider an analogy [*909] with human migration. Everyone knows that after a generation or two, immigrants to this country are hard to distinguish from everyone else. The vast majority of Americans did not evolve here, as it were, from hominids; most of us "came over" at one time or another. This is true of many of our fellow species as well, and they may fit in here just as well as we do. It is possible to distinguish exotic species from native ones for a period of time, just as we can distinguish immigrants from native-born Americans, but as the centuries roll by, species, like people, fit into the landscape or the society, changing and often enriching it. Shall we have a rule that a species had to come over on the Mayflower, as so many did, to count as "truly" American? Plainly not. When, then, is the cutoff date? Insofar as we are concerned with the absolute numbers of "rivets" holding ecosystems together, extinction seems not to pose a general problem because a far greater number of kinds of mammals, insects, fish, plants, and other creatures thrive on land and in water in America today than in prelapsarian times. n359 The Ecological Society of America has urged managers to maintain biological diversity as a critical component in strengthening ecosystems against disturbance. n360 Yet as Simon Levin observed, "much of the detail about species composition will be irrelevant in terms of influences on ecosystem properties." n361 [*910] He added: "For net primary productivity, as is likely to be the case for any system property, biodiversity matters only up to a point; above a certain level, increasing biodiversity is likely to make little difference." n362 What about the use of plants and animals in agriculture? There is no scarcity foreseeable. "Of an estimated 80,000 types of plants [we] know to be edible," a U.S. Department of the Interior document says, "only about 150 are extensively cultivated." n363 About twenty species, not one of which is endangered, provide ninety percent of the food the world takes from plants. n364 Any new food has to take "shelf space" or "market share" from one that is now produced. Corporations also find it difficult to create demand for a new product; for example, people are not inclined to eat paw-paws, even though they are delicious. It is hard enough to get people to eat their broccoli and lima beans. It is harder still to develop consumer demand for new foods. This may be the reason the Kraft Corporation does not prospect in remote places for rare and unusual plants and animals to add to the world's diet. Of the roughly 235,000 flowering plants and 325,000 nonflowering plants (including mosses, lichens, and seaweeds) available, farmers ignore virtually all of them in favor of a very few that are profitable. n365 To be sure, any of the more than 600,000 species of plants could have an application in agriculture, but would they be preferable to the species that are now dominant? Has anyone found any consumer demand for any of these half-million or more plants to replace rice or wheat in the human diet? There are reasons that farmers cultivate rice, wheat, and corn rather than, say, Furbish's lousewort. There are many kinds of louseworts, so named because these weeds were thought to cause lice in sheep. How many does agriculture really require? [*911] The
Page 217 of 224
species on which agriculture relies are domesticated, not naturally occurring; they are developed by artificial not natural selection; they might not be able to survive in the wild. n366 This argument is not intended to deny the religious, aesthetic, cultural, and moral reasons that command us to respect and protect the natural world. These spiritual and ethical values should evoke action, of course, but we should also recognize that they are spiritual and ethical values. We should recognize that ecosystems and all that dwell therein compel our moral respect, our aesthetic appreciation, and our spiritual veneration; we should clearly seek to achieve the goals of the ESA. There is no reason to assume, however, that these goals have anything to do with human wellbeing or welfare as economists understand that term. These are ethical goals, in other words, not economic ones. Protecting the marsh may be the right thing to do for moral, cultural, and spiritual reasons. We should do it-but someone will have to pay the costs. In the narrow sense of promoting human welfare, protecting nature often represents a net "cost," not a net "benefit." It is largely for moral, not economic, reasons-ethical, not prudential, reasons- that we care about all our fellow creatures. They are valuable as objects of love not as objects of use. What is good for [*912] the marsh may be good in itself even if it is not, in the economic sense, good for mankind. The most valuable things are quite useless.
Page 218 of 224
TECH SOLVES ENVIRONMENT IMPACT- HUMANS NO LONGER NEED THE ENVIRONMENT Science Daily 10 (Science Daily, reprinted from materials provided by American Institute of Biological Sciences, September 1, 2010, "Human Well-Being Is Improving Even as Ecosystem Services Decline: Why?", http://www.sciencedaily.com/releases/2010/09/100901072908.htm) Global degradation of ecosystems is widely believed to threaten human welfare, yet accepted measures of well-being show that it is on average improving globally, both in poor countries and rich ones. A team of authors writing in the September issue of BioScience dissects explanations for this "environmentalist's paradox." Noting that understanding the paradox is "critical to guiding future management of ecosystem services," Ciara Raudsepp-Hearne and her colleagues confirm that improvements in aggregate well-being are real, despite convincing evidence of ecosystem decline. Three likely reasons they identify -- past increases in food production, technological innovations that decouple people from ecosystems, and time lags before well-being is affected -provide few grounds for complacency, however. Raudsepp-Hearne and her coauthors accept the findings of the influential Millennium Ecosystem Assessment that the capacity of ecosystems to produce many services for humans is now low. Yet they uncover no fault with the composite Human Development Index, a widely used metric that incorporates measures of literacy, life expectancy, and income, and has improved markedly since the mid-1970s. Although some measures of personal security buck the upward trend, the overall improvement in well-being seems robust. The researchers resolve the paradox partly by pointing to evidence that food production (which has increased globally over past decades) is more important for human wellbeing than are other ecosystem services. They also establish support for two other explanations: that technology and innovation have decoupled human well-being from ecosystem degradation, and that there is a time lag after ecosystem service degradation before human well-being will be affected.
13NFL3-Environment v. Resource Extraction www.victorybriefs.com NO DOOMSDAY ENVIRONMENT IMPACT
Page 219 of 224
Easterbrook 3 (Gregg, senior fellow at the New Republic, We're All Gonna Die!, http://www.wired.com/wired/archive/11.07/doomsday.html?pg=1&topic=&topic_set=) If we're talking about doomsday - the end of human civilization - many scenarios simply don't measure up. A single nuclear bomb ignited by terrorists, for example, would be awful beyond words, but life would go on. People and machines might converge in ways that you and I would find ghastly, but from the standpoint of the future, they would probably represent an adaptation. Environmental collapse might make parts of the globe unpleasant, but considering that the biosphere has survived ice ages, it wouldn't be the final curtain. Depression, which has become 10 times more prevalent in Western nations in the postwar era, might grow so widespread that vast numbers of people would refuse to get out of bed, a possibility that Petranek suggested in a doomsday talk at the Technology Entertainment Design conference in 2002. But Marcel Proust, as miserable as he was, wrote Remembrance of Things Past while lying in bed.
13NFL3-Environment v. Resource Extraction www.victorybriefs.com EMPIRICS DISPROVE ECO DOOMSAYING Ronald Bailey, adjunct scholar at the Cato Institute, May 2k, http://reason.com/0005/fe.rb.earth.shtml
Page 220 of 224
Earth Day 1970 provoked a torrent of apocalyptic predictions. We have about five more year s at the outside to do something, ecologist Kenneth Watt declared to a Swarthmore College audience on April 19, 1970. Harvard biologist George Wald estimated that civilization will end within 15 or 30 years unless immediate action is taken against problems facing mankind. We are in an environmental crisis which threatens the survival of this nation, and of the world as a suitable place of human habitation, wrote Washington University biologist Barry Commoner in the Earth Day issue of the scholarly journal Environment. The day after Earth Day, even the staid New York Times editorial page warned, Man must stop pollution and conserve his resources, not merely to enhance existence but to save the race from intolerable deterioration and possible extinction. Very Apocalypse Now. Three decades later, of course, the world hasnt come to an end; if anything, the planets ecological future has never looked so promising. With half a billion people suiting up around the globe for Earth Day 2000, now is a good time to look back on the predictions made at the first Earth Day and see how theyve held up and what we can learn from them. The short answer: The prophets of doom were not simply wrong, but spectacularly wrong. More important, many contemporary environmental alarmists are similarly mistaken when they continue to insist that the Earths future remains an eco-tragedy that has already entered its final act. Such doomsters not only fail to appreciate the huge environmental gains made over the past 30 years, they ignore the simple fact that increased wealth, population, and technological innovation dont degrade and destroy the environment. Rather, such developments preserve and enrich the environment. If it is impossible to predict fully the future, it is nonetheless possible to learn from the past. And the best lesson we can learn from revisiting the discourse surrounding the very first Earth Day is that passionate concern, however sincere, is no substitute for rational analysis.
13NFL3-Environment v. Resource Extraction www.victorybriefs.com AT CIVIL WARS
Page 221 of 224
THE LITERATURE IS INCONCLUSIVE ON WHETHER RESOURCE ABUNDANCE CAUSES CIVIL CONFLICT. Gilles Carbonnier, Natascha Wagner, and Fritz Brugger, [The Graduate Institute of Geneva Center on Conflict, Development and Peacebuilding], "Oil, Gas, and Minerals: The Impact of Resource-Dependence and Governance on Sustainable Development", The Centre on Conflict, Development, and Peacebuilding Working Paper, 2011. The civil wars in Angola, the Democratic Republic of the Congo and Sierra Leone served to support the argument that resource-rich countries are more prone to conflict than their resource-poorer counterparts (Le Billon, 2003; Collier and Hoeffler, 2004; Le Billon, 2005; Rosser, 2006). The relationship between resource dependence and armed conflict has been subject to controversies in the academic literature over the past years and there is no consensus on the precise causal mechanisms, let alone on the correlation. Many authors argue that resource dependence tends to prolong armed conflicts (Di John, 2007), and that there is a link between the quality of governance, resource richness and conflict. Teorell (2009) finds some support for the hypothesis that civil war is associated with the lack of impartial institutions. Brunnschweiler and Bulte (2008) argue that there is no evidence of a causal relationship between natural resource dependence and armed conflict, and that resource abundance is actually associated with a reduced probability of civil war. Van der Ploeg and Rohner (2010) draw another conclusion by treating re-source extraction as endogenous on the basis that fighting does affect the extraction pace. Whereas Lujala (2009) emphasizes that the location and type of resource matters, others link resource dependence and ethnic exclusion. Basedau and Richter (2011) argue that only situations of low abundance of oil per capita in combination with either high dependence of natural resources or geographical overlap of ethnic exclusion with oil reserve areas within autocracies provide conditions for the onset of civil war. We include in our model two violence indicators with data on homicides from the Small Arms Survey and on armed conflict from the Uppsala Conflict Data Program.
13NFL3-Environment v. Resource Extraction www.victorybriefs.com A2 CUBA NO CUBA OIL DRILLING
Page 222 of 224
Reuters, 12 (Drilling rig leaves Cuba, taking oil hopes with it, Nov 14, http://www.reuters.com/article/2012/11/14/cuba-oil-rig-idUSL1E8MEHET20121114) HAVANA, Nov 14 (Reuters) - The Scarabeo 9, a Chinese-built offshore drilling rig that Cuba hoped would open a new era of oil production, sailed away from the island on Wednesday, taking with it the communist country's near-term dreams of energy independence. The massive, multicolored rig, owned by Italian oil services company Saipem, could be seen from Havana heading east through the blue waters of the Florida Straits en route, industry sources said, to West Africa. It may be years before Cuba sees another rig like it. The Scarabeo 9, designed to operate in water up 12,000 feet deep (3,650 meters), was used to drill three wells, all in more than a mile (1.6 km) of water off Cuba's north and west coasts - and all unsuccessful. Cuba had hoped to tap into deepwater offshore fields it says may hold 20 billion barrels of oil and end its dependence on socialist ally Venezuela, which ships the Caribbean island 115,000 barrels of petroleum a day in an oil-for-services deal. A consortium led by Spanish oil giant Repsol, which contracted the Scarabeo 9 from Saipem, hit the first dry hole last spring. That was followed by unsuccessful wells by Malaysia's Petronas in partnership with Russia's Gazprom Neft, and by Venezuela's state-owned PDVSA. Little is known about the PDVSA well, but Repsol and Petronas both encountered very hard rock that slowed drilling and, in Petronas' case, made it impossible to produce hydrocarbons that were found. The Malaysian firm is continuing to do three-dimensional seismic work searching for reservoirs of oil, but Repsol is leaving the island after 12 years. Using a different rig, it drilled Cuba's first offshore well in 2004, where it said it found oil, but the find was not "commercial." NO IMMINENT DRILLING PLANS Other companies including Angola's Sonangol, India's ONGC and Petrovietnam hold offshore exploration leases in Cuba, but none are known to have any imminent drilling plans. Jorge Pinon, a Cuba oil expert at the University of Texas in Austin, said it could be a decade or more before anyone takes another chance on Cuba's deepwater fields. "This deal is done. It's going to take a long time before the next one," he said. "You could even be looking at 15 to 20 years if you put it all together.
13NFL3-Environment v. Resource Extraction www.victorybriefs.com US TECH SOLVES CUBAN OIL SPILLS
Page 223 of 224
Wall Street Journal, 12 (Cuba - Repsol's Cuba drilling rig complies with safety standards, 1/10, http://www.bpcplc.com/media-centre/non-company-press-releases/cuba-repsol%27s-cubadrilling-rig-complies-with-safety-standards.aspx) U.S. officials said Monday a rig operated by Spain's Repsol YPF that is expected to drill offshore Cuba in the coming months complies with international and U.S. safety standards. 'U.S. personnel found the vessel to generally comply with existing international and U.S. standards by which Repsol has pledged to abide,' the Bureau of Safety and Environmental Enforcement said in the press release. The agency, however, noted that the vessel review 'does not confer any form of certification or endorsement under U.S. or international law' and that the U.S. has no legal or regulatory authority over the rig. The vessel, named Scarabeo 9, was inspected off the coast of Trinidad and Tobago and it will begin drilling a deep-water oil well later this year about 100 kms off the Florida Keys. Repsol, which does business in the U.S., had agreed to let U.S. federal regulators inspect the rig before it enters Cuban waters. The rig's review was aimed at minimizing the possibility of a major oil spill, which would hurt U.S. economic and environmental interests, the regulatory agency said. While aboard the Scarabeo 9, U.S. officials reviewed vessel construction, drilling equipment, and safety systems--including lifesaving and firefighting equipment, emergency generators, dynamic positioning systems, machinery spaces, and the blowout preventer, according to agency. In anticipation of increased drilling activities in the Caribbean and Gulf of Mexico, the U.S. is in discussions with the Bahamas, Cuba, Jamaica and Mexico on a broad range of issues, including drilling safety, ocean modeling, and oil spill preparedness and response, in order to reduce the impact of a major pollution incident, the agency said.
13NFL3-Environment v. Resource Extraction www.victorybriefs.com CUBAN DRILLING WILL MEET HIGHEST SAFETY STANDARDS
Page 224 of 224
Geman, 12 (Ben, Interior: Cuba-bound drilling rig generally meets US standards, 1/9, http://thehill.com/blogs/e2-wire/e2-wire/203161-interior-cuba-bound-drilling-rig-generally-meetsus-standards) The deepwater drilling rig that Spanish oil giant Repsol will use for planned oil exploration off Cubas coast is getting a clean bill of health from U.S. officials. The United States has no regulatory authority over the drilling, but an Interior Department and Coast Guard team was invited to inspect the Scarabeo 9 rig by Repsol, a check-up that comes as planned drilling off Cubas coast draws criticism from several U.S. lawmakers. The review compared the vessel with applicable international safety and security standards as well as U.S. standards for drilling units operating in the U.S. Outer Continental Shelf. U.S. personnel found the vessel to generally comply with existing international and U.S. standards by which Repsol has pledged to abide, the U.S. agencies said in a joint statement Monday upon completion of the review. The U.S. team reviewed drilling equipment, safety systems such as firefighting equipment and the units blowout preventer and other aspects of the rig. A number of U.S. lawmakers critical of the Cuban government have criticized Repsols planned project, noting it will bring revenues to the Cuban regime and that a spill could threaten nearby U.S. shores. More on that here, here and here. The review is consistent with U.S. efforts to minimize the possibility of a major oil spill, which would hurt U.S. economic and environmental interests, Interior and the Coast Guard said of the inspection, which occurred off the coast of Trinidad and Tobago.

13nfl3-Environment v. Resource Extraction

Uploaded by

Document Information

Copyright

Available Formats

Share this document

Share or Embed Document

Sharing Options

Did you find this document useful?

Is this content inappropriate?

Copyright:

Available Formats

13nfl3-Environment v. Resource Extraction

Uploaded by

Copyright:

Available Formats

LINCOLN-DOUGLAS | January/February 2014

13NFL3-Environment v. Resource Extraction www.victorybriefs.com

CONFLICT WITH ENVIRONMENT ......................................................................................................... 73

RESOURCE CURSE .......................................................................................................................... 86

13NFL3-Environment v. Resource Extraction www.victorybriefs.com

CAPITALISM ................................................................................................................................... 101

VALUE TO LIFE ............................................................................................................................... 119

INDIGENOUS GROUPS .................................................................................................................... 124

13NFL3-Environment v. Resource Extraction www.victorybriefs.com

A2 GREAT POWER WARS ............................................................................................................... 127

A2 NUCLEAR EXTINCTION .............................................................................................................. 130

CUBA ............................................................................................................................................ 132

CHAD ............................................................................................................................................ 141

NEGATIVE EVIDENCE ............................................................................................... 142

INCOME ......................................................................................................................................... 149

SMALL-SCALE MINING .................................................................................................................... 151

13NFL3-Environment v. Resource Extraction www.victorybriefs.com

AT GLOBAL WARMING ................................................................................................................... 195

AT RESOURCE CURSE ................................................................................................................... 197

13NFL3-Environment v. Resource Extraction www.victorybriefs.com

LOCAL MINERS HAVE ACTUALLY FOUGHT TO KEEP MINES. ..............................................................198

A2 BIODIVERSITY ........................................................................................................................... 199

A2 ENVIRONMENTAL EXTINCTION ................................................................................................... 208

AT CIVIL WARS.............................................................................................................................. 221

A2 CUBA ....................................................................................................................................... 222

13NFL3-Environment v. Resource Extraction www.victorybriefs.com

Topic Analysis by Monica Amestoy

13NFL3-Environment v. Resource Extraction www.victorybriefs.com

Wikipedia defines resource extraction:

13NFL3-Environment v. Resource Extraction www.victorybriefs.com and forestry.

A. Environment Impact Heavy

"Natural Resource." Wikipedia. Wikimedia Foundation, 12 Oct. 2013. Web.

13NFL3-Environment v. Resource Extraction www.victorybriefs.com

III. Neg positions

A. Resource extraction good

B. Disadvantages and Counterplans

Russia Oil DA:

13NFL3-Environment v. Resource Extraction www.victorybriefs.com

Kritiks of environment impacts:

Tragedy of the commons:

13NFL3-Environment v. Resource Extraction www.victorybriefs.com

13NFL3-Environment v. Resource Extraction www.victorybriefs.com

Topic Analysis by Stephen Babb

13NFL3-Environment v. Resource Extraction www.victorybriefs.com

Standards for Prioritization

13NFL3-Environment v. Resource Extraction www.victorybriefs.com

13NFL3-Environment v. Resource Extraction www.victorybriefs.com figure into utilitarian calculations anyway.

13NFL3-Environment v. Resource Extraction www.victorybriefs.com So about that environment protection

13NFL3-Environment v. Resource Extraction www.victorybriefs.com

Best Laid Plans

13NFL3-Environment v. Resource Extraction www.victorybriefs.com

13NFL3-Environment v. Resource Extraction www.victorybriefs.com

13NFL3-Environment v. Resource Extraction www.victorybriefs.com

Or so the story goes.

13NFL3-Environment v. Resource Extraction www.victorybriefs.com

13NFL3-Environment v. Resource Extraction www.victorybriefs.com

13NFL3-Environment v. Resource Extraction www.victorybriefs.com

13NFL3-Environment v. Resource Extraction www.victorybriefs.com

Topic Analysis by Dan Miyamoto

13NFL3-Environment v. Resource Extraction www.victorybriefs.com

13NFL3-Environment v. Resource Extraction www.victorybriefs.com

Lilley ibid. 9 Sachs

13NFL3-Environment v. Resource Extraction www.victorybriefs.com

Rothbard Rosenthal and Lehren