Advocacy and Environmental Justice

Many groups have sprung up in recent years in order to speak out against environmental injustice and racism. One of the most notable groups to have taken on this fight has been the NRDC, or national resource defense council. The group credits the beginnings of this movement to an event that occurred in 1982 in Warren County, North Carolina when the state dumped 9,000 truckloads of toxic dirt into the majority African American community's city dump. This incident set off a firestorm of research which  found that the major producing projects within the United States are almost exclusively located in minority communities, and that somebody had to take up the fight against this environmental racism that is being practiced across the nation. The fight was finally nationally recognized by Bill Clinton in 1992 with his signing of executive order number 12898 which required all federal agencies to "identify and address disproportionately high adverse health or environmental effects of their policies or programs on low-income people and people of color."

What is Environmental Justice?

The EPA defines environmental justice as:

"Environmental justice is the fair treatment and meaningful involvement of all people regardless of race, color, national origin, or income, with respect to the development, implementation, and enforcement of environmental laws, regulations, and policies."

This definition by the EPA means that people should not be targeted because of their race or any other factor to have environmentally detrimental projects put in their neighborhoods. Even though this policy has been put in place by the EPA, the policy has not always been effective and the US has had problems with implementing environmental justice. One very recent example is the Dakota Access Pipeline, where the land of native Americans would have been poisoned had it not been for a public outcry. 

Reflections on an Inconvenient Truth

The movie that we were shown, An Inconvenient Truth, which starred former Vice  President and once Democratic presidential nominee Al Gore was truly eye opening. I had always been taught that emissions that were released into the atmosphere through human activity had an adverse effect on our environment; but to see the graphs that he was showing and to see the clips of the actual damage that we had caused was truly concerning. Seeing this movie has truly convinced me to push for sustainable energy practices and to make simple changes in my own life in order to use less energy. I hope that we make this change to renewable energies soon so that the Earth can start to heal.

Cities and Sustainability in Norway

Norway's capital, Oslo, is routinely named as one of the most sustainable cities on the face of the Earth. It has an efficient public transportation system, is comprised of 2/3 protected lands (including forests, hills, and lakes), and includes a 20% "open areas" mandate. In fact on 44 square miles of the city are actually developed. However, this modern city is facing some problems. It's first problem is a population boom, Oslo is currently the fastest growing Scandinavian city with a population increase of at least 2% a year. Oslo's citizens also rely heavily on cars and the highways which connect the city to its suburbs are a main source of pollution because of the traffic jams this reliance on personal transportation has caused.

Food Insecurity & Sustainability in Norway

Norway is quite advanced in terms of food security for it's population. For example, 100% of Norwegians have access to clean and safe water, while it's farmers have ample supplies of agricultural waters for their farms. The energy needed for farming and for cooking is supplied almost completely sustainably as Norway harnesses its rivers and wind resources to produce 99% of its electricity. Norway also ranks #14 in the world in calorie intake per citizen at 3,511 calories per day.
The only cases of acknowledged malnutrition in Norway have been reported in Hospitals and Nursing homes, but these cases are incredibly rare.

Economic History of Norway

Norway's economy is based on two main industries; fishing and petroleum. The second part of it's economy is fairly new as it was only added in the last century, but the fishing industry of Norway can be traced back to the time of the Norwegian Vikings. However, to keep track of Norway's economy throughout its entire history is quite tricky because Norway has only been independent for a bit more than 100 years. Before this, the Norwegian territory has changed hands between Denmark and Sweden. However, with the economic data that we do have we can say for certain that the Norwegian economy had been fueled by farming and fishing until oil was discovered in the early 20th century. Since this discovery of oil Norway has become the 14th largest oil producer and the 9th largest oil exporter in the world. oil also accounts for 50% of all exports from the country and 30% of all revenue from the country. Currently, the Norwegian government is reinvesting most of its oil revenues into renewable energies as they foresee oil prices falling over the years to come.

Development Metrics In Norway

Norway has paved the way as one of the world's foremost leaders in sustainability, both in their energy usage and in their sustainable development goals. Norway has recently come out with a 17 point sustainable development goal plan that they hope to achieve by 2030. This plan includes some high reaching goals including:

• eradicating extreme poverty
• promoting prosperity, peace, and environmental justice
• protecting planetary boundaries
• increasing high-school completion rates
• improving urban air quality
• halving food waste and reducing the "waste generation"
• reducing the impact of invasive species
• reducing emissions by 40% by 2030 
• compared to 1990 levels 

Norway has also been able to retain over a quarter of its land as wild forests. This is a testament on its own to Norway's commitment to sustainable development. 

Reaction to Presentations 12/5

Throughout our in class presentations a common theme emerged over the course of the two classes in which we presented. This theme was a lack of adequate public transportation which served only a select few. This inadequate public transportation system led to two major problems which were brought up in almost all of our presentations. The first was the neglect of lower income, mostly minority neighborhoods. These people can't afford personal transportation and since they live far from public transportation it creates a major inconvenience in their lives. On the flip side of this, the richer mostly white communities also didn't have access to public transportation but were able to afford personal transportation. However, with everyone having a car they would clog up the freeways and create tons of pollution that would adversely affect their health and the health of their city. Along with this another common theme was environmental racism. This was clear in my presentation about Atlanta, where the airport was located in a majority African American community and the airport polluted and displaced this community almost at will. Unfortunately, my own city was far from the only city practicing environmental racism.

Reaction to Class Presentations

On Thursday in class we all presented our chapters on urban sprawl of cities and their affect on the populations which live in them. Although our cities were spread out across the United States they all had some very similar themes in how they were growing and how the population was reacting to this urban sprawl. In Nashville, the city that I studied, the growth was outward and the land usage of Nashville was off the charts. The city was using its land at an alarming pace as people migrated from the city of Nashville to the surrounding suburban counties. Not only was the actual growth of the city concerning, the way that people were migrating was also alarming. It was clear that in Nashville the richer, mostly white residents, were the ones expanding the suburbs and leaving the city, This left the poorer, mostly African American residents in the city where environmental policy had lapsed along with the school systems and public transportation policy. Unfortunately, this scenario where the more wealthy and mostly white citizens of a city have left for the suburbs, leaving the mostly African American, poorer citizens to deal with lapses in policy and education was a common theme throughout our presentations.