Environment in

Peril:
Anthropogenic
Climate Change as
A new Global Epoch
World
econom
ic
FORUM
(2023):
Risk
Estimat
es
Environmental
Sociology: Many
Faces

● The Impact of Society on

Environment
● The Sociology of Global
Environmental Movement
● The (routine) Impact of
Nature on Social Groups
● The Sociology of Loss (big
and traumatic impact)
The Bretherton
Model
Society ● Consumption
● Technology
● Economic growth
● Population growth

& Environment ● Public health

● Health consequences
● Migration
● Conflicts over natural
resources
Living in the
Anthropocene
The Anthropocene is
a geological epoch dating
from the commencement of
significant human impact
on Earth's geology
and ecosystems.
Living in the Anthropocene

● The term was proposed in 2000

by Nobel meteorologist Paul
Crutzen.
● The debates on whether it is
stratigraphically identifiable are
ongoing. The International
Commission on Stratigraphy
does not recognize it (yet).
Stratigraphy is the main method
to determine geological time.
 Food
Consumption
and
Ecological
Footprint

Courtesy of https://www.spiegel.de/international/world/global-water-shortage-exacerbated-by-droughts-and-misuse-a-1047527.html and

https://theconversation.com/can-we-feed-the-world-and-stop-deforestation-depends-whats-for-dinner
The Last Northern Cod
This resulted in
● The northern cod (Gadus
economic depression
morhua) became so scarce in
and depopulation of
the Atlantic waters off fishermen settlements.
Newfoundland and Labrador
(Canada) that the fisheries
management officials had to
declare a moratorium on
fishing in 1992.
The Last Northern Cod
● Foreign factory freezer trawlers
from many European countries
began fishing intensively in the
waters off Newfoundland in the
1960s. The catch declined steeply
from a peak of 800,000 tons in
1968 to about one-quarter of that in
1976.
● In 1977 Canada barred the foreign
fleets, declaring exclusive control
over its coastal waters in a 200-mile
zone.
● The fisheries agency ignored the
local knowledge of inshore fishing
crews.
The Last Northern Cod
● The Canadian crews used
Japanese cod traps, roofed
fish traps with smaller
mesh that could be used
in areas with rough
bottoms. Echo sounders
and advanced navigation
equipment was used.
● The technology might
have made it possible to ● The recovery of cod population is
catch “the last northern unlikely. The Atlantic cod has
cod.” become commercially if not yet
biologically extinct.
Income
Inequalit
y
among
People
and
States
 Environmental
Justice

Courtesy of Johnson et al. 2016, https://www.mdpi.com/1660-4601/13/8/747/htm and https://news.ucsc.edu/2007/02/1055.html

Courtesy of
Extinct Animals: List and Facts
with Pictures (animalspot.net)
Currents of Environmentalism
Anthropocentrism Ecocentrism / Biocentrism
❏ Human being as the main value ❏ Every living being is a unique value

❏ Nature is a resource of human well- ❏ The non-subordinate relation of nature

being to man

❏ Nature conservation to meet needs ❏ The value of nature itself

(pragmatic approach)
❏ Ethical relations between man and
❏ Focus on bio-objects valuable to natural objects
humans
❏ Advocates preservation of natural
❏ Ethical relations only between people beauty and integrity

❏ Advocates conservation of natural

resources
Gifford Pinchot and John
Muir

Courtesy of https://www.nextgenpolitics.org/blog/cf3903qvl6n86brei99qsjquwdfxt1
Currents of Environmentalism
Course Format
● 14 weeks, plus Fall break (reading week?)
● Every week: 1 lecture, 1.5 seminars (to discuss readings in
individual or group format), 0.5 extra activity (e.g. film screening,
“practical” group work, explanation of assignments)
● Reading load: 40-60 per week.
● Assignments: Instructions are in the syllabus and will be further
clarified. Rubrics will be provided.
● Need to re-discuss the final assignment with PhD students
● Office hours: Welcome! Sign up through the link to google calendar on
Moodle. Will try to accommodate timewise.
● Register in Miro and sign up for Miro teams on Moodle.
Attendance Throughout 5 Be present in class. Two unexcused absences are allowed.

Participation Throughout 15 Attentive Reading and Active Participation in Course Work.

Draft N/A First version of your focus/foci of interest (up to 3 topics) and a
Bibliography list of sources (min. 4 additional from outside of the course list).

Midterm Exam 30 20 multiple choice and 2 short-answer questions

Annotated 20 min. 5 additional sources, 1300–1800 words (4–5 pages)

Bibliography

Final Essay 30 5-8 pages (1500–2500 words) long without counting notes and references. It
should investigate some primary sources. Please, use Times New Roman/Arial
or Calibri, 12th font, 1.5 space, APA citation style, and footnotes.
Environmental Action:
Private
❏ Garbage recycling
❏ Reducing the use of a car in order to reduce
emissions
❏ Saving water
❏ Abandoning or reducing the use of plastic bags
and packaging
❏ Reduction of air travel
❏ Refusal to purchase products due to their lack
of ecology
❏ Participation in local clean-up actions /
subbotniki
❏ Purchase of biological products boycott of
goods produced in violation of labor protection
rules
Environmental
Action: Public
❏ Cash donations
❏ Petition support
❏ Participation in public actions
on cleaning and regeneration
of ecosystems (big
subbotniki)
❏ Participation in protest
actions and demonstrations
❏ Volunteering in
environmental NGOs, parties
and movements
Environmental Problems:
Analytic Errors

● Humans can be simply integrated

into environmental policies
● Society itself is a manageable
balanced system; Neglect of
social conflicts and interests
● Individual-based approaches;
Repsonsibilization of individuals
● Post-political (apolitical)
approaches
The Three Strands Of Environmental Equity

Under the sponsorship of the Commission for Racial Justice, the First National People of
Color Environmental Leadership Summit was held in October 1991 in Washington, DC. At
this gathering, three strands of environmental equity were identified:
● procedural equity (governing rules, regulations and evaluation criteria to
be applied uniformly);
● geographic equity (some neighbourhoods, communities and regions are
disproportionately burdened by hazardous waste);
● social equity (race, class and other cultural factors must be recognised in
environmental decision-making).
Delegates to the Summit ratified a document, Principles of Environmental Justice, which
sets out the ideological framework of the emerging environmental justice movement.
Environmental
Degradation in Honduras
● The forests of Honduras were cut to create pastures to
feed cattle during the beef boom of the 1960s and 1970s.
The beef was largely exported rather than fed to the
growing local population.

● When the cattle boom ended in the early 1980s, the

Honduran government encouraged the development of
nontraditional export foods (melons and shrimps). These
new exports were environmentally damaging. Melon
farmers used high levels of pesticides. Shrimp farmers
cultivated shrimp in large ponds developed in coastal
wetlands, modifying coastal mudflats and mangrove
ecosystems.

● Road building and the buildup of sediments caused further

problems. The private development of shrimp farms cut
off public access to fishing grounds, reducing an important
source of food for local people (Stonich 1993).
Why Population Growth Is Not
The Root Of The Problem

● Disastrous environmental impacts are not a

simple result of population growth
● Anthropological studies point to the inequality
of access to resources as the basic cause of
environmental degradation
● The local rich are encouraged by market
demand and capital accumulation to expand
natural resources exploitation
● The poverty leads to population growth as
more hands are need to work on less fertile
and accessible lands
● The rich get richer and the poor get poorer in
two positive feedback loops, both of which lead
to more deforestation
Why Population Growth Is Not The Root Of The Problem

Retrieved from:
https://www.you
tube.com/watch
?
v=tHATHdOUxI8
&ab_channel=Al
(Post)Colonial Agenda And Indigenous People

● Attempts by national and international NGOs

(INGOs) to impose their agendas and viewpoints
on indigenous peoples. In particular, this is
manifested in the tendency of INGOs selectively
to take fragments of localised knowledge and
translate these into the ‘global’ discourse of
science.
● ENGOs, by their very nature, are concerned not
so much with the people to which they relate as
‘the natural environment they inhabit, which is
often perceived as wild and in need of
protection’. On occasion, this can lead to
misunderstanding and conflict.
Rainforests: Conservation
vs. Exploitation?
● The image of local people as noble
‘defenders of nature’ employing their
ancestral wisdom to protect non-
renewable resources.
● In the case of indigenous people in both
North and the South this is only true to a
certain extent. Some traditional
inhabitants, for example the Kayapó of the
Amazon, are in fact quite entrepreneurial
and are willing to sell their gold and
timber for the right price (Dewar 1995;
Slater 2002; Conklin and Graham 1995).
Rainforests:
Conservation vs.
●
Exploitation?
Indigenous people in rainforest areas have proven most
adept at borrowing vocabularies of human rights and
environmental protection for their own ends. So too
have tribal leaders in parts of Canada. In response,
some disenchanted conservationists have concluded
that sustainable development is impossible and that
rainforests can only be protected through excluding all
humans, including local people who dwell there. This
has sparked a renewal of conservation programmes
wherein tracts of land with relatively untouched natural
ecosystems are purchased with public donations and
fenced off as ‘nature reserves’ in order to keep them
‘pure’.
● Discourses that frame the situation in simplistic terms
as a conflict between ‘conservation’ and ‘exploitation’
with local inhabitants assuming the role of
‘environmental defenders’ are best treated with caution.