tag:theconversation.com,2011:/ca/topics/natural-resources-5927/articlesNatural resources – The Conversation2024-03-25T15:02:22Ztag:theconversation.com,2011:article/2250002024-03-25T15:02:22Z2024-03-25T15:02:22ZGhana’s decades-old ambition to build an integrated aluminium industry faces a new hurdle: the clean energy transition<p>It has been more than 60 years since Ghana’s first post-independence leader Kwame Nkrumah first <a href="https://www.google.co.uk/books/edition/Living_in_the_Shadow_of_the_Large_Dams/4IVSEAAAQBAJ?hl=en&gbpv=1&dq=volta+river+project+in+ghana&pg=PR3&printsec=frontcover">mooted</a> the idea that Ghana should produce aluminium from the country’s ample supply of bauxite.</p>
<p>Under the <a href="https://www.jstor.org/stable/40567076">Volta River Project</a>, Nkrumah’s vision was to construct a dam on Ghana’s Volta River to provide dedicated electricity to a newly built smelter. The smelter was to be run by the <a href="https://thebftonline.com/2023/07/18/valco-needs-us600m-to-modernise-aging-smelter/">Volta Aluminium Company (Valco)</a> in the new industrial city of Tema. </p>
<p>The smelter would be linked to a refinery to process Ghana’s bauxite, currently estimated at <a href="https://www.mining.com/web/ghana-signs-1-2-billion-deal-to-develop-its-bauxite-resources/">900 million tonnes</a>. Ghana has the second largest reserves in Africa after <a href="https://www.usgs.gov/centers/national-minerals-information-center/bauxite-and-alumina-statistics-and-information">Guinea</a>.</p>
<p>Successive Ghanaian governments have pursued this strategy over the decades. The most recent push came in 2017 when the government embarked on its <a href="https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=wwDpGcigkac">latest drive</a> to develop an aluminium producing capacity. </p>
<p>Since then, the Ghana Integrated Aluminium Development Corporation (Giadec) has <a href="https://thebftonline.com/2022/08/25/giadec-seeks-us6bn-for-integrated-aluminium-industry/">invested</a> in <a href="https://giadec.com/giadec-selects-mytilineos-s-a-as-partner-for-project-3a-development-of-bauxite-mine-alumina-refinery/">new mines</a> and is looking to partner with foreign and domestic companies to actualise a harmonised aluminium industry, including an alumina refinery.</p>
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Read more:
<a href="https://theconversation.com/lessons-about-housing-from-ghanas-volta-river-project-50-years-on-123920">Lessons about housing from Ghana's Volta River project 50 years on</a>
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<p>The logic has always been that <a href="https://www.jstor.org/stable/1808850">heavy industries</a> that turn natural resources into useful products are critical for structural transformation. That is, <a href="https://unhabitat.org/structural-transformation-in-developing-countries-cross-regional-analysis">moving an economy</a> “from low productivity and labour-intensive activities to higher productivity and skill-intensive ones”. </p>
<p>Such transformation is also <a href="https://elibrary.worldbank.org/doi/10.1596/978-1-4648-1448-8_ch1">associated</a> with rising wages and living standards. Heavy industries can also reduce reliance on imports. </p>
<p>Recent <a href="https://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S2214629622001426">works</a> have identified gaps in geography-specific research on industrial decarbonisation in developing economies. Sub-Saharan Africa is particularly under-researched, with research only really examining the case of <a href="https://static1.squarespace.com/static/52246331e4b0a46e5f1b8ce5/t/62f92860408b4b366da8a572/1660495974819/IDTT+5+WP5_Climate+change+policies+and+trade_202208.pdf">South Africa</a>.</p>
<p>We <a href="https://doi.org/10.1016/j.erss.2023.103337">examined</a> Ghana’s long-standing challenges to the dream of a fully developed aluminium industry. We also assessed the most recent attempts to realise these plans against the backdrop of the energy transition and <a href="https://netzeroclimate.org/sectors/heavy_industry/">industrial decarbonisation</a>. </p>
<p>We found that new uncertainties and challenges stand in the way of Ghana’s latest efforts to develop an integrated aluminium industry. These are linked to the unfolding global energy transition agenda and shifts towards “green” manufacturing. </p>
<h2>Why aluminium</h2>
<p>Aluminium is both a constraint to and an enabler of a <a href="https://www.mckinsey.com/featured-insights/mckinsey-explainers/what-is-net-zero">net zero</a> future. </p>
<p>On the one hand, it has numerous energy transition <a href="https://european-aluminium.eu/about-aluminium/aluminium-in-use">applications</a>, from solar panels and wind turbines to electricity cables and batteries. </p>
<p>But aluminium is also the <a href="https://doi.org/10.1016/j.jclepro.2019.118004">second most</a> carbon-intensive industry, after steel. It accounts for <a href="https://www.carbonchain.com/blog/understand-your-aluminum-emissions">about 4%</a> of global emissions. Emission-reduction technologies are costly and, in many cases, still being developed. </p>
<h2>Challenges – old and new</h2>
<p>The <a href="https://www.researchgate.net/profile/Theophilus-Acheampong/publication/333834250_Towards_an_Integrated_Aluminium_Industry_in_Ghana_Some_Policy_Considerations/links/5d0832ce299bf1f539cb8c66/Towards-an-Integrated-Aluminium-Industry-in-Ghana-Some-Policy-Considerations.pdf">obstacles</a> Ghana has faced in its aluminium industry over the decades have included a lack of investments in new mines, lack of refinery, limited <a href="https://onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/abs/10.1111/j.1467-7660.1987.tb00278.x">electricity</a> for smelting, and a lack of investments to upgrade the existing Valco smelter.</p>
<p>More recently, other constraints have come into play that make it hard for peripheral economies like Ghana to develop and sustain competitive aluminium industries.</p>
<p>Firstly, they are not financially in a position to use the latest sustainable production technologies, such as <a href="https://www.iea.org/energy-system/carbon-capture-utilisation-and-storage">carbon capture, use and storage</a> and <a href="https://www.weforum.org/agenda/2024/01/aluminium-green-transition-technologies-decarbonization/">green hydrogen</a>. These are needed to improve energy intensity and reduce emissions.</p>
<p>Secondly, Ghana faces tough new conditions, known as <a href="https://finance.ec.europa.eu/sustainable-finance/tools-and-standards/eu-taxonomy-sustainable-activities_en">“green taxonomies”</a>, being set by key export markets in the global north. Countries or trading blocs like the <a href="https://taxation-customs.ec.europa.eu/carbon-border-adjustment-mechanism_en">European Union</a> are demanding that importers in targeted heavy industrial sectors monitor and declare emissions embedded in products. They are also required to buy <a href="https://taxation-customs.ec.europa.eu/system/files/2023-12/Questions%20and%20Answers_Carbon%20Border%20Adjustment%20Mechanism%20%28CBAM%29.pdf">Carbon Border Adjustment Mechanism certificates</a> to offset such emissions. The mechanism, which has already been introduced on a trial basis, will charge levies from January 2026.</p>
<p>There are strong critics of these mechanisms, with some <a href="https://www.energymonitor.ai/carbon-markets/how-cbam-threatens-africas-sustainable-development/">arguing</a> that they <a href="https://www.lse.ac.uk/News/Latest-news-from-LSE/2023/e-May-2023/Africa-could-lose-up-to-25-billion-per-annum-as-a-direct-result-of-the-EUs-CBAM">threaten</a> Africa’s sustainable development. These arguments are unlikely to see the EU dropping these measures. </p>
<p>The third obstacle that Ghana faces revolves around how to make its refineries and smelters produce competitively priced aluminium. The cost of power is a sticking point as it has been in prior years.</p>
<p>According to Ghana’s recently published <a href="https://www.energymin.gov.gh/sites/default/files/2023-09/FINAL%20GHANA%27S%20NATIONAL%20ENERGY%20TRANSITION%20FRAMEWORK_2023_compressed%20%281%29_compressed%20%282%29.pdf">National Energy Transition Framework</a>, natural gas will serve as Ghana’s primary transition fuel. The government argues that it can provide the base load electricity that Ghana requires for industrialisation. </p>
<p>But choosing gas as the energy solution for Ghana’s aluminium chain could jeopardise the export potential of the aluminium it produces. About <a href="https://oec.world/en/visualize/tree_map/hs02/export/gha/show/157601/2019">80%</a> of Ghana’s aluminium is exported to Europe and could be subjected to carbon taxes if production is powered by gas.</p>
<p>Hydro electricity would, in many respects, be the ideal solution. It is Ghana’s cheapest and greenest energy source. And it would allow the country to compete in markets regulated by carbon considerations. </p>
<p>But this isn’t as straightforward as it may seem. If Valco and a new smelter were to operate at envisaged levels of production it would remove almost all the hydropower output of Akosombo Dam from Ghana’s broader electricity mix. The hydropower also plays a key role in bringing down overall <a href="https://rgu-repository.worktribe.com/preview/1721654/ACHEAMPONG%202021%20Ghanas%20changing%20electricity%20%28VOR%29.pdf">electricity prices</a>. </p>
<p>Thus, while hydro electricity may be a technically good solution, it may not be politically acceptable in a country where electricity prices are a key <a href="https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/world-africa-68236869">electoral issue</a>. </p>
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Read more:
<a href="https://theconversation.com/ghanas-electricity-crisis-is-holding-the-country-back-how-it-got-here-217606">Ghana's electricity crisis is holding the country back - how it got here</a>
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<p>Finally, other concerns are emerging around plans to mine bauxite in some of Ghana’s last remaining green forests, including the <a href="https://www.clientearth.org/latest/news/protecting-ghana-s-atewa-range-forest-reserve-from-bauxite-mining">Atewa Forest Reserve</a>. </p>
<p>National and international civil society organisations and environmental activists are resisting the move. Many local businesses support it, however, because of the potential economic gains a mine and refinery would bring. </p>
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Read more:
<a href="https://theconversation.com/ghanas-pact-with-china-to-explore-bauxite-threatens-a-unique-forest-120815">Ghana's pact with China to explore bauxite threatens a unique forest</a>
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<p>These are some of the trade-offs that policymakers must consider.</p>
<h2>Moving forward</h2>
<p>Collectively, these issues may frustrate Ghana’s ambitions once more. </p>
<p>At an international level, peripheral economies like Ghana need clarity about how particular energy technologies will be classified. </p>
<p>Lastly, climate financing and green technology transfer pledges from developed to developing economies need to be honoured. </p>
<p>We suggest the Ghanaian government can overcome some of these issues through dialogue with stakeholders and being frank about the trade-offs involved. But a national discussion about benefits and costs is only possible if it’s clearer what choices around energy will be made.</p><img src="https://counter.theconversation.com/content/225000/count.gif" alt="The Conversation" width="1" height="1" />
<p class="fine-print"><em><span>Theophilus Acheampong is affiliated with the IMANI Centre for Policy and Education in Accra, Ghana. He has consulted in a private capacity for the Government of Ghana on the aluminium industry.</span></em></p><p class="fine-print"><em><span>Matthew Tyce does not work for, consult, own shares in or receive funding from any company or organisation that would benefit from this article, and has disclosed no relevant affiliations beyond their academic appointment.</span></em></p>Ghana has spent over 60 years trying to build an aluminium industry.Theophilus Acheampong, Associate Lecturer, University of AberdeenMatthew Tyce, Lecturer in International Political Economy, King's College LondonLicensed as Creative Commons – attribution, no derivatives.tag:theconversation.com,2011:article/2205192024-01-08T21:40:21Z2024-01-08T21:40:21ZCanada’s Impact Assessment Act must be both Constitutional and ensure a sustainable future<iframe style="width: 100%; height: 100px; border: none; position: relative; z-index: 1;" allowtransparency="" allow="clipboard-read; clipboard-write" src="https://narrations.ad-auris.com/widget/the-conversation-canada/canadas-impact-assessment-act-must-be-both-constitutional-and-ensure-a-sustainable-future" width="100%" height="400"></iframe>
<p>Behind closed doors in Ottawa, Canadian government officials are drafting amendments to their advanced but controversial 2019 <a href="https://laws.justice.gc.ca/eng/acts/i-2.75/index.html">Impact Assessment Act</a>, the country’s main tool for assessing major projects that can include big dams, pipelines and mines.</p>
<p>It’s a difficult assignment. For practical and political reasons, they need to work quickly. But they face a longstanding dilemma — how to respect Canada’s venerable Constitution while also applying new knowledge and acting on new imperatives.</p>
<p>The law needs to be amended because, in an <a href="https://decisions.scc-csc.ca/scc-csc/scc-csc/en/item/20102/index.do">October 2023 ruling</a>, the Supreme Court of Canada found key components to be unconstitutional. </p>
<p>Proposed projects being reviewed under the Impact Assessment Act — <a href="https://iaac-aeic.gc.ca/050/evaluations/exploration?active=true&showMap=false&document_type=project">ranging from gold mines to an airport</a> — have often been <a href="https://nationalpost.com/news/politics/supreme-court-simpact-assessment-act-unconstitutional">lightning rods for controversy</a>. How they are assessed and what gets considered in decision-making — especially on whether projects are approved (usually with conditions) or rejected (rarely) — can have major consequences for generations to come.</p>
<p>But most of the projects identified for assessment under the federal law are undertaken in one or more provinces and can involve at least as much provincial as federal jurisdiction.</p>
<h2>Big concerns overlooked</h2>
<p>The <a href="https://laws-lois.justice.gc.ca/eng/const/">Constitution of Canada</a> was adopted in 1867 and updated modestly in 1982 with subsequent clarifications in high court rulings. </p>
<p>It divides powers and responsibilities, assigning some — like fisheries and navigation — to the federal government and others, including most natural resources, to the provinces. Areas of concern that overlap or weren’t recognized in either 1867 or 1982 — like the environment and sustainability, respectively — are problematic.</p>
<p>In the <a href="https://www.scc-csc.ca/case-dossier/cb/2023/40195-eng.aspx">reference case decided in October 2023</a>, a majority of the Supreme Court justices concluded that important Impact Assessment Act provisions, including those on what matters are addressed in federal assessment decision-making, reach too far into provincial jurisdiction.</p>
<p>The amendments now being drafted are aimed at pulling back the overreach for cases involving major matters of provincial jurisdiction. </p>
<p>Unfortunately for the amendment drafters, the constitutionally focused approach outlined in the Supreme Court’s ruling is at odds with the core understandings and objectives of the current act. It also relies on a conception of assessment law that is no longer tenable. </p>
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Read more:
<a href="https://theconversation.com/how-a-supreme-court-case-could-decide-the-future-of-canadian-climate-policy-202233">How a Supreme Court case could decide the future of Canadian climate policy</a>
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<h2>Favouring the old way</h2>
<p>The Supreme Court’s suggested approach has two core steps. </p>
<p>First, narrow the agenda of impact assessment to focus on mitigating the adverse environmental effects of proposed projects. </p>
<p>Second, assign responsibility for addressing particular effects according to whether they are within established federal jurisdiction or provincial jurisdiction. </p>
<p>The result would preserve what is, at least according to the court majority, the balanced division of federal and provincial powers and responsibilities set in the Constitution. But whatever the merits may be from a constitutional law perspective, the approach recommended by the Supreme Court would return assessment law and practice to a world that no longer really exists.</p>
<p>When assessment requirements were introduced in the 1970s, a focus on mitigating significant adverse environmental effects was defensible. In today’s world of worsening climate change and deepening unsustainability, mitigation is far from enough. </p>
<p>Canada and the rest of the world are wrestling with how to reverse the trajectories of global warming, biodiversity loss and conflict-inducing inequities. The core challenges are not merely to reduce additional damage, but to achieve long-term transformations to <a href="https://unfccc.int/news/cop28-agreement-signals-beginning-of-the-end-of-the-fossil-fuel-era">non-fossil energy</a>, <a href="https://www.decadeonrestoration.org/">restorative ecology</a>, <a href="https://www.un.org/sites/un2.un.org/files/circular_economy_14_march.pdf">a circular economy</a> and <a href="https://www.undp.org/sustainable-development-goals/reduced-inequalities">equitable distribution</a>. </p>
<p>We also now know that unsustainable trajectories interact, as do all other assessment concerns and opportunities. All are <a href="https://www.science.org/doi/10.1126/science.1258832">linked in complex social-ecological systems</a> that influence each other continuously at multiple scales. </p>
<h2>The strengths of the existing law</h2>
<p>Splitting assessment components into constitutional silos is not viable in a world of these interactions. On the contrary, such an approach would return us to the pre-assessment world of piecemeal regulatory licensing.</p>
<p>In contrast to earlier federal assessment law, the Impact Assessment Act includes mitigation of adverse effects within a bigger, more demanding and realistic agenda. </p>
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<p>It moves the core objective of assessment from merely reducing additional damage to seeking positive contributions to sustainability. </p>
<p>It establishes a largely open process for integrated decision-making in the public interest, covering social, economic health and environmental impacts and their interactions. And it requires attention to Indigenous rights, environmental obligations and climate commitments. </p>
<p>All these overlap with provincial powers and responsibilities. They should be top priorities for all levels of government hoping to leave a viable world for our grandchildren. </p>
<p>They also come as a package. They are deeply entwined matters of concern and opportunity best understood and addressed together. </p>
<h2>What the amendments must prioritize</h2>
<p>For the drafters of amendments to the Impact Assessment Act, then, the challenge is not only to bring the law into constitutional compliance. It is to craft a constitutionally compliant law that also meets 21st-century needs for assessments and decision-making in the lasting public interest. </p>
<p>Accomplishing that may require some creativity. Certainly, it will entail reinforcing the law’s integrated sustainability agenda. </p>
<p>That requires allowing specified compromises only for decision-making on projects primarily in provincial jurisdiction, expanding collaborative assessments among federal, provincial and Indigenous authorities and increasing the emphasis on broader assessments that address regional and strategic issues and options. </p>
<p>Beyond any immediate changes, the lessons of this case should spur exploration of more positive ways to respect federal, provincial and Indigenous authority by favouring co-operation and empowering, rather than dividing and restricting, responsible decision-making.</p><img src="https://counter.theconversation.com/content/220519/count.gif" alt="The Conversation" width="1" height="1" />
<p class="fine-print"><em><span>Robert B. Gibson has funding from the Social Sciences and Humanities Research Council of Canada for work on next generation assessment. He is also a member of the Impact Assessment Agency of Canada's Technical Advisory Committee on Science and Knowledge.</span></em></p>The Supreme Court of Canada has ruled that the federal Impact Assessment Act needs amendments for Constitutional compliance, but the court’s recommended approach is no longer viable.Robert B. Gibson, Professor of Environment, Resources and Sustainability, University of WaterlooLicensed as Creative Commons – attribution, no derivatives.tag:theconversation.com,2011:article/2077002023-10-16T12:32:54Z2023-10-16T12:32:54ZGangsters are the villains in ‘Killers of the Flower Moon,’ but the biggest thief of Native American wealth was the US government<figure><img src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/552605/original/file-20231006-21-4xdn37.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&rect=0%2C5%2C3639%2C2842&q=45&auto=format&w=496&fit=clip" /><figcaption><span class="caption">An Osage delegation with President Calvin Coolidge at the White House on Jan. 20, 1924. </span> <span class="attribution"><a class="source" href="https://www.gettyimages.com/detail/news-photo/washington-dc-osage-indians-in-washington-regarding-their-news-photo/514689540">Bettman via Getty Images</a></span></figcaption></figure><p>Director Martin Scorsese’s new movie, “<a href="https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=EG0si5bSd6I">Killers of the Flower Moon</a>,” tells the true story of a string of murders on the <a href="https://www.osagenation-nsn.gov/">Osage Nation</a>’s land in Oklahoma in the 1920s. Based on David Grann’s <a href="https://www.davidgrann.com/book/killers-of-the-flower-moon/">meticulously researched 2017 book</a>, the movie delves into racial and family dynamics that rocked Oklahoma to the core when oil was discovered on Osage lands.</p>
<p>White settlers targeted members of the Osage Nation to steal their land and the riches beneath it. But from a historical perspective, this crime is just the tip of the iceberg. </p>
<p>From the early 1800s through the 1930s, official U.S. policy displaced thousands of Native Americans from their ancestral homes through the policy known as <a href="https://americanindian.si.edu/nk360/removal/pdf/related-facts.pdf">Indian removal</a>. And throughout the 20th century, the federal government collected billions of dollars from sales or leases of natural resources like timber, oil and gas on Indian lands, which it was supposed to disburse to the land’s owners. But it <a href="https://narf.org/cases/cobell/">failed to account for these trust funds</a> for decades, let alone pay Indians what they were due.</p>
<p>I am the manager of the University of Arizona’s <a href="https://law.arizona.edu/academics/programs/indigenous-governance-program">Indigenous Governance Program</a> and a <a href="https://naair.arizona.edu/person/torivio-fodder">law professor</a>. My ancestry is Comanche, Kiowa and Cherokee on my father’s side and Taos Pueblo on my mother’s side. From my perspective, “Killers of the Flower Moon” is just one chapter in a much larger story: The U.S. was built on stolen lands and wealth.</p>
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<span class="caption">Members of the Osage Nation attend the premiere of ‘Killers of the Flower Moon’ on Sept. 27, 2023, in New York City.</span>
<span class="attribution"><a class="source" href="https://www.gettyimages.com/detail/news-photo/julie-okeefe-addie-roanhorse-osage-nation-princess-lawren-news-photo/1705095795">Dia Dipasupil/Getty Images</a></span>
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<h2>Westward expansion and land theft</h2>
<p>In the standard telling, the American West was populated by industrious settlers who eked out livings from the ground, formed cities and, in time, created states. In fact, hundreds of Native nations already lived on those lands, each with their own unique forms of government, culture and language.</p>
<p>In the early 1800s, eastern cities were growing and dense urban centers were becoming unwieldy. Indian lands in the west were an alluring target – but westward expansion ran up against what would become known was “the Indian problem.” This <a href="https://www.history.com/topics/native-american-history/trail-of-tears">widely used phrase</a> reflected a belief that the U.S. had a God-given mandate to settle North America, and Indians stood in the way.</p>
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<figcaption><span class="caption">In the early 1800s, treaty-making between the U.S. and Indian nations shifted from a cooperative process into a tool for forcibly removing tribes from their lands.</span></figcaption>
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<p>Starting in the 1830s, Congress pressured Indian tribes in the east to sign treaties that required the tribes to <a href="https://education.nationalgeographic.org/resource/indian-removal-act/">move to reservations in the west</a>. This took place over the objections of public figures such as <a href="https://americanindian.si.edu/nk360/removal/pdf/related-facts.pdf">Tennessee frontiersman and congressman Davy Crockett</a>, humanitarian organizations and, of course, <a href="https://www.nps.gov/fosm/learn/historyculture/storiestrailoftears.htm">the tribes themselves</a>. </p>
<p>Forced removal touched every tribe east of the Mississippi River and several tribes to the west of it. In total, <a href="https://americanindian.si.edu/nk360/removal/pdf/lesson-0-full.pdf">about 100,000 American Indians were removed</a> from their eastern homelands to western reservations. </p>
<p>But the most pernicious land grab was yet to come.</p>
<figure class="align-center zoomable">
<a href="https://images.theconversation.com/files/552609/original/file-20231006-29-gfecbs.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=1000&fit=clip"><img alt="Map showing tribes displaced from the eastern U.S." src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/552609/original/file-20231006-29-gfecbs.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/552609/original/file-20231006-29-gfecbs.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=348&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/552609/original/file-20231006-29-gfecbs.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=348&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/552609/original/file-20231006-29-gfecbs.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=348&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/552609/original/file-20231006-29-gfecbs.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=437&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/552609/original/file-20231006-29-gfecbs.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=437&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/552609/original/file-20231006-29-gfecbs.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=437&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px"></a>
<figcaption>
<span class="caption">Eastern Native American tribes that were forced to move west starting in the 1830s.</span>
<span class="attribution"><a class="source" href="https://americanindian.si.edu/nk360/removal/img/Removal-MAP-20170124.jpg">Smithsonian</a>, <a class="license" href="http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nd/4.0/">CC BY-ND</a></span>
</figcaption>
</figure>
<h2>The General Allotment Act</h2>
<p>Even after Indians were corralled on reservations, settlers pushed for more access to western lands. In 1871, Congress formally ended the policy of treaty-making with Indians. Then, in 1887, it passed the <a href="https://www.archives.gov/milestone-documents/dawes-act">General Allotment Act</a>, also known as the Dawes Act. With this law, U.S. policy toward Indians shifted from separation to assimilation – forcibly integrating Indians into the national population.</p>
<p>This required transitioning tribal structures of communal land ownership under a reservation system to a private property model that broke up reservations altogether. The General Allotment Act was designed to divvy up reservation lands into allotments for individual Indians and open any unallotted lands, which were deemed surplus, <a href="https://www.archives.gov/milestone-documents/dawes-act#">to non-Indian settlement</a>. Lands could be allotted only to male heads of households. </p>
<p>Under the original statute, the U.S. government held Indian allotments, which measured roughly 160 acres per person, in trust for 25 years before each Indian allottee could receive clear title. During this period, Indian allottees were expected to <a href="https://digitalcommons.law.utulsa.edu/cgi/viewcontent.cgi?article=1034&context=fac_pub">embrace agriculture, convert to Christianity and assume U.S. citizenship</a>. </p>
<p>In 1906, Congress amended the law to allow the secretary of the interior to issue land titles whenever an Indian allottee was deemed capable of managing his affairs. Once this happened, the allotment was subject to taxation and could immediately be sold.</p>
<figure>
<iframe width="440" height="260" src="https://www.youtube.com/embed/tHdSZnoDREE?wmode=transparent&start=0" frameborder="0" allowfullscreen=""></iframe>
<figcaption><span class="caption">A 2021 study estimated that Native people in the U.S. have lost almost 99% of the lands they occupied before 1800.</span></figcaption>
</figure>
<h2>Legal cultural genocide</h2>
<p>Indian allottees often had little concept of farming and even less ability to manage their newly acquired lands.</p>
<p>Even after being confined to western reservations, many tribes had maintained their traditional governance structures and tried to preserve their cultural and religious practices, including communal ownership of property. When the U.S. government imposed a foreign system of ownership and management on them, many Indian landowners simply sold their lands to non-Indian buyers, or found themselves subject to taxes that they were unable to pay.</p>
<p>In total, allotment <a href="https://iltf.org/land-issues/history/">removed 90 million acres of land</a> from Indian control before the policy ended in the mid-1930s. This led to the destruction of Indian culture; loss of language as the federal government <a href="https://www.hcn.org/issues/51.21-22/indigenous-affairs-the-u-s-has-spent-more-money-erasing-native-languages-than-saving-them">implemented its boarding school policy</a>; and imposition of a myriad of regulations, as shown in “Killers of the Flower Moon,” that affected inheritance, ownership and title disputes when an allottee passed away. </p>
<figure class="align-center zoomable">
<a href="https://images.theconversation.com/files/552606/original/file-20231006-22-gax5ps.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=1000&fit=clip"><img alt="Antique map with oil production tracts marked" src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/552606/original/file-20231006-22-gax5ps.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/552606/original/file-20231006-22-gax5ps.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=459&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/552606/original/file-20231006-22-gax5ps.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=459&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/552606/original/file-20231006-22-gax5ps.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=459&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/552606/original/file-20231006-22-gax5ps.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=576&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/552606/original/file-20231006-22-gax5ps.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=576&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/552606/original/file-20231006-22-gax5ps.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=576&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px"></a>
<figcaption>
<span class="caption">A 1917 map of oil leases on the Osage Reservation.</span>
<span class="attribution"><a class="source" href="https://www.gettyimages.com/detail/news-photo/map-of-osage-indian-reservation-gas-and-oil-leases-1917-news-photo/1371414745">HUM Images/Universal Images Group via Getty Images</a></span>
</figcaption>
</figure>
<h2>A measure of justice</h2>
<p>Today, <a href="https://revenuedata.doi.gov/how-revenue-works/native-american-ownership-governance/">about 56 million acres</a> remain under Indian control. The federal government owns title to the lands, but holds them in trust for Indian tribes and individuals.</p>
<p>These lands contain many valuable resources, including oil, gas, timber and minerals. But rather than acting as a steward of Indian interests in these resources, the U.S. government has repeatedly failed in its trust obligations.</p>
<p>As required under the General Allotment Act, money earned from oil and gas exploration, mining and other activities on allotted Indian lands was placed in individual accounts for the benefit of Indian allottees. But for over a century, rather than making payments to Indian landowners, the government routinely mismanaged those funds, failed to provide a court-ordered accounting of them and <a href="https://papers.ssrn.com/sol3/papers.cfm?abstract_id=2318591">systematically destroyed disbursement records</a>. </p>
<p>In 1996, Elouise Cobell, a member of the Blackfeet Nation in Montana, filed a class action lawsuit seeking to force the government to provide a historic accounting of these funds and fix its failed system for managing them. After 16 years of litigation, the suit was <a href="https://www.nytimes.com/2011/10/18/us/elouise-cobell-65-dies-sued-us-over-indian-trust-funds.html">settled in 2009 for roughly US$3.4 billion</a>. </p>
<p>The settlement provided $1.4 billion for direct payments of $1,000 to each member of the class, and $1.9 billion to consolidate complex ownership interests that had accrued as land was handed down through multiple generations, making it <a href="https://www.doi.gov/ocl/hearings/111/CobellvsSalazar_121709">hard to track allottees and develop the land</a>. </p>
<p>“We all know that the settlement is inadequate, but we must also find a way to heal the wounds and bring some measure of restitution,” said Jefferson Keel, president of the National Congress of American Indians, as the organization <a href="https://www.ncai.org/news/articles/2010/06/23/ncai-passes-resolution-to-support-immediate-passage-of-the-cobell-settlement-legislation">passed a resolution in 2010</a> endorsing the settlement.</p>
<figure class="align-center zoomable">
<a href="https://images.theconversation.com/files/553330/original/file-20231011-15-h5ezb6.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=1000&fit=clip"><img alt="A woman and man shake hands in a crowded hearing room." src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/553330/original/file-20231011-15-h5ezb6.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/553330/original/file-20231011-15-h5ezb6.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=409&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/553330/original/file-20231011-15-h5ezb6.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=409&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/553330/original/file-20231011-15-h5ezb6.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=409&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/553330/original/file-20231011-15-h5ezb6.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=514&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/553330/original/file-20231011-15-h5ezb6.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=514&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/553330/original/file-20231011-15-h5ezb6.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=514&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px"></a>
<figcaption>
<span class="caption">Elouise Cobell shakes hands with Interior Secretary Ken Salazar at a Senate hearing on the $3.4 billion Cobell v. Salazar settlement. Cobell, a member of the Blackfeet Nation, led the suit against the federal government for mismanaging revenues derived from land held in trust for Indian tribes and individuals.</span>
<span class="attribution"><a class="source" href="https://www.gettyimages.com/detail/news-photo/elouise-cobell-shakes-hands-with-interior-secretary-ken-news-photo/94711236">Mark Wilson/Getty Images</a></span>
</figcaption>
</figure>
<h2>Who are the wolves?</h2>
<p>“Killers of the Flower Moon” offers a snapshot of American Indian land theft, but the full history is much broader. In one scene from the movie, Ernest Burkhart – an uneducated white man, played by Leonardo DiCaprio, who married an Osage woman and <a href="https://www.okhistory.org/publications/enc/entry.php?entry=OS005">participated in the Osage murders</a> – <a href="https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=EG0si5bSd6I&t=4s">reads haltingly from a child’s picture book</a>.</p>
<p>“There are many, so many, hungry wolves,” he reads. “Can you find the wolves in this picture?” It’s clear from the movie that the town’s citizens are the wolves. But the biggest wolf of all is the federal government itself – and Uncle Sam is nowhere to be seen.</p><img src="https://counter.theconversation.com/content/207700/count.gif" alt="The Conversation" width="1" height="1" />
<p class="fine-print"><em><span>Torivio Fodder is an enrolled member of the Taos Pueblo, and of Comanche, Kiowa and Cherokee descent.</span></em></p>The Osage murders of the 1920s are just one episode in nearly two centuries of stealing land and resources from Native Americans. Much of this theft was guided and sanctioned by federal law.Torivio Fodder, Indigenous Governance Program Manager and Professor of Practice, University of ArizonaLicensed as Creative Commons – attribution, no derivatives.tag:theconversation.com,2011:article/2122772023-09-12T14:15:03Z2023-09-12T14:15:03ZJihadist groups threaten the conservation of a key west African world heritage site - new study<figure><img src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/547012/original/file-20230907-19-qmm5ol.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&rect=0%2C16%2C5367%2C4177&q=45&auto=format&w=496&fit=clip" /><figcaption><span class="caption">An African antelope at the Mekrou river in the W National Park, Niger.
</span> <span class="attribution"><a class="source" href="https://www.gettyimages.com/detail/news-photo/kob-bovidae-w-national-park-mekrou-river-niger-africa-news-photo/492759701?adppopup=true">DeAgostini/Getty Images</a></span></figcaption></figure><p>Burkina Faso, Benin and Niger share a biosphere reserve known as the <a href="https://whc.unesco.org/fr/list/749">WAP complex (W-Arly-Pendjari)</a>, which spreads across the borders of the three countries. The first part of this 3 million hectare <a href="https://en.unesco.org/mab">Unesco</a> world heritage site was declared in 1996 and it was extended in 2002. It’s intended to protect species that are highly threatened in the region, including elephants and cheetahs, as well as important <a href="https://whc.unesco.org/fr/ramsar/">wetlands</a>.</p>
<p>The three states signed an agreement in 2008 to manage the reserve’s natural resources together, for the purposes of local, national and regional development. </p>
<p>The territory has been afflicted by violence and insecurity for some ten years. This trouble has spilled over from the “three borders” area shared by Mali, Burkina Faso and Niger, where armed Islamist groups have been operating. </p>
<p>Due to the steady encroachment of non-state armed groups, the conflict is threatening to engulf the reserve. Forest resources are being <a href="https://www.afrik21.africa/en/benin-impact-of-the-massacre-of-5-rangers-in-the-w-national-park-in-northern-benin/">plundered</a> and people who live near the protected areas are being displaced.</p>
<p>As part of a study of causes of migration in and from the region, I <a href="https://nai.uu.se/news-and-events/news/2022-10-14-counter-terrorism-has-to-be-transborder-and-address-root-causes.html">investigated</a> the local impact of armed groups, focusing on <a href="https://en.unesco.org/biosphere/africa/w-transboundary">W Park</a>, part of the WAP complex. I interviewed local people about the implications of poaching activities and the use of violence in forest reserves.</p>
<p>My opinion is that an “economy of armed groups”, which can be called a “jihadism of protected areas”, is being set up. It is dangerously disrupting environmental protection.</p>
<p>The armed groups have opened trafficking routes and launched attacks on local communities. They have taken over activities such as gold panning, hunting and fishing and targeted forest eco-guards. All this has had a direct impact on people and led to deteriorating social conditions. Authorities need to coordinate national responses to safeguard the reserve and restore social cohesion among local communities.</p>
<h2>Serious threat to protected forest areas</h2>
<p>The transboundary area came under multiple pressures decades ago, such as harvesting wood, hunting, poaching, fishing, collecting medicinal plants and illegal mining. The level of exploitation was threatening the ecosystems. In response, the countries adopted a regional approach to coordinate national policies. Local people were to participate in the common management of resources. This approach was outlined in the 2000 <a href="https://www.diplomatie.gouv.fr/IMG/pdf/TAPOA.pdf">Tapoa Declaration</a> and again in 2008.</p>
<p>But another form of pressure has also grown. Today, armed groups seriously <a href="https://whc.unesco.org/en/news/2222">threaten</a> the future of the reserve, its conservation and the sustainability of its activities and development. They have “colonised” this natural geographical area, living inside the remote uncontrolled protected areas and exploiting resources. <a href="https://apanews.net/2023/06/10/benin-deploys-3000-troops-in-the-north-to-fight-terrorism/">They often commit abuses on unprotected populations</a>. </p>
<p>The armed groups are not the sole causes of this current situation. Based on my field research in the region over the years, I argue that it is also the result of the political management by the three states.</p>
<p>Contributing to the political and social instability are:</p>
<ul>
<li><p>land grabs in the areas surrounding protected forest areas</p></li>
<li><p>a pastoralism crisis which increases competition with crop farmers</p></li>
<li><p>inconsistency in the distribution and regulation of forest resources between local residents and state representatives </p></li>
<li><p>a poorly integrated approach to the biosphere. </p></li>
</ul>
<h2>War entrepreneurship</h2>
<p>Since 2018, the Katiba Ansar-ul Islam and the Katiba Serma have been the two <a href="https://globalinitiative.net/wp-content/uploads/2023/06/National-Parks.pdf">armed groups most visible in northern Benin, south-eastern Burkina Faso and western Niger</a>. A kind of “war entrepreneurship” is being set up. It <a href="https://www.afrik21.africa/en/benin-impact-of-the-massacre-of-5-rangers-in-the-w-national-park-in-northern-benin/">draws</a> on natural resources (wood, rare plants, illegal fishing, gold panning), but also causes forced migration in already vulnerable populations. Protected areas have become sanctuaries for recruiting local fighters and planning attacks. According to most of the people I interviewed, the armed groups also consider the forest eco-guards as predators who have oppressed the local populations since the colonial era. Some guards have been killed, others recruited into the armed groups.</p>
<p>The armed groups rely on income from forest products exploitation, illegally extracted gold and <em>zakat</em> – taxes demanded from locals. They also force local people to pledge allegiance to their cause and make them move from their places to remote areas such as the protected reserves. There, migrants also exploit the natural resources. </p>
<p>What has developed is a parallel political economy in areas controlled by armed groups. </p>
<h2>Way forward</h2>
<p>Among the initiatives to combat non-state armed groups, our policy report suggested the following solutions:</p>
<ul>
<li><p>make forest villages inaccessible to two-wheeled motorcycles, the main means of transport for armed groups</p></li>
<li><p>set up forest tunnels or corridors where people can hide when under threat </p></li>
<li><p>re-adopt an integrated and inclusive approach to forest ecology, animal protection and cross-border security </p></li>
<li><p>strengthen social cohesion between communities in Burkina Faso, Benin and Niger by defusing the driving factors of insurgency and restoring mutual trust.</p></li>
</ul><img src="https://counter.theconversation.com/content/212277/count.gif" alt="The Conversation" width="1" height="1" />
<p class="fine-print"><em><span>Papa Sow receives funding from the Nordic Africa institute, Uppsala, Sweden. </span></em></p>Trans-border collaboration is required to recover protected areas that transverse Niger, Burkina Faso and Benin Republic from armed groups.Papa Sow, Senior Researcher, The Nordic Africa InstituteLicensed as Creative Commons – attribution, no derivatives.tag:theconversation.com,2011:article/2036142023-04-13T13:48:34Z2023-04-13T13:48:34ZHow recognising cultural practices in environmental regulation can help protect natural resources like sandalwood — podcast<figure><img src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/520310/original/file-20230411-26-abduzl.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&rect=0%2C0%2C7600%2C5069&q=45&auto=format&w=496&fit=clip" /><figcaption><span class="caption">Indian, or red, sandalwood, is an important natural resources for cultures across the world.</span> <span class="attribution"><span class="source">(Shutterstock)</span></span></figcaption></figure><p>Conserving or protecting natural resources, like landscapes or products, can involve limiting people’s access or use. When natural resources are connected to cultural, religious or spiritual practices, conservation needs to consider both biological and cultural diversity.</p>
<p>Indian or red sandalwood (<em>Santalum album</em>), highly valued for its wood and oil, is a natural resource with <a href="https://doi.org/10.1080/00049158.2020.1841441">significant economic and cultural value</a>. The fragrant wood is used for carvings, furniture and in buildings, while the oil distilled from its heartwood has perfume, incense and medicinal applications.</p>
<p>In this episode of <em>The Conversation Weekly</em>, we speak with a chemist, an environmental historian and an environment and society researcher on why cultural preservation is key to the sustainable management of natural resources like sandalwood.</p>
<iframe src="https://embed.acast.com/60087127b9687759d637bade/6437b772ba30d2001099eeec" frameborder="0" width="100%" height="190px"></iframe>
<p><iframe id="tc-infographic-561" class="tc-infographic" height="100" src="https://cdn.theconversation.com/infographics/561/4fbbd099d631750693d02bac632430b71b37cd5f/site/index.html" width="100%" style="border: none" frameborder="0"></iframe></p>
<h2>Cultural and medical applications</h2>
<p>Danny Hettiarachchi is a chemist and adjunct research fellow at the University of Western Australia. A wood of particular significance to him because of his personal cultural connections, Hettiarachchi researches sandalwood cultivation and its applications. </p>
<p>Not only is sandalwood <a href="https://doi.org/10.1093/acprof:oso/9780199916306.001.0001">historically significant to Asian</a>, African and Middle Eastern cultural practices as a perfume, incense or medicine, but it gained increasing popularity in the West for its properties that made it an ideal perfume fixative.</p>
<p>“Sandalwood is one of the best vehicles or fixatives in perfumes,” says Hettiarachchi. “It has been there from some of the earliest perfumes created in western or modern perfume styles.”</p>
<figure class="align-center zoomable">
<a href="https://images.theconversation.com/files/520602/original/file-20230412-22-lme8b8.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=1000&fit=clip"><img alt="Three small perfume bottles, one is half full with a dark liquid and a blue lid, the other is full with a golden liquid with a gold lid" src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/520602/original/file-20230412-22-lme8b8.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/520602/original/file-20230412-22-lme8b8.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=375&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/520602/original/file-20230412-22-lme8b8.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=375&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/520602/original/file-20230412-22-lme8b8.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=375&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/520602/original/file-20230412-22-lme8b8.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=471&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/520602/original/file-20230412-22-lme8b8.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=471&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/520602/original/file-20230412-22-lme8b8.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=471&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px"></a>
<figcaption>
<span class="caption">Sandalwood is a popular ingredient in perfume blends.</span>
<span class="attribution"><span class="source">(Kier in Sight/Unsplash)</span></span>
</figcaption>
</figure>
<h2>A history of endangerment</h2>
<p>Ezra Rashkow is an environmental and South Asian historian at Montclair State University in the U.S. His research considers historical environmental conservation policies as they relate to the endangerment of natural and cultural resources.</p>
<p>Rashkow describes <a href="https://doi.org/10.1177/0019464613515553">sandalwood as a natural resource that has often been regulated</a> for various political and economic reasons. </p>
<p>“As early as the 1790s, really, in India, under the ruler of what’s now the Mysore region in Karnataka state, I believe it was 1792 when Tipu Sultan declared Indian sandalwood a royal tree and designated it as a protected species.”</p>
<p>Later, British colonial forces — <a href="https://doi.org/10.1515/9780824842918-013">who had already exploited other sandalwood species throughout the Pacific Islands</a> — placed Indian sandalwood under their protection, while they harvested the tree for trade with China.</p>
<p>“Sandalwood finds an extremely important place in early colonial world history because sandalwood was one of the very few commodities that the Chinese were willing to trade for gold and silver,” Rashkow explains.</p>
<p>The demand for sandalwood, along with its overharvesting to meet this demand, resulted in very few sandalwood trees remaining in India. Because it is a hemiparasitic tree, cultivating it had been challening until recently.</p>
<p>Sandalwood’s availability is also complicated by a fungus that causes <a href="https://www.jstor.org/stable/24087534">spike disease</a> and deforestation, as well as the fact that it can take up to 20 years for a tree to reach maturity.</p>
<figure class="align-center zoomable">
<a href="https://images.theconversation.com/files/520604/original/file-20230412-303-jr8kuh.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=1000&fit=clip"><img alt="a forest with trees with slim trunks" src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/520604/original/file-20230412-303-jr8kuh.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/520604/original/file-20230412-303-jr8kuh.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=397&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/520604/original/file-20230412-303-jr8kuh.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=397&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/520604/original/file-20230412-303-jr8kuh.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=397&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/520604/original/file-20230412-303-jr8kuh.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=499&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/520604/original/file-20230412-303-jr8kuh.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=499&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/520604/original/file-20230412-303-jr8kuh.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=499&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px"></a>
<figcaption>
<span class="caption">Sandalwood growing in a forest in Kerala, India.</span>
<span class="attribution"><span class="source">(Shutterstock)</span></span>
</figcaption>
</figure>
<h2>Intertwining nature and culture</h2>
<p>Nature became separated from culture beginning with the Renaissance period, and this has increased throughout the Industrial era. </p>
<p>Jules Pretty, professor of environment and society at the University of Essex in the United Kingdom, studies human-environment relations.</p>
<p>“Nature and culture, they are the same thing. They have always been the same thing in human history until a kind of separation of nature and people (came along) with agriculture, cities, modern economies, and so forth.”</p>
<p>Pretty describes sandalwood as a perfect example through which to explore the relationships between nature and culture.</p>
<p>“A lot of people value sandalwood. It’s closely intertwined into cultures and people feel as though it’s a central part of their lives.” </p>
<p>Pretty believes that lessons about sustainability can be learned from the management of sandalwood. “It is a sacred tree in many communities in southern India, for example, and because it has that kind of characterization, that value of being sacred, then it’s looked after in a particular kind of way, which again, gets us back to thinking about sustainability.”</p>
<hr>
<p>This episode was hosted by Nehal El-Hadi and written and produced by Nehal El-Hadi and Mend Mariwany, who is also the show’s executive producer. Eloise Stevens does our sound design, and our theme music is by Neeta Sarl.</p>
<p>You can find us on Twitter <a href="https://twitter.com/TC_Audio">@TC_Audio</a>, on Instagram at <a href="https://www.instagram.com/theconversationdotcom/">theconversationdotcom</a> or <a href="mailto:podcast@theconversation.com">via email</a>. You can also subscribe to The Conversation’s <a href="https://theconversation.com/newsletter">free daily email here</a>. A transcript of this episode will be available soon.</p>
<p>Listen to “The Conversation Weekly” via any of the apps listed above, download it directly via our <a href="https://feeds.acast.com/public/shows/60087127b9687759d637bade">RSS feed</a> or find out <a href="https://theconversation.com/how-to-listen-to-the-conversations-podcasts-154131">how else to listen here</a>.</p><img src="https://counter.theconversation.com/content/203614/count.gif" alt="The Conversation" width="1" height="1" />
<p class="fine-print"><em><span>Danny Hettiarachchi is a technical product specialist at Quintis Sandalwood. He has received Australian government and industry scholarships and grants towards studies and conferences on sandalwood. Hettiarachchi serves as the expert witness on sandalwood for the Western Australian Government and the State Public Prosecutor, and is a member of the International Standards Organisation’s committee on essential oils and the Australian Society of Cosmetic Chemists. </span></em></p><p class="fine-print"><em><span>Ezra Rashkow and Jules Pretty do not work for, consult, own shares in or receive funding from any company or organisation that would benefit from this article, and have disclosed no relevant affiliations beyond their academic appointment.</span></em></p>Because of its historical social and economic significance, conservation of sandalwood should consider cultural diversity.Nehal El-Hadi, Science + Technology Editor & Co-Host of The Conversation Weekly Podcast, The ConversationDaniel Merino, Associate Science Editor & Co-Host of The Conversation Weekly Podcast, The ConversationLicensed as Creative Commons – attribution, no derivatives.tag:theconversation.com,2011:article/1983242023-02-09T13:59:55Z2023-02-09T13:59:55ZCape Town’s ‘Day Zero’ threat concentrated minds: an activist group used the moment to secure environmental victories<figure><img src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/506841/original/file-20230127-18-mfjcsq.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=496&fit=clip" /><figcaption><span class="caption">A tractor ploughs a field in the Philippi Horticultural Area in Cape Town, South Africa.
</span> <span class="attribution"><span class="source">Photo by Nardus Engelbrecht/Gallo Images via Getty Images</span></span></figcaption></figure><p>Major cities across the world are being increasingly plagued by severe water shortages. From Bangalore, India to São Paulo, Brazil and even Beijing, China, cities <a href="https://www.tandfonline.com/doi/abs/10.1080/07900627.2016.1138398">are at risk of drought in the near future</a>.</p>
<p>This has been true in South Africa too. Between 2016 and 2018 Cape Town experienced the real possibility of “Day Zero”, the day when the taps would run <a href="https://www.nationalgeographic.com/science/article/partner-content-south-africa-danger-of-running-out-of-water">dry</a>.</p>
<p>For some, this was the first time they’d had to think about not having water. Importantly, it also provided insight into water access inequality, which remains shockingly stark two-and-a-half decades after apartheid. Wealthy residents sank private boreholes and neglected to curb water use – despite high water tariffs. These actions were emblematic of the practices <a href="https://wires.onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/full/10.1002/wat2.1354">which led to the drought in the first place</a>.</p>
<p>The Day Zero crisis changed things for Cape Town. Its impact, and the connections between money and access to water, is illustrated by the Philippi Horticultural Area, just on the outskirts of Cape Town. </p>
<p>In particular, the activities of the PHA Campaign, an activist group operating in the area, show how it’s possible to bolster environmental justice work.</p>
<p>My PhD <a href="https://www.tandfonline.com/doi/abs/10.1080/23323256.2022.2141810">research</a> focused on the activist group’s work around unequal water use in Cape Town. The research found that Day Zero was a turning point for how water issues were seen and used by groups such as the PHA Campaign.</p>
<p>Water scarcity is likely to affect cities and towns across the world in the coming years. The role of justice-oriented activist groups will become increasingly important in managing these crises.</p>
<h2>Philippi and horticulture</h2>
<p>The Philippi Horticultural Area has been farmed commercially since the 1850s. This area, just 20km outside central Cape Town on the Cape Flats, has been whittled down from over 3,000 hectares in the mid-1960s to under 2,000 hectares today. </p>
<p>Most of the land is still owned by the descendants of the German immigrants brought into the Cape to make the area an agricultural hub. Like their forebears, they use agricultural methods which focus on production, rather than protecting natural resources for future generations. Pesticides and synthetic fertilisers, which destroy entire ecosystems, are relied upon to increase yield. </p>
<p>There are groups, however, that are focused on farming “with nature”. This agroecological approach involves protecting the soil, water resources and broader ecosystem. An example is companion planting to manage unwanted pests.</p>
<p>The <a href="https://www.vegkopfarm.com">PHA Campaign</a> is one such group. It was formed in 2011 to oppose a large, mixed-use development proposed for the Philippi Horticultural Area. The chairperson, Nazeer Sonday, has been farming in the area since the Groups Areas Act was repealed in 1991. The act barred people of colour from living and working in particular areas. Once that law was repealed he was able to farm in Philippi. </p>
<p>A range of organisations and individuals make up the broader PHA Campaign. Their aim is to protect the Philippi Horticultural Area and its natural resources. </p>
<p>I spent three years conducting ethnographic research in the area. I interviewed a range of people and tracked the daily work of the PHA Campaign. This gave me insight into the dynamics of various communities, as well as the differences between the agricultural models being used. </p>
<p>My research <a href="https://www.tandfonline.com/doi/abs/10.1080/23323256.2022.2141810">showed</a> that groups like the PHA Campaign have known for a long time about the lack of satisfactory protection of Cape Town’s water resources. They have also been acutely aware of how <a href="https://www.africancentreforcities.net/wp-content/uploads/2019/02/Ziervogel-2019-Lessons-from-Cape-Town-Drought_A.pdf">agriculture</a> in the Philippi Horticultural Area has contributed to the (over)use and contamination of water resources. </p>
<p>My research illustrated how Day Zero was important in focusing attention and action on how water – and natural resources more generally – are used in Cape Town, especially in the context of climate change. During this time, the PHA Campaign was able to pair its criticism of industrial agriculture with the need to save water. By hosting public education events on water systems, the campaign aimed to educate the broader public and highlight the importance of agroecological agriculture. </p>
<p>One of the PHA Campaign’s most significant victories was a court case it won against developers in February 2020. Following an application by the PHA Campaign, the <a href="https://cer.org.za/virtual-library/judgments/high-courts/philippi-horticultural-area-food-farming-campaign-others-v-mec-for-local-government-environmental-affairs-and-development-planning-western-cape">Western Cape High Court stopped a development</a> in the PHA because of unanswered questions about its impact on water provision and recharge of the Cape Flats Aquifer. This 420km2 underground water source has played an essential role in the PHA being an agricultural hub, and since Day Zero, to augment the City’s water supply. </p>
<p>The case hinged on the factor of climate change. It shows how the courts might manage cases such as these in future as the tension between development and natural resource protection becomes more pronounced.</p>
<h2>Learning from Day Zero</h2>
<p>The 2016-2018 drought in Cape Town led to significant limitations on water use. Individuals were only allowed up to 50 litres a day. Around late 2018, restrictions on water use and favourable rainfall pulled Cape Town away from the brink of Day Zero.</p>
<p>By the end of 2018 the city began easing water restrictions. The issue of unequal water access and use has since largely receded from media and public attention. Some Cape Town residents – and the city’s authorities – characterised the crisis as a temporary problem which had been overcome.</p>
<p>Yet research shows that Day Zero was a possibility due to insufficient rainfall combined with ineffective water governance.</p>
<p>Attempting to isolate something like a drought to a short time period is not a helpful way to understand and deal with what the climate crisis brings.</p>
<p>Cape Town’s residents can breathe a sigh of relief that the drought has abated (for now). But the hard-won critical engagements around unequal water access must not move out of view. </p>
<p>The work done by the PHA Campaign, before, during and after the drought remains important for the food security of Cape Town, and for its water resources. The recognition and support of such groups should not be limited to times of crisis; concerns of socio-ecological justice cannot wait for the next drought or ecological crisis.</p><img src="https://counter.theconversation.com/content/198324/count.gif" alt="The Conversation" width="1" height="1" />
<p class="fine-print"><em><span>Matthew Wingfield receives funding from the National Research Foundation (NRF). </span></em></p>The work done by the campaign before, during and after the drought remains important for the food security of Cape TownMatthew Wingfield, Postdoctoral fellow, Stellenbosch UniversityLicensed as Creative Commons – attribution, no derivatives.tag:theconversation.com,2011:article/1971932023-01-15T14:36:12Z2023-01-15T14:36:12ZCanada, a superpower? Here’s how the country might one day fit the bill<figure><img src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/503627/original/file-20230109-7526-b6x4xo.JPG?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&rect=0%2C0%2C3300%2C2129&q=45&auto=format&w=496&fit=clip" /><figcaption><span class="caption">A paddler launches a canoe on Bass Lake in central Ontario on Canada Day, 2021. Could humble Canada be heading towards superpower status in the decades to come?</span> <span class="attribution"><span class="source">THE CANADIAN PRESS/Fred Thornhill</span></span></figcaption></figure><iframe style="width: 100%; height: 100px; border: none; position: relative; z-index: 1;" allowtransparency="" allow="clipboard-read; clipboard-write" src="https://narrations.ad-auris.com/widget/the-conversation-canada/canada--a-superpower-here-s-how-the-country-might-one-day-fit-the-bill" width="100%" height="400"></iframe>
<p>For the foreseeable future, <a href="https://now.tufts.edu/2019/11/21/why-united-states-only-superpower">the United States will probably remain the world’s most powerful nation</a>. Yet, like any champion, it must watch for challengers and head them off. At present, <a href="https://www.theatlantic.com/international/archive/2021/10/evergrande-china-us/620360/">China’s rise on the global stage troubles Washington</a>. A few decades ago, it was the Soviet Union.</p>
<p>But will future contenders for superpower status be much closer — specifically, north of the U.S. border? The British Empire ended in the mid-20th century when it was outmanoeuvred not by one of its longtime rivals, France or Germany, but rather by its ally, the U.S. Could Canada do the same?</p>
<p><a href="https://www150.statcan.gc.ca/n1/pub/71-607-x/71-607-x2018005-eng.htm">Canada’s population</a> is just a fraction <a href="https://www.census.gov/popclock/">of its southern neighbour’s</a>, but Prime Minister Justin Trudeau’s Liberal government has announced an <a href="https://www.cbc.ca/news/politics/canada-immigration-500000-2025-1.6636661">ambitious plan to bring in 500,000 immigrants each year</a> by 2025.</p>
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<strong>
Read more:
<a href="https://theconversation.com/how-canada-plans-to-break-records-with-its-new-refugee-targets-193880">How Canada plans to break records with its new refugee targets</a>
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<p>The vast majority will be young and selected via merit-based criteria that give priority to education and workplace skills. Canada’s population in relation to the U.S. has also been slowly increasing for decades and <a href="https://www150.statcan.gc.ca/n1/daily-quotidien/220209/cg-a001-eng.htm">is growing at a faster pace.</a></p>
<p>Canada and the U.S. are roughly the same size, both accounting for <a href="https://www.worldometers.info/geography/largest-countries-in-the-world/">6.1 per cent of the world’s land mass</a>. Much of Canada’s land at present is cold, barren and largely uninhabitable. But climate change has made Canada’s landscape more temperate and <a href="https://www.ctvnews.ca/could-global-warming-turn-canada-into-a-superpower-1.556373">suitable for agriculture and other activities</a>, a trend expected to continue in the decades to come. </p>
<figure class="align-center ">
<img alt="Ships are seen on open water behind a large chunk of blue-ish sea ice." src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/503628/original/file-20230109-15599-kauvwj.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/503628/original/file-20230109-15599-kauvwj.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=399&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/503628/original/file-20230109-15599-kauvwj.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=399&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/503628/original/file-20230109-15599-kauvwj.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=399&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/503628/original/file-20230109-15599-kauvwj.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=501&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/503628/original/file-20230109-15599-kauvwj.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=501&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/503628/original/file-20230109-15599-kauvwj.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=501&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px">
<figcaption>
<span class="caption">Ships are framed by pieces of melting sea ice in Frobisher Bay in Iqaluit, Nunavut in July 2019.</span>
<span class="attribution"><span class="source">THE CANADIAN PRESS/Sean Kilpatrick</span></span>
</figcaption>
</figure>
<h2>Economic powerhouse</h2>
<p>In some ways Canada is already a superpower. Its economic output is the <a href="https://www.visualcapitalist.com/countries-by-share-of-global-economy/">eighth largest in the world</a>. The seven countries with larger economies have bigger populations than Canada. Even with a short growing season and relatively small area devoted to agriculture, Canada is the <a href="https://agriculture.canada.ca/en/sector/overview">fifth largest exporter of agri-food and seafood products</a>. </p>
<p>But economic strength is only one measure of a global power. Another is having the resources that others need. In that regard, Canada is extraordinarily rich in natural resources, including clean water. Regardless of future economic, environmental and technological trends, the country will be an energy and natural resources superpower. </p>
<figure class="align-center ">
<img alt="An aerial shot of a large array of lakes." src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/504082/original/file-20230111-32622-hgpv75.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/504082/original/file-20230111-32622-hgpv75.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=338&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/504082/original/file-20230111-32622-hgpv75.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=338&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/504082/original/file-20230111-32622-hgpv75.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=338&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/504082/original/file-20230111-32622-hgpv75.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=424&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/504082/original/file-20230111-32622-hgpv75.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=424&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/504082/original/file-20230111-32622-hgpv75.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=424&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px">
<figcaption>
<span class="caption">Canada has an abundance of fresh water.</span>
<span class="attribution"><span class="source">(Sergei A, Unsplash)</span></span>
</figcaption>
</figure>
<p>Two other elements are needed for <a href="https://www.foreignaffairs.com/articles/united-states/2022-06-21/what-makes-a-power-great">superpower status</a>: a political system that provides strong governance and a national culture that’s appealing to its own citizens and to people around the world. </p>
<p>Canadian politics prizes stability and moderation, both hallmarks of a superpower. Social change occurs with few ideological battles. For example, becoming the first developed country to legalize <a href="https://www.voanews.com/a/legal-marijuana-makes-few-waves-in-canada/6718512.html">the use and sale of recreational cannabis</a> happened with scant controversy or social division. </p>
<p>Even on <a href="https://www.ctvnews.ca/politics/liberal-government-seeking-delay-to-expanding-medically-assisted-dying-program-1.6196668">expanding the scope of medical assistance in dying legislation</a>, Canadians have remained civil, with all stakeholders willing to listen to each other. </p>
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Read more:
<a href="https://theconversation.com/health-care-providers-and-maid-the-reasons-why-some-dont-offer-medically-assisted-death-186625">Health-care providers and MAID: The reasons why some don't offer medically assisted death</a>
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<h2>Providing inspiration</h2>
<p>Superpowers are not only countries that dominate in various spheres, but also countries that command the aspiration of — and provide inspiration for — people around the globe. For two centuries, the U.S. has made its national dream one that others around the world sought to attain. American-style democracy was the gold standard. </p>
<p>This is now less and less the case. The “city on a hill” acting as <a href="https://www.michigandaily.com/opinion/columns/the-new-world-order-america-in-decline/">a beacon of hope for others</a> has morphed in recent decades into a selfish “America-first” environment. </p>
<figure class="align-left zoomable">
<a href="https://images.theconversation.com/files/503637/original/file-20230109-9407-cwhwi1.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=1000&fit=clip"><img alt="A man with orange-blonde hair speaks with his arms spread behind a podium that says Trump. American flags are behind him." src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/503637/original/file-20230109-9407-cwhwi1.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=237&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/503637/original/file-20230109-9407-cwhwi1.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=400&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/503637/original/file-20230109-9407-cwhwi1.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=400&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/503637/original/file-20230109-9407-cwhwi1.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=400&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/503637/original/file-20230109-9407-cwhwi1.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=503&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/503637/original/file-20230109-9407-cwhwi1.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=503&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/503637/original/file-20230109-9407-cwhwi1.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=503&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px"></a>
<figcaption>
<span class="caption">Former president Donald Trump announces a third run for president as he speaks at Mar-a-Lago in Palm Beach, Fla., in November 2022.</span>
<span class="attribution"><span class="source">(AP Photo/Rebecca Blackwell)</span></span>
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<p><a href="https://www.pewresearch.org/politics/2014/06/12/political-polarization-in-the-american-public/">American citizens have grown disillusioned by their polarized politics</a>, while outsiders question the excesses that drive U.S. capitalism. Donald Trump’s years in the White House have left many <a href="https://www.pewresearch.org/2021/01/29/how-america-changed-during-donald-trumps-presidency/">dismayed about the future</a> of their country and widened the divisions between Republicans and Democrats. </p>
<p>As neighbours, Canadians shake their heads in wonder at the inequities, lack of public health care, lax gun control and debates over abortion and immigration that dominate and <a href="https://www.environicsinstitute.org/insights/insight-details/we-re-witnessing-the-continuing-cultural-divergence-of-canada-and-the-united-states">divide American politics</a>. </p>
<p>Canadian culture, shaped by the country’s history of being a fragment of both the British and French empires, has aspired to promote equality, both between individuals and groups, although it’s failed in its abysmal treatment of Indigenous Peoples.</p>
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<p>
<em>
<strong>
Read more:
<a href="https://theconversation.com/delgamuukw-25-years-on-how-canada-has-undermined-the-landmark-decision-on-indigenous-land-rights-196196">Delgamuukw 25 years on: How Canada has undermined the landmark decision on Indigenous land rights</a>
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<p>Nonetheless, in an age of globalization and demand for greater personal freedoms, Canada’s <a href="https://thewalrus.ca/canadian-multiculturalism-a-work-in-progress/?gclid=CjwKCAiA8OmdBhAgEiwAShr40-sSjf2t9aarxeliFshUw2DdiDnNGQbUmrKvtGi9uzLhaEWXx9ZFExoCcDgQAvD_BwE">multicultural policies are a beacon of hope</a> in a world often scarred by religious, ethnic and tribal battles. </p>
<h2>Where will Canada be in 2223?</h2>
<p>Much like when the U.S. steadily assumed the role of unchallenged superpower from Great Britain during the first half of the 20th century, it might be that <a href="https://policyoptions.irpp.org/magazines/june-2020/why-canada-may-become-a-great-global-power-this-century/">Canada gradually becomes a great power</a> this century — perhaps first as a partner to the United States, but then increasingly supplanting its neighbour. </p>
<p>For many around the world, such a transition would be preferable to other scenarios, such as China or Russia assuming more dominant roles in global affairs.</p>
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Read more:
<a href="https://theconversation.com/united-states-the-end-of-an-illusion-of-omnipotence-186421">United States: the end of an illusion of omnipotence</a>
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<p>A shift in global power relations would occur at a leisurely pace and with minimal disruption. </p>
<p>In 1776, with a population of 2.5 million, few imagined that within two centuries, the U.S. would become the dominant superpower. It’s not inconceivable that Canada could perform the same feat by 2223.</p><img src="https://counter.theconversation.com/content/197193/count.gif" alt="The Conversation" width="1" height="1" />
<p class="fine-print"><em><span>Thomas Klassen does not work for, consult, own shares in or receive funding from any company or organisation that would benefit from this article, and has disclosed no relevant affiliations beyond their academic appointment.</span></em></p>In 1776, with a population of 2.5 million, few imagined that within two centuries, the U.S. would become the dominant superpower. It’s not inconceivable that Canada could do the same by 2223.Thomas Klassen, Professor, School of Public Policy and Administration, York University, CanadaLicensed as Creative Commons – attribution, no derivatives.tag:theconversation.com,2011:article/1945652023-01-13T09:16:00Z2023-01-13T09:16:00ZMining and armed conflict threaten eastern DRC’s biodiversity in a complex web<figure><img src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/504421/original/file-20230113-24-h4zyhp.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=496&fit=clip" /><figcaption><span class="caption">GettyImages</span> </figcaption></figure><p>The Democratic Republic of Congo’s (DRC) conflict-affected eastern provinces are home to numerous protected areas. These areas host unique biodiversity and a range of threatened species, such as the okapi, forest elephant and mountain gorilla. They are also part of the Congo Basin rainforest, which is a crucial <a href="https://www.theguardian.com/environment/2022/nov/02/carbon-timebomb-climate-crisis-threatens-to-destroy-congo-peatlands">line of defence</a> against climate change. </p>
<p>The same protected areas overlap with globally significant deposits of minerals – including gold, coltan and cassiterite.</p>
<p>Mining is <a href="https://www.levinsources.com/assets/pages/Global-Solutions-Study.pdf">rampant</a> in these areas, including in the Itombwe Nature Reserve, Maiko National Park and the Okapi Wildlife Reserve. </p>
<p>Most of this mining is labour-intensive artisanal mining, which makes use of basic technologies. However, in recent years, there has been a sharp increase in semi-industrial mining, which requires significant start-up capital for the purchase of intermediate technologies, such as dredges and pumps.</p>
<p>Both forms of mining have <a href="https://royalsocietypublishing.org/doi/abs/10.1098/rspb.2018.1926">negative impacts</a> on biodiversity conservation. Direct impacts include deforestation, soil degradation and water pollution. </p>
<p>More indirect effects stem from the <a href="https://www.nature.com/articles/s41893-019-0310-6">construction of new roads</a> to make mining sites accessible, and population growth in the vicinity of mines. This leads to further natural resource exploitation, such as fuel and construction wood extraction, bushmeat hunting and shifting agriculture. </p>
<p>This destructive mining in conservation areas often happens under the protection of state and non-state armed actors, who take a portion of the revenues. Thousands of people also depend on such mining for their livelihoods. </p>
<p>The economic importance of mining makes it difficult to stop extraction in protected areas. It’s also at the heart of the complex linkages between mining, armed conflict and conservation in eastern DRC. <a href="https://medialibrary.uantwerpen.be/files/8518/58b283b5-c074-4aac-9cd9-3ea11891c80c.pdf">Our study</a> set out to grasp these linkages, which is crucial for designing effective measures to safeguard protected areas. </p>
<p>Based on research in the Okapi and Itombwe reserves, we found that mining sparks conflict between different branches of the state, between entrepreneurs and local populations, and between artisanal and semi-industrial miners. In a militarised environment, these conflicts can spark violence.</p>
<h2>Livelihoods and enrichment</h2>
<p>Mining is rampant in protected areas because it generates incomes for citizens, officials and armed actors. </p>
<p>Entry barriers are low, and miners’ earnings are <a href="https://ipisresearch.be/publication/much-miner-earn-assessment-miners-revenue-basic-needs-study-drc/">higher</a> than those of comparable groups in the population. For many families, mining is one of the few opportunities for <a href="https://www-sciencedirect-com.proxy-ub.rug.nl/science/article/pii/S0301420720309247#sec6">social mobility</a>.</p>
<p>Mining revenue also tops up the meagre wages of numerous administrators, soldiers and other state officials. In the DRC, the official salaries of state workers are low or remain unpaid. Most of these workers make money on the side and <a href="https://www.tandfonline.com/doi/abs/10.1080/03056240902863587">extract revenue from citizens</a> through various forms of taxation, protection fees and extortion. They are also under pressure to do so from their hierarchy, which expects a share of the income. </p>
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<strong>
Read more:
<a href="https://theconversation.com/how-extractive-industries-manage-to-carry-on-harming-the-planet-155323">How extractive industries manage to carry on harming the planet</a>
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<p>Officials from the agency responsible for regulating artisanal and small-scale mining (SAEMAPE), and the provincial ministry of mines often tax mining activities in protected areas. The Congolese armed forces also substantially enrich themselves by protecting this mining, which is forbidden in most conservation areas. Armed groups also <a href="https://ipisresearch.be/publication/accompanying-note-interactive-map-militarised-mining-areas-kivus/">benefit</a> by imposing taxes in mining sites and at roadblocks.</p>
<p>The recent increase in semi-industrial mining, often run by <a href="https://www.ifri.org/en/publications/notes-de-lifri/sino-congolese-scandal-illegal-exploitation-minerals-and-forests-chinese">Chinese entrepreneurs</a>, has substantially benefited the Congolese army. The senior officers who protect these mining operations deploy army units to guard the installations and seal off the area from unwanted visitors. </p>
<p>The mining administration, too, has benefited from this development. For instance, the Mining Cadastre, the agency responsible for issuing and managing mining titles, has started to <a href="http://www.faapa.info/blog/le-ministere-de-mines-et-liccn-se-contredisent-sur-la-provenance-de-31-lingots-dor-saisis-a-mambasa/">circulate a new map</a> of the Okapi Wildlife Reserve with a different perimeter. This has allowed the agency to issue concessions inside the boundaries of the reserve, while arguing that they are located outside it. </p>
<h2>Sparking conflict</h2>
<p>Because mining is lucrative for many people, <a href="https://medialibrary.uantwerpen.be/files/8518/58b283b5-c074-4aac-9cd9-3ea11891c80c.pdf">our research shows</a> it has considerable knock-on effects on conflict dynamics. </p>
<p>To start with, mining creates friction between different branches of the state and different administrative levels. The environment ministry has contested the new map of the Okapi Wildlife Reserve circulated by the Mining Cadastre. The governor and mining ministry of South Kivu province took measures to regulate semi-industrial mining by Chinese companies around the Itombwe Reserve. These, however, were <a href="https://www.ifri.org/sites/default/files/atoms/files/mwetaminwa_vircoulon_scandale_sino_congolais_2022.pdf">halted</a> by national authorities who claimed the provincial level didn’t have the authority to do so.</p>
<p>On the ground, semi-industrial mining has sparked conflict by prompting the sometimes violent <a href="https://actu7.cd/2022/04/12/ituri-kimya-mining-accusee-dordonner-le-deguerpissement-des-creuseurs-artisanaux-dans-deux-sites-miniers-pres-de-badengaido/">displacement</a> of artisanal miners. This has led some of them to join armed groups, or to an upsurge in violent banditry. </p>
<p>Semi-industrial mining has also led to <a href="https://actualite.cd/2021/10/15/rdc-fizi-la-societe-chinoise-beyond-mining-et-une-cooperative-locale-exploitant-lor-au">disagreements</a> between mining companies and local populations around social investments, employment and compensation for the destruction of agricultural fields. </p>
<p>Combined with competition around accessing revenues, these conflicts have contributed to a spate of armed group attacks on Chinese mining operations. </p>
<h2>No easy solutions</h2>
<p>The involvement of high-level officials and the importance of mining income make it difficult to stop destructive mining from taking place in protected areas. </p>
<p>Moreover, closing down artisanal mining operations by force without offering other opportunities to make a living has often proven to be <a href="https://theconversation.com/shedding-light-on-why-mining-companies-in-eastern-congo-are-under-attack-82922">counterproductive</a>. Displaced miners may simply return to mining sites, sometimes getting the help of armed groups to do this. </p>
<p>Where armed groups and army units lose their income from mining, they may resort to other ways to get money, such as violent banditry.</p>
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<p>
<em>
<strong>
Read more:
<a href="https://theconversation.com/shedding-light-on-why-mining-companies-in-eastern-congo-are-under-attack-82922">Shedding light on why mining companies in eastern Congo are under attack</a>
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<p>The fact that different branches of the state are at odds with each other poses further difficulties. It’s impossible to curb or better regulate mining in protected areas when national and provincial authorities toe a different line or when the military violates restrictions imposed by civilian authorities. </p>
<p>The Congolese agency for nature conservation (ICCN), which is responsible for protected area management, lacks the political clout and <a href="https://roadsandkingdoms.com/2017/seeing-the-forest-for-the-trees/">resources</a> to make a difference. </p>
<p>For instance, the Okapi Wildlife Reserve covers over 13,000 square kilometres, but the ICCN has only enough rangers to conduct regular patrols in 15% of this area. In some areas, ICCN staff have been found to be <a href="https://24sur24.cd/parc-de-lupemba-face-au-presume-braconnage-entretenu-par-certains-gardes-parcs-de-liccn-long-tprdc-exige-des-enquetes-sur-terrain/">complicit</a> in authorising illegal resource exploitation.</p>
<h2>Next steps</h2>
<p>What can be done to improve this situation? </p>
<p>To start with, it’s important to differentiate between semi-industrial and artisanal mining. Semi-industrial mining, in particular gold dredging, is more destructive for the environment and benefits comparatively fewer people. Banning it from protected areas is more urgent and more feasible.</p>
<p>Banning artisanal mining appears difficult, so better regulating and containing it may be a more successful strategy in the short term. This is what has happened in the Itombwe Nature Reserve, where artisanal mining activities are still permitted in certain parts.</p>
<p>It is also crucial that different agencies and layers of the state cooperate. To promote such collaboration, international donors supporting administrative and security sector reform need to get the message across that profiting from mining in protected areas is not acceptable. </p>
<p>However, it is ultimately up to the Congolese government to ensure that state servants are properly paid and respect the law.</p><img src="https://counter.theconversation.com/content/194565/count.gif" alt="The Conversation" width="1" height="1" />
<p class="fine-print"><em><span>Judith Verweijen receives funding from the United States Institute of Peace </span></em></p><p class="fine-print"><em><span>Fergus Simpson receives funding from the United States Institute of Peace </span></em></p><p class="fine-print"><em><span>Peer Schouten receives funding from the United States Institute of Peace. </span></em></p>Destructive mining in Congo’s protected areas is rampant because it generates money for citizens, officials and armed groups.Judith Verweijen, Assistant professor, University of GroningenFergus O'Leary Simpson, Postdoctoral research fellow, University of AntwerpPeer Schouten, Senior researcher, Danish Institute for International StudiesLicensed as Creative Commons – attribution, no derivatives.tag:theconversation.com,2011:article/1925012022-10-23T19:02:27Z2022-10-23T19:02:27ZA green trifecta: how a concrete alternative can cut emissions, resource use and waste<figure><img src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/490751/original/file-20221019-25-1i2n1g.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&rect=0%2C4%2C2749%2C1823&q=45&auto=format&w=496&fit=clip" /><figcaption><span class="caption">
</span> <span class="attribution"><span class="source">Shutterstock</span></span></figcaption></figure><p>Building materials and construction generate <a href="https://architecture2030.org/why-the-building-sector/">about 20%</a> of <a href="https://www.ipcc.ch/report/ar6/wg3/downloads/report/IPCC_AR6_WGIII_SPM.pdf">global greenhouse gas emissions</a>. Much of these emissions are due to the environmentally unfriendly process of producing ordinary <a href="https://www.britannica.com/technology/portland-cement">Portland cement</a>, which is widely used in construction materials such as concrete and mortar. </p>
<p>Portland cement production generates about 2.6 billion tonnes of carbon dioxide (CO₂) a year – <a href="https://phys.org/news/2022-06-cement-carbon-dioxide-emissions-quietly.html">more than 7%</a> of annual global emissions. Cement emissions have <a href="https://phys.org/news/2022-06-cement-carbon-dioxide-emissions-quietly.html">doubled in the past 20 years</a>. And over the next 40 years, construction is expected to <a href="https://www.worldgbc.org/sites/default/files/UNEP%20188_GABC_en%20%28web%29.pdf">double the building floor area</a> worldwide.</p>
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<p>
<em>
<strong>
Read more:
<a href="https://theconversation.com/buildings-produce-25-of-australias-emissions-what-will-it-take-to-make-them-green-and-wholl-pay-105652">Buildings produce 25% of Australia's emissions. What will it take to make them 'green' – and who'll pay?</a>
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<p>Every tonne of cement produced also uses about <a href="https://www.buildinggreen.com/feature/reducing-environmental-impacts-cement-and-concrete">1.6 tonnes of raw materials</a>, including fuels and other resources. Concrete production also uses large amounts of aggregate such as sand and gravel. This requires energy-intensive
quarrying operations that <a href="https://www.conserve-energy-future.com/causes-effects-solutions-depletion-natural-resources.php">deplete non-renewable natural resources</a> – the world is <a href="https://www.bbc.com/future/article/20191108-why-the-world-is-running-out-of-sand">running out of building sand</a>.</p>
<p>The problems of emissions and resource depletion mean suitable substitutes for Portland cement and natural aggregate are required. <a href="https://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/abs/pii/S0950061822026988">Our research</a> shows it is possible to develop more sustainable construction materials, reinforced using natural fibres. Industrial byproducts and waste materials can be used to replace cement binder and aggregate, reducing emissions, resource depletion and waste. </p>
<p><div data-react-class="Tweet" data-react-props="{"tweetId":"1582548565414793216"}"></div></p>
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<p>
<em>
<strong>
Read more:
<a href="https://theconversation.com/green-cement-a-step-closer-to-being-a-game-changer-for-construction-emissions-126033">Green cement a step closer to being a game-changer for construction emissions</a>
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<h2>Recycling cuts waste</h2>
<p>Recycling waste materials in construction can help reduce the environmental impacts of concrete and mortar production and the disposal of waste materials in landfills. </p>
<p>These materials include industrial byproducts (fly ash and blast furnace slag), waste glass and lead slag. Fly ash comes from coal-fired power stations. Blast furnace slag is a byproduct of iron and steel production. </p>
<p>A new type of eco-friendly material, <a href="https://www.geopolymer.org/science/introduction/">geopolymer</a>, has received significant attention as a replacement for conventional concrete. A geopolymer is a hard and durable human-made substance. Geopolymer production produces up to <a href="https://www.geopolymertech.com/green-concrete/sustainability/">90% less CO₂ emissions</a> than conventional concrete. </p>
<p>The properties of waste glass and lead slag make them suitable for use in making geopolymer. </p>
<hr>
<p>
<em>
<strong>
Read more:
<a href="https://theconversation.com/australia-needs-construction-waste-recycling-plants-but-locals-first-need-to-be-won-over-161888">Australia needs construction waste recycling plants — but locals first need to be won over</a>
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<h2>Natural fibre reinforcement is sustainable</h2>
<p>Steel or other synthetic fibres have been widely used as reinforcement material to improve the mechanical properties of geopolymer. However, steel fibres are expensive and corrode in harsh environments. </p>
<p>The synthetic alternative, mineral fibres, such as polyvinyl alcohol and polypropylene, are produced using antioxidants and amines. This process makes these fibres a non-eco-friendly material. </p>
<p>Natural fibres obtained from plants are a viable alternative to non-renewable, corrosive and expensive synthetic fibres. Natural fibres are renewable, eco-friendly, non-corrosive, cheap and abundant. These properties make natural fibres a sustainable material. </p>
<h2>What did the study find?</h2>
<p>Any substitutes for the concrete and mortar used today should at least match their engineering properties, such as strength and durability. <a href="https://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/abs/pii/S0950061822026988">Our study</a> evaluated the production and performance of geopolymers made with waste glass and lead slag instead of natural sand. We used a combination of fly ash and granulated blast furnace slag as binders instead of Portland cement. </p>
<p>These geopolymers were reinforced with different types of natural fibres such as <a href="https://ecoworldonline.com/coir-the-natural-fiber-from-coconut-husk/">coir</a>, <a href="https://ecoworldonline.com/what-material-is-ramie/">ramie</a>, <a href="https://edition.cnn.com/2015/11/10/africa/sisal-tanzania/index.html">sisal</a>, <a href="https://cfda.com/resources/materials/detail/hemp">hemp</a>, <a href="https://www.recycledmats.com.au/what-is-jute">jute</a> and <a href="https://ecoworldonline.com/why-choose-bamboo-fiber-products/">bamboo</a> fibres.</p>
<figure class="align-right zoomable">
<a href="https://images.theconversation.com/files/490745/original/file-20221019-14-kb1yzm.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=1000&fit=clip"><img alt="" src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/490745/original/file-20221019-14-kb1yzm.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=237&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/490745/original/file-20221019-14-kb1yzm.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=800&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/490745/original/file-20221019-14-kb1yzm.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=800&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/490745/original/file-20221019-14-kb1yzm.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=800&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/490745/original/file-20221019-14-kb1yzm.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=1006&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/490745/original/file-20221019-14-kb1yzm.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=1006&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/490745/original/file-20221019-14-kb1yzm.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=1006&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px"></a>
<figcaption>
<span class="caption">Compression load testing of a geopolymer concrete cylinder.</span>
<span class="attribution"><span class="license">Author provided</span></span>
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</figure>
<p>Our experimental results showed geopolymers containing waste glass sand have higher strength and absorb less water than those containing lead slag and natural sand. Water absorption reduces the durability of concrete. </p>
<p>Geopolymers prepared with lead slag show a lower drying shrinkage than geopolymers made with waste glass sand and lead slag. Drying shrinkage also reduces durability, as it leads to cracks in the concrete before it bears any kind of load.</p>
<p>We found that geopolymers with 1% ramie, hemp and bamboo fibre have greater compressive and tensile strengths than unreinforced geopolymers. This means the reinforced geopolymer resists breaking when squeezed (under compression loading) and when pulled apart (under tension loading). The higher strength of natural fibre-reinforced mixes is because of the bridging effect of the fibres inside the geopolymer. </p>
<p>Our study also shows that ramie, hemp and bamboo fibre-reinforced geopolymers shrink less than unreinforced geopolymers. </p>
<figure class="align-center zoomable">
<a href="https://images.theconversation.com/files/490761/original/file-20221020-20-t00rq0.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=1000&fit=clip"><img alt="" src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/490761/original/file-20221020-20-t00rq0.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/490761/original/file-20221020-20-t00rq0.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=451&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/490761/original/file-20221020-20-t00rq0.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=451&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/490761/original/file-20221020-20-t00rq0.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=451&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/490761/original/file-20221020-20-t00rq0.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=566&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/490761/original/file-20221020-20-t00rq0.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=566&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/490761/original/file-20221020-20-t00rq0.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=566&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px"></a>
<figcaption>
<span class="caption">The results of tension loading tests on different geopolymer samples.</span>
<span class="attribution"><span class="license">Author provided</span></span>
</figcaption>
</figure>
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<p>
<em>
<strong>
Read more:
<a href="https://theconversation.com/greening-the-concrete-jungle-how-to-make-environmentally-friendly-cement-82686">Greening the concrete jungle: how to make environmentally friendly cement</a>
</strong>
</em>
</p>
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<h2>What next?</h2>
<p>The next steps in this research would include study of:</p>
<ul>
<li><p>the use of recycled aggregates obtained from <a href="https://theconversation.com/australia-needs-construction-waste-recycling-plants-but-locals-first-need-to-be-won-over-161888">construction and demolition waste</a>, which has grown to <a href="https://www.dcceew.gov.au/sites/default/files/env/pages/5a160ae2-d3a9-480e-9344-4eac42ef9001/files/nwr2020-factsheet.pdf">27 million tonnes a year</a> in Australia – <a href="https://www.dcceew.gov.au/sites/default/files/env/pages/5a160ae2-d3a9-480e-9344-4eac42ef9001/files/national-waste-report-2020.pdf">44% of all waste</a></p></li>
<li><p>treating the natural fibres to modify their properties before using in the geopolymer</p></li>
<li><p>the possibility of using the developed geopolymer in 3D printing for automated construction. </p></li>
</ul>
<hr>
<p>
<em>
<strong>
Read more:
<a href="https://theconversation.com/future-cities-could-be-3d-printed-using-concrete-made-with-recycled-glass-175598">Future cities could be 3D printed – using concrete made with recycled glass</a>
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<hr>
<p>Developing sustainable concrete will provide us with a next-generation construction material that greatly improves the sector’s resource efficiency while reducing its emissions and other environmental impacts.</p><img src="https://counter.theconversation.com/content/192501/count.gif" alt="The Conversation" width="1" height="1" />
<p class="fine-print"><em><span>Aliakbar Gholampour does not work for, consult, own shares in or receive funding from any company or organisation that would benefit from this article, and has disclosed no relevant affiliations beyond their academic appointment.</span></em></p>The energy-intensive process of producing cement and concrete contributes significantly to global warming while depleting resources. Much more sustainable alternatives are being developed.Aliakbar Gholampour, Senior Lecturer in Civil and Structural Engineering, Flinders UniversityLicensed as Creative Commons – attribution, no derivatives.tag:theconversation.com,2011:article/1898512022-09-29T14:07:24Z2022-09-29T14:07:24ZForeign investment into Nigeria has fallen sharply: rights and freedoms may be one reason<figure><img src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/482945/original/file-20220906-12-e9yk9u.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=496&fit=clip" /><figcaption><span class="caption">Nigeria's economy needs to diversify away from oil. </span> <span class="attribution"><a class="source" href="https://www.gettyimages.com/detail/news-photo/workers-rehabilitate-the-new-port-harcourt-refinery-built-news-photo/489227316?adppopup=true">Pius Utomi Ekpei/AFP via Getty Images </a></span></figcaption></figure><p>Nigeria has always managed to attract foreign direct investment despite its poor economic outlook. This is thanks to its <a href="https://www.worldometers.info/oil/nigeria-oil/">oil reserves</a> and the consumption potential of its <a href="https://worldpopulationreview.com/countries/nigeria-population">large population</a>. </p>
<p>But these inflows of foreign investment have been in decline and now seem to have hit a halt. Over the past five years, foreign direct investment in Nigeria has dropped by almost <a href="https://hallmarknews.com/nigerias-fdi-reduced-by-81-in-4-years-nbs/">80%</a>. This partly reflects a broader trend for the region: according to the <a href="https://www.afdb.org/en">African Development Bank</a>, inward investment fell by <a href="https://www.afdb.org/en/documents/african-economic-outlook-2022">almost 24%</a> between 2019 and 2020. Investors around the world <a href="https://fbj.springeropen.com/articles/10.1186/s43093-022-00129-5">were also cautious</a> about risky markets during the COVID-19 pandemic. </p>
<p>But foreign investment inflows to Nigeria had been falling even before the pandemic. The country’s net inflows based on balance of payments <a href="https://www.worldbank.org/en/country/nigeria/publication/nigeria-development-update-ndu">fell</a> from about US$9 billion in 2012 to below US$1 billion in 2018. </p>
<p>So Nigeria’s 80% drop is steeper than the region’s, which suggests that there is another dynamic at play. </p>
<p>Economists have looked at a range of factors that contribute to a drop in foreign direct investment. These include <a href="https://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/abs/pii/S0304387808000382?casa_token=qvA1bHz29skAAAAA:Y-GOIHAJorqW1PSnNjXOOjjnreYJNI4Efpfv2ZAD-cu9_6VGmzizR0S_qtwrBTmdQzwmazkkDi8">institutional underdevelopment</a>, <a href="https://www.cambridge.org/core/journals/international-organization/article/reversal-of-fortunes-democratic-institutions-and-foreign-direct-investment-inflows-to-developing-countries/92316DFB2BC9DE4D88409E8CF0835310">property rights</a> and <a href="https://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S0969593118305997">country regulations</a>.</p>
<p>In a paper <a href="https://www.tandfonline.com/doi/full/10.1080/15228916.2019.1583975">published in 2020</a>, I explored the role institutions play in determining foreign direct investment flows. I looked specifically at developing country contexts. I looked at three separate categories of institutions: civil and political liberties, freehold property rights and non-freehold (customary) property rights, with particular attention given to the two property rights. </p>
<p>My findings suggest that, in the case of Nigeria, in the short run, institutions have played a role in determining foreign direct investment. I found that the curtailing of land rights, in the form of the right to manage and the right to use, may have contributed to the fall in foreign direct investment inflows. </p>
<p>An example is the <a href="https://reliefweb.int/report/nigeria/resolving-farmer-herder-conflicts">herder-farmer conflict</a> which has spread from the northern part of Nigeria to the middle belt. This has impaired the right of farmers to manage their property. A knock-on effect is that potential investors in commercial farming ventures – or otherwise – may become cautious.</p>
<h2>A slow unravelling</h2>
<p>There have been drastic changes in the quality of Nigeria’s institutions over time. This goes as far back as pre-independence. </p>
<p>The <a href="https://archive.gazettes.africa/archive/ng/1978/ng-government-gazette-supplement-dated-1978-03-29-no-14-part-a.pdf">Land Use Act of 1978</a> resulted in a rise in land disputes and litigation. During the 1990s military rule period, it became compulsory to renew certificates of occupancy – the legal documents that prove that a person owns land. The certificates are usually required to occupy the property on a daily basis, to sign a contract to sell it and to close a mortgage on it. </p>
<p>Then in 2018, the government announced plans to implement the Rural Grazing Area settlement programme to deal with conflicts between crop farmers and herders. This led to accusations that the government was grabbing land through the back door. The policy was <a href="https://punchng.com/fg-replaces-controversial-ruga-with-new-scheme-begins-camps-in-six-states/">suspended in 2019</a>. </p>
<p>All these changes had implications for both freehold and customary land rights. But did that in turn affect investment?</p>
<p>The study found no evidence of a long-run relationship between any of the institutional variables and foreign direct investment. Surprisingly, freehold property rights did not play a significant role. Evidence generally points in the direction of secure property rights attracting investment, because multinational companies feel better protected and commercial farmers can make long-term plans. Examples include <a href="https://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S014759670800022X?casa_token=nYf2DKkaTKwAAAAA:J4QU6oa10jhfsOspPT9Iiope8uFa6FfuQXgoAVVXr88T9-306r33PQ9sjg3zoyFpIMECrxJqvXY">China</a> and <a href="https://onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/full/10.1111/j.1813-6982.2011.01283.x?casa_token=xKkCoORZtpgAAAAA%3A1Q9wNlLu3XEMFJRt25AQEf-mNLWVhcAocZ_qeRlD9OeSUnhJX-2s9cpTYPGnpvlOROyUtLVIQRH9n4qY">Zimbabwe</a>.</p>
<p>The short-run – an empirical analysis that takes first difference of the data, to extract short-run attributes – evidence was that the relationship between civil and political liberties and foreign direct investment inflows was significant. So was the relationship between non-freehold property rights and foreign direct investment. </p>
<p>While the political institutions effect is expected, the customary (non-freehold) land rights, which is often neglected by policymakers, is surprising. In fact, this had the larger and only significant and positive relation to foreign direct investment.</p>
<p>What this suggests is that foreign direct investment inflows into Nigeria may react to changes in the quality of civil and political liberties, as well as customary property rights.</p>
<p>An even more interesting result was the significant role that the right to manage property played in attracting investment to Nigeria. This shows that while freehold property rights as a whole may not have a significant impact on investment in the immediate term, certain aspects of freehold property rights, such as the right to manage, are still important. </p>
<p>The right to manage property can involve managing tenants or appointing agents to do so. This is an example of how it affects foreign investment perceptions. The herder-farmer conflict may infringe on farmers’ right to manage their land and plan for long-term farming objectives, and potentially in other indirect ways as well.</p>
<h2>Sustaining Nigeria’s economy</h2>
<p>Nigeria has relied on the strength of its natural resources, population size and power as a consumer. <a href="https://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S0176268012000481">Natural resources</a> often water the punishment effect of other confounding factors for foreign direct investment drops. These are no longer able to sustain the country. </p>
<p>The curtailing of land rights, in the form of the right to manage and the right to use, may have contributed to the fall in foreign direct investment inflows. </p>
<p>It will not be easy to solve the herder-farmer conflict. But recognising the way it’s linked to investment, and dedicating resources to addressing it, may be the necessary first step. Acknowledging the role of flailing property rights due to herder-farmer conflict, and then signalling political will to take this on, would assuage fears by potential investors.</p>
<p>Economic theory suggests foreign investment inflows should bring about increased productivity, technological innovation and better allocation of resources. All of these should lead to positive structural change in the recipient country. </p>
<p>Diversifying the economy away from oil would protect inflows from global oil price shocks. Nigeria should create an environment attractive to not just oil-targeted investment, but also industries that leverage the size of Nigeria’s population and their consumption potential.</p><img src="https://counter.theconversation.com/content/189851/count.gif" alt="The Conversation" width="1" height="1" />
<p class="fine-print"><em><span>David Fadiran does not work for, consult, own shares in or receive funding from any company or organisation that would benefit from this article, and has disclosed no relevant affiliations beyond their academic appointment.</span></em></p>There should be a better long-term strategy for foreign direct investments in Nigeria that’s not tied to its oil reserves.David Fadiran, Research Fellow, Policy Research in Service and Manufacturing (PRISM), University of Cape TownLicensed as Creative Commons – attribution, no derivatives.tag:theconversation.com,2011:article/1905502022-09-29T12:33:17Z2022-09-29T12:33:17ZIndigenous defenders stand between illegal roads and survival of the Amazon rainforest – Brazil’s election could be a turning point<figure><img src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/487136/original/file-20220928-24-i3si0g.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&rect=24%2C73%2C5439%2C3563&q=45&auto=format&w=496&fit=clip" /><figcaption><span class="caption">Maria Elena Paredes, coordinator of the Community Vigilance Committee for the Ashéninka community of Sawawo Hito 40, points to satellite images showing deforestation.</span> <span class="attribution"><a class="source" href="https://earthobservatory.nasa.gov/blogs/fromthefield/2022/09/07/indigenous-experience-shaping-nasa-services-in-the-amazon/">Reynaldo Vela/USAID</a></span></figcaption></figure><p><em><a href="https://theconversation.com/defensores-indigenas-resisten-entre-los-caminos-ilegales-y-la-supervivencia-de-la-selva-amazonica-las-elecciones-pueden-ser-decisivas-191734">Leer en español</a> ou <a href="https://theconversation.com/defensores-indigenas-ficam-entre-estradas-ilegais-e-sobrevivencia-da-floresta-amazonica-o-segundo-turno-das-eleicoes-no-brasil-pode-ser-um-ponto-de-virada-192213">em português</a></em></p>
<p>The Ashéninka woman with the painted face radiated a calm, patient confidence as she stood on the sandy banks of the Amonia River and faced the loggers threatening her Amazonian community.</p>
<p>The loggers had bulldozed a trail over the mahogany and cedar saplings she had planted, and blocked the creeks her community relied on for drinking water and fish. Now, the outsiders <a href="https://apiwtxa.org.br/wp-content/uploads/2021/08/Illegal-Road-Nueva-Italia-%E2%80%93-Puerto-Breu-Ucayali-Peru_ok.pdf">wanted to widen the trail</a> into <a href="https://earthobservatory.nasa.gov/images/150513/deforestation-follows-a-road-through-ucayali?fbclid=IwAR0ioYeZFV0D69tVS_ZRGGXRxJVcm0b2AlkArOPDrc8sFYYLfX7ml9E9s-g">a road</a> to access the towering rainforests that unite the Peruvian and Brazilian border along the Juruá River.</p>
<p><a href="https://www.upperamazon.org/mara-elena-paredes-mrquez-award">María Elena Paredes</a>, as head of the Sawawo Hito 40 monitoring committee, said no, and her community stood by her.</p>
<p>She knew she represented not just her community and the other Peruvian Indigenous communities, but also her Brazilian cousins downstream who also rely on these forests, waters and fish. </p>
<figure class="align-center ">
<img alt="A worker aboard a Caterpillar road roller works on a road." src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/487182/original/file-20220928-6297-xtazxi.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/487182/original/file-20220928-6297-xtazxi.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=374&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/487182/original/file-20220928-6297-xtazxi.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=374&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/487182/original/file-20220928-6297-xtazxi.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=374&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/487182/original/file-20220928-6297-xtazxi.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=470&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/487182/original/file-20220928-6297-xtazxi.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=470&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/487182/original/file-20220928-6297-xtazxi.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=470&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px">
<figcaption>
<span class="caption">Roads beget more roads. The Interoceanic Highway, shown here, allowed loggers, ranchers and miners to generate hundreds of miles of illegal offshoots that brought deforestation and environmental harm.</span>
<span class="attribution"><span class="source">David Salisbury</span></span>
</figcaption>
</figure>
<p>The <a href="https://www.absatrichmond.com/videos/v/2022absatyuruavideoeng?categoryId=63179a9714df2439378a751b">Indigenous residents of the Amazon borderlands understand</a> that the loggers and their tractors and chainsaws are the <a href="https://ojo-publico.com/3656/amazon-border-comando-vermelho-brasil-refuge-peru">sharp point of a road</a> allowing coca growers, land traffickers and others access to traditional Indigenous territories and resources. They also realize that their Indigenous communities may be <a href="https://amazonia80x2025.earth/amazonia-against-the-clock/">all that stands in defense of the forest</a> and stops invaders and road builders.</p>
<p>The 2022 elections could be a turning point away from deforestation, unsustainable road building and the targeting of Indigenous lands – or the election results could continue to <a href="https://dar.org.pe/wp-content/uploads/2022/02/Situacion-de-los-defensores-indigenas.pdf">escalate the pressure</a>. After a <a href="https://apnews.com/article/jair-bolsonaro-health-presidential-elections-covid-brazil-c578776ba05d09d2c5a54819d1f97bc1">closer than expected</a> first-round vote, <a href="https://resultados.tse.jus.br/oficial/app/index.html#/eleicao;e=e544/resultados">Brazil’s presidential race is headed for a runoff on Oct. 30</a>.</p>
<h2>Explosive growth of illegal roads as government pulled back</h2>
<p>During Jair Bolsonaro’s presidency in Brazil and the COVID-19 pandemic, the Amazon rainforest has witnessed explosive growth in <a href="https://doi.org/10.1111/j.1467-7660.2007.00422.x">informal and illegal</a> roads. </p>
<p>The Amazonian departments of Ucayali, Loreto and Madre de Dios, Peru, saw road expansion increase by 25% from 2019 to 2020 and 16% from 2020 to 2021. In the Brazilian Amazon, roads are being built at such a rapid pace that researchers are <a href="https://www.mdpi.com/2072-4292/14/15/3625">turning to artificial intelligence</a> to map the expansion.</p>
<figure class="align-center ">
<img alt="Animation of map changes and close up of one area year to year" src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/487180/original/file-20220928-20-lc39rq.gif?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/487180/original/file-20220928-20-lc39rq.gif?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=784&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/487180/original/file-20220928-20-lc39rq.gif?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=784&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/487180/original/file-20220928-20-lc39rq.gif?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=784&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/487180/original/file-20220928-20-lc39rq.gif?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=985&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/487180/original/file-20220928-20-lc39rq.gif?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=985&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/487180/original/file-20220928-20-lc39rq.gif?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=985&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px">
<figcaption>
<span class="caption">How road building leads to the rapid deforestation of surrounding lands. The satellite maps show road expansion from 2003 to 2021 into the Serra do Divisor National Park and its buffer zone.</span>
<span class="attribution"><span class="source">Yunuen Reygadas/ABSAT/University of Richmond</span>, <a class="license" href="http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nd/4.0/">CC BY-ND</a></span>
</figcaption>
</figure>
<p>Roads are <a href="https://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S0169534709002067">the most damaging infrastructure</a> in the tropical rainforest, bringing deforestation and a host of related cultural and environmental impacts.</p>
<p>Research shows that <a href="https://www.pnas.org/doi/full/10.1073/pnas.1913321117">Indigenous lands are crucial to safeguarding the forest</a> ecosystems and immense carbon stores. These territories, covering <a href="https://www.raisg.org/en/publication/amazonia-2021-protected-areas-and-indigenous-territories/">about a third</a> of the Amazon region, act as a buffer against road expansion, <a href="https://journals.plos.org/plosone/article?id=10.1371/journal.pone.0195900">reducing both deforestation</a> and <a href="https://doi.org/10.1111/j.1523-1739.2006.00351.x">fires</a>.</p>
<p>But the Indigenous communities near the border between Peru and Brazil are <a href="https://dar.org.pe/wp-content/uploads/2022/02/Situacion-de-los-defensores-indigenas.pdf">experiencing an onslaught</a> on their homelands.</p>
<figure class="align-center ">
<img alt="" src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/486986/original/file-20220928-20-ohynwl.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/486986/original/file-20220928-20-ohynwl.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=761&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/486986/original/file-20220928-20-ohynwl.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=761&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/486986/original/file-20220928-20-ohynwl.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=761&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/486986/original/file-20220928-20-ohynwl.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=956&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/486986/original/file-20220928-20-ohynwl.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=956&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/486986/original/file-20220928-20-ohynwl.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=956&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px">
<figcaption>
<span class="caption">A satellite view of the Parakanã Indigenous Territory in the Brazilian Amazon shows how Indigenous Territories help maintain standing forest (dark green) despite being surrounded by road-related deforestation and forest degradation (brown and light green).</span>
<span class="attribution"><span class="source">David Salisbury/ABSAT/University of Richmond</span></span>
</figcaption>
</figure>
<p>When the pandemic forced governments to reduce monitoring and law enforcement in the remote rainforests, the illegal road builders, loggers, miners and traffickers <a href="https://www.pnas.org/doi/abs/10.1073/pnas.2018489117">increased their presence and work rate</a>. The state’s absence gave them a relative respite from law enforcement, and in Brazil, they were goaded on by Bolsonaro’s <a href="https://www.science.org/doi/10.1126/science.369.6504.613">anti-environment, anti-Indigenous and anti-science rhetoric</a>.</p>
<p>A combination of <a href="https://www.maaproject.org/2022/amazon-roads/">road-building</a>, climate change-induced forest heating and drying, and related deforestation is <a href="https://www.maaproject.org/2022/amazon-tipping-point/">pushing the Amazon rainforest toward a tipping point</a> that could turn the world’s largest rainforest and reserve of terrestrial biodiversity into a sparsely wooded savanna <a href="https://global.oup.com/academic/product/the-amazon-9780190668280?q=plotkin&lang=en&cc=us">in just a few decades</a>.</p>
<h2>Elections could turn the tide</h2>
<p>A few hours downriver from where she confronted the loggers, Paredes and other Peruvian Indigenous leaders met with their Brazilian counterparts in September 2022 to <a href="https://www.upperamazon.org/news/the-indigenous-peoples-of-the-peru-brazil-border-are-strengthened-for-the-defense-of-their-territories-and-their-culture">discuss strategies to stop the invasions</a>. The Brazilian leaders included <a href="http://doepiyako.com.br/">Francisco Piyako</a> and <a href="https://isaac-piyako.financie.de/">Isaac Piyako</a>, two Indigenous Ashéninka brothers who ran for election at the federal and state levels but lost amid the southern Amazon’s conservative turn toward agribusiness.</p>
<p>While Brazil’s election included <a href="https://www.livrariamaraca.com.br/indigenas-eleicoes-2022/">more Indigenous candidates</a> than any in Brazilian history, with the 186 candidates representing a 40% increase over 2018, few of those candidates won. </p>
<p>Two Indigenous women with strong anti-Bolsonaro platforms <a href="https://portalpopline.com.br/eleicoes-2022-deputadas-indigenas/">emerged from the election as federal deputies</a>: Sônia Guajajara in São Paulo state and Célia Xakriabá in Minas Gerais. <a href="https://www.economist.com/by-invitation/2022/09/30/marina-silva-on-why-brazils-presidential-contest-will-decide-the-amazons-fate">Marina Silva</a>, a former environment minister and past Green Party presidential candidate, also won election as a federal deputy in São Paulo state. Seven other self-declared indigenous candidates won at various levels, but most didn’t run on pro-Indigenous rights or environment platforms.</p>
<p>These results place the future of the Amazon very much in the hands of Brazil’s national election.</p>
<p>On one side of the presidential election stands Bolsonaro, a <a href="https://rgs-ibg.onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/full/10.1111/area.12763">populist who has</a> derided Indigenous people, environmentalists and science while <a href="https://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S0264837722001600?via%3Dihub">weakening environmental and Indigenous agencies and inciting</a> miners, loggers, ranchers and agribusiness leaders to cut down the forest.</p>
<p>On the other side is <a href="https://foreignpolicy.com/2022/09/16/brazil-election-bolsonaro-lula-climate-change-policy-amazon-deforestation/">Luiz Inácio Lula da Silva</a> – commonly called Lula – a <a href="https://www.bbc.com/news/world-latin-america-56326389">former Brazilian president</a> who is arguing for zero deforestation. Da Silva had <a href="https://resultados.tse.jus.br/oficial/app/index.html#/eleicao;e=e544/resultados">48.4% of the first-round vote</a> to Bolsonaro’s 43.2%.</p>
<p><div data-react-class="Tweet" data-react-props="{"tweetId":"1542872852835303427"}"></div></p>
<p></p><figure><figcaption>‘There will be no future without the state and powers uniting to respect our history and ancestry.’ -Francisco Piyako</figcaption></figure><p></p>
<p>Peru also held elections on Oct. 2 at the regional and municipal levels. <a href="https://ojo-publico.com/3591/elecciones-2022-la-relegada-representacion-indigena-en-la-amazonia">In the Ucayali region</a>, 37% of the candidates were Indigenous. But the elected governors in Peru’s Amazonian departments – a <a href="https://ojo-publico.com/3649/dos-candidatos-la-region-ucayali-son-empresarios-de-palma-aceitera">coca farmer</a> in Ucayali, a <a href="https://elcomercio.pe/peru/investigado-por-presuntos-delitos-medioambientales-seria-el-nuevo-gobernador-de-madre-de-dios-luis-otsuka-salazar-elecciones-2022-noticia/">miner</a> in Madre de Dios and a <a href="https://larepublica.pe/politica/elecciones/2022/10/05/elecciones-2022-nuevo-gobenador-de-loreto-region-con-mas-conflictos-sociales-es-investigado-por-4-presuntos-delitos-atmp/">doctor in Loreto who is under investigation</a> by prosecutors – are not Indigenous.</p>
<p>In Maria Elena Paredes’ home district, Yurúa, pro-conservation Indigenous residents did win, providing one of few positive signs for the environment in the Amazon.</p>
<p>Without adequate pro-environment and Indigenous representation, <a href="https://www.absatrichmond.com/mapas">the roads and extractive development will march forward</a>, making <a href="https://www.nytimes.com/2013/10/19/world/americas/corruption-in-peru-aids-cutting-of-rain-forest.html">the Peruvian side</a> of the forest <a href="https://www.nationalgeographic.com/magazine/article/mahogany-last-stand">even more vulnerable</a>. A victory for sustainability, conservation and culture in Brazil <a href="https://www.taylorfrancis.com/chapters/edit/10.4324/9781315873848-12/transboundary-political-ecology-amazonia-history-culture-con%EF%AC%82icts-borderland-ash%C3%A1ninka-david-salisbury-jos%C3%A9-borgo-l%C3%B3pez-jorge-vela-alvarado">could resonate across political borders</a> into Peru and the other seven <a href="https://www.tandfonline.com/doi/abs/10.1080/08865655.2014.916462">countries that share the Amazon</a>, just as Paredes’ intervention in Peru stopped the tractors from ruining the forests and streams that flow into Brazil.</p>
<figure class="align-center ">
<img alt="A chart shows deforestation fell in the early 2000 but sharply rose again starting in 2019" src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/487326/original/file-20220929-5105-5lfmg4.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/487326/original/file-20220929-5105-5lfmg4.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=378&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/487326/original/file-20220929-5105-5lfmg4.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=378&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/487326/original/file-20220929-5105-5lfmg4.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=378&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/487326/original/file-20220929-5105-5lfmg4.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=475&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/487326/original/file-20220929-5105-5lfmg4.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=475&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/487326/original/file-20220929-5105-5lfmg4.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=475&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px">
<figcaption>
<span class="caption">Deforestation has surged since 2019, with much of the impact in Brazil due to President Jair Bolsonaro’s development approach resonating with loggers, ranchers and miners.</span>
<span class="attribution"><a class="source" href="https://www.raisg.org/en/publication/amazonia-2021-protected-areas-and-indigenous-territories/">RAISG</a></span>
</figcaption>
</figure>
<h2>A dangerous job: Defending the Amazon</h2>
<p>As leaders like Paredes and others defend their forests and people, they are also targets for violence.</p>
<p>In the Amazon borderlands, <a href="https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=BwriBZXL8AM">danger threatens from multiple sides</a>, and justice is rarely served. The killing of <a href="https://www.nationalgeographic.com/culture/article/i-knew-the-men-murdered-in-the-amazon-and-their-alleged-killer">journalist Dom Phillips and activist Bruno Pereira</a> in June 2022 was just the latest high-profile attack. Global Witness reported that <a href="https://www.globalwitness.org/en/campaigns/environmental-activists/decade-defiance/#a-global-analysis-2021">200 land and environmental defenders were killed in 2021</a>.</p>
<p>Fifteen years ago, the legendary Indigenous leader <a href="https://www.nationalgeographic.com/magazine/article/mahogany-last-stand">Edwin Chota</a> protested the road that Paredes and her community are blocking today. He and three colleagues were later <a href="https://www.huffpost.com/entry/edwin-chotas-dream_b_5793066">gunned down in 2014</a> after receiving death threats from loggers and traffickers. The killers remain free in the borderlands.</p>
<figure class="align-center ">
<img alt="A headshot image of Edwin Chota" src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/487141/original/file-20220928-25-wtcsyu.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/487141/original/file-20220928-25-wtcsyu.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=416&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/487141/original/file-20220928-25-wtcsyu.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=416&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/487141/original/file-20220928-25-wtcsyu.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=416&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/487141/original/file-20220928-25-wtcsyu.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=523&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/487141/original/file-20220928-25-wtcsyu.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=523&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/487141/original/file-20220928-25-wtcsyu.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=523&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px">
<figcaption>
<span class="caption">Edwin Chota was killed defending Indigenous lands and the forest.</span>
<span class="attribution"><span class="source">Emory Richey</span></span>
</figcaption>
</figure>
<figure class="align-center ">
<img alt="A group of children and adults walk past a cemetary's vaults" src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/487142/original/file-20220928-26-hk6jlu.JPG?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/487142/original/file-20220928-26-hk6jlu.JPG?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=450&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/487142/original/file-20220928-26-hk6jlu.JPG?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=450&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/487142/original/file-20220928-26-hk6jlu.JPG?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=450&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/487142/original/file-20220928-26-hk6jlu.JPG?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=566&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/487142/original/file-20220928-26-hk6jlu.JPG?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=566&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/487142/original/file-20220928-26-hk6jlu.JPG?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=566&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px">
<figcaption>
<span class="caption">Hijos y familiares de Chota y de sus colegas asesinados visitaron su tumba este verano de 2022.</span>
<span class="attribution"><span class="source">David Salisbury</span></span>
</figcaption>
</figure>
<p>This summer, I visited Chota’s grave with over 20 of the surviving family and community members of the four slain defenders. Most of these families are afraid to return to their beautiful forests in the borderland community of Saweto, and instead remain on the outskirts of the city of Pucallpa, squeezed into dilapidated houses with intermittent electricity and clean water.</p>
<p>Far from their village, the children cannot build their cultural and environmental knowledge in the forest.</p>
<p>Five participants from Saweto were among the 120 Indigenous representatives from 13 ethnicities in the Amazon borderlands who joined our NASA workshop to discuss how they can <a href="https://earthobservatory.nasa.gov/blogs/fromthefield/2022/09/07/indigenous-experience-shaping-nasa-services-in-the-amazon/">use satellite imagery to monitor changes to the forest</a> and climate. By integrating <a href="https://ecologyandsociety.org/vol27/iss1/art17/">Indigenous ecological knowledge</a> and <a href="https://www.absatrichmond.com/videos/v/2022absatyuruavideoeng?categoryId=63179a9714df2439378a751b">geospatial analysis</a> of the Amazon rainforest and climate, scientists and Indigenous groups can both better track the changing Amazon.</p>
<p>The Indigenous mothers, fathers and children told us they want training and education that will help them to protect their territory, adapt to climate change and build a sustainable future. Our <a href="https://www.nasa.gov/mission_pages/servir/index.html">NASA SERVIR project</a> is creating <a href="https://experience.arcgis.com/experience/a72b024f470f424bae885d0b3fa50561/">mapping platforms</a> based on satellite imagery analysis that the Indigenous communities, nongovernment organizations and government agencies can use to monitor roads, deforestation and climate change.</p>
<h2>Indigenous defense is crucial</h2>
<p>All of humanity is <a href="https://www.ipcc.ch/report/ar6/wg2/">feeling the effects of climate change</a>. Our Indigenous colleagues recognize the changes in <a href="https://www.absatrichmond.com/mapas/2022-taller-gtaso-absat-nasa-servir-amazonia">temperature, the water cycle and the seasons</a> already happening in their communities.</p>
<figure>
<iframe width="440" height="260" src="https://www.youtube.com/embed/wISuR8pJnIU?wmode=transparent&start=0" frameborder="0" allowfullscreen=""></iframe>
<figcaption><span class="caption">Maria Elena Paredes speaks about her work protecting the Amazon.</span></figcaption>
</figure>
<p><a href="https://www.globalwitness.org/en/campaigns/environmental-activists/last-line-defence/">Environmental land defenders</a> like Paredes are working to keep the world’s largest forest standing tall in the face of threats that don’t just harm the Amazon. If the <a href="https://journals.ametsoc.org/view/journals/clim/34/6/JCLI-D-20-0380.1.xml">Amazon rainforest becomes a savanna</a>, there will be reverberations in the climates of <a href="https://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S0168192315002130?via%3Dihub">South America</a>, <a href="https://link.springer.com/article/10.1007/s00382-020-05223-4">the Caribbean</a>, <a href="https://journals.ametsoc.org/view/journals/hydr/6/2/jhm406_1.xml">North America and across the globe</a>.</p>
<p>Everyone loses if the Indigenous defenders of the Amazon do not have the support and educational opportunities needed to be safe, prosperous and empowered to protect their rainforest home.</p>
<p><em>This article was updated Oct. 11, 2022, with additional election results.</em></p><img src="https://counter.theconversation.com/content/190550/count.gif" alt="The Conversation" width="1" height="1" />
<p class="fine-print"><em><span>David S. Salisbury has collaborations with the communities of Sawawo, Saweto and Apiwtxa. He is co-investigator of a NASA SERVIR Amazonia Applied Science Team grant led by Dr. Stephanie Spera at the University of Richmond. He is a Board member of the Upper Amazon Conservancy, and has collaborated on research with ACCA, MAAP, and other Amazonian sources linked in the article. His book, Defending the Amazon, will be forthcoming in 2023.</span></em></p>Illegal roads have brought deforestation, fire and other environmental damage to the Amazon. The results of the 2022 presidential runoff could have a major impact for the future.David S. Salisbury, Associate Professor of Geography, Environment, and Sustainability, University of RichmondLicensed as Creative Commons – attribution, no derivatives.tag:theconversation.com,2011:article/1849202022-07-12T12:33:13Z2022-07-12T12:33:13ZWhat the controversial 1972 ‘Limits to Growth’ report got right: Our choices today shape future conditions for life on Earth<figure><img src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/473446/original/file-20220711-19-jg3tta.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&rect=0%2C0%2C3000%2C1500&q=45&auto=format&w=496&fit=clip" /><figcaption><span class="caption">Image of Earth's city lights, created with data from the Defense Meteorological Satellite Program.</span> <span class="attribution"><a class="source" href="https://www.gettyimages.com/detail/news-photo/this-image-of-earths-city-lights-was-created-with-data-from-news-photo/1594390">NASA/Newsmakers via Getty Images</a></span></figcaption></figure><p>The 1970s launched an <a href="https://environmentalhistory.org/20th-century/seventies-1970-79/">environmental reckoning</a> across the U.S. Spurred by rising public concern, corporations and national leaders pledged to protect resources, and created new laws and agencies to lead that effort.</p>
<p>Amid these discussions, a group of <a href="https://archive.org/details/limitstogrowthr00mead">researchers at MIT</a> tackled a far-reaching question: How long can humanity keep growing and consuming at its current rate? </p>
<p>Using computer modeling, they came up with <a href="https://www.clubofrome.org/publication/the-limits-to-growth/">an ominous answer</a>: </p>
<blockquote>
<p>“If the present growth trends in world population, industrialization, pollution, food production, and resource depletion continue unchanged, the limits to growth on this planet will be reached sometime within the next one hundred years. The most probable result will be a rather sudden and uncontrollable decline in both population and industrial capacity.” </p>
</blockquote>
<p>Their report, “<a href="https://www.clubofrome.org/publication/the-limits-to-growth/">The Limits to Growth</a>,” generated widespread controversy when it was published in 1972. It was an intellectual extension of biologist <a href="https://www.britannica.com/topic/Stanford-University">Paul Ehrlich’s</a> thesis in his 1968 bestseller “<a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Population_Bomb">The Population Bomb</a>,” which predicted that aggregate world demand for resources, driven by population growth, would lead to future starvation. Some predictions in “The Limits to Growth” were impressively accurate, while others proved to be way off. </p>
<p>As an <a href="https://scholar.google.com/citations?user=lfkXE9kAAAAJ&hl=en">environmental economist</a>, I tend to be <a href="https://theconversation.com/why-the-cost-of-climate-change-cant-be-boiled-down-to-one-right-number-despite-some-economists-best-attempts-176432">skeptical that any one model</a> can explain how the global economy operates at a single point in time, let alone predict global conditions in 2100. </p>
<p>Nonetheless, I believe “The Limits to Growth” got a larger point right: Humans must limit and soon reduce their aggregate production of greenhouse gas emissions. The authors anticipated the potential for the world’s economy to shift to cleaner sources of energy, noting that “If man’s energy needs are someday supplied by nuclear power instead of fossil fuels, this increase in atmospheric carbon dioxide will eventually cease, one hopes before it has had any measurable ecological or climatological effect.” </p>
<figure class="align-center zoomable">
<a href="https://images.theconversation.com/files/473448/original/file-20220711-12-xctoxj.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=1000&fit=clip"><img alt="Graph showing world growth declining radically" src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/473448/original/file-20220711-12-xctoxj.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/473448/original/file-20220711-12-xctoxj.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=610&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/473448/original/file-20220711-12-xctoxj.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=610&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/473448/original/file-20220711-12-xctoxj.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=610&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/473448/original/file-20220711-12-xctoxj.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=767&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/473448/original/file-20220711-12-xctoxj.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=767&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/473448/original/file-20220711-12-xctoxj.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=767&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px"></a>
<figcaption>
<span class="caption">A figure from ‘The Limits to Growth,’ with consumption continuing at the 1970 rate. Depletion of nonrenewable resources leads to a collapse of industrial production, with growth stopping before 2100.</span>
<span class="attribution"><a class="source" href="https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:Limits-to-growth-figure-35.svg">YaguraStation/Wikipedia</a>, <a class="license" href="http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/4.0/">CC BY-SA</a></span>
</figcaption>
</figure>
<h2>Extrapolating resource use</h2>
<p>The MIT <a href="https://www.clubofrome.org/publication/the-limits-to-growth/">research team</a> that produced “The Limits to Growth” focused on five basic factors that they claimed determined, and therefore ultimately limited, growth on Earth: population, agricultural production, natural resources, industrial production and pollution.</p>
<p>They hypothesized that a growing economy eventually devours its finite supplies of natural resources. If aggregate demand for resources such as wood, oil, rubber, copper and zinc increases as the world’s population grows and per capita income rises, they forecast that the world will eventually run out of these precious resources. </p>
<p>At its heart, this is an extrapolation exercise. If developing nations such as India catch up by the year 2035 to the U.S level of average income in the year 2000, the argument goes, then the average person in India in 2035 will consume the same quantity of natural resources as the average American did in 2000. This approach assumes that we can foresee a developing nation’s future consumption patterns by looking at consumption patterns in a rich country today. </p>
<figure class="align-center zoomable">
<a href="https://images.theconversation.com/files/473449/original/file-20220711-22-l70ka6.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=1000&fit=clip"><img alt="World map showing nations' GDP per capita in 2020" src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/473449/original/file-20220711-22-l70ka6.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/473449/original/file-20220711-22-l70ka6.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=424&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/473449/original/file-20220711-22-l70ka6.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=424&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/473449/original/file-20220711-22-l70ka6.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=424&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/473449/original/file-20220711-22-l70ka6.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=532&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/473449/original/file-20220711-22-l70ka6.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=532&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/473449/original/file-20220711-22-l70ka6.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=532&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px"></a>
<figcaption>
<span class="caption">Wealth per capita varies widely around the world. Richer nations have much higher per capita resource consumption.</span>
<span class="attribution"><a class="source" href="https://ourworldindata.org/economic-growth">Our World in Data</a>, <a class="license" href="http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nd/4.0/">CC BY-ND</a></span>
</figcaption>
</figure>
<h2>Economists respond</h2>
<p>Economists have tended to be more optimistic that ongoing economic growth can slow population growth, accelerate technological progress and bring about new goods that offer consumers the services they desire without the negative environmental consequences associated with past consumption. </p>
<p>The Limits to Growth mindset implicitly assumes that our menu of consumption choices does not really change over time. Consider the vehicle market: In the year 2000, one could not buy a Tesla or Chevy Volt to get around without consuming fossil fuel. </p>
<p>A typical economist would argue that Elon Musk invested in Tesla because he anticipated rising demand for high-quality electric vehicles. In this sense, the belief that we could run out of oil helps us to adapt to expected scarcity by accelerating innovation. </p>
<p>Why? If the Limits to Growth hypothesis is correct, then future gas prices will soar as aggregate demand devours our finite supply of resources. And as gas prices rise, so will future demand for electric vehicles.</p>
<p>This point applies to more than cars. In a 1992 reassessment of “The Limits to Growth,” Nobel laureate <a href="https://www.nobelprize.org/prizes/economic-sciences/2018/nordhaus/facts/">William Nordhaus</a> argued that rising aggregate demand for natural resources traded in markets, such as oil, wood and copper, will lead to rising prices. This scarcity signal will encourage buyers to <a href="https://www.jstor.org/stable/2534581?seq=1">substitute other products</a> for increasingly expensive resources. </p>
<p>Economists tend to be optimistic that we can always find substitutes for resources that are becoming increasingly scarce. “The Limits to Growth” implicitly assumed that such possibilities were limited. </p>
<p><div data-react-class="Tweet" data-react-props="{"tweetId":"1147950913698639873"}"></div></p>
<p>For-profit firms constantly design new products to attract consumers. Some goods, such as smartphones, may <a href="https://www.getorchard.com/blog/environmental-impact-of-the-iphone/?amp=1">deplete natural resources</a>. But others have smaller environmental footprints than the products they replace, and those eco-benefits <a href="https://www.sup.org/books/title/?id=27989">can help attract customers</a>.</p>
<p>For example, affluent people today are choosing to eat less red meat <a href="https://doi.org/10.1080/07315724.2014.976890">to improve their health</a>. Innovative firms are designing “<a href="https://impossiblefoods.com/">fake meat</a>” to cater to those consumers. If more consumers substitute fake meat for meat, then the <a href="https://foodprint.org/blog/climate-change-report/">perverse environmental impacts</a> of global caloric intake decline. </p>
<p>“The Limits to Growth” emphasized population and income growth as key determinants of resource collapse. But worldwide, as people move to cities and their earnings rise, they tend to <a href="http://dx.doi.org/10.3386/w29948">marry later and have fewer children</a>. Nobel laureate <a href="https://www.nobelprize.org/prizes/economic-sciences/1992/becker/facts/">Gary Becker</a> argues that choosing to have fewer children represents prioritizing quality over quantity of children. Such household choices help to <a href="https://www.economist.com/finance-and-economics/2021/12/11/why-the-demographic-transition-is-speeding-up">reduce aggregate population growth</a> and defuse the “population bomb.”</p>
<figure>
<iframe width="440" height="260" src="https://www.youtube.com/embed/pUbHGI-kHsU?wmode=transparent&start=0" frameborder="0" allowfullscreen=""></iframe>
<figcaption><span class="caption">Copenhagen offers a model for sustainable urban development, with a goal of carbon neutrality by 2025.</span></figcaption>
</figure>
<h2>The limits that matter today</h2>
<p>Today, <a href="https://www.ipcc.ch/2022/02/28/pr-wgii-ar6/">scientists</a> and <a href="https://www.defense.gov/News/News-Stories/Article/Article/2582051/defense-secretary-calls-climate-change-an-existential-threat/">policymakers</a> widely agree that climate change is an overriding challenge worldwide. But the risk isn’t running out of resources. Rather, it is warming Earth drastically enough to produce heat waves, wildfires, floods and other impacts on catastrophic scales.</p>
<p>The standard economic policy prescription for cutting greenhouse gas emissions that drive climate change is adopting a <a href="https://www.carbontax.org/where-carbon-is-taxed-overview/">carbon tax</a>. This gives consumers an incentive to use less fossil fuel and businesses an incentive to produce better low-carbon technologies, such as electric vehicles and green power. </p>
<p>If every nation enacted a carbon tax that rises over time, then economists would be confident that we could avoid the most severe negative effects of global economic growth. Why? A great race would unfold, with carbon emissions per dollar of global gross domestic product declining faster than economic growth would rise and global emissions declining. </p>
<p>The vast majority of economists believe that <a href="https://lantpritchett.org/wp-content/uploads/2022/05/Basics-legatum-paper_short.pdf">economic growth</a> is essential for improving the lives of billions in the developing world. As people invest in their education and urbanize, economic logic predicts that population growth will slow. And energy efficiency will increase if energy prices are rising over time, <a href="https://doi.org/10.1162/003355399556188">due to induced innovation</a>.</p>
<figure class="align-center zoomable">
<a href="https://images.theconversation.com/files/473452/original/file-20220711-24-a2ls8a.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=1000&fit=clip"><img alt="Children stand in line in a slum, carrying large plastic jugs." src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/473452/original/file-20220711-24-a2ls8a.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/473452/original/file-20220711-24-a2ls8a.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=399&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/473452/original/file-20220711-24-a2ls8a.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=399&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/473452/original/file-20220711-24-a2ls8a.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=399&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/473452/original/file-20220711-24-a2ls8a.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=502&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/473452/original/file-20220711-24-a2ls8a.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=502&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/473452/original/file-20220711-24-a2ls8a.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=502&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px"></a>
<figcaption>
<span class="caption">Children stand in line to receive free water distributed by the Kenyan government in Nairobi, April 7, 2020.</span>
<span class="attribution"><a class="source" href="https://www.gettyimages.com/detail/news-photo/children-queue-with-their-jerrycans-to-fill-them-with-free-news-photo/1209347550">Gordwin Odhiambo/AFP via Getty Images</a></span>
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</figure>
<p>Climate scientists are analyzing <a href="https://doi.org/10.5194/essd-14-1917-2022">how much nations must reduce their aggregate emissions</a> to avoid climate change on a catastrophic scale. Ideally, climate mitigation policies can be fine-tuned to balance ongoing global per capita income growth while staying within the aggregate emissions constraints prescribed by climate science research. </p>
<p>Since the full costs of runaway climate change aren’t known, many economists have embraced the idea of reducing carbon emissions as <a href="https://press.princeton.edu/books/paperback/9780691171326/climate-shock">insurance against extreme climate risks</a>. Call it a “limit to carbon growth.” Ongoing efforts to invest in climate change adaptation, and nascent efforts to explore the potential of <a href="https://doi.org/10.1007/s10640-007-9174-8">geoengineering</a>, provide humanity with additional strategies for coping with the consequences of our past carbon growth.</p><img src="https://counter.theconversation.com/content/184920/count.gif" alt="The Conversation" width="1" height="1" />
<p class="fine-print"><em><span>Matthew E. Kahn does not work for, consult, own shares in or receive funding from any company or organization that would benefit from this article, and has disclosed no relevant affiliations beyond their academic appointment.</span></em></p>A 1972 report warned that unchecked consumption could crater the world economy by 2100. Fifty years and much debate later, can humanity innovate quickly enough to avoid that fate?Matthew E. Kahn, Provost Professor of Economics and Spatial Sciences, USC Dornsife College of Letters, Arts and SciencesLicensed as Creative Commons – attribution, no derivatives.tag:theconversation.com,2011:article/1842142022-06-16T12:24:54Z2022-06-16T12:24:54ZCoastal gentrification in Puerto Rico is displacing people and damaging mangroves and wetlands<figure><img src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/469067/original/file-20220615-11-lv96u2.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&rect=10%2C0%2C1152%2C763&q=45&auto=format&w=496&fit=clip" /><figcaption><span class="caption">Tourism-driven development is threatening one of Puerto Rico's greatest draws: its rural coastlines.</span> <span class="attribution"><a class="source" href="https://flic.kr/p/aJeMia">R9 Studios FL/Flickr</a>, <a class="license" href="http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/">CC BY</a></span></figcaption></figure><p>As world travel rebounds after two years of COVID-19 shutdowns and restrictions, marketers and the media are promoting Puerto Rico as an accessible <a href="https://www.cnn.com/travel/article/puerto-rico-travel-2022/index.html">hot spot destination</a> for continental U.S. travelers. The commonwealth <a href="https://newsismybusiness.com/puerto-rico-had-record-year-for-tourism-in-21-discover-puerto-rico-says/">set a visitor record in 2021</a>, and it is <a href="https://www.travelagewest.com/Travel/Caribbean/puerto-rico-travel-2022">expanding tourism-related development</a> to continue wooing travelers away from more exotic destinations. </p>
<p>Tourism income is central to Puerto Rico’s economy, especially in the wake of <a href="https://www.businessinsider.com/puerto-rico-tourism-recovery-after-hurricane-maria-2020-6">heavy damage from Hurricane Maria in 2017</a>. But it comes at a cost: destruction of mangroves, wetlands and other coastal areas. Puerto Rico is no stranger to resort construction, but now widespread small-scale projects to meet demand for <a href="https://caribbeanbusiness.com/there-are-over-10000-airbnb-listed-properties-in-puerto-rico/">rentals on platforms like Airbnb</a> are adding to concerns about <a href="https://doi.org/10.1016/j.annals.2019.102845">coastal gentrification</a> and <a href="https://doi.org/10.1080/13604813.2018.1548819">touristification</a>. </p>
<p>As scholars who study <a href="https://scholar.google.com/citations?user=THbsmg4AAAAJ&hl=en">anthropology</a> and <a href="https://scholar.google.com/citations?user=1nA5J-QAAAAJ&hl=en">coastal communities</a>, we believe it is important to understand what Puerto Rico is losing in the quest for ever-increasing tourist business. For the <a href="https://theconversation.com/what-rural-coastal-puerto-ricans-can-teach-us-about-thriving-in-times-of-crisis-76119">rural coastal communities</a> where we do our research, habitat is tied to residents’ cultural identity and economic well-being.</p>
<p>For the last two decades, we have documented how many rural Puerto Ricans’ lives are inextricably linked to <a href="https://doi.org/10.3998/jar.0521004.0071.201">coastal forests and wetland habitats</a>. These communities often are poor, neglected by the state and disproportionately affected by <a href="https://theconversation.com/in-puerto-rico-environmental-injustice-and-racism-inflame-protests-over-coal-ash-69763">pollution and noxious industries</a>. Decisions about the future of the coast too often are made without accounting for human impacts.</p>
<figure>
<iframe width="440" height="260" src="https://www.youtube.com/embed/Vxk64GEZ7g0?wmode=transparent&start=0" frameborder="0" allowfullscreen=""></iframe>
<figcaption><span class="caption">By law, all beaches on Puerto Rico are public, but many people say construction threatens the island’s natural resources.</span></figcaption>
</figure>
<h2>Once-scorned areas are now in demand</h2>
<p>Estuaries and coastal forests are some of Earth’s most <a href="https://doi.org/10.3389/fmars.2018.00376">biodiverse and productive ecosystems</a>. Millions of people rely on <a href="https://www.sarasota.wateratlas.usf.edu/upload/documents/ImportanceOfMangrovesToPeople-UNEP-2014.pdf">mangroves and coastal wetlands</a> to make a living. </p>
<p>Around the world, these areas are <a href="https://doi.org/10.3389/fevo.2020.00144">under stress</a> from climate change, <a href="https://globalvoices.org/2021/05/11/destruction-of-coastal-forest-for-a-major-tourism-project-raises-questions-about-jamaicas-climate-change-posture/">tourism</a> and luxury residential development. But these zones weren’t always prized so highly.</p>
<p>In Puerto Rico and elsewhere in the Americas, <a href="https://www.wiley.com/en-us/Wetlands%2C+5th+Edition-p-9781118676820">wetlands</a> historically were seen as undesirable and even dangerous places to live and work. They often were settled by the poor and dispossessed, most notably <a href="https://www.aaihs.org/from-extractive-agriculture-to-industrial-waste-periphery-life-in-a-black-puerto-rican-ecology/">Afro-descendant people</a> and Indigenous communities, who made livings <a href="https://www.jstor.org/stable/24706389">fishing, foraging, harvesting coconuts, cutting wood and making charcoal</a>.</p>
<p>In the early 20th century, however, tropical coasts started attracting attention from the global leisure class. In 1919, the Vanderbilt Hotel opened in San Juan, followed in 1949 by the massive Caribe Hilton resort – the <a href="https://rowman.com/ISBN/9780739189184/Imaging-The-Great-Puerto-Rican-Family-Framing-Nation-Race-and-Gender-during-the-American-Century">first Hilton hotel outside the continental U.S.</a>, built in partnership with the Puerto Rican government. Many more hotels followed, along with casinos and golf courses. </p>
<p><div data-react-class="Tweet" data-react-props="{"tweetId":"1458165063324352516"}"></div></p>
<p>Today, Puerto Rico’s rural coastal communities have to <a href="http://dx.doi.org/10.36019/9780813537528-005">compete for space and resources</a> against tourism development, gentrification, urbanization, industry and conservation. Often these uses are not compatible with local lifestyles. </p>
<p>For example, people from communities near mangrove forests, like Las Mareas in southern Puerto Rico, are no longer permitted to <a href="https://drna.pr.gov/wp-content/uploads/2016/12/SAP-2016-FINAL-9-15-2016-rev-ETI.compressed.pdf">harvest small amounts of mangrove wood</a> to build traditional fishing boats. At the same time, they see wealthy residents and developers <a href="https://apnews.com/article/climate-caribbean-puerto-rico-mangroves-36e4e66f520e241f315fa4a1d8558ac1">destroying entire tracts of mangrove forest</a> with impunity. Some coastal communities are starting to push back.</p>
<h2>Beaches are for the people</h2>
<p>In March 2022, <a href="https://www.instagram.com/eliezermolinapr/?hl=en">Eliezer Molina</a>, an environmental activist, engineer and 2020 gubernatorial candidate, posted <a href="https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=se4HdAJ0K20">an exposé on YouTube</a> of the illegal cutting and filling of a mangrove shoreline in the <a href="https://periodismoinvestigativo.com/2022/03/local-and-federal-negligence-enables-environmental-crime-in-the-bahia-jobos-reserve-in-salinas/">Las Mareas neighborhood</a> in Salinas’ Jobos Bay. As Puerto Rico’s second-largest estuary and only <a href="https://coast.noaa.gov/nerrs/reserves/jobos-bay.html">Federal Estuarine Reserve</a>, the bay is an <a href="https://doi.org/10.1016/j.aquabot.2007.12.007">important and sensitive habitat</a> for birds, turtles and manatees, and a nursery for many types of fish.</p>
<p>Wealthy Puerto Ricans <a href="https://www.latimes.com/world-nation/story/2022-05-06/illegal-building-making-puerto-rico-more-vulnerable-to-climate-change-critics-warn">clandestinely developed this waterfront site</a> for weekend homes. Residents of Las Mareas had been alerting local authorities for well over a decade about destruction of the mangroves, to no avail. Federal authorities and Puerto Rico’s Justice Department are now <a href="https://www.elnuevodia.com/noticias/locales/notas/federales-buscan-informacion-en-bahia-de-jobos-en-salinas/">conducting a criminal investigation</a> of the illegal construction.</p>
<figure class="align-center zoomable">
<a href="https://images.theconversation.com/files/469069/original/file-20220615-11810-84txpr.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=1000&fit=clip"><img alt="Beach homes under construction in a forested area." src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/469069/original/file-20220615-11810-84txpr.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/469069/original/file-20220615-11810-84txpr.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=399&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/469069/original/file-20220615-11810-84txpr.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=399&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/469069/original/file-20220615-11810-84txpr.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=399&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/469069/original/file-20220615-11810-84txpr.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=502&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/469069/original/file-20220615-11810-84txpr.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=502&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/469069/original/file-20220615-11810-84txpr.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=502&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px"></a>
<figcaption>
<span class="caption">Construction at the Jobos Bay National Estuarine Research Reserve, in Salinas, Puerto Rico, May 3, 2022. Puerto Rico’s Justice Department has launched a criminal investigation into destruction in the ecological reserve.</span>
<span class="attribution"><a class="source" href="https://newsroom.ap.org/detail/ClimateChangePuertoRicoIllegalConstruction/0a093eb19f004740a690fcacbc54834b/photo">AP Photo/Carlos Giusti</a></span>
</figcaption>
</figure>
<p>This case led to widespread public outrage about <a href="https://www.liberationnews.org/the-fight-against-privatization-of-beaches-in-puerto-rico/">similar instances</a> around the archipelago. Puerto Ricans are condemning local government agencies <a href="https://www.instagram.com/biancagraulau/?hl=en">online</a> and <a href="https://www.nbcnews.com/now/video/puerto-ricans-protest-privatization-of-public-beaches-140998725522">in person</a> for what they describe as incompetence, corruption and a lack of monitoring and oversight. </p>
<p>One hot-button issue is <a href="https://gizmodo.com/puerto-rico-rincon-beach-protests-1848747800">privatization and destruction</a> of the <a href="https://ayudalegalpr.org/resource/zona-maritimo-terrestre">Zona Marítimo Terrestre</a>, or Terrestrial Maritime Zone. This area is legally defined as “Puerto Rico’s coastal space that is bordered by the sea’s ebb and flow” – that is, between the low and high tide or up to the highest point of the surf zone. It includes beaches, mangroves and other coastal wetlands, and is publicly owned.</p>
<figure class="align-right zoomable">
<a href="https://images.theconversation.com/files/469099/original/file-20220615-10494-phcn3k.JPG?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=1000&fit=clip"><img alt="Protest poster in Spanish on a wall in a small local market" src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/469099/original/file-20220615-10494-phcn3k.JPG?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=237&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/469099/original/file-20220615-10494-phcn3k.JPG?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=450&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/469099/original/file-20220615-10494-phcn3k.JPG?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=450&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/469099/original/file-20220615-10494-phcn3k.JPG?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=450&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/469099/original/file-20220615-10494-phcn3k.JPG?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=566&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/469099/original/file-20220615-10494-phcn3k.JPG?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=566&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/469099/original/file-20220615-10494-phcn3k.JPG?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=566&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px"></a>
<figcaption>
<span class="caption">A poster in a seafood market in the village of Pozuelo, Guayama, reads ‘Stop the destruction and privatization of the coasts.’</span>
<span class="attribution"><span class="source">Hilda Llorens</span>, <a class="license" href="http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nd/4.0/">CC BY-ND</a></span>
</figcaption>
</figure>
<p>Activists are urging Gov. Pedro Pierluisi to declare a comprehensive moratorium on all coastal construction, a demand the governor calls “<a href="https://weather.com/photos/news/2022-05-10-illegal-construction-puerto-rico-mangrove">excessive</a>.” A popular protest slogan, “<a href="https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=nJB_m66pn14">Las playas son del pueblo!</a>” (“Beaches belong to the people”), aptly summarizes popular feeling. </p>
<h2>Overlooked value</h2>
<p>Coastal development generates a lot of money in Puerto Rico, but what is gained by conserving these areas for use by local communities? In research that we carried out in <a href="https://app.box.com/s/wdlgd9tg1p0e7v4i99jp0sre40dej59i">2010-2013</a> and <a href="https://app.box.com/s/qt3c2cf4f7hlo2kpi7qhq6l88ntbtms8">2016-2021</a>, we found that coastal resources provide <a href="https://doi.org/10.1007/s40152-019-00144-3">many benefits</a> for local residents that are not easily replaced. </p>
<p>Our results show that about one-third of households in these communities rely on coastal goods for at least part of their income, while more than two-thirds rely on them as food sources. Local harvesters supply family-owned seafood restaurants with foods such as land crabs, helping to attract economic activity to the coast. </p>
<figure class="align-center zoomable">
<a href="https://images.theconversation.com/files/469098/original/file-20220615-11810-nettdf.JPG?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=1000&fit=clip"><img alt="" src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/469098/original/file-20220615-11810-nettdf.JPG?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/469098/original/file-20220615-11810-nettdf.JPG?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=450&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/469098/original/file-20220615-11810-nettdf.JPG?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=450&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/469098/original/file-20220615-11810-nettdf.JPG?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=450&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/469098/original/file-20220615-11810-nettdf.JPG?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=566&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/469098/original/file-20220615-11810-nettdf.JPG?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=566&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/469098/original/file-20220615-11810-nettdf.JPG?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=566&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px"></a>
<figcaption>
<span class="caption">Religious-themed murals commonly illustrate the importance of productive coasts for seaside Puerto Rican communities.</span>
<span class="attribution"><span class="source">Hilda Llorens</span>, <a class="license" href="http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nd/4.0/">CC BY-ND</a></span>
</figcaption>
</figure>
<p>We also found that residents <a href="http://dx.doi.org/10.1353/crb.2021.0010">rely more heavily</a> on local coastal foods during times of severe economic stress, such as recessions and natural disasters. In the aftermath of Hurricanes Irma and María, for example, many residents in the southern towns of Salinas and Santa Isabel harvested unusually abundant land crabs when it was hard to find other foods. Some even saw this abundance as <a href="https://muse.jhu.edu/article/800801">divine restitution for the suffering the storm inflicted on them</a>. </p>
<p>Local economies in these communities consist mainly of small-scale, community-based transactions that include gifting, bartering and selling. Their social and economic impacts often go unnoticed and are underestimated in official economic accounts, so they aren’t reflected in decisions about coastal development. But as our work shows, coastal ecosystems are <a href="https://doi.org/10.1007/s40152-019-00144-3">ecologically, economically and socially productive places</a>.</p>
<p>In 2010, we asked people living along Puerto Rico’s southern coast: “What would your community look like without access to the mangrove and its bounties?” The owner of a family restaurant, replied: “The answer is easy. Without access to coastal resources, this community would be dead and sad.”</p><img src="https://counter.theconversation.com/content/184214/count.gif" alt="The Conversation" width="1" height="1" />
<p class="fine-print"><em><span>Carlos G. García-Quijano has received funding from the National Science Foundation and the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration-Sea Grant.</span></em></p><p class="fine-print"><em><span>Hilda Lloréns has received funding from the National Science Foundation, the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration-Sea Grant, and the University of Rhode Island's Arts & Sciences Dean's Opportunity Fund.</span></em></p>Puerto Rico’s tourism industry is booming as nations lift COVID-19 travel restrictions, but development is displacing people who have lived along its coastlines for years.Carlos G. García-Quijano, Professor of Anthropology and Marine Affairs, University of Rhode IslandHilda Lloréns, Associate Professor, Anthropology & Marine Affairs, University of Rhode IslandLicensed as Creative Commons – attribution, no derivatives.tag:theconversation.com,2011:article/1803022022-06-02T12:12:50Z2022-06-02T12:12:50ZShould we protect nature for its own sake? For its economic value? Because it makes us happy? Yes<figure><img src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/499033/original/file-20221205-16-8urtkj.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&rect=30%2C15%2C5091%2C3394&q=45&auto=format&w=496&fit=clip" /><figcaption><span class="caption">Marabou storks perch on a tree at sunrise in Serengeti National Park, Tanzania. </span> <span class="attribution"><a class="source" href="https://www.gettyimages.com/detail/news-photo/marabou-storks-leptoptilos-crumeniferus-perching-on-a-tree-news-photo/1371855944">Sergio Pitamitz /VWPics/Universal Images Group via Getty Images</a></span></figcaption></figure><p>Extinction is part of life on Earth. Through much of our planet’s history, species have been <a href="https://ourworldindata.org/extinctions#are-we-heading-for-a-sixth-mass-extinction">forming, evolving and eventually disappearing</a>. Today, however, human activities have dramatically sped up the process. The Earth is losing animals, birds, reptiles and other living things so fast that some scientists believe the planet is entering the <a href="https://doi.org/10.1073/pnas.1922686117">sixth mass extinction</a> in its history. </p>
<p>There’s broad agreement that there is a <a href="https://www.un.org/sustainabledevelopment/blog/2019/05/nature-decline-unprecedented-report/">biodiversity crisis</a>, but there are many different views about why protecting it is important.</p>
<p>Some people, cultures and nations believe biodiversity is worth conserving because ecosystems provide many services that support human prosperity, health and well-being. Others assert that all living things have a right to exist, regardless of their usefulness to humans. Today, there’s also growing understanding that nature enriches our lives by providing opportunities for us to connect with each other and the places we care about. </p>
<p>As a <a href="https://scholar.google.com.sg/citations?user=uTEN8VIAAAAJ&hl=vi">conservation biologist</a>, I’ve been part of the effort to value biodiversity for years. Here’s how thinking in this field has evolved, and why I’ve come to believe that there are many equally valid reasons for protecting nature. </p>
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<figcaption><span class="caption">Biodiversity describes the amount of genetic diversity within species and the range of species that make up ecosystems.</span></figcaption>
</figure>
<h2>Defending every species</h2>
<p>Conservation biology is a scientific field with a mission: <a href="https://conbio.org/professional-development/education-programs/conservation-biology-faq">protecting and restoring biodiversity around the world</a>. It came of age in the 1980s, as humans’ impact on the Earth was becoming alarmingly clear. </p>
<p>In a 1985 essay, <a href="https://news.ucsc.edu/2020/06/soule-obituary.html">Michael Soulé</a>, one of the field’s founders, described what he saw as the <a href="https://www.jstor.org/stable/1310054">core principles of conservation biology</a>. Soulé argued that biological diversity is inherently good and should be conserved because it has intrinsic value. He also proposed that conservation biologists should act to save biodiversity even if sound science isn’t available to inform decisions. </p>
<p>To critics, Soulé’s principles sounded <a href="https://doi.org/10.1525/bio.2012.62.11.5">more like environmental activism than science</a>. What’s more, not everyone agreed then or now that biodiversity is inherently good. </p>
<p>After all, wild animals can <a href="https://www.unep.org/news-and-stories/press-release/human-wildlife-conflict-one-greatest-threats-wildlife-species-wwf">destroy crops and endanger human lives</a>. Contact with nature can <a href="https://theconversation.com/why-so-many-epidemics-originate-in-asia-and-africa-and-why-we-can-expect-more-131657">lead to disease</a>. And some conservation initiatives have <a href="https://www.corneredbypas.com/">displaced people from their land</a> or prevented development that <a href="https://calmatters.org/economy/2019/05/weakling-or-bully-ceqa-environmental-law-california-development-battles/">might otherwise improve people’s lives</a>. </p>
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<h2>Valuing nature’s services</h2>
<p>Soulé’s essay spurred many researchers to push for a more science-driven approach to conservation. They sought to directly quantify the <a href="https://doi.org/10.1525/bio.2012.62.11.5">value of ecosystems and the roles species played in them</a>. Some scholars focused on calculating the value of ecosystems to humans. </p>
<p>They reached a preliminary conclusion that the total economic value of the world’s ecosystems was worth <a href="https://doi.org/10.1038/387253a0">an average US$33 trillion per year</a> in 1997 dollars. At the time, this was nearly twice the global value of the entire world’s financial markets. </p>
<p>This estimate included services such as predators controlling pests that would otherwise ruin crops; pollinators helping to produce fruits and vegetables; wetlands, mangroves and other natural systems buffering coasts against storms and flooding; oceans providing fish for food; and forests providing lumber and other building materials. </p>
<p>Researchers have refined their <a href="https://doi.org/10.1016/j.gloenvcha.2014.04.002">estimates of what these benefits are worth</a>, but their central conclusion remains the same: Nature has shockingly high economic value that existing financial markets don’t account for.</p>
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<figcaption><span class="caption">Many experts say that conventional economic thinking fails to recognize the cost of damaging nature – but calculating values for biodiversity could change that.</span></figcaption>
</figure>
<p>A second group began to quantify the nonmonetary value of nature for human health, happiness and well-being. Studies typically had people <a href="https://doi.org/10.3390/ijerph10030913">take part in outdoor activities</a>, such as strolling through a green space, hiking in the woods or canoeing on a lake. Later, they <a href="https://doi.org/10.1289/EHP1663">measured the subjects’ physical or emotional health</a>. </p>
<p>This research found that spending time in nature tended to reduce blood pressure, lower hormones related to stress and anxiety, decrease the probability of depression and improve cognitive function and certain immune functions. People exposed to nature fared better than others who took part in similar activities in nonnatural settings, such as walking through a city.</p>
<h2>Losing species weakens ecosystems</h2>
<p>A third line of research asked a different question: When ecosystems lose species, <a href="https://doi.org/10.1890/0012-9658(2002)083%5B1537:ECOBLT%5D2.0.CO;2">can they still function and provide services</a>? This work was driven mainly by experiments where researchers directly manipulated the diversity of different types of organisms in settings ranging from laboratory cultures to greenhouses, plots in fields, forests and coastal areas. </p>
<p>By 2010, scientists had published more than 600 experiments, manipulating over 500 groups of organisms in freshwater, marine and land ecosystems. In a 2012 review of these experiments, colleagues and I found unequivocal evidence that when ecosystems lose biodiversity, they become <a href="https://doi.org/10.1038/nature11148">less efficient, less productive and less stable</a>. And they are less able to deliver many of the services that underlie human well-being. </p>
<p>For example, we found strong evidence that loss of genetic diversity reduced crop yields, and loss of tree diversity reduced the amount of wood that forests produced. We also found evidence that oceans with fewer fish species produced less-reliable catches, and that ecosystems with lower plant diversity were more prone to invasive pests and diseases. </p>
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<a href="https://images.theconversation.com/files/499043/original/file-20221205-18-fjfgym.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=1000&fit=clip"><img alt="Two photos of lawns, one with one type of grass, the other with multiple grasses and clover." src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/499043/original/file-20221205-18-fjfgym.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/499043/original/file-20221205-18-fjfgym.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=317&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/499043/original/file-20221205-18-fjfgym.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=317&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/499043/original/file-20221205-18-fjfgym.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=317&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/499043/original/file-20221205-18-fjfgym.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=399&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/499043/original/file-20221205-18-fjfgym.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=399&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/499043/original/file-20221205-18-fjfgym.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=399&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px"></a>
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<span class="caption">A standard lawn, at left, is a monoculture that supports very little life. A more mixed, diverse version, at right, offers food for pollinators.</span>
<span class="attribution"><a class="source" href="https://flic.kr/p/6y8zH4">woodleywonderworks/Flickr</a>, <a class="license" href="http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/">CC BY</a></span>
</figcaption>
</figure>
<p>We also showed that it was possible to develop robust mathematical models that could predict reasonably well how biodiversity loss would affect certain types of valuable services from ecosystems. </p>
<h2>Many motives for protecting nature</h2>
<p>For years, I believed that this work had established the value of ecosystems and quantified how biodiversity provided ecosystem services. But I’ve come to realize that other arguments for protecting nature are just as valid, and often more convincing for many people. </p>
<p>I have worked with many people who donate money or land to support conservation. But I’ve never heard anyone say they were doing it because of the economic value of biodiversity or its role in sustaining ecosystem services. </p>
<p>Instead, they’ve shared stories about how they grew up fishing with their father, held family gatherings at a cabin or canoed with someone who was important to them. They wanted to pass on those experiences to their children and grandchildren to preserve familial relationships. Researchers increasingly recognize that such <a href="https://doi.org/10.1073/pnas.1525002113">relational values</a> – connections to communities and to specific places – are one of the most common reasons why people choose to conserve nature.</p>
<p>I also know many people who hold deep religious beliefs and are rarely swayed by scientific arguments for conservation. But when Pope Francis published his 2015 encyclical <a href="https://www.vatican.va/content/francesco/en/encyclicals/documents/papa-francesco_20150524_enciclica-laudato-si.html">Laudato si’: On Care for Our Common Home</a> and said God’s followers had a moral responsibility to care for his creation, my religious relatives, friends and colleagues suddenly wanted to know about biodiversity loss and what they might do about it. </p>
<p><div data-react-class="Tweet" data-react-props="{"tweetId":"1599523948089286657"}"></div></p>
<p>Surveys show that 85% of the world’s population <a href="https://www.theguardian.com/news/2018/aug/27/religion-why-is-faith-growing-and-what-happens-next">identifies with a major religion</a>. Leaders of every major religion have published declarations similar to Pope Francis’ encyclical, calling on their followers to be <a href="https://doi.org/10.1890/120322">better stewards of Earth</a>. Undoubtedly, a large portion of humanity assigns moral value to nature. </p>
<p>Research clearly shows that nature provides humanity with enormous value. But some people simply believe that other species have a right to exist, or that their religion tells them to be good stewards of Earth. As I see it, embracing these diverse perspectives is the best way to get global buy-in for conserving Earth’s ecosystems and living creatures for the good of all.</p><img src="https://counter.theconversation.com/content/180302/count.gif" alt="The Conversation" width="1" height="1" />
<p class="fine-print"><em><span>Bradley J. Cardinale receives funding from the National Science Foundation, the U.S. Department of Energy and the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration. He is affiliated with the American Association for the Advancement of Science, the Ecological Society of America, the American Institute of Biological Sciences, the Society for Conservation Biology, the Society for Freshwater Science, and the Midwest's Environmental Law and Policy Center,</span></em></p>As a major conference on the global biodiversity crisis opens in Montreal, a conservation biologist explains how ideas about protecting nature have evolved over the past 40 years.Bradley J. Cardinale, Department Head, Ecosystem Science and Management, Penn StateLicensed as Creative Commons – attribution, no derivatives.tag:theconversation.com,2011:article/1831592022-05-29T08:26:05Z2022-05-29T08:26:05ZWhat coltan mining in the DRC costs people and the environment<figure><img src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/464793/original/file-20220523-29403-72xrfn.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=496&fit=clip" /><figcaption><span class="caption"> Alain Libondo (17) left, and Nsinku Zihindula (25), hammering at solid rock to find cassiterite and coltan at Szibira, South Kivu. </span> <span class="attribution"><span class="source">Photo by Tom Stoddart via Getty Images</span></span></figcaption></figure><p>The Democratic Republic of Congo (DRC) is rich in natural resources – its untapped deposits of minerals are estimated to be worth <a href="https://globaledge.msu.edu/countries/democratic-republic-of-the-congo/economy">US$24 trillion</a>. Gold, diamonds, cobalt and zinc are among them.</p>
<p>Another strategic mineral mined in the DRC is coltan – a name derived from “columbite-tantalite”. In 2021, the DRC’s coltan production amounted to an estimated <a href="https://www.theafricareport.com/203796/addressing-the-enablers-of-coltan-smuggling-in-the-drc-requires-holistic-solutions/">700 tonnes</a>, making the Central African country the world’s largest coltan producer by far.</p>
<p>Coltan is indispensable to the manufacture of all modern technological devices. The mineral is refined to tantalum powder, which is used to make heat-resistant capacitors in laptops, cellphones, and other high-end electronic devices. </p>
<p>The global coltan market was <a href="https://www.marketresearch.com/QYResearch-Group-v3531/Global-Tantalum-Capacitors-History-Forecast-13610585/">valued at</a> US$1,504.81 million in 2019. It is expected to reach US$1,933.92 million by the end of 2026, growing at a rate of 5.58% a year between 2021 and 2026. </p>
<p>But activists, journalists and scholars have found a relationship between coltan exploitation and large-scale environmental degradation, human rights abuses, violence and death. </p>
<p>This can be seen in violation of environmental laws, child labour on mining sites, and complicity of mining companies in the abuses of populations at risk. </p>
<p>In my <a href="https://enact-africa.s3.amazonaws.com/site/uploads/2022-05-03-research-paper-29-rev.pdf">new study</a>, I asked two research questions: what harms do coltan mining and trading cause to the environment and local people in north-eastern DRC? And what can the DRC government and private sector do to ensure responsible sourcing of coltan? </p>
<p>Coltan exploitation is destroying ecosystems and affecting wildlife habitats. Animals are being displaced from their natural habitat, leaving them vulnerable to poachers. The chemicals used in washing coltan are polluting water bodies and are harmful to people and animals. </p>
<p>My study raises awareness of the implications of this illicit mining and suggests multi-stakeholder interventions to halt environmental crime.</p>
<h2>Environmental crime</h2>
<p>The information for my analysis came from a qualitative field survey, legislation and UN reports on extractive conflicts in the DRC. </p>
<p>Data also came from interviews with officials of the Certification, Expertise and Evaluation Centre, the Ministry of Mines, civil society coalitions, the Congolese Environment Agency and nongovernmental organisations in North and South Kivu. </p>
<p>My study conceives environmental crime as activities that breach environmental legislation and cause significant harm or risk to the environment, human health, or both. </p>
<p>Coltan is mined through a fairly primitive process. Miners work together digging large craters in streambeds, scraping away soil from the surface to get to the coltan underground.</p>
<p>The indiscriminate exploitation of coltan is dramatically affecting environmental biodiversity and disrupting ecosystems around mining sites. </p>
<p>According to data available on the <a href="https://www.globalforestwatch.org/">Global Forest Watch</a> platform managed by the World Resources Institute, the DRC has lost 8.6% of its tree cover since 2000. One of the <a href="https://news.mongabay.com/2022/05/results-from-mining-tax-for-reforestation-in-the-drc-leave-more-questions-than-answers/">major causes</a> of deforestation in the DRC is mining.</p>
<p>Observers I spoke to note that environmental impact assessments are seldom carried out prior to coltan mining. Artisanal miners and foreign companies even violate sites of historical heritage such as <a href="https://news.mongabay.com/2022/01/what-went-wrong-with-conservation-at-kahuzi-biega-national-park-and-how-to-transform-it-commentary/">Kahuzi Biega National Park</a>. </p>
<p>The first impact of coltan mining is when miners remove vegetation and topsoil. This increases the rate of erosion.</p>
<p>Most of the artisanal coltan miners work on sites where there is no state control. They take as much coltan as they can without any regulation. For instance, while the Ministry of Mining <a href="https://enact-africa.s3.amazonaws.com/site/uploads/2022-05-03-research-paper-29-rev.pdf">recommends</a> that miners should dig no deeper than 30 metres below the surface, they sometimes dig as deep as 200 metres. </p>
<p>Environmental activists in Bukavu confirm that coltan exploitation has led to loss of trees. That is known to <a href="https://rainforests.mongabay.com/09-consequences-of-deforestation.html">destroy ecosystems</a>, decrease the carbon stock, disrupt the photosynthesis process and affect air quality. It is also affecting wildlife habitats. </p>
<p>For instance, North and South Kivu provinces contain most of the DRC’s coltan. Kahuzi Biega National Park, one of the last sanctuaries for the critically endangered eastern lowland gorilla, spans both provinces. Coltan mining has destroyed much of the gorillas’ natural habitat, leaving them vulnerable to poachers. The population of eastern lowland gorillas in the park <a href="https://www.newsecuritybeat.org/2008/12/coltan-cell-phones-and-conflict-the-war-economy-of-the-drc/">plummeted</a> from 8,000 in 1991, when coltan mining started there, to about 40 in 2005. The present population is now <a href="https://whc.unesco.org/en/list/137/">estimated</a> at 250. </p>
<p>The process of mineral separation, sieving and sorting is done manually through washing at streams and rivers. The chemicals used are polluting water bodies and are harmful to aquatic creatures. The chemicals are also known to produce radioactive substances that are <a href="http://cegemi.com/index.php/environmental-threats-and-respiratory-health-in-kivu/">detrimental</a> to human health. </p>
<h2>Human harms</h2>
<p>The activities of the coltan miners and the associated businesses are exploitative and impoverish communities. Observers note that coltan mining businesses <a href="https://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S2214790X21000393">rarely compensate</a> affected communities by implementing development programmes, which is a statutory requirement in terms of the mining laws.</p>
<p>At Mwenga in Shabunda, <a href="https://www.aljazeera.com/news/2020/9/12/at-least-50-feared-dead-in-dr-congo-mine-collapse">50 artisanal miners died</a> in September 2020 as a result of coltan mining-related activities.</p>
<p>Holes dug by artisanal miners are rarely covered after mining activities have ceased. And <a href="https://enact-africa.s3.amazonaws.com/site/uploads/2022-05-03-research-paper-29-rev.pdf">landslides</a> have trapped miners underground. </p>
<p>Conflicts between members of an artisanal miners’ cooperative called Cooperamma and the coltan mining company SMB led to <a href="http://www.reuters.com/article/us-congo-mining-smb-idUSKBN23V1P5">violence</a> that claimed lives on the mining site at Rubaya in North Kivu.</p>
<h2>Child labour</h2>
<p>The DRC’s <a href="https://www.resourcedata.org/dataset/rgi-drc-mining-code-eng-version-">mining code</a> was reformed in 2017 to penalise the use of child labour or the sale of ore mined by children. Yet much of the country’s coltan is extracted through the labour of over <a href="https://issafrica.org/iss-today/child-miners-the-dark-side-of-the-drcs-coltan-wealth">40,000 child miners</a>. They work in dangerous conditions as washers and diggers. </p>
<p>Doing adults’ work in a hazardous environment, child miners face <a href="https://issafrica.org/iss-today/child-miners-the-dark-side-of-the-drcs-coltan-wealth">the risks</a> of ill health, harassment and abuse. They may either drop out of school or never have the opportunity to attend.</p>
<p>The quantity of coltan mined through child labour remains unaccounted for, uncertified and untraceable. It is traded in the underground economy and funnelled into the coltan global supply chain through smuggling, counterfeiting and collusion. </p>
<h2>Recommendations</h2>
<p>The approach to extractive reform in the DRC is currently inadequate to deal with the human and environmental harms associated with coltan mining. </p>
<p>My study provides specific <a href="https://enact-africa.s3.amazonaws.com/site/uploads/2022-05-03-research-paper-29-rev.pdf#page=16">recommendations</a> to address the identified challenges.</p>
<p>The government must reform the Congolese Environment Agency to enforce environmental impact assessments and implementation of environmental management plans. </p>
<p>Civil society organisations should train and equip observatory groups at the local level to monitor and report on coltan mining sites. This will provide a shadow report to compare with audits carried out by state agents. </p>
<p>In line with <a href="https://wedocs.unep.org/bitstream/handle/20.500.11822/31641/MR21F.pdf">global best practices</a> the upstream companies that mine and refine coltan are advised to mitigate environmental risks associated with their operations. </p>
<ul>
<li><em>The <a href="https://enact-africa.s3.amazonaws.com/site/uploads/2022-05-03-research-paper-29-rev.pdf">full report</a> was first published by the ENACT project, a partnership between the Institute for Security Studies, Interpol and the Global Initiative against Transnational Crime, funded by the EU.</em></li>
</ul><img src="https://counter.theconversation.com/content/183159/count.gif" alt="The Conversation" width="1" height="1" />
<p class="fine-print"><em><span>Oluwole Ojewale does not work for, consult, own shares in or receive funding from any company or organisation that would benefit from this article, and has disclosed no relevant affiliations beyond their academic appointment.</span></em></p>Coltan is indispensable to the making of modern electronic devices but its mining causes human and environmental disasters in the DR Congo.Oluwole Ojewale, Regional Coordinator, Institute for Security StudiesLicensed as Creative Commons – attribution, no derivatives.tag:theconversation.com,2011:article/1810252022-04-28T17:00:20Z2022-04-28T17:00:20ZStories about economic degrowth help fight climate change — and yield a host of other benefits<figure><img src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/460152/original/file-20220427-23-p8s6te.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&rect=204%2C40%2C4906%2C3596&q=45&auto=format&w=496&fit=clip" /><figcaption><span class="caption">Degrowth is an opportunity to recentre our economies on what really matters.</span> <span class="attribution"><span class="source">(Paul Sableman/flickr)</span>, <a class="license" href="http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/4.0/">CC BY-SA</a></span></figcaption></figure><p>There is something unprecedented and important in the recent <a href="https://www.ipcc.ch/">Sixth Assessment Report of the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC)</a>: degrowth. Two of the IPCC’s working groups — those focused on climate change impacts and on mitigation — use the economic term to discuss policies that are key to reducing the impacts of climate change. </p>
<p>This is a profound inclusion. By pointing to degrowth, something <a href="https://timotheeparrique.com/">Timothée Parrique</a>, a social scientist and economist, refers to “as an opportunity to recentre our economies on what really matters,” the reports’ authors challenge the widely accepted story that endless economic growth — an increase in the quantity of goods and services — is essential to reducing poverty and improving the quality of life around the world.</p>
<p>Degrowth offers the world a new story, one that acknowledges the role economic growth has had in climate change and identifies alternatives. </p>
<p>Stories are foundational to how we understand who we are and the world in which we live, and we should think of economics as a story. As English professor and Indigenous writer Thomas King succinctly offers, “<a href="https://www.cbc.ca/radio/ideas/stories-can-be-both-wondrous-and-dangerous-according-to-writer-thomas-king-1.5593496">The truth about stories is that’s all we are</a>.” </p>
<p>Not only do the IPCC reports offer hope for mitigating climate change, they also afford hope for how we understand and celebrate the Earth. </p>
<h2>Alternatives to economic growth</h2>
<p>In an analysis of the IPCC’s Working Group II report, “<a href="https://www.ipcc.ch/report/sixth-assessment-report-working-group-ii/">Impacts, Adaptation and Vulnerability</a>,” released in February 2022, <a href="https://timotheeparrique.com/degrowth-in-the-ipcc-ar6-wgii/">Parrique</a> notes the mention of degrowth 15 times. He also points to the report’s emphasis on other ways of living that are not based on economic growth, including <a href="https://theconversation.com/buen-vivir-south-americas-rethinking-of-the-future-we-want-44507"><em>buen vivir</em> in South America</a>, <a href="https://www.usfca.edu/sites/default/files/arts_and_sciences/center_for_asia_pacific_studies/3-kothari-eco-swaraj.pdf"><em>eco-swaraj</em> in India</a> and <a href="https://www.globalcitizen.org/en/content/ubuntu-south-africa-together-nelson-mandela/"><em>Ubuntu</em> in South Africa</a>. Each of these is an example of ways in which people are living more interconnectedly with each other and the Earth. </p>
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Read more:
<a href="https://theconversation.com/ipcc-report-half-the-world-is-facing-water-scarcity-floods-and-dirty-water-large-investments-are-needed-for-effective-solutions-175578">IPCC report: Half the world is facing water scarcity, floods and dirty water — large investments are needed for effective solutions</a>
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<p>The IPCC Working Group III report, “<a href="https://www.ipcc.ch/report/sixth-assessment-report-working-group-3/">Mitigation of Climate Change</a>,” released in early April 2022, refers to degrowth five times and declares that “prosperity and the ‘Good Life’ are not immutably tied to economic growth.”</p>
<p>These reports highlight the urgent reality of climate change: It is a devastating, fossil fuel-driven, anthropogenic global phenomenon and an inequity multiplier — <a href="https://www.hks.harvard.edu/faculty-research/policy-topics/environment-energy/climate-change-multiplier-racial-inequities-warns">those with the least are affected the most gravely</a>. </p>
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<img alt="Close-up photo of two yellow bikes with front baskets, each with a sign reading, Share more Consume less." src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/460153/original/file-20220427-24-i8f8xe.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/460153/original/file-20220427-24-i8f8xe.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=400&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/460153/original/file-20220427-24-i8f8xe.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=400&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/460153/original/file-20220427-24-i8f8xe.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=400&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/460153/original/file-20220427-24-i8f8xe.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=503&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/460153/original/file-20220427-24-i8f8xe.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=503&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/460153/original/file-20220427-24-i8f8xe.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=503&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px">
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<span class="caption">Endless economic growth isn’t essential to being able to live a ‘good life.’</span>
<span class="attribution"><span class="source">(Shutterstock)</span></span>
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<p>But the IPCC reports also highlight that if we are to address climate change, we must challenge the business-as-usual story of endless economic growth. Economic degrowth and examples of alternative communities welcome the possibility for a different kind of story — one about the finite Earth as something other than a collection of resources. A story that allows for a re-imagining of who we are and our relationship with the Earth.</p>
<h2>A future of interconnection</h2>
<p>There was a time — not so long ago — that all of our ancestors understood, and told stories about, the ways humans are interconnected with the Earth. They lived this interconnection. As Robin Wall Kimmerer points out in her book <a href="https://milkweed.org/book/braiding-sweetgrass"><em>Braiding Sweetgrass: Indigenous Wisdom, Scientific Knowledge and the Teachings of Plants</em></a>, “Each of us comes from people who were once Indigenous.”</p>
<p>But stories of humans as interconnected with the Earth are antithetical and threatening to those whose businesses and industries are reliant on the Earth as a collection of natural resources and a dumping ground for waste. From anti-Indigenous racism to the <a href="https://www.environmentandsociety.org/exhibitions/rachel-carsons-silent-spring/personal-attacks-rachel-carson-woman-scientist">demonization of Rachel Carson upon the publication of her book <em>Silent Spring</em></a>, there is a long history of violent suppression of those who share and celebrate our interconnection with the Earth.</p>
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<img alt="Three men stand in front of tall office buildings, one with the sign RBC" src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/460086/original/file-20220427-12-anrt3b.JPG?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/460086/original/file-20220427-12-anrt3b.JPG?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=411&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/460086/original/file-20220427-12-anrt3b.JPG?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=411&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/460086/original/file-20220427-12-anrt3b.JPG?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=411&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/460086/original/file-20220427-12-anrt3b.JPG?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=516&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/460086/original/file-20220427-12-anrt3b.JPG?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=516&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/460086/original/file-20220427-12-anrt3b.JPG?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=516&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px">
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<span class="caption">Wet'suwet'en Chiefs Namoks, left, Madeek, centre, and Gisdywa protest Royal Bank of Canada’s funding of the Coastal GasLink pipeline and other fossil fuel investments in Toronto on April 7, 2022.</span>
<span class="attribution"><span class="source">THE CANADIAN PRESS/Nathan Denette</span></span>
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<p>This suppression made the story of the Earth-as-resource — a necessary prelude to endless economic growth — appear more palatable, logical and inevitable. But it is a story with an illogical premise: that endless growth can happen on a finite planet. In <a href="https://timjackson.org.uk/ecological-economics/pwg/"><em>Prosperity Without Growth: Economics for a Finite Planet</em></a>, economist Tim Jackson writes, “those who hope that [economic] growth will lead to a materialistic Utopia are destined for disappointment. We simply don’t have the ecological capacity to fulfil this dream.” </p>
<p>He adds that with continued pursuit of economic growth, by the end of the century we will “face a hostile climate, depleted resources, the destruction of habitats, the decimation of species, food scarcities, mass migrations and almost inevitably war.” </p>
<p>But the IPCC’s unprecedented inclusion of degrowth in its recent reports offers a new way forward. Perhaps acknowledging ecological limits will lead us to the fulfilment of different kinds of dreams and the celebration of a return to stories about humans as interconnected with the Earth.</p>
<h2>Spiritual experiences</h2>
<p>Some researchers, myself included, have interviewed people about their spiritual experiences in nature. These are experiences and stories that include wonder, awe, the sublime, mystery and connection with something larger than oneself, but are not attributed to a specific religion or faith. My findings echo those of psychology researchers Tristan Snell and Janette Simmonds who write, “<a href="https://dro.deakin.edu.au/eserv/DU:30136357/snell-mysticalexperiencesin-post-2015.pdf">natural environments, and features within these settings, can act as triggers of mystical [or spiritual] experiences</a>.” </p>
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Read more:
<a href="https://theconversation.com/rapidly-increasing-climate-change-poses-a-rising-threat-to-mental-health-says-ipcc-177906">Rapidly increasing climate change poses a rising threat to mental health, says IPCC</a>
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<p>Such findings may help to explain a 2017 report from the Pew Research Center that found that people identifying as “spiritual but not religious” <a href="https://www.pewresearch.org/fact-tank/2017/09/06/more-americans-now-say-theyre-spiritual-but-not-religious/">increased to 27 per cent from 19 per cent between 2012 and 2017</a>. As sociologists Todd Ferguson and Jeffrey Tamburello propose, “When a person hikes in a forest to connect with the sacred, she or he may not feel the need to affiliate with a religious organization because <a href="https://doi.org/10.1093/socrel/srv029">her or his spiritual demands are met</a>.”</p>
<p>Seeing the Earth as a collection of ingredients for consumption is antithetical to seeing the Earth as interconnected and spiritual. Many Indigenous Peoples, engaged scholars like Rachel Carson, environmentalists, eco-spiritualists, visitors to forests, lakes and mountains, among others, have been sharing their interconnected and spiritual stories — sometimes against great resistance. Now climate change and the IPCC are helping with such sharing by challenging economic growth-as-usual.</p>
<h2>The climate change opportunity</h2>
<p>In <a href="http://billmckibben.com/age-of-missing-information.html"><em>The Age of Missing Information</em></a>, Bill McKibben writes, “Most cultures, historically, have put something else — God or nature or some combination — at the centre. But we’ve put them at the periphery. A consumer society doesn’t need them to function, and it can’t tolerate the limits they might impose; there’s only need for people.” </p>
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<img alt="People stand along a road, where a bridge once stood." src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/460093/original/file-20220427-14-xh8c34.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/460093/original/file-20220427-14-xh8c34.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=413&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/460093/original/file-20220427-14-xh8c34.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=413&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/460093/original/file-20220427-14-xh8c34.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=413&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/460093/original/file-20220427-14-xh8c34.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=519&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/460093/original/file-20220427-14-xh8c34.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=519&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/460093/original/file-20220427-14-xh8c34.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=519&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px">
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<span class="caption">Prolonged rains and flooding in South Africa’s KwaZulu-Natal province have swept away bridges, destroyed homes and businesses and claimed the lives of more than 400 people.</span>
<span class="attribution"><span class="source">(AP Photo)</span></span>
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<p>From flooding to fires to species extinctions, the Earth is letting us know that there are limits. And climate change is reminding us, with great force, that we are interconnected with this finite earth. As naturalist John Muir wrote in <em>My First Summer in the Sierra</em>, published 1911, “<a href="https://vault.sierraclub.org/john_muir_exhibit/writings/my_first_summer_in_the_sierra/">When we try to pick out anything by itself, we find it hitched to everything else in the universe</a>.” </p>
<p>Climate change is both a devastating reality and profound opportunity. We are the Earth and embracing that story provides desperately needed new paths to the future and spiritual opportunities for experiencing amazement.</p><img src="https://counter.theconversation.com/content/181025/count.gif" alt="The Conversation" width="1" height="1" />
<p class="fine-print"><em><span>Jennifer Ellen Good does not work for, consult, own shares in or receive funding from any company or organisation that would benefit from this article, and has disclosed no relevant affiliations beyond their academic appointment.</span></em></p>Degrowth offers the world a new story, one that acknowledges the role economic growth has had in climate change and identifies alternatives.Jennifer Ellen Good, Associate Professor Communication, Popular Culture and Film, Brock UniversityLicensed as Creative Commons – attribution, no derivatives.tag:theconversation.com,2011:article/1794482022-04-03T12:14:16Z2022-04-03T12:14:16ZHow Québec’s abandoned logging roads are damaging lakes, rivers and streams — and putting wildlife at risk<figure><img src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/454159/original/file-20220324-9510-po5mut.JPG?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&rect=0%2C0%2C1599%2C1200&q=45&auto=format&w=496&fit=clip" /><figcaption><span class="caption">An abandoned forest road that has become impassable due to the washout of the culvert fill. The beaver dam has also contributed to road erosion.
</span> <span class="attribution"><span class="source">(Forest Hydrology Laboratory of Université Laval)</span>, <span class="license">Author provided</span></span></figcaption></figure><p>For more than 25 years, the Québec Ministry of Forests, Wildlife and Parks has had a very effective tool to make its forest industry more competitive than other provinces.</p>
<p>Québec has not implemented a single forest road management plan since the mid-1990s. This has allowed the government and the forest companies operating in the province’s public forests to save money, but it has put nearby aquatic environments, including lakes, rivers and streams — and the animals that live there and rely on them — at risk. </p>
<p>Only in Québec does it appear to be a legal and common practice to abandon logging roads once they are no longer needed. This can lead to <a href="https://corpus.ulaval.ca/jspui/bitstream/20.500.11794/29862/1/34202.pdf">road erosion and leaching of culvert backfill</a>, both of which pose a direct threat to water quality. These failures gradually lead to tonnes of sediment being deposited in aquatic environments.</p>
<p>As a researcher studying forest hydrology at Université Laval, I have broad and deep knowledge of the Québec forestry sector, including its scientific, technical and operational aspects, as well as legislative and political issues. I have witnessed over and over again, the powerlessness of those worried about water issues associated with forestry, and I hope that discussing these issues might change things.</p>
<h2>Lost road passages</h2>
<p>Canada’s vast boreal forest and the huge volumes of wood found there <a href="https://www.nrcan.gc.ca/our-natural-resources/forests/sustainable-forest-management/forest-land-ownership/17495">are located on public land</a>. The timber, wildlife, plants, landscapes and water found there belong to the citizens of each province. </p>
<p>They are managed by the provincial governments through <a href="https://www.legisquebec.gouv.qc.ca/en/document/cs/A-18.1">laws</a> and <a href="https://www.legisquebec.gouv.qc.ca/en/document/cr/A-18.1,%20r.%200.01">regulations</a>, but also through the collection of royalties charged to companies that exploit these resources and transform them into useful products, such as renewable building materials, paper and cardboard and bioenergy.</p>
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<img alt="A road running through a forest." src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/451609/original/file-20220311-28-mkbpqr.JPG?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/451609/original/file-20220311-28-mkbpqr.JPG?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=450&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/451609/original/file-20220311-28-mkbpqr.JPG?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=450&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/451609/original/file-20220311-28-mkbpqr.JPG?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=450&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/451609/original/file-20220311-28-mkbpqr.JPG?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=566&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/451609/original/file-20220311-28-mkbpqr.JPG?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=566&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/451609/original/file-20220311-28-mkbpqr.JPG?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=566&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px">
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<span class="caption">Massive erosion of an old abandoned road, caused by a stream that was diverted from its natural course by a defective culvert.</span>
<span class="attribution"><span class="source">(Forest Hydrology Laboratory of Université Laval)</span>, <span class="license">Author provided</span></span>
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<p>Harvesting these resources in remote areas and transporting them to processing plants requires a huge network of roads adapted to this task. These logging roads, built quickly with excavators and bulldozers, using soil, gravel and stones found on site or nearby, rely on culverts — structures that channel water beneath the roads — to cross the countless waterways that cover the territory.</p>
<p><a href="https://mffp.gouv.qc.ca/wp-content/uploads/PortraitStatistique_2020.pdf">A very small proportion</a> of these roads are wide, well-gravelled and maintained to allow safe and fast travel. These roads are used as the main framework for access to the territory and its resources. However, <a href="https://mffp.gouv.qc.ca/wp-content/uploads/PortraitStatistique_2020.pdf">the vast majority of public logging roads are used intensively for very short periods</a> ranging from <a href="https://mffp.gouv.qc.ca/RADF/guide/annexes/annexe-4/">a few months to a decade</a>.</p>
<p>The sound management of a logging road network should take this important characteristic into account. Logging roads throughout Canada are administered through management plans, except in Québec, where they do not exist. <a href="https://www.bcauditor.com/sites/default/files/publications/reports/OAGBC_Management-Forest-Service-Roads_RPT.pdf">These plans</a> govern construction of the main road network, as well as the maintenance, decommissioning and closure of logging roads over the short-, medium- and long-term.</p>
<h2>Significant damage to aquatic environments</h2>
<p>For <a href="https://www.legisquebec.gouv.qc.ca/fr/document/rc/A-18.1,%20r.%207">several decades</a> the Québec ministry responsible for forests has applied a <a href="https://mffp.gouv.qc.ca/RADF/guide/?lang=en">strong, robust regulatory framework</a> to the construction of logging roads in the province’s public forests. Built almost exclusively for the purpose of extracting wood, more than <a href="https://mffp.gouv.qc.ca/wp-content/uploads/PortraitStatistique_2020.pdf">476,000 kilometres of roads</a> — equivalent to circling the Earth 12 times — have been heavily subsidized by the Québec government in recent decades. </p>
<p>From a legal perspective, these roads become public as soon as they are built, they are accessible to all users and for all possible uses. Yet in complete contradiction to the strict regulations applied during construction, there are, for all practical purposes, no regulations that apply to the maintenance of these logging roads. The <a href="https://mffp.gouv.qc.ca/les-forets/gestion-forestiere/">forestry regime currently in place</a> places no responsibility on the forest industry to maintain or close these roads when their forestry operations have been completed.</p>
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<img alt="People are standing on a road bordering a river" src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/451610/original/file-20220311-16-wq12av.JPG?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/451610/original/file-20220311-16-wq12av.JPG?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=450&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/451610/original/file-20220311-16-wq12av.JPG?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=450&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/451610/original/file-20220311-16-wq12av.JPG?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=450&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/451610/original/file-20220311-16-wq12av.JPG?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=566&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/451610/original/file-20220311-16-wq12av.JPG?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=566&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/451610/original/file-20220311-16-wq12av.JPG?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=566&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px">
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<span class="caption">Culvert fill has been completely eroded by the flow of water.</span>
<span class="attribution"><span class="source">(Forestry Hydrology Laboratory of Université Laval)</span>, <span class="license">Author provided</span></span>
</figcaption>
</figure>
<p>The Québec government has long hoped that these secondary users, mainly hunters, fishers and vacationers, would maintain this extensive network of roads, but has never devoted any real effort to supervising or co-ordinating the venture.</p>
<p><a href="https://corpus.ulaval.ca/jspui/bitstream/20.500.11794/29862/1/34202.pdf">Less than 25 per cent of these roads are maintained</a> in the years following timber extraction. And nearly 35 per cent of all public logging roads were simply abandoned for decades without being decommissioned, closed or maintained.</p>
<p>Yet the science is unequivocal: poorly maintained road structures <a href="https://www.operationsforestieres.ca/chemins-forestiers-les-grands-oublies-de-la-reforme-1465/#">pose significant threats to aquatic environments</a>. They result in <a href="https://youtu.be/eALTyNvCzBE">massive sediment input</a>, <a href="https://mffp.gouv.qc.ca/documents/forets/connaissances/sedimentation.pdf">damage to aquatic habitats</a>, <a href="https://youtu.be/JBWCfQEwoNk">impediments to the free movement of fish</a> and, of course, constraints on access to land and resources.</p>
<p>Elsewhere in Canada, <a href="https://www.bcauditor.com/sites/default/files/publications/reports/OAGBC_Management-Forest-Service-Roads_RPT.pdf">substantial and recurring amounts of money have been invested each year</a>, for decades, <a href="http://ontora.ca/wp-content/uploads/2016/06/MNR_ForestRoadsAndWaterCrossingsInitiative_TaskTeamReport_2003.pdf">to maintain, decommission or close thousands of kilometres of logging roads</a>. In the meantime, Québec has invested little while allowing these structures to slowly deteriorate.</p>
<figure class="align-center ">
<img alt="culvert on a road, abutting a river" src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/452517/original/file-20220316-8391-18ql46z.JPG?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/452517/original/file-20220316-8391-18ql46z.JPG?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=450&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/452517/original/file-20220316-8391-18ql46z.JPG?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=450&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/452517/original/file-20220316-8391-18ql46z.JPG?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=450&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/452517/original/file-20220316-8391-18ql46z.JPG?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=566&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/452517/original/file-20220316-8391-18ql46z.JPG?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=566&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/452517/original/file-20220316-8391-18ql46z.JPG?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=566&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px">
<figcaption>
<span class="caption">A washed out culvert on an abandoned forestry road in Québec.</span>
<span class="attribution"><span class="source">(Forest Hydrology Laboratory of Université Laval)</span>, <span class="license">Author provided</span></span>
</figcaption>
</figure>
<h2>Québec is not playing by the rules</h2>
<p>Québec’s Office of the Chief Forester denounced this deplorable situation in 2010 in its <a href="https://numerique.banq.qc.ca/patrimoine/details/52327/2005069?docref=kVW9BNuq3ZbnXycLCqsbnA">Sustainable Forest Management Report</a>. However, when the <a href="https://www.legisquebec.gouv.qc.ca/fr/document/lc/A-18.1?langCont=fr#ga:l_xii-h1">Sustainable Forest Development Act of 2013</a> came into force, the chief forester of Québec was stripped of its role in assessing sustainable forest management. Since then, the chief forester no longer has the tools or independence to be able to evaluate water conservation issues that result from Québec’s lack of a logging road management plan.</p>
<p>Unfortunately, wood from Québec’s public forests has not been harvested according to <a href="https://montreal-process.org/">the rules of the game</a>, to which all other Canadian provinces have committed. Until the Québec government accepts responsibility for its abandoned logging roads, allows an independent assessment of water conservation criteria to be conducted and puts in place a real policy for the management of logging roads, this situation will only get worse.</p>
<p>Water is an invaluable resource. It is time for the authorities who are supposed to ensure its protection, such as forest certification agencies and federal and provincial environment ministries, to take action in Québec’s public forests.</p><img src="https://counter.theconversation.com/content/179448/count.gif" alt="La Conversation" width="1" height="1" />
<p class="fine-print"><em><span>Sylvain Jutras is a member of the Ordre des ingénieurs forestiers du Québec since 2000. He is a regular member of the Centre d'étude de la forêt (CEF) and the Centre québécois de recherche sur l'eau (CentrEau). He has received multiple funding from several provincial (MFFP, MELCC) and federal (ECCC, NSERC) ministries over the past years.</span></em></p>By mismanaging its forestry road system, Québec and the forestry companies operating in public forests have made significant savings, to the detriment of protecting aquatic environments.Sylvain Jutras, Professeur titulaire / Full professor, Faculty of Forestry, Geography and Geomatics, Université LavalLicensed as Creative Commons – attribution, no derivatives.tag:theconversation.com,2011:article/1776982022-03-10T15:20:56Z2022-03-10T15:20:56ZAlberta budget means Albertans are trapped on a relentless fiscal rollercoaster ride<figure><img src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/450212/original/file-20220306-83366-1ujbmy4.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&rect=41%2C0%2C4588%2C2857&q=45&auto=format&w=496&fit=clip" /><figcaption><span class="caption">Alberta's approach to fiscal management involves a nauseating cycle of big spending followed by massive cuts — almost entirely due to the outsized influence of oil and gas revenues. The rollercoaster at the West Edmonton Mall is seen in this photo.</span> <span class="attribution"><span class="source">(Jerry Bowley/Flickr)</span>, <a class="license" href="http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc/4.0/">CC BY-NC</a></span></figcaption></figure><p>Alberta Finance Minister Travis Toews recently delivered his fourth <a href="https://www.alberta.ca/budget-documents.aspx#22-23">provincial budget</a>. Due to the ongoing <a href="https://www.stalberttoday.ca/local-news/budget-2022-oil-price-rebound-to-help-balance-albertas-budget-says-toews-5099567">recovery of oil and natural gas prices</a>, the Alberta government is now forecasting surpluses after nearly a decade of deficits. </p>
<p>Those deficits reached a high of $17 billion in 2020-21, meaning the largest-ever turnaround in Alberta’s roller-coaster finances has just happened. </p>
<figure class="align-center ">
<img alt="A man stands speaking into a microphone at a podium. Another man sits beside him wearing a blue mask." src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/450206/original/file-20220306-83652-i2dd41.JPG?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/450206/original/file-20220306-83652-i2dd41.JPG?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=397&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/450206/original/file-20220306-83652-i2dd41.JPG?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=397&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/450206/original/file-20220306-83652-i2dd41.JPG?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=397&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/450206/original/file-20220306-83652-i2dd41.JPG?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=499&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/450206/original/file-20220306-83652-i2dd41.JPG?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=499&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/450206/original/file-20220306-83652-i2dd41.JPG?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=499&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px">
<figcaption>
<span class="caption">Alberta Premier Jason Kenney watches as Finance Minister Travis Toews delivers the 2022 budget in Edmonton in February 2022.</span>
<span class="attribution"><span class="source">THE CANADIAN PRESS/Jason Franson</span></span>
</figcaption>
</figure>
<p>I’ve been following Alberta budgets for 40 years, both inside or outside government.</p>
<p>My most vivid Alberta budget memory was watching from the gallery as Alberta Treasurer <a href="http://www.revparl.ca/english/issue.asp?param=97&art=416">Lou Hyndman delivered a budget in the early 1980s</a>. As he progressed down the list of capital spending, each item was thunderously greeted by his fellow Progressive Conservatives pounding on their desks — especially when their constituency was mentioned. </p>
<p>This experience has left the indelible impression that politicians care much more about spending money than raising money. </p>
<h2>Oil prices drive every Alberta budget</h2>
<p>Have matters really changed since Hyndman delivered his budget? Not really. Every time Alberta’s energy-based economy goes into a tailspin, it’s because the price of oil has declined precipitously. </p>
<p>Predictable patterns have repeated over the past 40 years. Following the price decline in the ’80s, Peter Lougheed’s government <a href="https://reviewcanada.ca/magazine/2013/01/spending-like-theres-no-tomorrow/">raided the Heritage Fund’s investment income</a> and, when that wasn’t sufficient, started borrowing.</p>
<p>After Lougheed’s successor Don Getty retired, <a href="https://calgaryherald.com/news/politics/how-alberta-went-from-kleins-paid-in-full-years-to-record-debt-in-2021-budget">Ralph Klein reversed course, demonizing debt, taxes and public spending</a>. No consideration was ever given to developing other sources of revenue, <a href="https://www.cbc.ca/news/canada/edmonton/could-alberta-s-fiscal-future-include-a-provincial-sales-tax-1.6268968">like a sales tax</a>, to stabilize Alberta’s fiscal situation. </p>
<p>Two phases of Alberta’s fiscal response are seen repeated time and again:</p>
<ol>
<li>Borrow and draw down on financial reserves</li>
<li>Then cut spending and slash budgets</li>
</ol>
<p>Each time, as the broader Alberta economy suffers, so too do the province’s public services.</p>
<figure class="align-left zoomable">
<a href="https://images.theconversation.com/files/450207/original/file-20220306-56947-fq9jf5.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=1000&fit=clip"><img alt="A grey-haired man reads a document." src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/450207/original/file-20220306-56947-fq9jf5.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=237&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/450207/original/file-20220306-56947-fq9jf5.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=467&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/450207/original/file-20220306-56947-fq9jf5.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=467&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/450207/original/file-20220306-56947-fq9jf5.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=467&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/450207/original/file-20220306-56947-fq9jf5.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=587&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/450207/original/file-20220306-56947-fq9jf5.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=587&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/450207/original/file-20220306-56947-fq9jf5.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=587&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px"></a>
<figcaption>
<span class="caption">Alberta Premier Ralph Klein reads over the budget during its presentation in the legislature in Edmonton in 2002.</span>
<span class="attribution"><span class="source">(CP PHOTO/Adrian Wyld)</span></span>
</figcaption>
</figure>
<p>Klein’s mantra was: “<a href="https://www.parklandinstitute.ca/media_albertas_finances_more_complex_than_we_have_a_spending_problem">We have a spending problem, not a revenue problem</a>.” This version of successive fiscal planning was popular — Klein won four successive majorities. But his success in the 2000s was mainly due to surging natural gas prices. </p>
<h2>The Notley years</h2>
<p>Fast forward to the collapse of oil prices in 2014-15 when a New Democratic government under Rachel Notley defeated the long-governing Conservatives led by the late Jim Prentice. </p>
<p>Like Lougheed and Getty before her, <a href="https://edmontonjournal.com/news/politics/economic-turnaround-a-2017-highlight-for-premier-rachel-notley">Notley resorted to large borrowing and tapping stabilization funds</a> to ease a deteriorating financial situation.</p>
<p>Resource revenues fell <a href="https://www.alberta.ca/government-and-ministry-annual-reports.aspx">to $2.8 billion from nearly $9 billion </a> in her government’s first fiscal year. As in the Getty era, economic diversification was hailed as offering a way out of the boom-bust cycle. </p>
<p>But also like Getty, Notley’s efforts to diversify the economy largely failed, although modest gains were made in the <a href="https://calgaryherald.com/business/local-business/ndp-government-unveils-grant-program-for-alberta-craft-brewers">craft beer</a> and in <a href="https://open.alberta.ca/publications/idmtc-program-information">digital-media arts</a> industries. And like her Conservative predecessors, Notley’s government provided grants to expand Alberta’s petrochemical industry.</p>
<figure class="align-left ">
<img alt="A blonde woman smiles behind a podium that says 'climate.'" src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/450214/original/file-20220306-83137-4i3x4p.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=237&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/450214/original/file-20220306-83137-4i3x4p.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=400&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/450214/original/file-20220306-83137-4i3x4p.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=400&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/450214/original/file-20220306-83137-4i3x4p.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=400&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/450214/original/file-20220306-83137-4i3x4p.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=503&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/450214/original/file-20220306-83137-4i3x4p.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=503&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/450214/original/file-20220306-83137-4i3x4p.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=503&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px">
<figcaption>
<span class="caption">Notley unveils her government’s climate strategy in Edmonton in November 2015.</span>
<span class="attribution"><span class="source">THE CANADIAN PRESS/Amber Bracken</span></span>
</figcaption>
</figure>
<p>However, unlike Getty, Notley faced growing pressures for measures to address climate change. A government panel led by Alberta Business School economist Andrew Leach <a href="https://www.alberta.ca/climate-leadership-discussion.aspx#jumplinks-0">produced a report</a> that created a road map and rationale for a carbon tax. </p>
<p>Anticipating hostility to the tax, <a href="https://www.vox.com/2015/11/25/9801614/alberta-carbon-tax-revenue-neutral">Notley sought to characterize it as “revenue-neutral”</a> with money being redistributed to lower-income families. The report aimed to mollify oil executives by emphasizing the importance of maintaining Alberta’s industrial competitiveness alongside efforts to reduce emissions.</p>
<h2>Cycle repeats itself</h2>
<p>Phase 2 of the routine Alberta cycle — spending and budget cuts — is completing itself under the United Conservative Party government that’s held spending steady for several years.</p>
<figure class="align-left zoomable">
<a href="https://images.theconversation.com/files/450213/original/file-20220306-84943-q3wjl4.JPG?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=1000&fit=clip"><img alt="A man speaks into a microphone at a podium with an Alberta banner." src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/450213/original/file-20220306-84943-q3wjl4.JPG?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=237&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/450213/original/file-20220306-84943-q3wjl4.JPG?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=445&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/450213/original/file-20220306-84943-q3wjl4.JPG?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=445&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/450213/original/file-20220306-84943-q3wjl4.JPG?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=445&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/450213/original/file-20220306-84943-q3wjl4.JPG?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=559&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/450213/original/file-20220306-84943-q3wjl4.JPG?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=559&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/450213/original/file-20220306-84943-q3wjl4.JPG?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=559&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px"></a>
<figcaption>
<span class="caption">Kenney gives a COVID-19 update in Calgary in February 2022.</span>
<span class="attribution"><span class="source">THE CANADIAN PRESS/Jeff McIntosh</span></span>
</figcaption>
</figure>
<p>Like Klein, Premier Jason Kenney regards the culprit of the province’s financial woes as spending, and enacted recommendations in <a href="https://www.alberta.ca/mackinnon-report-on-finances.aspx">the blueprint</a> offered by Janice MacKinnon, Saskatchewan’s former NDP finance minister. </p>
<p>MacKinnon, despite her NDP history, was a formidable fiscal hawk and after her political career, she helped produce a <a href="https://journalhosting.ucalgary.ca/index.php/sppp/article/view/42498">2017 report</a> recommending the Notley government attack the province’s spending problems by bringing Alberta’s per capita spending in line with Canada’s three biggest provinces. A key target was the high wages Alberta’s public servants supposedly were paid. </p>
<p>Predictably, these measures inflicted pain on the public service <a href="https://www.cbc.ca/news/canada/edmonton/alberta-innovates-layoffs-provincial-budget-1.5364183">through layoffs</a> and by <a href="https://edmontonjournal.com/news/politics/alberta-budget-2019-44-million-cut-to-hit-university-of-alberta">forcing institutions</a> like school boards or provincial agencies to cut services or staff. </p>
<p>Now, as with Klein, the boom has followed the bust and next year’s pre-election budget is expected to significantly ramp up spending and to patch up holes in the health and education system. There also may be talk of debt pay-down or adding to the government’s savings accounts. </p>
<h2>Quiet on the sales tax front</h2>
<p>For nearly 60 years, the Alberta government has not once run a surplus excluding resource revenue.</p>
<p>Economists have long advocated <a href="https://edmontonjournal.com/opinion/columnists/ken-mckenzie-herb-emery-and-ron-kneebone-albertas-spring-budget-should-shutdown-fiscal-rollercoaster">the introduction of a sales tax</a> to stabilize Alberta’s notoriously volatile resource revenue. </p>
<p>Regrettably, Toews failed to announce a full-scale review of all government revenue as <a href="https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=xAANL4nxVzQ">previously suggested</a>. </p>
<p>That means unlucky Alberta residents will continue to experience the thrills and chills of the province’s seemingly never-ending fiscal roller-coaster ride.</p><img src="https://counter.theconversation.com/content/177698/count.gif" alt="The Conversation" width="1" height="1" />
<p class="fine-print"><em><span>Robert L. Ascah does not work for, consult, own shares in or receive funding from any company or organisation that would benefit from this article, and has disclosed no relevant affiliations beyond their academic appointment.</span></em></p>Every time Alberta’s energy-based economy goes into a tailspin, it’s because the price of oil has declined precipitously, and when it booms, it’s because the price has soared.Robert L. Ascah, Research Fellow, The Parkland Institute, University of AlbertaLicensed as Creative Commons – attribution, no derivatives.tag:theconversation.com,2011:article/1664842021-08-31T19:16:03Z2021-08-31T19:16:03ZAfghanistan has vast mineral wealth but faces steep challenges to tap it<figure><img src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/418489/original/file-20210830-20-q3xfb8.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&rect=0%2C0%2C3000%2C1998&q=45&auto=format&w=496&fit=clip" /><figcaption><span class="caption">Afghanistan has mineral resources that include precious gems and minerals such as copper and rare earth elements.</span> <span class="attribution"><a class="source" href="https://www.gettyimages.com/detail/news-photo/an-afghan-miner-works-in-a-makeshift-emerald-mine-in-the-news-photo/102915792?adppopup=true">Majid Saeedi/Getty Images</a></span></figcaption></figure><p>The official ending of the U.S.-led war in Afghanistan leaves a number of long-term questions, including how the country can build a <a href="https://www.bbc.com/news/world-asia-58328246">functioning economy</a>. Now that U.S. assistance has evaporated and international aid is <a href="https://www.washingtonpost.com/world/2021/08/30/russia-afghanistan-taliban-aid/">largely shut off</a>, what options does Afghanistan have? </p>
<p>One possibility resides in natural resources. Afghanistan possesses a <a href="https://www.doi.org/10.1126/science.328.5986.1620">wealth of nonfuel minerals whose value</a> has been estimated at more than <a href="https://www.livescience.com/47682-rare-earth-minerals-found-under-afghanistan.html">US$1 trillion</a>. For <a href="https://www.gia.edu/doc/SP91A2.pdf">millennia</a> the country was renowned for its gemstones – rubies, emeralds, tourmalines and lapis lazuli. <a href="https://www.bbc.com/news/science-environment-18882996">These minerals</a> continue to be locally extracted, both legally and illegally, in mostly <a href="https://www.sciencebase.gov/catalog/item/5d3b358be4b01d82ce8d766e">small, artisanal mines</a>. Far more value, however, lies with the country’s endowments of iron, copper, lithium, rare earth elements, cobalt, bauxite, mercury, uranium and chromium. </p>
<p>While the total abundance of minerals is certainly vast, scientific understanding of these resources is still at an exploratory stage. Even with a better understanding of how rewarding their extraction might be, the presence of these resources will not provide a jump-start to a new economy. As <a href="https://scholar.google.com/citations?user=dCRySjIAAAAJ&hl=en&oi=ao">a geologist who has studied the extent of their resources</a>, I estimate a minimum of seven to 10 years will be needed for large-scale mining to become a major new source of revenue. </p>
<h2>USGS follows the Soviets</h2>
<p>British and German geologists conducted the earliest modern surveys of Afghanistan’s minerals in the 19th and early 20th centuries. But it was the Soviets in the 1960s and 1970s who performed the most <a href="https://www.jstor.org/stable/20671949">systematic exploratory work</a> throughout the country, producing a large body of detailed information that stood as the backbone to more recent studies. </p>
<p>From 2004 to 2011, the U.S. Geological Survey conducted a <a href="https://www.jstor.org/stable/40656146?mag=war-has-made-afghanistans-1-trillion-in-minerals-worthless&seq=1#metadata_info_tab_contents">detailed review of available data</a>, adding new information from its own aerial survey, limited field checking and from the Afghanistan Geological Survey. <a href="https://www.nap.edu/read/13302/">This work</a> better identified mineral sites, richness and abundance. </p>
<p>No one who examines this work, as I have, can ignore the large-scale exploratory effort by Soviet scientists. Detailed field mapping and massive sampling, including tens of thousands of meters of borehole drilling, and lab analyses were performed. Given the time and money invested, it would appear high-level plans were in play to develop Afghanistan’s minerals once the country was under Soviet influence. </p>
<p>Based largely on this information, the <a href="https://pubs.er.usgs.gov/publication/ofr02110">USGS delineated 24 areas in the country</a> and estimated their mineral abundance. Data packages were prepared on all 24 areas for companies to use as a basis for making bids to exploit any resources. </p>
<p><a href="https://carnegieendowment.org/files/china_role_afghanistan.pdf">Chinese</a> and <a href="https://www.bbc.com/news/world-asia-15936402">Indian</a> companies expressed strong interest, and actual concessions were granted. Arguments over contract terms and concerns about security, however, have stalled activity since the late 2010s. </p>
<h2>Mineral abundance</h2>
<p>How much mineral abundance does Afghanistan actually have? I’ll try to answer this with a brief summary of USGS estimates for <a href="https://www.reuters.com/world/asia-pacific/what-are-afghanistans-untapped-minerals-resources-2021-08-19/">metals of special interest</a>: copper, iron, lithium and rare earth metals. Geoscientists who were part of the USGS effort <a href="https://www.scientificamerican.com/article/afghanistan-holds-enormous-bounty-of-rare-earths/">have noted</a> that their figures are “conservative” but also “preliminary.” </p>
<p>Regardless, it’s safe to say the resources in total are huge. Total copper resources for all known deposits sum to about 57.7 million metric tons. At <a href="https://markets.businessinsider.com/commodities/copper-price">current prices</a>, the resource value is $516 billion. These are “undiscovered” resources – identified but not fully explored and assessed. If further study were to judge them recoverable at a profit, they would rank Afghanistan <a href="https://www.statista.com/statistics/273637/copper-reserves-by-country/">among the top five nations</a> for copper reserves in the world. </p>
<figure class="align-center zoomable">
<a href="https://images.theconversation.com/files/418684/original/file-20210831-19-mzp0y6.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=1000&fit=clip"><img alt="map of Afghanistan mineral resources done by the USGS" src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/418684/original/file-20210831-19-mzp0y6.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/418684/original/file-20210831-19-mzp0y6.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=457&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/418684/original/file-20210831-19-mzp0y6.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=457&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/418684/original/file-20210831-19-mzp0y6.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=457&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/418684/original/file-20210831-19-mzp0y6.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=575&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/418684/original/file-20210831-19-mzp0y6.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=575&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/418684/original/file-20210831-19-mzp0y6.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=575&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px"></a>
<figcaption>
<span class="caption">A map of mineral resources published by the United States Geological Survey in 2007.</span>
<span class="attribution"><a class="source" href="https://www.usgs.gov/media/images/map-afghanistan-mineralized-areas">United States Geological Survey</a></span>
</figcaption>
</figure>
<p>The largest copper deposit, which also contains significant amounts of cobalt, is the Aynak ore body, located about 18 miles (30 kilometers) southeast of Kabul. After the Soviet Union invaded Afghanistan in 1979, the <a href="https://www.nytimes.com/2009/12/30/world/asia/30mine.html">Soviets began development of the mine</a> but <a href="https://doi.org/10.3390/su12041569">it was suspended in 1989</a> following Soviet withdrawal from the country. The high-grade portion of the total Aynak deposit is estimated at 11.3 million metric tons of copper, worth $102 billion at current market prices. </p>
<p>Afghanistan also has world-class iron ore resources, concentrated in the Haji Gak deposit of Bamiyan Province. Haji Gak has an estimated 2,100 million metric tons of high-grade ore that is 61%-69% iron by weight. At <a href="https://tradingeconomics.com/commodity/iron-ore">current price levels</a>, this represents a value of $336.8 billion, placing Afghanistan among <a href="https://www.statista.com/statistics/267381/world-reserves-of-iron-ore-by-country/">the top 10 nations worldwide</a> in extractable iron. </p>
<p>Lithium resources in Nuristan Province, which occur as <a href="https://geology.com/rocks/pegmatite.shtml">veins</a>, impressed Soviet geoscientists with the amount of hard rock ore (lithium is also mined from brine). Based on USGS estimates, it is a significant but modest resource in today’s terms, as exploration for such deposits has increased around the world in the past decade. </p>
<p>Finally, <a href="https://theconversation.com/what-are-rare-earths-crucial-elements-in-modern-technology-4-questions-answered-101364">rare earth elements</a> exist in southern Helmand Province. These deposits mainly contain cerium, with smaller amounts of more valuable lanthanum, praseodymium and neodymium, totaling perhaps 1.4 million metric tons. Two of these, praseodymium and neodymium, are at high price levels – more than $45,000 per metric ton – and make exceptional magnets used in motors for hybrid and electric cars, but the abundance of these elements is not large relative to how much other countries have. </p>
<h2>Above-ground factors and geopolitics</h2>
<p>Mining wisdom holds that what’s in the ground is less important than what’s above ground. Market realities, security, contract terms, infrastructure and environmental concerns matter more than sheer abundance to whether resources can be developed. </p>
<p>Among these factors, perhaps the most relevant at present is strong global demand for the metals, particularly copper, lithium and rare earth elements, which are <a href="https://theconversation.com/the-us-is-worried-about-its-critical-minerals-supply-chains-essential-for-electric-vehicles-wind-power-and-the-nations-defense-157465">essential to the growing markets in renewable energy and electric vehicles</a>. </p>
<figure class="align-center zoomable">
<a href="https://images.theconversation.com/files/418333/original/file-20210829-17-113n7vc.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=1000&fit=clip"><img alt="Mining camp built by a Chinese company in Mes Aynak, Afghanistan." src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/418333/original/file-20210829-17-113n7vc.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/418333/original/file-20210829-17-113n7vc.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=400&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/418333/original/file-20210829-17-113n7vc.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=400&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/418333/original/file-20210829-17-113n7vc.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=400&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/418333/original/file-20210829-17-113n7vc.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=503&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/418333/original/file-20210829-17-113n7vc.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=503&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/418333/original/file-20210829-17-113n7vc.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=503&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px"></a>
<figcaption>
<span class="caption">A Chinese company built this mining camp at Mes Aynak in Afghanistan about 10 years ago to house workers for a planned copper mine that never began production. The people in the front were taking part in an archaeological dig.</span>
<span class="attribution"><a class="source" href="https://www.flickr.com/photos/jeromestarkey/6349904680/in/album-72157628014100509/">Jerome Starkey/flicrk</a>, <a class="license" href="http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/4.0/">CC BY-SA</a></span>
</figcaption>
</figure>
<p>Whether or not Afghanistan can begin mining these elements will depend on what the new Taliban government does. Under the former Ministry of Mines, a $2.9 billion contract for a portion of the Aynak copper deposit was granted <a href="http://thediplomat.com/2017/01/the-story-behind-chinas-long-stalled-mine-in-afghanistan/">to two state-owned Chinese companies</a>. The 30-year contract signed in 2007 had a high royalty rate by global standards and required that ore smelting and processing be done locally. Other conditions included building a 400-megawatt coal power plant and a railway to the Pakistan border. Also stipulated was that 85%-100% of employees, from skilled labor to managerial personnel, be Afghan nationals within eight years of the date work begins. Though originally agreed to, these terms were <a href="https://www.mdpi.com/2071-1050/12/4/1569/htm">later declared onerous by the companies</a>, halting development. </p>
<p>[<em>Get the best of The Conversation, every weekend.</em> <a href="https://theconversation.com/us/newsletters/weekly-highlights-61?utm_source=TCUS&utm_medium=inline-link&utm_campaign=newsletter-text&utm_content=weeklybest">Sign up for our weekly newsletter</a>.]</p>
<p>Though roads exist to many ore deposit areas, Afghanistan lacks good-quality roadways, railways and electricity. Mining companies are no stranger to such challenges, yet the situation is heightened in this case by rugged terrain and the landlocked nature of the country. Railways, in particular, would be essential for transporting ore, raw or refined, to foreign markets.</p>
<p>There are also environmental and cultural concerns. Mining can result in major impacts to land and air quality, as well as watersheds – a particular concern in water-poor Afghanistan – if not regulated to best practices. No less, enforcement of such standards is required and has been <a href="https://sdg.iisd.org/news/environmental-laws-impeded-by-lack-of-enforcement-first-ever-global-assessment-finds/">a problem in many lower-income countries</a>. </p>
<p>Close to the Aynak copper deposit is a large site of <a href="https://www.archinternational.org/projects/mes-aynak/">Buddhist relics</a>, statues, temples and stupas. There are also Bronze Age mining sites that constitute important archaeological resources. Here, too, no clarity yet exists about how Taliban leaders, who ordered the destruction of the <a href="https://www.pri.org/stories/2015-06-11/they-were-destroyed-taliban-now-giant-buddha-statues-bamiyan-have-returned-3-d">great Buddhist statues at Bamiyan in 2001</a>, might view these sites. </p>
<p>For Afghanistan, its resources could mean a source of long-term foreign investment, skill-building and infrastructure expansion, <a href="https://www.nytimes.com/2021/08/21/business/afghanistan-economy.html">all essential for a sustainable economy</a>. But a major question is which companies would be involved. Afghanistan is also at the center of geopolitical struggles, involving both India and Pakistan, as well as China, Iran and the U.S. That the Taliban are now in control does not make the country’s minerals any less invested with large significance.</p>
<p><em>Author’s note: In 2015, I was the instructor for a task force class in the Henry M. Jackson School of International Studies at the University of Washington that <a href="https://digital.lib.washington.edu/researchworks/bitstream/handle/1773/33278/Task%20Force%20F%202015_FINAL-Montgomery.pdf">produced a report</a> on Afghanistan’s natural resources and the possibility of their acting as a basis for economic development. This article is devoted to the excellent work done by students on that task force.</em></p>
<p><em>This article was updated to correct details about development of mining operations by the Soviets.</em></p><img src="https://counter.theconversation.com/content/166484/count.gif" alt="The Conversation" width="1" height="1" />
<p class="fine-print"><em><span>Scott L. Montgomery does not work for, consult, own shares in or receive funding from any company or organization that would benefit from this article, and has disclosed no relevant affiliations beyond their academic appointment.</span></em></p>Afghanistan has vast mineral resources that have long attracted interest from outside countries, but a lack of infrastructure and political instability means they’re unlikely to aid its economy now.Scott L. Montgomery, Lecturer, Jackson School of International Studies, University of WashingtonLicensed as Creative Commons – attribution, no derivatives.tag:theconversation.com,2011:article/1599632021-05-09T18:09:36Z2021-05-09T18:09:36ZInterdisciplinary approaches to coastal vulnerability: the pathway to coastal sustainability<figure><img src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/397606/original/file-20210428-17-krn75i.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&rect=0%2C2%2C1500%2C837&q=45&auto=format&w=496&fit=clip" /><figcaption><span class="caption">Coastal areas in West Africa are under intense pressure from demographic growth, economic expansion and ongoing climate change.</span> <span class="attribution"><span class="source">IRD</span>, <span class="license">Author provided</span></span></figcaption></figure><p>Around the world, fragile coastal ecosystems are under intense pressure from unrelenting human activity, gradual yet relentless climate trends and extreme weather events. Understanding and managing their complex and sometimes catastrophic interactions requires an integrated and interdisciplinary approach. In this article, we articulate the plausible future reciprocal relationship between the natural and social subsystems within the coastal systems and how to manage these changes via adaptive and inclusive approaches.</p>
<p>Using a <a href="https://esajournals.onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/10.1890/100068">press-pulse dynamics conceptual framework</a>, we build in variables such as population growth, economic development, governance quality, technological change, and infrastructural development. The result is three future scenarios for coastal areas undergoing major ecosystem structures and functions alterations.</p>
<ul>
<li><p>Anthropocentric: Under this human-centred scenario, current trends continue along the coast, with rising population, economic activities and infrastructural development, and weak governance and poor policy implementation.</p></li>
<li><p>Anthro-ecocentric: This scenario is characterised by increasing population, infrastructural and economic development, significant advancement in technology, but also a modest improvement in environmental quality as a result of good governance.</p></li>
<li><p>Ecocentric: This environment-centred scenario is characterised by government incentives for conservation, green energy, and land-use planning.</p></li>
</ul>
<p>The three scenarios are all based on the worst-case climatic conditions for the future as predicted by the <a href="https://www.ipcc.ch/srocc/chapter/chapter-4-sea-level-rise-and-implications-for-low-lying-islands-coasts-and-communities/">IPCC report</a>, RCP 8.5.</p>
<figure class="align-center ">
<img alt="" src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/397611/original/file-20210428-23-5j1zlt.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/397611/original/file-20210428-23-5j1zlt.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=337&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/397611/original/file-20210428-23-5j1zlt.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=337&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/397611/original/file-20210428-23-5j1zlt.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=337&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/397611/original/file-20210428-23-5j1zlt.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=424&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/397611/original/file-20210428-23-5j1zlt.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=424&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/397611/original/file-20210428-23-5j1zlt.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=424&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px">
<figcaption>
<span class="caption">Saint Louis coast, Senegal.</span>
<span class="attribution"><span class="source">IRD</span>, <span class="license">Author provided</span></span>
</figcaption>
</figure>
<h2>Our findings</h2>
<p>We applied our conceptual model to West Africa coastal areas. Currently, strong economic activities and urbanisation cluster along the coastline, generating multifaceted pressures on resources, acute tensions among users, ecosystems and marine resources degradation and the vulnerability of coastal areas. Coastal degradation manifests by way of fisheries depletion, pollution, flooding and coastal erosion.</p>
<p><em>1. “Anthropocentric” scenario</em></p>
<p>Here, current trends continue along the coast, with rising population, economic activities and infrastructural development, and weak governance and poor policy implementation. Major developments like new ports development and expansion, resource exploitation, unregulated groundwater extraction, urban expansion, upriver damming, and other projects, are implemented without environmental and social impact assessment.</p>
<p>Under this scenario, there would be a huge decline in the key ecological goods and services functions. Continuing exploitation of coastal resources leads to floods and aggravated coastal erosion, the greater vulnerability of floras and faunas, and the degradation and destruction of their habitats. Without adaptation, sea level rise (SLR) and more intense and frequent extreme sea-level events, combined with trends in coastal development amplify expected annual flood damages.</p>
<p>Coastal protection systems in urban cities and densely populated regions would reduce expected damages and be relatively cost-efficient, but would be unaffordable for rural and poorer areas, leaving them vulnerable. Coastal processes and associated land-use changes would be “business as usual”, creating a high risk of and vulnerability to flooding, erosion and pollution for poor and unprotected populations.</p>
<figure class="align-center ">
<img alt="Langue de Barbarie in Senegal" src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/397612/original/file-20210428-15-qou1o2.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/397612/original/file-20210428-15-qou1o2.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=337&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/397612/original/file-20210428-15-qou1o2.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=337&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/397612/original/file-20210428-15-qou1o2.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=337&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/397612/original/file-20210428-15-qou1o2.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=424&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/397612/original/file-20210428-15-qou1o2.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=424&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/397612/original/file-20210428-15-qou1o2.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=424&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px">
<figcaption>
<span class="caption">Along the Langue de Barbarie in Senegal, more than 800 m of shoreline have been lost in 10 years.</span>
<span class="attribution"><span class="source">IRD</span>, <span class="license">Author provided</span></span>
</figcaption>
</figure>
<p><em>2. “Anthro-ecocentric” scenario</em></p>
<p>The global context for this scenario would be the same as the previous one. Here, the general approach to ecosystem services is reactive rather than proactive. Coastal-protection structures like sea walls, surge barriers and embankments are widespread, providing safety in many West African coastal cities and deltas. While these structures protect economic development, they will have a negative impact on economic interests and human health and well-being that rely on ecological goods. These include ecotourism, recreation and fisheries, clean air and fresh water. Also negatively affected are ecological services such as air and water purification, biodiversity maintenance, waste decomposition, soil and vegetation generation and renewal, groundwater recharge, greenhouse gas mitigation, and aesthetically landscapes.</p>
<p>Under this scenario, coastal-protection structures are prioritised in areas with higher socioeconomic values. Poorer areas with lower socioeconomic values receive less protection, leading to inequality, and this could increase political and social tensions. As sea levels continue to rise, the height of coastal-protection structures is increased, yet this may ultimately prove to be unaffordable and ineffective. Even with well-designed structures, the risk of possibly catastrophic effects in the event of their failure cannot be ruled out.</p>
<p>While hard structures along the coast may serve to protect urban areas, they can result in a significantly larger proportion of the ecosystems being lost. This may in turn leave communities vulnerable to adverse events such as floods, ocean surges, pollution, coastal eutrophication and saline intrusion. In the context of ongoing climate change, some of these may surpass a crucial threshold, overwhelming social capacity, and, consequently, affect human well-being.</p>
<p><em>3. “Ecocentric” coastal scenario</em></p>
<p>Under this environmentally focused scenario, government efforts are focused on encouraging environmental conservation, green energy, and effective land-use planning. Ecosystem-based policies are strengthened, ecotourism principles are supported, and environmental laws and regulations are enacted and adhered to. More confidence is placed on the development of environmental engineering, climate and energy-friendly technology, and new ways of farming that incorporate provisioning with regulating and cultural ecosystem services. The pace of population growth and economic development is wholly determined by environmental quality.</p>
<p>As with the prior scenarios, there will be sea-level rise driven by climate change, with the storms and extreme wave events that can increase coastal hazards. However, because the natural coastal systems are not passive, there are numerous threshold effects – they respond by adapting to the new configurations. Further, restoration of coastal ecosystems such as mangroves or tidal marshes – coastal “blue carbon” ecosystems – provide climate-change mitigation through increased carbon uptake and storage of around 0.5% of current global emissions annually.</p>
<p>Under this scenario, improved technology enhances the development of marine (blue) renewable energy production, green shipping and the protection of carbon-rich coastal ecosystems.</p>
<p>In light of the co-benefits for marine biodiversity and coastal livelihoods, the development of nature-based solutions in the coastal and marine environment can be seen as such no-regret option that should be given a high priority.</p>
<h2>The way forward</h2>
<p>What is the way forward for West African coastal areas? The upcoming IRD-UCC-World Bank policy brief couldn’t be clearer:</p>
<blockquote>
<p>“Good coastal risk management for the protection and development of the human, economic and natural stakes of the coastal zones should be decided and implemented in a concerted way between the actors of the territory and coherent with the objectives of the already existing territorial public policies. Besides, the use of local knowledge of the communities, interdisciplinary scientific studies and the operational know-how of technician will promote the acceptability, efficiency and sustainability of the management solutions envisaged. Finally, a global, systemic approach to coastal management should be employed.”</p>
</blockquote>
<p>This argues for a forward-looking, environmentally focused approach for managing our fragile coastal ecosystems. As indicated by our research, this approach has the greatest potential for achieving coastal sustainability.</p>
<figure>
<iframe width="440" height="260" src="https://www.youtube.com/embed/uLc9ozH1hf8?wmode=transparent&start=0" frameborder="0" allowfullscreen=""></iframe>
<figcaption><span class="caption">Coastal erosion seen from space (IRD).</span></figcaption>
</figure><img src="https://counter.theconversation.com/content/159963/count.gif" alt="The Conversation" width="1" height="1" />
<p class="fine-print"><em><span>Frédéric Ménard has received funding from the ANR, the Ministry of Ecological Transition, the FRB, the EU, the FFEM, the Ciência Sem Fronteiras program of the CNPq and the CAPES of Brazil.</span></em></p><p class="fine-print"><em><span>Pierre Morand est membre de l'Association Francaise d'Halieutique (science/recherche) et de l'African Bird Club (Ornithologie)
.
Il a reçu des financements de Agence Française de Développement, U.E., ENABEL, UEMOA, Banque Mondiale (WACA)</span></em></p><p class="fine-print"><em><span>Olusegun Dada et Rafael Almar ne travaillent pas, ne conseillent pas, ne possèdent pas de parts, ne reçoivent pas de fonds d'une organisation qui pourrait tirer profit de cet article, et n'ont déclaré aucune autre affiliation que leur poste universitaire.</span></em></p>Around the world, fragile coastal ecosystems are under intense pressure, and understanding and managing their complex interactions requires an integrated and interdisciplinary approach.Olusegun Dada, Senior postdoctoral research fellow, Institut de recherche pour le développement (IRD)Frédéric Ménard, Directeur de recherche, Institut de recherche pour le développement (IRD)Pierre Morand, Biostatisticien, Institut de recherche pour le développement (IRD)Rafael Almar, Chercheur en dynamique littorale, Institut de recherche pour le développement (IRD)Licensed as Creative Commons – attribution, no derivatives.tag:theconversation.com,2011:article/1571072021-04-14T16:27:21Z2021-04-14T16:27:21ZRural vs. urban Canada: No ‘one size fits all’ COVID-19 recovery<figure><img src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/394794/original/file-20210413-17-kp7cm9.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&rect=0%2C0%2C5450%2C3277&q=45&auto=format&w=496&fit=clip" /><figcaption><span class="caption">Part of Gros Morne National Park in western Newfoundland is seen in June 2017. Tourism is critically important for many areas of rural Canada. </span> <span class="attribution"><span class="source">THE CANADIAN PRESS/Colin Perkel</span></span></figcaption></figure><p>The realities of rural Canada are poorly understood, with the word rural often used as though it’s a monolithic thing.</p>
<p>In February, a news article published across Canada identified a <a href="https://www.thestar.com/business/2021/02/15/a-rural-urban-divide-data-gives-most-detailed-look-yet-at-where-cerb-went.html">rural-urban split in the distribution of the Canada Emergency Response Benefit, known as CERB</a>. The article identified a higher proportion of urban residents relying on CERB. The article provided perspectives from various people offering explanations about the possible reasons for the difference. </p>
<p>These explanations featured generalizations about urban reliance on tourism resulting in greater need, and rural reliance on natural resources that “wouldn’t have been hit as hard” by COVID-19. </p>
<p>This narrative no doubt came as a surprise to tourism-dependent rural communities, where COVID-19 has had significant impacts on employment and exacerbated tensions between residents and urban visitors. </p>
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</em>
</p>
<hr>
<p>The tourism sector, in fact, is critically important to rural communities. In British Columbia, for example, rural communities are on average more dependent than urban centres on tourism as a source of employment, and communities with the largest dependence on tourism are rural. </p>
<figure class="align-center ">
<img alt="A graph shows Employment in Tourism by Community Type in B.C." src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/392648/original/file-20210330-21-1il08yh.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/392648/original/file-20210330-21-1il08yh.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=357&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/392648/original/file-20210330-21-1il08yh.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=357&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/392648/original/file-20210330-21-1il08yh.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=357&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/392648/original/file-20210330-21-1il08yh.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=449&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/392648/original/file-20210330-21-1il08yh.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=449&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/392648/original/file-20210330-21-1il08yh.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=449&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px">
<figcaption>
<span class="caption">Employment in tourism by community type in British Columbia, based on Statistic Canada’s 2016 Census data.</span>
<span class="attribution"><span class="source">(Author)</span>, <span class="license">Author provided</span></span>
</figcaption>
</figure>
<p>The notion that communities reliant on natural resource sectors were not as hard hit by COVID-19 also likely came as a surprise. These communities continue <a href="https://www.cbc.ca/news/canada/calgary/calgary-oil-gas-jobs-statscan-covid-oilwell-drilling-employment-1.5737355">to experience layoffs and costly changes to business practices</a>. </p>
<p>Statistics Canada data shows <a href="https://www150.statcan.gc.ca/t1/tbl1/en/tv.action?pid=3310027901">that employment in forestry, fishing, mining, oil and gas is below previous years’ levels</a>.</p>
<h2>The use of social programs is complex</h2>
<p>Just as there are unique dynamics influencing different sectors, the use of support programs by rural Canadians — whether they’re federal or provincial support programs, aimed at businesses or those who have lost work — is also complex. Use is not only influenced by need, but by other factors, like the ability to access support. </p>
<p>Treating rural communities as a monolithic entity conceals the range of experiences across rural communities. The resulting narrative can create false impressions — including the notion that rural communities are doing well in comparison to urban areas during the COVID-19 pandemic.</p>
<p>If we consider economic concentration in British Columbia by community size, we see that rural communities on average are less economically diverse. However, we also see high levels of variation among rural communities — some are as diversified as urban centres. </p>
<figure class="align-center ">
<img alt="A graph shows Economic Concentration by Population Size in B.C." src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/392647/original/file-20210330-21-132gx3k.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/392647/original/file-20210330-21-132gx3k.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=368&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/392647/original/file-20210330-21-132gx3k.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=368&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/392647/original/file-20210330-21-132gx3k.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=368&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/392647/original/file-20210330-21-132gx3k.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=462&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/392647/original/file-20210330-21-132gx3k.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=462&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/392647/original/file-20210330-21-132gx3k.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=462&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px">
<figcaption>
<span class="caption">Economic concentration by population size in British Columbia, based on Statistic Canada’s 2016 Census data.</span>
<span class="attribution"><span class="source">(Author)</span>, <span class="license">Author provided</span></span>
</figcaption>
</figure>
<p>Data from other provinces and territories will tell a different story — because there is far more than a single rural story. </p>
<h2>Rural data matters</h2>
<p>All of this illustrates a larger pattern of failing to recognize rural diversity. This pattern contributes to policy failures that impact rural realities and limit future opportunities. The sheer number of communities in rural Canada, along with a lack of organized and accessible community-level data, often leads governments to develop policies that do not account for the differences between rural and urban, let alone differences across rural regions. </p>
<p><a href="https://doi.org/10.1016/j.jrurstud.2018.12.005">Governments tend to understand urban and rural as two contrasting groups</a>, and that rural communities need help catching up with urban centres. This is wrong on two levels. </p>
<figure class="align-center ">
<img alt="A farm tractor and baler sit in a hay field amid a misty sunrise." src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/394553/original/file-20210412-23-1e3n0t9.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/394553/original/file-20210412-23-1e3n0t9.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=400&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/394553/original/file-20210412-23-1e3n0t9.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=400&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/394553/original/file-20210412-23-1e3n0t9.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=400&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/394553/original/file-20210412-23-1e3n0t9.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=503&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/394553/original/file-20210412-23-1e3n0t9.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=503&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/394553/original/file-20210412-23-1e3n0t9.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=503&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px">
<figcaption>
<span class="caption">A farm tractor and baler sit in a hay field on a misty morning near Cremona, Alta.</span>
<span class="attribution"><span class="source">THE CANADIAN PRESS/Jeff McIntosh</span></span>
</figcaption>
</figure>
<p>First, it does not consider variations within each group. Second, it assumes that development for rural communities means becoming more urbanized. As a result, one-size-fits-all policies are created that don’t account for the realities of rural communities. </p>
<p>Policies are time and again built on this binary understanding, mostly because this simplification makes policies easier to create and implement. </p>
<p>A first step to developing better policies is to improve policy-makers’ knowledge of rural communities by compiling and organizing community-level data in a user-friendly way. Although it can be difficult to obtain data, especially for small and Indigenous communities, much of what is available is under-used. Improving access would help to close this gap. </p>
<p>However, data access is not enough to bring about better policies. Decision-makers need to be convinced of the need to recognize rural diversity. </p>
<h2>How composite indicators can help</h2>
<p>That is where composite indicators (CI) can play a role. CIs — like the United Nations’ <a href="http://hdr.undp.org/en/content/human-development-index-hdi">Human Development Index</a> — can synthesize multidimensional concepts into a single score through the compilation of individual indicators. </p>
<p>The ability to simplify complex issues makes CIs powerful tools to draw attention to a topic. A well-designed CI can shed light on a range of different rural realities and spur a conversation about the need to acknowledge rural diversity in policy. </p>
<p>One approach to building a rural CI is <a href="https://dspace.library.uvic.ca/handle/1828/12165">to base it on five types of capital</a>. How communities perform in each of these areas can help policy-makers understand their needs and barriers. </p>
<figure class="align-center ">
<img alt="A graphic shows different types of capital" src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/392649/original/file-20210330-13-tek46k.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/392649/original/file-20210330-13-tek46k.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=290&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/392649/original/file-20210330-13-tek46k.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=290&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/392649/original/file-20210330-13-tek46k.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=290&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/392649/original/file-20210330-13-tek46k.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=364&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/392649/original/file-20210330-13-tek46k.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=364&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/392649/original/file-20210330-13-tek46k.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=364&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px">
<figcaption>
<span class="caption">Different types of capital, based on the study ‘Understanding community conditions to improve place-based rural development policies and programs.</span>
<span class="attribution"><span class="source">(Diogo Oliveira, University of Victoria)</span>, <span class="license">Author provided</span></span>
</figcaption>
</figure>
<p>CIs are one tool to shine a spotlight on rural diversity and provide insights into rural realities. However, moving away from policies that treat rural communities as an undifferentiated group will require more than a single tool.</p>
<p>It requires acknowledgement that viewing rural Canada as monolothic and the policies — and news stories — built on that assessment have limited value for rural communities. As Canada prepares for post-pandemic life, rural communities would benefit from flexible policies that support them in achieving their goals. </p>
<p><em>Diogo Oliveira, who graduated with a master’s in public administration from the University of Victoria, co-authored this piece.</em></p><img src="https://counter.theconversation.com/content/157107/count.gif" alt="The Conversation" width="1" height="1" />
<p class="fine-print"><em><span>Sarah-Patricia Breen receives funding from the Social Sciences and Humanities Research Council of Canada in support of various research projects.</span></em></p>Misconceptions of rural realities can have serious implications. Better use of data can help avoid this and lead to policies that will help rural communities recover in the post-pandemic.Sarah-Patricia Breen, Adjunct Professor, Public Policy, University of SaskatchewanLicensed as Creative Commons – attribution, no derivatives.tag:theconversation.com,2011:article/1368542020-04-22T02:08:10Z2020-04-22T02:08:10ZThere are 10 catastrophic threats facing humans right now, and coronavirus is only one of them<p>Four months in, this year has already been a remarkable showcase for existential and catastrophic risk. A severe drought, <a href="https://www.bbc.com/news/world-australia-50951043">devastating bushfires</a>, <a href="https://theconversation.com/how-does-bushfire-smoke-affect-our-health-6-things-you-need-to-know-130126">hazardous smoke</a>, <a href="https://www.abc.net.au/news/2020-01-27/how-long-until-drought-stricken-towns-run-out-of-water/11655124">towns running dry</a> – these events all demonstrate the consequences of human-induced climate change. </p>
<p>While the above may seem like isolated threats, they are parts of a larger puzzle of which the pieces are all interconnected. A report titled Surviving and Thriving in the 21st Century, published today by the Commission for the Human Future, has isolated ten potentially catastrophic threats to human survival. </p>
<p>Not prioritised over one another, these risks are:</p>
<ol>
<li>decline of natural resources, particularly water</li>
<li>collapse of ecosystems and loss of biodiversity</li>
<li>human population growth beyond Earth’s carrying capacity</li>
<li>global warming and human-induced climate change</li>
<li>chemical pollution of the Earth system, including the atmosphere and oceans</li>
<li>rising food insecurity and failing nutritional quality</li>
<li>nuclear weapons and other weapons of mass destruction</li>
<li>pandemics of new and untreatable disease</li>
<li>the advent of powerful, uncontrolled new technology </li>
<li>national and global failure to understand and act preventatively on these risks.</li>
</ol>
<h2>The start of ongoing discussions</h2>
<p>The Commission for the Human Future formed last year, following earlier discussions within <a href="http://www.humansforsurvival.org/sites/default/files/J3015%20-Pathways%20past%20Precipice.pdf">emeritus faculty at the Australian National University</a> about the major risks faced by humanity, how they should be approached and how they might be solved. We hosted our first round-table discussion last month, bringing together more than 40 academics, thinkers and policy leaders.</p>
<p>The commission’s report states our species’ ability to cause mass harm to itself has been accelerating since the mid-20th century. Global trends in demographics, information, politics, warfare, climate, environmental damage and technology have culminated in an entirely new level of risk. </p>
<p>The risks emerging now are varied, global and complex. Each one poses a “significant” risk to human civilisation, a “<a href="http://www.global-catastrophic-risks.com/">catastrophic risk</a>”, or could actually extinguish the human species and is therefore an “<a href="https://concepts.effectivealtruism.org/concepts/existential-risks/">existential risk</a>”.</p>
<p>The risks are interconnected. They originate from the same basic causes and must be solved in ways that make no individual threat worse. This means many existing systems we take for granted, including our economic, food, energy, production and waste, community life and governance systems – along with our relationship with the Earth’s natural systems – must undergo searching examination and reform.</p>
<h2>COVID-19: a lesson in interconnection</h2>
<p>It’s tempting to examine these threats individually, and yet with the coronavirus crisis we see their interconnection. </p>
<p>The response to the coronavirus has had implications for climate change with <a href="https://www.nationalgeographic.com/science/2020/04/coronavirus-causing-carbon-emissions-to-fall-but-not-for-long/">carbon pollution reduction</a>, increased discussion about <a href="https://www.technologyreview.com/2020/04/12/999186/covid-19-contact-tracing-surveillance-data-privacy-anonymity/">artificial intelligence and use of data</a> (<a href="https://www.bbc.com/news/av/world-europe-52157131/coronavirus-russia-uses-facial-recognition-to-tackle-covid-19">including facial recognition</a>), and changes to the landscape of <a href="https://theconversation.com/coronavirus-shows-we-are-not-at-all-prepared-for-the-security-threat-of-climate-change-136029">global security</a> particularly in the face of massive economic transition.</p>
<p>It’s not possible to “solve” COVID-19 without affecting other risks in some way.</p>
<h2>Shared future, shared approach</h2>
<p>The commission’s report does not aim to solve each risk, but rather to outline current thinking and identify unifying themes. <a href="https://www.science.org.au/supporting-science/science-policy-and-analysis">Understanding science, evidence and analysis</a> will be key to adequately addressing the threats and finding solutions. An <a href="https://www.ausstats.abs.gov.au/Ausstats/subscriber.nsf/0/356E27A3CE3FFEAACA2577C80012F997/$File/evidence_web.pdf">evidence-based approach to policy</a> has been needed for many years. Under-appreciating science and evidence leads to unmitigated risks, as we have seen with climate change.</p>
<p>The human future involves us all. Shaping it requires a collaborative, inclusive and diverse discussion. We should heed advice from political and social scientists on how to engage all people in this conversation.</p>
<hr>
<p>
<em>
<strong>
Read more:
<a href="https://theconversation.com/from-the-bushfires-to-coronavirus-our-old-normal-is-gone-forever-so-whats-next-134994">From the bushfires to coronavirus, our old 'normal' is gone forever. So what's next?</a>
</strong>
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</p>
<hr>
<p>Imagination, creativity and new narratives will be needed for challenges that test our civil society and humanity. The bushfire smoke over the summer was unprecedented, and COVID-19 is a new virus. </p>
<p>If our policymakers and government had spent more time using the available climate science to understand and then imagine the potential risks of the 2019-20 summer, we would have recognised the potential for a catastrophic season and would likely have been able to prepare better. Unprecedented events are not always unexpected.</p>
<h2>Prepare for the long road</h2>
<p>The short-termism of our <a href="https://www.bbc.com/future/article/20190318-can-we-reinvent-democracy-for-the-long-term">political process needs to be circumvented</a>. We must consider how our actions today will resonate for generations to come. </p>
<p>The commission’s report highlights the failure of governments to address these threats and particularly notes the short-term thinking that has increasingly dominated Australian and global politics. This has seriously undermined our potential to <a href="https://www.theguardian.com/environment/commentisfree/2020/jan/14/the-government-has-been-forced-to-talk-about-climate-change-so-its-taking-a-subtle-and-sinister-approach">decrease risks such as climate change</a>.</p>
<hr>
<p>
<em>
<strong>
Read more:
<a href="https://theconversation.com/listen-to-your-people-scott-morrison-the-bushfires-demand-a-climate-policy-reboot-129348">Listen to your people Scott Morrison: the bushfires demand a climate policy reboot</a>
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<p>The shift from short to longer term thinking can began at home and in our daily lives. We should make decisions today that acknowledge the future, and practise this not only in our own lives but also demand it of our policy makers. </p>
<p>We’re living in unprecedented times. The catastrophic and existential risks for humanity are serious and multifaceted. And this conversation is the most important one we have today.</p><img src="https://counter.theconversation.com/content/136854/count.gif" alt="The Conversation" width="1" height="1" />
<p class="fine-print"><em><span>Arnagretta Hunter is a board member of the Commission for the Human Future. </span></em></p><p class="fine-print"><em><span>John Hewson is Chair Commission for the Human Future</span></em></p>Other existential risks include the decline of natural resources (particularly water), human population growth beyond the Earth’s carrying capacity, and nuclear weapons.Arnagretta Hunter, ANU Human Futures Fellow 2020; Cardiologist and Physician., Australian National UniversityJohn Hewson, Professor and Chair, Tax and Transfer Policy Institute, Crawford School of Public Policy, Australian National UniversityLicensed as Creative Commons – attribution, no derivatives.tag:theconversation.com,2011:article/1238532019-10-18T05:52:59Z2019-10-18T05:52:59ZOur ability to manufacture minerals could transform the gem market, medical industries and even help suck carbon from the air<figure><img src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/297110/original/file-20191015-98636-u508ph.JPG?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&rect=0%2C5%2C3964%2C2988&q=45&auto=format&w=496&fit=clip" /><figcaption><span class="caption">Pictured is a slag pile at Broken Hill in New South Wales. Slag is a man-made waste product created during smelting. </span> <span class="attribution"><span class="source">Anita Parbhakar-Fox</span>, <span class="license">Author provided</span></span></figcaption></figure><p>Last month, scientists <a href="https://www.theage.com.au/national/victoria/this-meteorite-came-from-the-core-of-another-planet-inside-it-a-new-mineral-20190830-p52mhg.html">uncovered</a> a mineral called Edscottite. Minerals are solid, naturally occurring substances that are not living, such as quartz or haematite. This new mineral was discovered after an examination of the <a href="https://collections.museumvictoria.com.au/specimens/328">Wedderburn Meteorite</a>, a metallic-looking rock found in Central Victoria back in 1951. </p>
<p>Edscottite is made of iron and carbon, and was likely formed within the core of another planet. It’s a “true” mineral, meaning one which is naturally occurring and formed by geological processes either on Earth or in outer-space.</p>
<p>But while the Wedderburn Meteorite held the first-known discovery of Edscottite, other new mineral discoveries have been made on Earth, of substances formed as a result of human activities such as mining and mineral processing. These are called anthropogenic minerals.</p>
<p>While true minerals comprise the majority of the approximately 5,200 known minerals, there are about <a href="https://deepcarbon.net/feature/humanitys-minerals">208</a> human-made minerals which have been approved as minerals by the International Mineralogical Association. </p>
<p>Some are made on purpose and others are by-products. Either way, the ability to manufacture minerals has vast implications for the future of our rapidly growing population.</p>
<h2>Modern-day alchemy</h2>
<p>Climate change is one of the biggest challenges we face. While governments debate the future of coal-burning power stations, carbon dioxide continues to be released into the atmosphere. We need innovative strategies to capture it. </p>
<p>Actively manufacturing minerals such as <a href="http://www.webmineral.com/data/Nesquehonite.shtml#.XYL-sGkzaCg">nesquehonite</a> is one possible approach. It has applications in building and construction, and making it requires removing carbon dioxide from the atmosphere.</p>
<hr>
<p>
<em>
<strong>
Read more:
<a href="https://theconversation.com/climate-explained-why-carbon-dioxide-has-such-outsized-influence-on-earths-climate-123064">Climate explained: why carbon dioxide has such outsized influence on Earth's climate</a>
</strong>
</em>
</p>
<hr>
<p>Nesquehonite occurs naturally when magnesian rocks slowly break down. It has been identified at the <a href="https://www.mindat.org/loc-266123.html">Paddy’s River mine</a> in the Australian Capital Territory and locations <a href="https://rruff.info/doclib/MinMag/Volume_34/34-268-370.pdf">in New South Wales</a>.</p>
<p>But scientists discovered it can also be <a href="https://www.frontiersin.org/articles/10.3389/fenrg.2016.00003/full">made</a> by passing carbon dioxide into an alkaline solution and having it react with magnesium chloride or sodium carbonate/bicarbonate. </p>
<p>This is a growing area of <a href="https://www.mdpi.com/2075-163X/7/9/172/htm">research</a>. </p>
<p>Other synthetic minerals such as hydrotalcite are produced when asbestos tailings passively absorb atmospheric carbon dioxide, as discovered by scientists at the <a href="https://www.sciencedaily.com/releases/2018/12/181212134430.htm">Woodsreef asbestos mine in New South Wales</a>. </p>
<p>You could say this is a kind of “modern-day alchemy” which, if taken advantage of, could be an effective way to suck carbon dioxide from the air at a large scale.</p>
<h2>Meeting society’s metal demands</h2>
<p>Mining and mineral processing is designed to recover metals from ore, which is a natural occurrence of rock or sediment containing sufficient minerals with economically important elements. But through mining and mineral processing, new minerals can also be created. </p>
<p>Smelting is used to produce a range of commodities such as lead, zinc and copper, by heating ore to high temperatures to produce pure metals. </p>
<p>The process also produces a glass-like waste product called slag, which is deposited as molten liquid, <a href="https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=T7kDNo3rIM4">resembling lava</a>.</p>
<figure class="align-right ">
<img alt="" src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/297051/original/file-20191015-98640-hlhncu.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=237&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/297051/original/file-20191015-98640-hlhncu.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=450&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/297051/original/file-20191015-98640-hlhncu.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=450&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/297051/original/file-20191015-98640-hlhncu.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=450&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/297051/original/file-20191015-98640-hlhncu.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=566&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/297051/original/file-20191015-98640-hlhncu.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=566&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/297051/original/file-20191015-98640-hlhncu.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=566&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px">
<figcaption>
<span class="caption">This is a backscattered electron microscope image of historical slag collected from a Rio Tinto mine in Spain.</span>
<span class="attribution"><span class="source">Image collected by Anita Parbhakar-Fox at the University of Tasmania (UTAS)</span></span>
</figcaption>
</figure>
<p>Once cooled, the textural and mineralogical similarities between lava and slag are crystal-clear. </p>
<p>Micro-scale inspection shows human-made minerals in slag have a unique ability to accommodate metals into their crystal lattice that would not be possible in nature.</p>
<p>This means metal recovery from mine waste (a potential secondary resource) could be an effective way to supplement society’s growing metal demands. The challenge lies in developing processes which are cost effective.</p>
<hr>
<p>
<em>
<strong>
Read more:
<a href="https://theconversation.com/wealth-in-waste-using-industrial-leftovers-to-offset-climate-emissions-49249">Wealth in waste? Using industrial leftovers to offset climate emissions</a>
</strong>
</em>
</p>
<hr>
<h2>Ethically-sourced jewellery</h2>
<p>Our increasing knowledge on how to manufacture minerals may also have a major impact on the growing synthetic <a href="https://lightboxjewelry.com/">gem manufacturing industry</a>.</p>
<p>In 2010, the world was awestruck by the engagement ring given to Duchess of Cambridge Kate Middleton, valued at about <a href="https://news.thediamondstore.co.uk/facts-kate-middletons-engagement-ring/">£300,000</a> (AUD$558,429).</p>
<p>The ring has a 12-carat blue sapphire, surrounded by 14 solitaire diamonds, with a setting made from 18-carat white gold.</p>
<p>Replicas of it have been acquired by people across the globe, but for only a fraction of the price. How?</p>
<p>In 1837, Marc Antoine Gardin demonstrated that sapphires (mineralogically known as corundum or aluminium oxide) can be replicated by reacting metals with other substances such as chromium or boric acid. This produces a range of seemingly identical coloured stones. </p>
<p>On close examination, some properties may vary such as the presence of flaws and air bubbles and the stone’s hardness. But only a gemologist or gem enthusiast would likely notice this.</p>
<p>Diamonds can also be <a href="https://www.nytimes.com/2018/05/29/business/synthetic-diamond-production.html">synthetically made</a>, through either a high pressure, high temperature, or chemical vapour deposition process.</p>
<figure class="align-center ">
<img alt="" src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/297118/original/file-20191015-98648-x3d02t.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/297118/original/file-20191015-98648-x3d02t.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=466&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/297118/original/file-20191015-98648-x3d02t.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=466&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/297118/original/file-20191015-98648-x3d02t.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=466&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/297118/original/file-20191015-98648-x3d02t.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=586&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/297118/original/file-20191015-98648-x3d02t.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=586&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/297118/original/file-20191015-98648-x3d02t.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=586&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px">
<figcaption>
<span class="caption">Synthetic diamonds have essentially the same chemical composition, crystal structure and physical properties as natural diamonds.</span>
<span class="attribution"><span class="source">Instytut Fizyki Uniwersytet Kazimierza Wielkiego</span></span>
</figcaption>
</figure>
<p>Creating synthetic gems is increasingly important as natural stones are becoming more difficult and expensive to source. In some countries, the rights of miners are also violated and this poses <a href="https://www.hrw.org/report/2018/02/08/hidden-cost-jewelry/human-rights-supply-chains-and-responsibility-jewelry">ethical concerns</a>. </p>
<h2>Medical and industrial applications</h2>
<p>Synthetic gems have industrial applications too. They can be used in window manufacturing, semi-conducting circuits and cutting tools. </p>
<p>One example of an entirely manufactured mineral is something called yttrium aluminum garnet (or YAG) which can be used as a <a href="https://www.sciencedirect.com/topics/medicine-and-dentistry/ndyag-laser">laser</a>.</p>
<p>In medicine, these lasers are used to correct glaucoma. In dental surgery, they allow soft gum and tissues to be cut away. </p>
<p>The move to develop new minerals will also support technologies enabling deep space exploration through the creation of <a href="https://narang.seas.harvard.edu/quantum-materials">‘quantum materials’</a>. </p>
<p>Quantum materials have unique properties and will help us create a new generation of electronic products, which could have a significant impact on space travel technologies. Maybe this will allow us to one day visit the birthplace of Edscottite?</p>
<hr>
<p>
<em>
<strong>
Read more:
<a href="https://theconversation.com/how-quantum-materials-may-soon-make-star-trek-technology-reality-86378">How quantum materials may soon make Star Trek technology reality</a>
</strong>
</em>
</p>
<hr>
<p>In decades to come, the number of human-made minerals is <a href="http://blogs.discovermagazine.com/d-brief/2017/03/03/man-made-minerals-human-epoch/#.XaU045Mzai4">set to increase</a>. And as it does, so too does the opportunity to find new uses for them.</p>
<p>By expanding our ability to manufacture minerals, we could reduce pressure on existing resources and find new ways to tackle global challenges.</p><img src="https://counter.theconversation.com/content/123853/count.gif" alt="The Conversation" width="1" height="1" />
<p class="fine-print"><em><span>The authors do not work for, consult, own shares in or receive funding from any company or organisation that would benefit from this article, and have disclosed no relevant affiliations beyond their academic appointment.</span></em></p>Manufacturing minerals is an expanding field of study. Making more of them could help alleviate various pressures faced by our growing population. But how are they made, and where can they be used?Anita Parbhakar-Fox, Senior Research Fellow in Geometallurgy/Applied Geochemistry, The University of QueenslandPaul Gow, Principal Research Fellow, The University of QueenslandLicensed as Creative Commons – attribution, no derivatives.tag:theconversation.com,2011:article/1242522019-09-27T23:43:43Z2019-09-27T23:43:43ZGreta Thunberg’s radical climate change fairy tale is exactly the story we need<figure><img src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/294621/original/file-20190927-185399-1ie4751.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&rect=0%2C0%2C4687%2C2986&q=45&auto=format&w=496&fit=clip" /><figcaption><span class="caption">Swedish activist and student Greta Thunberg, centre, takes part in the Climate Strike in Montreal on Friday, Sept. 27, 2019.</span> <span class="attribution"><span class="source">THE CANADIAN PRESS/Paul Chiasson</span></span></figcaption></figure><p>It has been just over a year since 16-year-old Greta Thunberg started her “school strike for climate” outside the Swedish parliament in Stockholm. Since then, she has spoken to increasingly large crowds — including most recently in Montréal. </p>
<p>But there are many reasons why people are still talking about Thunberg’s Sept. 23 <a href="https://www.npr.org/2019/09/23/763452863/transcript-greta-thunbergs-speech-at-the-u-n-climate-action-summit">speech at the United Nations Climate Action Summit</a>. She spoke with knowledge, clarity and passion well beyond her years. </p>
<p>What I find especially significant about the talk is her inclusion of a critique of economic growth in the climate change story frame. “We are in the beginning of mass extinction, and all you can talk about is money and fairy tales of eternal economic growth,” Thunberg said.</p>
<p>Scholars and activists share Thunberg’s concerns about the current system of endless economic growth. For example, Prof. David Barash powerfully equates endless growth to a Ponzi scheme. It is a system, he says, “<a href="https://www.chronicle.com/article/We-Are-All-Madoffs/48182">predicated on the illusion that it will always be possible to make future payments owing to yet more exploitation down the road</a>.” </p>
<p>Economist Juliet Schor similarly warns about the resource depletion implications for economic growth. She highlights that endless growth will lead to “<a href="https://www.goodreads.com/book/show/7258237-plenitude">blowback… which is now happening with the climate system, oceans and forests</a>.” </p>
<p>Prof. Thomas Homer-Dixon succinctly offers that “<a href="https://homerdixon.com/writing/books/the-upside-of-down/">it’s becoming increasingly clear that endless material growth is incompatible with the long-term viability of Earth’s environment</a>.” And writer Naomi Klein refers to the <a href="https://thischangeseverything.org/book/">“god of economic growth,” powerfully proposing that “our economic system and our planetary system are now at war.”</a> </p>
<h2>Where are the stories?</h2>
<p>Thoughtful and well-researched scholarship makes clear that economic growth and environmental crises are related. And yet non-academic writing linking endless growth economics and climate change is almost non-existent. </p>
<p>I have conducted a content analysis on the <a href="https://www.proquest.com/products-services/Canadian-Major-Dailies.html">Canadian Major Dailies</a> database. In the 12 months prior to Thunberg’s talk there were 850 newspaper articles (including opinion editorials and letters) with “climate change” in the headline. Of these, 372 — or 44 per cent — were related to the economy. And yet only one letter to the editor raised concerns about economic growth in the era of climate change. </p>
<p>This is what makes Thunberg’s mention of “fairy tales of eternal economic growth” so remarkable — she put economic growth and climate change into the same frame.</p>
<p>It is easy to think that economic growth is essential — that we have always had growth at the core of economic policy. But scholars point out that this is not the case. Bill McKibben and Peter Victor point out that our “<a href="http://billmckibben.com/deep-economy.html">fixation</a>” on economic growth as an “<a href="https://link.springer.com/article/10.1007/s10669-010-9290-9">explicit object of government policy</a>” began in the mid-20th century. </p>
<p>And in those 50 years, McKibben highlights that economic growth has not only devastated the planet, <a href="http://billmckibben.com/deep-economy.html">but also fostered inequity, insecurity and “is no longer making us happy.”</a></p>
<hr>
<p>
<em>
<strong>
Read more:
<a href="https://theconversation.com/the-counter-intuitive-solution-to-getting-people-to-care-about-climate-change-120136">The counter-intuitive solution to getting people to care about climate change</a>
</strong>
</em>
</p>
<hr>
<p>Cognitive scientist and linguist George Lakoff offers that “<a href="https://doi.org/10.1080/17524030903529749">all of our knowledge makes use of frames, and every word is defined through the frames it neurally activates. All thinking and talking involves frames </a>.”</p>
<p>In other words, we understand and act upon climate change based on what has been framed with the climate change stories we are told. </p>
<h2>Time to change the story frames</h2>
<p>The good news is that climate change stories can change. Not that long ago, <a href="https://www.cjc-online.ca/index.php/journal/article/view/2017/3107">there were few stories about climate change</a>. Today, the number has dramatically increased. </p>
<p>Until recently, <a href="https://www.thestar.com/opinion/commentary/2017/09/18/putting-hurricanes-and-climate-change-into-the-same-frame.html">there were not many stories that linked climate change to extreme weather events</a>. Increasingly, these stories are being told. </p>
<figure class="align-center ">
<img alt="" src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/294605/original/file-20190927-185364-1kmbn2.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&rect=91%2C141%2C5417%2C3375&q=45&auto=format&w=754&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/294605/original/file-20190927-185364-1kmbn2.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=400&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/294605/original/file-20190927-185364-1kmbn2.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=400&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/294605/original/file-20190927-185364-1kmbn2.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=400&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/294605/original/file-20190927-185364-1kmbn2.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=503&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/294605/original/file-20190927-185364-1kmbn2.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=503&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/294605/original/file-20190927-185364-1kmbn2.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=503&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px">
<figcaption>
<span class="caption">Climate change activist Greta Thunberg on the Malizia II boat off Plymouth, England, Wed. Aug. 14, 2019.</span>
<span class="attribution"><span class="source">AP Photo</span></span>
</figcaption>
</figure>
<p>Now it is time to question economics and foster discussions about the hard decisions and changes that need to be made. It is clear that we cannot simply consume differently — we must consume less. </p>
<p>Now it is time to frame climate change stories with eternal economic growth critiques. Now is the time for climate change frames that question whether a finite planet can sustain eternal growth. Now is the time for climate change frames to include voices like Klein’s, who proposes that “<a href="https://thischangeseverything.org/book/">the frenetic and indiscriminate consumption of essentially disposable products can no longer be the system’s goal</a>.” </p>
<p>And now is the time to be grateful for a 16-year-old who sailed across the ocean and dared to tell the world’s leaders that the fairy tale must end.</p>
<p>[ <em>You’re smart and curious about the world. So are The Conversation’s authors and editors.</em> <a href="https://theconversation.com/ca/newsletters?utm_source=TCCA&utm_medium=inline-link&utm_campaign=newsletter-text&utm_content=youresmart">You can read us daily by subscribing to our newsletter</a>. ]</p><img src="https://counter.theconversation.com/content/124252/count.gif" alt="The Conversation" width="1" height="1" />
<p class="fine-print"><em><span>Jennifer Ellen Good does not work for, consult, own shares in or receive funding from any company or organisation that would benefit from this article, and has disclosed no relevant affiliations beyond their academic appointment.</span></em></p>Economic growth and climate change are related. It is time to question the economics and foster discussions about the hard decisions we must make.Jennifer Ellen Good, Associate Professor Communication, Popular Culture and Film, Brock UniversityLicensed as Creative Commons – attribution, no derivatives.tag:theconversation.com,2011:article/1153512019-09-10T12:32:35Z2019-09-10T12:32:35ZHow giving legal rights to nature could help reduce toxic algae blooms in Lake Erie<figure><img src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/290569/original/file-20190902-175682-1eka9l7.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=496&fit=clip" /><figcaption><span class="caption">A severe blue-green algae bloom spreads across western Lake Erie on July 30, 2019.</span> <span class="attribution"><a class="source" href="https://earthobservatory.nasa.gov/images/145453/eerie-blooms-in-lake-erie">NASA Earth Observatory</a></span></figcaption></figure><p>August and September are <a href="https://www.wemu.org/post/issues-environment-2019-algae-bloom-lake-erie-massive">peak months</a> for harmful blooms of algae in western Lake Erie. This year’s outbreak covered <a href="https://weather.com/science/environment/news/2019-08-16-lake-erie-algal-bloom-space">more than 620 square miles</a> by mid-August. These blooms, which can <a href="https://www.epa.gov/nutrientpollution/harmful-algal-blooms">kill fish</a> and <a href="https://www.toledoblade.com/local/environment/2019/08/18/no-joke-your-pet-you-stay-away-from-algal-toxins-algae-dogs/stories/20190815194">pets</a> and <a href="https://www.michiganradio.org/post/toledo-works-restore-trust-its-water-after-2014-microcystin-scare">threaten public health</a>, are driven <a href="https://theconversation.com/how-your-diet-contributes-to-nutrient-pollution-and-dead-zones-in-lakes-and-bays-118902">mainly by agricultural pollution</a> and increasingly warm waters due to climate change.</p>
<p>Advocates are looking for new ways to combat this problem. On February 26, 2019, Toledo citizens passed the <a href="https://www.courtlistener.com/recap/gov.uscourts.ohnd.251736/gov.uscourts.ohnd.251736.1.1.pdf">Lake Erie Bill of Rights</a>, which gives the lake the right to “<a href="https://www.courtlistener.com/recap/gov.uscourts.ohnd.251736/gov.uscourts.ohnd.251736.1.1.pdf">exist, flourish, and naturally evolve</a>” and awards citizens the right to a “clean and healthy environment.” They join a <a href="https://celdf.org/rights/rights-of-nature/rights-nature-timeline/">growing movement</a> – referred to as “Rights of Nature” – providing legal personhood to natural entities.</p>
<figure class="align-center zoomable">
<a href="https://images.theconversation.com/files/290565/original/file-20190902-175682-hwcvu4.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=1000&fit=clip"><img alt="" src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/290565/original/file-20190902-175682-hwcvu4.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/290565/original/file-20190902-175682-hwcvu4.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=463&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/290565/original/file-20190902-175682-hwcvu4.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=463&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/290565/original/file-20190902-175682-hwcvu4.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=463&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/290565/original/file-20190902-175682-hwcvu4.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=582&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/290565/original/file-20190902-175682-hwcvu4.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=582&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/290565/original/file-20190902-175682-hwcvu4.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=582&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px"></a>
<figcaption>
<span class="caption">Lake Erie harmful algal bloom forecasts since 2002.</span>
<span class="attribution"><a class="source" href="https://www.noaa.gov/media-release/noaa-partners-predict-large-summer-harmful-algal-bloom-for-western-lake-erie">NOAA</a></span>
</figcaption>
</figure>
<p>In theory, this action could make it possible to hold corporations and governments liable for polluting the lake. But while the concept is finding support abroad, it faces hurdles in the U.S. The Lake Erie law was immediately <a href="https://nbc24.com/news/local/local-farmer-files-lawsuit-against-lake-erie-bill-of-rights">challenged in court</a> by an Ohio farm and <a href="https://www.farmanddairy.com/news/federal-judge-issues-injunction-on-lake-erie-bill-of-rights/543571.html">has yet to take effect</a>. </p>
<p>My work focuses on international and comparative law related to <a href="https://scholar.google.com/citations?user=QvxrJ8cAAAAJ&hl=en">environmental justice and human rights</a>. I recently <a href="https://www.nzherald.co.nz/premium/news/article.cfm?c_id=1504669&objectid=12224880">spent time</a> in New Zealand researching the impacts of a 2017 law giving the Whanganui River <a href="http://www.legislation.govt.nz/act/public/2017/0007/latest/whole.html">its own legal identity</a>. What I saw there convinced me that providing legal standing to a natural entity is a viable method of environmental protection. In my view, however, the processes that advocates use to enact Rights of Nature law critically influence whether these efforts will succeed. </p>
<h2>A new conservation strategy</h2>
<p>Rights of Nature laws generally are designed to improve environmental protection and encourage people to rethink their relationship to the environment. Instead of viewing nature as a commodity that exists for humans to use, and abuse, these statutes consider nature as important for its own sake. </p>
<p>Measures awarding legal status to nature have been adopted in Ecuador, Bolivia, Colombia, New Zealand and Bangladesh, and by several Native American nations, including the Ho Chunk and White Earth. <a href="https://celdf.org/2019/04/grant-township-owes-100k/">Other efforts</a> are underway across the country, including in <a href="http://indigenousagain.com/first-tribe-u-s-recognizes-rights-nature-law/">Oklahoma</a> and <a href="https://www.culturalsurvival.org/news/yurok-nation-just-established-rights-klamath-river">Oregon</a>.</p>
<figure class="align-right zoomable">
<a href="https://images.theconversation.com/files/290577/original/file-20190902-175705-7j8wxi.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=1000&fit=clip"><img alt="" src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/290577/original/file-20190902-175705-7j8wxi.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=237&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/290577/original/file-20190902-175705-7j8wxi.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=800&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/290577/original/file-20190902-175705-7j8wxi.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=800&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/290577/original/file-20190902-175705-7j8wxi.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=800&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/290577/original/file-20190902-175705-7j8wxi.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=1005&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/290577/original/file-20190902-175705-7j8wxi.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=1005&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/290577/original/file-20190902-175705-7j8wxi.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=1005&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px"></a>
<figcaption>
<span class="caption">Maumee Bay Brewing Co. in Toledo, Ohio is making green, murky beer to draw attention to Lake Erie’s algae problems.</span>
<span class="attribution"><a class="source" href="http://www.apimages.com/metadata/Index/Clean-Water-Breweries/b73e96902c804ea2bfd7c59332fff712/1/0">AP Photo/John Seewer</a></span>
</figcaption>
</figure>
<p>The Lake Erie Bill of Rights is the latest phase of citizen-led efforts to address <a href="https://www.nytimes.com/interactive/2017/10/03/science/earth/lake-erie.html">chronic nutrient pollution</a> and the resulting dangerous algae blooms. In 2018 <a href="https://www.facebook.com/ToledoansForSafeWater/">Toledoans for Safe Water</a> collected enough signatures for the Lake Erie Bill of Rights to appear on the ballot. </p>
<p><a href="https://www.toledoblade.com/local/environment/2018/12/20/lake-erie-bill-of-rights-headed-to-february-ballot/stories/20181220139">Local politicians</a> and farmers opposed the measure, but it passed with 61% of the vote, although <a href="https://radio.wosu.org/post/toledo-voters-approve-lake-erie-bill-rights">only 8.9% of eligible voters participated</a>. A day later, Drewes Farm Partnership of Ohio <a href="https://www.courtlistener.com/docket/14573310/drewes-farms-partnership-v-city-of-toledo-ohio/">filed a lawsuit</a> arguing that it was unconstitutional. While the city of Toledo has taken up defense of the Lake Erie Bill of Rights, the state of Ohio is <a href="https://www.agri-pulse.com/articles/12513-toledo-seeks-to-squash-state-involvement-in-lake-erie-lawsuit">siding with Drewes Farm</a>.</p>
<h2>Learning from Te Awa Tupua</h2>
<p>How effective are Rights of Nature laws elsewhere? One of the most detailed examples is the 2017 <a href="https://www.nzherald.co.nz/nz/news/article.cfm?c_id=1&objectid=11818858">Whanganui River Settlement Agreement</a>, which resulted from years of negotiations between the Maori and New Zealand’s government. Known by its Maori name, Te Awa Tupua, it recognizes legal personhood for the Whanganui, the country’s third-longest river. </p>
<figure class="align-center zoomable">
<a href="https://images.theconversation.com/files/290566/original/file-20190902-175673-14dtu7a.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=1000&fit=clip"><img alt="" src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/290566/original/file-20190902-175673-14dtu7a.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/290566/original/file-20190902-175673-14dtu7a.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=450&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/290566/original/file-20190902-175673-14dtu7a.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=450&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/290566/original/file-20190902-175673-14dtu7a.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=450&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/290566/original/file-20190902-175673-14dtu7a.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=566&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/290566/original/file-20190902-175673-14dtu7a.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=566&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/290566/original/file-20190902-175673-14dtu7a.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=566&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px"></a>
<figcaption>
<span class="caption">The Whanganui is a major river on the North Island of New Zealand.</span>
<span class="attribution"><span class="source">Dana Zartner</span>, <a class="license" href="http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nd/4.0/">CC BY-ND</a></span>
</figcaption>
</figure>
<p>The Whanganui has been an important source of food and transportation for centuries, and has great spiritual importance for the Maori, who view it as a <a href="http://www.ngatangatatiaki.co.nz/wp-content/uploads/2015/04/DocumentLibrary_WhanganuiRiverROU.pdf">living being</a>. Te Awa Tupua recognizes that the river possesses all the “rights, powers, duties, and liabilities of a legal person.” The Whanganui is represented by two Guardians, known as Te Pou Tupua, who are jointly appointed by the national government and local Maori.</p>
<p>Under the law, any activity that might affect the river must go through a consultation process and receive approval from Te Pou Tupua. One early test occurred in March 2019, when construction of a new bike bridge over the river was halted so that the <a href="https://www.nzherald.co.nz/climate-change/news/article.cfm?c_id=26&objectid=12212620">required consultations could take place</a>. Bigger issues will arise in the future, particularly in regards to renewal of concessions for energy companies diverting portions of the river for power generation. </p>
<figure>
<iframe width="440" height="260" src="https://www.youtube.com/embed/YQZxRSzxhLI?wmode=transparent&start=0" frameborder="0" allowfullscreen=""></iframe>
<figcaption><span class="caption">The local Maori tribe of Whanganui fought for recognition of their river as an ancestor for 140 years.</span></figcaption>
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<h2>Lake Erie and the law</h2>
<p>Unlike Te Awa Tupua, the Lake Erie law does not include much detail regarding its requirements or specific mechanisms to guide implementation. Ultimately courts may strike the measure down based on these omissions and potential conflicts with state and federal regulations.</p>
<p>Lake Erie is governed by <a href="https://www.ijc.org/en/boundary-waters-treaty-1909">treaty law</a> between the U.S. and Canada, so the Drewes Farm lawsuit asserts that the Bill of Rights infringes upon U.S. government authority. Similarly, because the lake touches four U.S. states, the lawsuit argues that any new law related to Lake Erie should be adopted by states, not individual cities. </p>
<p>Drewes Farm also claims that the Bill of Rights violates its 14th Amendment <a href="https://www.courthousenews.com/wp-content/uploads/2019/02/DrewesErie.pdf">rights to equal protection</a>, since the law mentions only corporations and governments, and conflicts with Fifth Amendment prohibitions on <a href="https://www.law.cornell.edu/wex/vagueness_doctrine">law that is too vague</a>.</p>
<p>On July 22, 2019, Ohio Gov. Mike DeWine signed a budget bill which includes a provision stating that “<a href="https://celdf.org/2019/07/lake-erie-advocates-media-statement-ohio-legislature-attacks-rights-of-nature-protects-polluters-in-budget-bill/">Nature or any ecosystem does not have standing</a> to participate in or bring an action in any court.” The bill creates a new fund called <a href="http://h2.ohio.gov/">H2Ohio</a>, purportedly to provide US$172 million to address pollution in Lake Erie, but critics <a href="https://nbc24.com/news/local/new-state-budget-may-end-lake-erie-bill-of-rights">want more proactive measures</a>.</p>
<h2>Making Rights of Nature work</h2>
<p>In my view, challenges to the Lake Erie Bill of Rights are not surprising. Within the U.S. environmental regulatory framework, which vests authority mainly with federal and state agencies and is affected by the influence that corporate interests assert in the American political system, protecting the environment by awarding legal personhood to nature will be an uphill battle.</p>
<p>But I believe that it is still worth trying, and that passage of the Lake Erie Bill of Rights is significant, even if it is ultimately struck down. <a href="http://www.cc.com/video-clips/dh6i82/the-daily-show-with-trevor-noah-the-fight-to-turn-lake-erie-into-a-person">Widespread coverage of the issue</a> has already increased awareness of the idea of legal personhood for nature in the U.S. </p>
<p>I see learning from the negotiation and implementation of more developed Rights of Nature laws like Te Awa Tupua as the next step. As measures like this become more common, a new view of our relationship to nature may develop. I expect that recognizing the legal standing of natural entities will become a significant legal tool in the fight for better environmental protections, including addressing toxic algae blooms in Lake Erie.</p>
<p>[ <em>You’re smart and curious about the world. So are The Conversation’s authors and editors.</em> <a href="https://theconversation.com/us/newsletters?utm_source=TCUS&utm_medium=inline-link&utm_campaign=newsletter-text&utm_content=youresmart">You can read us daily by subscribing to our newsletter</a>. ]</p><img src="https://counter.theconversation.com/content/115351/count.gif" alt="The Conversation" width="1" height="1" />
<p class="fine-print"><em><span>Dana Zartner has volunteered for the Community Environmental Legal Defense Fund, an organization which, among other things, does work on rights of nature issues, including in the case of Lake Erie. The volunteering has been limited to writing legal memos for the organization summarizing other countries' legal systems. None of the work has pertained to rights of nature campaigns in the U.S.</span></em></p>Should lakes, rivers and other resources have legal rights? New Zealand, Ecuador and other countries have taken this step. Now Toledo, Ohio is a US test case.Dana Zartner, Associate Professor, International Studies Department; Adjunct Professor, School of Law, University of San FranciscoLicensed as Creative Commons – attribution, no derivatives.