Environmental Issues

joshua

What environmental issue is important to you? Why? What can you tell us about it?

cara

I am hoping to write on something ocean related, particularly overexploitation of fishing resources and farmed fishing, marine pollution, or ocean acidification/coral bleaching. All of these environmental issues are important to me because I care deeply about the health of our oceans and have witnessed changes in our ocean's landscapes first hand from growing up near the Pacific Ocean. I haven't narrowed the topics down yet but I know the most on overfishing/aquaculture which have both been environmentally disastrous at times as well as sustainable alternatives to the other at times. While traditional ocean fishing has been around for centuries and commercial fishing has been around long enough to be somewhat adapted to changes in the marine ecosystems through legislation and personal initiative, aquaculture is a relatively new endeavor. Aquaculture has the potential to be a sustainable alternative to the overexploitation we have seen at the hands of ineffective quotas placed on commercial fishing and destructive commercial fishing methods. However aquaculture is not without its own pitfalls. Farmed fishing's novelty seems, to me, to put legislative action one step behind the subject. Environmental destruction has been a huge impact of farmed fishing. I am familiar with a few NGOs which are established to protect our ocean's ecosystems and think they could be a great source of information. While I know more off the bat on overfishing and aquaculture, I am equally interested in marine pollution and ocean acidification and am more than open to any ocean related topics you might suggest.

Julieta

In recent years, but dating back to the start of industrialization, the environmental issues regarding water and land pollution have become of high interest to me, mostly because of the direct repercussions in the public health of local people. Here in Uruguay, since 2002 we have European investors in pulp mills which have created great disputes within the Uruguayan population and also with our neighbouring countries of Argentina and Brazil due to water pollution in the Uruguay river which is the natural border between these countries. On 2019, another (really badly and poorly) agreement was signed with UPM a pulp mill company from Finland, which included deforestation and water waste, but also an incredible economic inversions from the government and poor divisions of profit which included the construction of a whole rail system by the country to be only used by UPM.
Similarly, Argentina (as many other countries in Latin America) had for the last year been in continuous legal work against Shell because of the water and land pollution that has created mostly in the Patagonia. It has been already scientifically proved that the high levels of contaminants are creating health problems within the people living in Añelo in the province of Neuquén.
I have seen the realities of these issues with my own eyes, which makes them personally relevant for me, but also I have experienced the social consequences that these environmental issues bring with them. Politically, borders have been actively closed by protesters, the government has excused the lost of money and even crisis on the protests within the company, and recently, I have seen how the left party (in which I militated for years) has agreed to capitalists and imperlist agreements in the name of development even when putting people's health at risk.
Similarly, communities in my neighbouring country, are suffering severe health conditions for oil that we consume and buy regularly while out mainstream society is completely unaware of it because they are populations that have been economically, socially and politically marginalized.
Comes with no surprise then that even within different production companies, industrialization has a huge colonizing aspect in which “developed” nations exploit natural resources, creates health problems in the local population, profit from labour exploitation, and find allies within government officials. Also, there is a common characteristic in which these companies open schools and educational centers, (The School of Finland is an example in Uruguay), in which they try to form workers to do the best job they can. Another characteristic colonization also had.

caroline22

My plan is to write about water pollution. I will be looking more specifically at the Amazon Rainforest in Ecuador. This topic is really interesting to me because of the specific connection between the water pollution and indiginous people of the area. I just finished an archaeology course with Scott Ingram in which indiginous peoples rights were a main focus and it really opened my eyes to some incredibly unjust and racist events still occuring. In the Amazon, the oil companies are mistreating the native's and there is a very interesting social component of the water pollution issue there. In addition, the meer exploitation of the land, mostly through oil extraction, causes a wide range of enviornmental issues in and of itself. The group I will be mainly researching is the organization "Amazon Frontlines." They're a group of human rights lawyers, environmental activists, forestry specialists, environmental health scientists, filmmakers, journalists, anthropologists, and farmers that live and work in the Western Amazon. Especially important is their collaboration with a second advocacy group called the "Ceibo Alliance" which is an indegenous led organization "building a movement in defense of their rights to land, life and cultural survival." I have never really looked much into water pollution so I am very excited to learn more!

a_hipp

For my final essay, I would like to write about something that bridged my love of anthropology and animals and found the perfect combination when looking at the resources page. There I read more about a genuinely heartbreaking issue: de-finning sharks and throwing them back in the sea to die. I have grown up seeing many nature documentaries and have been fascinated by sharks and rays for a long time now, even getting the chance to swim with them on occasion. Sharks often get a bad reputation for their predatory status, but they are amazing creatures that help balance out the reef and deep-sea ecosystems. I have come across finning before but not in the context of the Americas or in-depth. In high school, I researched traditional Asian medicine and ocean life folklore for an oceanography class. It was interesting as an anthropologist to delve into the human-animal connections that have been long-standing, as shown through early artwork and lore. The contrast of veneration of some aquatic animals with fishing industries such as whaling and finning is shocking, primarily how the fishing of certain animals feeds into markets for traditional medicine. During my research, I watched many videos of people sneaking into processing facilities illegally with video cameras to record some of the horrors of the fin trade. The use of fins, and more specifically, the gills of other sea creatures like manta rays in traditional medicine, is equally fascinating and frustrating to me. I appreciate the importance given to these animals and the belief instilled in their use for traditional medicine. Yet, I wonder at what cost to these animals can this cultural practice remain? After all, many of the fins go towards shark fin soup, which is now a commercialized (and arguably less sacred/culturally relevant) restaurant dish. I would like to focus on the 'Aleteo' (finning) going on in Costa Rica, as reported by ejatlas.org, because of the publicity and geographic location being relevant to the class and yielding lots of information. I have also not considered the viewpoint of the exporting shark fin countries in this discourse, which is essential to do. Already there are interesting loopholes I have found being utilized by private-port fishermen and changing policies at the governmental level.