As if on cue, the New York Times published two articles the day before and the day of my MLK-inspired post. One describes the growing black market trade in fish that are caught off the African coast and sold primarily in Europe. Depleted fisheries in European waters have opened markets for fish caught overseas, but often in places where fisheries are themselves in dire straits, where fishing practices are destructive and unregulated, and where the effects of large industrial fleets compromise what could be sustainable, small-scale fisheries by coastal communities. These fisheries are prosecuted to some extent by vessels from the countries that own the resources, but more and more the harvest is taken by Chinese and European boats. This means that any economic benefit derived from these mismanaged or unmanaged fisheries does not remain in the typically impoverished countries from which the resources originate.
Not only does this illegal trade compromise the economies, communities and natural resources of Africa nations, it also is leading to illegal immigration problems for Europe itself. Deprived of their fishing livelihoods, increasing numbers of migrants from North African nations are leaving for Europe, often to take up jobs on the same heavily subsidized vessels that sail from European ports to catch African fish and bring them back for the dinner tables of Spain, Italy, France, etc. Those Africans that remain in Ghana, Nigeria, Senegal and elsewhere are not only unable to earn a living off fishing, but they are also deprived of a healthy and inexpensive protein source.
This has brought the United States into the picture to some extent, with exports of Atlantic herring to Nigeria growing since the mid-1990s. Herring are small, low-value fish, typically sold as bait for lobster traps or to be processed into fish meal for aquaculture or livestock feed. With higher value fish products leaving African waters in the hands of foreign vessels, herring seemingly is one of the few protein sources that is affordable. Nigerians must therefore pay American fishermen for fish while earning little or nothing off of their own fish that go overseas and line the pockets of foreigners. The inefficiency and greenhouse gas emissions required to move these fish so far from where they are caught to where they are consumed only exacerbates the environmental costs.
Coastal fisheries in Nigeria, which are small-scale and operated by locals, also suffer from petroleum pollution caused by large international companies extracting oil for use overseas and again with little to no local benefit.
This web of fisheries imports and exports, emigration/immigration, climate change and petroleum pollution is increasingly typical of complex environmental, social, economic and political interactions that entangle the globe. Sadly, it seems that often the nations causing the damage and those suffering the greatest effects are not the same. Not surprisingly, the sources of the problems often lie in wealthy, northern developed nations while the victims lie in the developing world. As nations like the United States continue to make progress in managing environmental problems on local, regional or even national scales, our greatest challenges will lie in expanding environmental management to an international and global scale.
Sunday, January 27, 2008
Tuesday, January 15, 2008
Black, White and Green
I write my first post of 2008 on the eve of my own birthday, but reflecting on the far more important birthday occurring today. Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr is one of the most singularly courageous, visionary and inspirational men in history, and would have celebrated his 79th birthday on this day had he not been taken from us by the hand of cowardice, hatred and ignorance. The civil rights battle is far from over in the United States – indeed, one need look no further than our failure to give gay American the same rights as others – but I think Dr. King would see progress in the decades since his work and his untimely death. The fact that the leading Democratic Presidential candidate is a black man says something positive about where we are now.
Another important development since Dr. King’s death has been the fusion of civil rights with environmentalism in the environmental justice movement. Although its roots go back to Thoreau, Teddy, Muir and Leopold (actually, it really goes back to the tribes that peopled the country before colonization), the environmental movement hit an upward inflection point shortly after Dr. King’s death in the late 60s and early 70s. The environmental justice movement has been a more recent evolution. Briefly, the concept of environmental justice argues that environmental impacts should not be felt disproportionately by minorities, low income communities, or other socio-economically disenfranchised components of society. The crusade of Erin Brockovich, made famous in the film starring Julia Roberts, was in essence an EJ fight. And many consequences of global climate change will be disproportionately felt by the poor and minorities. The devastation Hurricane Katrina imposed upon the poor, black districts of New Orleans was a recent and poignant example (note: while no storm is solely a result of climate change, there is little doubt that our warming planet is causing or will soon cause stronger and more frequent big storms like Katrina, and its impacts were exacerbated by loss of coastal wetlands that would have buffered some of the large waves).
Yesterday, one day before Dr. King’s birthday, the bombing of the Serena Hotel in Kabul stood in stark contrast to his message of hope and peace. Like too many Americans, I have embarrassingly become somewhat numbed to the continued violence in the Middle East. But I took notice of this incident because a friend that I admire greatly was in the hotel during the attack, and narrowly escaped with her life. She works on women’s rights in Afghanistan, and amazingly will continue to do so after the horrors she faced. Like the days and weeks following 9/11, moments like this cause me to re-think my own field in a larger, or at least different, context. And I am certainly not the first to do so. In parallel with the advent of the EJ movement, has been the growth of a related but distinct field that examines the implications of environmental degradation for global security and stability. In many cases it is clear that water shortages, desertification, devastating storms, decreased agricultural productivity, depleted fisheries, and other environmental problems can result in social problems ranging from unemployment to outright war.
Environmental justice and the intersection of environmental protection and global stability have not been prominent themes in the 19 posts preceding this one (although they have not been completely absent). But I will strive to pick up these important topics more in 2008 and beyond.
Another important development since Dr. King’s death has been the fusion of civil rights with environmentalism in the environmental justice movement. Although its roots go back to Thoreau, Teddy, Muir and Leopold (actually, it really goes back to the tribes that peopled the country before colonization), the environmental movement hit an upward inflection point shortly after Dr. King’s death in the late 60s and early 70s. The environmental justice movement has been a more recent evolution. Briefly, the concept of environmental justice argues that environmental impacts should not be felt disproportionately by minorities, low income communities, or other socio-economically disenfranchised components of society. The crusade of Erin Brockovich, made famous in the film starring Julia Roberts, was in essence an EJ fight. And many consequences of global climate change will be disproportionately felt by the poor and minorities. The devastation Hurricane Katrina imposed upon the poor, black districts of New Orleans was a recent and poignant example (note: while no storm is solely a result of climate change, there is little doubt that our warming planet is causing or will soon cause stronger and more frequent big storms like Katrina, and its impacts were exacerbated by loss of coastal wetlands that would have buffered some of the large waves).
Yesterday, one day before Dr. King’s birthday, the bombing of the Serena Hotel in Kabul stood in stark contrast to his message of hope and peace. Like too many Americans, I have embarrassingly become somewhat numbed to the continued violence in the Middle East. But I took notice of this incident because a friend that I admire greatly was in the hotel during the attack, and narrowly escaped with her life. She works on women’s rights in Afghanistan, and amazingly will continue to do so after the horrors she faced. Like the days and weeks following 9/11, moments like this cause me to re-think my own field in a larger, or at least different, context. And I am certainly not the first to do so. In parallel with the advent of the EJ movement, has been the growth of a related but distinct field that examines the implications of environmental degradation for global security and stability. In many cases it is clear that water shortages, desertification, devastating storms, decreased agricultural productivity, depleted fisheries, and other environmental problems can result in social problems ranging from unemployment to outright war.
Environmental justice and the intersection of environmental protection and global stability have not been prominent themes in the 19 posts preceding this one (although they have not been completely absent). But I will strive to pick up these important topics more in 2008 and beyond.
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