Justice, Society and Nature: an Exploration of Political Ecology

JUSTICE, SOCIETY AND NATURE Environmental justice is about the fair distribution of good and bad environments to humans. Ecological justice is about fair distribution of environments among all the inhabitants of the planet. To speak of ‘environmental’ or ‘ecological’ justice means to recognise the value that an environment has for all creatures. An environment is comprised not only of people, but also nonhuman nature in all its abundance and diversity: animals and plants, landscapes and ecologies. An environment is not divisible like property but is fundamentally shared. Bad environments are dead, disintegrated, damaging to health. Good environments are alive, healthy and integrated. Justice, Society and Nature examines the moral response which the world must now make to the ecological crisis if there is to be real change in the global society and economy to favour ecological integrity. From its base in the idea of the self, through principles of political justice to the justice of global institutions, the authors trace the layered structure of the philosophy of justice as it applies to environmental and ecological issues. Moving straight to the heart of pressing international and national concerns, the authors explore the issues of environment and development, fair treatment of humans and non-humans, and the justice of the social and economic systems which affect the health and safety of the peoples of the world. Current grassroots concerns such as the environmental justice movement in the USA, and the ethics of the international regulation of development are examined in depth. This book is essential for those seeking to understand current debates in environmental politics, justice and ecology. The authors take the debates beyond mere complaint about the injustice of the world economy, and suggest what should now be done to do justice to nature. Nicholas Low is a Senior Lecturer in the Faculty of Architecture, Building and Planning at the University of Melbourne. Brendan Gleeson is a Research Fellow at the Australian National University, Urban Research Program. JUSTICE, SOCIETY AND NATURE An exploration of political ecology Nicholas Low and Brendan Gleeson London and New York First published 1998 by Routledge 11 New Fetter Lane, London EC4P 4EE This edition published in the Taylor & Francis e-Library, 2002. Simultaneously published in the USA and Canada by Routledge 29 West 35th Street, New York, NY 10001 © 1998 Nicholas Low and Brendan Gleeson The right of Nicholas Low and Brendan Gleeson to be identified as the Authors of this Work has been asserted by them in accordance with the Copyright, Designs and Patents Act 1988 All rights reserved. No part of this book may be reprinted or reproduced or utilised in any form or by any electronic, mechanical, or other means, now known or hereafter invented, including photocopying and recording, or in any information storage or retrieval system, without permission in writing from the publishers. British Library Cataloguing in Publication Data A catalogue record for this book is available from the British Library Library of Congress Cataloguing in Publication Data A catalogue record for this book has been requested ISBN 0-203-00668-2 Master e-book ISBN ISBN 0-203-22210-5 (Adobe eReader Format) ISBN 0-415-14516-3 (hbk) ISBN 0-415-14517-1 (pbk) In memory of Stuart Low, a fellow traveller, and for Ulrike CONTENTS List of figures ix Acknowledgements xi 1 JUSTICE IN AND TO THE ENVIRONMENT 1 Introduction 1 Situating justice 2 Sustainable development, environmental risk and ecological modernisation 12 The dialectic of justice, society and nature 21 Conclusion 27 2 DISAPPEARING JUSTICE? 29 Introduction 29 The disappearance of ethics 30 The disappearance of justice 39 Rationality and justice 46 Conclusion 48 3 BASES OF JUSTICE 49 Introduction 49 Justice and desert 50 Justice, rights and citizenship 54 Justice and needs 62 Self, culture and others 67 Conclusion 70 4 POLITICAL JUSTICE 72 Introduction 72 Utilitarianism 73 Entitlement 79 Contractarianism 84 Communitarianism 90 Discourse ethics 92 Political justice and environmental conflict 97 Conclusion 100 CONTENTS 5 ENVIRONMENTAL JUSTICE: DISTRIBUTING ENVIRONMENTAL QUALITY 102 Introduction 102 Justice within national environments 104 Distributional politics—utilitarian solutions 114 Justice within the global environment 120 The waste trade 127 Conclusion 130 6 ECOLOGICAL JUSTICE: RETHINKING THE BASES 133 Introduction 133 Extending the self-picture 134 Expanding the moral environment 137 Expanding the social environment 141 Expanding the self 148 Rethinking the bases of justice 155 Conclusion 157 7 JUSTICE AND NATURE: NEW CONSTITUTIONS? 159 Introduction 159 The international political economy as a system of production 160 The international political economy as a system of governance 175 Two critiques of a global constitution 185 First steps to a world constitution for environmental and ecological justice 189 Conclusion 193 8 THE DIALECTIC OF JUSTICE AND NATURE 195 Introduction 195 The dialectic of justice and nature 195 The second level of political justice 199 The praxis of the second level 205 The future of the dialectic 209 Conclusion 212 Bibliography 214 Name Index 231 Subject Index 236 viii FIGURES 1.1 French nuclear tests: inside Mururoa Atoll 6 1.2 The Ok Tedi mine, Western Province, Papua New Guinea 8 1.3 Pastor Maun Tepki with his people at Bige on the Ok Tedi river 9 1.4 Woodchipping near Daylesford, Victoria, Australia 14 1.5 Plantation timber—BobBaxter of Karadoc winery walks through fast-growing gum trees 15 1.6 The Australian Prime Minister reissues licences to export woodchips from old growth forests 16 4.1 An aboriginal family at the time of the occupation of ‘New Holland’ by the British 83 5.1 Principles of environmental justice adopted by the First National People of Color Environmental Leadership Summit 109–10 8.1 Long-term (1990–2500) projection of global sea level rise under an extended emission scenario to 2100 (IS92a), with a limited decrease in greenhouse gas emissions to zero by the year 2200 211 ix ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS The authors wish to acknowledge the sources of inspiration, support and intellectual challenge for this book. Of course the book seeks to make a small contribution to a tradition of scholarship from which the authors draw much of their understanding of the issues and whose scope is indicated in the Bibliography. But there were many other helpers. Tristan Palmer, then with Routledge, was the first to encourage the preparation of the book. Subsequent planning with Brendan Gleeson took place during a visit by Nicholas Low to the Department of Geography and Planning at the University of Otago at the invitation of Ali Memon, with whom the authors carried out some exciting preliminary brainstorming. Sarah Lloyd, our editor at Routledge, has always given encouragement and useful suggestions. Referees Ian Simmons and David Pepper provided most valuable advice on the structure and detail of the text in the later stages of the book. Nicholas would like to acknowledge the support given by the Faculty of Architecture, Building and Planning at the University of Melbourne, especially its Dean, Ross King. The Faculty provided funds to travel to the Universities of Örebro and Umeå in Sweden where Nicholas spent time working on this book in fruitful discussion with Ingemar Elander at Örebro and Abdul Khakee at Umeå. Brendan Gleeson wishes to acknowledge the support given by the Geography Department of the University of Otago and Professor Ali Memon, also by the Urban Research Program at the Australian National University and Professor Pat Troy. Thanks go also to our families who were always supportive and inspirational, especially, of course, our partners Elizabeth Low and Ulrike Gleeson. Nicholas would also like to thank his daughters Vinca Low, a student of both political ecology and classics, who found the epigraph for the book by the Roman poet Seneca, Jennifer Low for lively conversation and Ciannait Low, an environmentalist, for her love and support at the time of the tragic death of Nicholas’s son Stuart. xi My greatest pleasure was to scan the sky, That noblest work of the great architect Of infinite creation, Mother Nature, Marking the motions of the universe, The passage of the chariot of the sun, The night’s recurring phases, and the moon’s Bright orb encircled by the wandering stars, The vast effulgence of the shining heavens. Is all this glory doomed to age with time And perish in blind chaos? Then must come Once more upon the world a day of death, When skies must fall and our unworthy race Be blotted out, until a brighter dawn Bring in a new and better generation Like that which walked upon a younger world When Saturn was the ruler of the sky. That was the age when the most potent goddess, Justice, sent down from heaven with Faith divine, Governed the human race in gentleness. SENECA (From Octavia in Four Tragedies, translated by E.F.Watling, Penguin Books, London, 1966, pp. 271–273 Octavia, lines 385–404) xiii 1 JUSTICE IN AND TO THE ENVIRONMENT Never allow yourself to be swept off your feet; when an impulse stirs, see first that it will meet the claims of justice. (Marcus Aurelius, Meditations) INTRODUCTION Justice is no mere abstraction. Finding justice and doing justice is a continuous human task. It is the activity which in any society gives politics and the law their purpose. The activity has both a material and a discursive dimension. It has to do with what we are, what we do and what we say. What we are and do is materially real. How we relate to others is discursively real, a matter of communicated explanations via words. The struggle for justice is about how we explain the basis of a good and proper relationship between ourselves and others.

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