Implications of the New Pipeline Debates for Environmental Justice in Canada Dayna Nadine Scott
Document generated on 09/30/2021 2:10 a.m. Revue générale de droit The Networked Infrastructure of Fossil Capitalism: Implications of the New Pipeline Debates for Environmental Justice in Canada Dayna Nadine Scott Justice environnementale et droits humains : comprendre les Article abstract tensions et explorer les possibilités A read of the critical geography literature on the concept of “networked Environmental Justice and Human Rights: Investigating the Tensions, infrastructures” generates two arguments in relation to the environmental Exploring the Possibilities justice implications of the new pipeline debates. First, the proposed Volume 43, Special Issue, 2013 coast-to-coast pipeline is likely to exacerbate existing environmental inequities in Canada. Conceiving of the crude oil in a pipeline as a material flow of URI: https://id.erudit.org/iderudit/1021210ar commodified nature demonstrates that, at the end of the pipe, inputs of labour, technology and capital are required to convert the crude into useable forms of DOI: https://doi.org/10.7202/1021210ar energy. This leads to a serious engagement with the communities at the ends of the proposed pipes. Here, I illustrate the type of analysis that is required with a See table of contents preliminary examination of the expected environmental health impacts from increased refinery emissions in Sarnia, Montréal and Saint John. Second, the notion that pipelines, despite their vital effects, are fixed and durable Publisher(s) installations of built infrastructure—lending a marked inertia to the routes they cement—produces intergenerational equity concerns in relation to fossil Éditions Wilson & Lafleur, inc. capitalism. These concerns are brought powerfully to the fore by activists under the banner of Idle No More.
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