Environmental justice: For some risk is a choice, others not so much
There is a vortex, something like an irresistible slope, where those who get close to the edge fall into harm’s way. Who are they and what got them close enough to the slope’s edge to fall? Imagine an approach to the slope lined with “gatekeepers” who when properly bribed, provide transportation far away from the edge. That is, social systems could thought of as being constructed in such a way that those rich and powerful will provide the payola necessary for the bribes to live much more safe from harm than others.
Social systems protecting the rich and powerful are constructed in a variety of ways. Some are explicit, such as laws crafted by corrupt politicians that give preferential treatment to the wealthy. Others are implicit, such as the ways in which some value wealth and status over other things, most importantly, justice. Those inequitably exposed to harm are not fully to blame for their situation. Instead, they are more often victims of a system designed to keep them in their circumstance.
Lots of folks back East, they say, is leavin' home every day
Beatin' the hot old dusty way to the California line
'Cross the desert sands they roll, gettin' out of that old dust bowl
They think they're goin' to a sugar bowl, but here's what they find
Now, the police at the port of entry say
"You're number fourteen thousand for today"Oh, if you ain't got the do re mi, folks, you ain't got the do re mi
Why, you better go back to beautiful Texas, Oklahoma, Kansas, Georgia, Tennessee.
California is a garden of Eden, a paradise to live in or see
But believe it or not, you won't find it so hot
If you ain't got the do re mi
Woody Guthrie (c. 1940)
Let’s have a think — are politicians exposed to the harms those not rich and powerful, let’s say those disadvantaged, are exposed to? The record clearly indicates they are not. Even those politicians who make themselves out to be like the disadvantaged are unimaginably rich with enormous houses at vacation spots, large sums of money “in the bank”, and they are served by “underlings” who do their every bidding. Surely no one believes such persons are out to help the “little guy” through “environmental justice”.
So let’s knock off with the BS
Properly understood, the environmental justice movement has been captured by politicians and industrialists to then be converted into yet another scheme that rewards them with more riches and more power. Well, this is a pretty bold assertion about the political class absent support. However, there is ample evidence from public sources that this is exactly the case.1 Simply by being in Congress, politicians are paid at least $174,000 and therefore automatically rank with the top 5% of income earners in the US by simply breathing. But that is just the baseline — it rapidly goes up from that lofty perch from where they gaze, looking for where more can best be extracted from the working class. What they lack, as outsiders to the working class, is a clear understanding of the impact their policies — rational in their minds but irrational in every other sense — have on the people they supposedly represent. Worse than that, they may actually know and not care.
It seems that Washington DC has come to look very much like the Versailles of King Louis XVI, a bloated bureaucracy, full of kings, queens, princes, princesses, and their obsequious attendants, all of them living in luxury far removed from the plight of working class citizens. To be fair, we are all basically egoists, but the egotistic schemes of the “ruling class”, lording over the working class, like Louis XVI, have completely separated themselves from the plight of citizens they lord over. In this circumstance, when taxes and inequities become excessively oppressive, when sufficient misery from taxation and the lavish “projects” of the rulers becomes intolerable, the working class’ path to justice is to vote the “ruling class” out of office to be replaced with those who will properly represent their needs, who will not be bribed. King Louis XVI along with Marie Antoinette, just before being deposed might have wondered if a voting loss would be a much preferred path for removal from office.
Have working class citizens in the UK had enough?
The British leadership seems to have finally caught on to the plight of the working class.2 The UK Prime Minister Rishi Sunak following the election of Steve Tuckwell — Tuckwell’s winning vote largely attributed to opposing the Ultra Low Emission Zone (ULEZ) initiative — has pushed back aggressive targets for eliminating fossil fuel use. Rational action starts with rational leadership motivated to reduce risks the working class face and less interested in gaining more personal riches and power. Only time will tell if leaders like Rishi Sunak and Steve Tuckwell can prevail in favor of working class citizens’ greater welfare.
Connecting with risk
The climate is changing, and it is more than likely human activity is contributing to such change.
The measures taken to combat it, even if based on prophetic claims of climate crisis, should not result transparently in the flow of excessive amounts of wealth into the coffers of the rich and powerful cannot be long tolerated. Making extreme claims about the climate in order to extract ever more money and power from working class citizens in ineffective risk management measures is a foolish enterprise that violates common sense. The danger posed by lack of a coordinated plan and calculated approach, including a plan that would create a climate conscious society may lead to climate fatigue3 — the danger now playing out in politics.
The GREET model developed by Argonne National Laboratories4, provides an illustration of the trade-offs and the need for nuance around the replacement & maturity of green technologies, replacing traditional technologies. For example, although the total emissions for producing an EV exceeds that of its gasoline powered counterpart, the lifecycle emissions has the potential to be much lower under the assumption that the electricity for charging comes from cleaner sources of energy5. This breakeven point though, requires further investigation, as the footprint of both production and usage of EVs change depending on where they are sold and operated. EVs require batteries that can cause environmental damage separate from atmospheric carbon dioxide loading. For example, the largest EV market in the world, China, continued to add two coal plants every week in 20226, but at the same time added significant amounts of solar and wind generation7.
Working class citizens, those who work with their hands, who produce everyday goods and services, who make massive capital projects a reality are rightly skeptical. At this critical juncture, the need is for an honest communication from the political class as well as the scientific and technology classes. Otherwise those same working class citizens see injustices as more and more is taken from them.
In an tense geo-political climate both internationally, and for that matter nationally, where there is a sense of fragmentation and loss perceived it is important that a vehicle of action such as environmental justice, does not become collateral damage or an agent to manipulate, when the reality is far more nuanced than what is perceived.
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https://greet.anl.gov/greet.models
https://energyandcleanair.org/publication/china-permits-two-new-coal-power-plants-per-week-in-2022/
https://www.fitchratings.com/research/corporate-finance/chinas-half-year-renewable-power-installations-hit-record-high-15-08-2023