In a minimum of three (3) pages (double-spaced, Times New Roman font, with 1-inch page margins) each (and a maximum of four [4] pages), answer Question #1 (1a, 1b, and 1c) AND answer Question #3 (3a, 3b, and 3c). (The Final Exam overall should thus be a minimum of six [6] pages, and a maximum of eight [8] pages):
In short: All students must answer Question #3, and #1.
(1) By employing a “cultural politics” framework to supposedly “common sense” categories like race and nature, Moore, Pandian, and Kosek (2003, 2) delineate how cultural and historical processes have produced specific cultural understandings of nature that have often obscured histories of racial exclusion from forms of nature. Cronon (1996, 24), moreover, problematizes the popular U.S. conception of “wilderness” and implores environmentalist organizations and ordinary citizens to “embrace the full continuum of a natural landscape that is also cultural, in which the city, the suburb, the pastoral, and the wild each has its proper place, which we permit ourselves to celebrate without needlessly denigrating the other.”
(1a) Explain what is meant by the “wilderness” conception of nature and the environment, and describe how this conception has changed over time.
(1b) How do race and nature work together to “legitimate particular forms of political representation, reproduce social hierarchies, and authorize violent exclusions” (Moore et al. 2003:3)? Provide some concrete historical examples.
(1c) What are some of the problems encountered by projects for biodiversity conservation (e.g. nature reserves, conservation zones, restoration projects, and national parks) when such projects are exclusively informed by a “wilderness” conception of nature? How can such projects be improved?
(3) The frameworks of “environmental justice” and “climate justice” have been used to inform policy and law, academic theories, and contemporary social movements.
(3a) Explain what is meant by environmental justice. How and why did the modern environmental justice movement emerge in the United States? What have been some of the key issues and concerns of the movement? How are conceptual terms like “sacrifice zones” and government designations like “Superfund Sites” relevant to the environmental justice movement? How, moreover, does environmental justice intersect with other issues and challenges (e.g., police brutality, occupational safety, war and other military activities, the homelessness crisis, etc.)? What are important issues of environmental justice in Los Angeles County?
(3b) Explain what is meant by “climate change” and “climate crisis.” Why do climatologists like NASA scientist Peter Kalmus as well as authors like Naomi Klein consider this to be an “existential crisis” for humanity? What is “climate justice,” and what has been the response of the climate justice movement to the existential crisis of the climate? How is climate justice related to environmental justice? Why, moreover, is an analysis of the differences (historically, socioeconomically, geopolitically, etc.) between countries in the Global North (e.g., the United States, Britain, Japan, and France) and the Global South (e.g., Bolivia, the Philippines, etc.) centrally important to global conceptions of climate justice? What are some of the similarities and differences between the Global North and Global South (as well as between different communities within all countries, North and South) in terms of the impacts of the climate crisis?
(3c) Climate scientists and environmentalists have implored the global community to transition from fossil-fuel based economies to economies based on 100% clean and renewable energy. At the same time, proponents of environmental and climate justice argue that the transition to 100% renewable energy must be a Just Transition and based on the principles of energy democracy and energy justice. Do you agree that the transition to 100% renewable energy is necessary? Do you believe it is possible? What are some of the challenges involved with constructing and maintaining renewable-energy infrastructures? Moreover, what is energy democracy and energy justice? How are projects for energy democracy being implemented in places like the state of Vermont, and what, in your opinion, are the prospects for implementing such policies on a larger scale?
