Perennial Issue no. 9

PERENNIAL

THE UNDERGRADUATE ENVIORNMENTAL JOURNAL OF BERKELEY

Dear

RWe are thrilled to present our 9th vironmental Undergraduate Journal. editorial and design teams, welcoming and styles. Our staff writers have terdisciplinary environmental articles cover style.

As we know it today, our environment is a rally occurring elements, creating complex scapes can be literal – national parks, olive tree – or symbolic – the U.S. military-industrial complex keen observation, interviews, and research, our silences and new meanings from these landscapes.

Additionally, Perennial’s work is very much influenced edge the entirety of Issue 9 has been completed during dous grief and loss of human and non-human lives, Perennial dream of and create alternative realities. This collective our struggles on the planet—environmental, social, and

We’d like to thank the editorial team for their commitment ronmental action. Additionally, we’d like to express our creativity, radical imagination, and teamwork. Lastly, work to our research section and our readers for taking

Sincerely,

Sia Agarwal and Zora Uyeda-Hale Editors in Chief

Reader,

issue of Perennial: UC Berkeley’s EnJournal. This semester, we’ve expanded our welcoming an exciting variety of interests have created a collage-like medley of inarticles complimenting our iconic, collage mosaic of human-made and natulandscapes all around us. These landtree groves, and the Antarctic flower fields complex and the poaching industry. Through our writers and designers have worked to unearth landscapes.

influenced by our current world, and we must acknowlduring the ongoing genocide in Palestine. Amid tremenPerennial is one outlet where we have continued to collective effort acknowledges the interconnectedness of all and otherwise.

commitment to sharing their voices and advocating for enviour deep appreciation for the design team’s wonderful Lastly, we’d like to thank those who have submitted their taking the time to appreciate this labor of love.

Editorials & Op-Eds

“National Parks to Native Land” by Sara Warford-Crowe

“From Mining Coal to Powering the Grid- a New Clean Energy Solution” by Emma Mott

“Building Sustainably is Not as Easy As It Seems” by Annie Foo

“TikTok Sensationalism for the Pro-Orca Movement” by Ben Bartlett

“The Profits of Destruction: U.S. Military and the Environment” by Mona Holmer

“Coral Conservation in French Polynesia” by Sofia Berman

“Ecological Responses to Climate Change in Antarctica: A look on “there are

Contents

flowers blooming in Antarctica” phenomenon” by Halasya Malladi

“Sow Good: Regenerative Agriculture’s Recipe for a Happy Planet” by Charlotte Peterson

“Environmental Injustice in Palestine” by Tiva Gandhi

“Our Approach to the Poaching Problem” by Paloma Hashemi

“Does Being Vegan Actually Do Anything For the Climate Movement? by Annie Foo

“How Solar Variability Affects Weather” by MJ Smith

“Justice in Media: Avatar: The Last Airbender” by Tiva Gandhi

“Promoting Promoters” by Lexie Jade Garcia Research Papers

“Green Dreams, Red Tape: RGGI’s Rollercoaster Ride in the Climate Policy Circus” by Megan Mehta

“Art for Earth’s Sake: Decolonial Artivism and the Work of Jaider Esbell 2018-2021” by Jacqueline Canchola-Martinez

“Looks That Could Kill: Fast Fashion and Its Impact on the Environment” by Ruby Bermeo-Ehmann

“Cultivated Meat: Thinking Beyond the Body” by Zora Uyeda-Hale

EDITORIALS & OP-EDS

EDITORIALS OP-EDS

National Parks to Native Land

by SARA WARFORD-CROWE

In June 2023, by a stroke of luck, my mother and I had the privilege of visiting Havasupai Falls, a section of Native reservation land adjacent to Grand Canyon National Park. After a road trip from Los Angeles to Arizona, we embarked on a desolate drive, spotting deer and elk in the trees alongside us. Upon arrival at a packed parking lot, the Sun was already beating down on sweaty hikers who were triumphantly celebrating their return at the trail’s peak. Making final adjustments to our backpacks, my mom and I set off on the eight mile hike down into the canyon.

We frequently yielded to mules and horses led by Havasupai members transporting pounds of supplies for campers. In the beating sun, we finally reached the bottom where, backsplashed by towering red rock, hundred-foot waterfalls crashed into turquoise blue water that streamed through the campsite and the tribe’s town. It was one of the most breathtaking sights I had ever witnessed. Along the way, signs of Havasupai ownership made the journey quite different from your average backpacking trip in a National Park; frybread stands catered hungry hikers, helicopters flew campers and tribe members out of the can-

designed by CATIE KUEHL

yon, and signs implored visitors to respect the sacred lands to which we had been given access to. I was prompted to think about the land in a way divergent from the usual National Park – a place steeped with history, culture, tradition, and tragedy, reflective of countless other places I had visited before. Every piece of National Parks, and our entire country, is steeped in the blood of the people who lived there first.

National parks arose from white, Western conservation movements. Yellowstone, the first National Park established in 1872 by President Ulysses Grant, aimed to preserve the land without regard for the preservation of native Shoshone and Bannock lives, cultures, and connection to that territory. A few decades later, President Roosevelt, notoriously known for his reverence of seemingly untouched landscapes, subsequently established five National Parks during his tenure. While the colonial conservationists of the country celebrated ‘saving’ nature, they failed to recognize the countless Native lives and cultures that were torn apart by the new legislation, the Havasupai people among them.

The Havasupai tribe originally resided in the Grand Canyon in northern Arizona for 800 years, occupying over 1.6 million acres. In 1882, President Chester Arthur’s executive order claimed all of the canyon’s plateau land as public property of the United States, a decree unbeknownst to the tribe for several years. Displaced from their land, the tribe contended with challenges such as diseases, soil erosion, and dire food shortage due to the increased population of settlers.

“Every piece of National Parks, and our entire country, is steeped in the blood of the people who lived there first.”

of National Parks under Native control. This approach would honor Native ties to their land and allow tribes to manage it with Traditional Ecological Knowledge, without bureaucratic obstacles.

In 1919, the Grand Canyon became a National Park of over a million acres, and in 1928, the National Park Service expelled the remaining members of the tribe from their property, allocating them a mere 518 acres. It wasn’t until 47 years later that the federal government returned the 188,077 acres of land that they live on today.

Under the control of the Department of the Interior, Native people are restricted from practicing ancestral traditions and cultural rites. In order to hunt or harvest on the land their families lived in tandem with for centuries, individuals now must send written requests through the throes of governmental offices. Tribes witness as sacred land endures stress under the overrun conditions of the Parks, claiming that it needs to rest, just like any other living being.

In addition, the Parks are used as political pawns, like the Bears Ears National Monument’s protected borders expanding and shrinking haphazardly under the whims of opposing presidential administrations. As wildlife populations diminish, indigenous fauna continue dying, and visitors flaunt ignorance of the injustices that mold the locations they tag in Instagram posts, it is clear that both environmental and social injustices are still brewing on American soil.

Ojibwe member David Treuer claims in an Atlantic article that one of the best answers for Native reparations and for revitalizing the land, and country as a whole, is placing all 90 million acres

As might be expected, this transition will be difficult, but we do have the tools to start moving towards more liberated Native life.

Secretary of the Department of the Interior Deb Halaand, the first Native American to hold this position, possesses the authority to initiate transfer of land to rightful tribes. Through application of the Burke Act and National Historic Preservation Act, Halaand has the ability to make it possible to preserve Native cultures, address land restitution, and manage the American territorial allotment. Her position is a fundamental one in kicking off Native reparations. Under Treuer’s model, the reclaimed Native land could still operate as recreational parks, with continued funding from the national government as well as tourist income.

Though I am not directly impacted by the American government’s occupation and control of Indigenous land, I acknowledge and benefit from it. We get to visit the natural wonders of the country that have been stolen from people whose families were rooted there. We also get to visit their current homes, the small chunks of land that they are forced to open to tourists to continue participating in the endless cycle of greed that displaced their ancestors. Something has to be done to demonstrate America’s recognition of our past and present injustices against Native lives. Giving back the lands that we falsely pride ourselves on seems to be a good place to start.

From Mining Coal to Powering the Grid

A New Clean Energy Solution

by EMMA MOTT

Increased risk of lung cancer due to exposure to silica and carbon monoxide poisoning, collapsing tunnels injuring and killing workers, deforestation to make room for infrastructure, erosion, and contamination. These are a few of the many environmental and health risks associated with coal mines. One common coal mining method, mountaintop removal, involves blasting off entire mountaintops to access coal. This process not only destroys surrounding ecosystems but also contaminates streams with debris, endangering aquatic species and compromising the water supply of local communities. In addition, coal power plants emit fine particulate air matter PM2.5 consisting of sulfur dioxide, black carbon, and metals, which can be deadly after prolonged exposure. On the other hand, the closure of coal mines has been associated with improvements in asthma rates and decreased deaths from air pollution.

Currently, many coal mines are being abandoned across the country as society makes the switch to clean energy sources. However, could coal mines themselves hold the key to renewable energy?

With the passage of the “Infrastructure Investment and Jobs Act” by the Biden Administration in 2021, the US Department of Energy created the Clean Energy Demonstration Program on Current and Former Mine Land (CEML). The initiative aims to convert reclaimed mine lands across the country to sites for clean energy projects, potentially being large enough to successfully power the grid.

In addition, the EPA has launched the “RE-Powering America’s Land” Initiative, which assesses renewable energy potential of formerly contaminated landfills and mine sites, provided that such development is aligned with the community’s vision for the site. This initiative directly supports

designed by WEIRAN ZHU

cleanup and redevelopment of these sites while offering resources for developers, community members, industries, and state and local governments. According to their Project Tracking Matrix, as of March 2023, there have been 459 renewable energy installations identified, totaling over 1.9 gigawatts of installed capacity. There are several issues with our current energy grid system, primarily stemming from backlogs (accumulations of unapproved projects) in connecting new power projects to the grid. When a new site is set up, it must enter the ‘interconnection queue,’ where it will undergo impact studies to ensure quality. This process is exceptionally time-consuming. According to Christina Pelliccio, a Regulatory Analyst at California Public Utilities Commission, “[r]ight now, we’re largely reliant on what existing transmission lines we have…and so a big problem is we have the supply, we’re just not able to get it online and on the grid. So what’s really beneficial with using existing sites is we can use these transmission lines when other fossil fuel infrastructure is ready to retire. And then we can get these new projects online” (C. Pelliccio, personal communication, March 10, 2024).

backlog is exacerbated by local communities’ resistance to new greenfield, wind, or solar storage development, causing a further delay in development.

A 2022 report from Lawrence Berkeley National Lab found the wait time from requesting connection to commercial operation is four years, with a current backlog of 1,480 GW of energy. To provide context, a single gigawatt of energy is equivalent to 100 million LED bulbs according to the Office of Energy Efficiency & Renewable Energy. This major

Energy-related environmental injustices are an additional significant challenge. Environmental injustice occurs when environmental laws, policies, or regulations have disproportionately negative effects on marginalized and low-income communities. Current coal mines are greatly concentrated in the eastern United States, particularly in states such as Virginia & West Virginia (especially in Appalachia), Tennessee, North Carolina, Massachusetts, and Kentucky. These areas suffer disproportionate amounts of pollution from heavy metals and toxins leaked by abandoned coal mines. This is an environmental justice issue, as these communities have higher rates of poverty, uneven rates of under-education and unemployment, as well as an increased amount of racial and ethnic minorities. For example, according to the US Census Bureau, Virginia has a poverty rate of 10.5 percent and a racial demographic of 20 percent African American, and North Carolina has a poverty rate of 13.4 percent with a racial demographic of 22 percent African American and 10.5 percent Hispanic/Latino descent.

The Justice40 Initiative, also established under the Infrastructure and Investment Jobs Act, has aimed to allocate 40 percent of benefits associated with federal investments, including those in clean energy infrastructure such as the CEML project, to go to ‘disadvantaged communities.’ To support this

initiative, the Council on Environmental Quality has developed a Climate and Environmental Justice Screening Tool. This tool defines an area as a ‘disadvantaged community’ if it meets two criteria: (1) it is in a census tract that experiences one or more environmental, climate, or other burdens, and (2) it is in a census tract that faces associated socioeconomic burdens. Additionally, the DOE Disadvantaged Community Reporter is utilized to prioritize communities experiencing the highest cumulative burdens by calculating a score of 0 to 36. Finally, the US EPA Re-Powering America’s Land Initiative Mapper shows federal and state data for 190,000 mine and contaminated land sites to identify possible areas for reuse.

Figure 1. “U.S. EPA RE-Powering America’s Land Initiative Mapper” shows federal and state data for 190,000 mine sites and other contaminated lands to help users identify sites for renewable energy development

Figure 2. Areas identified as “disadvantaged” by Climate and Economic Justice Screening Tool are highlighted in blue. This tool is used within the Justice40 Initiative to determine where to allocate 40% of benefits from Covered Programs.

Figure 3. A map of the Department of Energy’s Disadvantaged Community Reporter’s DAC scores for CEJST census tracts.

A comparison of the results from these three mapping tools reveals an overlap between certain communities designated as ‘disadvantaged’ and areas identified as having significant numbers of mine sites and contaminated lands. There are numerous advantages associated with transitioning to clean energy, particularly the environmental advantages such as the cleanup of contaminated sites currently contributing to air pollution, protection of open space, and reduction in greenhouse gas emissions through use of renewable energy. According to the United Nations, making the switch to renewable energy could decarbonize 90 percent of the power grid by 2050, which would prevent global temperatures from increasing past 1.5 degree Celsius. This reduction in global warming would further prevent melting ice and rising sea levels, ocean acidification, changes in precipitation patterns, and extreme weather events. Additionally, repurposing abandoned coal mine sites that already have existing infrastructure in place to support energy production has a myriad of developmental and economic advantages. The proximity of these sites to energy grids, along with existing zoning and permits, can reduce project development costs and time. In many of the areas most impacted by coal mining, local economies have historically relied on this industry. Daniel Bresette, the president of the Environmental and Energy Study Institute, stated, “mine lands are often located in remote, rural areas with fewer economic opportunities. In many cases, these lands are not suitable for many other types of economic activity. But building and then maintaining solar and geothermal power plants in these areas can create good-paying, local jobs. In fact, the CEML program is designed to privilege projects that have the greatest potential to create jobs and benefit local communities” (D. Bresette,

personal communication, April 24, 2024). The shift from coal to clean energy sources has harmed these economies, leaving many residents unemployed. However, redeveloping these areas into sites of clean energy would provide for new construction and operation jobs within these communities, allowing the government to save millions of dollars on cleanup and electricity costs, and even spur new property tax revenue. All these factors would significantly improve local economies with the loss of their main industry.

According to the RE-Powering America’s Land Initiative Benefits Matrix, as of March 2023, 64 of the projects reported job creation, 122 reported revenue generation (including taxes, payments in lieu of taxes, leases, and renewable energy credits), and 203 projects reported energy cost savings. Some potential drawbacks and criticisms of this project include concerns about the long-term sustainability of clean energy projects on reclaimed mine sites and the potential risks associated with developing energy on formerly contaminated sites. As outlined by the Technology Primer Mine Site Cleanup for Brownfields Redevelopment, these risks include the safety hazards for individuals working on site, including high walls reaching up to 100 feet in the air, dilapidated buildings and equipment, and old air shafts and vertical entrances to mines that could pose risk of falls. According to the US Bureau of Land Management, between 2000 and 2013 alone, 381 people were killed and 152 people suffered broken bones and other injuries. Additionally, engineering problems include ground subsidence leading to cracking, shifting, tilting, and splitting of structures constructed atop, as well as unstable piles of mine spoil.

However, the same paper outlines examples of potential site reuse and technologies for site cleanup. These include controlling and treating contaminated surface soil through vegetative cover to prevent erosion, neutralizing acidity with recyclable materials, and mine drainage through constructed wetlands. Additionally, the reported injuries associated with abandoned coal mines underscore the necessity of cleaning up and repurposing these sites.

Furthermore, the US Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) has implemented specific guidelines to mitigate risks associated with clean energy sources. The Comprehensive Environmental Response, Compensation, and Liability Act (CERCLA) grants federal authority to respond to threats

of hazardous waste releases that could endanger human health or the environment. This legislation aligns with nationwide efforts to develop long-term solutions to hazardous waste issues, emphasizing transparency with citizens and preventative assessments of operating sites. Measures include site remediation, monitoring, and community engagement to ensure responsible development.

The conversion of abandoned coal mines to sites for clean energy projects offers a productive solution to utilize cur- rent spaces without encroaching into communities.

The plan simultaneously prevents harmful toxins leaked by coal mines and leverages existing infrastructure, creating new economic growth and job opportunities while establishing sustainable energy sources to power the grid. Although critics of this project have raised concerns about the environmental hazards of developing on reclaimed land, the comprehensive responses outlined by the US EPA ensure the sustainability of the project. The social, environmental, and economic benefits of repurposing abandoned coal mines for renewable energy development contribute to the viability of this clean energy solution.

Building Sustainably is Not as Easy as it Seems

by ANNIE FOO

In the recent decades, Bay Area governments have devoted a considerable amount of money and effort into urban development. Trying to lessen the debilitating impacts of the housing crisis and increasing problems from climate change, they promise to prioritize the most vulnerable communities. However, while government officials seem satisfied with their efforts, there are still many residents struggling at their expense.

Despite a rich history of innovation, environmentalism, and civil rights activism, the Bay Area is also home to an equally prominent history of gentrification and racism in land use. Both have contributed to the history of the Bay Area and its housing crisis. Regional planners and city officials have continually tried to tackle this issue, and yet it doesn’t seem like it’s getting better.

In the modern context, this has translated to the housing crisis, climate change, and discrimination, predominantly affecting low-income communities of color. It’s a never ending cycle of the working class being driven out of their own homes: they thrive, then higher rents and more expensive living conditions follow, and landowners ultimately buy out units and rent them for higher prices.

Black and Brown folks are forced into the outskirts and less desirable parts of cities, the only places they can afford. And it’s not just the housing that is inequitable — it’s also the surrounding environment.

“We have data layers that show where there are low levels of tree canopy, low levels of permeability of soils, and high levels of urban heat index, which, when you then bring in, who lives there…it’s not a one to one, but certainly, priority communities are often at those locations,” said Michael Germeraad, resilience planner for the Association of Bay Area Governments.

The Association of Bay Area Governments (ABAG) under the Metropolitan Transportation Commission works on cross-municipality problems that

plague the Bay Area. Germeraad has worked for ABAG for more than 10 years. Here, he has gained expert knowledge on the problems facing the people of the Bay Area.

Most regional planners, government entities, and community organizations acknowledge the inequity of the housing crisis and the need for not only building more units, but livable units with a healthy surrounding environment. This requires landscapes like parks and green spaces that provide ecological, social, and mental welfare for the surrounding residents.

To account for inequities in housing and green space, there has been a general shift in the perspective of the housing crisis in the 21st century. City planners like Gerammad are prioritizing the most disadvantaged in their communities.

“In terms of how we integrate it into our work, we are updating our framework for priority conservation areas right now. We’ve (ABAG) incorporated equity priority communities, which is a framework that informs a lot of work products at our agency, not just conservation, but also transportation, housing, economic development,” Gerammad elaborates.

Greenbelt Alliance is another organization working on this issue. This San Francisco Bay Area nonprofit was founded in 1958 and often collaborates with Bay Area government entities. Greenbelt Alliance’s resilience manager Victor Flores is responsible for one of their current initiatives, Climate SMART (Sustainable, Mixed, Affordable, Resilient, and Transit-Oriented) endorsement. This provides developers an opportunity to have their innovative and green project supported with their decades old reputation of environmental advocacy in the Bay Area.

These projects aim to continue to build housing for residents, but specifically housing that reduces greenhouse gas emissions and is resilient to risks

worsened by climate change. Many of these projects incorporate bike lanes, community gardens, storm drains, parks, drought tolerant plants, and solar panels into planning measures.

Another initiative Greenbelt Alliance currently has is its Bay Area Resilience Hotspots Initiative. This initiative targets areas deemed to have high wildfire, flooding, and extreme heat, which are historically low income and BIPOC, and increase conservation there.

There is an increasing effort within the Bay Area community to serve low income communities of color, but community members of these communities are hesitant to praise these efforts.

by a freeway (a huge pollutant), and it’s separated from the entire rest of the city” Mestayer-Orallo explained. “We see that most of the kids in San Francisco come from, like Mission and Bayview, and most of the parks are not in those neighborhoods, and there’s no access […] in black and brown neighborhoods.”

While many point out the Bay Area’s strong efforts to make access to green space equitable, this is at odds with the lived experience of many residents and social workers in impoverished areas .

Community programs coordinator Anton Benedicto also stresses the importance of recognizing that not all green space is treated equally. Even if there is green space in underserved communities, it is systematically different from green space in other areas.

The staff at Literacy for Environmental Justice, a non-profit based in Hunter’s Point/Bayview, highlights the lasting impacts of the city’s history of racism and environmental injustice. Community programs manager Chloe Ballard, community programs coordinator Anton Benedicto, and eco-technician Alijah Mestayer-Orallo work in the more industrial and polluted areas of San Francisco and go out themselves to work and educate others.

design by ARMANDO ARIES GUTIERREZ

“If you want to call it a lot of green spaces, which I kind of agree with, not all of them are going to be kept the same,” he said. “They’re not going to be maintained, whether it’s for things like bathrooms

“It’s interesting (as a non profit) focusing on green spaces because in this specific part of San Francisco (where the nonprofit is based), it’s bordered

and sinks, or it’s just general park maintenance, there’s still going to be invasive species that are taking over everything else. Or maybe the lawns or the

trees are not countered through properly. But there will definitely be discrepancies.”

This leaves many communities feeling like they must fend for themselves.

Hunter’s Point and Bayview are just some out of the many places that are overlooked in urban development. Millions of people are underserved by local government and organizations, leaving community members, like the staff at LEJ, to take on the problems themselves.

“What we’re doing in Bayview is not the same as what they might be doing in the Sunset [District], or what they might be doing in the Richmond area, or what they’re doing in Presidio, or Crissy Field and some of these other green spaces that have a lot of money that have a lot of funding,” Ballard said.

“In other neighborhoods, they don’t have a reason to fight for parks when they already have clean parks and parks all over the place … So we’re making sure that access is there for the Black and Brown community,” Mestayer-Orallo said.

While there is an evident commitment to equity and progress being made in the Bay Area, Black and Brown residents in particular, continue to endure inequalities from a legacy of environmental injustice.

by BEN BARTLETT

design by FRANCESCA MARCHETTI

Why do you use Tiktok? Is it to illuminate your path at 3 AM with someone’s random thirst trap when you have to go to the bathroom? Or do you secretly want to be a ‘micro-influencer’ and spend time meticulously stitching together a video for it only to get exactly four likes, twenty views, and a comment from your grandma? Whatever the case is, the point is that TikTok is an addictive platform that has shaped the lives of millions around the globe, influencing culture, trends, and politics in profound ways.

You might be asking yourself – okay, what does this have to do with orcas? Two words: White Gladis. White Gladis is a queen of the nautical catwalk, adorning a black-and-white tuxedo, a graceful dorsal fin, and a kill count of 50 seals from just yesterday.

Our story begins on the Iberian coast in the Strait of Gibraltar where a documented series of disturbances began affecting boats. Many vessels were extensively damaged or sunk, all believed to be instigated by a matriarchal orca named White Gladis, a.k.a. Gladis Bianca. She is part of a notorious lineage of orcas, all possessing an unquenchable thirst for boat attacks. Her squad includes five other orcas, but White Gladis has been deemed as the most active in these endeavors.

Since summer of 2020 until now, numerous boat crew members have reported varying degrees of boat damage. Curious about the incidents, Spanish and Portuguese marine biodiversity experts arrived on the scene and identified three of the orcas, including White Gladis, as being responsible for approximately more than 60% of the attacks.

The scientists collaborated to determine potential precursors to the attacks, arriving at several conclusions. First, they observed that the fins of the perpetrator orcas had notable damage, likely through interactions

with the boats beforehand.

Killer whale behavior has taken a dramatic turn, with these powerhouses now singling out the stern of the boats, apparently attracted by the boat’s movement. Another theory posits that these marine giants may simply be toying with their newfound ability to tackle a hefty moving object. The plot thickens: scientists also hypothesized that White Gladis could have initially sustained injuries from a boat or got entangled in a fishing net during her pregnancy. That traumatic moment may have flipped the switch in her, leading to boat-bashing diffusing like gossip through her pod. Mónica González, a marine biologist with CEMMA spilled in an exclusive interview with No Frills Sailing:

“It is possible that the one individual Orca that initiated this behavior was the [White Gladis]. [Gladis] we call the interacting [orcas]. First, because she is the only adult that started in 2020 with interactions in the middle of seven other juveniles. Second, because in 2021 she had a calf and even interacted with her offspring, so the motivation that moves her to interact is even higher than the strength of the maternal instinct for protection.”

Instead of protecting her calves from her vendetta, White Gladis chose violence. As González put it, “She went to the boats with this calf, so she preferred to stop the boats rather than keeping her baby safe.” Queen of priorities.

But White Gladis did not cease with the retribution. Instead, she went into mentorship mode, teaching her pod the art of ambush, and even schooled her offspring in this anarchistic behavior. This is not just a phase, but rather a generational grudge match, showcasing the killer whales’ remarkable strategy and acute learning. Boaters might desire to rethink their summer plans.

Damaged orca fins (CEEMA)

González explained: “Since 2020 we have recorded a total of 744 encounters. An encounter can both be sightings as well as interactions. Over an area from the North African coast to French Brittany. Of these, 239 are just [orca] sightings, where the [orcas] are observed far from the boats. 505 are interactions, which means that [orca] respond to the presence of a boat and approach, sometimes touch them.”

TikTok Movement

Obviously, gen-z saw White Gladis and made her an icon online. One of the TikTok content creators, Casey @kcwinbush, who I religiously watch before going to sleep like a lullaby, stated with the caption: TEAM GLADIS 4L. Specifically, Casey asserted that she is on her way to the orca revolution. Her comments did not disappoint. @hiagosilverio: ‘the orcas are denying the colonization of the seas’ @z3r0_ st1nks: ‘I have the worst thalasaphobia but I fw orcas’ @marklohan10: ‘Bye not u worshipping orcas for manslaughter… iconic’

radation, social inequity, and corporate greed. Through making the orca sensationalized, represents that gen-z strongly sides with the nature sphere – wanting pushback against the anthropogenic impact that endangers the planet. The attacks from the orcas demonstrate an act of defiance against human industrial activity and symbolize nature’s power to resist and reclaim.

Through acts of resistance, the natural world can prevent destructive tendencies of exploitation and commodification. It forms an intriguing narrative of Gen-Z encapsulating a desire for a world where natural ecosystems are preserved and respected.

The Risk of Trivializing Biodiversity

Issues on TikTok

“It forms an intriguing narrative of Gen-Z encapsulating a desire for a world where natural ecosystems are preserved and respected.”

As I scrolled through my “For You” page, I saw sassy pop music edits with the orcas ramming into the boats, hashtags such as #TeamOrca and #orcasinkingboats, and commentary from users all over the world admiring White Gladis.

This happened in 2020, but I cannot stop my vivid dreams about White Gladis and her team of vigilantes. Her commandeering of her troops to sunder any ships that get in her way. A mother. A queen. A leader.

Gen-Z’s Anti-Capitalist Sentiment

Gen-Z has been notable for their digital activism, emphasizing issues such as environmental deg-

While I might be joking about the personification of these orcas as queens of the sea, it is also necessary to acknowledge that Tiktok, with the rapid-fire information streams and short attention spans, has the tendency to desensitize viewers towards conservation endeavors. The recent coverage on the spate of orca attacks is that they symbolically represent the challenges that creatures have from human influence and encroachment.

Repetitive exposure to content that is devoid of context or deeper meaning can trivialize the impact of mobilized action towards marine biodiversity. A study conducted by ITF Seafarers found that repetitive exposure to environmental content on social media without substantiated resources can lead to ‘issue fatigue.’ This phenomena underscores that there is still a lack of concrete evidence supporting the revenge theory with marine ecologists like Robert Pitman and Nancy Black refuting such anthropomorphic interpretations.

As a queer individual, I am naturally drawn to making White Gladis a gay icon and it is tempting to sensationalize these events in nature, such as the portrayal of orcas as fierce adversaries or predators. However, as we share space with these creatures, it is crucial to understand that turning their problem into a mere trend can be detrimental towards substantiated conservation efforts.

I believe that it is necessary to use humor to make science engaging, but it needs to be respectful and grounded in scientific inquiry. As said in Drag Race: “If you can’t love yourself, how in the hell you gonna love somebody else?” or my adaptation to this context: “If we can’t appreciate and respect marine life for what it truly is, how are we going to protect it effectively?”

Resources to Support

If you are interested in helping the orcas (I know that I do!), here are some resources that you can look at:

1. Orca Network: This organization works to raise awareness about orcas in the Pacific Northwest and supports their conservation through education and advocacy. Website: Orca Network

2. Whale and Dolphin Conservation (WDC): A leading global charity dedicated to the conservation and protection of whales and dolphins. Website: WDC

3. Center for Whale Research: Focused on the study and conservation of the Southern Resident Killer Whale population in the Pacific Northwest. Website: Center for Whale Research

4. Marine Mammal Center: This organization advances global ocean conservation through marine mammal rescue and rehabilitation, scientific research, and education. Website: Marine Mammal Center

5. Ocean Conservancy: Works to protect the ocean from today’s greatest global challenges through science-based solutions for a healthy ocean and the wildlife and communities that depend on it. Website: Ocean Conservancy

6. Orca Conservancy: A nonprofit dedicated to pro-

tecting orcas and their habitats through research, advocacy, and conservation efforts. Website: Orca Conservancy

7. NOAA Fisheries: The National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA) provides extensive resources on marine life, including orca conservation efforts and ways to help. Website: NOAA Fisheries - Orcas

The Profits of Destruction

U.S. Military and the

by MONA HOLMER

Environment

If there exists one perfect embodiment of the American “bigger is better” mentality, it is the U.S. military. It is an institution unrivaled in size, funding, and international reach, with 750 military bases throughout 80 countries and 173,000 troops stationed in 159 countries. The massive scale of U.S. military operations costs trillions of dollars, countless supplies, and endless energy resources to maintain.

Despite these exhaustive costs, the benefit of international military stations ultimately outweighs them. The constant stream of material has to go somewhere, and most often, it is injected

directly into the environment and livelihoods of other countries, manufacturing a vulnerability to exploit. The U.S. government continually supplements their operations to keep control of this militaristic position, disregarding any consequences to achieve it.

Producing and Consuming War

The magnitude of U.S. military production and consumption is almost incomprehensible. A paper published by the Watson Institute at Brown University stated that the Pentagon emits more greenhouse gasses than several “industrialized countries, such as Sweden, Denmark and Portu-

design by ARMANDO ARIES GUTIERREZ

gal” each year. From 2001 to 2018, the military emitted approximately 1,267 million metric tons of greenhouse gasses; for comparison, Sweden emitted only 40.8 million metric tons in 2022. In fact, the U.S. military is the institution responsible for the most emissions globally. These emissions result from the constant maintenance required to source, produce, transport, and operate military equipment and missions which, ironically, often go towards policing oil-rich areas to further secure energy supplies.

Although the military has acknowledged climate change as a considerable threat and therefore a national security focus, it has taken no real steps towards reducing its emissions. Fuel emissions barely scratch the surface of the military’s environmental damage; it is what that fuel is used for that causes the most harm.

2005, it completely restructured the government and part of that restructuring was to privatize every single public sector,” she explained. “The water treatment process in Iraq was public and good, high quality. It was destroyed during the U.S. invasion and it was never repaired.”

“Reversing climate change is a process reliant on protecting and nurturing life in the environment; a process inherently antithetical to military institutions.”

Private companies then began selling other sources of clean water, profiting off of vulnerability and necessity for clean water orchestrated by U.S. military and policy. Destroying the infrastructure organized around the environment created the perfect conditions for private industries to flourish: demand for vital resources with no alternative options. With an existing motive to destroy the

Orchestrating Vulnerability

Reversing climate change is a process reliant on protecting and nurturing life in the environment; a process inherently antithetical to military institutions. Rather than an environmental defender, the U.S. military acts as an agent of the nation’s economic interests. In many countries with resources essential to foreign economies, there exist deeply extractive and exploitative sites for those resources. The conditions that produce these sites, thus enabling easy access for foreign interests, result from vestiges of war.

Dr. Kali Rubaii is an assistant professor in the Department of Anthropology at Purdue University studying displacement, health justice, and the environmental impacts of war. Dr. Rubaii discussed the ways in which industries thrive in ecologies of war. “When the U.S. invaded Iraq in around

environment, the U.S. military has an arsenal of strategies at their disposal to further their goal. One infamous example is the military’s toxic burn pits in Iraq. When equipment became faulty or not needed anymore, companies hired to “manage” waste burned it in massive pits. These companies could then offer to sell new equipment to the military, creating an incentive to burn in order to profit. War in the 21st century, a horrific but historically public enterprise, is now effectively privatized.

The burn pits gained notoriety after U.S. veterans showcased resulting adverse health conditions, but the most severe impacts continue in Iraq to this day. After decades of bombing and burn pits, Iraq is experiencing devastating birth defect rates, health outcomes, and unrestorable lands. The environmental destruction is inhibiting not only the cultivation of new resources, but the next generation of people. “Mass injustice against a group of people, mass killing, mass incarceration, mass enslavement, these are all bad for the environment,”

said Dr. Rubaii. “[Human beings] have a relationship with their ecosystem, and when that gets destroyed, the long term effects are horrendously damaging.” Eventually, when military operations insert emissions, toxic chemicals, and other pollutants into the atmosphere, all human beings will bear the effects, not just those in Iraq.

Historical Scars on the Environment

While the military paints itself as America’s savior, its interests rarely align with what is truly beneficial for Americans despite benefitting from a militaristic history. Ellinor Arzbaecher facilitates a student-led class at UC Berkeley called Solutions for a Sustainable & Just Future, a class dedicated to equipping students with the tools to engender sustainable change. “The material wealth that we have in the West and in this country did not just appear, but it came on the back of, obviously, very intense military expansion and imperialism,” said Arzbaecher. She commented further on discussions within her class: “Decisions about what we consume and how we consume it has impacts on the other side of the planet that are incredibly important to understand if we’re going to actually craft solutions.”

Additionally, deep histories of imperialism and militarism dictate environmental behaviors today. Dr. Sarah E. Vaughn is an associate professor of anthropology at UC Berkeley studying environmental anthropology, critical social theory, and science and technology studies. Dr. Vaughn is currently studying climate adaptation strategies in Guyana, a country initially established as a colony under Dutch and eventually British rule. Reflecting on Guyana’s adaptation through a historical lens of imperialism, she states, “[Guyanese people] understand flood management through the very kinds of technologies and sciences that arguably once oppressed them. And then with independence, they became the bearers and the protectors of the dams, the sea walls, the canals.”

Today, Guyana is incredibly vulnerable to the increasing risk of climate change. The economy is still recovering from decades of imperialism, and as it expands its scale of production, it now faces the challenges of climate adaptation in addition to economic development. “After 60, 70 years of independence, for a lot of Global South nations, they don’t have much money left because they were tied to these structural adjustment pro-

grams,” said Dr. Vaughn, “that saddled them with a lot of debt or an inability to structure their public services to have some sort of income to maintain public services and infrastructures.” As a result, Guyana is left dependent on funding from UN programs to combat climate change while still balancing stability and growth. Guyana evidences the effects of global imperialism in the long run; extractive militaries produce long-term instability and inability to adapt to other forthcoming threats.

Labors of War

The position of influence the military has cultivated, intertwined within U.S. and other economies, does not signify that the violence it enacts is essential. Despite a common narrative of necessity, the U.S. military remains a global threat. “The military is multiplying climate change threats by actually contributing to them, and it’s exactly the opposite of militarization that is going to protect people from the mass starvation, mobilization, displacement, and deaths that come when we change climates,” states Dr. Rubaii.

The U.S. military cannot protect Americans by being the U.S. military. The emissions and destruction the military generates give rise to climate issues that everyone around the globe will face and that the most vulnerable populations currently face. As people within the U.S, we hold a unique position as both a victim and inheritor of the systems that perpetuate global supply chains of war. Living in the heart of a military nation, Americans are not just consumers of industries heavily invested in the vulnerability of others, but also producers working to solidify the economy and subsequently its military through their labor. “The pressure that we put on our political systems and the pressure that we put on our economic systems has very tangible repercussions,” Arzbaecher explains.

Dr. Rubaii elaborates on Americans’ responsibility as consumers and producers of war. “Withdrawing your money from Starbucks is important, but it’s not as powerful as withdrawing your labor from producing war.” Allowing U.S. militarism to continue promises only to exacerbate the threats humans face collectively, and it is our responsibility as inheritors of war to end the practices guaranteeing harm upon others. Human justice is an intrinsic part of environmental justice, and without it, we ensure environmental degradation.

Coral Conservation in French Polynesia

by SOPHIA BERMAN

Located in the middle of the Pacific Ocean, French Polynesia is known for its vibrant corals and exquisite marine life. However, these ecosystems are in increasing danger due to the dramatic effects of climate change and direct human interference. As temperatures around the globe are rapidly rising, water temperatures are increasing, creating an environment that can not sustainably support coral life.

High water temperatures lead to coral bleaching events: The corals lose their zooxanthellae algae that provide them with essential nutrients, causing them to lose their vibrant

colors and appear “bleached.” Another contributing factor of ocean acidification is the increase in atmospheric carbon dioxide concentrations. This occurs when seawater absorbs the carbon dioxide from the atmosphere, which weakens coral skeletons and impacts their structure and growth.

Direct human impact on coral reefs from overwater construction has destroyed the once-thriving ecosystems, completely removing them from their original habitats and dramatically reducing their opportunity for regrowth.

According to Ocean First Insti-

design by ALEX KAMRAS

tute, 25 percent of species rely on corals for protection, shelter and food. Humans are highly dependent on corals as well for medicinal treatments such as bone transplants. According to the Climate Foundation, an alarming 30 percent of corals across the world have died in the last 15 years. In the next two years, another 6 percent are expected to follow. One Earth journal published a study that found that coral populations have decreased by 50 percent since the 1950s.

With temperatures steadily rising and corals increasingly dying, there is an undeniable call for change. Humans are the

common denominator among all of the causes of coral endangerment, which signifies that it is our responsibility to make changes toward reducing our negative impact and supporting rehabilitation.

French Polynesia is specifically a place of concern because of the territory’s reliance on the ocean. Due to over-water construction, the corals and fish, which are large tourist attractions as well as major food and economic sources, are in great danger. As a result, a substantial amount of coral research is based in French Polynesia, and a wide range of organizations, both international and locally driven, are working toward solutions to coral endangerment. Some of these organizations include Coral Gardeners and the Centre de Recherche Insulaires et Observatoire de l’Environnement (CRIOBE).

Research

Coral Gardeners

Based in Mo’orea, French Polynesia, Coral Gardeners’ mission is to “revolutionize ocean conservation and create a global movement to save the world’s coral reefs through active reef restoration, awareness activities and innovative solutions.” A dominant part of its impact is manifested through growing and planting over 30,000 corals in French Polynesia.

Much of the organization’s research concerns the development of technology to monitor reefs and optimize conservation. While its main concentration is in French Polynesia,

in 2023 Coral Gardeners opened its first international branch in Fiji, expanding its geographical impact. In addition to its conservation efforts, Coral Gardeners aims to spread awareness about the issue, inspiring others to take action in addressing climate change.

CRIOBE

Established in 1971, CRIOBE is a French research lab based in French Polynesia that is taking action in addressing the issue of coral endangerment. CRIOBE conducts scientific research and monitoring programs to better understand the crises marine ecosystems face and develop solutions.

Through collaborations with local and international universities and research institutions, the center has developed a thorough understanding of the different coral-endangerment factors as well as a broad influence on different initiatives in the field. Moreover, CRIOBE emphasizes the importance of education, playing an integral role in training opportunities for both students and professionals engaged in the field.

UC Berkeley Involvement & Opportunity

Research on coral reefs extends to UC Berkeley, which offers both students and academics the opportunity to conduct research and be a part of the solution. UC Berkeley senior Mia Di Genova studied abroad in Mo’orea, and described her experience as very “research based.” During her time in Mo’orea, she had the opportunity to tour Coral Gardeners. She witnessed the organization’s active coral-restoration efforts, and described the growing corals as “almost like an agricultural field.”

People from all over the world are studying the corals at their research site, but local involvement is equally prominent. Di Genova spoke with a local Tahitian who was incredibly passionate about coral conservation. He shared that his passion was generational: his father was a fisherman, and so was he; they both felt strongly about the health of their environment. A core takeaway from Di Genova’s experience was that she “felt really connected to the ocean.” She shared that the locals “saw nature as a fundamental part of their being.”

UC Berkeley professor Adrienne Correa came to UC Berkeley in Fall of 2023 and has been doing research in French Polynesia since 2016. She studies viruses that infect the microbes that live inside of corals, and how those viral infections might change where there is a heat stress event such as bleaching.

Correa originally went to French Polynesia after a significant bleaching event to sample the coral. She shared that oftentimes cyclones will pass through, removing the bleached coral. Researchers “noticed that although some coral started growing again on the reef, certain kinds of corals seemed to replace some of the corals that died, and there was sort of a shift in what kind of coral regrew on the reef after that bleaching event.”

These shifts dramatically affect the kinds of the organisms that can survive with the new coral. Furthermore, while organisms have shown to be

able to adapt to their environments, the rate of temperature change occurs at far too rapid of a rate for these organisms to adapt. Correa says, “with humans causing climate change, bleaching events are becoming more intense, more frequent and more severe.” This unsettling truth is a call for change in human practice. Coral restoration efforts alone can not fix the larger issue of human-driven destruction.

2024 Surfing Olympics Controversy

While climate change is a large factor in the decrease in corals, over-water construction is an overpowering factor that has directly negatively affected the reefs. The decision to host the 2024 surfing Olympics in Teahupo’o, Tahiti has recently sparked a global uproar due to its negative ecological impacts.

According to The Guardian, for the past 20 years, wooden judges towers had been used in Teahupo’o, and many protestors requested that the towers be built on the original foundations, preventing further reef destruction. Despite this, Olympic organizers view it as a potential safety risk and are proceeding with the construction of a new aluminum tower.

Even after continuous back and forth conversations regarding different proposals and technology, it was confirmed by Tony Estanguet, the President of the Olympic Organizing Committee, that a surfing tower would be built in Teahupo’o. Surfers pride

themselves on their respect for the ocean, but the construction of the judges’ towers on coral reefs seems to be the antithesis of what they believe in.

While there isn’t a quick fix to this issue, there are ways to mitigate the negative effects and work toward coral conservation and restoration. Corals are in danger because of human impact, so finding ways to mitigate our role in climate change is vital. While marine life may not be in everyone’s immediate environment, our lives actively impact marine life. Everyone can make small changes in their lives, serving the larger purpose of reducing our carbon footprints and preserving the corals that are so rapidly being destroyed.

Ecological Responses to Climate

Change in

Design by ALEX KAMRAS

Antarctica: A Look on “There are Flowers Blooming in Antarctica” Phenomenon

by HALASYA MALLADI

Home to some of Earth’s most iconic creatures, the Antarctic realm, once a crystalline world filled with snow and ice, is slowly succumbing to an invisible force reshaping the entire landscape. The beautiful glaciers once filled with countless animals are now barren, melting off and being destroyed every day. Will future Antarctic explorers be able to witness the beautiful starlit skies of the frozen paradise or will they experience an unrecognizable realm of destruction?

The Antarctic biome is known for its extreme cold, with temperatures ranging from 20°C to -60°C depending on season and location. Precipitation is low, with Antarctica characterized as the largest desert in the world. Due to rising global temperatures, Antarctica is experiencing significant ice melts and the emergence of unexpected species for this harsh ecosystem. The harsh impacts of climate change not only change Antarctica’s physical landscape, but also the continent’s delicate life. According to Science Direct, the continent hosts a unique array of biodiversity, all adapted to the harsh environment. Antarctica is home to various species of penguins and seals such as the Emperor penguins, Chinstrap penguins, and the leopard seal. Numerous seabirds and krill in the water serve an integral part in Antarctica’s food web. Terrestrial flora is largely limited due to the extreme cold, but mosses, lichens, and grasses still manage to thrive in the more temperate areas along the peninsula.

Myth or Fact?

Antarctica has captured social media’s special attention. On September 21st, 2023, the Daily Loud posted an image of flowering plants and green grass with icebergs in the background. The caption stated: “Flowers are now starting (sic) to bloom in Antarctica and experts say this is not good news.” The caption continued, “This would be the first evidence of accelerated ecosystem response in Antarctica that is directly associated as a consequence of global warming, according to Nicoletta Cannone, a professor of ecology at the University of Insubria.” In over 4 months, the post gained roughly 13.3 million views and 62,000 likes. However, the photo and phrase are slightly inaccurate. Several news sources such as USA Today and Snopes factchecked the image and discovered it was from Greenland rather than Antarctica. In Greenland, it is common for flowers to bloom during summer-

time. The flower was also noted as Saxifraga oppositifolia (Purple saxifrage) which is frequent in the Arctic. Although the post was somewhat inaccurate, the viral spread became a symbol of global climate activism worldwide.

So are there really new flowers growing in Antarctica? Is climate change really affecting the region? Both no and yes. The trend is not about new flowers suddenly appearing across Antarctica, but it is more about the accelerated growth of Antarctica’s two native flowering plants due to climate change. Research indicates that the two native plants, Deschampsia antarctica (Antarctic hair grass) and Colobanthus quitensis (Antarctic pearlwort) have experienced significant increases in growth rate and density over the past decade compared to the previous fifty years. This change is due to the rising temperature in the region, highlighting how climate change is affecting even the most remote and resilient ecosystems on Earth.

A

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Antarctic hair grass and Antarctic pearlwort

The acceleration of these plants on Signy Island, part of the South Orkney Islands, has been documented in multiple recent studies. According to Phys.org, Deschampsia Antarctica rapidly grew across the region in a ten-year period compared to the preceding fifty years. The growth of Colobanthus quitensis was even more prevalent with the plant’s density increasing five times over the same period. Deschampsia antarctica, also known as Antarctic hair grass, is one of the only two flowering plants native to Antarctica. The plant occurs mainly along the South Orkney Islands, the South Shetland Islands, and along the western Antarctic Peninsula. The plant’s distribution is characterized by the area’s nutrient supply of soil and water distribution. The second plant species known to have accelerated growth is Colobanthus quintensis (Antarctic pearlwort), and is characterized by yellow flowers that grow around 5cm tall with a moss-like appearance. According to Newscientist, both plants are rapidly changing because of climate change. More seeds are germinating, creating a large number of seedlings and plants. The increase of these two flowering plants results in an ecosystem imbalance. With these species becoming more dominant, they might outcompete other less resilient plants and reduce biodiversity. These plants can also alter soil composition and water distribution. According to the Royal Botanical

Garden, the changed conditions that favor these native plants can also favor invasive species which will also lead to ecological disruption. Overall, these species serve as an indicator of the impacts of climate change on Antarctic ecosystems. These two plant species are benefiting from the warm weather, but the overall effects of climate change on Antarctica’s physical appearance and wildlife will be largely negative resulting in major implications for habitat loss and Antarctic food webs.

What does this mean for the Antarctic ecosystem?

These two floral species are a clear sign of the continent’s changing ecosystem dynamics. Because these two species are able to adapt to higher temperatures, they may outcompete native species. These disruptions in flowering patterns have multiple effects. For example, alterations in soil properties can affect microbial communities and the availability of certain nutrients. This consequently impacts the breeding and feeding habits of various animal species. In particular, certain invertebrates are impacted, which are crucial to Antarctica’s food web.

Antarctica’s biome is a vital component of Earth’s overall global system affecting sea levels, global temperatures, and climate patterns. Antarctica acts as a cooling system for the entire planet and regulates global climate through its impact on ocean currents. The ice sheets surrounding the ocean absorb vast amounts of CO2, thus allowing Antarctica to be a significant carbon sink. Antarctica also contains the world’s largest freshwater deposit. Saving Antarctica’s ecosystem is important for maintaining global biodiversity, researching climate change, and preserving the various scientific laboratories the area offers. The changing dynamics in this remote location show us about the interconnectedness of Earth’s ecosystems and the pressing matter to address climate change on a global scale. The message is clear: the health of our planet for future generations depends on the actions we take now to fight against climate change. Learning and protecting Antarctica’s environment is not just about a remote landscape with ice caps, it’s about preserving Earth’s balance and allowing life in general to thrive.

“Sow” Good

Regenerative Agriculture’s Recipe for a Happy Planet

by CHARLOTTE PETERSON

If you’ve seen the movie “WALL-E” you’ll have no problem picturing the environmental dystopia that could become our Earth in the next millenia. This is a world where fertile lands turn to dust, once-lush fields transform into barren wastelands, and communities are uprooted from their homes due to environmental devastation. This alarming trajectory is partly driven by centuries of unsustainable agricultural practices. But, amidst this crisis emerges a beacon of hope: regenerative agriculture. In a time when the Earth cries out for healing, regenerative agriculture offers a solution to climate change and a radical reimagining of our relationship with the land.

Regenerative agriculture is regarded as a set of farming practices that prioritize soil health in an agroecosystem through the use of diverse crop rotations, silvopastoralism, compost fertilizers, and

no-tillage planting. As defined by permaculture organization Terra Genesis International, regenerative agriculture increases biodiversity, enriches soils, improves watersheds, and enhances ecosystem services by capturing carbon in soil and aboveground biomass, ultimately reversing current global trends of atmospheric greenhouse gas accumulation.

For approximately the last 150 years humans have utilized fossil fuels for power, expelling harmful greenhouse gasses that remain in the Earth’s atmosphere and cause an unnatural level of global warming. Global temperature continues to increase by approximately 0.11° Fahrenheit per decade, causing a myriad of environmental problems including sea level rise, loss of biodiversity, ocean acidification, and drought. Climate scientists have discovered that agricultural

designed by CATIE KUEHL

production has a profound role in exacerbating a plethora of environmental crises, including global warming. Regenerative agriculture utilizes natural ecological processes to remove carbon from the atmosphere and sequesters it in the ground, increasing future soil viability and effectively ‘undoing’ climate change.

Sustainable farming methods like regenerative agriculture are presented as an alternative to modern industrial agriculture, a system characterized by monocultural, pro-tillage plantations that require the consistent application of pesticides and chemical fertilizers to maintain crop production. As a result of these techniques, once-fertile farmland is desertified, or becomes a desert. This process is incredibly damaging to terrestrial ecosystems as the intense lack of ground moisture alters the microclimate of the region. Scarily, 2/3 of the world’s lands have already undergone desertification. If agricultural production continues on this path, The United Nations predicts that the amount of topsoil left in the world will be fully dissipated in the coming sixty years. Environmental degradation at this scale and severity inevitably leads to humanitarian issues as people can no longer sustain life on these arid lands and are forced to relocate. In essence, they become climate refugees.

World with the upheaval of indigenous farming traditions in the Americas, as well as in Africa with the displacement of African farmers as enslaved persons. This means that the entire modern agrarian philosophy is rooted in colonialism and structural racism.

Liz Carlisle, Assistant Professor of Environmental Studies at the University of California, Santa Barbara, details her interpretations of regenerative agriculture in her novel “Healing Grounds”. Carlisle explains that beyond playing a significant part in carbon drawdown, regenerative agriculture functions as an entirely novel framework to critique modern agriculture.

“If we can understand that this extractive logic got going with the genocide of Indigenous people and their regenerative food systems, with slavery and removal of African people from their regenerative food systems to come and work in these plantation systems [then] we understand that that’s the root of the problem.” Carlisle continues, “Then we understand that what we need to do is work together with these IIndigenous communities and communities of color to argue for a more regenerative reciprocal food system in which there’s a place for us all.”

Many thinkers in the regenerative farming movement and related facets of the contemporary agricultural revolution consider these harmful farming techniques to have originated post-World War II, as the Industrial Revolution began and capitalism took hold of many Western societies. Contrary to this, industrialized agriculture began soon as European colonists “discovered” the New

This revelation points out the aforementioned roots of colonialism and racism that must be challenged in food system reform movements. Carlisle proposes that communities can revive their ancestral, regenerative farming practices as a conscious effort to respond to environmental degradation and combat structural racism.

Related to regenerative agriculture, there is an increasingly popular school of agricultural thought dubbed agroecology. It can be regarded as a school

of thought because, contrary to regenerative agriculture, agroecology goes beyond farming practices to address the sociopolitical dimensions of agriculture.

There are three main frameworks for regenerative agriculture: philosophy; development; and corporate. Put simply, philosophy regenerative agriculture is the embodiment of holistic farming practices that emphasize harmony with nature, though it does not involve political activism as agroecology does. Development regenerative agriculture refers to soil restoration practices in smallholder agriculture contexts as part of broader rural development efforts. Finally, corporate regenerative agriculture comes from multinational and local corporations that emphasize agronomic practices such as conservation tillage, often presented as part of their corporate sustainability programs and/or brand identity.

General Mills is one corporation that has embraced a regenerative agriculture model. The company serves as a case study to prove that regenerative agriculture is a profitable business practice. The authors of this research study mention Gabe Brown’s success story, as he was consistently able to produce a 200% higher gross profit per acre and a 20% increase in bushel production using regenerative practices on his 5,000 acres in Bismarck, North Dakota. Beyond benefiting the environment and farmers, the adoption of regenerative agriculture translates to economic returns for companies. With lower costs, more stable production, and more consumer sales, regenerative agriculture is beneficial to all.

While this fact further encourages the adoption of regenerative agriculture as an alternative to modern industrial practices, corporate regenerative agriculture exhibits the lowest potential to contribute to sustainable development of the socio-ecosystems as compared with the other two types. The reality is that companies will implement few agronomic strategies in isolation such as cover cropping, no-tillage, or mulching on large areas of single crop species, typically still relying heavily on external inputs like pesticides, fertilizers, and GMOs. Recall that the ultimate goal of regenerative agriculture is to replicate harmonious natural systems in order to reciprocally benefit the land as well as the people.

Though this approach is a gateway to corporate awareness of regenerative farming practices, it is not the best path to a truly equitable and sustainable future. It’s important to remain weary of corporations that will stretch the truth in order to appear “greener” to consumers. This act of attempting to present a responsible public image without changing production practices is called greenwashing. To effectively adopt these practices on a global scale a complete reformulation of the agricultural system is essential.

This restructuring is a massive undertaking that requires the collaboration of economic actors, research, and policymakers. However, individual consumers may also play a significant role in this reform. It is important to build a relationship with the land as an individual, which takes many forms. One example is preparing cultural foods and sharing the experience with your friends and family. Carlisle recommends becoming civically engaged as a regenerative agriculture advocate by attending school board or city council meetings and engaging with important legislation like the Farm Bill. Additionally, become involved in and join the mailing list of organizations like HEAL Food Alliance, National Sustainable Agriculture Coalition, California Climate and Agriculture Network, or Community Alliance with Family Farmers is another way to advocate for regenerative agriculture. Finally, there are numerous sustainable farming initiatives at the local level. Notably, the Berkeley Student Farms employ agroecological strategies to grow food and advocate for a sustainable future governed by principles of food sovereignty.

Ultimately, in the face of looming environmental challenges and the urgent need for transformative action, regenerative agriculture emerges as a beacon of hope. It not only offers a solution to climate change but also prompts a fundamental reconsideration of our relationship with the land. As we stand at this pivotal moment in history, the choice is clear. We must embrace regenerative agriculture as a pathway to a greener, more sustainable future. The power to effect change lies not only in the hands of policymakers and corporations but also in the actions of individuals who can advocate for regenerative practices and cultivate a deeper connection to the land. Together, we can work towards a world where agriculture nourishes both the planet and its people, fostering resiliency and harmony for generations to come.

designed by JANE GRUMANN

Environmental Injustice in Palestine

by TIVA GANDHI

History of Palestine

British Mandate and Arab-Jewish Tensions

Beginning prior to World War I, the region of Palestine was conquered by the Ottomans, a Muslim non-Arab-speaking populace. The Ottomans held sway over Mecca, Medina, and Jerusalem which was inhabited by a diverse population including Muslims, Christians, and a minority of Jews.

In 1881, Russian Tsar Alexander II castigated the Jewish population for problems, such as the assassination of Russian Tsar Alexander II, in the country, leading to a surge of anti-Semitic sentiments. It was amidst this persecution that the dream of returning to the biblical “Land of Israel” and the concept of Zionism and an Eretz Israel (Greater Israel) began to grow. Zionism is the nationalist movement aimed at establishing a Jewish national state on the “ancient homeland of the Jews,” known as Palestine. A common phrase associated with Zionism is “a land for people for a people without land.”Regarding the slogan, University of California, Berkeley professor of history and Chancellor’s Chair Ussama Makdisi explains, “Christian Zionists in the 18th and 19th century, remember it was entirely an abstraction, they were reading the Bible in North America or in England or in Scotland. They weren’t really thinking about Palestinians on the ground or Palestine on the ground…they imagined it as a place that had been empty, that was abandoned…empty of relevant humanity.”

The end of World War I marked the fall of the Ottoman Empire and its dominion over Palestine. Dr. Makdisi explains that the British “were the principle, sort of, imperial force after World War I…the fiction is that the British and the French were going to lead or help lead these peoples who lived in the Ottoman empire towards self-determination.” As the dust settled on World War I, the British government pledged “a national home for the Jewish people” in Palestine with the understanding that “nothing shall be done which may harm the civil and religious rights of existing non-Jewish communities.” Dr. Makdisi explains that through the Balfour Declaration, “unlike all the other mandates, in Palestine, the British commits itself to Zionism.” As for the rights of the Palestinians, Dr. Makdisi explains, “the British claim they are going to protect the civil, not the political, but the

civil and religious rights of existing non-Jewish communities.” Britain’s involvement was driven by ulterior strategic interests for the Suez Canal which served as the main route for oil transportation to India. Dr. Makdisi continues, “The reality is that the British and the French wanted to rule this region but rule behind what they call an ‘Arab facade’.” He defined the Arab Facade as a figurehead government where an Arab person looks to be in charge while the British or French have actual power over the region.

Palestinian National Movement and Arab Revolts

The Riots of 1929 marked a pivotal turning point in the region, characterized by heightened tensions fueled by several factors. The burgeoning Zionist economy contributed to these tensions, as did the government’s efforts to instill fear within the fragmented Arab community. Moreover, a religious dispute over the Wailing Wall in Jerusalem escalated to extreme violence between Jews amongst Jewish and Arab communities, with a stronger Zionist presence throughout Palestine, and an exacerbated fervor for the conquest of land.

Amidst these developments, The Palestinian national movement was also strengthening. The rise of Hitler to power in Germany prompted an influx of Jewish people to flee to Palestine, creating tensions between indigenous Palestinians and the influx of Jewish people across various sectors particularly in farming. Ownership of land was increasingly contentious as Jewish settlements expanded “with the encouragement of … Jewish institutions as the Palestine Jewish Colonization Association[an organization focused on Jewish interests, predating the Zionist organization], the Palestine Land Development Company, and the Jewish National Fund.” During the worldwide economic depression of 1929, the challenges further compounded when farmers fell into debt, with one-third of rural Palestinian men forced to find work outside of their villages.

Peel Partition Plan and Local Revolts

As tensions escalated, the Arab Revolts that began in 1936 intensified violence between Arabs and Jews in Palestine. Palestinians initiated boycotts and spearheaded attacks against the British authorities, as well as Jewish communities and businesses. In response to the violence, the League of Nations, under the guidance of the British govern-

ment’s appointed official, Robert Peel, intervened and established the Peel Partition Plan. This plan concluded for two separate states, as it was deemed “there is no common ground between [the Arab and Jewish populations]”.

Just a year later, local commanders and peasants led the Arab Revolts (1936-1939) against Jewish settlements and British forces, motivated by resentment toward large landowners suspected to be Jewish and Arabs accused of collaborating with the British. Despite the revolt against the settlement, resulted the Jewish communities established thirty new Jewish settlements even though none were destroyed.

The onset of the Civil War in Palestine (November 1947-May 1948), coincided with the British announcement of their departure from Palestine for five months. This result precipitated fighting between the Arabs and Jewish forces, particularly the Haganah (Zionist militia) seizing evacuated British installations and “[carrying] out the ‘destruction and expulsion or occupation’ of Arab villages in the future Jewish state.” During this attack, on April 9th, 1948,\\\\\\ the Deir Yassin Massacre occurred where the Jewish paramilitary destroyed a Palestinian Arab village west of Jerusalem.

While the interpretations vary, revisionist history asserts the Jewish agency turned a blind eye to the Deir Yassin Massacre, despite some perpetrators being reprimanded, as the primary goal was to compel tens of thousands of Palestinians to flee the area.

May 14, 1948, marked the birth of Israel, “a Jewish state established by and for the Jewish people.” This proclamation was followed by three phases of fighting, resulting in the loss of 6,000 Israelis and 400,000 Palestinian Arabs fleeing to Gaza and the West Bank. While Israel perceived this war as a struggle for liberation, for Palestinians, it marked the Nakba, or catastrophe. Israel realized the advantage of direct action rather than diplomacy in this conflict.

Aftermath and Consequences

Under UN supervision, Israel and neighboring Arab states signed the following Armistice Agreements: (1) Confirming pre-war borders for Israel and Egypt, with leaving Gaza under Egyptian

military rule. (2) Jordan’s King retained control over the West Bank, including the Old City of Jerusalem (3) A buffer zone was established between Israel and Syria. Internally, Israel decided to restrain refugees from returning to their land. Some likened that the “Gaza Strip resembled a vast concentration camp.”

For Palestinians, the Nakba engendered feelings of defeat and displacement, but this would indirectly foster the strengthening of Palestinian nationalism. The Palestinians also realized that they could not rely on Arab regimes for liberation. Conversely, Israel strengthened their nation by increasing their numbers, establishing the Law of Return in 1950, and giving any Jewish person the right to Israeli citizenship. . Arab nations increasingly feared their Jewish citizens to be Zionists, forcing Mizrahi (North African and Middle Eastern) Jews to flee to Israel. Abandoning their belongings, the Jewish people settled in the homes abandoned by the Palestinian Arabs who fled during the Nakba.

The Six-Day War and Consequences

The Israeli state was constructed through a cultural emphasis on Hebrew and received foreign aid from the United States and reparations from West Germany. While the Israeli state flourished, the Arab nations such as Egypt, Syria, and Iraq lost power through this defeat, fueling a desire for retribution. Amidst the escalating tensions, Israel launched Operation Black Arrow, resulting in the deaths of 38 Egyptian soldiers in Gaza. Consequently, the Egyptian leader sought to purchase arms, angering the United States and Britain. This prompted the Suez War (1956) which resulted in Egypt gaining control over the Suez Canal, evoking the Six-Day War (1967), which had devastating impacts on the Palestinians. Following the battles between Israel and Egypt, Syria, Jordan, Gaza and the West Bank came under Israeli control.

UN Resolution 242, passed unanimously in November 1967, called for: “the withdrawal of Israeli armed forces from territories occupied in the recent conflict” and affirmed “every State in the area and their right to live in peace within secure and recognized boundaries, free from threats or acts of force.” This resolution sparked numerous discussions of what peace in the area meant, including debates about Israel returning territory

to the Arab nations.

Six years later, the Egyptian and Syrian governments launched a surprise attack on the day of Yom Kippur, initiating the Yom Kippur War (1973) in an attempt to reclaim the lost land. The Israeli army retaliated, leading to Israel withdrawing from Sinai and gaining state recognition from Egypt, which left the Palestinians more vulnerable.

Israeli power over the territory resulted in Palestinian homes being demolished to build a Jewish Quarter in the Old City, following the eviction and compensation for Palestinians to leave. Israeli Defense Minister Dayan implemented a policy called “normalization” to quell unrest by restoring civilian life and hiding the occupation. Additionally, Israel implemented a permit system that required permission to open businesses, plant a citrus or olive tree, and obtain driver’s licenses.

Israel viewed the occupied territory as crucial for its fertile land, and abundant water aquifers, and to establish a buffer zone between Israel and Jordan. By 1985, numerous Palestinians were working menial jobs in Israel because of the lack of opportunities within the occupied territories. The resulting conditions of forced dependence on Israel played a significant role in igniting the First Intifada.

Before and After the Six Day War, 1996. BBC

Palestinian Resistance (1967-1987)

After the Six-Day War, Palestinians faced regular monitoring, torture, home demolitions, and deportations, while refugee camps filled with peo-

ple. Fatah emerged as the largest resistance group, which grew within refugee camps. Yasser Arafat led Fatah: his main goal was to encourage Palestinians to stay on their land and participate in various acts of civil disobedience.

Because of a lack of participation, organization, and network, the original Fatah operations were a fail. However, they proved Palestinian willpower. Eventually, Fatah established military bases in Jordan and within three months they carried out 78 attacks on Israeli targets. In the Battle of Karameh (March 21, 1968) Fatah took many fatal blows but still stood their ground. This is when the image of the keffiyeh became a symbol of empowered fighters and when Fatah took the reins of the Palestinian Liberation Organization (PLO). By the early 1980s, the refugees in southern Lebanon had established newspapers, hospitals, and a bureaucracy.

Hostility grew as the PLO raided/bombed Israeli targets and the Popular Front for the Liberation of Palestine (PFLP) managed attacks on a more global scale and Israel responded with attacks on Palestinian bases. The attacks on the Palestinian bases often hurt many innocent Palestinians who lived in the nearby refugee camps. The PLO was often branded as a terrorist organization but still drew much attention to the Palestinian cause leading to Arafat’s invitation to the United Nations in 1974. His words gained sympathy as he asked for a small separate Palestinian state, but didn’t contribute to a peaceful resolution, rather anger from Israel.

When a Palestinian group attempted the murder of an Israeli ambassador, Israel could carry out an attack on the PLO. This attack killed thousands of Palestinian and Lebanese civilians and left hundreds of thousands homeless. A Palestinian youth was shot by an Israeli soldier at a Palestinian funeral which lead to massive reliation and demonstrations by Palestinians in Gaza and the West Bank.

First Intifada (1987-93)

The murder of that child set off the First Intifada. However, the motive of the First Intifada was the increase of violence against Palestinians, the “iron fist” approach by the Israeli government on Palestinian retaliation, the closure of many Palestinian schools, and discrimination of Palestinians within Israel. Palestinian men, women, and youth became heavily involved in creating their own schools

when established schools were shut down and providing welfare to families of martyrs.

The Unified National Leadership of the Uprising (UNLU) organized demonstrations and protests. Mobilized communities held demonstrations such as boycotting Israeli produce and replacing it with locally grown produce. Israel responded by cutting off energy and water, mass beatings, house demolitions, imprisonment, rubber bullets, tear gas, and “harsh interrogation”. This was globally displayed.

The PLO declared independence in November 1988 and demanded the establishment of a Palestinian country alongside Israel. Hamas, the Islamic Resistance Movement, emerged soon after nounced Israel’s right to express their comto full Palestinian libWhile the declaration directly met with a lution, it became clear Israel’s current methwere too expensive, nancially and morally.

The Oslo Accords

The Israeli prime minand the PLO chairmet to set a Declaraof Principles within Oslo Accords (1993). Meant to be an “interim” agreement, only agreements made the Intifada and have withdraw from Gaza Jericho. While Palestine would recognize the state of Israel, only the PLO was recognized, not a Palestinian state. Many questions related to Palestinian liberation, refugees, established borders, more were left for a

vent terrorism in their land. These accords set borders within the West Bank. Area A consists of 3% of the area which included Ramallah, Bethlehem, Nablus, Hebron, Jenin, Tukaram, and Qalqilya; this area was under the control of Palestinian Authority. Area B consists of 23% of the area with two layers of power; the PA were responsible for maintaining civility, but Israel had overall authority. Area C consists of 74% of the area which would be under direct control of Israel.

This lessened the burden of caring for Palestinian needs from the Israeli government. Palestinians felt free to roam their cities and the PA was finally internationally recognized. Regarding control of water, Dr. Makdisi said, “It’s not that they gave Israel control over ter. Israel already had control over through occupation of the West Bank in 1967. They already had control over aquifers.”

The Oslo II Accords (1995) established authority to the Palestinian Authority (PA) to handle and pre-

While there was immense support for the peace process, the peace process of the Accords caved in by 2000. Within the Oslo cords, Palestine had en up many of their gaining chips and Isdeveloped a network of road that limited the passage of Palestinians within their own borders, no longer relied Palestinian labor, and fectively controlled domestic and international economy for Paltine. “Israel continued control the water. Israel controlled the air space. Israel controlled borders. Israel conIsrael controlled the Dr. Makdisi explains, “They were catastrophic accords…Israel just used it to continue to colonize the West Bank and East

Jerusalem which is what happened. And that led to an extraordinary sense of embitterment on the part of the Palestinians who felt that they were misled by the Israelis and their own government.” The increase in Israel power led to heightened Palestinian vulnerability which paved the rise in Hamas support.

Consequently, Hamas launched many attacks on Israeli territories which were met by increased checkpoints and roadblocks. Under new Israeli Prime Minister, Benjamin Netanyahu, the Israeli government built 6,500 new homes within East Jerusalem’s Arab land; expansion was justified through the lens of security. Area A was constantly surveilled and built around because there was fear of attack from those regions. As the tension heightened once again, PA lost power because Palestinians doubted the PA’s ability to protect Palestinian interests and Israelis doubted their ability to subdue violent extremists. Ehud Barak, the leader of the Israeli Labour Party, attempted to reconcile differences between Palestine and Israel, but failed incredibly leaving both nations more at odds with each other.

estinians, and the implementation of checkpoints made it increasingly difficult for Palestinians to move freely enough to find work. Since violence on both sides was televised, public opinion became increasingly polarized.

Israel used helicopter gunshots to fire at militant groups such as Hamas, militant factions of Fatah and Islamic Jihad, but those shot often harmed civilians nearby. The victory of Ariel Sharon in the 2001 election set a tone of an “iron wall”. Simultaneously, Hamas escalated their suicide bombing campaign because of the growing belief that this was the only weapon they had to secure their own rights. During the Second Intifada, fewer Palestinians were involved, but the swift response of assassinations by the Israeli government created this cycle of violence marked bysuicide bombings and assassinations.

Second Intifada (2000-2005)

A highly contentious site is a sacred area within Jerusalem; Jews call the location Temple Mount and Muslims call it Haram al-Sharif. When Ariel Sharon (current leader of the Likud Opposition Party) led a tour of the location, Palestinians were threatened by the audacity of his actions which symbolized his desire to take that land from Palestine. Demonstrations quickly ensued. Palestinians threw stones at Jewish worshippers over the wailing wall and were met with violence from Israeli troops.

The Second Intifada started with many nonviolent protests but faced incredibly violent Israeli repression. Daily life continued to worsen for Pal-

Sharon took a hardline approach to Palestinians and the islamaphobic fear of terrorism. For security, Sharon presented the idea of a separation wall was raised. Unfortunately, this separation wall cut people from their own land and livelihoods and worsened the living conditions in Palestine. The Israeli government decided to exchange Gaza for the West Bank because of the worsening conditions in Gaza, but this exchange denied Palestinians of their desire for 1967 borders and “right of return.”

During all these events, including the death of Arafat due to health reasons, Palestinian support of Hamas grew. In 2006, Hamas won elections for the PLC. In order to continue receiving financial assistance (from the US, EU, Russia and the UN) Hamas had to formally recognize Israel, accept previous agreements between Israel and Palestine and cease violence. However, since Hamas refused those conditions, the PA didn’t have the funds to pay thousands of PA employees. This led to a surge

in tension between Hamas and Fatah for power over Palestine which ended in Hamas having control over the entire area. At the same time, dependence on Israel for supplies such as electricity proliferated.

The Gaza War (December 2008 - January 2009) While supposedly aiming for Hamas bases and under the guise of self-defense, Israeli forces attacked Gaza. The UN declared that over 4 thousand homes and about 600 factories were destroyed. About 1,400 Gazans and 13 Israelis were killed; the UN concluded Israel and Hamas were guilty of war crimes with Israel specifically guilty of disproportionately terrorizing civilian Gazans. Following its attacks, Israel also blocked access to materials for Gazans to rebuild their land. However, Barack Obama’s victory in the 2008 American presidential elections ushered a wave of hope for peace between the nations.

Post 2009

The 2009 Israeli elections elected Prime Minister Netanyahu who established a right-wing government. With the strong US Israel lobby, Netanyahu could ignore Obama’s desire to halt settlement building. 130 nations recognized Palestine’s statehood by 2020, but these recognitions have done little to help Palestinians. Netanyahu increased settlement building and the Israeli NGO Peace Now concluded that the Netanyahu Administration is no longer willing to accept a two-state solution.

The region saw an increased division among Palestinians and Israelis. Within Israel, the government sought to divide Palestinian Israelis from Jewish Israelis as evidenced by the passage of Israel’s Nation-State Law (2018); the law stated, “The Land of Israel is the historical homeland of the Jewish people, in which the State of Israel was established…The right to exercise national self-determination in the State of Israel is unique to the Jewish people.”

The Trump Administration appealed to pro-Israeli sentiments and stated he would work towards a peace settlement between Israel and Palestine. Steps Trump took along the way included cutting the funding of the PA and United Nations Relief and Work Agency for Palestine Refugees and proclaiming that the Israeli settlements are not “necessarily illegal”.

The Trump Administration’s final plan highlighted that Israel would annex the Jordan Valley and over 30% of the West Bank leaving Palestinians with a state beside Jerusalem. This two-state solution would increase Israel’s network of roads, military bases, and tunnels while Palestinians would lose access to water and agricultural lands. Made evidently unfair, Palestinians rejected the deal framing them to be rejectionists.

Currently, the Israeli army controls the natural resources within the West Bank or Area C. Some religious nationalists are developing settlements within the West Bank on the premise of continuing the goal of Eretz Israel. The Separation Wall also created a physical divide among Israelis and Palestinians making the Palestinian cause easier to ignore. With little foreign support, Palestinians are heavily dependent on Israel for electricity, water, and more. All the while living in diseased and impoverished conditions.

Violence and resistance continued throughout the years. When the Israeli government government collapsed, a year after electing a new president, Netayahu was reelected. About a year later, Hamas fired rockets and sent fighters from Gaza killing one-thousand three hundred Israelis and taking over one-hundred fifty hostages (October 7th, 2023). Now many Palestinians are being murdered and displaced.

Environmentalism in Palestine

The injustice the Palestinian people face can also be tracked and analyzed through an environmental lens, as, environmental control of Palestine is one of the Israeli government’s means of maintaining control.

The conflict in Palestine/Israel has always been a problem of land. Who has rights and sovereignty of the land? Who has access to the land? Who doesn’t?

Throughout history, the environment has been a tool in this conflict over territory. Environmental injustice features maldistribution of goods and environmental protection specifically among the disadvantaged, marginalized and occupied. Additionally, environmental control features settler colonialism which seeks to replace settlements

through destruction.

Hydropolitics, agricultural devastation and a manufactured dependence on Israel are some of the environmental injustices that Palestinians face.

Hydropolitics

The division of water is a large source of contention and inequity within the Israeli/Palestinian region, which is affected by a moisture deficit and high reliance on groundwater.

The World Health Organization states that on average an individual should get 100 liters of water per day for drinking, showering, and other basic daily needs. Currently, Israel blocks access to the Jordan River (which has decreased in volume and increased pollution) and water wells, meanwhile having control over the Coastal Aquifer and Mountain Aquifer in Palestine.

Israel keeps 87% of the water from the aquifers for their own citizens, allowing Israelis 300 liters of water per day per person. The Palestinian city of Ramallah, on the other hand, receives 80 liters of water per person per day. In Gaza, the bombing campaigns leave the Palestinians with 2-3 liters of contaminated water per person per day.

While the impact of water scarcity runs far and wide, infrastructure, disease and sovereignty rank highly among these issues.

The root of disease and sovereignty problems is infrastructure. As displayed in the map, the region is divided into Area A, B and C. The Palestinian city of Al-Auja has a partial A status, allowing for infrastructure developments that are unattainable in other villages in the Jordan Valley which lie in Area C. Infrastructure developments are hindered through destruction by the Israeli army on the grounds that the infrastructure is “illegal”. 270 water/sewage facilities have been destroyed by the Israeli Army. Furthermore, Ronnie Barkan, an Israeli activist for Palestinian liberation, explains, “The occupied ‘Palestinian’ territory, they divert water from those occupied territories, stealing them, not only stealing the land and so one, also stealing the underground resources.”

Palestinians also struggle with water sovereignty. Barkan explains, “The Dead Sea which is regarded

as one of the wonders of the world, and Israel has by law privatized the Dead Sea. And, it is owned by a private company which they can do with as they see fit. They have carved out the sea.” The commercialization and resulting devastation of the Dead Sea is exemplary of how Israel treats its environment and how little regard is left for the negative impacts.

Satellite images of the Dead Sea showing its progressively lower water levels: 1972 (left), 1989 (centre), 2011 (right). NASA/Landsat

Beyond existing infrastructure, Israeli officials stop Palestinians from drilling new wells, expanding current wells, and installing pumps. Israel withholds permits for wastewater treatment plants causing many of the rural homes, which lack sewage systems, to pollute groundwater. Israel also maintains control over two Palestinian aquifers keeping 87% of the water for their citizens. Recent blockades have restricted fuel and energy from desalination plants leaving the water in Gaza undrinkable. After taking the majority of the water, Israel sells the water back to them at higher prices meanwhile they can grow a strong agricultural economy with the water. As a result, Palestine has the choice between polluted water and expensive water from Israel.

Trucking is the main means of delivering said water, but due to the recent increase in airstrikes, these trucks have been interrupted, and access to water has decreased. It is important to note that “among Palestinians, access also varies widely: many rural households lack piped water, and some receive as little as 20 liters per capita per day from tankers” (McKee).

Relating to water infrastructure, wastewater is widespread and mismanaged. About 3,000m³ of wastewater flows from Jenin, a city in the West Bank, to the Wadi al-Muqatta’at stream a day. With the treatment infrastructure in place, the Palestinian cities of Ramallah and al-Bireh only can treat 300 m³ of contaminated water a day. This leaves

Palestinians with heavily polluted water and little to no clean water to go around.

As a result of poor infrastructure, over 90% of homes in Palestine use untreated water, which is responsible for the widespread of disease. Before October 7th, The Guardian reported 1 in 4 children suffering from diarrheal disease. Women are specifically vulnerable to water-borne diseases as they are often responsible for caring for children and ill relatives. One story recounts a five-yearold boy who died in 2017 after he swam in a Gazan beach contaminated by sewage

As the Israeli economy grows, Palestinians are forced to rely on Israel for something as basic as water. As a local activist for the Palestinian cause, Heather DeMastro, explains, “They’ve always been a very strong, self-sufficient people, especially when you look at education, and transmitting their culture to the youth.” So when the water supply is cut from the Palestinian people, it is more than the physical needs of water. Water is used to grow the foods that built Palestinian culture and by withholding water, there is a loss of culture based in agriculture.

Agricultural Disparity

Palestinian oppression is intimately tied to agriculture. The biodiversity, agricultural landscape, and culture of Palestinian land are actively imperiled. According to Dr. McKee, “Many appreciated a subsistence economy with less reliance on cash, eating produce “for free” from their own and neighbors’ fields.” This communal sense of living is centered around agriculture. “The Keffiyeh, that became this political symbol, it was something that farmers wore when working because it protected them from the sun and it protected them from the rain in the winter,” Dr. Alzaroo explained.

When Palestinians had better control over their land, farmers were able to rotate between a variety of crops including corn, cabbage, onions, okra, and more. Many crops, specifically saber, al-burtuqal, and olive trees hold significant value to the Palestinian people who have been cultivating them for years.

Saber, a cactus, holds symbolic values of resilience, patience, and struggle. The resilience is defined by the cactus that survives the moun-

tainous, rugged terrain and through droughts. Patience is integrated within society through the word “saber,” which translates to “patience,” and proverbs based on the patience of a cactus. Finally, the struggle of the saber is derived from the sweetness of the fruit lying beneath its many thorns. Beyond the symbol, the saber is embedded within the land, as the saber acts as protective fencing since the thorns were incredibly painful and difficult to remove. The familial aspect of the saber comes from the dangerous thorns encouraging elders, typically fathers, to cut the fruit as the family watches and later eats.

Al-burtuqal, or the orange, symbolizes the loss endured in 1948, which is built from the takeover of many orange groves and the “Jaffa Orange”. Oranges used to be an important Palestinian export, and they had become a symbol of pride, but through the takeover, Israel integrated the orange to become a symbol of Israeli success.

A crop that holds incredible significance is the olive tree. In Palestine, the olive tree is symbolic of nationalism and attachment to the land and history. Olive trees have been harvested on Palestinian land since 8,000 BC, and much of the traditional Palestinian diet contains olive oil and wheat. “The olive oil produced in the region,” Dr. Makdisi explains, “is extraordinarily famous. It has a sense of being rooted. There is a sense of rootedness in an olive tree.” The current state of the olive trees is best described by UCLA professor, Saree Makdisi: “as with the people, so with the trees they had once cared for— 40 thousand acres of fertile olive trees were uprooted and destroyed in the years after 1948.”

The symbolic and practical significance of these crops within Palestine is illustrative of the long history the Palestinian people have with their land. Barkan explains, “The oranges became an Israeli symbol. Same goes for the cactus fruit. They made it into a ‘Oh this is an image of an Israeli, prickly on the outside, sweet on the inside’. But, they made it all into Israeli symbols which were all Palestinian symbols.”

Importantly, Palestinians’ lack of access to safe water heavily impacts their ability to care for their land through agriculture. When Israel began to occupy Gaza and the West Bank in 1967, the restrictions on water led many Palestinians

to abandon their own land to work in Israel as wage laborers.

Additionally, Dr. Alzaroo explains, “In the West Bank, one of the biggest problems we have is the destruction of settlements. Even if [Israel] wanted the land for agricultural purposes, they would take the top of the hill. They would dig into the land at the top of the hill to construct buildings and expand the settlements slowly.” Many of the crops crucial to Palestinian culture and survival are under constant threat.

Native plants and vegetation have been decreasing — part of a broader decline in Palestinian biodiversity. According to Mckee, Al-Auja’s landscape consisted of “large fallow fields”, greenhouses, and vegetation. Palestinian communities structured their ways of life around what would suit the land and biodiversity among them, however, that is no longer the case. Decreasing biodiversity is attributed to the hydropolitics mentioned above and a loss in the sovereignty of the land.

The struggle for autonomy appears once again since the disparity in agriculture creates the problem of food insecurity. Furthermore, the agri-economy is stunted because the extensive checkpoints and border control restrict proper movement outside the borders.

Climate Resilience in Palestine

According to The Unions of Concerned Scientists, climate resilience is the ability to successfully cope with and manage the impacts of climate change while preventing those impacts from getting worse. While Palestine is incredibly polluted, especially with water bottles, one cannot ignore the Palestinian environmental movements.

The struggle between facing displacement and continuing to live life has led to an evolving spa-

tial distribution. A study of architecture in Palestine, conducted in June 2023, explores architecture developed in Area C focusing on Bedouin’s portable tents, barracks, and caravans.

The tents have the capability to allow for migration throughout the seasons while providing shelter from various climates. The tents express a cultural element of Palestinian life as they welcome guests. Barracks compensate for rainwater penetration with sloped ceilings and are insulated with Oriented Strand Boards and wooden sheets. Caravans are built to encompass rooms such as bedrooms, kitchens, and more. To handle the seasons, the caravans have sloped roofs, drain pipes, windows, and proper insulation. Building these homes continues to get more expensive as Palestinians are forced to rely on Israel to buy most of their materials.

Occupation has stunted their historically semi-nomadic lifestyles, but Palestinians demonstrate remarkable resilience. The relationship Palestinians have with their land reflects that of mutualism as their survival “is directly associated with the amount of livelihood resources available, the adequacy of the infrastructure provided, the measure of social security available, and the adaptation to natural context and climate.” The architecture explained above only provides one example of the immense effort put in by Palestinians to survive the harshness of climate change whilst being under occupation.

Another example of sustainability innovation based on fitting the environment is the use of solar panels. From satellite imagery, the Center for Strategic and International Studies has observed that there are 12,400 rooftop solar systems in Gaza which could be the highest density of solar panels. Before October 7th, about six to eight hours of energy are powered through solar panels each day. Unfortunately, fighting has impaired the solar panels that have powered Gaza and cut many other sources of electricity.

A CSIS provided satellite comparison of solar infrastructure along the Gaza coastline in early August 2023 and early November 2023. CENTNER FOR STRATEGIC AND INTERNATIONAL STUDIES (FORBES)

Dr. Alzaroo explains the movement to increase familiarity between the youth and the land since the occupation. Personally, she explains, “My grand-

mother is from Jerusalem…my entire side from my grandmother’s side, we didn’t get to know the way my mom did.” To this side, she explains the resurgence for understanding that the political issues in Palestine are one of the land and therefore connecting Palestinian youth with ancestral land.

Why Environmental Crimes Are Less Visible

The severe injustice faced by the Palestinian people mostly goes unpunished. Although many social and political factors play a role in the dismissal of Israel’s crimes, the average person may be unaware of Israel’s environmental crimes because of greenwashing. ClientEarth describes greenwashing as the use of “advertising and public messaging to appear more climate-friendly and environmentally sustainable than it really is.”

Israel’s main act of greenwashing is its national forests. The effect of the Israeli occupation on Palestinian lands is that the land “was a hybrid of social and natural processes—as much the result of culture as of nature in a raw sense—that had coevolved over centuries.”

National forests are tourist attractions that create a spiritual ambiance within the Holy Land and present East Jerusalem as a recreational location rather than a political one. However, these national forests cover the Palestinian settlements that used to be in their place and further the colonial sentiment that people are distant from nature. Barkan expresses, “This was done literally to cover up the crime, the remains of those 530 destroyed villages.”

The model followed by the JNF and Israel has been one of reclamation rather than conservation because “they are planting trees and often they plant pine trees which are not native to the region, and because the region is arid,” Dr. Alzaroo explains, “and a brush fire happens, somebody starts a campfire and it ends up leading to wildfires.” Pine trees were planted assuming they would survive with the scarce water in the area and Dr. Alzaroo elaborates, “(European Jews) were used to the greenery of Europe.” However, due to the oily nature of the eucalyptus trees, wildfires have increased in the past 5 years and the environment has been introduced to toxins.

Solutions

“Just from me being in the West Bank and growing up there, I am not quite sure how a two-state solution would work anymore. There’s a lot of people who say a two-state solution is dead. I think that that is true,” said Dr. Lubna Alzaroo, “the only possibility I can think of is that in the end, it will be a one-state solution and it will be something more resembling … apartheid South Africa,” said Dr. Lubna.

“What’s bad for Palestinian people, ultimately is the fact that they don’t have freedom, they don’t have rights, they are being oppressed, they live in incredible–looks what going on in Gaza, there is a genocide, annihilation, obliteration in Gaza,” explained Dr. Makdisi. When asked what will help Palestinians achieve environmental justice, Dr. Makdisi responded, “Freedom. Freedom and liberation and justice and equality. I don’t know what that means in terms of environmental justice, but there is no such thing as environmental justice without justice for people. And that’s the reality.”

“A complete abandonment of the Oslo Accords needs to happen. Unfortunately, the Oslo Accords took many more of their land rights and more of their rights to natural resources,” DeMastro explains, “Israel has decided to pick and choose which parts of Oslo they want to follow, so basically Oslo has been abandoned, but only certain aspects of it are being enforced by the occupier. So, in order for [Palestinians] to really freely, truly their land rights and their natural resource rights we need to have Oslo completely dismantled.”

In the end, for Palestinians to have environmental justice, Palestinians have to be equal. There cannot be justice without equality and there cannot be equality without justice. As the fight for their sovereignty continues it is important to remember what is on the line for the Palestinian people.

by PALOMA HASHEMI

What if there existed a multi-national system of organized crime responsible for destroying communities, ending bloodlines, and killing and capturing victims who were physically unable to speak up for themselves?

It does exist; it’s the poaching industry.

Poaching is defined as illegally killing or capturing wild animals. What started as a small-scale practice that individuals resorted to for food and

other vital resources is now a multi-billion dollar industry, and they’ve gone global. According to the World Wide Fund for Nature, there isn’t a single country worldwide that doesn’t have a poaching problem.

The wildlife trade industry is larger and more complex than most would expect. Market hunters poach to get money from clients, but what motivates those clients to hire them?

design by FRANCESCA MARCHETTI

It’s supply and demand. Lions, tigers, and other large cats are valued for their skins, teeth, claws, and bones. The ivory from elephant tusks is used in anything from piano keys to silverware to furniture. Rhino horn is seen as a magical cure for various ailments. Gorillas are prized for their meat, a delicacy in many countries, and body parts, which are displayed like trophies.

For many species, poaching is a leading cause of endangerment and predicted extinction. Take elephants, for example. By 2025, the gentle giants we saw in Disney movies and bedtime stories might become just that – stories.

If it has feathers, fur, skin, or scales, poachers will find a way to profit from the animal’s death. Extinction is an unfortunate outcome in and of itself, but the degradation of biodiversity is an even bigger concern. Mass extinction of species in poaching hotspots could lead to higher rates of disease and an imbalance in the dynamics and food chain of an ecological community. Poaching could be a catalyst for the collapse of entire ecosystems.

Wildlife crime doesn’t only victimize wildlife. Over 100 rangers are killed by poachers every year. Many rangers are authorized to arrest or use deadly force on poachers, so violent retaliation from poachers is common. The impact poaching has on local communities is immeasurable. Exotic animals draw tourists, and many communities’ economies rely on tourism. As these animal populations dwindle, so do vacationers.

In Kenya, wildlife reserves are losing business, and rangers and tour guides are losing employment. On top of the economic impact, poaching is taking resources away from communities. Animals that locals would hunt in small numbers for subsistence are much more difficult to find.

The topic of how to mitigate the effects of poaching is a highly debated one. Many believe that funding should go towards wildlife conservation, while others argue that punishing poachers individually will be more effective. In one of Missouri’s biggest poaching cases, a poacher killed over 100 deer and took only their heads as trophies. He was sentenced to watch Disney’s Bambi once a month during his year in prison.

Penalizing every individual poacher isn’t neces-

sarily the most effective and efficient strategy for quelling the booming growth of the industry. Wildlife trafficking operates similarly to organized crime rings and should be approached the same way: through a systematic dismantling of the networks that support it.

Rather than trying to catch and punish every poacher, resources should be allocated to locating the source of each country’s largest poaching operations. Key players often intentionally get workers addicted to drugs to ensure they’ll always need money and always return to poaching.

Targeting the underlying socio-economic drivers that sustain wildlife trafficking and providing alternative livelihoods for communities involved in the trade will also slow the booming growth of the industry.

Many countries do not have room in the budget for addressing poaching, so international cooperation is also necessary. Through policy, equity initiatives, and collaboration, we can protect our planet’s biodiversity for future generations.

Systemic change starts with individuals. While you shouldn’t stop traveling to countries affected by poaching, you can avoid animal experiences that promote illicit wildlife trade. You can steer clear of products made from exotic animals. Avoid encouraging the purchases of exotic pets, which are currently going viral on social media platforms like TikTok.

And if you need more convincing, watch Bambi–it’s bound to pull at your heartstrings and persuade you to do your part to end poaching.

Art by Evangeline Gallagher, SCIENTIFIC AMERICAN

Does Being Vegan Actually Do Anything For the Climate Movement?

by ANNIE FOO

After four years of active involvement in the climate movement, I transitioned to a vegan lifestyle approximately three months ago. While I know that this is not the longest time (perhaps I’ll check in at an anniversary or something), it’s allowed me to have enough time to settle into veganism and adjust my eating habits, which previously included meat in every meal. Surprisingly, the hardest thing hasn’t been staying vegan, but rather answering the ubiquitous question: “Why did you choose to become vegan?”

It should be an easy answer, but it isn’t. Honestly, I don’t know if I became vegan because of my pas-

sion for or guilt in the climate movement. I had long grappled with the burden of climate guilt, attempting to avoid it through incremental measurements like cutting out red meat or starting a pescatarian diet. I told myself it’s too expensive or restrictive: “I’ll do it in the future when I am able to control my diet and have enough money too.”

However, come January 2024, I suddenly had the economic means to choose to eat whatever I reasonably wanted to (thank you, EBT), so I seized the opportunity for a newfound dietary path.

Being in the climate movement, I was surrounded by activists who poured their entire energies in sustainability. I know the dairy, meat, and seafood industry are drivers of climate change – using excessive amounts of land, water, and labor – so I perceived becoming vegan as the natural progression. But, realistically, does turning vegan do anything?

Let’s Address the Obvious Undoubtedly, being vegan does something. A study conducted in collaboration with the University of Oxford revealed that: Vegans have 75% less carbon emissions, water use/pollution, and land use than people who eat just 100 grams of meat a day. To put that in perspective, 100 grams of meat is approximately a small steak or chicken breast, the size of your hand (Scarborough et al., 2023)

Vegans, per capita, vegans diminish their impact on habitat destruction by 66% and water by 54% (Scarborough et al., 2023)

Another study elaborates on the meat and dairy industry itself. While attention centers on animal welfare concerns, the study underscores another factor: the excess of water and land that raising and processing animals requires. The study highlights the impact of the industry as a whole, including agriculture, processing, packing, transportation, and consumption.

Staggering statistics are found:

A third of all greenhouse gas emissions come from the animal industry

Of the entire world’s freshwater supply, 70 percent is used for the meat/dairy industry

Of the entire world’s river and lake pollution, 80 percent is caused by the meat/dairy industry

But does veganism really do anything? The biggest contributors to climate change are huge corporations. And while I’m cutting down my carbon footprint 75% more than the average person (four tons of CO2 a year), corporations continue to spew hundreds of millions of metric tons of carbon dioxide into the atmosphere each year.

Putting my impact of being vegan as an individual in perspective is undeniably depressing.

In response to this dilemma, retired Stanford professor Patrick Brown and UC Berkeley professor

Michael Eisen decided to take this question into their own hands (Eisen & Brown, 2022). The results were staggering.

“If animal agriculture were phased out over 15 years and all other greenhouse-gas emissions were to continue unabated, the phase-out would create a 30-year pause in net greenhouse gas emissions and offset almost 70 percent of the heating effect of those emissions through the end of the century,” Brown elaborates in an interview with Stanford News Service.

He concludes that “reducing or eliminating animal agriculture should be at the top of the list of potential climate solutions.”

A Hopeful Conclusion

While I acknowledge that corporations are the leading contributors to climate change and the complete cessation of the animal agriculture industry within the next 15 years is unlikely, it’s nice to know I am actually making a difference that is resulting in the reduction of CO2 emissions.

In the climate movement, individuals tend to feel powerless in the face of institutionally entrenched institutional practices perpetuating global warming. However, such a mindset is damaging and misleading. If humans can cause climate change, we can fix it.

Though these actions are at the level of the individual, they culminate to collective action that creates meaningful change — just look at the plausible effects if the world turned to a plant-based diet. Although me turning vegan does not equate to 8 billion people also turning vegan, it’s one step closer. Doing something is always better than doing nothing. We cannot discount individual and community based efforts in the scheme of the bigger picture.

Becoming vegan constitutes a personal choice, yet staying vegan extends to global consequences beyond the individual. Therefore, to answer the big question: that’s why I am vegan.

by MJ SMITH

When gaining a holistic perspective of climate change, it’s important to study the first hypothesized cause of climate change: solar variability. How does the Sun affect the natural world? How do scientists measure the Sun’s fluctuations, and how do they devastate flora, fana, and humans? How significant is solar variability to climate change? Can the energy from the sun’s peak energy production be harnessed? How are people perceiving natural/renewable energy methods to harness the Universe’s natural fuel?

At the center of our solar system lies an ‘average Joe’ emitting rays of energy that sustain life on Earth. The sun is our biggest companion though its influence can sometimes be too overbearing, like a helicopter parent. It can perturb ecosystems and alter the performance of the hydrological cycle, biodiversity, and wind patterns. We may be familiar with the fact that climate change causes changes in weather patterns beyond the rising of temperatures. For instance, CO₂-induced heat leads to more energetic air molecules capable of storing greater amounts of water vapor, contributing to severe storms throughout history. Scientists have diligently worked hard to debunk the hypothesis that solar variability is the primary cause of climate change. Instead, they are actively investigating across various disciplines to harness

the Sun’s power to reverse climate change and mitigate the adverse impacts of solar variability.

What is Solar Variability?

Solar variability is defined by the natural fluctuations in the Sun’s luminosity across different wavelengths of radiation and geographical coordinates. This variability informs scientists how much energy the sun emits during specific time periods, which is received on Earth via phenomena such as the sunspots and solar corona. There are two primary causes of solar variability: the changes in the Sun’s evolutionary state and the magnetic field fluctuations. Skeptics of climate change often wield the idea of the Sun’s temperature as evidence of climate change. While it is true that the Sun’s temperature can influence climate, the degree of climate change observed on Earth exceeds what can be accounted solely for solar variability. In fact, there is no significant correlation between the Sun’s emittance and variations in Earth’s temperature or the concentration of greenhouse gas. Through milliSieverts (mSv), a unit of radiation that measures the exposure dose of radiation in humans, scientists found the quantity of radiation from cosmic rays that is safe for individuals to be exposed to. According to parameters set by organizations including the

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International Labour Organization and the Center for Disease Control (CDC), the ratio of maximum radiation dose of cosmic rays to carbon dioxide is approximately 1-to-0.0165. Comprehending the correlation between the Sun and climate requires a wide range of expertise spanning disciplines like fluid dynamics, solar activity, energetic particle physics, atmospheric chemistry, plasma physics, and phylogenesis (the history of life).

Atmosphere and Solar Winds

The sun emits electromagnetic radiation across various wavelengths, including visible, infrared, ultraviolet, and X-rays. The rays penetrate Earth’s ozone layer, scatter in the upper atmosphere, and trickle down to the stratosphere, approximately 50 kilometers above sea level. In the stratosphere, the ultraviolet rays reduce nitrous oxide, a greenhouse gas that traps CO₂ and contributes to atmospheric warming. Though this process is a natural byproduct of the Sun’s corona, it also harms marine photosynthesizers by depleting the already limited nitrogen supply in the ocean. Nitrogen is critical for the photosynthesis of marine organisms, which in turn provides oxygen and energy-rich organic compounds for animals. Cosmic rays are stored in the mid-troposphere, located approximately 8 to 12 kilometers above sea level. Because cosmic rays interact with the atmosphere, it’s important to note that the part of the atmosphere that primarily stores cosmic rays is different from the region that stores CO₂.

Smithsonian, pole switches on the Sun can potentially lead to disruptions in power grids, changes in cancer rates, and environmental disturbances. These effects stem from an increase in cosmic rays showering throughout the atmosphere. The precise reasons behind these interactions are still being investigated by scientists, but several theories have been proposed.

Earth’s Orbit

“It can perturb ecosystems and alter the performance of the hydrological cycle, biodiversity, and wind patterns.”

Due to the axial tilt and eccentricity of our orbit around the Sun, seasons significantly influence the timing and intensity where solar variability will act most prominently. The outcomes of axial tilt on the climate are represented through the Milankovitch cycles, which illustrates the cumulative impact of alterations in Earth’s movements on its climate across millennia. When Earth’s orbit is at its most eccentric, the tilt decreases, causing the Northern Hemisphere to tilt away from the Sun during summer. Based on our current position within the Milankovitch cycle, Earth is anticipated to undergo a minor cooling phase. However, this contradicts the rapid climate warming observed in recent times, which scientists have concluded is due to human activity.

Weather

The Sun’s Magnetic Fields

Magnetic field lines serve as visual representations of the invisible magnetic force that undergoes constant change. These lines interact with each other like magnets, being attracted to positive charges and repelled by negative ones, meaning one pole of the Sun is negative and the other is positive. Interestingly, on Earth, the poles switch every 300,000 years. However, on the Sun, these switches occur much more frequently, with intervals of around eleven years. According to the

Many storms in the Pacific Ocean are caused by solar variability and are closely studied by NASA, who has found a correlation between the peak years of the sunspot cycle and the sea-level pressure and temperature. Solar variability was reported to have caused the “La Niña-like pattern” (NASA) in the Pacific Ocean, which is irregular water-cooling at the equator that contributes to weather changes. This has affected the water cycle by causing increased rainfall in the Intertropical Convergence Zone, the region around the equator where the southern and northern atmospheres converge at low pressure. La Niña has also caused above-average pressure at sea-level in the central Pacific, a direct result of peaks in the sunspot cycle. This makes the Pacific Islands predominantly sus-

ceptible to coastal flooding and reduced coastal vegetated wetlands, with an observable impact on marine and terrestrial pathogens, including coral diseases and bacteria concentrated in oysters. In terms of wind patterns in the Pacific, La Niña causes extremely fast winds called jet streams which also causes pressure discrepancies at sea-level. The orbit of Earth coupled with La Nina creates unique weather conditions, sometimes harmful to biodiversity, specifically slow-moving marine animals whose ecosystems are destroyed during hurricanes. In La Niña winters for example the Southern regions experience warmer and drier conditions than usual, while the Northern areas and Canada tend to be wetter and colder. This is because during La Niña the waters off the Pacific coast become colder and exhibit higher nutrient levels compared to normal. All of these characteristics contribute to the higher likelihood of hurricanes, which puts smaller marine ecosystems and humanity at detrimental risks.

Solutions

Much of the current theoretical work aims to propose various answers. In other words, the researchers but the solutions, if not outright impossible, tend to lean into disaster management as opposed to reducing the root cause of the problem. Many researchers believe that science should shift from a reactive to more proactive approach. According to Raymond Bradley of University of Massachusetts Amherst, “[i]f there is indeed a solar effect on climate, it is manifested by changes in general circulation rather than in a direct temperature signal.” There are numerous nature-based solutions to mitigate natural disasters. Establishing more wetlands globally, for instance, can effectively absorb and store CO₂, especially during months of high solar radiance. Aquatic ecosystems hold intrinsic capabilities to manage weather disasters; for example coral reef systems serve as vital natural barriers for coastal cities by absorbing wave energy and mitigating storm surge, which helps prevent loss of life, property damage, and erosion. Installing clay corals can establish nutrient-dense homes for fish and turtles to replace the corals damaged in hurricanes. Per the Federal Emergency Management Agency, some of the best nature-based solutions to hurricanes include stormwater parks designed to overflow, sand traps for tsunamis and living shorelines easily formed on beaches, tree canopies,

and dozens more. Nature-based solutions like this one also generate local employment and economic opportunities, reducing reliance on imported technical expertise and labor associated with engineering and construction projects. Investment in these solutions to reduce risk should therefore be included into public-sector stimulus packages and social development programmes. However, investment in ‘natural infrastructure’ is underexplored in policies aimed at reducing risk of natural disasters.

Solar winds shower hydrogen and helium around the globe, and, given a great technological advancement proposed by famous climate-change theorists Brooks L. Harrop and Dirk Schulze-Makuch, could be absorbed through solar wind-powered satellites to take in renewable energy. While impossible, understanding the potential of such advanced hypotheses like this one is crucial because renewable energy has the power to transform our economies and prolong our lifespan on Earth. This proposal has the capability to harness energy levels exceeding 100 billion times the amount needed by humankind.

Author’s Notes:

4.3% of the world’s population are Americans, and we produce nearly four times as much of the world’s CO₂. 70% of these emissions come from the US Military, equal to the amount produced by Sweden. At the moment, defense contractors like Lockhead Martin and Raytheon aren’t obligated to reveal their emissions, meaning they aren’t necessarily held accountable for their impact on climate change. Education is helping people understand climate change more holistically – that is in terms of the nature it affects, the economics it pulls from and feeds into, and renewable energy alternatives (like nuclear fission) on a communal, national, and global level. 75% of Republicans older than 65 vote to prioritize the use of oil, coal, and natural gas production instead of alternative renewable energy, whereas 67% of Republicans younger than 65 vote in favor of renewable energy. This shows that education is making a difference on the populus. Solar variability is a cause of climate change, but with little long term effect on ecosystems per The Paris Agreement and the UN’s projections.

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Justice in Media: Avatar: The Last Airbender

by TIVA GANDHI

Avatar: The Last Airbender (ATLA) lives in the hearts of so many individuals, across generations, touching on diverse themes told through endearing characters. While ATLA primarily aims to reach children, it effortlessly manages to captivate adults because of the simultaneous complex yet accessible concepts. Avatar takes a stance against colonialism by exploring the various effects of colonialism on the Water Tribes, Earth Kingdoms, Air Nomads and Fire Nation colonies. Within the Fire Nation colonies, Avatar examines the maintenance of hegemony through disadvantaging already vulnerable communities.

No one explains the exposition of The Last Airbender better than the show’s pivotal deuteragonist Katara herself: “Water. Earth. Fire. Air. Long ago, the four nations lived together in harmony. Then, everything changed when the Fire Nation attacked. Only the Avatar, master of all four el-

ements, could stop them, but when the world needed him most, he vanished. A hundred years passed and my brother and I discovered the new Avatar, an airbender named Aang. And although his airbending skills are great, he has a lot to learn before he’s ready to save anyone. But I believe Aang can save the world.”

Through their journey through the Water Tribes, Earth Kingdoms, Air Temples, and ultimately the Fire Nation, the Aang Gaang –Katara, Sokka, Aang, and Toph– witness the pervasive impact of colonialism. In Season 3 Episode 3, “The Painted Lady,” the group encounters a village in the Fire Nation suffering from the detrimental effects of pollution from Fire Nation factories. While the village serves as a temporary stop for the Aang Gaang, Katara finds herself emotionally invested in the environmental injustice the villagers face. University of California, Berkeley compara-

tive literature student, Mel Dueñas explains, “She stands for compassion and so she believes [that] even if they are not our direct friends or family, I should help them.”

The episode begins with Appa navigating a polluting river while Sokka fishes nearby. Through vivid imagery, the episode dives into the repulsive consequences of pollution by portraying murky water and Appa’s struggle to glide through it. Aang becomes covered in the contaminated water, highlighting the distressing reality of environmental degradation. The dramatized imagery conveys the extent of tragedy involved in contemporary ecological injustice. True polluted water is foamy and discolored in shades of purple, orange, or black; in the series, the animators depict muddier water symbolizing the disruption of the natural environment through a sluggish lens. The icky portrayal of something symbolic of cleanliness and life sets a scene of environmental injustice and intentional degradation.

The first person the Aang Gang meets from the town is Dock/Xu. University of California, Berkeley comparative literature and linguistics student, Abel Anguiano explains that Dock/Xu “is meant to represent…the heightened responsibility of the average citizen…so Dock is obviously painted

in this goofy way, but the fact is that when your community is polluted you now have that extra responsibility to clean up.” Mel Dueñas, a University of California, Berkeley comparative literature student, adds: “We also kind of see that the people that are ‘able’ to do something about their situation. For instance, we just saw that child who is a child, and he is being put responsible for his sick mother. It takes away the agency from other people in the village.”

In the episode, Katara, a waterbender, is depicted through her monologue, as empathetic, hopeful, and guided by her emotions. Conversely, her more pragmatic brother, Sokka, favors a more conventional and strategic plan, prioritizing Aang’s mission to “save the world.” Throughout this episode, there is tension between Katara’s stalling of their collective progress towards training for the solar eclipse (when the firebenders lose their ability) to help the town; and Sokka’s practical reservations about the ‘help’ the town is getting.

On the first night, Katara undertakes the task of healing the townsfolk and cleansing the river, bringing about a sense of gratitude throughout the community. However, Katara chooses to remain anonymous, adopting the guise of the Painted Lady because the townspeople attribute their

miracle to Jang Hui River Spirit, the Painted Lady herself. Sokka, ever the skeptic, disparages the significance of this help because he believes the solution to be merely temporary to a larger problem. He demands: “Leave! Do nothing!” Sokka represents the more systemic approach, explaining that overthrowing the Fire Nation from power, an oppressive regime, is the only way to mitigate the root cause of suffering. Representing a political voice that devalues empathy and helping individual disadvantaged people, Sokka enrages Katara. His comments accusing the Painted Lady of being useless push Katara towards enacting a plan to destroy the factory. Katara responds, “No, I will never, ever turn my back on people who need me!” Even though destroying the factory is one systemic issue and the real fix would be dismantling the Fire Nation’s power, Katara’s view is one of empathy for all—no problem is small to her.

While many have criticized the painted lady for not healing and protecting the people she is supposed to serve, the Painted Lady is a representation of a figure akin to Mother Nature, not an omnipotent benevolent force. The Painted Lady’s appearance at the end not only serves as proof of her existence but also the rules of nature: The natural world can only serve humans to the extent that it is respected. And this is why the Painted Lady herself must leave. While nature has proven resilient, it will not be functional when it is sabotaged.

The Painted Lady and Katara both attest to the villagers’ need to fight for themselves and their environment to have justice. Katara reasons, “I shouldn’t have acted like someone I wasn’t, and I shouldn’t have tricked you. But I felt like I had to do something. It doesn’t matter if the Painted Lady is real or not. Because your problems are real, and this river is real. You can’t wait around for someone to help you. You have to help yourself.” However, this raises many questions. In a society filled with impoverished youth, elders, and sickly people, who has the time and ability to fight against these conditions? If they did fight back, who would protect them from the firebenders and their privilege and power?

Anguiano points out, “I do think there is a sense of othering here because these villagers are not like the rest of the fire nation…I think there was a conscious effort to make them seem as something

else, other than regular society.” Unfortunately, environmental justice impacts these very people, those cast out as “other” and not regular society. It allows for the problems they face to be “a personal issue” and removes the systematic blame to be placed on higher institutions.

The messy ending leaves these questions unanswered, but the undeniable truth is that environmental justice is too often ignored because those affected are too busy or underprivileged to fight back. When characters like Dock/Xu have to handle many jobs to keep themselves and society afloat, when would they have time to heal their land?

Promoting Promotores

Achieving Health Equity for Latinos Through Community Care

by ALEXANDRA JADE GARCIA

Latinos are the fastest-growing demographic in the United States, but despite this, their health rates continue to decline. Minority populations in the United States—specifically Black and brown folks—face systemic and structural barriers to healthcare that are directly connected to socioeconomic status and other social and environmental determinants of health. Language, education, poverty, and immigration status particularly have a strong impact on the accessibility of adequate health insurance for Latinos.

Latino populations experience disproportionately higher rates of cancer, diabetes, and cardiovascular disease. Cancer has become the leading cause of death for Hispanic and Latino people in the United States, accounting for around 20 percent of deaths. Further, diabetes rates among Hispanic adults are 80 percent higher than their white counterparts. These massive disparities in health equity continue to persist, so the question remains—what is being done to address the gap in Hispanic/Latino health outcomes?

Latino health equity is embedded within the intertwined struggles of systemic social and environmental health barriers and advancing equitable representation of Latinos in health research. While the latter focuses on increasing Latino participation in clinical research, the former recognizes the need for providing services to Latino communities. Both are extremely important and emphasize the need for expanded capacities of culturally appropriate community care.

Promotores are community health workers who serve as bridges between their neighborhoods, social services, and healthcare providers. Though the role is not exclusively tied to one community, the promotores model emerged from a grassroots movement in Latin America in the 1960s to meet the needs of rural populations. Often, promotores assume the role of health advocates and educators for Latino and immigrant communities in the United States, who face disproportionate exposures to environmental hazards. For exam-

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ple, Latino children are increasingly affected by asthma and adverse health outcomes associated with pesticide exposures. Environmental exposures through chemical pesticides and air pollution are also of particular concern for farmworker health, a demographic of which Latinos comprise 75 percent of.

Promotores disseminate information and educational resources about health issues such as cancer, diabetes, pregnancy, and mental health. Because they usually share the same language, ethnicity, and citizenship status as their communities, promotores are well-positioned to communicate health information and understand the lived experiences of Latinos. They hold local and neighborhood knowledge that recognizes barriers to health for Latino communities. Their work spans many facets of life, addressing how financial literacy, housing stability, employment, and racial discrimination impact the accessibility of healthcare. Thus, increasing the agency of promotores can reduce systemic barriers to health services by expanding their capacities to provide community care for Latinos.

“Latino health equity is embedded within the intertwined struggles of systemic social and environmental health barriers and advancing equitable representation of Latinos in health research. “

Conference in Northern California this past February, I saw how Latino communities are taking action for their own healthcare needs. Every presentation was done in Spanish, with discussions about cancer prevention and the impacts of climate change on health. There were panels on generational trauma and racial discrimination, as well as dancing and music during the breaks. It became clear how promotores are creating intentional spaces for community care which improve cultural understandings of lived experiences with health and wellbeing.

Lexie Jade Garcia

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To build this capacity, researchers, medical professionals, and healthcare institutions must actively seek to build relationships with promotores. Valuing the work of promotores at institutional levels can eliminate racial and class hierarchies that perpetuate systemic barriers by deepening a cultural understanding of the lived health experiences of Latinos. In building relationships, researchers, professionals, and healthcare institutions can support promotores networks through grants, participatory research, and engagement with the culturally appropriate services they provide for Latino communities.

Networks such as Visión y Compromiso are already doing critical work to expand the reach of promotores. When I attended their Regional

RESEARCH

RESEARCH

“Pani:” Case Studies of the Jalanidhi Project and Jal Jeevan Mission for Water Infrastructure Development in India

AUTHOR: Megan Jay Mehta

Abstract

Access to clean water dictates long-term health and quality of life, and is fundamental for expanding access to education, gender equity, and economic development-- particularly in rural areas of low-income nations. The World Bank frequently funds large-scale water infrastructure development projects, yet challenges with access to clean water in the global south persist. For example, the Jalanidhi initially provided potable water to rural Kerala, however, inadequate management, excessive bureaucracy, inefficient maintenance, lack of accountability, and the World Bank’s non-existent long-term reporting and outcome evaluation standards led the $155.3 million project to inevitable fail shortly after completion. Conversely, the $660.4 million Jal Jeevan Mission, which is funded by the Indian government, prioritizes community involvement and acceptance of new facilities, upholds accountability and transparent progress-reporting guidelines, and facilitates collaborative management of natural resources amongst the government and residents.

Decentralized community-led water infrastructure projects are high quality solutions to the global water crisis because they promote gender equity in the pursuit of financial freedom by expanding career opportunities in subsequent maintenance jobs, empower local residents to advance their villages, and are cheaper in the longrun due to their indelible structure for sustained success. This allows for meaningful measurement of prolonged impact. To fulfill their mission, the World Bank must adopt strategies from the Jal Jeevan project and forgo its existing “develop-and-dump” methods. Instead, they must embrace partnerships with local residents, map long-term goals, develop transparent standardized reporting metrics, and remain committed to measure the impact of each milestone.

Keywords: Jal Jeevan Mission, Jalanidhi Project, rural water infrastructure development, rural water resource management, decentralized manage-

ment strategies

Clarity: Transparent Evaluations of Water Projects in India

Introduction

Water, one of the fundamental molecules for life, can also be the facilitator of death if not properly cleaned, transported, and managed. The United Nations declared access to potable drinking water and sanitation as a human right, however, only 74% of the global population enjoys this prerogative (Haruna Kashiwase, March 22nd, 2023). India, one of the most densely populated nations in the world, suffers from a lack of potable water infrastructure to support its growing population, particularly in low-income and rural regions. 3.1% of the urban and 5.3% of the rural population is forced to drink from unsanitary sources (The United States Central Intelligence Agency, 2020). The Jalanidhi Project I and II are just two examples of the World Bank’s dozens of failed water infrastructure and sanitation projects, which highlight the need for decentralized developmental economics projects rather than modernist or neoliberal projects.

Health Concerns and Gender Equity

In rural India, women and girls are often responsible for fetching water from distant potable sources, which restricts girls from attending school and women from working (World Health Organization, July 6th, 2023). Most villages use handpumps to access ground water or have openair water wells-- dangerous cesspools for infectious diseases like cholera, dysentery, typhoid, etc. Neonatal disorders, often strongly correlated with polluted water, diarrheal diseases, and tuberculosis are leading causes of death and disability in India (The Institute For Health Metrics and Evaluation, 2023). In fact, in 2017, 50% of all global typhoid cases happened in India (John, Jacob et al). Although this proportion has decreased,

water-born infectious diseases remain primary causes of death among young children. Considering 94% of Indian households live under $6.85 USD per day, mortality rates are higher in rural and low-income areas that not only do not have access to clean water, but also cannot bear the burden of healthcare costs (Center for Disease Control and Prevention, Global Water). “Widespread, reliable, and safe drinking water to homes and communities” is the only way to eliminate these preventable deaths (National Center for Emergin and Zoonotic Infectious Diseases, 2023).

The Jalanidhi Project

The World Bank approved $155.3 million dollars in funding for the Jalanidhi project under the Sustainable Development Goals (SDG), which broke ground in 2000 and was completed in 2013 (The World Bank, p. 7). The project, initially intended to be completed by 2008, aimed to bring potable water to rural Kerala by artificially replenishing groundwater (GWR), building water sheds schemes (WSS), and drinking water schemes (DWS). By increasing the amount of water within each source, the number of sources available, and the number of taps connected to each source, the project aimed to eliminate water shortages and provide a long-term water solution for rural Keralites.

According to the project report, “the state government bore 75% of capital expenditure,” the local government paid 10%, and the residents paid 15% (The World Bank, August 12th, 2013, p. 1). “Communities fully covered short-to-medium operational and maintenance costs,” and countless articles on the World Bank website insist that community members were excited about the development, which provided women leadership opportunities (The World Bank, 2013). Ambika Vijayakumar, a local resident with less than a high school education, spearheaded the development of a WSS in her neighborhood by pooling together “2,000 INR from [62 households] in installments, [buying] land for a large open well and pump house, and [building] an overhead tank to store the water in. The group completed the project on time, and saved money too” (The World Bank, August 12th, 2013). The World Bank argues that the decentralized development protocol allowed residents to take charge, provide employment opportunities to low-income folks, and facilitate

community acceptance and usage of the new infrastructure. Each family in the region was entitled to a designated amount of water and during a specific timeslot. Although residents not having 24/7 access, they could relatively easily get clean water quickly. However, not all WSS and drinking schema implementations were effective.

Results: Successes and Failures for Maintaining The Jalanidhi Project

Immediately following the completion report, P. K. Kurian, the Director of the Jalanidhi project, noted “while 80%-85% of schemes are functional, of which 40-50% are doing very well, the remaining 15%-20% are limping.” The shrouded reality is that Vijayakumar’s community was the exception, not the norm. The project implemented “3,139 new drinking water schemes, including 16 water supply schemes, surpassing the initial 2,500 target,” however, “34% had become defunct due to reasons like failure of source, quality/technical issues, inactive [beneficiary groups]” (Comptroller and Auditor General of India, n.d., p. 20). On top of that, “30 out of 80 World Supply Schemes costing 2.48 million INR became defunct, forcing the beneficiaries to depend on alternate sources of water” (Comptroller and Auditor General of India, n.d., p. 1). 22.76 million INR of the budget allocated for “artificial ground water recharge and sustainability” only required “5.89 million INR in expenditure. Due to inadequate attention paid to sustain and recharge water sources, sources had dried up in 85 schemas of Jalanidhi Phase I” (The World Bank). Beyond the headlines, the project was an absolute failure.

Hidden Financial Burdens

Instead of getting access to clean water, residents were forced to bear 15% of the cost of an expensive project that extenuated existing financial burden, which further entrenched these folks into more debt and bankruptcy. Although a few of the taps and schemas uplifted communities, the vast majority failed in the preliminary development process, or shortly after the project “complete” deadline, which was already delayed by 5 years. The lack of project management, facilitation of community acceptance and integration, communication, budgeting, and long-term maintenance plans resulted in a failure. Conjointly, these folks still do not have access to clean water, and hun-

dreds will continue to die of associated preventable infectious diseases. This encourages and exacerbates systems of structural violence, particularly against women and children. 2023 status updates on the Jalanidhi cannot be found on the Kerala Rural Water Supply and Sanitation Agency website, project description website, nor the primary project tracking page (Kerala Rural Water Supply and Sanitation Agency, n.d.).

Successful water schemes were almost always led by a resident—someone that the rest of the community could trust and rallied the village together to complete the project on time. Schemas primarily headed by representatives of the World Bank, external volunteers, and Kerala State Government representatives were more likely to fail due to rejection from locals. These rural communities viewed developments from outsiders as predatory, forceful, and directorate (The World Bank, 2013, p. 42). Hasty development projects that throw millions of dollars at a problem without proper project control and sustained development results in high quantity and low-quality infrastructure—a physical manifestation of empty promises from institutions that are powerfully influenced by the Global North, wealthier individuals within and outside of the developing nation, and bureaucratic poverty alleviation systems. Nevertheless, the World Bank deemed Jalanidhi successful enough to grant funding for is successor, Jalanidhi II, which aimed to increase institutional water supply, “rehabilitate and modernize water schemes,” and build “community-centric solid and liquid waste management and household sanitation solutions” (The World Bank, p. 30).

Jalanidhi II

This project required the Indian government to borrow $241.2 million USD to continue water infrastructure development in Kerala from 2011 to 2019. Appraisal documents note more protocols for project management, accountability, social risk factors, and an implementation support plan (The World Bank, pp. 40-83). According to the December 2019 status update, 72752 women were trained on improved sanitation practices, surpassing the 56700 target; 1.3 million people benefited from the project, of which 530,000 were women (The World Bank, p. 4). On paper, Jalanidhi II seems to be an improvement in development, implementation, and integration of water infra-

structure of Kerala, however, there is no documentation or reports on if these new taps are regularly maintained, nor information about what percent are still functional. The World Bank’s long history of dramatically extended timelines inflated or misconstrued project evaluation metrics, and bureaucracy not only reduce the efficiency and effectiveness of development, rather, pose more administrative, financial, and integration challenges.

A supplementary joint-report on both Jalanidhi projects notes:

Decentralized, community-led approach can reduce investment costs. However, both projects show that there is considerable concern about the ability of community-managed water projects to cope with major repair costs likely in the medium-to-long term… capital costs may not be feasible in villages with low ability to pay… and this leaves unserved enclaves where villages are unable or unwilling to contribute to project financing (The World Bank, 2013, p. 53)

Evaluating Alternative NGO Projects

Alternative NGO projects, such as Water.org, fail those in poverty another way—entrenching folks in cyclical debt with bait-and-switch-like tactics and predatory lending. Water.org collaborates with “funding partners” such as Bank of America, Stella Artois, and Ikea to disbursed $1.3 billion across 5.4 million loans for water and sanitation (Water.org). Their copyrighted, “Water Credits” microfinancing systems provides an average loan of $240 USD, almost exclusively to women, so families can build water taps in their homes. However, considering the extremely low-income status of families borrowing money, this is an astronomical loan and poses a significant long-term financial burden. Water.org notes a 97% repayment rate, but does not disclose if repayment is land/home repossession by their financial partners, what percent external donations cover these loans, etc. There are explicit lists of their financial and global partners, but no clear listings of their “project implementation partners.”

The Microfinance Trap

Microfinance doesn’t cure poverty, and often longterm poverty-alleviation development. In fact,

it often traps the poorest into cycles of poverty. However, “stable jobs do. If societies are serious about helping the poorest of the poor, they should stop investing in microfinance and start supporting large, labor-intensive industries” (Karnani, 2007). Both the World Bank and Water.org’s infrastructure project initiatives aim to resolve global poverty through forceful development lead by external parties or is mismanaged under the guise of decentralized development. Core beliefs against the privatization of water of the Narmada Bachao movement aims to “challenge the forces of transnational capital… within India. It is argued that focusing on global institutions that have adverse impact on India detracts from the more basic task of mobilizing within the country and of holding the Indian state accountable to its social and constitutional obligations as well as its obligations to the United Nations charter and instruments to which it is a signatory” (Kothari, 2002, p. 232). In other words, rising support for Indian government facilitated water infrastructure will help mobilize the nation towards its development goals and obligation towards advancing the quality of life for its people.

The Jal Jeevan Mission

The current Prime Minister of India, Narendra Modi, pledged tap water in every household by 2024 under the Jal Jeevan Mission. When launched in 2019, only 32,362,838 households had tap water connections, 16.62% of the total 192,415,353 households. Over the past 4 years, 104,964,575 have been provided with a connection, and the project is at 71.37% completion. The project drew funds from each state and regional sector, summing to 54.744 billion INR in 2022-2023, and 41,486 billion INR in 2023-2024 (Jal Jeevan Mission, 2023). 2,111 laboratories testing 4,953,318 samples from 489,560 found contamination and unsafe water in 464,287 of them; negative results facilitate investigations into the water source, point of contamination, and impact assessment to reduce negative outcomes as much as possible. In other words, the Jal Jeevan Mission builds new taps and ensures they are safe too.

Transparency and Employment Generation

This developmental economics-based approach has consistently employed 2,000 people. As an Indian initiative, it was much more successful-

ly integrated and accepted by Indian people, and dashboards with live metrics for extensive transparency are fundamental for building trust amongst communities in need and the government. In turn, the success of this mission is not only measured by the number of new taps, but also the long-term accountability for maintenance, quality-control and testing, usage, and quality of the infrastructure. “Infrastructure that is not dependent on political will land that relies on transparent and accountable processes will place the country on the right track in their continued search for sustained social and economic growth,” a study on Indian water policy notes (Tortajada, 2016).

Discussion and Conclusions

As clean water infrastructure becomes more accessible, water usage is expected to dramatically increase, which will require managing water more effectively. “Rural areas of India should be able to manage, allocate, and value their water resources more sustainably” when water infrastructure projects are decentralized amongst locals (Debabrata Nath). Not only does this present leadership, economic mobility, and long-term impact opportunities, it can facilitate accountability and efficient action. Witnessing the success of one project can catalyze energy for hundreds of others, which can eventually decrease the number of water refugees and water-systems based structural violence against the global poor, particularly women and children. Developing, maintaining, and facilitating these projects as public goods prevents privatization and solidifies the long-term economic stability by rejecting neo-colonial risk of “financial power of the developed countries being used in such a way as to impoverish the less developed,” as well as reduces the severity of structural violence from poor water systems (Nkrumah, 1965, p. 4). The success and failures of Jalanidhi and Jal Jeevan highlight the need for more decentralized developmental water infrastructure projects that are spearheaded by locals, and the fundamental importance of empowering village leaders for meaningful developmental progress.

1. Center for Disease Control and Prevention. (n.d.). Global Water, Sanitation, & Hygene (WASH). Disease Impact of Unsafe Water. Comptroller and Auditor General of India. (n.d.).

2. Water Resources Department. Retrieved December 03, 2023, from Rural Water Supply Schemes Implemented by Keral Rural Water Supply and Sanitation Agency: https://cag.gov.in/uploads/download_audit_report/2016/Chapter%20 3%20of%20Report%201%20of%202016%20-%20 General%20and%20Social%20Sector,%20Government%20of%20Kerala.pdf

3. Debabrata Nath, P. P. (n.d.). Chapter 15- Water resources of rural India: Challenges and management strategies for sustainable development . In Water Resources Management of Rural Development (pp. 191-200).

4. Haruna Kashiwase, T. F. (March 22nd, 2023). World Water Day: Two billion people still lack access to safely managed water. World Bank Blogs.

Jacob John, e. a. (2023). Burden of Typhoid and Paratyphoid. New England Journal of Medicine, 1491-1500.

5. Jal Jeevan Mission. (2023, Decemeber). Har Ghar Jal - Functional Household Tap Connection. (Ministry of Jalshakti) Retrieved from Department of Drinking Water and Sanitation: https:// ejalshakti.gov.in/jjmreport/JJMIndia.aspx

6. Karnani, A. (2007). Microfinance Misses Its Mark. Stanford Social Innovation Review, 1. Kerala Rural Water Supply and Sanitation Agency. (n.d.). About KRWSA - Jalanidhi.

7. Kothari, S. (2002). Globalization, Global Alliances, and the Narmada Movement. (J. V. Sanjeev Khagram, Ed.) Minneapolis, London, Minnesota, United States of America: University of Minnesota Press.

8. National Center for Emergin and Zoonotic Infectious Diseases. (2023). NCEZID.

9. Nkrumah, K. (1965). Neo-Colonialism, the Last Stage of Imperialism. In Neo-Colonialism, the Last Stage of Imperialism (p. 4). London: Thomas Nelson and Sons.

10. The Institute For Health Metrics and Evaluation. (2023). India. healthdata.org.

11. The United States Central Intelligence Agency. (2020). Drinkng Water Source. Retrieved December 02, 2023, from The CIA World Factbook: https://www.cia.gov/the-world-factbook/field/ drinking-water-source/

12. The World Bank. (2013, June). Project Performance Assessment Report - Republic of India - Kerala Rural Water Supply and Environmental Sanitation Project “Jalanidhi”. Retrieved 27

13. The World Bank. (August 12th, 2013). India: Getting Water on Tap in Rural Kerala. The World Bank - Feature Story.

14. The World Bank. (n.d.). Project Apraisal To The Republic oF india For A Keral Rural Water Supply and Sanitation Project. The World Bank.

15. The World Bank. (n.d.). Second Kerala Rural Water Supply and Sanitation Project (Jalanidhi II).

16. Tortajada, C. (2016). Policy dimensions of development and financing of water infrastructure: The cases of China and India . Elsevier - Environmental Social Science and Policy.

17. Water.org. (n.d.). Funding Partners. World Health Organization. (July 6th, 2023). Women and girls bear brunt of water and sanitation crisis – new UNICEF-WHO report . UNICEF-WHO Report.

Art for Earth’s Sake: Decolonial Artivism and the Work of Jaider Esbell 2018-2021

AUTHOR: Jacqueline Canchola-Martinez

Art is not a joke. We must deal with it. We pass through hardships. We must let go of this idea of pushing everything away. Take in that pain and face it. Embrace it, Rock it. It will depart.

— Jaider Esbell

Author and artist Toni Cade Bambara famously said that as a cultural worker, it was her responsibility to make revolution irresistible, challenging a more common understanding of art for art’s sake. While there is certainly value in such a practice, figures like Bambara remind us that art can be an invitation to better understand the world we live in, who we are, and to help us imagine worlds that are not yet in existence. The late Macuxi Brazilian artist, geographer, writer, and curator Jaider Esbell (1979-2021) was a profound artivist whose work embodies this ethos, infused with Indigenous cosmologies and reflection on the destruction of Mother Earth by the forces of colonialism and global capitalism. Esbell created art out of one of the world’s most biodiverse and simultaneously threatened places: the Amazon. His breaking into the global art scene occurred at a moment in which there was unprecedented environmental deregulation in Brazil under then-President Jair Bolsonaro, a far-right politician who served from 2019 to 2022. Working across visual mediums from painting to drawings to performance, Esbell contributed to a tradition of Indigenous artistic resistance and also problematized the nature of institutionalized art. In doing so, his work between 2018 and 2021 illuminated on-the-ground environmental struggles in Brazil and the Amazon while also contributing to a greater ontological struggle for a revolution of the mind and imagination in the climate movement.

Contextualizing Resistance: The Political Ecology of Brazil

Critical to understanding Jaider Esbell’s process is understanding the political ecology of Brazil and the Amazon. After the mid-1980s, and especially after the 1992 Rio de Janeiro Earth Summit, Brazil

assumed a more defined focus on sustainable development and the protection of nature as well as culture (Lauriola 158). From about 2005 to 2012, it also played an important role in global environmental protection and reducing deforestation of the Amazon (Deutsch 826). Yet, in tandem with a global swing in populist authoritarian neoliberalism, ex-military officer Jair Bolsonaro rose to presidential power in 2019, explicitly prioritizing capital at the expense of the environment and minoritized groups in Brazil. His strategies included weakening environmental agencies, delegitimizing environmentalists and NGOs, funneling money towards agribusiness, militarizing the Amazon, and defunding universities and critical social and ecological research (Deutsch).

Political ecologist Sierra Deutsch frames the former president’s strategy as a “firehouse effect”, using spectacle, chaos, and confusing governance to detract from his greater goals of unfettered accumulation (830). Such political tendencies and antics appear similar to those of Donald Trump and other far-right politicians in the United States, creating a culture of post-truth rationale and overtly anti-environmental sentiments. This administration also had very material impacts on the Indigenous communities of Brazil, who were often a direct target of Bolsonaro’s neoliberal regime. In addition to publicly challenging the demarcation of Indigenous lands, Bolsonaro introduced plans to increase the ‘productivity’ of the Amazon. This included the proposed 2019 Barao do Rio Branco Plan which included the construction of a hydro-electric dam, bridge, and highway extensions into the rainforest, likely to negatively impact biodiversity preserves, quilombo communities, and Indigenous reserves (Deutsch 836). It is such conflicts and struggles for Indigenous sovereignty and lifeways that take us back to Jaider Esbell and Raposa Serra do Sol Indigenous Land, the territory in the state of Roraima where Esbell was native to.

Raposa Serra do Sol, home to a portion of the Macuxi people, is part of the northernmost Bra-

zilian Amazon bordering Venezuela and Guyana, home to over 25,000 Indigenous people who steward small holdings and communal lands (Phillips). This land exists at a juridically plural place, one that is beyond the legal private-public dichotomy – it is a commons (Lauriola 159). It has also been at the center of a movement for Indigenous rights and recognition in Brazil, having had its official demarcation affirmed by the Supreme Court of Brazil in 2010. What feminist scholar Silvia Federici’s work implies is that this commons is revolutionary beyond its institutional recognition. Quoting John Holloway, she states “it is one of the attractions of the commons as the ‘embryonic form of a new society’ that it stands for a power that comes from the ground, rather than from the state and relies on cooperation and collective forms (Federici 168). It is this power and distinct cosmovision that has been directly challenged by Bolsonaro and broader neoliberal resource interests.

An Indigenous Amazonian Visual Tradition

As an artist, Jaider Esbell built on and expanded a strong decolonial visual practice forged by artists from the Amazon. As Fortes et al. (2023) note, artivism –a concept coined in the 1990s by Chicanos and Zapatistas in Los Angeles and Mexico– is incredibly present within Indigenous Contemporary Art (ICA) in Brazil, representing an interstitial space to claim agency (158). ICA holds space for a Pluriverse, “a decolonial political vision that embraces the coexistence of a multiplicity of worlds and knowledge systems” (Fortes et al. 161). Artists Ailton Krenak, Daiara Tukano, and Jaider Esbell are a few artists who have stewarded this world of ICA in different capacities, connecting ethnocide with ecocide on Brazilian lands.

Ailton Krenak, belonging to the Krenak people of the Rio Doce valley in the State of Minas Gerais, is a longtime writer, intellectual, artist, and activist. He solidified his role in Brazil’s Indigenous movement when, at a 1987 Congressional National Constituent Assembly, he delivered a speech on Indigenous rights while spreading black genipap paste, used by Indigenous Brazilians for mourning ritual, across his face until it was fully covered to draw attention to Indigenous dispossession (Krenak, “Our Worlds”). Daiara Tukano, part of the Yepá Mahsã or Tukano people of the Upper Rio Negro, made history in 2020 as the first female Indigenous artist to paint the largest urban mural in the world, Mother Jungle and the River Boy (Fortes et al.

166). She similarly uses art to advance Indigenous sovereignty, often centering the idea of articídio, articide, critiquing art as a field of ethnocide wherein Indigenous lives have been erased (Fortes et al. 166). Morî’ erenkato eseru’ - Cantos para a vida (2020), Songs for life, was a nearly hour-long performance piece undertaken by partners Tukano and Jaider Esbell at the São Paulo Pinacoteca. Both artists sang and Tukano wore a sacred cloak belonging to the Tupinambá people while holding a small reflective mirror (see Fig. 1). They walked through the Pinacoteca offering song and prayer, honoring the Indigenous art housed there while also confronting their centuries-long exclusion from such spaces (Fortes et al. 168). ICA is then not only concerned with having Indigenous art in museums but with critiquing the institutions and their epistemologies as well. It is this artistic tradition from which Esbell emerged and subsequently shaped.

“Paths to other places are self-made”: Crafting New Worlds

Fig. 1. Image of Morî’ erenkato eseru’ / Songs for life (2020), a performance by Daiara Tukano and Jaider Esbell. Source: Fortes et al.

Originally trained as a geographer, Esbell worked for twenty years as an electrician, leaving to focus on art in 2016, the year in which he would win the prestigious PIPA Prize (“Jaider Esbell”). He considered one of his first interactions with art to be through his grandfather’s stories about Makunaimî (Gonzatto), a deity who is said to be the creator of all natures in Macuxi culture (Esbell, Though It’s Dark 359). As an artist from the global frontline of the Amazon, his work carries a decolonial poetics and an action-oriented sensibility; “The bird / of black beak / your orange tones / warn”, reads Esbell’s poem alongside an accompanying drawing for the 34th Biennial of São Paulo. He imagined Indigenous art as a plant. One that is “already growing alone and gives back a forest where colonial gardens once stood” (Esbell, Though It’s Dark 88). For Esbell, art could be seen as a tool, alongside other forms of contestation, to work towards a decolonized future.

In 2021, Esbell presented Carta ao Velho Mundo (2019), Letter to the Old World, at the 34th Biennial, occurring at a moment in which Bolsonaro’s lack of action on COVID-19 in Brazil was resulting in dire consequences for Indigenous communities. Drawing and writing on top of pages from the book Galeria Delta da Pintura Universal, a “universal” encyclopedia of art, Esbell intervenes upon colonial art history. In the pages shown in Figure 2, which are 17th-century Italian baroque paintings, he depicts Indigenous struggles in the Amazon (Fortes et al. 164). The page on the left reads “Violence is a long cycle. Old orders continue to echo and have now reached the world’s last virgin forests. The order? Exterminate!”, while the right reads “There is genocide in the Amazon forests” (Fortes et al. 164). This piece puts the “Old” and “New” worlds into conversation, drawing attention to the violent displacement of Indigenous Amazonians from the land and contemporary extraction in the Amazon. Not only does Esbell implicate the art canon in erasure, but he also reclaims spaces like museums and art history books as places where Indigenous stories and epistemologies can be elaborated. In his essay for the Biennial guidebook, he articulates that, while the art world still contains oppressive rules of etiquette, there is little to be gained from trying to outwit or compete with it: “So we had to come here, and the paths to other places are selfmade from this point on” (Esbell, Though It’s Dark 91).

2. Carta ao Velho Mundo / Letter to the Old World (2019) by Jaider Esbell.

Foundation.

Another piece, Feitiço para salvar a raposa Serra do Sol (2019), Spell to save raposa Serra do Sol, offers an even deeper understanding of environmental loss and Macuxi cosmology. This painting on cotton canvas was created as part of an Indigenous art collection at the Pinacoteca de São Paulo, the same collection where Esbell performed with Tukano in 2020 (see Fig. 3). Using bright colors and patterns, the painting connects recognizable animal life and abstracted elements of the spirit world, emphasizing relationship and a non-continuous, non-linear plane. Reading this piece as an assertion of what it means to care for the environment, it is opposite to what Mark Dowie calls “fortress conservation”, modeled by protected conservation areas in Africa, which emphasized a human-centered narrative of man versus nature, and a profound separation of the two (Dowie 264). Instead, Esbell’s scene uplifts the sacredness of lands, human spirituality, and Indigenous ways of knowing seamlessly.

Fig.

Source: São Paulo Biennial

Figure 3. Feitiço para salvar a raposa Serra do Sol / Spell to save raposa Serra do Sol (2019) by Jaider Esbell. Source: Isabella Matheus/Pinacoteca Collection in the State of São Paulo.

Looking at Jaider Esbell’s work offers hope through the lens of Indigenous resistance while also reminding us of an uncertain future. Pieces like A conversa das entidades intergalácticas para decidir o futuro universal da humanidade (2021), The Conversation of Intergalactic Entities to Decide the Universal Future of Humanity, epitomize this cosmic questioning through a 44 by 90-inch acrylic canvas painting featuring a centerless forest canopy, many watchful eyes, colorful lines and shapes, and starry nebulae (Bittencourt). As a viewer of Esbell’s potent, often large, and detailed pieces, there is a push to reflect, get lost, and come out on the other side with something different each time. Within his essay “Art is Not a Joke”, Esbell admits this “shamanistic composition to [his] work”, writing “we must go deep into people’s minds and get the best of them” (Esbell, “Art is Not a Joke” 118). In this way, Esbell’s works not only draw attention to political-ecological crises but offer guidance beyond “environmental solutions” – they offer a different way to be in the world and relate to nature. It is an art of healing and reciprocity, countering a deeper agnotology surrounding extraction, growth, and hierarchy as the only ways to organize the world.

Conclusion: Remembering Esbell

Esbell lives on through his pieces, which continue to reach and influence people across different geographies. In 2023, President Lula visited the exhibit “Future Brazil: The Forms of Democracy” at the Brazil National Museum of the Republic, which featured Esbell’s work (see Fig. 4). Shortly before his death in 2021, the Centre Pompidou in Paris also acquired pieces including Carta ao Velho Mundo. Importantly, Esbell’s friend and fellow artist Denilson Baniwa, who regarded Esbell as “deeply restless and revolutionary”, reflects on the pressure placed upon Indigenous Contemporary artists to alone “save art” or “save the world” (Baniwa). Baniwa implores: “Let’s take care of Jaider Esbell’s memory. And above all, let’s make sure that we and [other Indigenous artists] can walk more lightly” (Baniwa).

Fig. 4. President Lula takes a look at art, including Esbell’s (rightmost piece), with First Lady Janja and historian and curator Lilia Schwarcz. Source: Ricardo Stuckert/PR.

As President Lula was inaugurated in 2023, a global audience of civilians and scientists became rightly hopeful for the Brazilian Amazon’s future. Still, even progressive governments have brought environmental and social imbalance in Brazil (Rodriguez de Assis Machado et al. 270), meaning a continued need for accountability. Esbell’s work remains with us as an invitation to peer into the transformative potential of art in communicating and changing our environmental circumstances. As he emphasized, we must take art seriously. Use art to face environmental devastation. Embrace art and allow the feelings it stirs to touch us deep inside. And ultimately, use art to catalyze transformation towards another world.

Works Cited

1. Baniwa, Denilson. “Jaider Esbell - Arte Em Luto / Art in Mourning.” Translated by Felipe Milanez and Lúcia Sá, Cultures of Anti-Racism in Latin America, 10 Nov. 2021, sites.manchester.ac.uk/ carla/2021/11/10/jaider-esbell-arte-em-luto-art-inmourning/.

2. Bittencourt, Ela. “Jaider Esbell.” Artforum, May 2021, www.artforum.com/events/jaider-esbell-248358/.

3. Deutsch, Sierra. “Populist Authoritarian Neoliberalism in Brazil: Making Sense of Bolsonaro’s Anti-Environment Agenda.” Journal of Political Ecology, vol. 28, no. 1, Sept. 2021. DOI.org (Crossref), https://doi.org/10.2458/jpe.2994.

4. Dowie, Mark. Conservation Refugees: The Hundred-Year Conflict between Global Conservation and Native Peoples. MIT Press, 2009.

5. Esbell, Jaider. “Art Is Not a Joke.” Arctic Amazon: Networks of Global Indigeneity, edited by Gerald McMaster and Nina Vincent, Goose Lane Editions ; Wapatah Centre for Indigenous Visual Knowledge, OCAD University, 2023.

6. Esbell, Jaider. Carta ao Velho Mundo. 2019, Musée National d’Art Moderne - Centre Pompidou, Paris. São Paulo Biennial Foundation. http://34.bienal.org.br/en/artistas/7538. Accessed 25 October 2023.

7. Esbell, Jaider. Feitiço para salvar a raposa Serra do Sol. 2019, Pinacoteca Collection in the State of São Paulo. Pinacoteca de São Paulo. https://acervo.pinacoteca.org.br/online/ficha.aspx?id=21873&ns=201000&Lang=BR&mostraExplorar=1. Accessed 12 December 2023.

8. Esbell Jaider. Though It’s Dark, Still I Sing : 34th Bienal de São Paulo, edited by Elvira Dyangani Ose et al., Fundação Bienal de São Paulo, 2021. Federici, Silvia, and Peter Linebaugh. Re-Enchanting the World: Feminism and the Politics of the Commons. PM Press, 2019.

9. Fortes, Bartira, et al. “Contesting Extractivism through Amazonian Indigenous Artivism: Decolonial Reflections on Possibilities for Crafting a Pluriverse from Within.” Alternautas, vol. 10, July 2023, pp. 155–90, https://doi.org/10.31273/an.v10i1.1300.

10. Gonzatto, Camila. “In Conversation with Jaider Esbell: ‘We Also Have Something to Show—in Our Ways, with Our Rules.’” C& AMÉRICA LATINA, 3 May 2021, amlatina.contemporaryand.com/editorial/jaider-esbell/#:~:text=The%20indigenous%20 artist%20Jaider%20Esbell,to%20tell%20about%20 Makuxi%20cosmology.

11. “Jaider Esbell (1979–2021).” Artforum, Artforum, 26 Sept. 2023, www.artforum.com/news/jaider-esbell-1979-2021-250934/.

12. Krenak, Ailton, and Maurício Meirelles. “Our Worlds Are at War.” E-Flux Journal , no. 110, June 2020, https://www.e-flux.com/journal/110/335038/ our-worlds-are-at-war/.

13. Krenak, Ailton. “The Forest World.” Arctic Amazon: Networks of Global Indigeneity, edited by Gerald McMaster and Nina Vincent, Goose Lane Editions ; Wapatah Centre for Indigenous Visual Knowledge, OCAD University, 2023.

14. Lauriola, Vincenzo M. “Indigenous Lands, Commons, Juridical Pluralism and Sustainability in Brazil: Lessons from the Indigenous Lands of Raposa Serra Do Sol.” Journal of Latin American Geography, vol. 12, no. 1, 2013, pp. 157–85, https://doi. org/10.1353/lag.2013.0000.

15. Phillips, Dom. “‘We Are Fighting’: Brazil’s In-

digenous Groups Unite to Protect Their Land.” The Guardian, Guardian News and Media, 4 Mar. 2019, www.theguardian.com/world/2019/mar/04/we-arefighting-brazils-indigenous-groups-unite-to-protect-their-land.

16. Rodriguez de Assis Machado, Marta, et al. Indigenous Women against Bolsonaros Government in Brazil: Resisting Right-Wing Authoritarianism and Demanding Climate Justice. Edward Elgar Publishing, 2023, pp. 268–93, https://doi.org/10.4337/97818 03923796.00016.

17. Schiebinger, Londa. Plants and Empire: Colonial Bioprospecting in the Atlantic World. First Harvard University Press paperback edition, Harvard University Press, 2007.

18. Tukano, Daiara. “Thought and Light.” Arctic Amazon: Networks of Global Indigeneity, edited by Gerald McMaster and Nina Vincent, Goose Lane Editions ; Wapatah Centre for Indigenous Visual Knowledge, OCAD University, 2023.

Green Dreams, Red Tape: RGGI’s Rollercoaster Ride in the Climate Policy Circus

AUTHOR: Megan Mehta

I. Understanding RGGI’s Development

A. Introduction

Established in 2009, the Regional Greenhouse Gas Initiative (RGGI) is a market-based policy created to reduce CO2 emissions in regulated states. The RGGI marked a significant milestone in environmental policy, as it was the first regional CO2 emissions-based cap-and-trade program established in the United States. Nevertheless, it cannot be scaled to a federal level due its structural legislative and judicial vulnerabilities, as well as general political unpopularity. RGGI’s success is strongly attributed to the region and political environment of the states involved, and similar joint-state efforts reasonably be replicated in other parts of the country.

RGGI emerged from the efforts of the governors of ten states; Connecticut, Delaware, Maine, New Hampshire, New Jersey, New York, Vermont, Massachusetts, Rhode Island, and Maryland. In 2009, RGGI conducted its inaugural auction of emissions allowances, with the overarching goal to reduce carbon emissions, while promoting clean energy efficiency measures, green innovation, and environmental health within a growing economy.

B. Functionality and Policy Instruments

RGGI’s hybrid market-based and command-and-control approach to reducing emissions enables voluntary industry cooperation and ensures efficient action. By creating and regulating a trading scheme with a shortage of mandatory emissions allowances, the government is able to generate millions of dollars from auctioning CO2 expulsion permits and fees from non-compliant power plants. This structure guarantees a maximum ceiling for emissions each year, demands compliance, yet grants industry the freedom to choose the extent of their compliance via market-based emissions allowances pricing. Generated funds support renewable energy and carbon sequestration projects, particularly in low-income communities experiencing the brunt of public

and environmental health concerns, thereby promoting equitable emissions reduction benefits. Information governance via the RGGI CO2 Allowance Tracking System, quarterly reports, and public statements holds state governments and power plants accountable by advancing impact transparency.

II. Measurable Outcomes

A. Economy

Common criticisms of RGGI’s cap-and-trade system outline that power plants will transfer the burden of increased production costs onto the consumers via higher utility bills. However, regulated states experienced a 3.2% decrease in electricity prices while the country experienced a 7.7% price increase (Yan). The RGGI-funded energy efficiency programs are projected to save $418 million in lifetime energy bills amongst 34,000+ households and 570+ businesses (Regional Greenhouse Gas Initiative). Simultaneously, the “regional economy grew by 8%” (The Sierra Club).

55% of the $6.2 billion in revenue from state auctions of emission allowances are allocated towards optimizing energy efficiency while the rest expanding renewable energy projects, GHG abatement, climate change adaptation/mitigation, and consumer bill assistance programs (Regional Greenhouse Gas Initiative; Acadia Center).

B. Public Health

Studies show that cleaner air dramatically improves public health, including reducing infant and neonatal mortality rates, yielding “$5.7 billion in healthcare benefits and healthcare savings since 2008” (The Sierra Club).

C. Emissions

Regulated states reduced their electricity emissions by 50% at a rate that is 50% faster than the rest of the US, which is strongly attributed to a

73% decrease in coal production and 30% decrease in natural gas extraction (Yan; Regional Greenhouse Gas Initiative). Despite these successes, emissions leakage, the importation of fossil-fuel energy from non-regulated states, remains a loop-hole concern. Since the enactment of RGGI, surrounding states experienced a 237% increase in natural gas consumption due to regulated state energy imports, magnifying emissions in those regions (Yan). Nevertheless, the -4.8 million tons CO2 reduction in regulated states and +3.5 million ton increase in unregulated states yields -1.3 million ton emissions (Yan).

III. Political Strifes and Alternatives

A. Setbacks and Opposition From Partisan Politics

1. Case Study: New Jersey - Partisan Politics

Despite its strong record, the efficiency and effectiveness of RGGI is heavily dictated by state-wide politics. When Republican Governor Chris Christie pulled New Jersey out of RGGI in 2021, citing that “RGGI does nothing more than tax electricity, tax our citizens, tax our businesses, with no discernible or measurable impact upon our environment,” widespread largely bipartisan constituent support and protests went unheard (Navarro). Republican legislators opposed the initiative for years, and growing pressure and rhetoric within the party enabled Christie’s decision. In 2020, two years after Christie’s departure, New Jersey rejoined RGGI under Democratic Governor Phil Murphy.

2. Case Study: Pennsylvania - Legislative and Judicial Dissent

Pennsylvania is the 4th largest coal mining state in the US, accounting for 40% of RGGI capped emissions in 2023. The current Democratic governor, Josh Shapiro, prioritizes participating in and enforcing RGGI, noting that it can reduce up to “225 million tons of carbon pollution from Pennsylvania power plants by 2030… prevent up to 30,000 hospital visits for respiratory illnesses… increase [state] GDP of nearly $2 billion, and a net increase of 30,000 jobs by 2030” (Shader). These economic benefits combined with unprecedented consensus supporting RGGI amongst public health and environmental NGOs, the government, and power plant executives established the perfect environment for strong legislative action. However, in a November 1st, 2023 Commonwealth Court ruling, Democratic Judge Michael Wojick sided with Re-

publican Senators and fossil fuel industry lobbyists who claimed that RGGI functions as an unconstitutional tax (McDevitt). An outpour of opposition to this ruling prompted environmental NGOs to rally protests and work with Shapiro to appeal the ruling at the Pennsylvanian Supreme Court (Carr and The Sierra Club).

3. Case Study: Virginia - Disjoint Consensus, Judicial Challenges

Similarly, Virginia joined RGGI in 2020 under Democratic leadership. When Republican Governor Glenn Youngkin, former co-CEO of The Carlyle Group, assumed office, he fulfilled his campaign promise to withdraw from the initiative at the end of the state’s three-year contract in 2023. Senate Majority Leader Scott Surovell underlines Democratic and environmental NGO oppositing, noting “Youngkin doesn’t have the authority to pull Virginia out of RGGI alone… we left illegally,” describing Virginia’s unique budget process which allows the governor to veto line items, and the ⅔ majority legislature vote to counter-veto (Paullin).

B. Opposition and Alternatives

Conservative opposition, particularly Youngkin’s, maintains that RGGI and other cap-and-trade systems simply function as an additional tax, arguing that firms will pay fees and transfer the burden of costs onto consumers by increasing utility bills. However, the fact remains that dominion customers saw an average increase of $2.39/month, an extremely marginal cost compared to the healthcare cost reduction and environmental public health benefits. Youngkin’s alternative, less-bang-formore-buck plan doubles this cost to $4.44/month while dramatically undercutting the strength of emissions reductions policies, enforcement, and effectiveness. Other alternatives under the PJM-Interconnection, which binds the electric grid of 13 states, are much more difficult to develop from the ground-up amongst a coalition of states that operate at polar ends of the political spectrum. Red states would be resistant to joining reduction standards that are too strong, and the opposite is true for blue states; the cooperation of all political and legislative parties would require overcomplicated policies with weak enforcement, which would eradicate support from environmental NGOs, the public, and power plant executives.

C. Unscalability and Conclusions

RGGI’s vulnerability stems from a legislative or judicial system that acts in contrast to public opinion, environmental imperatives, and public health corollaries. The revolving door of high-level politicians and associated partisan actions undercuts emissions reduction progress– making it difficult for organizations, power plants, and individuals to function between swinging oppositions. Scaling RGGI to the federal level is improbable and ineffective because issuing blanket policies over states with varying political and geographical landscapes, cultural differences, politicians acting inconsistent with constituent support, and judicial systems contrasting legislative action would vaporize the effectiveness and efficiency that is foundational to RGGI’s success. RGGI binds together typically opposing stakeholders, yet the combatting judicial system, partisan politics, and legislative challenges– even at the regional scale, as seen in the case studies of New Jersey, Pennsylvania, and Virgina–would eliminate its effectiveness at a federal-scale. The magnitude of these challenges would amplify and escalate at a federal level.

Similarly, implementing RGGI-like initiatives within different spheres of the nation seems compelling, however, consistently Republican midwestern states oppose these initiatives due to their longstanding economic dependence on the fossil fuel economy, partisan politics, industry lobbying, inconsistent public support, and dissenting corporate cooperation. Meanwhile, consistently Democratic coastal states already enact much stronger regulations. RGGI’s incorporation of blue and purple states is keystone for bipartisan cooperation, which evaporates in politically homogeneous regions.

Despite these hurdles, RGGI embodies a multifaceted approach to emissions reduction, blending market mechanisms with environmental justice considerations. Moreover, its success can be attributed to being born out of and functioning within a coalition of states that are typically consistently participating and prioritizing emissions reduction. In our evolving world, the customization at regional levels for equitable, targeted, and fair emissions reductions prompts the collaboration of “industry players who do not oppose auctioning,” thereby establishing effective policies that serve all stakeholders (Huber 3).

Works Cited

1. Abouelnaga, Mahmoud. “Regional Greenhouse Gas Initiative (RGGI) - Center for Climate and Energy SolutionsCenter for Climate and Energy Solutions.” Center for Climate and Energy Solutions, https://www.c2es.org/content/regional-greenhouse-gas-initiative-rggi/. Accessed 23 February 2024.

2. Carr, Cindy, and The Sierra Club. “Sierra Club Slams Flawed PA Commonwealth Court Ruling Against RGGI.” Sierra Club, 1 November 2023, https://www.sierraclub.org/press-releases/2023/11/sierra-club-slams-flawed-pa-commonwealth-court-ruling-against-rggi. Accessed 22 February 2024.

3. “Elements of RGGI | RGGI, Inc.” Regional Greenhouse Gas Initiative, https://www.rggi. org/program-overview-and-design/elements. Accessed 23 February 2024.

Huber, Bruce R. “How Did RGGI Do It? Political Economy and Emissions Auctions.” University of Notre Dame The Law School, vol. 40, no. Ecology, 2013, p. 473. Notre Dame Law School NDL Scholarship, https://scholarship.law.nd.edu/cgi/viewcontent.cgi?article=1477&context=law_faculty_ scholarship. Accessed 22 02 2024.

4. “The Investment of RGGI Proceeds in 2021.” Regional Greenhouse Gas Initiative, https://www. rggi.org/sites/default/files/Uploads/Proceeds/ RGGI_Proceeds_Report_2021.pdf. Accessed 23 February 2024.

5. Lee, Jaeseok, and Taehwan Park. “Impacts of the Regional Greenhouse Gas Initiative (RGGI) on Infant Mortality: A Quasi-Experimental Study in the USA, 2003–2014.” BMJ Open, vol. 2019, 2019. National Library of Medicine, https://www.ncbi. nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC6500359/.

6. McDevitt, Rachel. “Pa. court rules climate program is an illegal tax, says state cannot join RGGI | StateImpact Pennsylvania.” StateImpact, National Public Radio, 1 November 2023, https:// stateimpact.npr.org/pennsylvania/2023/11/01/ pa-court-rules-climate-program-is-an-illegal-taxsays-state-cannot-join-rggi/. Accessed 22 February 2024.

7. Navarro, Mireya. “Christie Pulls N.J. From Greenhouse Gas Coalition.” The New York Times, 26 May 2011, https://www.nytimes. com/2011/05/27/nyregion/christie-pulls-njfrom-greenhouse-gas-coalition.html. Accessed 22 February 2024.

8. Paullin, Charlie. “Democrats propose bud-

get language to return Virginia to carbon market.” Virginia Mercury, 22 January 2024, https://virginiamercury.com/2024/01/22/democrats-propose-budget-language-to-return-virginia-to-carbon-market/. Accessed 22 February 2024.

9. “Regional Greenhouse Gas Initiative.” Acadia Center, https://acadiacenter.org/work/rggi/. Accessed 23 February 2024.

10. “The Regional Greenhouse Gas Initiative: A Fact Sheet.” Ceres, https://www.ceres.org/sites/ default/files/Fact%20Sheets%20or%20misc%20 files/RGGI%20Fact%20Sheet.pdf. Accessed 23 February 2024.

11. Regional Greenhouse Gas Initiative (RGGI). “Regional Greenhouse Gas Initiative (RGGI).” Sierra Club, 2024, https://www.sierraclub.org/pennsylvania/rggi. Accessed 23 February 2024.

12. Shader, Neil, and Commonwealth of Pennsylvania Department of Environmental Protection. “Pennsylvania Enters the Regional Greenhouse Gas Initiative.” PA.GOV, Commonwealth of Pennsylvania, 22 04 2022, https://www.ahs.dep.pa.gov/ NewsRoomPublic/articleviewer.aspx?id=22113&typeid=1. Accessed 22 02 2024.

13. Venkataraman, Sreekanth. “RGGI: Not a Proven Template for State Action Yet.” Cleveland: International Association for Energy Economics, vol. 2019, no. 1, 2019. ProQuest.

14. Yan, Jingchi. “The Impact of Climate Policy on Fossil Fuel Consumption: Evidence from the Regional Greenhouse Gas Initiative (RGGI).” Energy Economics, vol. 100, 2021, p. 105333. Elsevier Science Direct Journals.

Looks That Could Kill: Fast Fashion and Its Impact on the Environment

AUTHOR: Ruby Bermeo-Ehmann

The $1.7 trillion fashion industry is at the forefront of hot new looks and heated environmental debates (McKinsey). Fast fashion, a term popularized by The New York Times in the early 1990s, has initiated a detrimental cycle where excessive amounts of clothes are produced, distributed, and sold at remarkably low prices (Lai). While it seems like a steal, this form of fashion is inflicting detrimental effects on the environment. Through an in-depth analysis of the multifaceted impacts of fast fashion, from its production, consumption, and subsequent effects, this research aims to pinpoint the underlying drivers of this phenomenon and look into sustainable solutions. By honing in on specific case studies like Bangladesh, a primary producer of fast fashion products, and the United States, a major consumer of these products, this study will highlight the global connections between fast fashion and its environmental consequences, looking into what can and has already been done to deter these ramifications.

Case Study: Bangladesh (Producers)

Employing over four million Bangladeshi citizens and housing around 8,000 clothing factories, Bangladesh exists as one of the leading countries in the production of fast fashion (Bynum). This market’s high consumer demand and reliance on rapid production cycles have led to the exploitation of garment workers. These employees make around $24 to $75 a month contributing to a lack of mobility within families who depend on this line of work (Bynum). In addition to unlivable wages, the working conditions are extremely unsafe with many factories catching fire and collapsing due to lack of maintenance. One of the most horrific factory tragedies was the collapse of the Rana Plaza building in Dhaka, Bangladesh. The collapse killed 1,138 people and injured over 2,000 (Bynum). The building contained five clothing factories mainly producing products for consumers in North America and Europe (Bynum). Due to the prioritization of production over the welfare of human beings, thousands of innocent victims were subjected to the negligence of factory compliance in-

spectors and multinational corporations. In 2020, during the peak of COVID-19, factory workers in Bangladesh were left with zero compensation or aid during this difficult time. A staggering $2.81 billion worth of clothing was wasted as massive fast fashion corporations abruptly halted their orders due to the pandemic, leaving workers unemployed and grappling with an uncertain future (Bynum). Highlighting the impact of fast fashion in Bangladesh is essential for understanding the human rights violations and environmental degradation occurring within this industry, both locally and globally.

The fast fashion industry has inflicted severe environmental degradation in Bangladesh. Due to the cheap and expeditious nature of the industry, the materials and dyes utilized by these factories are filled with toxins and chemicals. These artificial textiles and dyes result in runoff and waste polluting the Buriganga River, contaminating the water supply, initiating a rise in illnesses among Bangladeshi citizens, and rendering the surrounding areas inhabitable for native wildlife (Bynum). These outcomes provide a first-hand example of how harmful this trade is to public health and the prosperity of local ecosystems. In addition to harming the environment at the local level, the global impact is astronomical. The industry is accountable for around 10% of global carbon emissions and stands as one of the largest water consumers, with a single cotton t-shirt requiring as much as 700 gallons of water (Maiti). Notably, fast fashion giant Zara achieves a rapid turnover in the creation, production, and exportation of new items in as little as two weeks, further exacerbating the issue of textile waste (Maiti). The demand for fast fashion persists, with the United States being one of the main consumers of such products, playing a significant role in fueling its popularity and sustained growth.

Case Study: The United States (Consumers)

Capitalistic principles within the United States have fueled climate change through overpro-

duction and overconsumption, something fast fashion significantly supports and contributes to. With Americans constantly throwing out and rotating through an excessive amount of cheap clothing, as much as 82 pounds annually, they are major participants in the issue of textile waste and environmental degradation (Maiti). Prominent fast fashion brands like Shein saw an extreme rise in business–especially among Gen Z Americans–during the pandemic, propelling the company to become the runner-up to Amazon as the second most popular online shopping platform (McKinsey). When examining American shopping trends on Shein, it was recorded that 40% of Americans have purchased items from the platform in the past year, however, this statistic doesn’t even consider purchases from other fast fashion brands meaning the overall figure is much greater (McKinsey). This surge triggered an increase in clothing waste and carbon emissions. Much of American culture perpetuates the need for trendy, new, and affordable clothes. American celebrities and influencers encourage this behavior by posting extensive clothing hauls that feature as many as 100 fast fashion items, influencing their followers to partake in the same consumption patterns. As long as the demand for fast fashion products persists, the supply chain will continue to churn out vast quantities of clothing perpetuating this wasteful and environmentally harmful cycle.

Global Environmental Impact:

Around 92 million tonnes of textile waste is generated annually worldwide (Lai). To put this in perspective one tonne is equivalent to the weight of a small car (Abelvik-Lawson). From the cultivation of cotton and polyester to the manufacturing and transportation process, fast fashion takes a profound toll on the environment. Polyester, a commonly used textile material, is dependent on the production of plastic as it is a primary component in this synthetic fabric (Abelvik-Lawson). Plastic production requires a significant amount of oil and gas making it an extremely environmentally damaging process (Abelvik-Lawson). Partly fueled by fast fashion’s reliance on polyester production and other materials, the industry emits around 5 billion tonnes of carbon dioxide into the atmosphere each year exacerbating climate change and contributing to its adverse effects on the environment (Abelvik-Lawson). Due to plastic existing within most fast fashion products, the issue of

microplastics emerges. With so many cheap and trendy clothing items ending up in landfills, these microplastics infiltrate our soil, air, and water, releasing toxic chemicals throughout (Abelvik-Lawson). These microscopic pieces of plastic, totaling around 50 billion plastic water bottles, end up in our oceans, and in many cases in our water and food sources (Abelvik-Lawson). Additionally, this industry uses an excessive amount of energy. The plastic fibers utilized in the production of textiles demand an, “...energy-intensive process that requires large amounts of petroleum and releases volatile particulate matter and acids like hydrogen chloride” (Maiti). While materials like cotton do not contain microplastics they are still extremely taxing to our environment as they require excessive water usage and chemical-ridden pesticides (Maiti). Looking at the environmental impact of the fast fashion industry is extremely daunting. It underscores the urgency for sustainable alternatives, critical changes to the current production process, and responsible consumption practices to help mitigate greater damage to the planet.

Sustainable Solutions:

Efforts to reduce the adverse effects fast fashion is having on the world are catching on with sustainable fashion emerging as a prospective alternative. Sustainable brands like Pangaia are using science to innovate eco-friendly materials and products in hopes of progressing towards “an Earth-positive future” (Pangaia). This company works against all harmful aspects within the fashion industry, using scientific solutions to reuse, recycle, and guarantee a reduced carbon and waste footprint. An issue that continues to arise when it comes to sustainable fashion is its high price point. Since these brands are sourcing more sustainability, not depending on cheap labor, and operating on a smaller scale, their products are sold at an unrealistic price for many individuals. Finding an economical solution to this is critical for sustainable fashion to prosper. Advocating for policy changes that support sustainable practices within the fashion industry would help contribute to cost reduction. Moreover, by applying the concept of economies of scale, the more companies that partake in sustainable fashion the more affordable it becomes. While consumers might feel helpless in this fight against the fast fashion industry they have more power than they think. A collective decision to stop supporting fast fashion brands that neglect

the well-being of the environment and instead support second-hand or sustainable brands does impact these fashion conglomerates’ income and sale rates, and it all starts with the actions of one consumer (Lai).

Conclusion

While the fast fashion industry is cheap, it comes at a high environmental cost. Fashion is an artistic outlet for many as it allows for individualistic expression. Fast fashion contradicts this individuality by mass-producing thousands of identical looks, discarding them once they’re no longer trendy, and perpetuating this wasteful cycle. By implementing sustainable solutions and making eco-conscious decisions as consumers this harmful cycle can be disrupted and a more ethical and environmentally friendly fashion industry can evolve. If consumer and industrial culture can focus on quality over quantity and the overall well-being of our planet, we can hope to see a reduction in some of these staggering statistics.

Works Cited

1. Abelvik-Lawson, Helle. “How fast fashion fuels climate change, plastic pollution, and violence.” Greenpeace, 22 September 2023, https:// www.greenpeace.org/international/story/62308/ how-fast-fashion-fuels-climate-change-plasticpollution-and-violence/. Accessed 30 April 2024.

2. “About Pangaia.” Pangaia, https://pangaia. com/pages/about-us. Accessed 30 April 2024. Bynum, Georgia. “The Impact of Fast Fashion in Bangladesh.” The Borgen Project, 26 May 2021, https://borgenproject.org/fast-fashion-in-bangladesh/. Accessed 30 April 2024.

3. Lai, Olivia. “Explainer: What Is Fast Fashion?” Earth.Org, 10 November 2021, https://earth. org/what-is-fast-fashion/. Accessed 30 April 2024.

4. Maiti, Rashmila. “Fast Fashion and Its Environmental Impact in 2024.” Earth.Org, 5 January 2024, https://earth.org/fast-fashions-detrimental-effect-on-the-environment/. Accessed 30 April 2024.

5. McKinsey. “What is fast fashion and why is it a problem?” McKinsey & Company, 7 December 2023, https://www.mckinsey.com/featured-insights/mckinsey-explainers/what-is-fast-fashion. Accessed 30 April 2024.

Cultivated Meat: Beyond the Body

AUTHOR: Zora Uyeda-Hale

In recent years, the cultivated meat industry has been attracting large sums of investments through the ambitious promise to turn single animal cells into meat that could feed the entire world. While some argue that the industry is an optimistic story of human ingenuity in an impending climate crisis, Joe Fassler, the author of The New York Times article, “Opinion | Cultivated Meat’s Empty Promise of Revolution,” sees it as a manifestation of human pessimism and unwillingness to change. At the end of the article, Fassler writes, “In a world where our favorite indulgences tend to come at someone else’s — or something else’s — expense, [cultivated meat] was a product that reframed consumption as virtue” (13). Although this article acknowledges the cultivated meat industry’s anthropocentric and capitalistic nature, it overlooks some important perspectives. The article lacks discussion on the intrinsic value of bodies, the mechanization of reproductive systems, and the imperialistic nature of Western technology.

In the article’s discourse around cultivated meat products, there is no mention of an animal’s intrinsic value outside of its physical body. In the entire article, the word “meat” is mentioned 58 times, while the word “animal” is mentioned only three. This is a shocking choice of language, which reduces the animal’s body to something only designed for human consumption and nourishment, instead of an element of broader autonomy and being. This is an example of reductionist biology, where certain beings are labeled useless or surplus based on their declared function (Shiva 141). In this article, animals are regarded as tools for human benefit, which means their existence outside of providing meat—or cells for artificial meat production—is an unnecessary afterthought.

To write this piece, Fassler interviewed almost 60 investors, company founders, and former employees (2). Upside Foods is one of the cultivated meat companies explicitly mentioned. Their stance on the technology they use demonstrates another characteristic of reductionist biology: genetic reductionism (Shiva 144). In response to Fassler’s

questions regarding Upside’s process, the company responded, “The suggestion that our path is unusual ignores the reality of how transformative technologies develop and does a disservice to every innovator who dares to bring something new into the world” (Fassler 10).

In actuality, the process of creating cultivated meat is not new at all but simply an intervention in the normal process of biological development (Shiva 140). However, for-profit companies like Upside Foods are claiming it as an original human innovation. Meat has become something that humans can have ownership over because we have discovered its supposed origins through science and technology. This dismisses all animal sacrifice and our interdependence with the Earth’s systems of renewal and regeneration.

The cultivated meat industry essentially takes a few cells and figuratively discards the rest of the animal, sending a message that an animal is no more than simple genes. This genetic reductionism perceives genes as separate from their original environment and organism (Shiva 145). Therefore, meat is the only thing that has perceived value to human beings, so the animal is erased as an autonomous, sentient being. As Shiva points out, “The engineering paradigm of biotechnology is based on the assumption that life can be made” (143). Because the cultivated meat industry markets itself as a biotechnological innovator, its products can be patented and owned for profit, even if they mimic natural biological processes. This erases reverence for all life and transfers of energy (Shiva 148).

In Fantasies of Identification by Ellen Samuels, she asserts that the science behind genetic testing is really “a technological manifestation of sociopolitical ideas of race” (Samuels 189). Similarly, the cultivated meat industry can be seen as an expression of taxonomies of power between humans and non-human animals (Kim 24), exaggerated by the impending pessimism of the climate crisis and a desire for human control.

Using cultivated meat to pursue a technological solution to the climate crisis instead of changing lifestyle choices is a form of “anxious anthropocentrism” (Kim 34). Throughout history, humans have searched for the natural distinction between animals and humans, but have never discovered a clear separation (Kim 31). However, humans have continued to assert mastery over animals, even though the boundary between species evades objectivity (Kim 32). Uma Valenti, CEO of Upside Foods, declared cultivated meat as a “second domestication,” comparing it to the transition from hunting and gathering to livestock and agriculture (Fassler 4). This viewpoint indicates a desire to further dominate animal populations by demonstrating human intellectual superiority and dismissing claims of human dependency. Following this logic, if humans can create enough meat in one day to feed an entire country (Fassler 1), many animals become obsolete, and humans claim self-sufficiency and independence on this planet.

Another form of anxious anthropocentrism is around self-reproducing systems. Cultivated meat seeks to harness the self-reproducing, autopoietic nature of animal bodies and use it to our advantage (Shiva 149). However, with this power, there is also a risk of losing control. It seems that humans fear regenerative systems that may cease to serve them, so they transform these systems into allopoietic machines to maintain command (Shiva 149). For example, women and all individuals with reproductive capabilities are constantly enduring the legislation and violation of their bodies. Bodies are treated like they have one-dimensional functions, and the individual is blamed if they are struggling to serve this purpose or if they outright refuse to do so. If anyone with a uterus—human and non-human— were given sole authority over their reproduction, that autonomy would provide a large increase in societal power. The cultivated meat industry is another response to this fear. By eliminating animal bodies from the equation, humans can benefit from regenerative systems without trepidation of inevitable, uncontrollable factors.

Additionally, to reach the necessary scale of production, these companies would have to construct factories across the globe. These mega-facilities will likely perpetuate patterns of environmental racism and imperialism, disproportionately im-

pacting low-income communities of color, developing countries, and Indigenous communities. Josh Tetrick—CEO of Eat Just—is quoted saying, “By 2025, we’ll build the first of these facilities [and by 2030] we’re the world’s largest meat company” (Fassler 5). This ideology of capitalistic, U.S.-led expansion denotes an inequitable control over resources, which would likely aggravate inequity within the global food system instead of alleviating hunger. This expansion could also promote cultural reductionism because it devalues non-Western knowledge systems around food production (Shiva 144). Cultivated meat could become a form of technological imperialism.

Although Fassler’s article raises some important points around capitalistic delusions of “buy[ing] a better world” (Fassler 13), it lacks insight into what this stubbornness says about human views on intrinsic value, reductionism, and capitalistic expansion. Ultimately, the cultivated meat industry is not only a pessimistic fantasy but also a disregard for the indivisible interdependence of all systems and energy.

Works Cited

1. Fassler, Joe. “Opinion | Cultivated Meat’s Empty Promise of Revolution.” The New York Times, 9 February 2024, https://www.nytimes. com/2024/02/09/opinion/eat-just-upside-foodscultivated-meat.html. Accessed 3 March 2024.

2. Kim, Claire Jean. Dangerous Crossings: Race, Species, and Nature in a Multicultural Age. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 2015.

3. Samuels, Ellen. Fantasies of Identification: Disability, Gender, Race. NYU Press, 2014.

4. Shiva, Vandana. The Vandana Shiva Reader. University Press of Kentucky, 2014.

Spring 2024 Staff

Editors in Chief:

Zora Uyeda-Hale

Sia Agarwal

Senior Editors:

Amelia Namita Pinto

Nishita Sudhir Dashpute

Colin Mequet

Ben Bartlett

Research Editor:

Paige Thionnet

Social Media Director:

Abby Wilber

Website Director:

Tiffany Ho

Indra Deshmukh

Design Directors:

Catie Kuehl

Weiran Zhu

Design

Staff:

Jane Grumann

Alex Kamras

Armando Gutierrez

Francesca Marchetti

Staff

Writers:

Mona Holmer

Paloma Hashemi

Charlotte Peterson

Lexie Jade Garcia

Halasya Malladi

Sara Warford-Crowe

Sofia Berman

Annie Foo

MJ Smith

Tiva Gandhi

Emma Mott