Carsonists and the Distribution of the Champagne Glass in the Name of Sustainability

Carsonists! I love it! Not only is it a great combination of words, but the polivands have hit on something incredibly symbolic. A car can mean a lot of things to different of people, but owning a car is a sign of wealth because it takes a lot of money to own a car. First, there is the initial cost of the car, then gas, oil, and (as I have been learning a lot recently) there is the never ending light that pops up on your dashboard telling you to check your engine, which costs money. Usually the fancier your car, the more money you have. If you have more than one car, that's a multiple $ sign. A truly poor person is going to have a lot of trouble owning a car.

The champagne glass distribution is a great visual. It makes sense with the richest on top because with money comes power. It makes the rich look very greedy and like they are hording as much as possible and letting the rest trickle or slowly ooze down to the less fortunate in the world. The diagram shows how unstable this structure is, having a poor base is not a good idea when trying to hold up such a heavy rich top. If a gust of wind comes there will be nothing to stop the structure from falling over. Also the support could break from all the weight. This is an incredibly precarious structure.  
                      
Under a capitalist structure a society is motivated by money. Money is the priority. Money becomes what rules the world. Not human rights, not environmental equity. Money. Although these may still be important to people, they have to come at least second if money is the motivating factor. If it doesn't make money, it is out of the picture. The world becomes divided into money, and lets think about this. Money is a physical representation of an idea people made up to put worth to something to trade. The world becomes something to trade.

Socialism revolves around the people. People are the priority. I think that is great for people, but then the world becomes divided into people. So basically people take over the world, which does have the potential to hurt the environment... eventually hurting the people.

An environmentalist structure would theoretically work because people are part of the environment. If the priority was everything in the world.... people would be ok. Right?

Burning cars, that symbolize money, represents a demand for a more encompassing system, not just one that allows people to compete for money and buy cars at the cost of others and the planet.

So sustainability. I thought it was my number one value, but it really depends on what context the word is used. If we are talking about sustaining a the world how it is.... hmmm well I don't really want to be a part of that because the world how it is kind of sucks. Well, it is pretty corrupt at least. And it wouldn't be very sustainable because the current structure is about to topple over. It's not really a champagne glass hmmm. It doesn't have a bottom. I've maybe seen some disposable one's like that... like the taster kind or something. It's a greedy oozy pool of maple syrup with a little hole in the middle maybe. Its not gonna last that for sure. Its gonna run out of the sweet stuff at some point. Or its gonna freeze and shatter from the bottom. But either way it won't last.


Here's to a refreshing cocktail!

Buttonwillow

These cases are definitely starting on some level to muddle together. Time and time again we see courts passing cases that just don't seem legal, people in positions of power (and often with an agenda) playing deaf to residents' concerns.

The author's tone did not give us much false hope for a success story this time. I was pretty sure that the waste facility would have its way this time. Although the Buttonwillow community faced similar obstacles to the other stories, some things did seem different this time. It was hard to distinguish if it was how Padres and the community tackled the case, or if the odds were just completely against them.

I feel like the cases in Chester and Kettleman had a stronger community bond and drive than Buttonwillow did. This may have been because those communities were dominantly one race, and Buttonwillow was more divided and it was primarily the Mexican community fighting back with little to know help from the white and black community (at least that was the impression the book gave me).

I feel like the other communities had more momentum. It seemed like there were a lot of pauses with the Buttonwillow community. I'm not positive that the lack of momentum came more from the people or the circumstances they were put under. I feel like that didn't happen as much in Chester and Kettleman. I could just be remembering wrong though...

I would like to know more about language controversy in the US for immigrant workers and citizens. Although I do think it is fair that someone should be able to understand a document that contains information that could directly effect them, I would like to better understand what is expected in terms of English ability to become a citizen.

I think the language controversy goes way deeper than this case. It goes to immigration laws and how people feel about that, and then it goes down to why people from places like... Mexico want to come here and what role our government plays in their government. I think what Montoya says at the end of the chapter sums up the situation really well: "in Mexico they do what the do outside of the law. And in the U.S. they want to make the laws legitimate what they do. In other words, they want to make tings appear legal."

Its going to take a real change in perception and awareness and people willing to think a little harder to end all this insane corruption and deeply rooted racism.

Good luck world <3

Logistics of Racism

"Racial neutrality." Lets think about this concept. Racial neutrality would be a pretty hard thing to accomplish in such a diverse and complex world. There would have to be very conscious considerations and efforts taken to make something racially neutral. In fact it is probably impossible, but there are ways to attempt to make a system seem more fair.

I thought this quote was great: "Although most of these criteria appear neutral on their face, as we have explained, many actually have profound racial implications." So there are actually political consulting firms like the Cerrell Associates of LA that write reports, one called Political Difficulties Facing Waste-to-Energy Conversion Plant Citing (I can never get over how unassuming they make these names sound), that describes the kind of community that would offer "the least potential of generating public opposition." Some of the supposedly race neutral criteria for these communities (land distribution for instance) end linking back to slavery.... thats not racist at all!

There haven't been persistent or genuine enough measures taken to mitigate segregative effects of slavery and racism. Racism is still there. Its really really there, it didn't go anywhere. We have just found ways to lie to ourselves and set up political and economic systems where we can hide and make a face value attempt to say that something isn't racist... when it is. It has just been veiled.... as "lifestyle" and "market dynamics." I do have to admit that little section kind of went over my head, and I think its because the ideas themselves don't actually make any sense. They are incredibly superficial and ignorant to a much deeper social and cultural context.

None of this racist system really makes any sense. Institutionalization. We have come up with so many ways to turn a blind eye to racism. Even if we were blind wouldn't really disappear because the effects of racism already produced inequalities that could potentially be race neutral. "State permitting laws remain neutral, or blind, toward these inequalities; they therefore perpetuate, and indeed exacerbate, distributional inequalities."

Chester Residents Concerned for Quality of Life. Chapter 2: The Political Economy of Env Racism

Wow. What a struggle these people have gone through and continue to fight. I can't believe (well, I can) how corrupt our legal system is. The whole dialogue between Jerome Balter and the justice was really fascinating, especially the justice's quote: "Mr. Balter, around here I am the law."

The judges seemed to feel really comfortable and open about corruptly interpreting the law. It doesn't make sense how "the maximum capacity of a covered facility located in the eastern zone could be no greater than 10,765 tons per year" (which is no small amount, and keep in mind this number is not for a whole region but for a single facility, which could be one of many, in a region), and although Thermal Pure's permit allowed them to produce nearly ten times the legal amount, the most powerful legal system in PA didn't seem to see a problem.

I also have to point out here that I think it is really funny that a medical waste company, a really disgusting sounding facility, hides behind an unassuming name like Thermal Pure. Medical waste sterilization would not be my first guess when trying to figure out the function of a company called Thermal Pure. I might have better luck if they called it something like Guts and Garbage... or... I don't know I guess I'm not very good at this and that's why I don't get hired to name medical waste companies.

It seems as if there were so many highly illegal plots and actions taken against these people. The openly corrupt decisions made by the so called "justices," the bribes, the lies and ignoring. These people could not rely on the help of the law because the people in charge of the law were against them. Its kind of interesting that so much illegal action can be taken before someone might take action to enforce it to stop. Its funny how your not guilty unless your proven guilty, which most of the time I'm all about, but when a system refuses to charge guilty action that has been proven guilty, things don't work out so great.

When I think about how I said in the beginning that I couldn't believe how corrupt our legal system was, I was lying. I'm actually really subconsciously aware about it... if that statement makes any sense. If I'm aware of it why don't I do anything about it? I'm pretty sure its because at the moment I don't feel I have the ability to do anything about it, at least nothing obvious jumps out at me. So it takes a back burner, and I think thats how a lot of people feel. Or they just can't believe that their own government would consciously not care about them.

We have a really flawed system. We might need to start over or something. Think back to the old days when people lived in harmony with their surroundings for millions more years than our unsustainable "civilized" (or as Ishmael would put it "taker") lifestyle has been around. I love that CRCQL joined forces with college students and formed C4. Social change has to be in the youth to be continued. I hope more youth are able to learn about some issues that actually matter. Unfortunately a lot of the time our education system seems to prevent anything ground breaking from happening through young people. I'm gonna start a school. Really though. Its gonna be cool. A high school. actually a league of high schools. but really, its my business plan for entrepreneurship :D empower youth and shake some earth. yea! ciao!

Chapter 1: A History of the Environmental Justice Movement

It was interesting to learn that there is not just one single environmental movement, but that there are several different kinds each with specific discrepancies. 

It makes sense that the environmental justice movement would be related to the civil rights movements, the toxics movement (which I was completely unaware of), and the native american's struggles. I did find it a little odd that they put the native americans as fourth for leading up to the environmental justice movements. It seems to me that their struggles came before the civil rights movement and the toxics issues. I almost felt like there could have been a bit of subconscious racism or discrimination on culture going on in the priority list.

Academia was not something I would have put in the list off the top of my head, but it makes complete sense that it contributed to the movement. Being knowledgeable can help to back up any cause. Educating people makes it harder for them to justify continuing a harmful practice that they may have been ignorant about before.

I was a little surprised to here about the first wave environmentalists in organizations such as the Sierra Club being so opposed to helping the degradation of poor people's environment. I would think that an environmental group would be concerned about all environments, not just environments that rich white people like to spend their time in.

"We see the Environmental Justice Movement as separate from and as transcending the environmental movement - as a movement based on environmental issues but situated within the movements for social justice." Part of me likes this quote but part of me has a small problem with it. This quote reminds me of the book we read in my ecopsychology class, "Ishmael" by Daniel Quinn. "Ishmael" makes the point that humans now view themselves as separate and superior from nature. Because of this, they have upset the natural balance and are the reason for the destruction of the planet. When they put the Environmental Justice Movement inside the movement for social justice, to me it seems that they are placing the environment as second to people, as just a benefit for people. To me the health of the whole planet (which includes people) is more important than the health of just the people. I know that this isn't necessarily what they were getting at, but that is a thought subtly seems to be apparent when I hear that statement. 

The quote also reminds me of Ishmael because the book says that the reason the social movements of the 60's didn't work was that people didn't understand they were following a cultural myth that led them to an incomplete conclusion. It seems like the environment was a major missing component. With the emergence of the environmental movement, it seems like people were becoming a missing component.

I think that since people are most concerned with their own well being it makes sense that the environmental justice movement would come from social justice. People's health depends on their environment. I am glad that people are becoming more aware that their own health depends on the health of their surroundings.