The environment and social justice

Managing resources in a sustainable approach with people in mind should be based on a thorough understanding of the ecosystems and the impacts of our decisions and actions on those ecosystems, Environment & social justice are two essential pillars of sustainable development. Progressive& innovative methodologies of sustainably developing communities should not be a “to do list” or a manual of guidelines imposed rather than an inclusive process understanding the diversity & variety of ecosystems & communities.

As an example mostly calls from socialists & activists regarding labor rights & minimum rates of wages…etc does not foresee that in a country like Egypt for example –which is applicable for many other MENA countries- even if you gave an employee minimum of 1200 EGP per month after struggling all his/her life to save an acceptable amount of money, He/She will eventually spend most of it on curing a disease caused by pollution and environmental deterioration in the first place. This is an ineffective, disappointing scenario that urges us to revise our approach and understanding the social & economical impacts of environmental deterioration. There are even few studies linking the Arab spring uprisings in MENA with the environmental deterioration, climate change and their impacts on increasing the prices of food & commodities. Among those studies was : The Arab Spring and Climate Change,A Climate and Security Correlations Series,By Caitlin E. Werrell, Francesco Femia, and Anne-Marie Slaughter | February 28, 2013 http://climateandsecurity.files.wordpress.com/2012/04/climatechangearabspring-ccs-cap-stimson.pdf ,which argues in one of its chapters that the Chinese drought, global wheat prices & the revolution in Egypt are related in what could be called as “hazard globalization”, a once in a century winter drought in China reduced global wheat supply and contributed to global wheat shortage and skyrocketing wheat prices in Egypt ,the world largest wheat importer. Protests in Egypt focused on poverty, bread & social justice.

In the poorest village in MENA we can introduce some sustainable ideas that can generate income for the residents like planting roofs, installing PV modules on rooftops and buildings to generate electricity for the village, generating electricity from waste, recycling ….etc. Feasible incentive programs should be studied & developed by governments to apply such ideas & developing communities that can sustain themselves & meet the basic needs. As of 2010, feed-in tariff policies had been enacted in over 50 countries http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Feed-in_tariff#Description. Trainings & awareness campaigns should be provided; even the income generated from such activities can be used in improving the infrastructure of such villages if applicable. It does not have to always be a mega investor coming to recycle some stuff or to generate electricity from waste without involving or generating any benefit to the local community. Unfortunately CSR & corporate environmental activities in most scenarios are just “Greenwashing” a practice which causes lots of harm to the environment & results in dramatic social injustice a good study about this named “When do companies greenwash” by Christopher Marquis &Michael W. Toffel

 http://www.hbs.edu/faculty/Publication%20Files/11-115_af40ca36-f8fa-4f42-b211-0ef0ebc64da3.pdf

In order to name a couple of examples for case studies of sustainable development of communities vs. environmental degradation & social injustice. A study in Egypt for the city of Fayoum as the “Fayoum ecotourism development plan 2005-2015” http://www.cissong.org/it/press/news/il-piano-ecoturistico-del-fayoum  involving the whole community with many job opportunities in sustainable activities like the famous handicrafts,birdwatching…etc such plans are usually opposed by “big visions” and mega projects that in most cases have very negative impacts on the environment with no benefit to the local community.

The second example for sustainable development of communities vs. environmental degradation & social injustice is the displacement of millions of Egyptian Nubians from their community to several other places all over Egypt, the problem is not merely in the geographical displacement rather than taking a heritage & culture from its roots with severe negative impacts on the environment and ecosystem. This genuine Egyptian heritage & culture can be sustainably developed through a holistic inclusive plan as in the first example. This can benefit the local community and conserve the environemt.

Air & water pollution in MENA is already generating a long list of diseases with dramatically rising rates; Studies in Egypt show scary statistics stating that annually 17,000 children die of intestinal infection & diarrhea caused by Nile pollution*. climate change is already badly affecting the Nile Delta in northern Egypt & some other parts through MENA.Studies states that if the Mediterranean sea level  increased by 0.5 m this will lead to destroying 1800 square kilometer of fertile agriculture land & displacing 3.8 million residents from Nile delta , if the Mediterranean sea level  increased by 1 m this will lead to destroying 4500 square kilometer of fertile agriculture land & displacing 6.1 million residents from Nile delta http://www.grida.no/publications/vg/climate/page/3088.aspx.Rising food prices is yet another effect noticed by every single individual. And unless we understand the roots of the problem, how to manage the ecosystems and handle this environmental deterioration, those effects & even more will keep alerting us that we need to act. Social justice cannot be achieved without environmental justice.

* http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Water_supply_and_sanitation_in_Egypt