Domestic Environmental Issues Environmental Policy and Political Geography Strip mining and mountaintop removal Water rights and distribution Fisheries management Waste disposal: urban, oceanic, nuclear Wetlands designation and management Offshore drilling leases ANWAR Cap and trade How should public lands (BLM, NFS) be used? Is the E.P.A. necessary? Strip Mining Diagram Mountaintop Removal, WV 1
Mountaintop Removal, Appalachia In 1984 the NY/NJ Bight was named The Ocean Dumping Capital of the World New York City sludge boat Corporate farm animal waste being dumped at sea Ocean dumping comes ashore 2
Yucca Mountain, Nevada Prospective U.S. Nuclear Waste Repository Workers riding tramway in Yucca Mountain access tunnel A wetland is an area of land whose soil is saturated by water seasonally or year-round. Standing water may also characterize the area in whole or part. Because they are so ecologically diverse and provide prime habitat for many species including those officially designated as endangered wetlands may be protected by state and federal laws or official decree. Controversy results when private property is officially designated as wetland, which deprives owners of the freedom to use their lands as they wish. Everglades National Park Big Cypress National Preserve, FL 3
Okefenokee Swamp N.W.R. The Prairie Pothole Region Prairie potholes A Prairie pothole Arctic National Wildlife Refuge Alaska s oil fields 4
Caribou Herd Arctic National Wildlife Refuge Caribou, Pipeline and Oil Rig Cap and Trade: an approach to controlling pollution by means of economic incentives A branch of government sets a limit (or cap) on the amount of a pollutant firms may emit. The limit is allocated or sold to firms in the form of emission permits, which represent their right to discharge a certain amount of a pollutant. Firms are required to hold permits to pollute that cannot exceed their cap and are heavily fined if they do. Firms that need more permits must buy them from other firms that do not need more permits. The transfer of permits is a trade, which profits a firm that has reduced pollution. Theoretically, this leads to a lowering of pollution. A coal-based power plant In Germany One goal of emissions trading is to make coal plants less competitive than others. 5
International Environmental Issues Geographic differences in environmental law Geographic differences e in enforcement e of environmental law Trans-boundary resource management Trans-boundary pollution Global warming Pacific Salmon migration routes The 1985 Canadian U.S. Pacific Salmon Treaty Concerns fisheries management related to several species of salmon, which are extremely important to the region s provincial and state economies, and to the cultural heritage of native peoples. Different migratory patterns often result in Canada- bound salmon traveling through U.S. waters where they can be intercepted before reaching Canadian waters, and vice versa. Also involves trans-boundary rivers, like the Yukon. Establishes an international commission that makes recommendations aimed at equitable use of the fishery. Columbia River watershed Yukon River 6
The Northwest Atlantic Fisheries Organization (NAFO) Convention Area The Northwest Atlantic Fisheries Organization (NAFO) An international organization that seeks to allocate and regulate the annual catch of several species of fish in the NW Atlantic so as to guarantee their longterm viability. Has the power to recommend a moratorium on the annual harvest of individual id species and legitimize i enforcement if need be. Requires that fishing vessels accurately record and communicate their catches. Resulted in the 1995 Turbot War, which followed the boarding in international waters of a Spanish trawler and arrest of its crew (charged with overfishing a variety of halibut) by a Canadian warship. The Grand Banks (of Newfoundland) Fishing Trawlers, New Bedford, MA Extensive continental shelf (underwater plateaus) south and southeast of Newfoundland. One of the world s most productive fisheries, now threatened by over-fishing. Juxtaposition of two very different marine ecosystems and associated upwelling. 7
The effect of acid rain on a forest in Eastern Canada Major global centers of Acid Deposition Acid Deposition and Soil Quality Convention on Long-range Transboundary Air pollution passed in 1979 by the UN Economic Commission for Europe Kyoto Protocol participation as of 2009 Green = signed and ratified the treaty Grey = not yet decided Blue = Ratification rejected 8
Population Policies and Political Geography Internal migration International migration Land tenure Internal Migration To populate sparsely populated areas (Amazonia) To relieve population pressure (Java and Kalimantan) To dilute and pacify the population of an annexed area (South Tirol) To displace a population (Native Americans, Trail of Tears, Darfur) Trans-Amazon Highway Indonesia population density Trail of Tears International Migrations Expulsions Partitions Gastarbeiters foreigners admitted on work permits Immigration policy (promotion and exclusion) Expatriots and returnees Refugees 9
The Partition of British India Involved the relocation of as many as 12.5 million people. Sporadic violence claimed the lives of many migrants. Estimates range from several hundred thousand to a million. The violent nature of the partition helped create tense relations between Pakistan and India that have endured. Partition of British India into India and Pakistan (East and West) --- Effective 15 Aug. 1947 Scenes from the partition of India Refugee Camp in Darfur 10