Ultimately, ocean justice is not only about understanding the disproportionate exposure to environmental harms by marginalized communities but also about acknowledging the unique ways in which these very social groups integrate ocean conservation, science and policy-making in the urban setting.
In this blog post I will trace the development of the “Asian” carp invasion. The obvious reason for this is to discuss how these carp crossed biogeographic regions to become an “invasive species” in North America from, well, Asia, one that has had an enormous influence on environmental politics in the American Midwest. Though there is a subtler, yet perhaps more important, reason why the Asian carp invasion is worth investigating. This invasive species event highlights the need for a larger spatial and temporal view of the often surprising, unintentional ways in which human beings are crisscrossing and altering nature (as well as the indelible ways nature is altering us).
Introducing the first installment of "Human Dimensions of Oceans: From a Sociological Perspective." While each blog post in this series will have a different emphasis, a running thread will be the idea that advancing equitable outcomes means, in part, learning how to balance a deep respect for scientific knowledge with an understanding that natural science is a fallible enterprise generated through historically specific conditions of production.
If principles of equity, beyond discussions of justice and rights, motivated our thinking with regard to oceans, technologies of surveillance would be considered with more precaution, because ocean
equity means being, first and foremost, concerned with marginalized and dispossessed peoples towards emancipatory, democratic socio-political engagements.
Beneath the surface, the ocean’s depths hold cultural and ecological significance, challenging corporate imaginaries and their “nirvana concepts,” and prompting a reevaluation of the “blue economy” narrative.
On North Carolina's coastal plain, industrial livestock operations come with great environmental and public health risk. In an age of climate change and loose government regulation, it is low income and minority communities that are most likely burdened with the consequences.
