Op-Ed

for my Policy and Communications Workshop we all wrote Op-Eds on something we were studying. so i did mine on something we visited in brazil. here it is, read it. let me know what you think about it. post a comment. suggestions and constructive criticism are encouraged and desired. thanks!

Rethinking Sustainability in the Amazon

Dan Becker, January 15, 2009

In 1999 ALCOA-the American Aluminum company based in Pittsburg, PA-purchased the rights to begin bauxite mining in Juruti, a township in Pará, the second largest state of the Brazilian Amazon. The world’s leading producer of aluminum, the eventual product of bauxite, ALCOA abides by a series of environmental impact studies, regulations on climate monitoring and wildlife conservation, and social service provisions. The company has recently been internationally recognized for their commitment to sustainability and the construction of the sustainable mining site in the region. However, how does this explain the disruption of ecosystems and near-unanimous social unrest in Juruti?

The communities of Juruti rest alongside tributaries of the Amazon, the largest and most biologically diverse river in the world, home to over 3,000 recognized species of fish. Inhabitants of Juruti have traditionally made their livelihoods based on agricultural subsistence and small-scale fishing to feed their villages and families. With the arrival of the mining project, these traditional-use areas became off-limits to Juruti’s communities, greatly restricting their access to all that the biodiverse forest and rivers provide. In addition to being cut away from traditional sources of income and basic amenities, residents fear that ALCOA’s rinsing of bauxite ore in the township’s waters will pour sediments into the main lake and drastically alter the water’s composition.

Pumping roughly 5,000 liters of water per hour for the mining operation, ALCOA is showing signs that the company does not understand nor give much credit to understanding the local ecology of the region. In Juruti, the primary water systems are composed of highly acidic black-water. Due to the decay of vegetation as it moves through the flooded forests, varzeas, the water takes on a dark-colored tint and is generally lower in nutrients than other water systems. Yet because of these conditions, black-water contains a unique array of flora and fauna. ALCOA’s bauxite extraction is in the process of extracting the water from this system and replacing it with white water from other sources made of an entirely different composition, drastically altering the environment and the community’s source of fish and drinking water.

While ALCOA has strutted a commitment to sustainability in their extraction sites, these areas remain just that, a source of profit. Social movements in Juruti stress the desire for a share in the monetary gain, inclusion in the project, and access to their traditional lands. The company’s record of their involvement and participation with the communities they extract from is dismal. Juruti is only one small area where communities’ ecosystems and connection with the resource management process are dictated by ALCOA. In 1963 ALCOA’s building of a dam in Suriname flooded nearly 600 meters squared of forest and displaced over 6,000 individuals, who received only $3 each in compensation. Since 1986, over 47 ALCOA facilities in the US have been fined for environmental violations, the most notable being a $3.75 million penalty for pollutant discharge into the St. Lawrence River.

Global demand for aluminum is steadily rising with the US being one of the largest consumers. Aluminum can be found in wrappers, cans, pots, and toasters, just to name a few. This demand is dependent upon bauxite importation from regions such as Juruti, which in turn depends on the exploitation of these local communities and environments. Companies like ALCOA are in part able to continue with these abuses under the guise of sustainability and sound environmental management; however, it is clear that not only is this a hollow illusion, but their impact on nature and communities has so far done more harm than good. Sustainability has become a big buzzword these days, but the international and environmental communities need to be more critical and thoughtful as to what it entails. As consumers with our inherent connection to the extraction and importation of raw materials, we can start by being cautious of where our everyday products-such as all things aluminum-come from, and especially at what cost, even if it does happen to be an ocean away.

YESSS

we just had a lecture on disease ecology, and it was exactly what i was looking for. not in the research scientist way (although that too is appealing), but in a public health oriented way. it is so amazing. did you know that 2/3 to 3/4 of today's newly emerging infectious diseases in the world come from animal hosts or insect vectors? or that a recent study in belize...well..ill lay it out for you, so, spare me.

ok so. belize. certain types of vegetation that allow for a certain species of mosquito to flourish. it is a vector for a certain kind of human-risk malaria. fortunately for us humans, this mosquito isnt a great vector for the spread of malaria, so there isnt much human risk. now. runoff from agricultural fields upsteam flow into this marshy area. the runoff contains a strong deal of pesticides from the fields, which is high in phosphorus content. nitrogen and phosphorus are the two main ecosystem nutrients of importance, along with carbon. the influx of phosphorus accelerates certain plant growth in this area, and this type of vegetation becomes dominant, changing the ecosystem. this new vegetation makes a good habitat for another species of mosquito, which is in turn a great vector for malaria. and now human risk for malaria is suddenly high. and so, it demonstrates that by using these pesticides, human activity and behavior is, through an ecosystem approach to health, raising communities in belize's risk to malaria. and that through a combination of technical solutions (less harmful pesticides/reduced P content) and socio-cultural solutions (awareness and incentives to use alternative/organic agriculture) human risk to malaria can be reduced, and potentially restore the ecosystem back to a non-malaria filled habitat.

thats my quick primer on ecosystem ecology and my current excitement. im looking for internships that do exactly this right now, and hope to meet with some professors and the CDO at bard about it. but i was in this lecture and just loving every moment of it. i took 6 pages of notes. the lecturer was great, and made the connections between epidemiology and ecology that i want to know about. we even did a crash course in basic epidemiological foundations and models. very cool stuff.

still listening to the pixies.

we're chained

i was going to post the lyrics to a song that ive been obsessing over, but you need to just hear it.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=PIkWJZf33UY


this is the background to my laptop. my friend here commented that its a really great photo, great composition. i agree. for some reason, while listening to this song, it just seemed to sum up my brazil experience for myself. maybe between that, reading cosmicomics which is wonderful in every way, and learning about complex ecosystems, something seems quite right. eventually i want to read susan sontag's essay "regarding the pain of others", its the essay that my friend was telling me all about that prompted me thinking about photography again. sometimes i think about what it would have been like if i had stuck to my original plan of majoring in photography and human rights. the interest is still there. im considering planning out my last semester at bard to just be...documentary photography and senior project, more or less. maybe some more biology. we'll see when the time comes. for now, im getting pretty good at just living in the present. i come back from class, listen to some music, do some push ups, think about the things i enjoy right now, write a bit, read for a while. and that makes me pretty content. i made couscous and ate it for the first time in a while last night. i dont know why ive never liked couscous before, its amazingly delicious. sometimes i think about wanting to learn to make soup. good soup. with dark black coffee. maybe some fish. maybe seattle or baltimore. who knows.

all set to go

Monday: 4-6:20 Cultural Technologies of Memory
Tuesday: 9-10:20 Hooke's Micrographia
Wednesday: 10:30-12:30 Ecology & Evolution; 3:15-5:45 Introduction to Global Information Systems
Thurs: 9-10:20 Hooke's Micrographia; 1:30-3:50 Writing the World
Friday: 9:30-12:30 Ecology & Evolution lab

not too shabby at all. it will be great having most of monday off. means i can get away for a weekend if necessary and not have to worry about the sunday rush back to school.

a little recap of what these classes are actually about:

BIO 202 Ecology & Evolution
This core course for biology majors is an introduction to the general principles of ecology and evolution that, with genetics, form the core of biological understanding. In addition to studying foundational ideas in both ecology and evolution, we will explore modern topics at the boundary between these two areas. We will consider, for example, how genetic variation among individual organisms can influence ecological interactions, and how these interactions can influence fitness. We will focus on a mechanistic understanding of processes, using model-building to inform that understanding.

ANTH 332 Cultural Technologiesof Memory
This course is organized around several practices and technologies that produce collective and personal memory. The class will explore a distinction commonly made between 'memory' and 'history', asking on what basis this distinction is made and how it maps on to our ideas about foreign places and people. The techniques and technologies of public memory we will examine may include ancient "memory palaces," historical writing, oral narrative, ritual, myth, monuments, museums and archives. We will also explore how radio and photography are used to produce national and familial representations of the past. The focus in each section will be on how the particular medium of remembering shapes the content of what is remembered. We will address who has access to memory practices, stressing the link between the production of particular memories and their political uses. The class will give students a theoretical base to write a final research paper that situates a contemporary memory practice in its specific cultural and historical context: the recent proliferation of family genealogies, Holocaust testimonies and/or museums, the truth commissions, local histories are among a few possible examples.

HIST 164 Hooke's Micrographia
A monument of natural philosophy and scientific illustration, Robert Hooke's Micrographia (1665) was the first laboratory manual in microscopy. A great experimentalist, Hooke developed his research as a Fellow of the newly founded Royal Society of London. Hooke and his colleagues intended the work to be a manifesto of experimental method and faith in progress. They also hoped Hooke's observations would lend credence to atomism, a notorious ancient philosophy that was being rehabilitated in the seventeenth century. The work's descriptive and experimental language suggests objectivity, as does the author's recourse to geometric principles. Yet Hooke's treatise is also permeated with a theological agenda. We will read the Micrographia, examining its philosophical antecedents and experimental foundations. We will also investigate Hooke's life and work, his association with the Royal Society and contemporary savants, as well as the links between science and society during the Scientific Revolution.

ES 308 Geographic Information Systems
2 credits This course is designed to provide undergraduate students with a comprehensive review of Geographic Information Systems (GIS), Global Positioning Systems (GPS) and remote sensing technologies as they are used in a variety of social and environmental science applications. Through a mixture of lectures, readings and hands-on exercises, students will acquire an understanding of the structure of spatial data and databases, basic cartographic principles and data visualization techniques, how to conduct spatial analysis and methods for developing sound GIS project design and management practices. Upon completing this class, students will:
* Understand the fundamental concepts of geographic information systems and their relationship with other information management systems.
* Gain familiarity with GIS software for conducting basic GIS analyses and producing cartographic products.
* Conduct studies typically carried out in GIS including site selection, analysis of spatial/temporal processes, assess environmental impacts, geocode data and conduct point pattern analysis.

LIT 124 Writing the World: Nonfiction Prose
This is a course in two skills: learning to make excellent nonfiction prose and learning to see the world around you. When it comes to the art of nonfiction prose, the emphasis nearly always falls on the personal, and especially on essay and memoir. In this course, I want to turn our gaze outward and to think about how we write from direct experience of events. Our models will be drawn from history and from the broad category of nonfiction writing often, and absurdly, called "current events." Our goal will be to become compelling witnesses and makers of acute prose—but our goal will also be art, not journalism. Students will be expected to write 4-5 pages every week.

it looks pretty, great, actually. i think it will be a really engaging semester. some bio, some practical environmental tools, some philosophy, some history, some human rights, some (lots) writing. and it ends up most of my friends are living in/very close to my dorm. excellent.

Cosmicomics so far is really great.

"It is all so meaningless we might as well be extraordinary"
-Francis Bacon

lately i feel confused over a lot and am not quite sure what is going on and where i am going. perhaps ill figure it out but for now it seems like something in the distance that i cant quite grasp or figure out. but i wish i had an answer.

sometimes i feel like dissolving into a petri dish filled with all those microscopic things. life seems much more at ease. things just do what they do. the workings of everything around us, yet you never see it. its just a fact of life. just to get away from it all, but yet still be connected to everything else at the same time. some kind of bliss, perhaps.

on the ride back to the poughkeepsie train station from chilling in kingston with some friends, a friend and i had a pretty great conversation. what began as talking about what exactly ecosystem ecology is fluxed into one on documentary photography and a long interesting explanation on susan sontag's "regarding the pain of others", a treatsie on documentary photography, witnessing human rights atrocity, the human reaction to extreme violence and suffering, etc. and sent my mind racing back to anthropology of violence and suffering, and made me feel very excited for taking cultural technologies of memory this semester. it is also making me consider taking a history of photography course seeing as i still havent heard back from the writing professor. but the conversation also looped into some of my thoughts on witnessing atrocity and suffering from my time in brazil, which then went into my own rant on gift theory and my feelings on, after having borne witness to something like america's aluminum involvement in Juruti and the suffering and social unrest it causes, my/our/american's responsibility to change the way that power is distributed. and the difficulty in being faced with someboy asking you, as americans, to tell their story so hopefully something will happen, and the social burden of that responsibility, but the need to act on it. as sontag said, many a times the human reaction when faced with an image of atrocity is to turn away, exclaiming that it is too much to look at and take in. but that this reaction, although understandable and near-universal, is a selfish one that we each on our own need to face and overcome. because the discomfort we feel upon the glimpse is nothing compared to the suffering of those within the frame.

at times i feel overwhelmed by the scope of it all. of having gone to brazil and seen these things with my own eyes, experienced them with my own senses. of coming to terms witht he dichotomy in my brain. do you pursue what makes you happy, or is there a larger signifigance? if i think about obligation to recipricate, if i think about my conversation with maura my host mother about the obligation to give back, a obligacao, what do i do? this whole conversation made me think about the things i know i feel interested in.

documenting, witnessing, representing
resource control and conflicts, and their health impacts
ecosystem change and human health
participatory appraoches to health and ecosystem management
gift theory, i give because you give, the obligation to reciprocate

i want to document. but i dont think that alone is enough. i know what studying human rights and violence did to me freshman year. it was too much. but looking back, a selfish reaction. like anthropology and i, i dont think that documentation and witnessing along might be enough. im not sure yet. ill find out. but i know i think public health is important, that a healthy ecosystem helps our health, whether through direct clean air and water, or whether it guarantees us resources to use, or if it gives us a host of ecosystem services. and then the whole political ecology and resource conflicts and resolution part also get to me. ive never given up my interest in human rights...it just shifted forms. but ethnography and documentary photography really arent all that different. different tools. but both are trying to accurately portray the world, hopefully the way that the people living it see it. both are interested in everyday life as having the most meaning in the end. both can give us glimpses. writing gives you stories, photography gives you the visual image. i like narrative better, i think. a picture tells you a thousand words, perhaps. but a narrative, a story, forces you to confront the atrocity. a story makes you relate it to your own experience and to see the human element. anthropology falters when it uses these stories just to legitimize a theory, because it still sees itself as a science. photography falters when it tries to make art instead of document and witness, and the photograph of suffering or violence turns into something you hang on your wall in a college dorm, no longer a glimpse of memory but an object. hence objectified, it loses the human face. i guess i imagine doing environmental health work while using my tools as pseudo-ethnographer to bear witness, but also to use my desire to do documentary photography as well.

i dont know if that would make me happy or not. im hoping that a few professors can do tutorials with me at bard, im sure it will work out. i want one on ecosystem change and health, one on witnessing and documenting, one on more resource conflicts and political ecology, and one on applying medical anthropology with an environmental perspective, hopefully with looking at participatory approaches. i dont think that should be too hard to arrange. either way, i took my taxi back thinking about all these things, decided to get dropped off at the main building, and took the 25 minute walk through the snow to keep thinking about these things. and then i went back to my room, and read an old article from anthropology of violence and suffering i had saved on my computer about genocide, witnessing, and social conditions that allow groups to massively kill off or separate from society whole groups they deem below human. and now im still laying here, thinking about it all. thinking thinking thinking. im glad i went to brazil. to see the human dimension i neededin order to be forced out of being jaded and feel the impulse to stop just learning theory and social critique to start thinking about how to apply it all and how to change what i can change. but then its also nice to come back to bard and know that there is still this place where it is ok for me to think about the philosophical issues at the heart of this all. and that in reality, i can do both. so far my experiences back with bard people have been nothing but good. i havent felt the sense that i am...reverting back, or anything, around them. but more like...all of what i wanted, the ability to talk about serious things but also be able to joke around, was always there, i was just too afraid and unsure of my own abilities to keep up in conversation to take the chance to engage. but it seems the more i get back there to some sense of where i belong, the more i do feel that maybe that is right, and i do feel more myself, just a myself that maybe i didnt quite feel i was ready to be. if that makes any sense. what im trying to say is, at least i think i feel somewhat at home. in a weird semi-quasi-pseudo-artsy-philosophy-way. it gives me the freedom and environment to think and be ok with that. general economy, right george bataille?

of course all of this makes writing my 2 pg essay for ecosystem ecology a little more difficult. but im also learning a great deal here, and am thankful for the opportunity. living alone more or less is also helpful, w/o internet in the building. lots of reflection, lots of being ok with being alone, and lots of time to read. and it just hit me with an obvious fact, but: one cant learn everything. one cant read everything. i will still read susan sontag because it interests me. but i also just had somebody tell me about what points stuck out the most to them. and i learned a lot, and it hit a chord in me. i cant and wont learn and read everything. i cant take all the classes i will ever want to take. but all i class is is just readings and talking about them. which i can do with whoever, whenever, for as long as i want. all i need to do is talk to people about things they read and learn about and care about. and i will learn so much more than i every could by myself.

oh my ramblings.

im not sure. theres a hunch. and its uncomfortable.

nitrogen rules the world (no but seriously)

past 2 days have been pretty grand, much better now that im more used to the ebb and flow of the tide here at Cary. we had some pretty wonderful lectures about primary and secondary productivity (producers and consumers) and just had a great lecture on the nitrogen cycle, which seems a perfect place for me in terms of thinking about human affects on ecosystems and how that affects our health. humans more or less double the natural release of nitrogen through fossil fuel burning and agriculture fertilizers. not only that, but the release of nitrogen into the air poses air pollution problems, and the runoff of nitrogen in these terrestrial zones goes into the water, causing eutrification. many forests and riparian zones like marshes or wetlands act as buffers for this nitrogen runoff, so the preservation of these areas is actually very vital to our health. once the nitrogen release gets into water supply, it can have polluting effects on the drinking water, but also affects biodiversity rates, and thus, fish and other edible and vital organisms in the ecosystem, well, die. so, in an ecosystem approach to health, preserving wetlands and buffer zones helps to give us a steady aquatic food supply and filter our water supply. theres much more where that came from, but as you can see, im very excited about it all. it gets even more interesting once you get into urban ecology and how this process and preventative measure can be carried out in urban zones, which are rapidly increasing throughout the world. i forget what the statistic is, but its the majority of the world's population in something like 10-20 years. important stuff to think about, so thats what im trying to look into internships about.

but i did manage to put together a semi-resume last night, or at least lay out a bunch of points and traits blah blah blah. i guess i look pretty decent on paper so far. needless to say this course and brazil research helps a lot in the skills and experience department. not an internship per-say. but even here with Cary our workshop is going to put together a draft op-ed piece on a topic we are interested in, which i need to work on this weekend. maybe i should just write it about nitrogen? i need to get back to bard and talk to some professors about this, or, how to map out a good course of study for the senior year. right now i have one class slot free seeing as this writing professor never got back to me, and although i liked the idea of getting 1/3 of my remaining distribution reqs out of the way, it also feels appealing to take Introduction to Human Physiology or Biology on Non-Infectious Disease. maybe i'll just do non-infectious disease, because it covers basic human anatomy as well, and i think will talk about environmental pollutants. i could use more health classes on my resume anyway. but then theres the conundrum of taking 2 intense biology courses, and a 300 level anthropology seminar, and a 300 level 2 credit GIS class, and my 100 level history class that will still be a lot of work...all at the same time. i can handle 18 credits sure...but...2 biology might kill me. but i cant drop ecology & evolution, oh no. ill talk to my professors. maybe they can help. itll be great, and all work out.

but yes, nitrogen cycle. very interesting. just thought i would share. and in a pretty good mood. feeling capable and stuff. im so excited to get back to bard and get into all of this stuff again. read biology, anthropology, history, philosophy. sometimes i wonder about my education and wish i knew a little bit more about...for example...resource conflicts. one of my friends from SIT has all these classes at their school where you take an issue, lets say diamond conflict or oil conflicts, you learn about the geology/biology etc formation of the resource, how it comes into existence, its biological/physical/chemical properties, and how that in turn influences social structure, social decisions, etc etc. like, a class on the carribean about its geological formation and ecosystems and how that then in turn helps to influence culture? a little environmentally deterministic sure, but its still very interesting to think about the cause. at bard i have learned a lot about effect and to target that as my subject, but i think the cause is equally important to look and and learn about. after all, thats why i am so interested in ecology to the field of public health. because its the fundamental basis of what all of our life is structured upon. without the cycling of breathable air or drinkable water or the formation and regeneration of natural resources, we wouldn't exist in the first place.

SO MUCH COOL SHTUFF.