Political ecology, ecological economics, and public health: interfaces for the sustainability of development and health promotion
01 Jan 2007-Cadernos De Saude Publica (Escola Nacional de Saúde Pública Sergio Arouca, Fundação Oswaldo Cruz)-Vol. 23
TL;DR: In this article, the authors focus contributions from political ecology and ecological economics to the field of collective health with a view towards integrating the discussions around health promotion, socio-environmental sustainability, and development.
Abstract: This article proposes to focus contributions from political ecology and ecological economics to the field of collective health with a view towards integrating the discussions around health promotion, socio-environmental sustainability, and development. Ecological economics is a recent interdisciplinary field that combines economists and other professionals from the social, human, and life sciences. The field has developed new concepts and methodologies that seek to grasp the relationship between the economy and ecological and social processes such as social metabolism and metabolic profile, thereby interrelating economic, material, and energy flows and producing indicators and indexes for (un)sustainability. Meanwhile, political ecology approaches ecological issues and socio-environmental conflicts based on the economic and power dynamics characterizing modern societies. Collective health and the discussions on health promotion can expand our understanding of territory, communities, and the role of science and institutions based on the contributions of political ecology and ecological economics in analyzing development models and the distributive and socio-environmental conflicts generated by them.
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01 Jun 2012
TL;DR: In this paper, the authors make a general assessment of the relationship between the Brazilian agrarian model and the impacts of pesticide use on health and environment, and propose a research agenda that integrates the different sectors engaged in protecting health, environment and also food safety and sovereignty.
Abstract: The hegemonic agrarian model in Brazil is based on crops for export that are intensive in mechanized technologies and in the use of pesticides. The country became the world largest pesticide consumer and is ranked as the market that will grow the most in the near future. The purpose of this article was to make a general assessment of the relationship between the Brazilian agrarian model and the impacts of pesticide use on health and environment. To confront these problems, we propose a research agenda that integrates the different sectors engaged in protecting health, environment, and also food safety and sovereignty. We evidenced and discussed the need to: give greater visibility to the impacts as well as socio-environmental and health costs of the predominant model, adopt economic instruments that will encourage the use of cleaner technologies and healthier production models compatible with family farming, discourage productive systems that offer more environmental and health risks, along with developing and implementing public policies based on advances in ecological economics and agroecology, with the participation of social movements, regulatory institutions, and research groups.
68 citations
TL;DR: The Map of Environmental Injustice and Health in Brazil as mentioned in this paper has 570 emblematic environmental conflicts in all regions of Brazil, including mining expansion, oil and gas extractions, infrastructure (roads, mega-dams), agribusiness, and pesticide pollution.
Abstract: This article discusses the experience of the map of conflicts related to environmental injustices and health in Brazil and its potential contribution to international movements for environmental justice. Inventories and maps of environmental injustices are important instruments of struggle against injustice and racism, since they increase the visibility of populations, whose lives are threatened. The Brazilian map is published online since 2010 and was an initiative of FIOCRUZ, a public health and academic institution, and the NGO FASE, in cooperation with the Brazilian Network of Environmental Injustice (RBJA), created in 2001. Environmental justice arised in Brazil as a field of reflection and mobilization, and as a rallying point to identify the struggle of several groups and entities, such as rural and urban grassroots movements, indigenous peoples, traditional populations, and peasants affected by different hazards and risks, as well as environmentalists, trade unions, and scientists. Currently, the map has 570 emblematic environmental conflicts in all regions of Brazil. Many economic activities are causing the conflicts such as mining expansion, oil and gas extractions, infrastructure (roads, mega-dams), agribusiness, and pesticide pollution, often with the support of governmental institutions.
42 citations
Cites background from "Political ecology, ecological econo..."
...In contrast, there is a plurality of demands, protests, and collective rights achievements which, through their joint coordination, produce subjectivities, platforms, agendas networks, and social movements wider than stakeholders (Porto and Martinez-Alier 2007), which are fundamental to social transformation....
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...during the production or transport stage or, ultimately, the disposal of tailings (Porto and Martinez-Alier 2007)....
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...…there is a plurality of demands, protests, and collective rights achievements which, through their joint coordination, produce subjectivities, platforms, agendas networks, and social movements wider than stakeholders (Porto and Martinez-Alier 2007), which are fundamental to social transformation....
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...These occur in accordance with moments along the ‘‘commodity chain’’ from the material’s extraction or the production of energy used, during the production or transport stage or, ultimately, the disposal of tailings (Porto and Martinez-Alier 2007)....
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...flicts in Latin America and Brazil has been recently discussed by some authors (de Molina and Toledo 2014; Porto and Martinez-Alier 2007)....
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TL;DR: The characteristics of the Brazilian model of development, its impacts and conflicts within social, environmental and health fields are discussed and some elements that could be incorporated by a research agenda committed to the debate about the 'socioenvironmental crisis' are proposed.
Abstract: A realizacao da 1a Conferencia Nacional de Saude Ambiental, a ser realizada em dezembro de 2009, apresenta inumeros desafios ao campo da Saude Coletiva. Seus objetivos e eixos adotam conceitos-chave como desenvolvimento, sustentabilidade, processos de producao e consumo, a questao da democracia e das politicas publicas, revelando a abrangencia, a novidade e o forte carater interdisciplinar e intersetorial da Saude Ambiental. Ao resgatar e articular temas importantes para a Saude Coletiva, a conferencia aponta para a necessidade de refletirmos sobre os determinantes socioambientais da saude na atualidade, de forma a avancarmos na construcao de diretrizes e acoes de vigilância e promocao da saude. Este artigo discute as caracteristicas do modelo de desenvolvimento brasileiro, seus impactos e conflitos socioambientais e sanitarios. Usamos como referenciais teoricos e empiricos os acumulos provenientes dos campos da economia ecologica e da ecologia politica, assim como as experiencias de cooperacao junto a Rede Brasileira de Justica Ambiental e diversos movimentos sociais. Dois casos serao aprofundados, o do agronegocio e uso de agrotoxicos, e a expansao da cadeia siderurgica no pais. Ao final, elencamos alguns pontos para compor uma agenda da "crise" socioambiental.
39 citations
TL;DR: Historical and conceptual aspects of those fields are described in a summarized manner, as well as some shared features and expected actions of the Health System, with emphasis to the role of Primary Health Care and to the importance of the dialogue with the social movement.
Abstract: This paper has the purpose of contributing to the discussion of the crossing areas between Environmental Health and Workers Health, in the Brazilian context of Labor, Production, Environment and Health. This paper emerges in the context of the current organizational changes of the Brazilian National Health System (SUS), with a major focus on Primary Health Care, having in mind, also, the preparation of the 1st National Environmental Health Conference (1 feminine CNSA) to be held in December of 2009. So, historical and conceptual aspects of those fields are described in a summarized manner, as well as some shared features and expected actions of the Health System, with emphasis to the role of Primary Health Care and to the importance of the dialogue with the social movement. Finally, some topics for a common agenda were identified by the authors.
34 citations
TL;DR: In this article, the authors present theoretical contributions to the construction of a critical socio-environmental approach from a review of the literature structured around previous work on the mapping of environmental conflicts, and conducting empirical studies in conflicting areas.
Abstract: The phenomenon of globalization and the increase in neo-extractivism in the global periphery intensify the search for new territories and natural resources for the economy, resulting in significant impacts on ecosystems and on the lives of vulnerable populations. It is considered that the environmental crisis imposes new challenges and requires an updating of the theoretical and methodological foundations of collective health and the social determinants of health. The scope of this paper is to present theoretical contributions to the construction of a critical socio-environmental approach from a review of the literature structured around previous work on the mapping of environmental conflicts, and conducting empirical studies in conflicting areas. The contributions of sociology, political ecology, postcolonial studies and geography is summarized for the discussion of the socio-environmental determinants of health, as well as experiences that integrate emancipatory knowledge, political subjects, resistances and alternatives for society.
28 citations
References
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TL;DR: In this paper, the authors take a biophysical perspective to analyze the distribution of environmental goods versus environmental burdens in North-South trade relations, and conclude that the formation of specific metabolic profiles of societies in the North and in the South, as a consequence of economic specialization, leads to an unequal environmental distribution.
Abstract: In the last 20 years, the implications of international trade for environmental distribution between North and South gained increasing attention in the debate on sustainable development. In this article, the authors take a biophysical perspective to analyze the distribution of environmental goods versus environmental burdens in North-South trade relations. Studies based on physical accounting are particularly suitable to elucidate environmental consequences of economic specialization processes in different world regions, as they clarify implications for both the use of natural resources and the generation of waste and of emissions in a coherent and comprehensive manner. Empirical evidence from biophysical accounting studies suggests that the formation of specific metabolic profiles of societies in the North and in the South, as a consequence of economic specialization, leads to an unequal environmental distribution. The article closes with an evaluation of policy measures and instruments appropriate for r...
200 citations
TL;DR: The relationship between land-use induced changes in production ecology and species diversity was analyzed based on a transect of 38 squares in landscapes of eastern Austria and HANPP was an indicator of changes in the production ecology induced by land- use which takes ecosystem productivity and harvest into account.
145 citations
TL;DR: In this paper, the energy system of hunter-gatherers can be described as an uncontrolled solar energy system, based mainly upon harvesting biomass without attending to its reproduction, while agricultural societies harness NPP to a much higher extent: although agriculture often reduces NPP, the amount of biomass that agricultural societies use is much higher (about 20% of potential NPP).
Abstract: Summary
Part I of this set of articles proposed methods to account for the energetic metabolism of societies. In this second part, the methods explicated in Part I are used to analyze the energy flows of societies with different “modes of subsistence”: hunter-gatherers, a contemporary agricultural society in southeastern Asia, and a contemporary industrial society (Austria). The empirical examples are used to demonstrate differences in the “characteristic metabolism” of different modes of sub-sistence. The energy system of hunter-gatherers can be described as an “uncontrolled solar energy system,” based mainly upon harvesting biomass without attending to its reproduction. Hunter-gatherers use only about 0.001% to 0.01% of the net primary production (NPP) of the territory they inhabit. Agricultural societies harness NPP to a much higher extent: Although agriculture often reduces NPP, the amount of biomass that agricultural societies use is much higher (about 20% of potential NPP). Because ecological energy flows are the main source of energy for agricultural societies, NPP strictly limits the energetic metabolism of agricultural societies. Industrial society uses area-independent energy sources (fossil and nuclear energy), which, however, result in new sustainability problems, such as greenhouse gas emissions. By providing methods to account for changes in energy flows, the metabolism approach proves itself to be a useful concept for analyzing society-environment interactions. The article demonstrates the difference between the metabolism approach and conventional energy statistics and discusses the significance of the proposed approach for sustainable development.
122 citations
TL;DR: The authors examine patterns of variability in health outcomes by looking at average differences among populations and rejects as false the dichotomies social/biological, physical/psychological, genetic/environmental, lifestyle/environment, examining their interrelations rather than assigning them relative weights.
Abstract: The changing patterns of health in the United States justify both celebration and dismay. We can celebrate declining mortality rates, increased life expectancy, and improvements in diagnostic and therapeutic technologies. But public health was caught by surprise by the return of infectious disease; the gap in health outcomes between rich and poor and between whites and blacks increases; there is a growing discrepancy between what is technically possible and the actual health status; and despite its greater expenditures on health, the United States lags behind the other developed countries in health outcomes. The authors examine four reasons for this: we do not buy more health care, only pay more for it; we receive more health care, but much of it inappropriate, ineffective, or harmful; only some of us get more health care; and we have created a way of life that makes us sick, then spend more to repair the damage. Major failures arise when problems are understood too narrowly. An ecosocial perspective atte...
104 citations