The Said and the Unsaid: Disproportionality and How it is

Supported through Discourse

Debra J. DavidsonDepartment of Rural Economy

University of Alberta

Disproportionality: How much does each polluter affect the overall level of pollution?

Polluters

Toxic Pollution

Plants within Smelting and Refining Industry

Top to median

Gini Coefficients:In Pounds: Gini = 0.83 (Worst facility = IMC-Agrico, St. James, LA)

In Toxicity: 0.975 (Worst = Magnesium Corp. America, Rowley UT)

Releases by Specific Facilities, within 3-digit SIC Codes

-0.2

0

0.2

0.4

0.6

0.8

1

0 0.1 0.2 0.3 0.4 0.5 0.6 0.7 0.8 0.9 1

Cumulative Proportion of Facilities

Cum

ulat

ive

Pro

port

ions

of

Rel

ease

s

In Pounds, SIC 286

In Toxicity, SIC 353

NOT “impossible” to produce chemicals

with less toxicity: 50%

50% of toxins from < 4% of facilities

SIC 333

Do those industries “require” high levels of toxic emissions?Check for disproportionality within industries

Gini Coefficients:In Pounds: Gini = 0.83 (Worst facility = IMC-Agrico, St. James, LA)

In Toxicity: 0.975 (Worst = Magnesium Corp. America, Rowley UT)

Releases by Specific Facilities, within 3-digit SIC Codes

-0.2

0

0.2

0.4

0.6

0.8

1

0 0.1 0.2 0.3 0.4 0.5 0.6 0.7 0.8 0.9 1

Cumulative Proportion of Facilities

Cum

ulat

ive

Pro

port

ions

of

Rel

ease

s

In Pounds, SIC 286

In Toxicity, SIC 353

Only a one-facility effect?

What if REMOVE this one

facility?

SIC 333

Yeah but that’s in America, right?…WRONG!

YTSKQCPEONNUNTNSNFNBMBBCAB

PROVINCE

500.00

400.00

300.00

200.00

100.00

0.00

Volume in 1000 tonnes

# Facilities

SO2 emissions by volume and number of emitters across Canada

FROM PRIVILEGED ACCESS TO PRIVILEGED ACCOUNTS

Seeding Science

Job Blackmail

LEGITIMACYMAINTENANCE

STRATEGIES

DIVERSIONARYREFRAMING

Non-problematicity

Magicianship

De-legitimizing “critics”

SCAM

MATERIAL OUTCOMES

Disproportionality

Bureaucratic slippage

Avoidance of Regulations

Resistant Governing Coalition

Succession

MOTIVATIONAL STRUCTURE

Profit Motive

Self-negating Belief

Method to the Madness: Recurring pattern of conceptual behaviour

Source: Nowak

A Tall but Necessary Order• More research on Disproportionality

– Need for broader structural assessment of just how prevalent disproportionalities are—are there, e.g. particular economic sectors, or political systems, which are more prone to disproportionality than others?

– Integration of disproportionality in ecological environmental conditions.

– Something Nowak et al refer to in passing: exploring instances of disproportionate benefit. Expanding from ‘one bad egg’ phenomenon to include ‘butterfly effect.’ Ex: reforestation in Puerto Carreno. A few pics here.

A CLOSER LOOK AT PRIVILEGED ACCOUNTS!

Future work needs to pay attention to what is NOT being said, and the assumptions underlying what IS being said.

A Few Examples from Afar…

The Privileged Account

Tar Sands is the foundation of our Economy!Without it we would be unable to feed our familiesThe entire national economy would collapse

Tar Sands is crucial to our securityThe Tar sands is an essential energy source for Alberta and CanadaWithout the tar sands terrorists would be knocking at our door

Questioning the Assumptions, Part 1: The Economic Fundamentals

Current Jobs are temporary, expected to drop from 240,000 to 60,000 after construction phase ends; large % taken by temporary foreign workers who send their checks back home.

Smallest royalties in the industry (1%)Heavy state subsidization, deficits passed on to

taxpayer in infrastructure and environmental costs.

Distortions of boom economy mean cost of living rises faster than incomes

Questioning the Assumptions, Part 2: The Security Blanket

75% of tar sands product sold to the U.S.The 1 +/- mbd sold to the U.S. does little to

relieve dependence on Middle East sources (U.S. consumption around 20 mbd).

Physical infrastructure at home highly vulnerable to terrorism

High risk for spectacular environmental catastrophe