Reading Questions 10

Phil 287-07E
November 15th, 2016

Mies and Whyte

1. Why does Mies call catching-up development a myth and what is the true reality of
development?
Catching-up development is a myth because it believes that the peak of evolution is reached by
industrial countries, and thus the poverty of underdeveloped nations is a result of natural lagging behind.
These underdeveloped nations should catch up to developed nations in terms of standard of living and
technology. The lifestyle of developed countries is supposed to be universalized. The truth is that this
natural lagging is actually the consequence of the overdevelopment of the rich industrial countries
exploiting the underdeveloped countries. In addition, the idea of undeveloped countries catching up in
terms of standard of living is an impossible idea. This is because it is impossible for our planet to sustain
such a high standard of living for everyone. We would run out of resources very quickly.
2. Why, according to Mies, is development a losing proposition for all people?
It is a losing proposition because the idea of unending growth, profit, and equal consumption will
lead to the deterioration of the standard of living for all people due to the lack of resources.
3. Explain how the example of breast milk poisoning illustrates Mies' argument that development is
a myth.
Woman in Germany were experience crisis where they could only breast feed their babies for
three months due to the poisoning of the mothers milk from DDT. Thus, they proposed that safe food
from South India should be processed, canned, and sent to Germany. This would lead to woman receiving
safe milk to feed, and the poor in South India would receive a new source of income. This issue is that if
this food was taken from the poor, then it would no longer be available for them. The price of this food
would soar and then pesticides would soon be used to produce of this food. The issue here is that the
woman was so concerned for their interests in Germany that they were willing to sacrifice the interests of
the poor woman in South India.
4. Explain how Whyte distinguishes between traditional environmental justice and environmental
justice with respect to indigenous people.
Traditional environmental justice is rooted in how social institutions are structured and
operationalized in ways that favor powerful and privileged populations. These same populations, in turn,
influence the structures and operations of social institutions in ways that protect their own interests
without taking responsibility for the disproportionate burdens on other populations and communities.
Indigenous people suffer environmental injustice due to the development of settler nations through
military invasion, capitalist exploitation of resources, and the anti-indigenous policies of central and
subnational governmental units. Environmental degradation also produces intersecting environmental
hazards for which indigenous peoples are at risk.
5. What is the difference between the socioecological contexts of Western societies and indigenous
societies, like the Anangu?
The difference between western societies and indigenous societies is that western society is based
on progress and capitalism, and thus the environment is treated as more of a resource for progress.
However, many indigenous people take the environment as something to be treated sacredly.
The Anangu are the indigenous people in Australias Uluru-Kata Tjuta National Park. The
Anangu experience the world as filled with meanings of moral responsibility such as being accountable to

ones ancestors, having responsibilities to take care of the land for future generations and respecting the
authority of different knowers in their community. The Anangu people refrain from climbing Uluru ( the
indigenous name of a monolithic rock).
For tourists to said rock, they view the area primarily as a tourist attraction, and they desire to
climb the rock.
6. What kind of solutions would be appropriate for the conflict between tourist visiting of Uluru
and Tjukurpa law against climbing, especially considering the problems of enforcement.
A possible solution would be to help inform Australian tourists of the importance of Uluru to the
Anangu people. Uluru is a moral terrain for the Anangu. A moral terrain is the concept where ecologies
are entire systems that orient how living, non living and spiritual beings and aspects of the world are
expected to coexist through relations of reciprocity, responsibilities and other ties and bonds. If people
begin to understand the moral terrain of the Anangu people, then they may stop climbing the Uluru in
respect of that moral terrain.
7. Explain the complex web of responsibility that exists within some indigenous cultures and the
related idea that environmental problems are not just environmental problems but threats to
cultural survival and thus collective continuance.
There are many cases where indigenous persons have interpreted environmental injustice as a
form of interference with and erasure of the ways in which they experience the world as part of
collectives that are constituted by systems of responsibilities. In these cases, environmental INjustice
breaks into the idea of systems of responsibilities that connect people to humans, nonhumans, and
ecosystems. Environmental injustice is an affront to peoples capacities to experience themselves as
having responsibilities for the upkeep of their respective societies.
8. Explain how Whyte uses the idea of collective continuance to explain the environmental injustice
settler colonial societies inflict on indigenous people.
Environmental injustice can be seen as occurring when systems of responsibilities are interfered
with or erased by another society in ways that are too rapid for indigenous peoples to adapt to without
sustaining preventable harms. Whyte uses the idea of collective continuance to describe his interpretation
of the idea of system of responsibilities adapting without sustaining preventable harms.
Collective continuance refers to a groups capacity to adapt to external forces from naturally
occurring environmental change to human induced change. Collective continuance is relevant to EJ
because if one society interferes with or erases another societys capacity to adapt to external forces, then
the former society can impose preventable harm on the latter societys members.
9. Given that virtually everything about American society can be described as a form of
environmental injustice toward Native Americans, and thus as a form of genocide, what is our
responsibility?
I believe our responsibility is to respect and preserve the culture of Natives Americans as much as
we can at this point.
Class Notes:
I.
Two competing explanations of world order:
A. Global class hierarchy
1. Developed
1. 3rd world elite
2. 3rd world poor
b. Development
II.
What is the path of development

A. Build up industry
B. Increased consumption
C. Technology
a. Changed relation to resources
D. Capitol
a. Bank (world bank and IMF
1. Loans
1. Conditions
2. Austerity
1. Social safety gets reduced or eliminated
2. Free trade