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Reducing Risk: Sustainability in the First World. Session 41. Session Objectives. Understand sustainability principles in the context of hazard mitigation in the U.S. Identify socio-economic issues in risk reduction in the U.S. and other high income countries
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Session Objectives • Understand sustainability principles in the context of hazard mitigation in the U.S. • Identify socio-economic issues in risk reduction in the U.S. and other high income countries • Examine democracy and sustainability as political issues
Definition of “Sustainability” Principles • Minimization of harm • Policies, design, and management that minimize harm to people at all scales no matter where a raw material, component, product, or energy source are produced and consumed • Also must function to protect future generations from harm • Maximization of benefits • Policies, design, and management that maximizes benefits to all people, in accordance with agreed notions of distribution justice • Resources cannot be used in such a way that their enjoyment by future generations is compromised
Sustainability Principles Energy Efficiency Conservation Health Resilience Precaution
Socio-Economic Issues in Risk Reduction in High-Income Countries • Definition and recognition of risk in policy making • Resource mobilization • Power and differentiation (both social and economic) often determine who is listened to and who is not • Many decisions are made by individuals and corporations and not by collectivity or society • Power and differentiation (both social and economic) often determine whether and how codes and regulations get enforced
From the Top Down Political responses to grassroots demands in the 1960s and 1970s resulted in creation of the Environmental Protection Agency, Clean Water Act, and Clean Air Act; as well as legislation to protect wilderness areas, create renewable energy sources, and minimum gas mileage standards for cars Political backlash in the 1980s and 1990s created struggles and debates over renewable energy sources, energy efficiency, and drilling for oil in protected areas of the U.S. From the Bottom Up Grassroots efforts established “environmental justice” as a concept Mapping and statistical tests established that a disproportionate number of land fills and waste incinerators located near low income or poor neighborhoods Environmental justice movement continues to organize to lobby for (1) inclusion of people of color in leadership of mainstream environmental organizations and (2) government recognition of lack of environmental justice in the siting of hazardous activities Ecological Democracy
