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DAILY SCHEDULE AND READINGS
Introduction
Intensification
Science
American Injustice
Global Injustice
The Future
EXAMS
1st Exam, Due Jan 23
2nd Exam, Due Feb 13
3rd Exam, Due Mar 15
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ANTHROPOLOGY 210
INTRODUCTION TO ENVIRONMENTAL ANTHROPOLOGY
WINTER QUARTER 2017
UNIT V: URANIUM IS DEATH: GLOBAL INJUSTICE
This unit continues our engagement with environmental injustice, but at the global scale, using the radioactive element Uranium (92) as a field upon which to show the ways in which unequal power in the world allows the governments of strong and wealthy countries to shift the burden of the environmental costs of intensification to poorer countries and indigenous peoples. This unit is organized around the role of Uranium in environmental justice. Your third required textbook, Barbara Johnston and Holly Barker's The Consequential Damages of Nuclear War: The Rongelap Report, provides a detailed case study; I will refer to other cases in lectures.
DAILY SCHEDULES AND READINGS
Tuesday, February 28: Uranium: The element, its uses and dangersBecause it is radioactive, uranium has a variety of uses: to generate energy, to provide radiation for medical purposes, and to make weapons of mass destruction. Today's class has three parts:
- A short reflection on what we hope you will learn from this unit
- Something about uranium itself, how it is used, and how it harms people
- A history of nuclear weapons in context
Wednesday, March 1: Section: Radioactivity
For today's section, find an article from a newspaper, magazine, or website that deals with radioactivity and the danger to human beings (it need not involve uranium, but it can). Come to class prepared to discuss how the environmental justice perspective helps us understand the material in your article. Do not bring any uranium to class without prior permission!
Thursday, March 2: Uranium: Marshall Islands and other sites of injustice
For today, read parts 2 and 3 of Johnston and Barker's The Consequential Damages of Nuclear War Think about these questions as you read, and come to class prepared to write a short assignment on what you think the US government's responsibility to the Marshall Islanders ought to be today.
After this, we will go through the process of mining, refining, enriching, using, and disposing of uranium in its various forms, and show how each has brought illness, danger, and economic dependency to relatively powerless communities, in Eastern Washington, Taiwan, Dinetah, and Japan. Finally, we will compare the environmental damages of nuclear power with the greenhouse gas potential of fossil-fuel power.
Tuesday, March 7: Uranium: Health, Suffering, Scienceas Denial, and Culture
Today's class has two parts:
- It is richly documented in Johnston and Barker's book, of which you should be reading parts 4 and 5 plus the Epilogue for today, that the nuclear tests in the Marshall Islands brought personal illness, cultural dislocation, and ecological degradation to the islanders and to the islands themselves. These consequential damages, as the book terms them, are partly attributable to the misuse of science: using scientific methods to experiment with making people ill and using scientific methods to deny responsibility for the illness. So this raises our final question about science: if it is morally neutral, if it can be used for good or ill, why should we defend it against the deniers and the distorters? The first half of today will be about this question.
- For the second hour, we will watch a presentation on Nuclear Culture.