Mesmo perante a crescente evolução tecnológica, econômica e social que se deu nos últimos séculos, ainda subsiste a disseminada crença que os agroquímicos consistem na única solução para afastar o ser humano do grande perigo da fome no mundo. No entanto, muito embora a maciça utilização de agrotóxicos tenha de fato contribuído para o incremento da produção agrícola, são várias as consequências contrárias que resultam deste modelo imposto, uma vez que seu uso indiscriminado provoca incontáveis danos socioambientais tanto à saúde humana como a toda biosfera. Alguns destes danos são de caráter permanente e irreversível e, ainda, não totalmente conhecidos e dimensionáveis, relacionados também ao emprego desmedido de sementes geneticamente modificadas, que impõem outros prejuízos como a extirpação das sementes crioulas através do crescente aumento das monoculturas de exportação. Processo que, consequentemente, está promovendo uma erosão em cadeia, sopesando sua vinculação com a perda de saberes multisseculares diretamente relacionados às práticas agrícolas tradicionais relacionadas a raças e etnias, acarretando no detrimento do exercício do poder diligente de Estado Soberano. Dessa forma, apresenta-se a problemática basilar desta pesquisa, o possível controle da vida humana por parte da lógica imposta por este mercado. Ponderando que as tecnologias empregadas à atual produção agrícola estão possibilitando o controle do mercado através da dependência que cria a estes químicos e a eliminação das sementes crioulas, consequentemente, da diversidade dos cultivos. Ao que, para seu enfretamento, se percebe emergencial o crescimento e a disseminação dos ideais vinculados às correntes militantes por justiça ambiental, que envolvem todos os aspectos inerentes a garantia dos direitos humanos, como o direito à alimentação adequada, que impulsionará um cultivo voltado à alimentação saudável, livre de agroquímicos e tecnologias de modificação genética em larga escala. Implica não apenas em uma mudança conceitual, meramente descritiva, mas em uma mudança de cunho político ideológico, propriamente, em uma quebra paradigmática, ante a insuficiência e ineficiência do atual modelo de mercado, imposto mais fortemente às economias subdesenvolvidas, direcionadas a critérios quantitativos de crescimento econômico. / Incluso con los crecientes cambios tecnológicos, económicos y sociales que se han producido en los últimos siglos, todavía hay una creencia generalizada de que los productos agroquímicos consisten única solución para eliminar los seres humanos desde el gran peligro del hambre en el mundo. Sin embargo, aunque el uso masivo de pesticidas en realidad ha contribuido al aumento de la producción agrícola, hay varias consecuencias contrarias que resultan de este modelo impuesto, ya que su uso indiscriminado provoca daño ambiental incalculable a la salud humana y toda la biosfera . Parte de este daño es permanente e irreversible, y que además no se conoce totalmente y escalable, también relacionado con el uso excesivo de semillas modificadas genéticamente, que imponen otras pérdidas como la extirpación de las semillas nativas a través de la cada vez mayor de los monocultivos de exportación. Proceso, por lo tanto, está promoviendo una erosión de la cadena, levantando su conexión con la pérdida del conocimiento de siglos de antigüedad directamente relacionada con las prácticas agrícolas tradicionales relacionados con la raza y el origen étnico, lo que resulta en detrimento del ejercicio de la facultad diligente de estado soberano. Por lo tanto, se presenta el problema básico de esta investigación, el posible control de la vida humana desde la lógica impuesta por este mercado. Teniendo en cuenta que las tecnologías empleadas para la producción agrícola actual están permitiendo el control del mercado a través de la dependencia que crea estos productos químicos y la eliminación de las semillas nativas, de ahí la diversidad de los cultivos. Para eso para su afrontamiento, es el crecimiento de emergencia clara y la propagación de los ideales vinculados a militantes actuales de la justicia ambiental, involucrando a todos los aspectos de la garantía de los derechos humanos, como el derecho a una alimentación adecuada, lo que aumentará la una frente a la creciente comida sana, libre de productos químicos y tecnologías de modificación genética a gran escala. Esto implica no sólo un cambio conceptual, meramente descriptivo, sino en un cambio de política ideológica en la naturaleza misma, en una ruptura paradigmática, antes del fallo y la ineficiencia del modelo de mercado actual con más fuerza impuesta a las economías subdesarrolladas, dirigido a criterios cuantitativos el crecimiento económico.

As discussões acerca do esgotamento do modelo de desenvolvimento predatório de recursos naturais tiveram início na década de 1960. Pesquisas alarmistas determinaram que, inalterados os padrões de consumo, em questão de tempo a manutenção da vida humana entraria em colapso. A sensibilização em torno do assunto, até então restrita à academia, foi aos poucos assimilada pela sociedade e incorporada à política. No Brasil, essa transição começou gradualmente a partir dos anos 1970, mas ganhou força com a criação da Política Nacional do Meio Ambiente e com a promulgação da Constituição Federal de 1988. A Constituição tratou de institucionalizar uma série de direitos, inclusive o direito ao meio ambiente saudável. O compromisso assumido pelo Estado brasileiro em zelar pelo meio ambiente, somado à descentralização do poder e à redivisão de responsabilidades entre os entes federativos medidas próprias de um Estado que acabara de sair de um regime político autoritário permitiram que estados e municípios pudessem criar políticas próprias. O presente estudo tratou o perfil de duas políticas públicas em prática no Estado de São Paulo: ICMS Ecológico e Programa Município VerdeAzul. Os mapas temáticos e anamorfoses criados a partir de dados da Secretaria do Meio Ambiente e da Secretaria da Fazenda do Estado de São Paulo revelam que a adoção de um critério estritamente territorial impede a ação do ICMS Ecológico em muitos municípios do noroeste paulista. O Programa Município VerdeAzul, embora mais democrático e com critérios mais abalizados, não possui a mesma receita do ICMS Ecológico e pode, à medida que mais municípios atinjam as metas do Programa, não ter mais condições de ofertar aos municípios algo atrativo. Isto posto, esta dissertação apresenta algumas questões que precisam ser levantadas diante de uma hipotética junção das duas políticas. / The discussions about exhaustion of the natural resources predatory development model began in the 1960s. Alarmist research has determined that, unchanged consumption patterns, in a matter of time the maintenance of human life would collapse. The awareness around the subject, until then restricted to the academy, was gradually assimilated by society and incorporated into the policy. In Brazil this transition started gradually from the 1970s, but gained strength with the creation of the National Policy of Environment and the enactment of the Federal Constitution of 1988. The Constitution institutionalized several rights, including the right to a healthy environment. The commitment of the Brazilian government in protecting the environment, added the decentralized of the power and the re-division of responsibilities between the federal entities - arrangements for a state that had just come out of an authoritarian polity - allowed states and municipalities could create own policies. This study dealt with the profile of two public policies into practice in the state of São Paulo: ICMS Ecológico and Programa Município VerdeAzul. The thematic maps and anamorphoses created with the data from São Paulos Department of Environment and São Paulos Department of Finance reveals that the adoption of a strictly territorial criterion prevents the action of the ICMS Ecológico in many municipalities in the northwest region of São Paulo. The Programa Município VerdeAzul, although more democratic and with more solid criterion dont have the same revenue as the ICMS Ecológico has and, as more municipalities achieve the goals of the Program, may no longer able to offer something attractive to municipalities. That said, this dissertation presents some issues that need to be raised before a hypothetical merger of two policies.

O objetivo desta pesquisa é estudar a análise espacial da desigualdade ambiental no município de São Paulo/SP. A desigualdade ambiental é o princípio pelo qual, grupos de pessoas sejam étnicos, raciais ou de classe suporte uma parcela desproporcional das conseqüências ambientais negativas das operações econômicas, de políticas e programas federais, estaduais e locais, bem como resultantes da ausência ou omissão de tais políticas. Os dados utilizados para análise são o Censo 2000, realizado pelo IBGE, uma imagem de satélite Landsat ETM+, a carta geotécnica do município de São Paulo, produzida pelo IPT e o levantamento de áreas contaminadas realizado pela Cetesb. São consideradas as condições de abastecimento de água, de esgotamento sanitário, de coleta de lixo, a arborização urbana, a ocorrência de inundações e/ou escorregamentos e a presença de reservatórios de retenção das águas pluviais (piscinões) e áreas contaminadas. Para a análise e integração dos dados é utilizado um Sistema de Informação Geográfica com funções de processamento de imagens. / The purpose of this work consists of studying the spatial analysis of the environmental inequality in São Paulo city. Environmental inequality is the principle that a specific social group (eg. ethical, racial or economic) is disproportionately affected by environmental hazards. In this study we used: 2000 Census data (released by IBGE); Landsat ETM+ image of bands 3 and 4; a geotechnical map of São Paulo (IPT) and a list of contaminated point sources carried out by Cetesb. Urban infrastructure facilities such as water supply coverage; sewerage system; garbage collection; urban green area; landslides and flood occurrences; presence of piscinões and contaminated area were employed. The analysis of these data was undertaken using a Geographic Information System (GIS) integrated with Remote Sensing image processing.

My thesis traces policy developments in the nuclear power sector in the Republic of France, which is the most dependent country on nuclear energy in the world. The country’s particular brand of elitism, their highly centralized and technocratic government, their reputation for an extremely low rate of carbon emissions, and their discriminatory treatment of immigrants, refugees, and low-income communities all complicate this issue. I limit the scope of my analysis to changes in nuclear policy during the past ten years, under the leadership of Nicolas Sarkozy, François Hollande and as of May 2017, Emmanuel Macron. Using a policy science framework, I diagnose the points wherein the nuclear energy policy process has malfunctioned, which has rendered it stagnant and ineffective. By adding an environmental justice lens, I show the ways in which the nuclear industry and its advocates perpetuate social and economic inequities. I begin with Sarkozy and his politicization of nuclear energy during a time in which public resistance was growing, thus reaffirming utilitarian principles, colonial hierarchies, systems of exploitation, and the elitism of government. While Fukushima presented a window of opportunity for the country to advocate and lobby for an energy diversification, Sarkozy used the media exposure to his advantage to propagate the economic benefits of nuclear energy, which are discredited by my research. While the socialist party historically stands in ideological opposition to nuclear energy, their complicated relationship with various nuclear institutions and their poor public image inhibited Hollande’s ability to decrease France’s shares of nuclear energy. France’s newly-elected president, centralist Emmanuel Macron, could very well be the political leader that unpacks and remedies deeply embedded problems in the nuclear energy policy process, but it is perhaps to soon to tell. The institutionalization of neo-colonialism, the principle of value-maximization, the increasing party polarization, and the notions of elitism in the French government constrain it and any of its representatives from disrupting and reinvigorating the corrupted policy process. However previous successes at the local level through grassroots mobilization suggest that the tables could turn under a new government and an urgent need to transition to renewables.

The point of departure for this study is the hypothesis that the American genre of nature writing has reached an important crossroads in the way it describes the human-nature relationship. My study argues that the awareness of the large-scale environmental changes that are signaled in terms such as the Anthropocene has changed the way nature writers approach their genre. Where traditional nature writing would tend to posit a separation between pristine and humanized environments, the nature writing of the Anthropocene emerges from the awareness that environmental impacts have reached a scope where no such distinction can be made. The traditional narrative of retreat to pristine nature or the wilderness from civilization has thus been replaced in Anthropocenic nature writing with the narrative of confrontation with a natural environment impacted by humans. This is a dystopian tendency in the genre, in which descriptions of nature are increasingly characterized by the writer’s concerns over what is happening to the landscape in question, and what the future might hold in a world where industrial humanity is affecting all ecological processes. Such literature increasingly foregrounds the best available environmental science, and the texts mark a shift from the traditional focus on spiritual connections with the environment, towards more material and functional understandings of the role of humanity in the complex organic and inorganic dynamics that maintain the world’s ecosystems. This dissertation analyzes the emergence of Anthropocenic awareness in selected texts of contemporary American nature writing with reference to its five main features: scientific interest in the function of ecosystems, interest in the agency of matter rendered through what is referred to as material nature writing, the dignification of the overlooked, the environmental landscape of fear, and a turn in the genre towards matters of environmental justice. Even though what I refer to as Anthropocenic nature writing may seem dystopian, this dissertation foregrounds the various ways in which the narrative of confrontation with the human also invites activism and engagement in the hope of stimulating change and environmental justice.

Au cours des 30 dernières années, il s'est produit un accroissement important de la demande et de la mise à disposition des transports aériens. Alors que l'on reconnaît, d'une manière générale, l'importance fondamentale de ce mode de transport pour les sociétés et les économies modernes, il retient de plus en plus l'attention de la classe politique par les effets secondaires néfastes qu'il engendre. En effet, les transports aériens sont aussi sources d'externalités environnementales négatives, en particulier la pollution sonore, qu'il convient d'évaluer pour pouvoir mettre en place des politiques correctives (taxes, compensation, etc.).Dans ce contexte, la dépréciation des valeurs immobilières ainsi que le risque de ségrégation sociale susceptible d'être causé par le bruit des avions tiennent un rôle croissant dans les réflexions, qui figurent parmi les préoccupations majeures avec les questions relatives à la santé des riverains. Depuis plusieurs années, de nombreuses études ont été menées dans ces domaines, à l'étranger. Cependant, à ce jour, en France, lesétudes sont encore rarissimes. Cette thèse a donc pour objet de: a) analyser et mesurer les impacts des plateformes aéroportuaires sur les valeurs immobilières et identifier les variables influentes (bruit des avions, distance à l'aéroport, etc.), b) analyser l'éventuelle situation d'inégalité sociale face à l'exposition au bruit des avions ; c) fournir un outil opérationnel et pérenne d'aide à la décision par la création d'un observatoire.Pour atteindre ces objectifs, une méthodologie pluridisciplinaire combinant compétences économiques (méthode des prix hédoniques) et géographique (SIG) a été développée. La principale originalité de cette thèse réside dans sa démarche comparative au niveau national, mettant en exergue les spécificités des différents territoires étudiés. Les territoires d'investigation couvrent toutes les communes situées dans ou à proximité immédiate des zones de bruit (plan d'exposition au bruit ou PEB) de chaque aéroport concerné. Les aéroports étudiés concernent aussi bien les aéroports parisiens (à savoir : Paris Charles-de-Gaulle et Paris-Orly), ainsi que ceux de provinces (Lyon Saint-Exupéry et Toulouse- Blagnac). / Over the past 30 years, there has been a significant increase in the air transportation demand and supply. While the fundamental importance of this mode of transport, for modern societies and economies, are generally recognized, it attracts increasing attention from the political class, because of the negative side effects to which it leads. Indeed, air transports cause also negative environmental externalities, in particular noise pollution, which should be evaluated in order to implement corrective policies (taxes, compensation, etc.).In this context, the depreciation of property values and the risk of social segregation caused by aircraft noise have a growing role in the discussions, which are among the major concerns with the health issues of local residents. For several years now, many studies have been conducted in these areas, abroad. Currently, however, studies are still rare in France.Therefore, this thesis aims to: a) analyze and measure the impact of airport platforms on property values and identify the influential variables (aircraft noise, distance to the airport, etc.), analyze possible social inequality in relation to exposure to aircraft noise, c) provide an operational and sustainable decision support tool by setting up an observatory.To address these objectives, a multidisciplinary methodology combining economic (hedonic price method) and geographic (GIS) expertise has been developed. The main originality of this thesis lies in its comparative approach on a national level, highlighting the specificities of the different territories studied. The territories studied cover all communes located in or close to the noise zones (noise exposure map “Plan d'Exposition au Bruit (PEB)”) of each airport concerned. The airports studied concern both Paris airports (Paris- CDG and Paris-Orly), as well as those of provinces (Lyon Saint-Exupery and Toulouse-Blagnac).

The energy sector faces sustainability challenges that are re-working the established patterns of energy supply, distribution and consumption (Anderson et al. 2008; Haas et al. 2008; Stern 2008; Shove and Walker 2010). Amidst these challenges, socio-technical energy transitions frameworks have evolved that focus on transitions towards decarbonised, sustainable energy systems (Bridge et al. 2013). However, the ‘socio-‘ or social is typically missing as we confront climate and energy risks in a moral vacuum (Sovacool et al. 2016). The energy justice framework provides a structure to think about such energy dilemmas. However, the full extent and diversity of justice implications within the energy system have been neglected. Thus, borrowing from and advancing the framework this research explores how energy justice is being articulated with attention to three emergent areas of growth, the themes of: (1) time, (2) systems component and (3) actor. It does so through a case study of nuclear energy, which was chosen because of its points of enquiry with regards to these three areas of growth, and its historical and on-going importance in the UK energy mix. Using results from 36 semi-structured interviews with non-governmental organisations and policy actors across two case studies representative of the nuclear energy stages of energy production and of waste storage, disposal and reprocessing – the Hinkley Point and Sellafield nuclear complexes – this research presents new insights within each of these previously identified areas of development. It offers the contributions of (1) facility lifecycles, (2) systems approaches and (3) the question of ‘justice by whom?' and concludes that the energy justice framework can aid energy decision-making in a way that not only mitigates the environmental impacts of energy via socio-technical change, but also does so in an ethically defensible, socially just, way.

This thesis investigates narratives of re-enchantment and disenchantment in three contemporary U.S. novels, Lydia Millet’s Mermaids in Paradise, Karen Tei Yamashita’s Tropic of Orange, and Thomas Pynchon’s Inherent Vice. Drawing on key concepts from ecocritcism and affect theory, I argue that these novels interrogate narratives and affects associated with questions central to the Anthropocene: climate-related dilemmas, questions of environmental justice, and animal ethics. Situating these texts in relation to environmental discourses, I show how affects of wonder and re-enchantment are produced within them through the insertion of anti-mimetic narrative objects into otherwise representationally realistic fictional worlds. These incursions, and the affective shifts they produce, challenge and interrupt in the novels narratives of ecological dread and disenchantment, which I link to the techniques and affects of noir. In each chapter of this study, I show how the dialogical interplay between disenchantment and re-enchantment disrupts preconceptions and assumptions about aspects of ecological crisis, and engenders or reinforces political commitments to environmentally related issues. Chapter One focuses on interspecies politics and animal rights in Mermaids in Paradise, environmental justice is central to the analysis of Tropic of Orange in Chapter Two, and the political dynamics of countercultural environmentalism inform my reading of Inherent Vice in Chapter Three. Throughout, I explore the potential of re-enchantment to suggest an alternative to disenchanted and apocalyptic narratives concerning the environment, and to articulate a productive politics for contemporary ecofiction.

This essay gives examples of possible ways to inspire young adults to become politically more aware and active using dystopian fiction in the EFL classroom. First, an overview of the dystopian genre and different ways of using it in the EFL classroom to improve critical thinking skills will be given. Subsequently, different scenes from The Hunger Games will be analyzed to show how young adults can be inspired to be more aware of social and environmental justice and to act. Finally, it is discussed why literary material in a classroom must relate to a student’s personal life and why the relevance must be explained to a student to raise their interest. As a conclusion, it is claimed that it cannot be expected that all students care for the world, but showing them why they should and how they could do it is a first step.

This thesis investigates how seven communities in a subregion of the Sierra Norte of Oaxaca are conserving high forest cover in the absence of national protected areas. To conduct this study I relied on archival research and the review of community documents, focus group interviews and land use transects to explore historical and current land use. I found that communities have conserved 88.34% of the subregion as forest cover, or 58,596 hectares out of a total territory of 66,264 hectares. Analysis suggests that the communities have undergone a historical transition from more passive conservation to more active, conscious conservation particularly in the last decade. This thesis further contends that communities deserve additional financial compensation for this active conservation of globally important forests for biodiversity conservation and that exercises in systematic conservation planning ignore the reality that existing biodiversity conservation in the subregion is associated with community ownership.