8
1
The researchers also carry out quantitative investigations of nature. This is, for
instance, apparent when Grace Augustine is mortally wounded and the Na’vi carry
her to their legendary ‘soul tree’. Grace realizes where she is, forgets her own serious situation and exclaims as an engrossed scientist: ‘I need to take some samples!’
Nevertheless, the research team’s combined efforts of acquiring knowledge
about both culture and nature is not sufficient to consider this research as political
ecology. Focus on power relations, and the researchers’ role, plays a key role in
political ecology. At the beginning of the film, we see that the scientists without
further reflection allow themselves to be used as part of the mining company’s
colonization of Pandora, while they towards the end take an active role in support
of the Na’vi.
1.2 Second Synthesis: Three Aspects of Environmental
Governance
Political ecology is about how the natural environment is managed by people. It
deals with landscapes that appear as little influenced by humans, as well as cultural
landscapes where the human impact is more apparent. As a consequence of environmental governance, people are able to eat, build houses, produce commodities,
and so on. At the same time, many of us value the existence of a broad variety of
animals and plants (biodiversity).
Humans depend on their environment to survive. What is done to nature today
may have serious consequences for the resources nature will provide for people in
the future. However, the environment is not managed in such a way today that all
people can have a safe life materially, since about one billion live in extreme poverty.
We can divide environmental governance into three aspects: use, conservation
and distribution (. Fig. 1.1). Human use of nature constitutes a prerequisite for
satisfying needs and wants. Conservation implies measures implemented to maintain certain natural conditions for the future. Distribution implies that different
individuals and groups are affected differently in terms of economic gains and
losses related to uses of nature. Likewise, specific instances of conservation have
various distribution consequences for different people.
Historically, economic development from the industrial revolution brought
about an increasingly extensive use of nature. Large social disparities resulted in a
focus on distribution in terms of class struggle from the mid-nineteenth century in
Europe. Conservation of nature is a theme that first really received political significance from the growth of the environmental movement in the 1960s. 7 Chapter
4 in particular includes discussions of distributional injustice in cases of nature
conservation.
Specific situations can also be considered in light of the three aspects of environmental governance. Let us again look at Avatar as an example. The movie is
about a conflict between two actor groups that wish to use Pandora’s natural
resources in different ways. The Na’vi want to continue their traditional natural
resource use, and the film suggests that their use of nature is in consistence with
Chapter 1 · Political Ecology on Pandora
1
The researchers also carry out quantitative investigations of nature. This is, for
instance, apparent when Grace Augustine is mortally wounded and the Na’vi carry
her to their legendary ‘soul tree’. Grace realizes where she is, forgets her own serious situation and exclaims as an engrossed scientist: ‘I need to take some samples!’
Nevertheless, the research team’s combined efforts of acquiring knowledge
about both culture and nature is not sufficient to consider this research as political
ecology. Focus on power relations, and the researchers’ role, plays a key role in
political ecology. At the beginning of the film, we see that the scientists without
further reflection allow themselves to be used as part of the mining company’s
colonization of Pandora, while they towards the end take an active role in support
of the Na’vi.
1.2 Second Synthesis: Three Aspects of Environmental
Governance
Political ecology is about how the natural environment is managed by people. It
deals with landscapes that appear as little influenced by humans, as well as cultural
landscapes where the human impact is more apparent. As a consequence of environmental governance, people are able to eat, build houses, produce commodities,
and so on. At the same time, many of us value the existence of a broad variety of
animals and plants (biodiversity).
Humans depend on their environment to survive. What is done to nature today
may have serious consequences for the resources nature will provide for people in
the future. However, the environment is not managed in such a way today that all
people can have a safe life materially, since about one billion live in extreme poverty.
We can divide environmental governance into three aspects: use, conservation
and distribution (. Fig. 1.1). Human use of nature constitutes a prerequisite for
satisfying needs and wants. Conservation implies measures implemented to maintain certain natural conditions for the future. Distribution implies that different
individuals and groups are affected differently in terms of economic gains and
losses related to uses of nature. Likewise, specific instances of conservation have
various distribution consequences for different people.
Historically, economic development from the industrial revolution brought
about an increasingly extensive use of nature. Large social disparities resulted in a
focus on distribution in terms of class struggle from the mid-nineteenth century in
Europe. Conservation of nature is a theme that first really received political significance from the growth of the environmental movement in the 1960s. 7 Chapter
4 in particular includes discussions of distributional injustice in cases of nature
conservation.
Specific situations can also be considered in light of the three aspects of environmental governance. Let us again look at Avatar as an example. The movie is
about a conflict between two actor groups that wish to use Pandora’s natural
resources in different ways. The Na’vi want to continue their traditional natural
resource use, and the film suggests that their use of nature is in consistence with
Chapter 1 · Political Ecology on Pandora