Living Downstream

“In ecofeminism, nature is the central category of analysis. An analysis of the interrelated domination of nature-psyche and sexuality, human oppression, and nonhuman nature—and the historic position of women in relation to those forms of domination is the starting point of ecofeminism theory.”

In the reading “The Power and the Promise of Ecological Feminism”, the author, Karen J. Warren, explains her argument on the inevitable connection between the oppression of women and the oppression of nature. She further suggests that ecofeminism provides a framework to re envision feminism and create an environmental ethic which takes into account the connection between sexism and naturism.

With all the contaminations of our drinking water people are greatly affected on a daily basis. People expose to a lot of diseases such as cholera, stomach viruses and this severe cases this can even lead to death. The death rates in developing counties are at its highest right now. Human are not only the ones affected animals also suffer the consequences of our ignorance example a herbicide call Atrazina which is use to kill weeds is said to be found most in or drinking water, streams and rivers is said to be responsible for the low sperm count in animals, such as fish and frogs, often times become cross gender and in most cases may result into death. Studies have also

As well as with the animals thousands die due to the chemical, materials, and weapons they test on them. Also, the military does not need to get a permit to make an atomic weapon or any other illegal action. After all, the military creates their own policy that can protect them from being sued. Since the military can argue that it is in the benefit of ‘national security.’ This affected the people who live in these third work countries where there is no regulation on not to pollute at times people have to migrate to different places just as in the book when many people had to leave their hometown. Furthermore, not only in the book they used all their natural resources, but researchers in the documentary called “Flow of Love of water,” said in different rivers the level of water is decreasing and that in 2020 there would not be as much as clean water due to the fact that corporation are calming the water and putting them in bottles and selling them for profit. As the elderly people from the book, the new generation would not be able to experience and see the ways the environment used to be like. Also, in the American agricultural, the

”On those visits, I feel not only the spirit of the local people…and the seasonal change.”(345).Nowadays seasonal variation in industrial societies is minimized by importing many products that mature in specific seasons from different parts of the world. Technologies however, are impacting on our lives. “DDT would exert incredible selective pressure for mutations that would confer resistance” (347), it killed malaria-carrying mosquitoes but in few years large numbers of mosquitoes will return. It also has ecological damage the compound is ingested by many organisms, become concentrated up the food chain in a process called biomagnification. It causes heavy bird mortality.

As we have developed as a species so has our impact on the natural world. This is evident in the rise of natural disasters since the industrial revolution. By the end of the industrial revolution the number of natural disasters had almost doubled. This could be down to the fact that there was an extensive increase in the amount of carbon dioxide and monoxide emitted into the atmosphere (as seen in figure 2.), damaging the balance of the Earth’s temperature. The Industrial Revolution is still known as one of the main catalysts for change in history. There were many engineering advancements that took place and many people benefited however as they say, “There are always two ways to look at a situation”. Huge increases in combustion since the 1800s has doubled the amount of Carbon dioxide that’s been emitted into the atmosphere. The burning of more and more fossil fuels and machine driven products increased rapidly due to the high demand of fast working products.(This can be seen in

The temperatures have soared above the hundreds every day and experts say this will only become worse. The heat caused hundred of earthquakes, which in turn caused dams to collapse. People have gotten greedier, and are resorting to fracking as a high source of profit from other countries. Fracking, which is the process of drilling deep into the earth’s layers, uses about eight million liters of water. For decades people have known of its negative effects yet continue to do so. Our drinking water is contaminated by the toxins released into the freshwater used during fracking. Even the best treatment plants could not properly filter out the poison. Humans have slowly taken in the formic acid, and they are being killed on the inside. Doctors have yet to discover a way to stop this. Since our politicians did not believe in Global Warming or the dangers of fracking, nothing was done to help prevent it. They cut the funds to all research being made, and did not want to be educated on the

“You can't cross the sea merely by standing and staring at the water.” Rabindranath Tagore said this meaning that you can’t think that something can change without doing anything about it. Clean water in MInnesota is a big problem. The Clean Water Council should filter all the water resources in Minnesota that are affected by chemicals. Many people are getting sick from drinking their tap water. This is caused by farming chemicals run-off. The access to safe water in Minnesota is a problem. This is an expensive problem to fix. We are also using too many farming chemicals. Farming chemicals run-off is the main reason for this clean water crisis.

In ecofeminist literature, the writers often establish that women and nature are linked because they are viewed as mechanical instruments to be used by men. For example, in Val Plumwood’s “Ecofeminism: An Overview and Discussion of Positions and Arguments” she argues that “[women and nature] have been valued either entirely or mainly in terms of their usefulness to others” (Plumwood 120) which has led to exploitation and manipulation of nature and women. By making this comparison, the use of nature and women for male gain is clear in that both are resources for men to

Ecofeminism is a multicultural perspective on the interconnectedness of social systems of domination and the domination of non-human nature. It recognizes the cultural and political links between ecology and

Even if we stopped all of these gasses emitted into the atmosphere tomorrow, we would still see a rise in planetary temperatures of 1.1 degrees Celsius, which is twice the warming experienced over the past century. (Marshall, 2) The IPCC predicts a global temperature rise of between 1.4 degrees and 5.8 degrees by 2100. A global warming episode 250 million years ago wiped out 95 percent of all species on earth. It took a rise in average global temperature of only 6 degrees to trigger this catastrophe. The IPCC?s current worst-case scenario is 5.8 degrees. One can scarcely imagine a more somber warning. (Marshall, 2) If we do not take immediate action to cut down on emissions of greenhouse gasses, we will in effect condemn our children and grandchildren and all other generations to follow to a permanently impoverished and more threatening world dominated by extreme weather and ecological collapse. But who cares about the generations to follow us? One may ask. Well, it has been speculated that low concentrations of toxins into the atmosphere may be the cause for some learning disabilities among children in America. How would you feel if your family was know for being stupid and all generations that follow even dumber, and the reason for such stupidity rested on your shoulders, because you were too lazy and ignorant to realize the

In the book, Susan Griffin, compares women and earth to man. She sheds light on feminism, female oppression, destruction of nature, and lastly the inequality that exist between men and women. The principal focus of the book is to show the connection between women and nature, and the disparities between men and nature. After years of conducting research she concludes that women and men inequality, science, language, and tradition have shape men masculinity as the ultimate power, drawing a line between man and nature.

In today’s society chemicals, whether you like it or not are a fact of life. Many people are afraid of chemicals and their effects on them and the environment. This is understandable because the truth of the matter is that chemicals can do some horrible things to humans, animals and the whole ecosystem. Some would say that chemicals should be done away with for these reasons. But this certainly is not true and most likely impossible. Chemicals can also have some very positive effects on our lives. Some uneducated people would argue that there should not be restrictions on chemicals. This is just as crazy as saying that chemicals should be done away with. If chemicals are regulated and people abide

We as a society have reached one of the most crucial time periods in the history of our world. Due to the way we have used the resources on this earth we have created a situation in which our climate is drastically changing. The burning of fossil fuels such as coal and oil has caused gases like carbon dioxide to become trapped in the atmosphere causing a natural greenhouse effect. The greenhouse effect has caused the earth’s average temperature to rise and has resulted in arctic glaciers melting. These glaciers had gases trapped inside them that are now being released into the atmosphere further raising the earth's temperature. Due to the way we are polluting our air we have caused global warming. This global warming has caused stronger natural disasters such as hurricanes and wildfires putting our society in more danger than ever before.

Nowadays it is common to hear on the news about recent health and environmental scares especially with the increasing research done about the causes and effects of global warming. However, life just a century ago was very different. During the early twentieth century, people trusted industries. Therefore, they did not fight for government regulation of industries or the need for it to inform them about possible harmful practices done by industries. It took the deaths and emergence of illnesses of many workers and citizens for the public to start worrying. Gerald Markowitz and David Rosner discussed this time period with a focus on the lead and chemical industries in their book Deceit and Denial: the Deadly Politics of Industrial Pollution.