“We now better understand that the evolution of life on Earth has created interdependent ecosystems. The science of ecology tells us that everything is connected to everything else and that humanity has an integral place within this network of connections. We are confronted with mounting evidence that Earth's biosphere is in serious decline as a direct consequence of human actions. In 2005, the United Nations' Millennium Ecosystem Assessment Report put this evidence in stark terms. It established that the cumulative impacts of human activity on the planet's ecological systems to sustain future generations can no longer be taken for granted”.[1]
Creative Commons Zero (CC0) license
The planet is experiencing severe environmental degradation,[2] with international trade law and the GATT/WTO embodying core neoliberal values. This essay surveys international trade in relationship to the human ecological crisis (Rees, 2002).[3] In this report, I will be analyzing the 31-year lock-in Canada-China Foreign Investment Promotion and Protection Agreement (FIPA) that was ratified by the Harper government on October 1st, 2014, as it relates to Canada’s fresh water. The FIPA agreement will remain active until 2045.[4] Extreme poverty[5], depletion of natural resources, water scarcity, desertification, deforestation, pollution, melting glaciers, lake eutrophication, climate change, biodiversity lost, the growing population of the world and unsustainable material consumption of wealthy nations are all serious aspects of this ecological human crisis. Canada-China FIPA encourages the continuation of timber, mining and oil extraction, as well as the neoliberal trade of water as a commodity. China’s imports of Canadian lumber are a significant growing market.[6] Commercial deforestation disrupts the eco-systemic storing capacity of water in the earth, affecting hydrological cycles and the availability of fresh water supply. “Our privatized, commodified, and consumerised water-use practices are ecologically unsustainable because the disaggregation of water into discrete legal rights to control, sell, and use facilitates and encourages the extraction of water from rivers, creeks, streams, lakes, springs, groundwater aquifers, and other sources without regard to in-stream 'flows' or water levels needed to sustain the ecosystems, biological life, water quality levels, and hydro-logic structures and processes that depend on them”.[7] FIPA has opened Canada's water market to China's Foreign Direct Investments (FDI). “Unfortunately, there is no longer anything any Canadian government or court can do to stop the Canada-China FIPA.”[8] “Still insofar as policy analysis constitutes a profession with an ethos of its own, the aspiration to “speak truth to power” - even, or especially, unwelcome truths - must be its prime directive, its equivalent of the Hippocratic Oath (ASPA).”[9]
Environment Canada's website informs that Canada has 7% of the world's fresh water, and that “Canada is one of the highest water users per capita in the world”. According to Worldwatch by 2025, “1.8 billion people will live in countries or regions with absolute water scarcity, with almost half of the world living in conditions of water stress”.[10] In the article, China's environment in a globalizing world, How China and the rest of the world affect each other, Liu Diamond discusses the severity of China's water pollution crisis as a direct result of unsustainable economic growth[11] , industrial toxic waste, and untreated residential sewage water. This water pollution crisis has led to severe shortages of water in more than 100 cities.[12] Water shortages threatens public health in China and has become a major challenge for sustainable economic development.[13] Eco-logic water management strategies, both local and global, are key to climate change adaptation procedures and precautionary principles. So far, the United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change is the inter-governmental organization surveying climate change mitigation. Canada withdrawal from the United Nations Kyoto Protocol on December 15, 2011, was of course a clear indication that the government of Canada prioritizes neoliberal trade over committing to greenhouse gas emissions reduction.[14] This comes at a time when there is overwhelming scientific evidence that climate change is anthropogenic. “The ultimate objective of the Convention is to stabilize greenhouse gas concentrations “at a level that would prevent dangerous anthropogenic (human induced) interference with the climate system.” It states that "such a level should be achieved within a time-frame sufficient to allow ecosystems to adapt naturally to climate change, to ensure that food production is not threatened, and to enable economic development to proceed in a sustainable manner.”[15]
TO READ THE REST OF THIS ARTICLE GO TO:
- TOPOLOGY OF THE SACRED - ECO-ACTIVISM - SCHOLARLY ARTICLES - FIPA Canada-China: International Trade Law and Water
[1] Property Rights and Sustainability, The Evolution of Property Rights to Meet Ecological Challenges, Grinlinton, Taylor, ed., 2011, p.9. Millennium Ecosystem Assessment Board, Living Beyond Our Means (Washington D.C.: Millennium Ecosystem Assessment Board, 2005), http:www.millenniumassessment.org/en/BoardStatement.aspx (assed July 25, 2010)
[2]“An increasing number of worrisome phenomena are global in nature, such as scarcity of energy resources, the deterioration of the environment and intensification of natural disasters, as well as the risks of climate change. These phenomena are also the products of the rapid economic growth generated by globalization.” The WTO: Governance, Dispute Settlement & Developing Countries, Merit E. Janow, Victoria Donaldson, Alan Yanovich, ed., p.6
[3]Professor Emeritus William E. Rees and former director of the School of Community and Regional Planning at UBC, refers to the global environmental crisis as a “human ecological crisis”. His intention is to point to the problem: the ecological crisis is anthropogenic.
[4] https://canadians.org/canada-china
[5]“Hunger is on the rise with 18,000 children dying each day from hunger and related illness.” Plan B, Mobilization to Save Civilization, Lester R. Brown, p.50).
[6]http://www.cbc.ca/news/canada/british-columbia/story/2011/07/17/bc-china-lumber.html
[7]Property Rights and Sustainability The Evolution of Property Rights to Meet Ecological Challenges edited by David Grinlinton and Prue Taylor, 2011, p.185
[8] https://canadians.org/canada-china
[9]The Oxford Handbook of Public Policy, Robert E. Goodin, Michael Moran, and Martin Rein, 2008, p.6.
[10]http://www.worldwatch.org/looming-threat-water-scarcity-0
[11]“China's environmental problems are also spilling over into other countries, while other countries affect China's environment through globalization, pollution and resource exploitation. China is already the largest contributor of sulphur oxides and chlorofluorocarbons to the atmosphere, its dust and aerial pollutants are transported eastwards to neighbouring countries and even North America; and it is one of the two leading importers of tropical rainforest timber, making it a driving force behind tropical deforestation.”
[12] China's environment in a globalizing world, How China and the rest of the world affect each other, Liu Diamond
[13]Rethinking China’s Urban Water Privatization, Ge Yun, waterjustice.org
[14]http://unfccc.int/files/kyoto_protocol/background/application/pdf/canada.pdf.pdf
[15]http://unfccc.int/key_steps/the_convention/items/6036.php
Environment Canada's website informs that Canada has 7% of the world's fresh water, and that “Canada is one of the highest water users per capita in the world”. According to Worldwatch by 2025, “1.8 billion people will live in countries or regions with absolute water scarcity, with almost half of the world living in conditions of water stress”.[10] In the article, China's environment in a globalizing world, How China and the rest of the world affect each other, Liu Diamond discusses the severity of China's water pollution crisis as a direct result of unsustainable economic growth[11] , industrial toxic waste, and untreated residential sewage water. This water pollution crisis has led to severe shortages of water in more than 100 cities.[12] Water shortages threatens public health in China and has become a major challenge for sustainable economic development.[13] Eco-logic water management strategies, both local and global, are key to climate change adaptation procedures and precautionary principles. So far, the United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change is the inter-governmental organization surveying climate change mitigation. Canada withdrawal from the United Nations Kyoto Protocol on December 15, 2011, was of course a clear indication that the government of Canada prioritizes neoliberal trade over committing to greenhouse gas emissions reduction.[14] This comes at a time when there is overwhelming scientific evidence that climate change is anthropogenic. “The ultimate objective of the Convention is to stabilize greenhouse gas concentrations “at a level that would prevent dangerous anthropogenic (human induced) interference with the climate system.” It states that "such a level should be achieved within a time-frame sufficient to allow ecosystems to adapt naturally to climate change, to ensure that food production is not threatened, and to enable economic development to proceed in a sustainable manner.”[15]
TO READ THE REST OF THIS ARTICLE GO TO:
- TOPOLOGY OF THE SACRED - ECO-ACTIVISM - SCHOLARLY ARTICLES - FIPA Canada-China: International Trade Law and Water
[1] Property Rights and Sustainability, The Evolution of Property Rights to Meet Ecological Challenges, Grinlinton, Taylor, ed., 2011, p.9. Millennium Ecosystem Assessment Board, Living Beyond Our Means (Washington D.C.: Millennium Ecosystem Assessment Board, 2005), http:www.millenniumassessment.org/en/BoardStatement.aspx (assed July 25, 2010)
[2]“An increasing number of worrisome phenomena are global in nature, such as scarcity of energy resources, the deterioration of the environment and intensification of natural disasters, as well as the risks of climate change. These phenomena are also the products of the rapid economic growth generated by globalization.” The WTO: Governance, Dispute Settlement & Developing Countries, Merit E. Janow, Victoria Donaldson, Alan Yanovich, ed., p.6
[3]Professor Emeritus William E. Rees and former director of the School of Community and Regional Planning at UBC, refers to the global environmental crisis as a “human ecological crisis”. His intention is to point to the problem: the ecological crisis is anthropogenic.
[4] https://canadians.org/canada-china
[5]“Hunger is on the rise with 18,000 children dying each day from hunger and related illness.” Plan B, Mobilization to Save Civilization, Lester R. Brown, p.50).
[6]http://www.cbc.ca/news/canada/british-columbia/story/2011/07/17/bc-china-lumber.html
[7]Property Rights and Sustainability The Evolution of Property Rights to Meet Ecological Challenges edited by David Grinlinton and Prue Taylor, 2011, p.185
[8] https://canadians.org/canada-china
[9]The Oxford Handbook of Public Policy, Robert E. Goodin, Michael Moran, and Martin Rein, 2008, p.6.
[10]http://www.worldwatch.org/looming-threat-water-scarcity-0
[11]“China's environmental problems are also spilling over into other countries, while other countries affect China's environment through globalization, pollution and resource exploitation. China is already the largest contributor of sulphur oxides and chlorofluorocarbons to the atmosphere, its dust and aerial pollutants are transported eastwards to neighbouring countries and even North America; and it is one of the two leading importers of tropical rainforest timber, making it a driving force behind tropical deforestation.”
[12] China's environment in a globalizing world, How China and the rest of the world affect each other, Liu Diamond
[13]Rethinking China’s Urban Water Privatization, Ge Yun, waterjustice.org
[14]http://unfccc.int/files/kyoto_protocol/background/application/pdf/canada.pdf.pdf
[15]http://unfccc.int/key_steps/the_convention/items/6036.php
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