NATURE, CHOICE AND SOCIAL POWER We are at an environmental impasse. Many blame our personal choices about the things we consume and the way we live. This is only part of the problem. Different forms of social power – political, economic and ideological – structure the choices we have available. This book analyzes how we make social and environmental history and why we end up where we do. Using case studies from different environmental domains – earth and water, air and fire – Nature, Choice and Social Powerexamines the form that social power takes and how it can harm the environment and hinder our efforts to act in our own best interests. The case studies challenge conventional wisdoms about why gold is valuable, why the internal combustion engine triumphed and when and why suburbs sprawled. The book shows how the power of individuals, the power of classes, the power of the market and the power of the state at different times and in different ways were critical to setting us on a path to environmental degradation. It also challenges conventional wisdoms about what we need to do now. Rather than reducing consumption and shrinking from outcomes we do not want, it proposes growing toward outcomes we do want. We have invested massive resources in creating our problems; it will take equally large investments to fix them. Written in a clear and engaging style, the book is underpinned with a political economy framework and addresses how we should understand our responsibility to the environment and to each other as individuals within a large and impersonal system. Erica Schoenberger is Professor of Geography and Environmental Engineering at Johns Hopkins University, Baltimore, USA. This page intentionally left blank NATURE, CHOICE AND SOCIAL POWER Erica Schoenberger First published 2015 by Routledge 2 Park Square, Milton Park, Abingdon, Oxon OX14 4RN and by Routledge 711 Third Avenue, New York, NY 10017 Routledge is an imprint of the Taylor & Francis Group, an informa business © 2015 Erica Schoenberger The right of Erica Schoenberger to be identified as author of this work has been asserted by her in accordance with sections 77 and 78 of the Copyright, Designs and Patents Act 1988. All rights reserved. No part of this book may be reprinted or reproduced or utilized in any form or by any electronic, mechanical, or other means, now known or hereafter invented, including photocopying and recording, or in any information storage or retrieval system, without permission in writing from the publishers. Trademark notice: Product or corporate names may be trademarks or registered trademarks, and are used only for identification and explanation without intent to infringe. British Library Cataloguing-in-Publication Data A catalogue record for this book is available from the British Library Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication Data A catalog record for this book is available from the Library of Congress ISBN: 978-0-415-83386-8 (hbk) ISBN: 978-0-415-83387-5 (pbk) ISBN: 978-0-203-48384-8 (ebk) Typeset in Bembo by Keystroke, Station Road, Codsall, Wolverhampton for Reds A thoughtful, measured and ultimately compelling analysis of our collective inability to take the obvious measures needed to prevent the downward spiral of environmental degradation that currently threatens so much of the world around us. Beautifully written, this text is thoroughly recommended for student audiences at all levels as well as for general readers. David Harvey, City University of New York Graduate Center, USA Utterly original, always provocative, never predictable, Erica Schoenberger rethinks the environmental crisis here as a deeply sedimented social problem, and as a problem of social power. Nature, Choice and Social Power takes a fresh look at the underlying causes and consequences of the environmental impasse, matched with refreshing responses to a host of stubborn questions. Schoenberger argues that getting by in a different, and less environmentally damaging way is a challenge too big for environmentalism-as-we-know-it on its own; moving forward must involve the renovation of democracy and the taming of markets too. Jamie Peck, University of British Columbia, Canada Erica Schoenberger has produced a truly stimulating and provocative book. Through detailed historical analyses she shows how environmental problems are the product of the configurations of social power and that our choices are constrained by such configurations. The wonderfully clear writing style makes her argument highly accessible to all. Invaluable. Peter Dicken, University of Manchester, UK CONTENTS List of illustrations ix Acknowledgments xi Introduction:nature,choice and social power 1 PART I Mining: earth and water 19 1 Mining nature 21 2 Miners 51 3 Why is gold valuable? 79 PART II The car and suburban sprawl: air and fire 111 4 Henry Ford’s car 113 5 Sprawl 140 6 Los Angeles:a brief biography 175 Conclusion:social power,choice and nature 194 References 203 Index 216 This page intentionally left blank ILLUSTRATIONS Figures 1.1 The Ok Tedi mine site in Papua New Guinea 34 1.2 The McLaughlin mine site in Northern California 37 2.1 Ancient Egypt, showing the location of Wadi Hammamat 55 6.1 The Pacific Electric railway system, 1912 179 6.2 Los Angeles Basin oil fields 182 6.3 Aerial view from Wilshire and La Brea Avenues, 1932 186 Table 3.1 Monetary gold, 1845–1950 103