Environment and Society Essay: Urban Metabolism, Justice, and Values

This essay provides a comprehensive analysis of the relationship between environment and society, exploring key concepts such as socio-ecological flows, metabolic rift, and environmental justice. It examines how urbanization processes impact environmental outcomes and discusses the Anthropocene epoch, highlighting the influence of human activities on the planet. The essay further delves into intrinsic and instrumental environmental values, and the concept of commodification, analyzing how these factors shape the use and exploitation of natural resources. Part A reviews how places and environmental outcomes are produced through socio-ecological flows and entanglements, while Part B addresses the Anthropocene, environmental values, and commodification of natural resources. The essay references various scholarly works to support its arguments, offering a critical perspective on the complex interplay between environmental systems and societal structures, and the implications for future sustainability.

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Part A
This is a review of how both places and environmental outcomes are produced through socio-
ecological flows and entanglements. It established by discussing circulation processes role in
linking cities with more distant places in relation to metabolic rift and environmental justice.
According to Foster (2000), the metabolic rift is a physical expression of human separation from
the material conditions of life, and from nature. The urbanization is seen as a procedure of de-
territorialization and re-territorialization of metabolic circulatory streams, composed via societal
and physical channels or systems of 'metabolic vehicles' (Wolf 2012). These procedures are
injected in relation to the intensity in which social artists endeavor to protect and make their own
surroundings in a set of class, ethnic, racial and additionally sex clashes and power battles.
Metabolism isn’t limited to the limits of a town yet includes an intricate procedure of connecting
places, and the people and non-people inside these spots, in irregular and unexpected manners.
These frequently profoundly out of line arranges through which urban areas and their occupants
are connected with individuals and places somewhere else have started to be uncovered in
ongoing work on the conveyance of squander, family unit reusing and excess boats from the
urban areas of worldwide North to those in the worldwide South (Heynen, Perkins& Roy 2006). '
Flow' and 'metabolism ' have turned out to be progressively prominent and hypothetically
propelled focal points through which to comprehend a progression of interconnected,
heterogeneous (human and non-human), dynamic, challenged and contestable procedures of
ceaseless measurable and subjective changes which re-orchestrates people and non-people in

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new, and frequently sudden, arrays (Swyngedouw 2006). These focal points allow thinking
about the social and the physical in non-dualistic and profoundly political ways.
Advanced town progresses toward becoming seen as a procedure of intertwining the social and
the physical together to create an unmistakable 'half and half' or 'cyborg' urbanization (Gandy
2005). Such socially-determined material procedures deliver broadened and ceaselessly
reconfigured, expected plus unplanned spatial game plans. These are immersed with
heterogeneous emblematic and fanciful requests by the summed up product frame that supports
the industrialist 'nature' of urbanization.
The observational investigation has started to examine the collections, control imbalances, and
treacheries enclosed in the metabolism of urban communities. Be that as it may, we accept assist
thought of the metabolic flow of cyborg urban areas is essential. From one perspective, it will
uncover advance the unforeseen, continually moving and profoundly irregular power
associations and treacheries enclosed in its creation. Then again, facilitate us to think
fundamentally around kinds of urban communities we ought to live later on, and what metabolic
systems and disseminations cause these city ideals. Such an exploration venture requires
disentangling the complex, moving and control loaded social connections that work inside urban
areas and the manner, these are interceded by and organized via procedures of environmental
variation.
The future inquire about this ought to inspect the way urban is comprised via socio-natural
metabolic streams, for example, Carbon IV Oxide, water, and gases, maintained by a
progression of mechanical frameworks and social, political and institutional help structures, and
how these are enclosed in the generation of exceedingly irregular socio-environmental designs.

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Exclusively we do not need to outline, break down or comprehend the socio-natural metabolism
of urban areas, past what's more present, additionally, we must basically foresee the used socio-
ecological associations that can work under extreme idealistic options for example, of post-
carbon networks that are starting to rise.
On the other hands, urban environmental justice pays contemplations to the associations amidst
social joining/preclusion from socio-environmental circumstances and socio-political exercise.
As a rule, natural fair-mindedness focuses on the refinement revelation to biological stock and
bads looked by exceptional societal get-togethers with a particular weight on characteristic bads
(Schneider, Kallis& Martinez-Alier 2010). The improvement itself ascended in the US out of
two significant biological events that happened amid the 1980s, one that molded in opposition to
the territory of perilous goals close denied systems and another that tested 'regular bias'
(Schlosberg 2009). The initiating work by a researcher and radical, Robert Bullard and a report
by the Assembled Church of Christ's (UCC) Bonus for Racial justcice went about as the impulse
for a watchful educational responsibility with the environmental jusitice improvement and
thought. Bullard's underlying work fought that unsafe waste workplaces were too much found
and deliberately sited in predominately dull neighborhoods inside the South US. Essentially, the
UCC (1987) attested that over th US, black commuinities s have encountered regular ecological
racism. In the prerequisite of controls and laws in powerful authority cognizant centering of
systems of shading for hurtful waste exchange and the siting of dirtying ventures in the expert
embracing of the unsafe closeness of poisonous substances and poisons in systems of shading
and the verifiable background of banning minorities from the standard environmental social
affairs, fundamental authority sheets, commissions, and authoritative organs. Bullard and the
UCC related what incredibly separated records of peril that are an ethnically identifiable case of

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inappropriate behavior". As these formative examinations, amount of natural equity thinks about
has grown stupendously over various controls. Test examinations have regularly fixated on
alluding to structures of exchange, stockpiling, workplaces transfers and dirtying enterprises,
their social proposals and system protection from these. Research has extended out of late to look
at a wide collection of issues from the unsafe material the movement to the non-indistinguishable
confirmation from socio-ordinary. These examinations have contributed towards a perception of
'condition' and 'equity', and the noteworthiness of race and class inside characteristic injustice.
These issues will now be viewed as in this way. Reverberating work in political science, natural
equity activists and analysts have attempted to 'denaturalize' the earth, setting highlight on its
social relations and social creation. This is gotten by the natural equity fanatic Dana Alston who
thought about that the issues of the earth don't stay single without any other person's information.
Plus, ecological equity activists and analysts have natural equity considerations of 'perfect nature'
to review the urban state of "the dull lung conveying workplace, the asbestos clad home and the
fumes cloud stacked play zone". The possibility of value has been a key to the natural equity
improvement. Exchanges have risen inside the educational expounding on what kind of value the
ecological equity improvement has and ought to take a stab at. David Schlosberg (2009) fights
that in spite of the way that the composition and advancement are swarming concerning value
and equity, they are consistently dark or indeterminate about the kinds of value they imagine.
Making Iris Marion young's (2011) manage the administrative issues of complexity, Schlosberg
(2009) suggests that three estimations of value are imperative to ecological equity: distributional
value, procedural value, and cognitional value. In a later duty, Schlosberg (2009) incorporates
the fourth estimation of value: the value of limits. It is basic to take a gander in every estimation
in more detail. Distributional value has for a long while been a point of convergence of the

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environmental justice. It suggests the conviction that characteristic bads should not be stuffed in
or contiguous, ruined systems but instead re-distributed. This dispute concentrated on a Rawlsian
thought of distributive value, has become stern criticism from Dobson (2003) who prescribes that
calls for redistributing socio-environmental issues, disregard to deal with its principle drivers.
Cognitional value suggests the call for affirmation and respect for the troubled systems who
encounter the evil impacts of biological injustice and the people who share in the natural equity
improvement. The direct point here is that there is a significant association between the
nonappearance of affirmation and the vile scattering of environmental bads.
Schlosberg's (2009) argument, for the most part, basic learning, in any case, is that these
estimations of value can't be considered or acknowledged in repression. The value of limits
requires a political focus on distributional value: strong systems require some sort of
redistribution of condition bads and stock. With the true objective to achieve distributional value
and the value of limits, procedural value and cognitional value is critical. Continuing forward, a
critical piece of the work on ecological equity has examined whether spatial models of
characteristic unevenness are associated with the issues of class or race. Different examinations
have used open environmental and measurement data, programming, and quantitative systems to
investigate the spatial associations between normal issues and masses traits. From these, a couple
of many have agreed with Bullard and the UCC's underlying assessments that race is the key
choosing segment in ecological equity. For Ringquist (2005), the inability to recognize the social
determiners of natural awkwardness has blunted the credibility of the ecological equity
improvement's solicitations. On the other hand, Downey (1998) trusts that these 'class versus

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race' talks about neither are befuddled as neither class nor race-based aberrations work in
disengagement. Or maybe, they are identified with both sorting out models of common
dissimilarity. Consequently, he reasons that audits should investigate the exchange between these
two tomahawks of divergence.
Following this investigation, different continuous examinations have risen venting their failure
with the author's nonattendance of understanding of how sex relations shape environmental
disparities and ecological justice advancement.
Part B

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Question One
Anthropocene is a projected time marking the commencing of important human effects on the
world’s ecosystem and geology (Baskin 2014). Mostly, anthropocene defines world’s most
recent geologic time. Major influences of time on earth are human caused, therefore,
anthropocene is said to have human roots. According to Ruddiman (2007), Anthropocene time
period is said to start about 10,000 years ago, just after the last glacial period. He argues that the
anthropocene time period is defined by human impact on the emission of greenhouse gas, during
the industrial revolution.
This concept is of great importance in human society as it explains the intensity of the current
world situations, for instance, this concept has recently been employed by climate scientists to
describe the phenomena like climate change, which is a major challenge the world is facing
today. The initial domestication of plant and animals, advancement of agricultural economies
and landscapes in early days marks the start of anthropocene epoch.
Question Two
Intrinsic environmental value
This is a non-instrumental value of the ecosystem and the species that comprise the environment.
Normally, this value that the environment/natural resource has in itself for what it’s or as an
end. What value is inherent to an object? (McShane 2007) Example of intrinsic value is the
aesthetic nature of plants. This value is made by human valuing. Human beings will preserve

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and conserve natural resources because they know and believe that their existence is of great
importance.
Instrumental environmental value
This is the value that ecosystem and species have as a mean to desired or valued end (Justus,
Colyvan, Regan, Maguire 2009). Here the natural resources are valued for the end results gained
from them. For example, a tree can value from timbers that ard forms them. Also, the rocks can
be valued from the building materials made from them. This suggests that instrumental value is
attributable to the use and need to be met by a certain natural resource in human life.
Question Three
Commodification is an assertion of human control over nature, where natural resources cease to
be an ecosystem entity and become a privatized property (Heynen& Robbins 2005). This is
attributed to capitalism, where most people are after optimizing their profit from farms, mines,
and forests. This urge and greed for high income create great interest for the ownership and
possession of natural resources among people as they strive and work toward making and
maintain a higher profit from their economic use of land and other natural resources. The end
result is the overexploitation of natural resources. This exposes these resources to destruction as
they turn to be private means of production and the owners can use them the manner they want.
This vividly shows that the idea of commodification is a contributing factor to the ownership of
natural resources like land, mines and wild animals. This implies that people can buy and them
whenever they need to do so.

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Question Four
Planetary urbanism is a circumstance where even sections that are situated beyond the traditional
city centers become central parts of the global urban fabric (Mitchell 2014). This is as a result
continued urbanization process and massive migration of people to major cities. Cities are
overpopulated and available resources are overstrained, people move to the outskirts of major
cities as result, new sections/areas have become urbanized and transformed into new economic
centres.
As a result, planetary urbanism causes the city to act as a central and pivotal point where
resources can be received from a different part of the global as it’s at the junction of all
infrastructural networks.
Areas that have experiences planetary urbanism are the major cities from developed countries
like China, USA, Japan, and Russia. These cities are have turned out to be a major global centre
due to their good connection with the infrastructural network from most parts of their origin
country and world.
Question Five
The statement is true. Due to the need of an inclusive ecosystem, cities have been turned to
habitat for every life, both human and nonhuman. The process of urbanization has transformed
even area that had no plant cover for example desert area, as cities’ authorities have enacted
afforestation and reafforestation programmes, which has a facilitated the enlargement of

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vegetation cover in these towns, as they strive to add the aesthetic value to cities. These have
caused citeies to be habitats for human and nonhuman lives.
Also, cities have game parks, museum and water bodies, both natural and manmade. Game
parks are homes for wild animals and plants and a place for recreation activity. Water bodies
hold the aquatic lives and Museum holds the remains of dead and rare animals. Also human are
the main inhabitants of the city. All these portray cities as space for the natural life of all kinds
and as a true multi-species metropolis Forman (2008)
Question Six
According to Carney (2001), “the Columbian exchange is an unparalleled exchange of crops”.
This is term is basically used to describe the interchange of plants, animals, culture, human
population, ideas nd technology among the world continents. This exchange is attributed to
European colonization and trade following Christopher Columbus journey to America and Africa
in late 1400(Nunn& Qian 2010), hence the name Columbian. The process draws its attention
from the initiative of the Europeans to transform the food system by introducing the Amerindian
and Asian seeds to Africa. Carney argues that Columbian exchange neglects the tremendous role
that was played by African crop domestication in America by establishing many Africa Staples
food. Instead, it introduced Amerindian foods to replace many life-sustaining African bowls of
cereal.
Eventually, Columbian Exchange has reunited the world continents that had drifted apart.
People are able to share their ideas, technology, plants, and animas with the other parts of the
word. Thus marked the beginner of globalization, where the world has become a village.

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Question 7
According to Jarman, P. J., & Brock (2004, p. 3), the assumptions behind the 19Th century game
protection law are:
 Uncontrolled hunting would threaten game populations and reduce sport in future
Over hunting leads to the direct killing of too many wild lives, which threatens the existence of
many wild species, hence the need for legislations to control over hunting of the endangered
species
 Populations would survive as long as hunting did not target the breeding stock or occur
during the breeding season.
This advocate for selective, monitored and timely hunting, where citizens are allowed to hunt
only the specific species, they are not allowed to hunt animals that are likely to be in their
gestation period. In this case, laws are needed to prevent ill-motivated hunters from getting into
the animal's habitats.
 People who had invested to increase the public good by importing game species (in
particular) should have their investment protected.