C/D Blocks Social and Environmental Sciences - Okay, today you start with Young. Yesterday Young asked you "So, what is your belief on environmental issues? What do you believe in and why?" Today we're going to start with this. An Environmental Value System helps to explain how a person sees or values environmental issues. An EVS is influenced by many factors including (but not limited to): culture, economics and socio-politics. Your job, the idea of accumulating wealth, your community, the social network of friends you belong to, schooling, the media you consume and your political beliefs all affect how you see or value environmental issues. So, today I would like you to identify what your perspectives and beliefs are on environmental issues. To do this we'll take the New Ecological Paradigm questionnaire.
For each of the following 15 statements please indicate whether you strongly agree (SA) , agree (A), are neutral or unsure (NU), disagree (D), or strongly disagree (SD)
1. We are approaching the limit of the number of people the Earth can support.
2. Humans have the right to modify the natural environment to suit their needs.
3. When humans interfere with nature it often produces disastrous consequences.
4. Human ingenuity will insure that we do not make the Earth unlivable.
5. Humans are seriously abusing the environment.
6. The Earth has plenty of natural resources if we just learn how to develop them.
7. Plants and animals have as much right as humans to exist.
8. The balance of nature is strong enough to cope with the impacts of modern industrial nations.
9. Despite our special abilities, humans are still subject to the laws of nature.
10. The so-called “ecological crisis” facing humankind has been greatly exaggerated.
11. The Earth is like a spaceship with very limited room and resources.
12. Humans were meant to rule over the rest of nature.
13. The balance of nature is very delicate and easily upset.
14. Humans will eventually learn enough about how nature works to be able to control it.
15. If things continue on their present course, we will soon experience a major ecological catastrophe
1/6/11 are about limits to growth; 2/7/12 are about anthropocentrism; 3/8/13 are about the fragility of nature's balance; 4/9/14 are about human exemptionaslism; and 5/10/15 are about the possibility of an ecological crisis. The seven even numbered items, if agreed to by a respondent, are meant to represent statements endorsed by the dominant social paradigm (DSP) where SA = 1, A = 2, NU = 3, D = 4 and SD = 5. The eight odd items, if agreed to by a respondent, are meant to reflect endorsement of the new environmental paradigm (NEP) where SA = 5, A = 4, NU = 3, D = 2, and SD = 1
So, the NEP favoured responses show a tendency towards Ecocentrism, or a nature-centered worldview/paradigm. The DSP favoured responses show a tendency towards Anthropocentrism, or people-centered, and Technocentrism, or technology-centered, worldview/paradigm (a higher score = NEP where a lower score = DSP). The NEP-R was designed to assess pro-environmental orientation and you discovered that differences in behavior or attitudes are often believed to be explained by underlying values, a world view, or a paradigm.
Remember, an EVS is a worldview or paradigm that shapes the way an individual, or group of people, perceives and evaluates environmental issues, influenced by cultural, religious, economic and socio-political contexts.
I will have some questions for you to answer:
- Outline how assumptions, values and beliefs and worldwide views can influence individual value systems…in other words “What has influenced your personal Environmental Value System?
- What is intrinsic value?
- How can you attach value to the biosphere?
- Which EVSs attribute intrinsic value?
- Describe and evaluate how each of the three "pure" EVSs would feel about the intrinsic value of an old growth forest
Remember this?
With Benton you're back to TEK and a science lab using Traditional Ecological Knowledge principles.
A Block Criminology - We'll take a look at Friday's blog post to see the 2021 trends in crime for Canada. Police-reported crime in Canada, as measured by the Crime Severity Index (CSI), remained stable from 2020 to 2021 which followed a 7% drop in the CSI in 2020, the first after 5 years of increases. The Violent CSI rose 5% in 2021, and was higher than in 2019, prior to the pandemic while the Non-violent CSI declined 3%, after a 9% drop in 2020.
Remember comparing crimes reported to the police with those reported by individuals in the General Social Survey (GSS) suggests that only about 30% of crimes get reported – though this also varies considerably depending on the type of crime. So the true reality of crime is skewed, depending on sources of statistics and what is gathered. Crime does occur in Canada, but fears about crime rates appear to be largely unfounded because you need to look at the macro (long term) statistics which show that the crime rate rose substantially from 1960 to about 1990, and has fallen by nearly half since then.
I'll have you continue your work on three questions about crime trends:
- Using pages 37 to 46 in the CRIM textbook outline and explain the crime patterns in relation to ecology, firearms, social class, age, gender and race.
- What is a chronic offender and what is the significance of Marvin Wolfgang's discovery (why is identifying the chronic offender important)?
- How would you explain the gender differences in the crime rate (why do you think males are more violent than females)?
B Block Legal Studies - Today we'll talk about equality and look at section 15 of the Charter. We'll look at the difference between prejudice and discrimination. Equality is understood to have four meanings:
1. Equal before the law
2. Equal under the law
3. Equal benefit
4. Equal protection
To finish the class, I'll have you work on questions:
1. Equal before the law
2. Equal under the law
3. Equal benefit
4. Equal protection
It may be surprising to note that this clause was one of the more controversial issues of the constitutional debate. Some provinces did not see the need for equality rights to be written into the Charter since provincially human rights codes were seen as protection enough.
The phrase "before and under the law" is significant because it means that not only do people have equal access to the courts and to equal administration of justice (the "before" part) but that the laws that are discriminatory will be struck down by the courts (the "under" part). So in Andrews v. Law Society of British Columbia, [1989] 1 S.C.R. 143 Mark Andrews met all the requirements to become a lawyer in British Columbia, but he did not have Canadian citizenship. Because he did not meet the citizenship requirement, he was not accepted. Andrews challenged the provincial law, which prevented him from being a lawyer, arguing that it was discriminatory since it treated non-citizens and Canadian citizens differently. The majority of the Supreme Court decided that the provincial law infringed equality rights, because it did not let otherwise qualified people practice law solely because of their citizenship.
This case was the Court’s first decision on equality rights. It has influenced the development of equality law well beyond the specific facts of Mr. Andrew’s case, because Justice McIntyre emphasized that section 15 of the Charter protects and promotes substantive equality of opportunity for all. The court has added the following grounds (analogous to those enumerated) in section 15 (1):
- Non-citizenship (Andrews, supra; Lavoie v. Canada, [2002] 1 S.C.R. 769);
- Marital status (Miron v. Trudel, [1995] 2 S.C.R. 418; Nova Scotia (Attorney General) v. Walsh, [2002] 4 S.C.R. 325; Quebec v. A., supra);
- Sexual orientation (Egan v. Canada, [1995] 2 S.C.R. 513; Vriend, supra; M. v. H., [1999] 2 S.C.R. 3: Little Sisters, supra); and
- Aboriginality-residence as it pertains to a member of an Indian Band living off the reserve (Corbiere v. Canada (Minister of Indian and Northern Affairs), [1999] 2 S.C.R. 203).
- 1-3 on page 54;
- 1, 2 and 5 on page 56
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