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Environmental Degradation Is Often Represented as Crisis, Violence, or Spectacle. Write an Essay Considering How Issues of Environmental Justice Are Depicted, and How the Writers Link Such Violence to Ideas of Feminism

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Environmental Degradation Is Often Represented as Crisis, Violence, or Spectacle. Write an Essay Considering How Issues of Environmental Justice Are Depicted, and How the Writers Link Such Violence to Ideas of Feminism
Environmental degradation is often represented as crisis, violence, or spectacle. The deterioration of nature through greed and carelessness can be a harbinger of poverty, social struggle and even genocide. It can be represented as such in arts, literature and social movements. Arundhati Roy achieved this in her essay “The Greater Common Good” by using facts to tell of the Sardar Sarovar Dam and it’s Project Affected Persons (PAP’s). Roy shows evidence of; crisis (the flooding of communities), violence (against the peaceful protests) and spectacle; “The Indian and International Press, TV camera crews and documentary film-makers, were present in force” (Roy 7). The purpose of this essay is to consider how issues of environmental justice are depicted, and how writers link such violence to ideas of feminism or the lives of women. The essay will provide critical examinations of texts by eco-feminist writers. A brief conclusion will then question if the writers always depict environmental justice in this way.
Environmental justice strives to treat nature and its resources in a fair and organic way. Verdana Shiva and Maria Mies in “Introduction to Ecofeminism” discuss how their similar theories on environmental justice have connotations with the feminist movement. They depict environmental justice as crises and link it to feminism by questioning the notion “that the impact on women of ecological disaster and deterioration was harder than men.” (Mies and Shiva 2) The deterioration now affects the lives of women more, and therefore becomes a part of their struggle against male emancipation. Generally speaking, women are the first to protest, the authors tell us. The women’s natural instinct is now being brought to the argument which emphasizes its importance to the lives of women. They essentially depict environmental justice as part of the feminist war against oppressive male and World Bank figures. So how do they link feminism and environmental justice? By making it



Bibliography: Devi, Mahasewta. "Dhowli." Modern literatures of the Non-Western World. Harper Collins College Publishers, 1995. Devi, Mahasweta. "The Hunt." Imaginery Maps. Routledge , 1995. Marks, Elaine and Isabelle de Courtivron. "New French Feminsims." Harvester 1981, 1981. Mies, Verdana Shiva & Maria. "Introduction to Ecofeminism." Fernwood Publications, October 1993. Roy, Arundhati. "The Greater Common Good." Bombay, 1999. Wenzel, Jennifer. "Forest Fictions and Ecological Crises." Postcolonial Ecologies; Literatures of the Environment. Oxford Press, 2011.

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