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Ontoria, Canada

Misria

Educating young people in Indigenous Ways of Knowing, and about Indigenous approaches and relationships with the natural environment, has a potential multiplicative advantage in the context of environmental justice. At Royal Military College of Canada (RMC) in particular, where learners will graduate and immediately take on leadership roles within the Canadian Armed Forces (CAF), presenting learners with harmonious, non-extractive environmental philosophies has huge potential benefits. As educators, we labour with the objective that our classroom efforts will carry over into our learners’ individual spheres of influence during their military careers and in their civilian lives, when they are deployed across Canada from coast to coast to coast. Considering the arguably poor track record of the CAF in interacting respectfully with the environment, educating officers into symbiotic environmental philosophies may serve to motivate institutional change in the CAF, the Department of National Defence, and the Government of Canada, leading to more sustainable and respectful environmental relationships. (Image: Stainless steel pans of maple sap boiling over an open fire during an urban land-based learning/outdoor classroom session with RMC learners. Kingston, Ontario, Canada, February 2023). 

Lussier, Danielle and Gregg Wade. 2023. "Environmentally sensitive education at Royal Military College of Canada." In 4S Paraconference X EiJ: Building a Global Record, curated by Misria Shaik Ali, Kim Fortun, Phillip Baum and Prerna Srigyan. Annual Meeting of the Society of Social Studies of Science. Honolulu, Hawai'i, Nov 8-11.

Placemaking as a practice

tbrelage

Place-making practices refer to the ways in which people create and define physical spaces as meaningful and significant through their everyday activities and social interactions.[1] In Ethnography, the study of these practices is often referred to as ‘ethnography as place-making,’ which involves the exploration of the cultural meanings and practices that shape the physical and social environments in which people live. This can include examining how people create and maintain social boundaries, how they express their identities and values through the built environment,[2] and how they negotiate power and control over the spaces they inhabit.

This place in Gröpelingen is made a place through the interaction of the people tending to the urban gardening project. 

  1. Pink 2008, 178ff. 

  2. See: urbanization 

  3. Pink 2008, 190. 

When was the organization founded, what was the founding purpose, what were its modes of support?

margauxf

The LDEQ’s organizational predecessor was founded as the Stream Control Commission (SCC) in 1940. 

The death of a young man in Iberville Parish later spurred the formation of the Department of Environmental Quality. In 1978, 19-year-old Kirtley Jackson died from hydrogen sulfide fumes from an unlicensed hazardous waste pit. In 1983, the Louisiana Environmental Quality Act authorized the established of LDEQ. 

In 1988, environmental scientist Paul Templet was appointed to head the LDEQ by Gov. Buddy Roemer. At the time, the first annual National Toxics Release Inventory had just been released and Louisiana was listed as one of the worst offenders. Templet and Roemer worked with the Legislature to pass a law “requiring that toxic pollution statewide be cut in half over a decade, a goal Louisiana industry met and exceeded” (Russell 2019). Templet developed a plan to create environmental scorecards tied to tax incentives and other incentives. Under Templet, LDEQ took action to protect human health from pollution. For instance, LDEQ fined and revoked a permit from Marine Shale Processors, a company using dangerous industrial waste in an area of St. Mary Parish with a cluster of rare pediatric cancers. Templet describes his work in LDEQ in “Defending the Public Domain: Pollution, Subsidies and Poverty” (2001). In this paper, Templet includes data showing how investment and jobs in Louisiana increased as pollution declined (contrary to common industry warnings). 

The president of Marine Shale Processors ultimately spent $400,000 on ads against Roemer in the 1991 gubernatorial primary. Roemer ended up in third place behind Edwin Edwards and white supremacist David Duke.

Dr. Paul Templet Interview. 1988. Louisiana: The State We’re In.  PBS Digital Collection. http://ladigitalmedia.org/video_v2/asset-detail/LSWI-1116-05_Templet

Russell, Gordon. 2019. “How an Environmental Regulator Became Known for Protecting Industry.” ProPublica. December 19, 2019. https://www.propublica.org/article/how-an-environmental-regulator-became-known-for-protecting-industry.

Kaare Johnson Talks. 2023. “Dr. Paul Templet, Former Head of La DEQ Joins Kaare To Discuss Lack of Enforcement And More!” Streamed on Sep 11, 2023. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=e-8jJtKRI2w

Templet, Paul H. 2001. “Defending the Public Domain: Pollution, Subsidies and Poverty.” SSRN Scholarly Paper. Rochester, NY. https://doi.org/10.2139/ssrn.333280.

What is this organization's structure today? Who works in or is a member of this organization?

margauxf

The department is divided into the following entities:

The Office of the Secretary

The Office of Management and Finance

The Office of Environmental Services

The Office of Environmental Compliance

The Office of Environmental Assessment

Regional Offices in Baton Rouge, Harahan, Bayou Lafourche, Lafayette, Lake Charles, Alexandria, Monroe, and Shreveport. 


Aurelia Skipwith Giacometto was just appointed by the Landry administration as DEQ Secretary. She formerly served in the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service (2020-2021) under the Trump administration. Prior to these positions, she worked as an executive for Mosanto Co. and has played an active role in pushing back on environmental justice efforts and climate science (e.g. contributing to leading the Steamboat Institute, a nonprofit against climate change science). She is also part of the advisory board of Collossal BioSciences, a company specializing in genetic engineering that is attempting to resurrect the woolly mammoth (O’Donoghue 2023). Giacometto’s predecessor, Chuck Carr Brown, was a former Exxon employee.

O’Donoghue, Julie, Louisiana Illuminator November 15, and 2023. 2023. “Jeff Landry Picks Former Trump Official, First Black Woman for Environmental Post.” Louisiana Illuminator (blog). November 15, 2023. https://lailluminator.com/2023/11/15/landry-environment/.

What do people in this organization find challenging or concerning in the problem spaces in which they work?

margauxf

A survey of DEQ employees conducted by the Louisiana Legislative Auditor Office in 2006 revealed the department’s challenges with poor communication and knowledge infrastructure. Employees noted in the survey a need for better mechanisms through which to share information within LDEQ (“about who does what and other issues”) and better training for new employees. 

 

Louisiana Legislative Auditor. 2006. “Louisiana Department of Environmental Quality.”

https://app2.lla.state.la.us/publicreports.nsf/0/bbc259a7e7a73cfa8625713b002c8e7b/$file/00001572.pdf?openelement&.7773098.