Search

Eeyou Itschee (James Bay, Québec)

Misria
In response to

Since 1972, Eeyou Itschee, a territory east of James Bay, has been terraformed by the largest hydro-generation system on the planet, led by HydroQuébec and the Government of Québec. A territory 2/3rds the size of France has been diked, dammed, its rivers redirected, and criss-crossed by electrical transmission lines to the South and to the US. Due to the high levels of mercury released by the forests flooded for reservoirs the size of Belgium, health authorities recommend eating no more than two fish from the rivers each month. Fluctuating spring river levels led to the drowning of tens of thousands of Caribou. Learning only from newspapers, the resident Eenouch came together and negotiated the first land claims agreement in Canada, surrendering about 99% of their territory for promises of economic development. 50 years on, a settler-colonial geography, reinforced by a complex sociolegal framework, contain and constrain spatial relations in and of Eeyou Itschee through constant processes of renegotiation and reparation for land with money. Our research focused on a survey of the ways the science literature represents the region and its features. Our research ties with this territory are strongly linked to Nemaska, an Eenouch hamlet 2 days drive north of Montreal that was expropriated but managed to relocate and rebuild their community. Today, a lithium (spodumene) mine is being developed nearby. The community fears the impacts. However, the Nemaska band council approved the project due to the economic benefits it might bring. For more information: https://www.spaceandculture.com/2023/10/31/eeyou-istchee-old-nemaska/ 

 

Source

Shields, Rob, Cheryl Arnston, Nicholas Hardy and Juan David Guevara-Salamanca. 2023. "Eeyou Itschee and settler colonial terraforming." 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.

Eeyou Itschee (James Bay, Québec)

Misria

Since 1972, Eeyou Itschee, a territory east of James Bay, has been terraformed by the largest hydro-generation system on the planet, led by HydroQuébec and the Government of Québec. A territory 2/3rds the size of France has been diked, dammed, its rivers redirected, and criss-crossed by electrical transmission lines to the South and to the US. Due to the high levels of mercury released by the forests flooded for reservoirs the size of Belgium, health authorities recommend eating no more than two fish from the rivers each month. Fluctuating spring river levels led to the drowning of tens of thousands of Caribou. Learning only from newspapers, the resident Eenouch came together and negotiated the first land claims agreement in Canada, surrendering about 99% of their territory for promises of economic development. 50 years on, a settler-colonial geography, reinforced by a complex sociolegal framework, contain and constrain spatial relations in and of Eeyou Itschee through constant processes of renegotiation and reparation for land with money. Our research focused on a survey of the ways the science literature represents the region and its features. Our research ties with this territory are strongly linked to Nemaska, an Eenouch hamlet 2 days drive north of Montreal that was expropriated but managed to relocate and rebuild their community. Today, a lithium (spodumene) mine is being developed nearby. The community fears the impacts. However, the Nemaska band council approved the project due to the economic benefits it might bring. For more information: https://www.spaceandculture.com/2023/10/31/eeyou-istchee-old-nemaska/ 

Shields, Rob, Cheryl Arnston, Nicholas Hardy and Juan David Guevara-Salamanca. 2023. "Eeyou Itschee and settler colonial terraforming." 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.

What steps does a user need to take to produce analytically sharp or provocative data visualizations with this data resource?

albrowne
Annotation of
In response to

The UI for the portal is straightforward and easy to use and also doubles as a GIS. Through the advanced search function users can use either the criteria or filter tabs to narrow their searches to specific sites. For example when you narrow down the search to RMP facilities only you can quickly pinpoint all of these facilities on a map of an area to show how burdened an area may be with these types of facilities.

What data visualizations illustrate how this data set can be leveraged to characterize environmental injustice in different sett

albrowne
Annotation of
In response to

The data can very quickly show you how many facilities a geographical area may have. This can allow users to see how burdened a neighborhood for example may be with specific facilities.

What visualizations can be produced with this data resource and what can they be used to demonstrate?

albrowne
Annotation of
In response to

One of the only data visualizations this site offers is plotting down pinpoints on a map showing individual facilities. If there is more than one site in a certain geographical area then it will group the sites together and provide a circle for where the sites are contained with the number of sites listed on the circle. This makes this data resource not super flexible in ways it can display information. However this is a helpful visualization as it can quickly show you how many specific facilities a certain location may have

 

You can also generate simple graphs with the data that displays the amounts of certain facilities throughout the state. This is a good tool for tracking all regulated facilities which can help users address Ej on a statewide scale.

What can be demonstrated or interpreted with this data set?

albrowne
Annotation of
In response to

What this lacks in visualizations it makes up for drastically in easy to use UI and for creating one location for all of the state's facility data. By using its advanced search tool users can quickly find a plethora of data on extremely specific sites. This tool will show when the facilities had their most recent evaluations and whether or not there were violations, rough estimates on onsite stored chemicals, which regulatory programs they are a part of, CalEnviroScreen percentile ranges, and a contact list for facility employees.

How scales (county, regional, neighborhood, census tract) can be seen through this data resource?

albrowne
Annotation of
In response to

This data resource can scale from the state level down to the census tract in terms of facility locations. For data visuals it groups sites together so you can not get a comprehensive visualization of regulated sites beyond the neighborhood and census tract level.