Assessment of the U.S. Outer Continental Shelf Environmental Studies Program III. Social and Economic Studies (1992) / Chapter Skim
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Appendix B: The Human Environment
Appendix B: The Human Environment
Pages 87-106
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From page 87... ...
The final section of the appendix presents a mode of analysis sufficiently general and flexible to accommodate the particulars of any region and at the same time to permit meaningful extrapolation, comparison, and generalization of results. TElE NATURE OF HUMAN ENVIRONMENTS The Outer Continental Shelf Lands Act as amended in 1978 (43 U.S.C.
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From page 88... ...
It has already been noted Mat symbolically conceived and socially constructed conventions organize all aspects of human life. It is important to make explicit that the understandings on which conventional rules and practices are founded include not only Hose narrowly focused on specific aspects of human affairs but also more general and, from the point of view of the actors, more fundamental conceptions that govern morality, equity, justice, honor; religious doctrine; ideas concerning sovereignty, property, rights and duties; aesthetic values and what constitutes quality of life.2 There also are distinctive understandings concerning the nature of nature, of the place of humans in it, of proper behavior with respect to it, and of equitable distribution of its fruits, its costs, and its dangers.
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From page 89... ...
r - - - an, Fours, the last two points imply that it is necessary to develop understandings of the sociocultural systems in areas where there is a possibility of OCS development because sociocultural impacts are always In part relative to the particulars of the affected sociocultural system. For instance, it would be one thing for a spill to decimate fish and other marine life in an area exploited only by white American commercial fishermen and quite another to decimate an equivalent fauna in Bristol Bay, Alaska, which is fished and hunted by Yupik-speaking Eskimo.
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From page 90... ...
Such uncertainty also constitutes a real impact of OCS activity. Both apprehension and uncertainty about OCS activities and their predicted consequences are properly construed as impacts in the present because they alter the current psychic, social, and perhaps economic well-be~ng of a community and because they stand in causal relationship to the future attitudes and behavior of that group of people.
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From page 91... ...
It could be that the general failure to recognize prelease sale effects of OCS activities is related to their typical resistance to plausible quantitative representation. More easily quantifiable impacts those most directly available to quantitative or even monetary representation generally come later in the sequence.
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From page 92... ...
Thus, for instance, the Shoshone have refused to accept a cash award of tens of millions of dollars as compensation for what they construe to be seizure of their lands by He federal government in violation of die Ruby Valley Treaty of 1863, and the amount has remained in escrow for more than 30 years. Similarly, many people In Nevada characterized as attempted bribery the suggestion that they receive large cash payments in return for accepting the national nuclear waste repository.
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From page 93... ...
Among certain native Americans, and the inhabitants of coastal Alaska are prominent in this regard, the customary actions through which indigenous culture is maintained and reproduced are in the main those surrounding subsistence activities. This is to say Hat hunting and fishing are of importance not only, or even any longer primarily, as the way to obtain food and fur.
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From page 94... ...
Analysts and decision makers must not, therefore, dismiss the apprehensions of local populations concerning risks and their probabilities as paranoid or misinformed. To put it a lithe differently, the concerns of local people must be given full and respectful treatment because it is the environment as they conceive it that, as far as tizzy are concerned, will be affected, and it is in terms of these understandings that the community will respond to OCS activity.
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From page 95... ...
Active responses can include emigrating likely when strong opposition combines with the sense of powerlessness and failure of trust in the institutions responsible; voting those viewed as responsible out of office as soon as possible; or more aggressive forms of political activism, such as forming ad hoc organizations, demonstrating, or even comn~itt~ng sabotage. Such responses are themselves to be included among possible social consequences of OCS activity likely to be evoked by inadequate impact statements.
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From page 96... ...
__ _~ = — -- rim -- -rant 21. Discussion of the antibody effect, which entails extrapolation from actual events to future possibilities, raises questions concerning the extent to which knowledge of actual effects of OCS activities and their comparison with earlier projections of what those effects would be is used in the preparation of new environmental impact statements.
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From page 97... ...
It includes, first, activities that can produce impacts and possible reactions to them; second, the dimensions of these impacts; and third, the distribution of these impacts throughout the human environment. Any continuing presentation of potential imp acts of particular OCS activities cannot do justice to the complexity of any particular case.
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From page 98... ...
Moreover, ache impacts are not confined to MMS or even DOl. In the absence of effective procedural means for postponing or canceling lease sales, Congress has routinely intervened in OCS activities by imposing moratoria.
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From page 99... ...
Finally, with the onset of exploratory drilling, blow-outs become possible. Development OCS activity reaches its maximum during the development stage.
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From page 100... ...
Indeed, in some instances We local community may turn into a boom-town, manifesting all of the tensions and problems characteristic of such places. Whether or not the full range of boom-town features materialize, OCS activities during the development stage do have the potential to transform the social and cultural characteristics of the community for reasons beyond the obvious influx of new and perhaps subculturally distinct workers, infusions of money into some sectors of the community, new strains on existing structures and services, and so on.
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From page 101... ...
Dimensions OCS activities can, as discussed above, affect not only the physical features of human environments but also their demographic, economic, political, social and cultural processes. These effects are likely to be extraordinarily complex for several related reasons.
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From page 102... ...
Fours, impacts- and this is especially the case In the class of imp acts labelled here "responses n—are always, In some considerable degree, culturally and even subculturally relative. All of these considerations join to underlie the need not only for intensive and detailed studies of particular aspects of the human environment In each region under consideration for lease sales but for their integration into comprehensive analyses.
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From page 103... ...
The Eaton Walden disaster had a concentrated effect on more than 1,000 miles of coastal Alaska and the on livelihoods and ways of life of people living In that region. It had more diffuse effects throughout the United States and even, with some attenuation, in ocher parts of the world, with some increase In focus in areas like southwestern Florida, the northern and southern California coasts and New England all of which were especially sensitive because Hey were facing lease sales.
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From page 104... ...
Some inequities resulting from OCS development are obvious. Those who derive livelihoods by providing support to OCS activities with goods and services obviously benefit, as do the previously unemployed who find jobs in ache offshore fields or In onshore support and those who, although previously employed, find higher-paying jobs in the petroleum industry.
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From page 105... ...
OCSLA (Outer Continental Shelf Lands Acts Amendments)
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Key Terms
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