Utilising Principles of Earth Jurisprudence to Prevent Environmental Harm: Applying a Case Study of Unconventional Hydra
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Utilising Principles of Earth Jurisprudence to Prevent Environmental Harm: Applying a Case Study of Unconventional Hydraulic Fracturing for Shale Gas in the United Kingdom Jack A. Lampkin1 · Tanya Wyatt2
© The Author(s) 2019
Abstract Approaching behaviour that produces environmental harm through the medium of criminal sanctions (largely involving monetary penalties) has been criticised consistently as failing to prevent environmental crimes and harms, and failing to concurrently reduce environmental re-offending. Furthermore, important state–corporate political and economic relationships exist that ensure the continuation of environmental degradation. We suggest that a way to overcome this is to re-work the current legal system to one grounded in Earth jurisprudence. Although we realise that state–corporate relationships would likely prevent the implementation of Earth jurisprudential principles, we argue such principles are essential to up-end the prioritisation of economic imperatives over ecological values within capitalist societies. To demonstrate the strength and utility of the Earth jurisprudential approach, we use the case of fracking for shale gas in the United Kingdom to examine how Earth jurisprudential principles could prevent environmental harm from occurring.
Introduction The Earth’s geology and ecosystems have been affected so drastically by human influences in the post-WWII era that many scientists and academics now agree that the reign of the Holocene geological epoch is ending and the age of the Anthropocene is beginning (Floyd 2015; Lewis and Maslin 2015; Shearing 2015; South 2015; Zalaseiwicz et al. 2010). There are a multitude of factors that have led to this state of affairs. First, large-scale disasters are having a profound impact on the surrounding land and coastal areas of such occurrences, such as the Gulf of Mexico and Valdez oil spills and the Chernobyl and Fukushima nuclear * Jack A. Lampkin [email protected] Tanya Wyatt [email protected] 1
Lincoln Law School, College of Social Science, University of Lincoln, Lincoln, UK
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Department of Social Sciences, University of Northumbria at Newcastle, Newcastle‑upon‑Tyne, UK
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power-plant disasters. Second, the unprecedented exploitation and commodification of natural resources for use as consumer products and energy consumption (i.e., timber, oil, precious metals) continues to strip ecosystems of their fundamental natural resources, while at the same time, generating an unparalleled amount of non-biodegradable waste (i.e., electrical waste and plastics), as well as air, land, and water pollution. The rise and domination of the profit-seeking capitalist mode of production, twinned with remarkable technological innovation and an increasing human population, are the overwhelming driving forces behind this state of affairs. Third, the western, throwaway, disposable, capitalist consumer culture that fuels Schnaiberg’s (1980) so-called treadmill of production means that mo
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