Zaradi's Prized Tournament: Resource Extraction in Developing Nations

Thanks to Bossy and Zaradi for this debate and tournament, respectively. I apologize in advance for any errors due to C/Ping from Word. I will now present my case.OVERVIEW AND FRAMEWORKOV: It is important to note that the resolution requires that I prioritize environmental protections only when they directly conflict with resource extraction. Thus, sustainable extraction can occur under my world, but unsustainable practices cannot be allowed to continue.FRMK: “[L]et us recognize that the functions, commitments and obligations of governments are not the same as those of the individual...[Government’s] primary obligation is to the interests of the national society it represents, not to the moral impulses that individual elements of that society may experience. No more than the attorney vis-a-vis the client, nor the doctor vis-a-vis the patient, can government attempt to insert itself into the consciences of those whose interests it represents.” [12] For this reason, government should act in ways that are oriented to achieving the greatest collective good.C1: POVERTY REDUCTIONP1: Poverty and Structural Violence Kill Millions"The fact that poor people around the world have shorter and harder lives is the result of human design. This phenomenon is called 'structural violence.'" [1] “The 14 to 18 million deaths a year caused by structural violence compare with about 100,000 deaths per year from armed conflict. Comparing this frequency of deaths from structural violence to the frequency of those caused by major military and political violence, such as World War II (an...eight million per year)...it was clear that even war cannot begin to compare with structural violence, which continues year after year. In other words...every single year, two to three times as many people die from poverty throughout the world as were killed by [WWII]." [2]P2: Environmental Protections are key to poverty reduction.There is "strong evidence that environmental hazards are major contributors to poverty...Low income is a risk factor not only for exposure to environmental hazards but also for possibilities of rapid and effective treatment because of the lack of healthcare services...where low-income groups are concentrated...Such hazards impose large burdens on such groups in terms of ill health, injury, and premature death. These health burdens are a major cause or contributor to poverty...Controlling occupational exposure is particularly important, from large factories down to small, backstreet shops." [3] C2: PUBLIC HEALTHP1: Environmental degradation increases disease."Air pollution causes respiratory infections. Water pollution causes...water-borne diseases, such as cholera. Marine pollution contributes to infectious disease problems created by algal blooms. Deforestation brings humans into contact with new pathogenic microbes, alters ecosystems so that disease vectors (for example, mosquitoes, rats) multiply, and destroys biodiversity that could be critical to the development of new antimicrobial products. The depletion of the ozone layer...will lead to ultraviolet radiation damaging the human immune system, thus creating more opportunities for infectious diseases." [4] "The one lesson that we can take away from the emergence of HIV and hepatitis…is that the microbial world will continue to adapt to human-induced changes in the global ecology. Thus, the greater the degree of degradation that humanity visits upon fragile ecosystems, the more unpredictable the response from the microbial world." [5]P2: Disease has huge economic and survival implications.“Infectious disease rates show a significant negative correlation with macroeconomic national indicators such as per capita GNP, per capita government expenditure, and net long-term capital inflow...[diseases] adversely affect...the general quality of the labor force, the formation and maintenance of human capital, and various sectors of the economy. It is logical to conclude that these microeconomic effects will, through multiplier effects, generate significant negative macroeconomic outcomes. Direct costs to the economy will be enormous, and indirect costs will include output lost as a result of increasing mortality and...disease-induced morbidity.” [4] “Significant environmental health risks are responsible for as much as one-fifth of the total burden of disease in the developing world--more than the combined impacts of malnutrition and all other preventable risk factors and groups of diseases. Most at risk from environmental pollution are the 1.3 billion people in the developing countries of Southeast Asia and sub-Saharan Africa--almost one quarter of the world’s population.” [5]C3. REFUGEESTwo of the largest contributing factors to the environmetnal refugee crisis are misappropriations of land for industrial purposes and environmental "deterioration caused by anthropogenic alteration." In the first case, people are "forced to leave their residences as land is appropriated for development" and as development projects encroach on local settlements. One example of this is the "penetration of roads into tropical rainforests which have...displaced indigenous groups." [6] In the second case, "release of toxic substances into the environment gradually impairs human health or the ability of residents to sustain quality of life." One instance of this can be found in undeveloped Eastern Europe and parcels of the former USSR, where land "has absorbed so much contamination from industrial pollutants that large areas are no longer considered suitable for human habitation." [6] Furthermore, "the gradual degradation of the atmosphere by additional carbon dioxide and other greenhouse gases may cause sea levels to rise as much as one meter...rising waters will displace people in low lying coastal areas." [6] "According to some estimates, more than 200 million people might have to give up their homes due to climate change by 2050." [7]C4. FOOD AND WATERExtraction based industries are huge contributors to greenhouse emissions that cause climate change, and deforestation (a form of extraction itself) is another huge cause. [11, 13]P1. Climate change reduces Water Supplies"Some studies predict that even under the lowest growth-rate assumptions, a world 1–2 degrees warmer could lead to water shortages for 700-1,500 million people. Hundreds of millions of people who depend for their water supply on glacier melt could experience severe water stress. For instance, increasing water scarcity may become a grim reality facing the nations that lie downstream from the Himalaya-Hindu Kush mountain ranges--a region that encompasses approximately 50 to 60 percent of the world's population." [7]P2. Climate change reduces Food Supply"The report said climate change had already cut into the global food supply. Global crop yields were beginning to decline--especially for wheat--raising doubts as to whether production could keep up with population growth...Other food sources are also under threat. Fish catches in some areas of the tropics are projected to fall by between 40% and 60%, according to the report. The report also connected climate change to rising food prices and political instability, for instance the riots in Asia and Africa after food price shocks in 2008." [8]C5. WILDLIFE“[U]p to twenty-five percent of tropical forest wildlife species may become extinct by 2020...the destruction of wildlife is occurring so rapidly that one-fifth of all existing species will be extinct by the same year...this threat to wildlife species comes from multiple sources, such as pollution and destruction of natural habitats, [and] illegal wildlife trading.” [9] "A report by the World Wildlife Fund (WWF) has found that populations of mammals, birds, reptiles, amphibians and fish have declined on average by 52 per cent in the last 40 years...The situation is worst in low-income countries, where wildlife populations have declined by 58 per cent on average between 1970 and 2010. Latin American has the biggest declines, with 83 per cent of animals lost in 40 years...[H]uman activity is outstripping the resources the Earth can provide, cutting down forests too quickly, overfishing and putting out more carbon dioxide than the planet can absorb...It is estimated Earth would need to 1.5 times larger to soak up the damage caused by man." [10]SOURCES1 - Edward O’Neill, Jr., Professor Emergency Medicine, Tufts University, "Awakening Hippocrates," 2006, p. 13-42 - James Gilligan, Department of Psychiatry at Harvard Medical School, Violence: Reflections on Our Deadliest Epidemic, 2000 edition, p. 195-1963 - http://www.jstor.org...4 - Fidler, David, 1999 [Law Professor University of Indiana] International Law and Infectious Diseases, p. 2455 - Price-Smith, Andrew T., 2001 [Professor Political Science University of North Dakota] Plagues and Politics: infectious disease and international policy, ed. Andrew Price-Smith, p. 36 - http://link.springer.com...7 - http://www.environmentmagazine.org...8 - http://www.theguardian.com...9 - Vanderbilt Journal of Transnational Law, 2003: [Vanderbilt Journal of Transnational Law, 2003, Mara E. Zimmerman, Law Student, 36:1657, p. 1660-1]10 - http://www.telegraph.co.uk...11 - http://www.theguardian.com...12 - http://faculty.arts.ubc.ca...13 - http://www.wmo.int...