ID: 2217
Presenting Author: Camille Dallaire
Session: 604 - Everything Everywhere All at Once: Harnessing Holistic Impact Assessment
Status: pending
Without clear and holistic approach to the impacts of the green transition, women will be left behind. We present a framework to support feminist cumulative impact assessments.
Western Newfoundland is home to the Mi’kmaq Qalipu Nation and offers some of the best wind profiles
to support the production of green hydrogen. Communities are small, rural and remote. One major
project, lead by World GH2, has proposed two wind farms of unprecedented scale (150 turbines). Sizes
of town will double with the influx of male workers, putting a strain on the socio-environmental systems
that support local communities.
There is a deep tension between the global need for these green energy projects and their potential
negative impacts on social justice in local communities. Women are less likely to benefit from a job in
these projects. As a result of the decreased carrying capacity of social-ecological services and through
their proximity to male-dominated work camps, women will likely see a decrease in their quality of life,
an increase in sexual harassment, and reduced access to health and education services.
Drawing from cumulative impact assessment methodologies and feminist political ecology, we are
interested in the quantification of the risk to quality of life, by using indicators to capture safe
communities and gender equality in the workplace and household. Our major contribution is to
demonstrate how we can expand the modelling of nature’s contribution to people to include “social
contributions,” which we define as the benefits of living in safe and just communities.
Without commensurable information on these social impacts, a truly just, green, and intersectional
transitional is impossible.
Dr. Cam Dallaire is an Assistant Professor in the School of Science and the Environment at Grenfell Campus, Memorial University.
Coauthor 1: Katherine Pendakist