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9. Toward Environmental and Social Justice in Silicon Valley, USA, and Beyond
- NYU Press
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Toward Environmental and Social Justice in Silicon Valley, USA, and Beyond Introduction Since the conquest of the Ohlone people by the Spaniards in Alta California , beginning in 1769, environmental inequalities have been central features of the region’s landscape. The destruction of the Ohlone’s sustainable culture based on acorn farming and shell fishing gave way to the mission system, based on slavery, the intense degradation of Native women, religious indoctrination, and a ranching economy founded on overproduction and overconsumption of land, water, and animal species. This European system of dominating humans and nature laid the foundation for the next two and a quarter centuries in the Santa Clara Valley. Like the ranching economy of the missions, the California Gold Rush was a political-economic phenomenon that supported empire-building for elites on many continents. The Santa Clara Valley’s abundance of natural resources (i.e., mercury, water) and indigenous, Mexican, and Chinese laborers were the fuel that drove the Gold Rush throughout its short and ecologically unsustainable life. The region’s next system of production, the canneries, was also marked by hazardous—often toxic—gendered labor, first imposed on Chinese men, then later on mostly immigrant women and women of color. The canneries, and the agricultural base that supported them, extracted , polluted, and wasted more water than any previous system of production. And like the Ohlones during the mission era, and the Chinese , Mexicans, and others during the Gold Rush, cannery workers often rebelled against the harsh exploitation visited upon them. 9 193 Finally, the Fruit Bowl of America gave way to High-Tech America, as Santa Clara Valley became Silicon Valley. The high-tech economy exploited the region’s workers and the natural resource base as much if not more than ever before. Occupational illness, death, overwork, and low wages characterize the jobs of those who assemble computers, cables, and printers; and those who make microchips. Air, water, and land pollution have similarly marred the neighborhoods of Silicon Valley residents , particularly where the working class, immigrants, and people of color reside. These patterns of environmental injustice spanning more than two centuries years do not instill optimism for the future. However, the continuous resistance by workers and residents does offer some reason for hope. The question we ask is, now what? What does the future hold for Santa Clara County? In the next sections we will consider past, present, and proposed future actions to ensure sustainable and just communities and industries in the Valley. Environmentally Just and Sustainable Communities and Industries Forgotten (or Defeated) Historical Sustainable Alternatives The struggle for environmental justice and sustainability is nothing new. Santa Clara County’s history is replete with practices and proposals that would reduce human and natural resource exploitation. For example, the Ohlone people’s fishing, farming, and mining practices were sustainable , but they were completely disregarded by the Spanish, who instead preferred over-harvesting, overproduction, and the depletion and despoliation of fisheries, land, and minerals. The Spanish-Mexican use of communal acequias was ignored as well by Anglos in San Jose and elsewhere , as corporations began to buy and sell all available fresh water. The criterion for access to water then shifted, from whether or not one was a member of the community (for use toward meeting basic needs) to whether or not one could pay money for the water (with no regard for how much one used or for what purposes). The use of the fong sei by Chinese miners is another example. The fong sei was a place near the gold mining camps where Chinese workers would congregate to affirm the value of nature.1 But all of these ideas 194 | Chapter 9 [18.188.252.23] Project MUSE (2024-04-18 00:13 GMT) and practices were pushed aside as private corporations took over California ’s economy. Another failed opportunity to engage in sustainable planning occurred at the dawn of the electronics industry’s growth spurt, in the 1950s. Santa Clara County distinguished itself as a pioneer in the establishment of “exclusive agricultural zones” for the purpose of protecting some of the richest farmlands in the area.2 By the late 1950s and early 1960s, tens of thousands of acres of green space had been set aside for protection. These lands would soon be devoured in San Jose’s annexation wars and by the growth of high-tech firms. More recently, after the Vietnam War, the “Peace Dividend” and “military conversion” (whereby these industries and government funds would...