Cris Sporl

10th Grade Humanities

Energy Justice Monologue

Why are sacred lands important?

Why should people be forced to give up sacred land and communities for energy needs? I
believe my theory on justice for energy has a lot to do with freedom and equality of individual lives and
the opportunity of choice. I see inequality and unfairness in the locations people live in and the things
that happen around them. As seen In libertarianism there is alot of reference to choice and freedom for
your own body and self, a quote from Sara Prices from the Environmental Ethics Lecture, “If I own my
body, my life and my person, I should be free to do with it whatever I want (given it doesn’t cause harm
to others)”. Not only libertarianism but Rawls theories of Fairness, I find that Equality and Freedom
for everyone no matter their location is very important with this theory of justice. Looking at the
injustice of the environment and different instances. I see these 2 rules are very important to balancing
our energy, economic needs, environmental health, and protection of scarred lands.

First of all, Environmental ethics can be compared to human and environmental health. I feel
all humans should do their best to respect the earth. From “The Land Ethic” by Aldo Leopold , “We
abuse land because we see it as a commodity belonging to us. When we see land as a community to
which we belong, we may begin to use it with love and respect.'' We need to identify what is hurting
the earth, people, and communities and find cleaner and just ways around this. I believe clean energy in
good places is most important because It shows respect to the earth and doest hurt the community.

Then looking at energy and economic needs and protection of sacred lands I find myself
comparing the value of the two. Is sacrificing sacred lands for energy production an okay idea? Looking
into the Chaco Canyon case I see the value the people have for their land, the installation of facilities in
the area has been detrimental to the community. From San Juan Citizens, “91% of public lands in
northwest New Mexico are already leased for drilling… much of the last 9% is in Greater Chaco, and
now the BLM wants to frack for oil and gas there, too.” There have been many protesters and activists
going against installations. I feel infringing on sacred land is a violation to justice of the people and
their home. I feel protection of sacred lands is important but finding different non-populated areas to
build power plants is also a help to economic and energy needs.

Why does it matter if it's being built there rather than somewhere else? Why is it important to
those people? Having your family and culture in a place that's being polluted is already a terrible thing
for anyone to go through. But the sacred land has traditional cultural or religious significance as the
core of importance. As mentioned in the intro to this speech, Rawls theory constructs justice as
fairness around specific interpretations of the ideas that citizens are free and equal, and that society
should be fair. Everyone should have a fair chance for clean lands. I feel this shows massive inequality
and needs to be solved by using different ways and locations for energy that aren't forced upon
communities.
 Work Cited

Sara Price, 2023, Environmental Ethics Lecture / Environmental Ethics Terms Handout

“Greater Chaco.” San Juan Citizens Alliance, 11 Mar. 2020, https://www.sanjuancitizens.org/chaco.