A Just Resource Extraction Theory?

I have struggled with recent vocational changes in an effort to feel comfortable with who I am and how I make my livelihood. And it is more complex and challenging than I have ever given much thought to before. As I approach mid-life and look back at my experiences, I do see that my decisions include making difficult choices, certain compromises and justifications. I think justification is a part of the human journey but I hope we all keep asking questions and examining our personal and collective motives for our actions because conscious or not, they shape who we are and how we treat ourselves and others. 

Recently, ethicist and theologian Tobias Winright, introduced me to the prickly shrubbery of just mining theory [1] (which I have expanded to general resource extraction). I have been wrestling with the ethics of resource extraction and as Winright so clearly points out, the word and action of extraction is associated with the use of force, trauma and conflict. 

We live in a society and culture that accepts just resource extraction theory… and I guess by my own complicity I do too, but I still don’t really want to. My desolation is more closely aligned with author Shefa Siegel who laments that “we are ready to discuss almost any other ethics before the ethics of mining,” and asserts that “we have more faith in our capacity to restrain or end violence and war than to address the ethic of mining.” 

Extractive industries are responsible for half of the world’s carbon emissions and more than 80% of biodiversity loss, according to the most comprehensive environmental tally undertaken of mining and farming. 

Globally, resource extraction and foreign mining companies are causing a lot of harm to people and God’s creation. Canada and the US are not exempt and Tobias Winright points out some specific examples. The Canadian mining company called Pacific Rim, has been guilty of human rights violations and questionable social tactics in San Salvador, South Africa and Honduras to name just a few. Winright also points out, “Similarly, uranium mining in the United States exposed the Navajo people to radiation poisoning, including through contaminated drinking water that caused birth defects.” The myriad social consequences of resource use are related to issues such as the distribution of raw materials, ready access to clean water, and worldwide food security. 

Per capita use of raw materials in the world’s industrial nations is estimated to be four times greater than in less developed countries. While the largest share of value from resource use is generated in industrial nations, less developed nations often bear the brunt of the ecological and social impact of raw material production. Extractive industries are responsible for half of the world’s carbon emissions and more than 80% of biodiversity loss, according to the most comprehensive environmental tally undertaken of mining and farming. 

In Laudato Si’ Pope Francis writes, “The violence present in our hearts, wounded by sin, is also reflected in the symptoms of sickness evident in the soil, in the water, in the air and in all forms of life.” It is so serious that “Felipe Huaman Poma de Ayala, the first Indigenous writer of the colonial period, called mines and mining, el estiercol del diablo: the devil’s excrement!” 

But would we have to do any of that if we fought to not cause the harm in the first place?

In the sacred Hebrew texts, were the stories of King Solomon stories of resource extraction that went unchecked on some level? Were they warning stories in some way for us now? Maybe what Paul said in Romans chapter seven shadows what I feel about lamenting resource extraction when he said… “For what I want to do I do not do, but what I hate I do.”

So, I have justified my work in the environmental reclamation field as good and necessary. In this field we evaluate long term cost of extractive activities, we make plans for best practice extraction and reclamation, we try and anticipate costly cleanup with the goals of restored natural systems. But would we have to do any of that if we fought to not cause the harm in the first place? Are we ignoring the Indigenous leaders and their traditional knowledge of sustainability? Are we pushing aside the land defenders who cry out for the resources to be left in the ground, for the water and air to be unharmed? 

Ferdinand Mihigirwa writes, “As a gift of God, all creation and the environment must be safeguarded and protected against harm and adverse environmental impacts that affect nature, air, water, forests, wildlife, and the ecosystem.” 2 And there lies our struggle, to justify or not to justify extraction, justice is the question.

[1] -  Catholic Peacebuilding and Mining – Edited by Caesar Montevecchio and Gerard F. Powers

Photo by Dion Beetson on Unsplash