Philanthropy Consultant: Systems change towards regenerative cultures and economies
What has been hailed as the ‘#greentransition’ – the global project to end large-scale extraction of #fossilfuels – requires a shift to a new set of #extractive projects. Green technologies depend on #minerals and #metals locked in the earth: #lithium, #cobalt, #nickel, #copper, and, above all, #iron for #steel. The #exploitation, #corruption and #environmental #destruction involved in the #mining of these materials are not on the wane. But what can be done to counter the interests behind them? What possibilities are there for a less ecologically compromised and economically stratified future? [...] "But the thing that most worries the #mining#industry – more than #finance, more than the reliability of supply – is the so-called #sociallicense to operate. Over the past couple of decades there has been a rise in community-level #militancy. I’ve mentioned the #protests in Panama and Serbia, but there are many, many more. Some mining projects have been stalled for years or a decade with no clarity over when or even whether they will resume. Mining companies no longer feel confident that local populations will accept their operations, which has resulted in a whole cottage industry of consultants on corporate social responsibility, green credentials and ethical certification schemes. The classical form of contention in the mining industry for the past century was labor. And strikes still happen. But given how much automation has changed the sector and reduced its labor intensity, community and frontline conflict have become the primary concerns."
