by Joyce Nelson,
The metals and minerals needed to conduct this transition will result in a drastic increase in environmentally dirty mining. The global energy transition is perhaps more red than green after all.
The shift to electric vehicles is sparking considerable new demand for metals and minerals, which some feel Canada should rush to fill. That is the argument Martin Wightman articulated in The Daily Gleaner on Nov. 15. However, mining watchdog groups, most recently at the UN climate conference, COP26, say that we can’t mine our way out of the climate crisis and that Canadian mining is doing more harm than good.
(November 23, 2021 - Ottawa/Barcelona) On the heels of COP-26, where global leaders agreed to make unprecedented investments in the energy transition, frontline communities already in the crosshairs of mining for critical minerals warn of the dangers posed by the mining boom for ‘green tech.’
The global mining industry, often supported by host governments, is positioning mining as a “green solution” to the climate crisis. This “green mining boom” is rapidly expanding into culturally and ecologically sensitive areas, increasingly affecting Indigenous and human rights, community livelihoods and the environment.
Communities, academics, and activists say that an energy transition that heavily depends on mining new materials without considering materials and energy for what, for whom, and at what socio-environmental costs will only reinforce injustices and lack of sustainability that have deepened the climate crisis in the first place.
Register here to join us on Zoom on November 29 to talk with grassroots movements in Colombia and Guatemala about their struggles and the dangers and injustices of Investor State Dispute Settlement (ISDS) enshrined in the Canada-Colombia Free Trade Agreement and thousands of other international investment agreements worldwide. We will discuss how they threaten their territories, water and sovereignty, as well as what we can do to support their movements and take greater action at home.
Following unusually heavy rainfalls and the increased risks of flooding and mudslides across large parts of British Columbia, MiningWatch Canada is concerned about the risk of catastrophic mine waste dam failures and contaminated mine waste spills.
By Mica Jorgenson and Dave Jorgenson*
In a regulatory system that evaluates individual proposals on their own merit, decision-makers at the provincial and federal levels have long struggled to account for the complexity of history. Mining on previously disturbed sites is often framed as a way of lowering mining’s impact, but in practice it exacerbates existing environmental issues and places the burden of damage on already-taxed communities.
Global launch of a new interactive map! – Webinar 23 November 2021
Affected communities, researchers, and international civil society organizations collaborate to launch a new EJAtlas Interactive Map that chronicles the mining boom for critical minerals and the communities organising across the Americas for a just transition
In April 2021, the International Articulation of Those Affected by Vale (A Articulação Internacional dos Atingidos e Atingidas pela Vale, AIAAV) launched the Vale 2021 Unsustainability Report. Now, after a collective process of review and translation, with the support of partners in Canada, AIAAV has launched the English version of the document. The intention is for the publication to reach an even wider circulation, since a company with global operations requires processes of resistance that are, also, global.
A case before the Federal Court of Appeal this week shines a light on why we urgently need not only corporate accountability, but government accountability when it comes to Canadian mining operations abroad. In 2009, Mexican environment defender Mariano Abarca was killed for denouncing environmental damage and social conflict caused by a Canadian mining company in his community of Chicomuselo, Chiapas.