Social warfare for lithium extraction? Open-pit lithium mining, counterinsurgency tactics and enforcing green extractivism in northern Portugal

Dunlap, Alexander; Riquito, Mariana

doi:10.1016/j.erss.2022.102912

Cited by 44 publications

(16 citation statements)

References 37 publications

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“…Regarding the latter, mines are often located within natural conservation areas, biodiversity hot spots and protection sites or territories claimed by indigenous communities. Such lands hold a great deal of social, cultural, spiritual, ecological and ethnic value for the native inhabitants (Dunlap and Riquito, 2023), but are frequently overlooked while dealing out the mining permits/contracts. Moreover, under a neoliberal outlook, native communities are rarely consulted with for site selection and/or waste disposal.…”

Section: Neoliberal Outlook: Profiteering Without Accountingmentioning

confidence: 99%

A Lost Frontier or a New Gateway to Global Climate Action? The Afghan Leadership and the Revival of Afghanistan’s Mineral Sector

Chaudhuri,

Roy

2024

India Quarterly: A Journal of International Affairs

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Is Afghanistan a lost frontier? A superficial look might conform to this notion, given the continued state of unrest and instability, rampant hunger, malnutrition, illiteracy and unemployment. In this reflective discourse, however, we highlight a brighter (largely overlooked) aspect: her mineral reserves, estimated at nearly USD 1 trillion, including some of the world’s richest lithium and rare earth elements (REEs), with high market value and critical for global climate combat policymaking ( decarbonisation of infrastructure and attaining the net-zero target). By the same token, here, we offer a bird’s-eye view of the Afghan mineral wealth, with special emphasis on lithium and REE, which, if rightly harnessed, could be an engine of economic growth and national development. In its present state of operations, however, that future seems a distant myth as the Afghan mining/mineral sector is undermined by a web of interlocking systemic barriers, including (a) a totalitarian regime, (b) institutional bottlenecks, (c) a lack of social integration (human rights violation and neoliberal outlook) and (d) a lack of foreign investments. To that end, we reflect on the world experience of nations where mineral resources have become engines of economic growth and national development, which may inspire the present Afghan leadership. Rejuvenating the mining/mineral sector may help the leadership simultaneously advance towards multiple targets: (a) stabilising the economy, (b) meeting multiple UN Sustainable Goals, (c) helping mobilising nation- and peace-building efforts and (d) contributing to global climate action. Collectively, these may help redeem the lost reputation in the eyes of the international community and get rid of the economic sanctions. Here, we offer a vision to the present Afghan leadership to rejuvenate the mineral sector: (a) an enabling business environment ( increased ease of business and security), (b) a unified water-power supply framework ( hydropower development), (c) a participatory ecosystem ( an integrated social-ecological-technological framework) and (d) restricting illicit mineral trade ( enforcing rule of law and equity). To that end, we call for a data revolution to kickstart the systems’ thinking exercise (facilitating research, exploration and mineral processing).

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Section: Neoliberal Outlook: Profiteering Without Accountingmentioning

confidence: 99%

A Lost Frontier or a New Gateway to Global Climate Action? The Afghan Leadership and the Revival of Afghanistan’s Mineral Sector

Chaudhuri,

Roy

2024

India Quarterly: A Journal of International Affairs

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“…Low-carbon infrastructures entail a growing dependence on raw materials such as lithium and a surge in interest in creating new mining projects. In northern Portugal, for example, Barrroso agrarian communities are confronted with new mining projects – propped up by European Commission policies – that will ‘degrade, if not destroy, an area with rich biodiversity, cultural heritage and world-renowned agricultural practices’ (Dunlap and Riquito, 2023: 18). Further, Bustos-Gallardo et al (2021) demonstrate how new demands on lithium production for batteries place social and ecological pressures in the Andes regions in South America, which produce ‘ecological contradictions (notably around water depletion) with potential to disrupt accumulation’ (p. 177) and create resource conflicts in the region.…”

Section: Conceptualizing the Decarbonizing Citymentioning

confidence: 99%

Cross-class alliances and the rise of electric vehicles in Dublin

Maonaigh

2023

Human Geography

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The role of transportation in producing greenhouse gas emissions and other harmful pollutants has led governments across the globe to incorporate electric vehicles (EVs) at the centre of their climate action strategies. In turn, critical geographers have directed attention to the role of EVs in driving resource extractivism in geographies outside of the city and in enclosing urban space at the expense of infrastructures such as bus lanes, cycleways and walkable spaces. Less well charted, however, is the odd structure of class relations involved in the formation of new accumulation strategies, spaces and fixes capable of holding together, for a time at least, some of the tensions emerging from the chaotic unfolding of EVs and associated infrastructures in cities. In the following paper, I shine a light on the role of EV users in Dublin, Ireland, who pursue and forge novel cross-class alliances with automobile firms in an effort to promote EVs and cement private and commercial automobility as the core of the decarbonization agenda. I argue for the need to conceptualise the decarbonizing action of EV users as part of a wider class project intended to enrol wealthier users in a push to alter the city and produce uneven pathways of decarbonization.

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“…"resource extraction linked to or justified by the 'green' economy" (Verweijen & Dunlap, 2021, p.5). Existing work in political ecology on green extractivism is importantly examining the ecological destruction, dispossession and violence that it entails while conceptually developing and expanding the term green extractivism itself (Bruna, 2022;Dunlap, 2019;Dunlap & Jakobsen, 2020;Verweijen & Dunlap, 2021;Dunlap & Riquito, 2023). Most recently, attention is also being paid to how green extractivism "produces new extractive frontiers … [through] new avenues for 'green' investments and markets" (Tornel, 2023, p.6).…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

"Blood on the floor:" The nickel commodity frontier and inter-capitalist competition under green extractivism

Barbesgaard,

Whitmore

2024

Journal of Political Ecology

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Major companies in the mining industry are strategizing to benefit from the expected rise in demand for energy "transition minerals" that underpin current technologies of decarbonization (such as batteries and wind turbines). This article elucidates their current strategies of accumulation through the case of BHP, the world's largest mining company. We draw on political ecology and commodity frontier theory in order to grapple with inter-capitalist competition under the current moment of green extractivism by examining firm and state practices in the nickel commodity frontier. Empirically, we examine the changing role that nickel has played in BHP's asset portfolio during the past decade where it has attempted to significantly accumulate from the expansion of the nickel commodity frontier. Yet, despite this centering of the expansion of the nickel commodity frontier for its particular strategy of accumulation under green extractivism, it has so far been unsuccessful. Given this potential for failure of company practices in commodity frontiers, we argue that green extractivism should not always and everywhere be seen as a story foretold.

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Social warfare for lithium extraction? Open-pit lithium mining, counterinsurgency tactics and enforcing green extractivism in northern Portugal

Cited by 44 publications

References 37 publications

A Lost Frontier or a New Gateway to Global Climate Action? The Afghan Leadership and the Revival of Afghanistan’s Mineral Sector

A Lost Frontier or a New Gateway to Global Climate Action? The Afghan Leadership and the Revival of Afghanistan’s Mineral Sector

Cross-class alliances and the rise of electric vehicles in Dublin

"Blood on the floor:" The nickel commodity frontier and inter-capitalist competition under green extractivism

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