The moral case for coal: The ethics of complicity with and amongst Australian pro‐coal lobbyists

Abstract

Concern with climate change, and coal's contribution to it, has centred coal in an intensely moralised politics of accusation in Australia. This paper discusses the ordinary ethics through which pro‐coal lobbyists in Australia relate to this moralised landscape and offers an analysis of the everyday and ordinary production of complicity with climate change. It argues that complicity is not just something that insufficiently ethical people engage in, but instead highlights the ways in which the coal industry derives a moral weight for its defenders. This complicity is made and reproduced precisely through the everyday practices of ethical deliberation figured in response to interpersonal moral accusations. These insights are made possible through the author's own positionality and surprising affinities with pro‐coal lobbyists, and thus this paper argues for an anthropology of extractive industry which embraces the interplay of anthropological rapport with complicity.

Two sides of the same coin: Appraising job‐related attributes as resilience enhancing or undermining

“…However, as mentioned above, the industry is under increasing criticism as a significant source of greenhouse gas emissions (Bacon & Nash, 2012), generating increasing stigmatisation of coal mining (Della Bosca & Gillespie, 2018; Makki & Van Vuuren, 2017). According to Dahlgren (2021, p. 20), “coal mining in Australia is currently shrouded in an intense national conflict where coal's undesirable environmental consequences are weighed against Australia's continued economic reliance on the industry. Mining communities and mining workers have been subjugated and discriminated against as a consequence of this ongoing ethical debate ‐ a situation that has heightened their stress levels.…”

“…Australians have always prided themselves on being ethical (Milton-Smith, 1997). However, the coal mining debate is creating rising moral confusion and high levels of distress for coal workers (Bowers, et al, 2018;Considine et al, 2017;Dahlgren, 2021). According to Demerouti et al (2001), politics in the workplace can manifest as a job demand that requires employees to use excessive psychological effort to manage.…”

“…Australians have always prided themselves on being ethical (Milton‐Smith, 1997). However, the coal mining debate is creating rising moral confusion and high levels of distress for coal workers (Bowers, et al., 2018; Considine et al., 2017; Dahlgren, 2021). According to Demerouti et al.…”

The final voids: the ambiguity of emptiness in Australian coal mine rehabilitation

“…Occasionally, events or remarks reminded me of the complexities of my complicity with pro‐coal lobbyists, revealing how my new friends might also be considered ‘vile informants’ (Marcus 1997). Nonetheless, I continue to maintain that anthropologists must not shy away from conducting research with those we disagree with (Mazzarella 2019: 46), and, further, that it is necessary to understand how power operates and maintains ongoing environmental destruction (Dahlgren 2021). This became particularly evident in relation to the final voids.…”