Read on Twitter
THREAD: "Not in my back yard" ... "Guarantee highest standards"... " #Mining more sustainable in Europe"
Industry celebrates today's meeting of a new #EuropeanRawMaterialsAlliance with tired platitudes to justify new #Mining.
Here's why this is lazy...
https://www.politico.eu/article/why-the-eu-may-need-to-revive-mining-to-go-green
Industry celebrates today's meeting of a new #EuropeanRawMaterialsAlliance with tired platitudes to justify new #Mining.
Here's why this is lazy...
https://www.politico.eu/article/why-the-eu-may-need-to-revive-mining-to-go-green
ONE: "Not in my backyard attitude"
1st: As a new letter from CSOs and communities demonstrates, we stand in solidarity, North & South, against the extractive model, not just one mine, not just our 'back yard' https://www.gaiafoundation.org/ec-we-cant-mine-our-way-out-of-the-climate-crisis/
1st: As a new letter from CSOs and communities demonstrates, we stand in solidarity, North & South, against the extractive model, not just one mine, not just our 'back yard' https://www.gaiafoundation.org/ec-we-cant-mine-our-way-out-of-the-climate-crisis/
2nd: Places matter- as havens for #biodiversity, as part of the #climate system, as #public space.
Everywhere is someone's backyard and it's our duty to care for them.
Everywhere is someone's backyard and it's our duty to care for them.
3rd: We do not see #mining executives volunteering their back yards for open pit #mining.
But it seems it is easy to ask hundreds, thousands of people and many millions of non-human relatives to make a sacrifice.
Sacrifice Zones = Hypocrisy.
But it seems it is easy to ask hundreds, thousands of people and many millions of non-human relatives to make a sacrifice.
Sacrifice Zones = Hypocrisy.
TWO: "Guarantee highest standards."
1st: There is little evidence these 'high standards' have been applied in Europe, where we have seen several notable disasters.
To name a few:
-Talvivaara in Finland.
-Baia Mare in Romania.
-Aznalcollar in Spain.
1st: There is little evidence these 'high standards' have been applied in Europe, where we have seen several notable disasters.
To name a few:
-Talvivaara in Finland.
-Baia Mare in Romania.
-Aznalcollar in Spain.
2nd: With EU funding going into how to 'harmonise' EU mining legislations across regions, speed up permitting and manufacture ' #SocialLicensetoOperate' through surveillance of social movements, the picture is hardly looking rosy for the future.
http://www.envjustice.org/2020/09/mireu-backfires/
http://www.envjustice.org/2020/09/mireu-backfires/
3rd: How does these companies propose to apply high standards to 'new frontiers' for mining, like the #deepsea - where no consensus on what constitutes adequate regulation exists- or areas previously protected from extraction?
Some places should just be off limits. Full stop.
Some places should just be off limits. Full stop.
THREE: " #Mining more sustainable in Europe"
Putting aside the disasters, soft and hard deregulation (sorry, 'harmonisation'), the claim that repatriating mining to Europe is a move corporates want because of their desperate desire to be good, green citizens is laughable.
Putting aside the disasters, soft and hard deregulation (sorry, 'harmonisation'), the claim that repatriating mining to Europe is a move corporates want because of their desperate desire to be good, green citizens is laughable.
Overall demand for critical minerals and metals, under any business as usual scenario, is predicted to grow massively.
Therefore, opening new mines in Europe WILL NOT lead to a closure of mines in China, Russia or anywhere in the South.
There will just be more mines.
Therefore, opening new mines in Europe WILL NOT lead to a closure of mines in China, Russia or anywhere in the South.
There will just be more mines.
Europe's Raw Materials Strategies, whilst containing laudable mentions of the circular economy, look to secure supply within Europe AND in 'third countries'.
There is no break from the tradition of extracting from the Global South, at great cost, here.
There is no break from the tradition of extracting from the Global South, at great cost, here.
ALL of Europe's RM strategies are driven by an unquestioned assumption about the need for economic #growth and sustained by de-bunked myths about the possibility of absolutely #decoupling growth from resource use and pollution. https://eeb.org/library/decoupling-debunked/
The latest scientific studies reveal that in a high-demand, growth-driven scenario:
"...new [mining] threats to biodiversity may surpass those averted by climate change mitigation." https://www.nature.com/articles/s41467-020-17928-5
"...new [mining] threats to biodiversity may surpass those averted by climate change mitigation." https://www.nature.com/articles/s41467-020-17928-5
Meanwhile, other studies reveal how Europe's planned, massive repatriation of #mining threatens the rural transitions towards more #sustainable modes of living across the continent. https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC7413129/
A #circulareconomy, meaningful action on #climatechange and an end to exploitative #extractivism are not possible in a growth system.
A Just and effective transition to #renewableenergy must be #postextractive and #postgrowth (in Europe at least)
https://waronwant.org/sites/default/files/Post-Extractivist_Transition_WEB_0.pdf
A Just and effective transition to #renewableenergy must be #postextractive and #postgrowth (in Europe at least)
https://waronwant.org/sites/default/files/Post-Extractivist_Transition_WEB_0.pdf
All of these points and more are made in a new letter to the European Commission, sent by 230+ community platforms, CSOs and academics from Europe and across the Global South.
Read it here: https://www.gaiafoundation.org/ec-we-cant-mine-our-way-out-of-the-climate-crisis/
Read it here: https://www.gaiafoundation.org/ec-we-cant-mine-our-way-out-of-the-climate-crisis/
Instead of trying to mine our way out of the #climateemergency, we must develop new and more imaginative priorities and responses.
As an institution created to serve the people of Europe, the EU must see through the mining industry's tired logic, & embrace a new path mandated by climate logic & the people standing up for Europe's true treasures- healthy lands, clean waters, powerful, democratic communities.
