China
Africa
Explore chapters and articles related to this topic
Mining and Drilling
Published in Cameron La Follette , Chris Maser, Sustainability and the Rights of Nature, 2017
Cameron La Follette , Chris Maser
Mining of all kinds is one of the most destructive activities modern society undertakes. In this chapter, we look at the four major kinds of mining in the United States: coal mining, hardrock mining, oil and gas drilling, and deep-sea mining. We give a historical overview of each, look at the legal framework that governs them, and discuss the colossal environmental damage caused by each. Finally, we lay out a program for ending mining and implementing a restoration program to aid in the recovery of these areas under a Rights of Nature framework.
Aeromobilities’ extra-sectoral costs: a methodological reorientation
Published in Mobilities, 2020
These rising demands certainly augment overall resource needs, but it is the particular ways in which the air transport industry normalises a particular culture of mass, speedy travel, and mobilises a whole materials economy (with roots in military experimentations) behind it, that deepen aviation’s extra-sectoral costs. Coining the term ‘light modernity’ to denote an economic shift away from ‘heavy’ and ‘slow’ forms of movement, Sheller (2014) traces the historical importance of the discovery of aluminium to aviation; notably, the lightweight element is a crucial ingredient in the forging of high-strength alloys – when combined with copper, magnesium, zinc and other metals – to build aircraft structures. As Sheller (2014, 66) writes, ‘[t]he allure of aluminium begins with the dream of flight and the conquest of space’, sparking a whole new generation of rigid frame civil and military aircraft in the 1910s, and a concurrent expansion in bauxite mining in the United States. While the geographies of aluminium production have since shifted to Australia, China and Russia, the absolute consumption of the metal in civil aviation has only continued to grow, standing at 351,000 tonnes in 2015, and set to rise even further over the next twenty years (Djukanovic 2016). Indeed, financial markets are reporting a 20 to 30 percent increase in aluminium prices in 2018, driven chiefly by increasing ‘demand for aerospace-grade aluminium … due to [Original Equipment Manufacturers’] production increases’ (Catchpole 2018).