Resource Extraction
A Group Reflection Process from the Faith Economy Ecology Working Group
Background (Read together or silently)
Those of us in the U.S. live in a society utterly dependent on mining and resource extraction.
Daily, people’s hands are kept occupied with gadgets like cell phones and computers made of metals
and other minerals. We use heating, energy and transportation systems that require the use of coal,
natural gas and other fossil fuels; even our food system depends on fossil fuels used in fertilizers or in
shipping food items from farms and ranches all over the world to our local grocery store. We interact
with a countless number of consumer goods every day of our lives. All of these (usually through mining
or extraction) come from Earth.
Mining is dangerous work – in 2010 alone horrifying events occurred showing the serious risk
to lives it takes to satiate the industrial world’s appetite for natural resources that fuel our cars, our
food system and our endless supply of consumer goods.
Although dangerously high methane levels caused three evacuation missions in February and
March of 2010, the Massey Energy Company continued cost-cutting and faulty safety practices at their
mine at the Upper Big Branch site in West Virginia and the lives of 25 miners were lost in a massive
mine explosion in April 2010. In another part of the hemisphere, from August 6 and on through
October 14, 2010, the world eagerly awaited the rescue of 33 Chilean miners trapped 2,300 feet
underground.
In several African countries mining for diamonds and minerals used in the manufacture of cell
phones and other electronic goods is often done with little regard for human rights or for labor
standards. In some cases children are forced to work under slave-like conditions to extract the
resources needed for our consumer goods. Profits from these extracted resources have funded
governments and rebel movements alike to fuel conflict and wars that negatively impact surrounding
communities.
It is important to note that resource extraction fuels the lifestyles of people who live in
industrialized countries. Minerals and metals extracted from Earth’s womb are used for a variety of
consumer goods, and some are used strictly to generate the energy to fuel busy societies. In many
places like the United States, we have already reached peak production for many of the natural
resources we use for energy. As Earth’s resources grow scarcer, more effort is needed to get at smaller
amounts of Earth’s minerals and other reserves that fuel the economy and even more dangerous forms
of extraction are used causing greater damage to workers, community members, and Earth itself.
A particularly egregious case is that of tar sands extraction in the pristine Boreal Forest of
Alberta, Canada. Tar Sands extraction is one of the most environmentally destructive projects of any
kind effecting air, water and forests and it contributes to climate change. Once it is extracted and
burned, tar sands oil produces high levels of sulfur oxide, nitrogen dioxide, and carbon monoxide.
Downstream from the mining operations, indigenous people have been diagnosed with rare cancers
and other diseases. Over 100 people in one indigenous community of 1,200 have died of cancer and
other auto-immune diseases in the last decade.
The Alberta tar sands is no small operation, in fact, the Alberta Tar Sands constitute the largest
portion of U.S. imported oil. In 2009 and 2010 corporations made plans with Montana and Idaho state
government officials to create an industrial ”high and wide” shipping corridor that would serve Tar
Sands mines for decades to come. Massive shipments of equipment (expected to be 208 feet long, 29
feet tall, 24 feet wide, and weigh more than 300 tons) are projected to travel along wild and scenic
rivers where an accident would cause irreparable damage. Citizens groups across the region are
mobilized against these shipments but have few financial resources for legal challenges. In addition,
eastern Montana is slated to host the Keystone XL pipeline extending from Canada to the Gulf of
Mexico – delivering this dirty fuel to U.S. refineries. In addition to coal mines and power plants already
serving other regions of the country, Montana is at risk of becoming an ”energy colony”!
Another practice, horizontal hydraulic fracturing or “fracking,” involves blasting through shale
rock to release the gas trapped deep below ground. A fracked well uses between three and eight
million gallons of clean water—usually transported in from local fresh-water sources. The water is
mixed with sand and toxic chemicals that drilling companies are not required to disclose. Affected
communities have reported negative consequences including fatalities from exploding wells, 30-mile
stretches of streams without any living organisms, exploding tap water, sick children and adults, and
farmland that is no longer tillable.
In the face of all this human and ecological suffering, the real question is whether we are any
happier as a result of having more consumer goods? Studies have shown that happiness does not
necessarily rise with an increase of material goods.
Moreover, many people in the U.S. feel they are on a cruel treadmill of working far too many
hours during the week to purchase, food, clothing and other necessities while television and magazine
ads constantly tell them that they need more. Much of what we consume in the United States is
“designed for the dump.” A marketing strategy called “planned obsolescence” ensures that consumer
goods like refrigerators, computers and entertainment technologies are created to break down or
become obsolete within a few years of purchase so that the consumer is forced to go out and buy a
something new to replace the old. The reality is that many individuals and communities and the Earth
suffer from such short sightedness.
OVER-CONSUMPTION:
In small groups or pairs discuss the ways in which you are pulled into consumer culture.
What are the factors at play when you are shopping? How much are you influenced by
advertising? Do you ever come home with items you actually do not need; what kind of plans to
you have in place to get off the consumption treadmill?
WASTE:
In his book Running the Numbers (Prestel Publishing, 2009) artist Chris Jordan depicts the cumulative
effect of over-consumption and waste. Gather around a lap top, computer screen or project the images
from Jordan’s website, clicking on each to see the detail: http://www.chrisjordan.com/gallery/rtn/
Discuss: What wisdom do these depictions of waste offer a culture faced with over-consumption?
1- Closing prayer:
Read together this passage from St. Francis of Assisi’s
“All praise be yours, my Lord, through Sister Earth, our mother, who feeds us,
and produces various fruits with colored flowers and herbs. Praise and bless
my Lord, and give him thanks, and serve him with great humility. “
Share your thoughts:
Please take some time to summarize your reflections (during or after the meeting). We would like you
to share a summary with us by sending it to cschwabe@maryknoll.org or mail them to the Maryknoll
Office for Global Concerns200 New York Avenue, N.W., Washington D.C. 20001 (attention: Chloe
Schwabe).
Suggested Actions:
▪ Download the short video the story of electronics at http://storyofstuff.org/electronics/ and take
the suggested action to challenge computer companies to make computers that last.
▪ Print a copy of the questions from this article posted at Mother Earth News
http://www.mnn.com/lifestyle/responsible-living/stories/get-on-board-the-non-consumptiontrain. Carry these questions in your wallet and use them when you are faced with every day
consumer choices.
Thank you again for your enthusiasm and your commitment to Faith Ecology and the
Global Economy! Please feel free to contact us with your questions and concerns!
ogc@maryknoll.org or cschwabe@maryknoll.org
Resources for further study
EXTRACTIVES:
Tar Sands:
http://ostseis.anl.gov/guide/tarsands/index.cfm
http://www.foe.org/energy/tar-sands
http://www.treehugger.com/files/2008/02/tar-sands-most-destructive-project.php
http://northernrockiesrisingtide.wordpress.com/
http://www.fightinggoliath.org/
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=GyPqqUu4ojw
http://www.tarsandswatch.org/
http://www.ienearth.org/ Indigenous Environmental Network
http://h2oildoc.com/home/
http://ecomattersdaily.com/2009/09/h2oil-the-movie-shell-doesnt-want-you-to-see/
http://dirtyoilsands.org/
http://oilsandstruth.org/
http://stoptarsands.wordpress.com/
http://www.toxwatch.ca/
www.KilowattOurs.org
Coal and Mountain Top removal
“Mountaintop Mining Poisons Fish,” Science Daily, March 1, 2010:
http://www.sciencedaily.com/releases/2010/02/100226214742.htm
www.Earthjustice.org
www.nrdc.org/energy/default.asp
http://www.goldmanprize.org/2009/northamerica
Coltan (industrial name for columbite–tantalite) in the Democratic Republic of the Congo:
www.globalwitness.org
http://pulitzercenter.org/video/congos-bloody-coltan
Diamonds
www.nodirtygold.org
CONSUMPTION & WASTE
www.storyofstuff.org
EPA poster: the Life Cycle of a CD or DVD
www.epa.gov/waste/education/pdfs/finalposter.pdf
EPA Poster: the Life Cycle o a cell phone: www.epa.gov/osw/education/pdfs/life-cell.pdf
http://www.nytimes.com/2008/01/02/opinion/02diamond.html?_r=1