Climate Justice & Extractivism

The nature of extractivism

The impacts of an economic model that views nature as simply a vehicle for profit are highly destructive and getting worse. Deadly flooding, prolonged drought, extreme heat, wildfires and deadly storms are the most powerful signals of a climate in chaos. But it is crucial to connect these impacts with the other forms of environmental damage which surround us: deforestation and the loss of green space, environmental racism played out through toxic air pollution, water stress and contamination, species loss and many other issues that are pushing life to the brink. Be it at local or global level it is the same industrial activities, and the corporate-driven model of hyper-consumerism which those activities feed, which are driving these interrelated ecological crises.

A primary engine for this conversion is extractivism, which continues to violently expand and which, left unchecked, could bring us to a point of ecological collapse. Gas, oil and coal continue to be prospected, extracted and burned in great quantity despite all the climate science that demonstrates the insanity of doing so. Massive hydropower projects, falsely marketed as a “green” energy solution, cause major methane emissions through deforestation and swamping; the energy they produce is also often used to feed further fossil fuel extraction. Large-scale mining of metals and rare earths  – also now rebranding itself as essential to a renewable future – destroys biodiversity and makes huge demands on and regularly contaminates fragile water sources, putting surrounding ecosystems at risk. The shipping associated with the industry is also a major source of emissions. Big agro-industrial mono-crop plantations entail similar impacts. In Latin America these activities come accompanied by militarisation and backed up with judicial threats and violence. Who profits directly from extractive activity, who sells and who enjoys the consumer goods and lifestyles it enables – and who is left displaced or living in a destroyed environment – tells us a great deal about the unjust nature of our global economy.

No environmentalism without justice

Those most affected by the impacts of climate change and the extractive operations which are so fundamental in causing it – marginalized, dispossessed indigenous communities and communities of color in both the global South and the global North, with women in both contexts being disproportionately affected – are precisely those who have contributed least to causing the crisis.

In Latin America we are building long-term relationships with communities and organisations on the frontline of the extractivism which underlies our climate crisis. Along with other networks and groups we look to bring their experiences and perspectives into the center of the international debates and response to climate breakdown. We campaign with others in the global North to challenge the corporations who threaten them.

Pushing for a truly Just Transition means challenging those driving the extractivism at the heart of our economy, and working with the frontline communities who are standing up to it and asserting their rights over their resources and territories.

Please find out more on our Cases & Campaigns page