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Natural Resource Extraction, Armed Violence, and Environmental Degradation.
Liam Downey1, Eric Bonds, Katherine Clark
1University of Colorado at Boulder, Boulder, CO, USA.
Organization & Environment
|September 13, 2011
Summary
Armed violence is intrinsically linked to natural resource extraction, driving environmental degradation and unequal ecological exchange. Understanding this connection is crucial for environmental sociology and policy.
Area of Science:
- Environmental Sociology
- Political Ecology
- Resource Governance
Background:
- Environmental sociology often overlooks the role of armed conflict in resource exploitation.
- Existing frameworks struggle to fully explain the human-natural world relationship without considering violence.
Purpose of the Study:
- To establish a theoretical link between natural resource extraction, armed violence, and environmental degradation.
- To demonstrate how armed violence facilitates resource control and extraction for economic and state power.
Main Methods:
- Analysis of the relationship between resource extraction and armed conflict.
- Identification of critical minerals and their extraction methods.
- Examination of associations between mining companies, international funding, and armed violence.
Main Results:
- Armed violence is a key mechanism for controlling natural resources and ensuring extraction.
- Extraction of 10 key minerals for the U.S. economy/military involves armed violence.
- Association found between armed violence, major mining firms, World Bank-funded mines, and resource extraction.
Conclusions:
- The natural resource base for industrial societies is largely built upon armed violence.
- Armed violence is a critical driver of environmental degradation and ecological unequal exchange.
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