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Project News
Conflict and Harm at Pan American Silver’s Projects in Latin America
A new map illustrates conflicts and harms associated with eight mining projects, from Mexico to Argentina, owned by Pan American Silver. https://ejatlas.org/featured/envconflictspasIn contrast to its discourse over sustainable and responsible mining, …
Brazilian dam disaster ‘is part of a pattern’
By Beatriz Saes, Daniela Del Bene, Sara Mingorría, Yannick Deniau, Raquel Neyra, Max Stoisser, Lucrecia Wagner, Grettel Navas and Nick Meynen. A team of Autonomous University of Barcelona (UAB) academics is marking …
How the environmental justice movement transforms our world
It had cost them 22 years of resistance, 100 days of street mobilisation and 13 deaths from police fire. But on 28 May, a very controversial copper plant in India …
Feature Map on the Permanent Peoples Tribunal Hearing on Corporate Human Rights Violations and Peoples Access to Justice
On the anniversary of the UNHRC resolution, as states prepare for the first meeting of the intergovernmental working group for the elaboration of a UN Treaty on transnational corporations and …
EJOLT conference on environmental justice: the report
After 4 years of work by around 100 people in over 30 countries, the EJOLT conference on environmental justice showed what the international project on Environmental Justice Organisations, Liabilities and …
Global Atlas of Environmental Justice re-launches website tracking ecological conflicts globally
PRESS RELEASE. Brussels, Tuesday 3 March. New platform integrates geo-spatial data to present conflicts in context and expands its coverage The EJOLT project launches today a new phase of the Global Atlas …
The difference that EJOLT has made
Dear EJOLT fan As we approach the end of the EJOLT project we like to introduce you to each other and look back to some of our highlights. There are 200.000 …
New factsheets on mining and nuclear energy
Big news from the resource library section: 16 new factsheets came online! These are well documented cases of environmental justice struggles, fully hyperlinked and in a nice layout. The batch …
Environmentalism and anti-colonialism are dangerous activities in a country like Niger
By Nick Meynen. In the shadow of French President Hollande’s West-Africa Tour, dissenting views on extraction and environmental justice were silenced. In Niger, ten members of the Network of organizations for …
Environmental (in)justice and the role of European companies
The NGO Shipbreaking Platform, a global coalition of environmental, human rights and labour rights organisations dedicated to safe, clean and just ship recycling, organised a debate on “Environmental (in)justice and …
General News
Argentinian communities beat mining multinationals
Popular movements in Argentina are better than average at stopping the mining madness. The contrast with Bolsonaro’s Brazil is striking. Argentinian mining companies are learning the hard way that you …
Mega-mining threatens Brazil’s Rio Grande do Sul
By Marcos Todt.In Rio Grande do Sul alone there are more than 150 mining projects that may leverage Brazil’s new environmental code to their advantage.Jair Bolsonaro’s victory in the 2018 …
Jade is anything but green
By Nick Meynen.Ancient Asian art gave jade gemstones a cult status. But today, nothing in the extraction of jade is even remotely morally correct or justifiable.Jade is the diamond of …
Colombia: is democracy the price for peace?
By Evi Declercq. Local referenda swept Colombia after one village succeeded in using them to stop a massive mine. Until the Colombian constitutional court took their power away.A small community in Colombia …
The toxic trade of obsolete ships
By Nicola Mulinaris and EnvJustice.When ships reach the end of their operational life they are taken apart to recover the steel. Recycling valuable materials makes economic and environmental sense, as …
The women who keep the gold in the ground
By V’cenza Cirefice and EnvJustice.Mining last took place in Mathiatis – in the Troodos mountain range in Cyprus – during the military occupation by the British. But now mining is …
Blockadia map reveals global scale of anti-fossil fuel movement
By Alice Owen and Daria Rivin.As world leaders were flying out to Germany to negotiate climate action at COP23, activists begin blockading a nearby coal mine as part of a …
France destroys North Niger. Will the EU or UN act?
By Nick Meynen. Tens of thousands of people in Niger’s Arlit are exposed to often deadly radiation coming from the uranium mines around the city. AREVA, owned by the French …
The great cost of land grabbing in Mozambique’s Tete Province
By Burag Gurden. Similar versions of this article has been originally published by Pambazuka on 31 August and by Words in the Bucket on 13 September.Moatize, Mozambique – Earlier this …
Environmentalism under Fire
By Burag Gurden. Similar writings by Burag Gurden have recently been published in the Ecologist and several other blogs and media. This article refers to all writings by the same …
Opinion
MIREU Backfires
By Joan Martinez Alier.To promote mining, European official rhetoric uses phrases such as “A Social License to Operate (SLO) is crucial for the industry; this concept could be widened towards …
Environmentalism under Fire
By Burag Gurden. Similar writings by Burag Gurden have recently been published in the Ecologist and several other blogs and media. This article refers to all writings by the same …
Book Review: Ecological Economics from the Ground Up
Helen Scharber, School of Critical Social Inquiry, Hampshire College, USA As its title intimates, Ecological Economics from the Ground Up starts with case studies of environmental justice activist struggles, mostly from …
Is Greece Greening?
By George Tsolakis (Ecocity). Greece just experienced the most quiet pre-elections period in my living memory. No big crowd gatherings in streets and squares, no shouting’s, no flags waving, no …
Criminal case against “industrial ecocide” in Sonora, Mexico?
By Joan Martinez Alier. When the controversial 1.3 billion dollar Tia Maria copper mining project in Arequipa, Peru seemed to go ahead despite a local referendum and resistance from several villages, …
Building an economy on quicksand
By Jakob Villioth. Sand has by now become the most widely consumed natural resource on the planet after fresh water. [1] The annual world consumption of sand is estimated to be …
Can “Natural Capital Accounting” Come of Age in Africa?
By Patrick Bond. In early June, a University of Pretoria conference at the Governance Innovation Centre [2], keynoted by Indian eco-feminist Vandana Shiva, contemplated how to go “beyond GDP.” The current …
Paladin lies to Malawi Government on its Kayelekera uranium mine
By William Nyirenda, Citizens for Justice. It has been over a year now since Paladin started threatening to shut down the Kayelekera Uranium Mine, following a continuous trend of losses. Finally, …
Colombia’s environmental conflicts
By Joan Martinez-Alier. Thanks to Mario A. Perez’s work on the EJOLT inventory of environmental conflicts supported by his research students at CINARA and the Universidad del Valle in Cali, Colombia, …
Victory: no more Mountaintop Removal Coal Mining in Laciana Valley (Spain)
By: Amaranta Herrero. On the 14th of February, the regional government of Castilla y León cancelled the plan for Mountaintop Removal Coal Mining (MRT) in Laciana Valley (Spain). During the last …
Events
Access to Justice and Extractive Industries
UPDATE – full video of the event on youtube. On March 13, a panel of international legal and industry experts discuss the fraught world of environmental justice, human rights, minerals and …
Environmental justice in the EU and beyond
Save the date for an environmental justice conference & debate in Brussels where EJOLT will launch the Atlas of Environmental Justice, on 19 March. CLICK HERE to make your registration As global …
EJOLT field trip to Bulgaria mine
From 6 to 11 June, EJOLT partner Za Zemiata guided the ‘EJOLT-nuclear-team’ through the dirt left behind by the nuclear industry in Bulgaria. Literally. We visited an old uranium mine site where …
The project ENVJUSTICE has received funding from the European Research Council (ERC) under the European Union’s Horizon 2020 research and innovation programme (grant agreement No. 695446)