Category: Extractive Industries

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Coal Mining: Ecological and Environmental Disasters in China

ZHANG Yulin, Department of Sociology, Nanjing University As the ‘World Factory of 21st century’, China uses coal for 2/3 of its energy consumption. Large scale coal mine excavation—which constituted 3.97 billion tons in 2013—has caused serious ecological damage in rural China, with the most severe situation occurring in Shanxi Province.   The recovery deposits and … Continue reading Coal Mining: Ecological and Environmental Disasters in China

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Lead, Politics, and Community: Notes from La Oroya, Peru

Pamela Neumann, Post-Doctoral Fellow, Stone Center for Latin American Studies, Tulane University            Lead is a controversial subject in the Peruvian town of La Oroya (population 30,000), which has the dubious distinction of being ranked one of the top ten most contaminated places in the world. Looking out at its scarred white hills today, it’s hard … Continue reading Lead, Politics, and Community: Notes from La Oroya, Peru

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Into a Frozen Inferno: Personal and Historical Trajectories in Monchegorsk

Andy Bruno, Assistant Professor, Northern Illinois University Through a foggy bus window I began to make out the town amid the meager taiga landscape. It’d be fitting if the translucent layer of film distorting my view came from the plant’s pollution, but I doubt that was the case. As we rolled past a familiar scene … Continue reading Into a Frozen Inferno: Personal and Historical Trajectories in Monchegorsk

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Toxic Canals

Simona Grano,  Department of Sinology, University of Zürich. In my professional capacity as academic, I work on industrial pollution issues in China and Taiwan (Grano, 2016/2015). I am so absorbed by the need to keep up with what happens in these two places, that I rarely pause to think about what has gotten me interested … Continue reading Toxic Canals

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The Petrochemical Complex as a Unit of Reference in Considering Companies’ Relationships with the Local Community

Miguel Ángel López-Navarro, Department of Business Administration and Marketing, Universitat Jaume I, Castelló, Spain My approach to studying the petrochemical industry, from a management perspective, is rooted in an interest in assessing how economic and environmental dimensions interact through the lens of the local community, in a petrochemical complex located in Castellón (Spain) a few … Continue reading The Petrochemical Complex as a Unit of Reference in Considering Companies’ Relationships with the Local Community

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U.S. Oil Refineries Required to Monitor Ambient Air Toxics: A victory, with limits, for neighbouring communities

Dr Gwen Ottinger, Assistant Professor, Department of Politics, Drexel University, USA The EPA refinery rule thus marks a major victory in community groups’ decades-long struggle for ambient air monitoring at refinery fence lines… but without a way to translate new air quality information into action, communities risk being overwhelmed by data. On September 29, 2015, … Continue reading U.S. Oil Refineries Required to Monitor Ambient Air Toxics: A victory, with limits, for neighbouring communities