MINING ENVIRONMENTALISMS: the construction of narratives to legitimize the extractive sector
A CONSTRUÇÃO DE NARRATIVAS DE LEGITIMAÇÃO DO SETOR EXTRATIVO
DOI:
https://doi.org/10.12957/tamoios.2025.87400Keywords:
Mineração, Ambientalismo corporativo, Desenvolvimento sustentável, Transição energéticaAbstract
In this article, we argue that the mining sector has repeatedly appropriated elements of the hegemonic environmental discourse and coopted arguments presented by its critics to build legitimacy and ensure the perpetuation of its economic interests. For this reason, the main objective of this text is to describe the mining sector's process of building an environmental discourse to characterise Mining Environmentalisms and their changes from the mid-1990s to 2020. To this end, we carried out a documentary analysis using the International Council on Mining and Metals (ICMM) as the object of study. We observed that the construction of Mining Environmentalisms is a consequence of a neoliberal conception of nature protection, which has allowed economic agents directly related to the degradation of territories to be presented as central to solving the environmental-climate crisis. This contradiction is made explicit by adopting arguments ranging from sustainable development to the energy transition, which fails to solve the crises faced and poses risks for the mined regions.
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