Indigenous rights advocate and executive director of SIRGE Coalition, Galina Angarova, and environmental journalist/author of the Substack newsletter Green Rocks, Ian Morse, join us to detail the key social and environmental concerns, impacts, and questions we should be asking about the mining of elements used in everything from the global renewable energy transition to the device in your hand.
Research indicates that 54% of all transition minerals occur on or near Indigenous land. Despite this fact, no nation anywhere has properly enforced Free Prior and Informed Consent (FPIC) protocols in line with standards in the United Nations Declaration on the Rights of Indigenous Peoples (UNDRIP). Further, local communities too seldom benefit from their extraction, while suffering their consequences in the form of reduced air and/or water quality.
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Image credit: A symbol for a renewable charging station. (Photo courtesy of Nicola Sznajder/Flickr)
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Timecodes
(00:00) Introduction
(02:57) Why are they called 'transition minerals?'
(07:04) Geopolitical tensions and complications
(16:04) Realities of mining windfalls
(26:30) Cartelization concerns
(32:50) Environmental and human rights impacts
(39:46) Reporting on Free Prior and Informed Consent
(46:49) Recycling
(54:45) Additional Indigenous rights concerns
(57:04) Certification schemes and community-led mining initiatives
(01:03:22) Deep-sea mining
(01:09:21) Credits