dr gavin bridge [email protected]
economyvalue
capitalism naturemodernity
conflictenergy
justice
extractive
resources
accumulation
20th centurysocial relationsnatural gas
time
space
claims
appropriation
substitution
wind power
governance
tin
oilresource curse
finance
A Political Ecology of Energy and MiningA Political Ecology of Energy and Mining
Dr Gavin BridgeDr Gavin BridgeUniversity of ManchesterUniversity of Manchester
metabolism
dr gavin bridge [email protected]
Deep Water HorizonDeep Water Horizon• extraction acts up –
exposes set of social relations– working conditions– access/’frontier’ – revenue, rent and regulation– ecological costs– materialities of oil and gas
• and hides others– structural dependence of U.S.
on overseas extraction– ‘normal’ displacement of oil’s
ecological and social costs
dr gavin bridge [email protected]
Source: Bridge G. 2008. Journal of Economic Geography
dr gavin bridge [email protected]
dr gavin bridge [email protected]
Further out, deeper down active leases in GoM, by water depth
0
1000
2000
3000
4000
5000
6000
7000
8000
9000
1994 1995 1996 1997 1998 1999 2000 2001 2002 2003
Num
ber
of A
ctiv
e L
ease
s
>7500 feet
5000-7499 feet
1500-4999 feet
1000-1499 feet
<1000 feet
Data from MMS (2004)
dr gavin bridge [email protected]
the return of resourcesthe return of resources• spectre of scarcity: peak oil, gas, everything• new materials and sites of struggle (rare earths, lithium, biofuels,
wind, tidal, LNG)– resources for the ‘green economy’
• persistent themes– coal and oil disasters (China, US)– extra-territorial resource access (resources and imperialism)
• alternatives to extraction– Ecuador’s ‘oil in the soil’ proposal– El Salvador’s open pit proposals
• renegotiation of social contract around extraction and development– EITI, EIR (World Bank), Kimberley, ‘clean gold’
• energy transition
a good time for a political ecology of energy and mining!
dr gavin bridge [email protected]
in the remainder of this talk….in the remainder of this talk….
• resources as social relations
• energy and minerals as more than holes in the ground– de-centre the point of extraction– how does capital accumulation work in nature-
facing sectors?• land, time, and form• exploration, production and exchange
dr gavin bridge [email protected]
mineral commodity chain
mineral commodity chain
resources as social relationsresources as social relations
wages and wages and working conditionsworking conditions
environmental environmental damage costsdamage costs
resource accessresource accessland use conversion land use conversion
price, consumer price, consumer health and safetyhealth and safety
revenue managementrevenue management(rent and profit) (rent and profit)
dr gavin bridge [email protected]
more than a hole in the ground
• extraction – economic, physical, thermodynamic
• ‘time and space work differently in the extractive sector’ (Bunker)
• nature-facing industries (Prudham)– land, time, form
dr gavin bridge [email protected]
extraction: dreams of development • alchemy: a metaphor for
resource-based development– ‘gold’ from dirt
• powerful rhetoric of modernisation via resource development– unlocking the treasure chest– liberating natural wealth– encourages extractive peripheries
• failed modernisation– creates wealth but not modernity– resource curse– ‘devil’s excrement’
dr gavin bridge [email protected]
exploration: ‘buried treasure’
• ‘treasure hunt’– invisible– discontinuous in space and variable in quality– segregation
• low-volume/hi-value vs. hi-volume/low value
– uncertainties regarding scale/quality at outset– ‘spectacular accumulation’ (Anna Tsing on gold) – ‘inorganic and inedible’ (Lewis Mumford on coal)
• value lies in the abstract and speculative rather than in potential for direct sustenance
LandLand…..Time…..Form
dr gavin bridge [email protected]
access and control
• spatial monopoly of access– claims ‘rush’ (competition for access)– but resources already embedded in
territorial/sovereign formations– prospecting and patent/claim– ‘discovery’– piracy/primitive accumulation
– i.e. ‘molecular’ (capital) vs. ‘territorial’ logics of power (Harvey)
LandLand…..Time…..Form
dr gavin bridge [email protected]
• Structural Adjustment Programme, 1988
• Mining boomdiamonds & goldgold production up 10x20% GDP, 25% exports
• Claims rush
dr gavin bridge [email protected]
dr gavin bridge [email protected]
production: nature-facing industriesproduction: nature-facing industries
• oil, gas, minerals are classic ‘gifts of nature’ – non-produced goods, fictitious commodities (Polanyi)– processes of production are geological, geophysical,
hydrological. • occur prior to the application of labour • over non-human time-scales
– processes of production cannot be (fully) capitalised– limited scope for ‘real subsumption’ of nature
Land…..TimeTime…..Form
dr gavin bridge [email protected]
dr gavin bridge [email protected]
experiments with production timeexperiments with production time
• tar sands – substituting capital and energy for geological time – EROI is low, but produces liquid fuel– ‘upgrades’ an unconventional oil
– unconventional oils complicate assertion of ‘peak’ oil• plateau vs. peak
– highlight the importance of thinking about any peak as socially-determined not geological destiny
• peak demand vs. peak supply
Land…..TimeTime…..Form
dr gavin bridge [email protected]
nature as formnature as form• ‘treadmill of production’
– commodity sector (fungible), competition on price – drawing on non-renewable materials of declining quality– ‘auto-consumptive’, local depletion: production undermines
conditions of future profitability (ecological contradiction) – costs will rise
• unless technological/institutional innovation
economies of scale (bigger, deeper, further away)
cost-shifting (displaced downstream, downwind, downtime)
Land…..TimeTime…..Form
dr gavin bridge [email protected]
economies of scale and the diseconomies/costs of space
• ‘transport systems function as increasingly capital-intensive, debt-creating, state-forming instruments to articulate dispersed site-specific raw material sources with concentrated centres of industrial production, capital accumulation, and political power’
Bunker and Ciccantell 2005: 15
dr gavin bridge [email protected]
“In order to take account of space as materially differentiated and matter as spatially differentiated, we must incorporate topography, geology, hydrology, and climate, as well as absolute and geographic distances between places….into our analysis of how trade-dominant nations assure cheap and stable access to the volumes and types of materials they need”
Bunker and Ciccantell 2005: 8
dr gavin bridge [email protected]
4
dr gavin bridge [email protected]
nature as formnature as form
• modes of extraction: mining vs. agriculture
• both extractive (LeBillon), but– mining and oil are high rent, low employment– agriculture/plantations are low rent, high
employment
• resource curse, weak linkages
dr gavin bridge [email protected]
economyvalue
capitalism naturemodernity
conflictenergy
justice
extractive
resources
accumulation
20th centurysocial relationsnatural gas
time
space
claims
appropriation
substitution
wind power
governance
tin
oilresource curse
finance
A Political Ecology of Energy and MiningA Political Ecology of Energy and Mining
Dr Gavin BridgeDr Gavin BridgeUniversity of ManchesterUniversity of Manchester
metabolism