Extraction

The materials economy begins with extraction, which means taking and using the resources and
services which the planet provides. The planet’s resources and services provide tremendous value,1
both in terms of stuff (such as wood, minerals, water, plants, animals) but also in ecosystem services
(such as cycling water, carbon, and nutrients). This earth-provided value is often referred to as Natural
Capital which includes the resources, living systems and ecosystem services2 of the planet, on which
our materials economy, and our very survival, depends.

The problem here is threefold: we’re using too much stuff, the
processes by which we extract all that stuff cause more damage
and we’re not sharing the stuff equitably.

In order to turn things around, we need to extract less and

ensure that the extraction processes we do use support envi-
ronmental, community and worker well-being. And we need
a more equitable distribution of both the (drastically reduced)
harms and the good stuff thatall this extraction.

One way to measure humanity’s impact on the planet is through our col-
lective environmental footprint.3 Currently, humanity’s global footprint
exceeds the Earth’s biological capacity by about 25 percent.”4 That is
why I say that, although it is hard to hear, we are using too much stuff!
On top of extracting too much, the processes we use to extract all that stuff – like clear cutting forests,5
mountain top removal mining,6 bottom trawling fishing7 and others – further damage ecosystems,
change the climate, pollute water, poison workers and destroy communities.

And, of course, the use of all this stuff we’re extracting isn’t equitably distributed around the globe.
Some people are using way more than their share while others are using far too little. The facts are
stark. Today, over half the world’s population lives on less than US$2.00 a day.8 Twenty percent of the
world’s population—mostly living in the industrialized nations—consume 86% of the world’s goods.9
The richest 50 million people, living mostly in Europe and North America, have the same income as
the 2.7 billion poorest people. Another way to say this is that “the slice of the cake taken by 1% is the
same size as that handed to the poorest 57%.”10 Clearly, while some parts of the world need to con-
sume less, others need to increase their consumption in order to meet even their basic needs. We’ve
got to meet somewhere in the middle. Some use more, some use less but the total stays within the
planet’s ecological limits.

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The combined environmental, social, cultural, and economic
impacts of current rates and practices of extraction can be
devastating. One organization, Global Rights, Rules and
Responsibilities,11 working to address these issues provides an
overview of the problems at this first stage of the materials econ-
omy: “Oil pipelines, drilling platforms, gas refineries and opencast
mines often contaminate land and water, destroy natural habitats
and have severe and long-lasting impacts on public health and
safety, local cultures and community-based livelihoods. Extractive resource industries also appear to
distort macroeconomic development in many countries through what is increasingly being understood
as a “resource curse”. The combination of large unaccountable revenues, poor governance, corrup-
tion, inadequate distribution of revenues to local communities and local environmental and social
costs, leave many countries poorer than before they developed their extractive resources.”12

Fortunately, there is another way. We can do better.

Environment
Mining/Oil and Gas

Mining and oil and gas extraction are among the dirtiest industries in the world, with enormous envi-
ronmental impacts at the local and global level.

Toxic Pollution

Many mining techniques use toxic chemicals in the process and leave behind sulfuric acid, mercury,
cyanide and other toxic contamination of the air, water and surrounding lands. Air pollution from oil
and gas development includes benzene, toluene, carbon monoxide, hydrogen sulfides, nitrogen
oxides, ozone, particulates, volatile organic compounds and more.13

Waste

Mining creates huge amounts of solid waste which gets left behind, including waste rock, tailings,
and overburden material removed during mineral excavation and extraction. Every year, mines in the
United States alone generate an amount of waste equivalent in weight to nearly 9 times the trash pro-
duced by all its cities and towns combined.14 The production of one gold wedding ring creates about
20 tons of mining waste.15

Energy Consumption:

Metals mining sector consumes 7% of global energy production but contributes only 0.09% of global
employment.16

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Climate Change

As we know all too well, burning of oil, gas and coal are all major contributors to global climate
change,17 so the more we can leave this stuff in the ground in favor of energy conservation and cleaner
alternatives, the better.

Forests
The forestry sector is another extractive industry that is threatening the health of the planet locally
and globally. Excessive logging, along with climate change and agricultural and urban expansion are
combining to create a state of crisis for the world’s forests and the many communities most directly
dependent on them.

The bottom line is: we need forests. Forests provide timber and non-timber forests products, like
medicines, food and cultural stuff. Forests provide home for about two-thirds of the species on earth;
deforestation of closed tropical rainforests could account for the loss of as many as 100 species a day.
And it is not just wildlife which lives in the forests -- forests provide home to 300 million people around
the world and about 60 million indigenous people are almost wholly dependent on forests.18 Forests
provide critical eco-systems services that keep the planet functioning, including water conservation,
climate regulation, biodiversity protection and serving as the lungs of the planet. We simply can not
survive without forests.

Yet, we’ve already lost four-fifths of our planet’s old-growth forests.19 Every year, 50,000 forest species
go extinct and millions of tons of carbon dioxide stored in healthy trees and forest soils are released
into the atmosphere.20 The world’s poorest people bear the brunt of forest loss, since forest resources
sustain most of the 1.2 billion people in the world who live in extreme poverty.21

There are many organizations working to protect forests, promote sustainable forestry practices, secure
the rights of forest-dwellers and impacted communities, and reduce the demand for timber products.

Water
Water is another of the Earth’s resources which is being extracted beyond the planet’s ability to replen-
ish it. Over 70% of our Earth’s surface is covered by water, but the amount of fresh water, which we use
for drinking and sanitation, agriculture and industrial uses, is limited. Of all the water on earth, 97.5% is
salt water and only 2.5% is fresh water, most of which is frozen in the icecaps or is deep underground
in aquifers so which we can’t reach. Only about 1 percent of the world’s water is accessible for direct
human use. This includes the water we see, the water in lakes, rivers, reservoirs and those underground
sources that are shallow enough to be tapped at an affordable cost. Only this 1 percent is regularly
renewed by rain and snowfall and is available on a sustainable basis. So we’re in trouble if we use too
much.

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It is that 1% of water that we use to meet all our needs for drinking, sanitation, irrigation, and industrial
use. Increases in population, urbanization, industrialization, and consumption all mean that demand
for water also increases. We’re using and wasting more water than ever before and the supply of clean
available water is shrinking from pollution, contamination and climate change. So, as I said in the film,
here’s a limit. This is a big one, since we really really need water to survive.

Water is essential to life, yet we’re already bumping up against serious limits. About one-third of the
world’s population lives in countries that are experiencing water stress. At least one in six people
don’t have access to safe drinking water.22 Everyday, thousands of people—mostly children—die from
preventable diseases contracted because they do not have access to clean water. In Asia, where water
has always been regarded as an abundant resource, the amount of water available for each person
declined by 40-60% between 1955 and 1990. Projections suggest that most Asian countries will have
severe water problems by the year 2025.23 Yikes!

The right to water has been recognized internationally through the United Nations Committee on
Economic, Social and Cultural Rights. Around the world, organizations are working to secure this right,
to protect and ensure the sustainable and fair access and use of the planet’s water. Organizations are
working against the diversion of water from community to industry needs, against the privatization and
the commodification of water, and to stand up for water justice.24

Indigenous Rights
Indigenous communities bear a disproportionate impact from extractive industries.
Around the world, many Indigenous communities live in resource-rich areas, which are targeted for
logging, mining, oil and gas and other kinds of extractive industries. Indigenous peoples’ livelihoods
and cultures often depend on access to land and natural resources. Yet indigenous communities are
often discriminated against and shut out of decision making about projects that most directly affect
their communities. As the Indigenous Environmental Network25 states: “The Indigenous Peoples of the
Americas have lived for over 500 years in confrontation with an immigrant society that holds an oppos-
ing world view. As a result we are now facing an environmental crisis which threatens the survival of all
natural life.”26

Indigenous communities are gaining ground in securing their rights to participate in environmental
planning processes. The 2002 World Summit on Sustainable Development (WSSD) in South Africa,
acknowledged the potential of indigenous peoples as ‘stewards’ of national and global natural
resources and biodiversity and reaffirmed the important role of indigenous peoples in sustainable
development.27

More recently, Indigenous People around the world celebrated a major victory. On September 13,
2007, the United Nations adopted a Declaration on the Rights of Indigenous Peoples28 which is a huge
step towards protecting the environmental, economic and other rights of indigenous people and com-
munities. This Declaration was adopted by the UN General Assembly after more than twenty years of

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advocacy and negotiations by an overwhelming majority of 143 votes in favour, only 4 negative votes
cast (Canada, Australia, New Zealand, United States) and 11 abstentions.

In spite of this official political recognition, indigenous communities continue to be targeted for
destructive extractive projects around the world, often with little or no opportunity for impacted com-
munities to engage in any meaningful public participation process. As the International Workgroup
Group for Indigenous Affairs29 explains: “translating this political recognition into concrete advances
locally, nationally, regionally and internationally remains a big challenge for indigenous peoples.
Development interventions in favour of indigenous peoples have been rare, and are not usually guided
by their own priorities. In the name of development or free trade, mining, oil and gas developments,
plantations and the like encroach on indigenous peoples’ lands and territories and make their life and
survival increasingly difficult.”30

Health
Remember all those people who live on the planet in the Story of Stuff film? Well, extractive industries
have negative health impacts for them too, in addition to the damage to the environment.

All over the world, in communities hosting intensive logging, mining, or oil and gas drilling facilities,
community residents are reporting health impacts tied to pollution, water degradation, and environ-
mental toxics associated with the extractive industries. In mining, oil and gas sites, there are reports of
increased asthma, respiratory and cardiovascular illnesses, autoimmune diseases, liver failure, cancer
and other ailments.

Organizations around the world are coming together to study and organize around the health impacts
of extractive industries. For example, in October 2005, approximately 120 citizens, local government
representatives, scientists, and health professionals from Canada and the U.S. met in New Mexico
to learn about toxic chemicals and pollutants associated with oil and gas development.31 One of
the presenters there was Dr Theo Colburn, co-author of the must-read book Our Stolen Future.32
Colburn described some causes of health impacts from oil and gas development including: depletion
of potable water and competition for already marginal drinking water supplies; downstream water
impacts from increased salinity, dissolved solids and other toxic trace elements that get into the water;
and release of toxic industrial chemicals into the ecosystem.33

Workers
Like in other stages of the materials economy, workers at the extraction stage also bear the brunt of
dangerous working conditions. The International Labor Organization34 (ILO) has documented its con-
cerns about the health and safety of workers in the extractive industries.

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The ILO reports that mining accounts for only 0.4% of the global workforce, but is responsible for over
3% of fatal accidents at work (about 11,000 per year, about 30 each day).35 No reliable data exist as far
as injuries are concerned, but they are significant, as is the number of workers affected by occupational
diseases (such as pneumoconioses, hearing loss and the effects of vibration) whose premature disabil-
ity and even death can be directly attributed to their work.36

The ILO also reports that forestry is one of the three most dangerous occupations in most countries.37
All types of forestry workers—but in particular contractors, self-employed and forest farmers—are
exposed to high accident risks including many fatalities and serious health problems. The ILO’s con-
cern is growing as an increasing number of contract workers are hired for forestry work around the
world.38 Contractors in many countries are not covered by labour legislation and enjoy much less
protection and employment security than full time employed workers. Workers often have to live in
camps in very isolated areas without basic shelter, adequate food, or health care. Work conditions can
be harsh and turnover in the workforce tends to be high, even in many industrialized countries.

Globalization
Within nations and internationally, the benefits and costs of extractive industries are not distributed
equitability. And in an increasingly globalized economy, extractive projects are increasingly run by mul-
tinational companies and financed by international financial institutes, such as the World Bank, whose
decision-making centers are far from the impacted communities. Having distant and often unrespon-
sive decision-makers running these projects make even harder for local communities to have a mean-
ingful voice in project planning. Too often, the most heavily impacted communities have the least say
in the projects and gain the least from the downstream benefits of the resource use.

As the non-profit Bank Information Center,39 explains: “Many civil society groups argue that the risks
of these activities are disproportionately borne by the populations of developing countries while the
rewards consistently accrue to corporations and consumers in developed states. In addition, some
argue that the promotion of extractive industries has fueled a detrimental dependence on commodity
exports in many countries of the Global South.”40
Because of the huge negative environmental and social impacts of large scale extraction projects,
these projects are especially controversial. Many organizations around the world are working to influ-
ence the financial backers – both public and private – of these projects to get them to adhere to higher
environmental, social and human rights standards. Advocacy and activism by civil society groups has
forced public and private lending institutions to adopt some policies to promote environmental and
social issues, but progress has been inadequate and slow.

For example, the World Bank,41 a huge financial backer of extraction projects around the world loaning
an average of $20-$25 billion annually, did not even have mandatory environmental review proce-
dures until 1987. Even with these policies, it continues to fund devastating extractive industry projects
and be a target for intense public opposition. As Environmental Defense says: “Unfortunately, these
institutions have a history of funding environmentally and socially unsound development initiatives,
often of little benefit to the world’s poor. They share the hallmarks of failed development initiatives and

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a culture of loan approval - in which staff are rewarded, above all, for pushing money, instead of for
economic, social, and environmental results.”42

Another Way
Fortunately, there is another way. We can extract fewer resources from the planet. We can improve
our extractive policies and practices to be less harmful to the planet, the workers and host communi-
ties. And we can more equitably share the (drastically reduced) harms and the benefits of the planet’s
extracted resources.

Progress is being made on many fronts. Some examples are listed below. Contact the organizations
listed to find out about more examples and to get involved.

Mining

Legal Reform:
Internationally, environmental organizations are calling for the development of strong environmental
and social standards to shrink the impact of mining.43,44

In the U.S. recent progress has been made to finally end horrific mining practices allowed under a
mining law that was enacted in 1872 and hadn’t been updated since. In October 2007, the U.S. House
of representatives voted to overhaul the 1872 Mining Law. In the words of Earthworks,45 a U.S. orga-
nization working on mining: “This is a HUGE step towards requiring responsible mining practices on
public lands in the U.S.”46

Market Campaigns:
In the U.S. and internationally, many organizations are working to influence consumer demand to shift
the market for metals towards more environmentally and socially responsible practices. For example,
the No Dirty Gold Campaign47 has developed a set of voluntary guidelines called “The Golden Rules”
which jewelry retailers can sign on to in order to promote environmental, worker and community
rights.48

Forestry

Certification:
There are ways to harvest both timber and non-timber products from forests without decimating com-
munities and ecosystems. One strategy is to evaluate and certify forestry projects that meet specific
environmental and social standards. The Forest Stewardship Council (FSC)49 is a leading forest certifica-
tion group that is now active in 45 countries. Over the past 13 years, over 90 million hectares in more
than 70 countries have been certified according to FSC standards while several thousand products are
produced using FSC-certified wood and carrying the FSC trademark.

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Community Forestry:
The term “Community Forestry” describes a new school of forest management, in which commu-
nity forests are managed by social groups for multiple benefits, not primarily for business purposes.
Actually, this isn’t really a “new school of thought” since many rural and indigenous communities
around the world have a long tradition of managing forests through the collective efforts of community
members, but now others are beginning to see the enormous benefits of this approach. The World
Wildlife Fund50 explains that “community forest management has demonstrated potential to make
important contributions to poverty alleviation and conservation objectives. However, most approaches
to responsible forest management, and forest certification in particular, have marginalized the role that
community managed forests have played, and can play, in achieving multiple social, economic and
conservation benefits.”51

Other Solutions
Reducing demand, increasing efficiency, finding alternatives:

While advancing sustainability standards and integrating worker and community voices into the
planning processes can help lessen the impact of specific extractive projects, if we’re really going to
get this extraction stage to be good for people and the planet, we need deeper changes. I am most
excited by efforts to radically reduce the overall demand for these extractive industries through using
fewer resources, increasing our recourse use efficiency and finding alternatives – all of which are very
possible and already happening.

Alternative Energy:

Interest and investment is renewable energy, including wind and solar power, is growing! For example,
In 2005, worldwide production of photovoltaic cells jumped 45 percent to nearly 1,730 megawatts,
six times the level in 2000.52 Global wind power capacity jumped 24 percent in 2005, to nearly 60,000
megawatts. The growth in wind power capacity was nearly four times the growth in nuclear power
capacity.53

Renewable energy and increased conservation not only mean less environmentally damaging extrac-
tion and less climate change, but it also means more green jobs! A new report by the American Solar
Energy Society54 says that the renewable energy and energy efficiency industries stand to add 8.5
million green collar jobs and pump trillions of dollars in revenues during the next twenty years. Those
numbers coud increase to 40 million jobs and $4.5 million in revenues “with the appropriate public
policy, including a renewable portfolio standard, renewable energy incentives, public education and
research and development”. By 2030 as many as one in four workers could work in these fields.55

Materials and Energy efficiency:

From a materials and energy viewpoint, our current economy and industrial models are vastly ineffi-
cient. We could use less and waste less, starting right now. In the U.S. the materials used by the indus-
try amounts to more than twenty times each person’s weight per day – more than one million pounds

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per American per year.56 We simply don’t need to use – and waste – so much stuff!
A growing number of scientists, activists, economists, government officials and businesspeople are
calling for a massive increase in our resource productivity, in other words to extract far more produc-
tivity per pound of material or unit of energy. The “Factor Ten Club”57 issued a declaration in 199458
calling for an increase is resource productivity by a factor of ten within 50 years which, they said “is
technically feasible if we mobilise our know-how to generate new products, services, as well as new
methods of manufacturing.”59 Paul Hawken and Amory and Hunter Lovins have documented many
opportunities for achieving this radical increase in materials and energy efficient in their 1994 book
Natural Capitalism.60 As Hawken says: Any improvement that produces the same or a better stream of
services from a smaller flow of stuff can produce the same materials wealth with less effort, transporta-
tion, waste and cost.”61

1 The value of biological services flowing directly into society from the stock of natural capital are worth at least $36 trillion annually, Costanza et
al. (1997) quoted in Hawken, Lovins, Lovins. Natural Capitalism (1999) p. 5.

2 Hawken, et. al., Natural Capitalism, p. 4.

3 The Ecological Footprint is a resource management tool that measures how much land and water area a human population requires to pro-
duce the resources it consumes and to absorb its wastes under prevailing technology. Link to: www.footprintnetwork.org

4 http://www.footprintnetwork.org/gfn_sub.php?content=national_footprints

5 http://www.nrdc.org/land/forests/fcut.asp

6 http://www.mountainjusticesummer.org/facts/steps.php

7 http://www.greenpeace.org/usa/campaigns/oceans/threats/bottom-trawling

8 World Health Organization: http://www.who.int/whr/2002/chapter4/en/index1.html

9 1998 Human Development Report, United Nations Development Programme (link: http://hdr.undp.org/en/reports/global/hdr1998/)

10 Larry Elliott, A cure worse than the disease, The Guardian, January 21, 2002 (link: http://www.guardian.co.uk/debt/Story/0,2763,636624,00.html)

11 www.grrr-now.org

12 See grrr-now.org

13 For a full list of air pollutants associated with mining, oil and gas, see EarthWorks: http://www.earthworksaction.org/aircontaminants.cfm

14 www.nodirtygold.org/pubs/DirtyMetals_RuinedLands.pdf

15 No Dirty Gold Campaign, www.nodirtygold.org

16 No Dirty Gold Campaign, www.nodirtygold.org

17 http://www.epa.gov/climatechange/emissions/usinventoryreport.html

18 FAO: www.fao.org/forestry/

19 Rainforest Action Network, www.ran.org

20 Rainforest Action Network, www.ran.org

21 World Wildlife Fund: http://www.worldwildlife.org/forests/

22 WHO/UNICEF JMP, 2004

23 University of Michigan (2006) “Human Appropriation of the World’s Fresh Water Supply,
”http://www.globalchange.umich.edu/globalchange2/current/lectures/freshwater_supply/freshwater.html

24 http://www.canadians.org/water/issues/right/global_movement.html

25 http://www ienearth.org

26 http://www.ienearth.org/ienprin.html

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27 http://www.iwgia.org/sw219.asp

28 http://www.un.org/esa/socdev/unpfii/en/declaration.html

29 www.iwgia.org

30 http://www.iwgia.org/sw219.asp

31 http://www.mineralpolicy.org/Summit.cfm

32 Ourstolenfuture.org

33 “Natural Gas Development: A Public Health Concern: Water, Land and Air Pathways”
by Theo Colburn, 2005, available at: earthworksaction.org/pubs/colburn2.pdf

34 http://www.ilo.org

35 http://www.ilo.org/public/english/dialogue/sector/sectors/mining/safety.htm

36 http://www.ilo.org/public/english/dialogue/sector/sectors/mining/safety.htm

37 http://www.ilo.org/public/english/dialogue/sector/sectors/forest/concerns.htm

38 http://www.ilo.org/public/english/dialogue/sector/sectors/forest/concerns.htm

39 http://www.bicusa.org

40 Bank Information Center, bicusa.org

41 http://www.worldbank.org/

42 http://www.environmentaldefense.org/page.cfm?tagID=76

43 http://www.corpwatch.org/article.php?id=361

44 http://www.earthworksaction.org/intlpolicy.cfm

45 earthworksaction.org

46 http://earthworksaction.org/

47 http://www.nodirtygold.org

48 http://www.nodirtygold.org/goldenrules.cfm

49 http://www.fsc.org

50 http://www.www.org

51 http://www.worldwildlife.org/forests/basic/community.cfm

52 Worldwatch Institute, 2006-2007 Vital Signs, p.38.

53 Worldwatch Institute, 2006-2007 Vital Signs, p.36.

54 http://www www.ases.org

55 “Renewable Energy and Energy Efficiency: Economic Drivers for the 21st Century,”
from the American Solar Energy Society (2007)

56 Hawken et. Al. Natural Capitalism. p. 8.

57 http://www.factor10-institute.org/

58 http://www.techfak.uni-bielefeld.de/~walter/f10/declaration94.html

59 http://www.techfak.uni-bielefeld.de/~walter/f10/declaration94.html

60 http://www.naturalcapital.org/

61 Hawken, Natural Capitalism, p. 62

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