Course 29/6 Gavin Bridge

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


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


Source: Bridge G. 2008. Journal of Economic Geography


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)


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!


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


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)


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


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’


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


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)



5



• Structural Adjustment Programme, 1988

• Mining boomdiamonds & goldgold production up 10x20% GDP, 25% exports

• Claims rush


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


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



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)



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


“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


4


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


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

Course 29/6 Gavin Bridge

Business

Transcript of Course 29/6 Gavin Bridge