Worlds of Gray and Green: Mineral Extraction as Ecological PracticeThe Anthropocene has arrived riding a wave of pollution. From "forever chemicals" to oceanic garbage patches, human-made chemical compounds are seemingly everywhere. Concerned about how these compounds disrupt multiple lives and ecologies, environmental scholars, activists, and affected communities have sought to curb the causes of pollution, focusing especially on the extractive industries. In Worlds of Gray and Green, authors Sebastián Ureta and Patricio Flores challenge us to rethink extraction as ecological practice. Adopting an environmental humanities analytic lens, Ureta and Flores offer a rich ethnographic exploration of the waste produced by Chile's El Teniente, the world's largest underground mine. Deposited in a massive dam, the waste—known as tailings—engages with human and non-human entities in multiple ways through a process the authors call geosymbiosis. Some of these geosymbioses result in toxicity and damage, while others become the basis of lively novel ecologies. A particular kind of power emerges in the process, one that is radically indifferent to human beings but that affects them in many ways. Learning to live with geosymbioses offers a tentative path forward amid ongoing environmental devastation. |
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Worlds of Gray and Green: Mineral Extraction as Ecological Practice Sebastián Ureta No preview available - 2022 |
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acid mine drainage agriculture algae Algal Blooms Alhué animals Anthropocene baseline basin Braden Carén Creek Carén Dam carp Carvallo caused chapter chemical Chilean CICA CODELCO CODELCO personnel cows creekbank crops Cuevas damage downstream dragon ecologies effects efluentes El Teniente Embalse Carén emergence enacted ENDESA engage environment environmental impact Epistemic Things especially experimental explore extraction Extractivism extractivismo farm farmers Flotation Process forms Fundación Chile geological geosymbioses geosymbiotic entanglements Given happened Hermosilla human infrastructure irrigation kilometers kind living Loncha massive medio ambiente megadrought Melipilla molybdenum Monsalve multiple multispecies mutualistic Nacional del Cobre natural neoliberal nonhuman organisms parasitic plaintiffs plants politics pollution Porphyry Copper potentially toxic Povinelli practice Primer Juzgado produce proliferation Rapel Rapel Lake regarding relaves residualism Santiago Science sedimentation seen spill started symbiopower symbiosis tailings dam tailings water technical Teniente tion toxic geosymbioses Toxic Torts University Press usually waste management water rights