Extractivism

Extractivism is the exploitation of natural resources on a mass scale, creating significant economic profits for a few powerful people and corporations in the short term, but too often resulting in minimal benefits for the communities resources are found in; driver of displacement, health inequities, human rights violations, ecological degradation, and colonial violence - Columban Center, adapted by Michelle Xie

Extractivism can be traced back more than 500 years all the way to the European colonial expansion. 

Examples of extractivism

Environmental Damage

Fast fashion uses cheap and toxic textile dyes. The fashion industry is the second largest polluter of clean water globally. Cheap fabrics like polyester are derived from fossil fuels. Conventional cotton growers from developing countries use enormous quantities of water and pesticides. Deforestation to make room for more cotton fields and farming for leather and leather processing plants is a further problem, and hundreds of chemicals are required to process animal hides. Animals are also impacted by fast fashion as toxic waste is released in waterways and ingested by land and marine life. Animal products such as leather, fur, and wool can result in animal exploitation and abuse. 20% of the garments are discarded on the manufacturing line and 90% are thrown away in less than a year by consumers.

Exploited Labour

About 93% of fast fashion brands fail to pay their garment workers the minimum living wage. People in fast fashion are exposed to toxic cancer-causing chemicals and brutal working conditions, and much of production occurs in the already highly-exploited Global South. Fast fashion dyes are often discarded into local waters, adversely impacting the health of workers, animals, and nearby residents. Workers, some of which are children, work long hours, for low wages, and under mental and physical abuse.

The exploitation of people

Exploitation for resources has appropriated human bodies in the form of slaves or, more recently, as labor-intensive workers. Extractive projects are normally located near marginalized, poor, and racialized populations. These projects often diminish existing economic activities and disrupt community networks and social structures. Extractive industries remove the land rights of people via cultural disruption and violence. There is sometimes an increase in prostitution and sexual violence in communities restructured by extractivism.

The exploitation of Latin America, Africa and Asia

You can’t tell the history of many colonies without talking about the looting of minerals, metals, and other high-value resources. European crowns and later the United States looted resources in Latin America, Africa, and Asia. In the last 20 years, several governments in Latin America, Africa, and Asia have asserted national control over new forms of primary-production extractive industries. Today, much of these countries experience the brunt of the climate crisis, and most are economically disadvantaged due to the exploitation that happened many years ago.

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