Hi everyone! In today’s second post of the week, I will be going through 2 journal articles and 1 book I found.
The book I discovered was written by Robins in 2011. It features the silver mining industry in the Andes. I briefly read through the book, but to better let you understand what happened in this part of South America, I thought that it would be great if you could watch this simple video instead.
Mining contributes to the country’s economy, and as you can see in the video, it is a precarious form of work. Robins’ book examines the interrelationships between silver (and mercury) production, urban environments, and the people who live and work in them. He specifically focuses on telling the stories of the natives and indigenous people in the region. This complements the paper done by Jacobi et al. (2016). They emphasize that local knowledges are important in development projects, because they better understand the lived and material consequences of pollution. A lot of what was being discussed in the paper ties in well with a political ecology perspective, something that I learnt in GE4219 in NUS. I believe it forms the crux of GE4232 Global Political Ecologies as well! Regardless, in our module that is mainly about environmental pollution, we can still learn about how important integrating local knowledges into pollution management strategies.
Finally, the paper done by Kirikkaleli & Oyebanji (2022) focus on the links between carbon emissions, trade (and globalization), and pollution. Though the paper centres around discussions related to climate change, it does provide some insights on pollution in Bolivia. In some parts of Bolivia, polluting industries continue to pollute because the regulations to monitor pollution are weak. This is a recurring problem in many developing countries in the Global South. Nevertheless, as you did see in the IQAir projection in the previous blog post, the air quality in Bolivia is much less polluted than in other countries in the Global South. It would be ideal for these countries to follow Bolivia’s path. Although imperfect, it is proof that developing countries can instigate improvement themselves.
Up next, Fiji. See you in the next one! ✿
References
BBC News (2014) ‘The mountain that eats men’ in Bolivia – BBC News. 9 October. Available from: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=XHZS74Z9qlM [Accessed: 4 February 2022].
Jacobi, J., Mathez-Stiefel, S. L., Gambon, H., Rist, S. & Altieri, M. (2016) Whose Knowledge, Whose Development? Use and Role of Local and External Knowledge in Agroforestry Projects in Bolivia. Environmental Management. 59, 464-476. Available from: https://link-springer-com.libproxy1.nus.edu.sg/content/pdf/10.1007/s00267-016-0805-0.pdf [Accessed: 4 February 2022].
Kirikkaleli, D. & Oyebanji, M. O. (2022) Consumption-Base Carbon Emissions, Trade, and Globalization: An Empirical Study of Bolivia. Environmental Science and Pollution Research. Available from: https://link-springer-com.libproxy1.nus.edu.sg/article/10.1007%2Fs11356-022-18495-6 [Accessed: 4 February 2022].
Robins, N. A. (2011) Mercury, Mining, and Empire: The Human and Ecological Cost of Colonial Silver Mining in the Andes. Indiana University Press. Available from: https://muse-jhu-edu.libproxy1.nus.edu.sg/book/12859 [Accessed: 4 February 2022].