The environmental and human cost of mineral extraction is becoming clearer and more alarming by the day. Ghana is a case in point where about 60 per cent of waterways are now heavily polluted due to gold mining along riverbanks.
Many communities have lost access to safe drinking water. These environmental crises are exacerbated by deepening inequality and social divides in many mining-dependent countries. Against this backdrop, major economies are rapidly reshaping resource geopolitics.
As things stand, the United States is scrambling to secure, often through coercion and aggressive negotiating tactics, the minerals it needs for electric vehicles (EVs), renewable energy and more.
We should be worried that the companies and countries that helped drive global warming, environmental degradation and human rights abuses now seek to dominate the mineral sector.
Allowing them to do so will put the entire humanity at risk. Yet, despite over-whelming evidence, governments around the world are weakening environmental protections to lure foreign investment, thereby endangering the very ecosystems.
SHAFI AHMED KHOWAJA
HYDERABAD
