ATM Reactions on the Statements of Presidentiables on the Issue of Mining
January 31, 2022 | Alyansa Tigil Mina (ATM)
ATM is largely dismayed that presidential candidates who engaged public interviews in the last few days, consider “responsible mining” as an acceptable framework or concept.
We must disabuse them of this misinformation, or simply put, “fake news”.
First, there is no such thing as “sustainable mining”, as mentioned by Tito Boy Abunda. That concept was first floated in 2012 during the Rio+20 Summit in Brazil, by the International Council of Mines and Metals (ICMM).
In less than a year, global environmental groups denounced and exposed this concept as unscientific and socially unacceptable. The ICMM immediately dropped any pretense about “sustainable mining”.
By 2015, the concept of “responsible mining” was introduced, to replace the fully-debunked “sustainable mining”. To this date, there is no legal definition of this “responsible mining”. But the mining industry is trying very hard to sell the idea to allow themselves to be branded as “part of the solutions” of climate change, poverty, environmental destruction and natural disasters.
The re-branding effort is interesting, but reality depicts a different story for mining-affected communities in particular and for national sustainable development in general.
We share our specific reactions to the presidential candidates position on mining, as follows:
For more details, please contact: Jaybe Garganera ATM National Coordinator | nc@alyansatigilmina.net | (+63917) 5498218
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