Sustainable Colonization

Tar Sands as Resource Colonialism

Dados Bibliográficos

ID3834280
AutoresSean Parsons, Sean Parson (Northern Arizona University, autor correspondente), Emily Ray (0000-0003-2395-3165, Sonoma State University)
Ano2018
Volume29
Fascículo3
Páginas68-86
Data de publicação2018-07-03
Peer ReviewedSim
Open AccessNão
TipoARTICLE
PeriódicoCapitalism Nature Socialism (JOURNAL)
Identificadores do periódicoISSN: 1045-5752 • E-ISSN: 1548-3290
EditoraInforma UK Limited (PUBLISHER • GB)
DOI10.1080/10455752.2016.1268187
OpenAlexW2563813189
IdiomaEN
Citações recebidas21
Referências citadas12

Canada is one of the world's largest petrostates, owing to large shale oil deposits, also known as tar sands, which can be found within its borders. In recent decades, as the price of crude oil has increased dramatically, corporations and the Canadian state have worked together to open the oil deposits in Northern Canada for extraction and transportation. Despite a stated commitment to environmental sustainability by the United States and Canadian governments, both have endorsed tar sands extraction and transport. Government and corporate entities have tried to reframe tar sands as "ethical oil," yet all steps in the process involved pose tremendous ecological, social, economic, and cultural threats to First Nations communities in Canada, landowners in the Midwest and Texas, local ecosystems, and the global climate. This practice is part of a long-standing pattern of appropriating and using public and First Nations land for economic development. We argue that tar sands production on First Nations land is a practice of resource colonialism: the theft and appropriation of land belonging to indigenous people in order to access natural resources. By branding tar sands as "ethical oil" and labeling production companies as "sustainable," the public and private sectors bound up in the extractive economy claim to provide an essential public service while misdirecting attention away from acts of colonialism that make these resources available. In this article, we examine the ways in which corporate and state entities use the discourse of sustainability as a cover for continued resource colonialism

Archaeology · Business · Colonialism · Economics · Economy · Geography · Indigenous · Natural resource · Oil sands · Political science · Sustainability · Indigenous Health, Education, and Rights · Law · Mining and Resource Management · Natural Resources and Economic Development · Ecology