Abstract
This article analyses the lithium-ion Battery through a green criminological lens. It explores green criminological reasoning, particularly the framework of “ecocide,” in order to frame the renewables market as an area of emergent concern for criminologists. Two case studies are analysed in pursuit of this goal: the case of coltan Mining in the Democratic Republic of the Congo; and the case of lithium extraction in the “lithium triangle” nations of Argentina, Bolivia, and Chile. This article initially examines the issue of coltan mining through a mainstream criminological lens, before moving to explore the issues from a green criminological perspective. In doing so, the advantages of the green criminological model are highlighted, and it is demonstrated that the contemporary renewables market is an area of criminological interest.
Highlights
As the effects of global warming become an everyday reality for much of the worlds’population, the imperative for a transition away from fossil fuels becomes ever clearer
Two case studies are analysed in pursuit of this goal: the case of coltan Mining in the Democratic Republic of the Congo; and the case of lithium extraction in the “lithium triangle” nations of Argentina, Bolivia, and Chile
This article initially examines the issue of coltan mining through a mainstream criminological lens, before moving to explore the issues from a green criminological perspective
Summary
As the effects of global warming become an everyday reality for much of the worlds’population, the imperative for a transition away from fossil fuels becomes ever clearer. The hunting to exhaustion of the Tatanka (the Lakota term for what is in English referred to as the “Bison”) for European profit engineered the disruption of the cultural practices of the Lakota tribes whose lives and livelihoods depended on the animal.[35] The concept of ecocide recognises that the crisis of climate change is not a crisis of external “environment,” but rather a crisis in the relation between man-made politico-economic systems and nature, wherein the exploitation of natural resources required by the conditions of production of modern capitalism are driving the destruction of the ecosystems that support organised life on Earth.[36] Agnew frames everyday participation in this process via consumerism as “everyday ecocide.”[37] Resources on Earth are finite, but the logic of growth-driven capitalism requires an impossible model of endless growth, which in turn drives humanity to an unsustainable mode of life.[38] A robust green criminological perspective is rooted in a critical examination of the conditions of modern capitalism.
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