Did you know that the world's largest producer of copper is in northern Chile?
Codelco, a state-owned mining company, made copper king in the region. But after decades of alleged pollution, three local advocates are fighting back against the industry and suing the state, according to Dialogue Earth.
Copper is a valuable ingredient for all kinds of industries, including clean energy solutions. Yet the process of digging it out of the ground is notorious for polluting the air, water, and soil around it when not done responsibly — and with dire consequences for the health of people who live nearby.
Calama, the city bordering Codelco's largest mines, is no exception. Dangerous metals have contaminated the city's drinking water, and its air was declared "saturated" with this pollution back in 2009. Now, residents are diagnosed with lung cancer at a rate three times the national average, Dialogue Earth reported.
This disparity is just one of the reasons that compelled activist Andrea Vásquez Alfaro, lawyer Sergio Chamorro, and city environmental analyst Reinaldo Díaz Duk to join forces. Together, they represent 20 different concerned groups that collectively filed the lawsuit.
Chamorro, who will lead the fight in the courts, described the situation further.
"Since Calama was declared saturated, permits have been granted for more than 700 mining projects," he told Dialogue Earth.
He explained to the outlet that the main goals of the lawsuit are to halt these new mining permits, as well as win damages from Codelco for the harm done to locals and the environment. He will then argue that the state must research the mines' impacts on human health — which he said it has never done — and then pay reparations to those impacted.
"Our intention is to see this through to the end," Chamorro concluded. "No one here can be against copper mining … What we're against is this model to which we're subjected. This resignation to living and dying contaminated."
This kind of local legal action can help force governments and corporations to clean up their act and take responsibility for pollution.
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Yes — everywhere 👏 Want to lend a hand to these kinds of causes? Supporting groups on the ground that are pushing for change goes a long way. In Calama, Vásquez Alfaro leads that group, which is known in English as the Coordinator for the Defense of the Loa River and Mother Earth.
"It's impressive," she remarked to Dialogue Earth while observing a Codelco mining facility from afar. "[Mining culture] only understands exploitation. For them, there's no life in the desert, only resources, and we're a nuisance. But we're not going to leave."
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