"People, Planet, and Profit:" Mining and Socio-Environmental Catastrophes in Brazil (2015–2019)
Colloquium
22.02.2019 at 14:30
Location: Rachel Carson Center for Environment and Society, Munich, Germany
Convener: Dr. Ricardo Figueiredo (Visiting Scholar at the RCC)
“Sudden and Slow Violence along Sweet River: Contextualizing the Mariana Dam Disaster in Brazil, 2015.”
Jonatan Palmblad
“The Brazilian Iron Quadrangle and a Predicted Tragedy: Economic Interests, Neglectful Public Policies, and Socio-Environmental Impacts Caused by the Collapse of the Mining Dam in Brumadinho, 2019.”
Ricardo Figueiredo
This event consists of two short talks followed by a discussion. It focuses on the Brazilian Iron Quadrangle and the two tailings dam accidents that occurred in the state of Minas Gerais: the rupture of “Mina do Fundão” in Mariana (2015) and the collapse of “Mina do Córrego do Feijão” in (2019). In both cases, there were immeasurable environmental impacts, contamination of rivers by “toxic mud,” and the loss of many human lives. Moreover, both in Mariana and Brumadinho, the largest mining company in the world (Companhia Vale do Rio Doce, VALE) was responsible for the tragedy, which not only highlights the negligence of its inspection bodies and authorities, but also a failure to reinforce Brazilian environmental law. Finally, we consider these tragedies as a metaphor for an unsustainable modern society that ignores environmental limits and—in the name of progress, civilization, economic growth, and consumption—advances along an unethical trajectory.