‘Green Colonialism’ Threatens Numerically Small Peoples of the Russian North, Activists Say

 Paul Goble

            Staunton, July 2 – More than half of the minerals needed to make the transition to a carbon-neutral civilization are located under the lands of ethnic minorities. That puts environmentalists in Russia as in other countries in a difficult, indeed almost impossible situation.

            Any support they give to the development of resources that will make the transition they seek possible risks undermining or even destroying the indigenous populations who live on that land, a conflict that Moscow can be counted on to play up and use against any objections by these minorities to the extraction of lithium and other rare earths.

            This worries environmental activists who have long been struggling what is now called “green colonialism” and who want to fight climate change but not at the expense of destroying indigenous peoples (kedr.media/explain/lyudi-byutsya-za-kusok-hleba-i-rady-vsemu-chto-im-predlagayut/).

            Activists in other countries have suffered similar dilemmas and their international organizations have adopted strategies to limit the damage the exploitation of minerals needed to make the transition to a green economy possible with the least amount of damage to the lives of the indigenous populations.

            But Moscow has a horrific track record as far as being careful to ensure that its extraction of useful minerals doesn’t harm the populations living on the land above them. And now it will almost certainly use environmental arguments to justify its actions, thereby further undercutting the support the numerically small peoples of the Russian North have at home and abroad.