Monday, March 27, 2017

The Resource Curse

Professor Guse said something very interesting to me in Friday's class - that "some of the poorest areas in the country are always surrounding extraction industries." It is troubling to imagine that profitable and booming industries, such as mining, can result in such economic struggle and resource scarcity.

After reading further into this, I found that there is a theory for the effects of extraction industries on local economies. The resource curse hypothesizes the trends in development of an area that has chosen to single in on a particular industry and to neglect other major industries that contribute to its economy. There are numerous case studies, and much debate, surrounding this theory as many people hold conflicting views of its validity, however, I find this theory to be significantly relatable to our discussion and readings on the Rosamont mine.

Much of the resource curse is based on the example of the Dutch disease, a situation relating to the Netherlands further entwining itself with the natural gas industry. Similar to the Rosamont mine dispute, this "disease" originated from the finding of ample natural resource reserves and resulted in a shift of focus to target a popular industry. Consequently, local economies suffered.

Although criticisms of the theory exist that claim that there are other more heavily weighted reasons for damages to local economies surrounding extraction industries, I have to disagree due to the historical trend of power-hungry competitors targeting natural resource industries. The Tohono O'odham people have long been caught in the middle of the greed and natural resource depletion that whirlwind around their reservation. I am hopeful that more people will look into the negative affects of the resource curse and further analyze its results, however, I worry that Native Americans have been the victims of its effects for far too long to remove themselves entirely.

No comments:

Post a Comment