The Mirrar Clan Confronts the Jabiluka Uranium Mine (Environmental Ethics)

The Natural Beauty of Australia

In the ancient world people depended on the environment for every aspect of their life, be it food, water, clothing or shelter, or even entertainment and spirituality. Everything came from the Earth, so it makes sense, that to many ancient cultures, the Earth was sacred. Even in today’s world people depend just as much on the planet for everything, from the minerals in their electronics, to the electricity that powers their refrigerators, to the food inside, but today people are far less aware of how much value the environment still has and how it is essential to everyday life. Because of this new ignorance of the sources of the products we consume, it has become less and less easy for consumers to pay attention to the ethical practices of the companies from which they perchance, and it gives the companies less and less incentive to behave ethically in their dealings with the environment. Yet environmental ethics is more and more important nowadays as resources become more and more scarce and people are forced to account for the consequences of their behaviors and how human actions affect the ecosystems. Today questions of environmental ethics and environmental justice are ever-present and people are facing the social and environmental consequences of economic development.

Take for example the decade spanning battle of the Mirarr Clan (a small aboriginal clan of 52) against the massive mining company intent on defacing the tribe’s homeland in order to extract uranium from beneath the soil. The Australian government approved development of the Jabiluka Uranium Mine in 1976 with complete disregard of the people who live in the area and the effects that the mining would have on the families located there. The government and the company doing the mining were more concerned about the economic benefits of selling uranium for use in weapons and power plants, and medical equipment, but failed to take into account the other values of the land (other than economic) that the land possesses. The Mirrar cite many reasons for their opposition of the project, some anthropocentric—saying that it would be cruel to deprive these people of their home, no matter how few—but others more ecocentric (expressing concerns that waste from the mining process could harm the areas plant and animal life and infect the local streams) as well as sighting the areas aesthetic and cultural values. To the Mirrar—as well as many other aboriginal peoples, who live close to the land in a tribal lifestyle—the land itself is considered holy and a central part of the aboriginal culture, and to deface the land would provide economic gain that would be disproportionate to the cultural and aesthetic loss. This is a perfect example of how acting ethically in relations with the environment can prove difficult when weighing the many social economic and environmental effects of human activity.

While a preservationist might purpose banning mining entirely in the area, a neoclassical economist might argue that the economic growth that comes from the minerals is the most important aspect of the situation and the only thing worth considering. However an ecological economist would be forced to take into account the value of the ecosystem and the services it provides and a conservationist might seek to find a compromise, like ways to extract the resources with minimal sacrifice to the areas ascetic beauty and cultural significance perhaps with minimally invasive mining procedures. While these sorts of compromises are essential to preserving ecosystems while continuing economic progress, in my point of view the purely anthropocentric reasons against mining should be the most important to policy makers. In my view the rights of the people living on the land have more value than any economic gain and the government should have honored the rights of its citizens—no matter how few—over the desires of a large company. Luckily after years of protest and struggle the Mirrar clan was given veto rights over the mining operations in their homeland and they were able to preserve what was left of their sacred space.

Aboriginal Protesters (courtesy of http://www.indigenousrights.net.au)