Off-world robotic excavation for Large-scale habitat construction and resource extraction

This paper describes technologies we have developed to perform autonomous large-scale off-world excavation. A scale dragline excavator of size similar to that required for lunar excavation was made capable of autonomous control. Systems have been put in place to allow remote operation of the machine from anywhere in the world. Algorithms have been developed for complete autonomous digging and dumping of material taking into account machine and terrain constraints and regolith variability. Experimental results are presented showing the ability to autonomously excavate and move large amounts of regolith and accurately place it at a specified location.

Gender dimensions of resource extraction : the place of women

This chapter examines two core dimensions of women’s gendered experiences of mining in Australia and more specifically in Western Australia (WA). First, the chapter explores what has been and continues to be women’s principal relationship to mining encapsulated in the social and cultural identity of the ‘mining wife’ and, more recently, ‘fly-in/fly-out (FIFO) wife’. Second, the chapter addresses the fraught emergence of women as mineworkers. As the research presented in this chapter makes clear, the human cost of developmentalism was and continues to be deeply gendered.

Capital Income Taxation, Depletion, Allowances and Non-Renewable Resource Extraction

Dans Cet Article, Nous Etudions les Distorsions Que Cause L'impot Sur le Revenu des Societes Dans le Profil de Production des Firmes Extractives et Dans L'allocation des Ressources Entre les Secteurs D'extraction et les Autres Secteurs Soumis a L'impot Sur les Societes. Nous Etudions En Particulier L'allocation D'epuisement, Dont Nous Montrons Qu'elle Peut Trouver Sa Justification, Non Pas a Assurer la Neutralite de L'impot, Mais En Permettant L'etablissement de Taux Effectifs D'imposition Identiques Dans les Secteurs D'extraction et Dans les Autres Secteurs.

Ending Exploitation: Natural Resource Extraction and 1970s Legislature – Tom Towe & Harrison Fagg “In the Crucible of Change”

Abstract to be posted.

The Rise of Native Voices Against Natural Resource Extraction in Latin America [Student's Paper Series]

Latin America, a region rich in both energy resources and native heritage, faces a rising politico-social confrontation that has been growing for over two decades. While resources like oil and gas are exploited to enhance the state’s economic growth, indigenous groups feel threatened because the operations related to this exploitation are infringing on their homelands. Furthermore, they believe that the potential resource wealth found in these environmentally-sensitive regions is provoking an “intrusion” in their ancestral territory of either government agencies or corporations allowed by governmental decree. Indigenous groups, which have achieved greater political voice over the past decade, are protesting against government violations. These protests have reached the media and received international attention, leading the discourse on topics such as civil and human rights violations. When this happens, the State finds itself “between a rock and a hard place”: In a debate between indigenous groups’ rights and economic sustainability.

Confronting the ‘resource curse or cure’ binary

The use of the curse or cure dichotomy to frame a discussion around the impacts of mining is an oversimplification, not least in the emphasis on one or the other (as opposed to curse and cure). It is, however, a potent trope for engaging critically with the consequences of mining not only in narrow economic terms but also in regard to political, social and environmental costs and benefits. Further, as Goodman and Worth (2008: 201) point out, to engage with the resource curse or cure question is to also engage more broadly with “the internal contradictions of capitalist development” as evident, for example, in divisions “between those who benefit from and those who bear the costs of accumulation” and the many conflicts—political, social, economic, environmental—attending resource extraction. It is in this sense that this volume mobilises the ‘resource curse or cure?’ motif.

Spatial and temporal modeling of community non-timber forest extraction

This paper examines the interaction of spatial and dynamic aspects of resource extraction from forests by local people. Highly cyclical and varied across space and time, the patterns of resource extraction resulting from the spatial–temporal model bear little resemblance to the patterns drawn from focusing either on spatial or temporal aspects of extraction alone. Ignoring this variability inaccurately depicts villagers’ dependence on different parts of the forest and could result in inappropriate policies. Similarly, the spatial links in extraction decisions imply that policies imposed in one area can have unintended consequences in other areas. Combining the spatial–temporal model with a measure of success in community forest management—the ability to avoid open-access resource degradation—characterizes the impact of incomplete property rights on patterns of resource extraction and stocks.

The impact of buffer zone size and management on illegal extraction, park protection and enforcement

Many protected areas or parks in developing countries have buffer zones at their boundaries to achieve the dual goals of protecting park resources and providing resource benefits to neighbouring people. Despite the prevalence of these zoning policies, few behavioural models of people’s buffer zone use inform the sizing and management of those zones. This paper uses a spatially explicit resource extraction model to examine the impact of buffer zone size and management on extraction by local people, both legal and illegal, and the impact of that extraction on forest quality in the park’s core and buffer zone. The results demonstrate trade-offs between the level of enforcement, the size of a buffer zone, and the amount of illegal extraction in the park; and describe implications for “enrichment” of buffer zones and evaluating patterns of forest degradation.

Globalization, frontier masculinities and violence : booze, blokes and brawls

Over the last two decades, two new trajectories have taken hold in criminology - the study of masculinity and crime, after a century of neglect, and the geography of crime. This article brings both those fields together to analyse the impact of globalisation in the resources sector on frontier cultures of violence. This paper approaches this issue through a case study of frontier masculinities and violence in communities at the forefront of generating resource extraction for global economies. This paper argues that the high rates of violence among men living in work camps in these socio-spatial contexts cannot simply be understood as individualised expressions of psycho-pathological deficit or social disorganisation. Explanations for these patterns of violence must also consider a number of key subterranean convergences between globalising processes and the social dynamics of male-on-male violence in such settings.

Mining universities : can we count on the integrity of research coming out of today's mining-funded tertiary sector?

Australia's economic growth and national identity have been widely celebrated as being founded on the nation's natural resources. With the golden era of pastoralism fading into the distance, a renewed love affair with primary industries has been much lauded, particularly by purveyors of neoliberal ideology. The considerable wealth generated by resource extraction has, despite its environmental and social record, proved seductive to the university sector. The mining industry is one of a number of industries and sectors (alongside pharmaceutical, chemical and biotechnological) that is increasingly courting Australian universities. These new public-private alliances are often viewed as the much-needed cash cow to bridge the public funding shortfall in the tertiary sector. However, this trend also raises profound questions about the capacity of public good institutions, as universities were once assumed to be, to maintain institutional independence and academic freedoms.

Someone else's boom but always our bust: Australia as a derivative economy, implications for regions

This paper examines the socio-economic impact of mineral and agricultural resource extraction on local communities and explores policy options for addressing them. An emphasis on the marketisation of services together with tight fiscal control has reinforced decline in many country communities in Australia and elsewhere. However, the introduction by the European Union of Regional Policy which emphasises ‘smart specialisation’ can enhance greatly the capacity of local people to generate decent livelihoods. For this to have real effect, the innovative state has to enable partnerships between communities, researchers and industry. For countries like Australia, this would be a substantive policy shift.

The Taxation of Nonrenewable Natural Resources

We provide an analytical overview of the distortionary eff ects of some common forms of taxes faced by the nonrenewable resources sector of the economy. In the category of taxes meant speci fically to capture the resource rent, we look at a speci c severance tax, an 'ad valorem' severance tax, a profi t tax and a 'lump-sum' tax, with emphasis on their e ffects on the extraction decisions over time and on the initial reserves to be developed. In the category of taxes meant for all sectors of the economy, we look at the corporate income tax and its special provision for the resource sector in the form of a depletion allowance, with emphasis on the eff ects on the intra-industry resource extraction decisions and on the inter-industry allocation of investment.

Afrolatinidad y globalización : perspectiva étnica de la globalización. Estudio de caso : Proyecto Minero Mande Norte entre los municipios colombianos del Carmen del Darien y Murindó

El fenómeno de la globalización es una realidad que caracteriza la política internacional mundial que hace referencia principalmente a los procesos económicos, y a las innovaciones tecnológicas, sociales y culturales que están transformando nuestra manera de percibir e interpretar el mundo. En Colombia se han dado cambios muy importantes para el reconocimiento de los derechos de los grupos afrocolombianos. Uno de los cambios importantes, es el derecho de las comunidades afrocolombianas en cuanto a su desarrollo social, cultural y económico. Dentro del contexto nacional, el Pacifico colombiano es un territorio caracterizado por ser un polo de desarrollo, una región reconocida por su riqueza biológica y cultural, donde se realizan grandes proyectos de desarrollo y de extracción de recursos naturales. Pero estos proyectos tiene una alta incidencia en la pérdida de control de las comunidades sobre su territorio e incluso sobre su propio destino. La Muriel Minning Company es una multinacional de los Estados Unidos que actualmente desarrolla el Mega proyecto minero "Mandé Norte"; el gobierno colombiano le otorgó nueve títulos mineros para explotar y comercializar las reservas de cobre y los subproductos de oro y molibdeno. Colombia, como muchos otros países del sur, esta siendo fuertemente afectada en términos de diversidad cultural, construcción de sociedades sustentables y preservación del medio ambiente, por la intervención que en nuestros territorios hacen las multinacionales a través de megaproyectos, que sólo están generando pobreza, perdida de la diversidad cultural y biológica, deterioro de las condiciones ambientales sustentables, desplazamiento forzado.

La subversión del buen vivir (rebeldía esclarecida para el siglo XXI: una perspectiva crítica de la obra de Bolívar Echeverría)

El debate sobre el modelo civilizatorio de la modernidad de Occidente, con su economía concentradora y excluyente, y su matriz económico energética petrolera y extractivista no sustentable, ha reavivado en los escenarios políticos y académicos de la salud la discusión de la propuesta del buen vivir inscrita en las nuevas constituciones de Bolivia y Ecuador. Ante la crisis social, sanitaria y ambiental producida por la imposición de una economía de la muerte, y la consiguiente multiplicación de modos de vivir malsanos, se discuten aquí las tesis de Bolívar Echeverría sobre la base material de la vida y la cultura, como una herramienta para evaluar históricamente los desempeños de los gobiernos de las izquierdas realmente existentes, y trabajar un modelo de transición histórica y el indispensable remozamiento de la conciencia crítica desde una visión radicalmente renovadora, pero que mire la realidad sin dogmatismo, sin estridencias míticas y con un sentido de profunda autocrítica.