In this segment from PBS NewsHour, Center Senior Attorney Leonardo Crippa explains how the green energy gold rush threatens Indigenous lands and how we can use international human rights standards to advance Indigenous rights and secure true environmental justice.
The energy transition that is now underway is essential to the effort to fight climate change, but it is also driving demand for lithium mines and other projects to extract the raw materials now used in batteries and renewable energy projects. Often these mineral deposits are on or near Indigenous lands, where extractive industries have a long history of violating Indigenous peoples’ land rights, undermining their governments, and causing terrible increases in sex trafficking and other forms of violence against Indigenous women. To avoid these human rights abuses, the Center is helping Indigenous communities to obtain secure title to their lands so they can control development in their territory and fight against harmful mines that threaten their people.
Additional commentary is provided by Galina Angarova, Executive Director of SIRGE Coalition, and Wendsler Noise of APACHE STRONGHOLD.
To view the full episode, please visit: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=imVv0tOeF8w.**
**Please note, commentary about mining on Indigenous lands starts at the 17-minute mark.