Columbans around the world see how the massive extraction of natural resources is the root cause of many other injustices: species extinction, climate change, and community displacement, to name a few. Examples of extractive industries include coal and oil drilling, fracking, cash crop plantations, and even hydroelectric dams and profit-driven renewable energy.
What extractive industries do is turn God’s glorious creation into a cheap commodity, violating the sacred relationship between God, humans, and all creation (cf. Gen 9: 8-17).
As people of faith, we believe that we must create a new way of producing and consuming that acts in harmony with nature and prioritizes the dignity of marginalized communities. This new economy must be about life over death, generosity over exploitation, and the common good over profit.
The resources and articles on this webpage will help you better understand the pervasive and often hidden impacts of extractive industries. They will invite you to listen and respond to the cries of our wounded earth and vulnerable communities.
Host an Environmental Justice Workshop
Learn how your community can stand in solidarity with the exploited earth and marginalized communities
Download our consumer examination to better understand the connection between the stuff we buy and extractive industries
Tell the Senate: Protect Environmental Defenders
Ever years, dozens of people are killed defending the environment from extractive projects. Tell the Senate to protect them.
Young Kachin men mining for jade in Myanmar
I believe it is about time to look after and care for our environment and every creature. Time to take care of our true treasure.
On this webpage are nine steps you can take to pray over what scripture and our Catholic tradition says about God’s creation, learn about the pervasive and often hidden impacts of extractive industries, and act in solidarity with the cries of our wounded earth and vulnerable communities.
Throughout the Amazon, indigenous and local communities are being threatened and displaced by extractive industries, like logging, oil, gas, and dam projects, as well as by large-scale infrastructure developments, like roads, electrical interconnections, and commercial ports.
Extractive industries visibly tear open the land and pollute the air and water. What starts to go missing with such disruption isn’t as easily seen -- the animals, plants, the delicate balance of life that forms an eco-system – but is just as harmful, if not more so.
Many countries with high levels of natural resource wealth also have higher rates of income inequality. This is known as the “resource curse,” or the “paradox of plenty.” This paradox exists due to weak policies and high levels of corruption.
Extractive industries are a major contributor to climate change, since they are responsible for extracting the natural resources whose consumption and extraction release carbon dioxide into the atmosphere.
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