Arguments of green colonialism: a post-dialectical reading of extractivism in the Americas

ABSTRACT

Through two of the largest mining companies in the world, Rio Tinto and BHP, this article traces arguments of green colonialism that use techno-determinist environmental rhetoric for extraction purposes. Contributing to environmental communication, de/coloniality studies, and Indigenous research, I argue for a more expansive approach to argument that accounts for situated knowledge, place, and affect as ontological argumentative forces. I introduce a series of case studies on Rio Tinto’s and BHP’s resource colonialisms at different sites of extraction throughout the Americas, particularly in South America, to show how “good” arguments are determined by the modern/colonial matrix power and how decolonial actors speak back. The Argumentation Network of the Americas (ANA) is in a unique position to resist argumentative logics of resource colonialism in the Americas, but argumentation must first address its own extractive models rooted in European ideals of modernism/colonialism.

KEYWORDS:

• Green colonialism
• de/coloniality
• extractivism
• Rio Tinto
• BHP

Disclosure statement

No potential conflict of interest was reported by the author.

Notes

1 While BHP is headquartered in Australia, it is firmly rooted in Anglo-European histories since its 2001 merger with Anglo-Dutch Billiton. The Broken Hill Propriety was founded in New South Wales (1885).

2 Also not far away exists the Collahuasi (Anglo American and Glencore) and the Chuquicamata Mine (Corporacion Nacional del Cobre de Chile). Together, these mines contribute to Chile’s status as one of the top producers of copper in the world (28% global productions), which accounts for 11% of its GDP and half of all its exports ($14 billion in 2020; ITA, 2022).