Thursday, March 6th, 2025
Gabriela Cabaña, Sociologist and Social Anthropologist, London School of Economics and Political Science
Ramón Balcázar, PhD candidate in Rural Development, Autonomous Metropolitan University
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In the context of the global climate emergency, the Chilean state has committed to the supply of materials needed for decarbonisation. This region, which concentrates the larger copper mines and only lithium extraction plants in the country, is now being promoted as a green hydrogen hub. However, the impacts of this new industry, however “green”, remain unaddressed, compounding a situation of ecological devastation and environmental injustice. We show these emergent trends through five different case studies that show the overlap of different extractive industries and how they are threatheting ecosystems and ways of living.
This session will present the key results of the research carried out during 2024 on the emergence of green sacrifice zones in Antofagasta, north of Chile.
Gabriela Cabaña is a sociologist and social anthropologist for the London School of Economics and Political Science (LSE) focused on the social and ecological dimensions of energy infrastructure, particularly those related the advancement of non-conventional renewable energies. She did her PhD in anthropology at LSE, and her thesis was titled “Energy as the work of nature, the quandaries of sacrificial productivism in Chiloé, south of Chile.”
Gabriela is currently a researcher at Fundación Tantí, an organization based in Antofagasta, Chile. There she is carrying out research about the impacts of the expansion of energy infrastructure and mining in the region. She is also a member of the Pacto Ecosocial e Intercultural del Sur and is interested in the intersections between anthropology and degrowth.
Ramón Balcázar M. is an activist and PhD candidate in Rural Development at the Autonomous Metropolitan University. He’s a member of the Plurinational Observatory of Andean Salt Flats OPSAL and Yes to Life, no to Mining network. Ramón is the founder and Executive Director of FundaciónTantí (Seed), non-profit organization based in San Pedro de Atacama.
Taking a participatory approach, Ramón’s militant research is situated at the intersection of multilateral climate policies and the subsequent expansion of green extractivism throughout Indigenous/rural territories in the Andean puna. His expertise lies in rural development, agroecology, neo-extractivism, climate justice, socio-environmental movements, just transition and post-development.
