Abstract
Until recently, the topic of mining has been rather absent in Catholic social and theological ethics. This book is an important corrective. In the first two chapters, George depicts four interpretive loci, or self-sharpening “prospector’s tools” for “mining morality”: insights and approaches from Bernard Lonergan; Pope Francis’s teachings in Laudato Si’ as proxy for Catholic social teaching; international law as “ethics writ large” (24); and the virtue of prudence as conveyed by Aquinas. George applies these tools across five case studies, followed by a conclusion.
Chapter 3 links the copper mining histories of Butte, Montana and Chuquicamata, Chile. Noteworthy here are George’s keen sense of historical detail and his attention to Janet Finn’s book, Tracing the Veins: Of Copper, Culture, and Community from Butte to Chiquicamata. Chapter 4 examines phosphate mining on the island of Nauru, claimed for colonial glory and mining exploits in ways that decimated the island, requiring relocation of islanders to another archipelago. George notably profiles the work and moral–legal vision of C.G. Weeramanty, head of the international commission to investigate the mishandling of Nauru. This chapter is eminently teachable in applied ethics classes and useful for considering how moral discernment and international law may intersect. George hopes that “international law still gives us some direction on how we ought to conduct ourselves on the earth, beneath the sea, and, as we will see, beyond the earth’s bounds—even if we fail to learn our legal lessons when it comes to practice” (129).
Chapter 5 is the most autobiographical of the chapters. Despite his recognition of Deepwater Horizon (2010) and ongoing, unresolved contestations among nations about the riches to be sounded in ocean depths, this chapter on seabed mining left me wanting fuller analyses and wondering whether the personal narrative could have been better placed as prelude rather than as the backbone of the chapter. (Solid seabed mining analysis surfaces in chapter 7.) Though this chapter fell short in that regard, I appreciate the candor with which George reflects on his scholarly development, and his sense that “even when considering a field of human endeavor (in this case international law) that is supposedly thoroughly secular, theology may still have its place” (166).
Chapter 6 addresses uranium extraction in Africa, drawing on the work of nuclear historian Gabrielle Hecht before leaning into ethical questions. The Lonerganian lens feels more stilted in this chapter than others, perhaps because of the ways that entrenched structures of uranium extraction and nuclear proliferation have decidedly impacted so many communities so negatively, such that the issue clamors for structural and political-economic critiques as well. George’s hopefulness in the cumulative (disarming?) ability of individuals to choose the good is perhaps most evident in this chapter: “Each of us is a member of a world court, asking what kind of world and what kind of times lie ahead, and thus deciding now what should be done and what should be disallowed” (213).
Chapter 7, on asteroid mining, ably recognizes that if colonization has conditioned uneven outcomes on Earth, so too is this likely to be the case in space. Describing actors such as Deep Space Industries, the Space Frontier Foundation, and Planetary Resources (which is now part of a blockchain company), George underscores that this future is not distant, and that when the primary actors tend to be nation-states or billionaires, real ethical questions obtain. George nicely reframes Laudato Si’ within “the expanded context” of “the entire universe” (243), channeling practical implications for asteroids. He notes that the idea of the common good (challenging private property regimes) and skepticism of the technocratic paradigm will be essential insights for thinking through asteroid mining. This chapter also offers a fantastic juxtaposition of the law of the sea (especially deep seabed mining) with space law.
“Mining Morality” is a double entendre, summoning the idea not just of a prospectus on the ethics of mining, but also the personal constituents and labors of the moral life. While at times the narrative is strongest on the latter, this is importantly the first English-language book to centralize the problem of mining for Catholic ethics. Granted, the positionality of a “prospector” has an implicit extractive agency that many victims of mining’s industrial realities worldwide seem to lack. Future work on extractivismo and sterner structural critiques will be important next steps, but this is an important book from an admired scholar-teacher’s lifetime of thoughtful ethical prospecting.