Exhausting Natures: Fragile Deserts, Constant Science

We saw it coming.This is no surprise, so as the Chilean Medical Doctors Association we are considering calling on the authorities to declare a Cancer Emergency" in the Antofagasta region, said the association's president at a press briefing in early 2024. 1 Pollution, caused by mining, is the primary cause of cancer in Antofagasta.The doctor added, "Many cancers are typical of our region due to the pollution.A while ago it was arsenic which caused bladder cancer.Environmental pollution causes high rates of lung, thyroid, and other cancers. . . .This report hits hard, because it means more people die in Antofagasta than elsewhere in Chile."Antofagasta's cancer emergency highlights two pressing issues with con temporary mining.First, the extent of toxicity and the harms caused on human and nonhuman lives is acute, cumulative, and enormous.Industrial mining has had these impacts everywhere it exists, including South Africa, the Navajo Nation, and Japan, to name a few places scholars have written about.2 Second, the harms and risks of industrial mining are well known.They are recurrent and predictable everywhere largescale mining happens.The precise patterns of exposure may differ, but the toxicity of common chemicals-sulfuric acid, mercury, lead, molybdenum, cadmium, antimony-used in industrial mining, and which percolate in the surrounding air and water, is well established.3 Despite this predictability and ubiquity, calls for "more science" to better understand mining's impacts are common.Science has long had an authoritative voice on these matters because it is a privileged source of information and repre sen ta tions of the natu ral world.That more science should lead to better decisions is deeply ingrained in governance.Recently, however, the approach of using more science to improve decision-making or mining practices has proven in effec tive, prompting calls 1 Exhausting Natures: Fragile Deserts, Constant Science