After you know now, about the environmental, social and health issues there stays still the question: Does it has to be like this?

Can mining be sustainable?

To answer this question, we first have to define what sustainability actually means.

The best known definition of sustainability is from Brundtland-Report (1987):

"Sustainable development meets the needs of the present without compromising the ability of future generations to meet their own needs"

So it is about justice. About global and future justice.

But how do we define needs? Who is defining the "needs"? And do we all have the same "needs"?

To define sustainability more precisely there are the theories of weak and strong sustainability.

Whereas in the theory of weak sustainability natural capital can be replaced by human capital (e.g. a pool instead of a lake);

in the strong sustainability natural capital can´t be replaced by human capital.

This means according to the  strong sustainability definition, you can`t take anything from nature which is not renewable in a relatively short period of time (not millions of years).

So in definition of strong sustainability mining could not be sustainable at all.

But how does it look like in definition of weak sustainability? 

To make mining sustainable, it would be necessary to find human capital which fulfils the ecosystem functions of the minerals in earth.

And even if we would find a solution for that matter, we`d still have the process of extraction, which endangers certain Sustainable Developemt Goals, such as:

"Good Health and well-being", "Clean water and sanitary" and "life on land" by the issues mentioned in the last blog post.

In conclusion to make mining more sustainable, we would have to find human capital which fulfils the special ecosystem function of each mineral. But even more important, is the disturbance and distruction of the nature during the extraction, the pollution of water and plants, which are the base for human and animals and the social dependency and social exploitation going hand in hand with the exploitation of minerals. 

Sources:

https://www.nachhaltigkeit.info/artikel/brundtland_report_563.htm, 08.01.2018

https://sustainabledevelopment.un.org/?menu=1300,08.01.2018

Konrad Ott,Barbara Muraca, and Christian Baatz: "Strong Sustainability as a Frame for Sustainable Communication" in

"Sustainability, Communications: Interdisciplinary Perspectives and Theoretical Foundations",by J.Godemann and G. Michelsen 2011