Major Mining Companies are Among Largest Polluters

By Richard Mann, Contributing Reporter

RIO DE JANEIRO, BRAZIL – As many as 100 companies are responsible for more than 70 percent of global greenhouse gas emissions since 1988.

These include some of the world’s mining companies: BHP, Rio Tinto, Anglo American, Glencore, and Teck Resources. Vale is not listed in the map drawn up by the Decolonial Atlas website.

The map, led by oil companies and coal producers engaged in energy production, was drawn up from information released by the Carbon Disclosure Project (CFP) in July 2017.

The 25 largest polluters, responsible for 50 percent of CO2 emissions, are, by descending order: China (state-owned coal production), Aramco, Gazprom, Iranian National Petroleum, ExxonMobil, Coal India, Pemex, Russia (state-owned coal production), Shell, China National Petroleum, BP, Chevron, PDVSA, Abu Dhabi National Petroleum, Poland Coal, Peabody Energy, Sonatrach, Kuwait Oil, Total, BHP Billiton, ConocoPhillips, Lukoil, Rio Tinto, Nigeria National Petroleum, and Petrobras, the only Brazilian company on the list.

“The guys who run these companies – and they are mostly men – have literally become rich at the expense of all life on earth. Their business model relies on the destruction of the only home humanity has ever known. In the meantime, we’ve turned our anger towards our neighbors, friends, and family for using plastic straws or not recycling,” says the map author, Jordan Engel.

According to him, these 100 companies control most of the world’s mineral rights, for oil, gas, and coal. Houston is considered the “home” of 7 of these 100 companies, followed by Jakarta, Calgary, Moscow, and Beijing.

A map in the form of a cartogram represents country sizes by their cumulative carbon dioxide emissions from the beginning of industrialization in the 19th century.

According to Engel, this map is a reflection of the widespread myth that we can stop climate change if we simply change our individual behavior and purchase green products.

“Whether we recycle or not, these corporations will continue to destroy the planet unless we stop them. The main decision makers of these companies have the privilege of relative anonymity and, through this map, we are trying to unveil them… They must feel the very same personal responsibility for saving the planet that we all feel.”