Extractive industries, when unregulated, have been criticized for plundering natural resources without enabling economic mobility. In extreme cases, like in the mines of the Democratic Republic of Congo, human rights abuse and slave labor make working class enablement a far-off reality. On the other hand, efforts from the international community to pressure these industries, such as the Dodd-Frank Act, have been denounced for misidentifying key mechanisms and worsening the economic and ecological situation for the local communities.

How do we envision the industry contributing to local empowerment, given that political and ethnic conflict surrounds much of its production? What kind of foreign and domestic policies would be most effective in combating slave labor and ensuring environmentally-responsible extraction? What are the dangers of centering an country’s economy around extraction even if done ethically? How does a country move beyond it? These are the questions that we wish to explore with our speakers and with the undergraduate community during Earth Week 2015.

PANELISTS: David Kienzler, Fellow at Columbia Center on Sustainable Investment. Jenik Radon, Adjunct Professor of International and Public Affairs at SIPA. Andrew Bauer, Senior Economic Analyst at the Natural Resource Governance Institute.