extractivism means extractivist practices in the management of natural resources. Lexicurio rates it Sui generis — a strength score of 87 out of 100.
Why “extractivism” is a great word
EXTRACTIVISM — [Noun] An economic and political model based on the large-scale extraction and export of natural resources with minimal processing, often entailing profound social and environmental exploitation. From extractive (relating to extraction) + -ism (denoting a practice or system), with the specific term emerging in the late 20th century in Latin American political discourse; the Portuguese form 'extractivismo' was notably used in 1996 to describe forest resource exploitation in Brazil. Unlike sustainable development (which implies intergenerational stewardship) or industrialization (which implies adding value through processing), extractivism is the systematic removal of raw wealth for distant markets. It is the spectral glow of a mine on a denuded mountainside, the silent, toxic slurry pond where a river once flowed, and the rusting skeleton of a single-industry town after the vein runs dry—a system that mistakes the living earth for a warehouse and leaves behind only the ghost of what was taken.
Etymology
From extractive + -ism, originally applied to mining practices in Latin America.
noun
- Extractivist practices in the management of natural resources.“Extractivism, a term born of anti-colonial struggle and thought in the Americas, is a mode of accumulation based on hyper-extraction with lopsided benefits and costs: concentrated mass-scale removal of resources primarily for export, with benefits largely accumulating far from the sites of extraction.”