Silent violence to the core: Environmental suffering and suffocating uncertainties in the Colombian Caribbean coal industry

Abstract

For many, the coal industry in Colombia has been synonymous with progress, economic growth and access to education and housing opportunities on the Caribbean mining frontier. However, little has been said about the slow, dosed and silent violence that has permeated the ecological systems and human groups alike. This article argues that health and environmental damage in the Cesar mining corridor express quotidian, but no less painful and profound, forms of environmental suffering. Using notions such as toxic uncertainty, the article expands our understanding of environmental violence in a region prey to coal pollution.

Keywords

• Coal extraction
• Colombian Caribbean
• toxic uncertainty
• environmental suffering
• Slow violence