Social Impacts of Nonrenewable Resource Extraction
Creators: Garrett, David
Publisher: name: University of Alberta Library
Year: 2023

<p>This thesis is composed of three studies.</p>

<p>First study (Gold Mining and Disparities in Indigenous Infant Health in the Brazilian Amazon): Regulations in mining industries can mitigate environmental pollution and health risks. The health of indigenous communities may be disproportionately harmed by mining because they are often remote and disadvantaged economically, socially, and politically. Using data on over 200,000 births across municipalities in the Brazilian Amazon, along with satellite mapping of gold mines, I compare health outcomes for indigenous and non-indigenous infants in municipalities with and without sites of illegal and legal mining. I find evidence of negative effects of illegal mines on birthweights, specifically for indigenous infants. My results also indicate heterogenous impacts of illegal mining on indigenous birthweights, with indigenous infants born to single mothers or on indigenous lands weighing significantly less. I do not find similar effects with respect to legal gold mining, suggesting that regulating the mining industry works for reducing health risks.</p>

<p>Second study (Oil Well Pollution and Student Performance: Evidence from Alberta, Canada): Studies have established links between increases in ambient pollution and decreases in measures of children’s academic performance. But the effect of pollution attributed to the hundreds of thousands of oil wells across North America is less understood. I compare grade 9 math and science test score outcomes from 2015-2019 at over 500 schools across Alberta to the number of active and inactive oil wells within 4 km of the schools. My empirical strategy is rooted in spatial analysis, where fixed distances between pollution sources and areas of impact allow me to measure the association of potential well pollution with education outcomes. I find evidence of a negative association between the number of oil wells and mean test scores, particularly for math. With a mean of approximately 14 wells within a 4 km radius of each school, math test scores may decrease as much as of 9.0 percentage points, while science test scores may decrease by an average of 3.5 percentage points. When considering subgroups of wells by activity status (i.e., active, suspended, abandoned, and reclaimed) in another model, math and science test scores still decrease by an average of 8.2 and 2.2 percentage points, respectively. I do not observe a significant effect of reclaimed wells on test scores in either subject. My results suggest that reducing the number of suspended and abandoned wells through the reclamation process would benefit student outcomes.</p>

<p>Third study (Legacy Effect of Rural Coal Mining on Youth Population Health): With prior environmental studies predominantly focused on air pollution, I seek to investigate associations of legacy coal mining operations and human health via water pollution. I compare average health care demand levels from 2002-2014 for cohorts of youths aged 13 and under across Alberta, based on their relative positions to nearby coal mines, the majority of which ceased operations prior to 2002. Using an intricate spatial analysis strategy, over 50,000 youths are identified as living either upstream or downstream from almost 750 waterway-adjacent coal mines with various operating periods since 1886. I find evidence of negative associations between coal mines and human health, via increases in yearly doctor visits and inpatient days for youths living downstream from one or more coal mines. I also observe heterogenous associations based on characteristics of the mines. In particular, doctor visits for downstream youths are higher when nearby mines i) operated closer to the observation year or ii) had longer durations of operations.</p>