Going Viral: How attacks in social media can erode confidence in mining. The Samarco-yellow fever example from Brazil

Margaret Armstrong, Renato Petter and Carlos Petter

Resources Policy, 2018, vol. 59, issue C, 340-350

Abstract: The Samarco tailings dam broke on 5 November 2015, sending a wall of mud into the Bento Rodrigues township and killing 19 people. From there the mud made its way to the Rio Doce river system, killing fish and frogs, and causing massive pollution down to the mouth 650 km away. A year later a yellow fever outbreak occurred in the same state in Brazil, with 450 confirmed cases and about 150 deaths. After newspapers reported the yellow fever cases, online blogs started suggesting that the outbreak might have been caused by the Samarco disaster and citing comments by well-known scientists. Twelve months later another yellow fever outbreak occurred, and the online bloggers repeated the same claims, but the wording changed.

Keywords: Environmental; Vale; BHP Billiton; Renova; Directed networks; Social acceptability of mining (search for similar items in EconPapers)
Date: 2018
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Persistent link: https://EconPapers.repec.org/RePEc:eee:jrpoli:v:59:y:2018:i:c:p:340-350

DOI: 10.1016/j.resourpol.2018.08.006

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