Breaking Ground is a study under development that would examine the way people today in different cultures come to understand the history of extractive industries from periods of diverse socio-political structures. The project will explore how mining heritage became entangled within practices of control over the environment, labor and knowledge about how pollution affects our health and the environment. This multi-sited project would include examining the current perceptions and uses of the industrial heritage of mining that emerged through ancient empires (Han Dynasty Hubei, China), feudalism (17^th century Røros, Norway), capitalism (19^th century Butte, Montana), colonialism (20^th century Hong Kong), and communism (20^th century Pyramiden, Svalbard). The goal is to determine how locations of old mines frame their contribution to climate change and environmental pollution in local museums and social institutions and how such a history influences present day calls for local environmental justice. Exploring these issues in a cross-cultural context is essential for 1) ensuring the environmental concerns leftover from extractive industries are not elided from heritage management plans and 2) to help mining firms recognize that their future activities will leave behind a history of exploitation (of both human workers and the natural environment), which they have a responsibility to minimize.

A preliminary study titled "Green Heritage and Mining" was funded by the Forvaltning-SIS program at the Norwegian Institute of Cultural Heritage Studies.