Mining the earth
Substances extracted from the earth - stone, iron, bronze - have been so critical to human development that historians name the ages of our past after them. But while scholars have carefully tracked human use of minerals, they have never accounted for the vast environmental damage incurred in mineral production. Few people would guess that a copper mining operation has removed a piece of Utah seven times the weight of all the material dug for the Panama Canal. Few would dream that mines and smelters take up to a tenth of all the energy used each year, or that the waste left by mining measures in the billions of tons - dwarfing the world's total accumulation of more familiar kinds of waste, such as municipal garbage. Indeed, more material is now stripped from the earth by mining than by all the natural erosion of the earth's rivers. The effects of mining operations on the environment are discussed under the following topics: minerals in the global economy, laying waste, at what cost cleaning up, and dipping out. It is concluded that in the long run, the most effective strategy for minimizing new damage is not merely to make mineral extraction cleaner, but to reduce the rich nations needs for virgin (non-recycled) minerals.
- OSTI ID:
- 6527164
- Country of Publication:
- United States
- Language:
- English
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