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It seems that at least in some parts of Cantr, I can't help but trip over forests with hematite, and sometimes even rubber and copper. Oh, and wood, of course.
The ores and such are found in mountains - and usually have to be mined and tunneled for, to find their most concentrated, usable form.
And now radios.
hallucinatingfarmer wrote:Don't forget that a lot of the mining on our planet is done in forests - huge tracts of rainforest are dessimated by being cut down, then blasted with chemicals to erode away and get at the ores. The chemicals then get into the rivers, killing whole villages of people, not to mention destroying the ecosystem
"The fish community of the stream affected by gold mining showed low species diversity, low proportion of young fishes, high proportion of midchannel surface-feeding fishes and fishes adapted to low light, low proportion of visually orienting fishes and fishes that hide in leaf-litter banks and woody debris, and low relative biomass of food fishes. ... Gold mining occurred over 7 years and is still occurring, but the sediment stored in the streambed is expected to pose a pollution problem long after the gold miners have left the area."
"Interestingly, the evidence for the most significant impacts coincided with the escalation of open-cut mining from the 1950s to the 1970s, rather than earlier phases of smelter-produced pollution."
"Areas within the rainforests of south-west Tasmania, home to Aboriginal tribes for more than 36,000 years, were dramatically changed in the late 1800s with the arrival of European prospectors. Subsequent large-scale mining and smelting operations resulted in acid rain, local deforestation and extensive soil erosion. Much of the area is now bare rock."
Mining, particularly gold mining, is an increasing threat to the world's rainforests and to forest communities. The social and environmental repercussions of mining are particularly disturbing considering that nearly 80 percent of newly mined gold goes towards jewelry fabrication.
In large-scale gold mining operations, enormous pits are dug out of the land; dynamite is often used to blast holes in the ground; ore is sprayed with cyanide solution to leach out the gold.
Many of the planet's rainforests over lie rich mineral deposits. Extracting these minerals is frequently a destructive activity that causes many problems for both the rainforest, its inhabitants, and people living downstream.
The Guyana spill made international headlines for its magnitude -- over one billion gallons (four billion liters) of cyanide-laced waste water was released into a tributary of the Essequibo; and its effect -- causing widespread die-offs of aquatic and terrestrial plant and animal life, the poisoning of floodplain soils used for agriculture, the pollution of the main source of drinking water for thousands of people, and the destruction of the developing eco-tourism industry on the river. The mine, run by Golden Star Resources of Denver and Cambior of Montreal, at first tried to cover up the spill by burying fish carcasses. Six days after the spill, after reports that people began to find dead wildlife, the mine reported the accident to the Guyana government. However, despite the damage inflicted by the spill, the Guyanese government, strapped for cash to service its debt, granted new mining concessions on the New River.
Provincial governments, indigenous peoples, environmentalists and academics from Canada to Asia to Australia are lining up to stop mining giant Placer Dome from tearing down a rainforest on the island of Borneo to hunt for gold.
They date way back - there are three reports from 2003 there in the USA.JANUARY 11, 2005, GHANA: Wexford Ghana Limited at Akyempim in the Western Region, a subsidiary of Bogoso Gold Limited and owned by Golden Star Resources spilled cyanide into River Kubekro
OCTOBER 23 2004, GHANA: A cyanide spill occurred from a new tailings dam of Canadian company Bogoso Gold Limited into the river Aprepre, which serves as drinking water for surrounding communities, as well as other rivers including Egya Nsiah, Benya and Manse. Villagers downstream found hundreds of dead fish, crabs, shrimps and other life forms floating on the river. Some members of the community harvested and ate the fish before they received information about the spillage. (Source: www.ghanaweb.com)
OCTOBER 2004 WESTERN AUSTRALIA: A report commissioned by the WA Government into the tailings dams at the Kalgoorlie Gold mine confirmed that the mine has been leaking cyanide into the surrounding groundwater which was contaminated by cyanide and heavy metals. Surrounding community members have been complaining of impacts for over a decade but the company had previously denied the allegations.
JANUARY 30 2004, AUSTRALIA: A report commissioned by the Western Australia Government into the tailings dams at the Kalgoorlie Gold mine confirmed that the mine had been leaking cyanide into the surrounding groundwater. Surrounding community members had been complaining of impacts for over a decade but the company had previously denied the allegations. (Media Release by Robin Chapple, MLC, WA Legislative Council)
AUGUST 7 2004 PAPUA NEW GUINEA: Cyanide was discharged from the Misima mine, a subsidiary of Placer Dome, during decommissioning of the minesite, polluting oceans around the small island. The discharge resulted in poisoning of marine life, with reports of dead fish found floating in the oceans confirmed by the company as linked to the discharge. (The National, PNG, 11 of August)
JUNE 25 2004 CHINA: The State Council of China reported seven cases of leaks of lethal chemical products in the past week, which claimed a total of 21 lives across the country. The latest was a hydrogen cyanide gas leak from a gold mining plant in Beijing's suburban district of Huairou that killed three people and left another 15 hospitalized. (Source: People's Daily Online, 25th June 2004)
MARCH 21 2004, GHANA: Villagers near Prestea Sankofa Goldmine, a concession own by the Ghana National Petroleum Corporation (GNPC) in the Western Region spotted a cyanide spillage in their river and reported the matter to the mine.
(Source:http://www.wildchild777.com/mambo/index.php?option=content&task=view&id=68&Itemid=2)
MARCH 24 2004, NEW ZEALAND: About thirty-five people were evacuated from a Lower Hutt transit depot as emergency services mopped up a toxic chemical spill. Two 180-litre drums of cyanide solution were damaged inside the Mainfreight depot, possibly by a forklift.
MARCH 18 2004, ROMANIA: Romania's Siret River, a tributary of the Danube, was reported to be contaminated by cyanide. The chemicals involved in the spill leaked from a deactivated chemical processing plant, where storage conditions may not have been up to international standards. Estimates are that "10 tons of toxic substances leaked into the river", according to Ioan Jelev, of Romania's Environment Ministry. A similar incident occured in 2001 in the same place, poisoning fish. (Source: Reuters).
I can hapilly prove you wrong on that account too. Most foresting is done by multinationals, possibly employing locals. In terms of deforestation - it's not locals not knowing about crop rotation - it's the large companies that make them grow only certain things - or, expecially, the compaines that make them farm cattle.Savanik wrote:Last I checked, jungles were being chopped down by poor farmers that don't know about crop rotation.
That's from George Monbiot - graduate, writer, broadcaster and academic - worked on BBC's natural history for some time, now writing books. - that quote is from the summary of a witness statement he made and signed - accessible hereGeorge Monbiot wrote:"cattle ranching and soya bean production are the two major causes of forest depletion in the Amazon region; McDonald's, by buying beef reared on this feed, are thus encouraging further clearances in Amazonia, and therefore play a major part in this process."
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