Why mining is essential to survival: What the environmentalists are missing

[michael]

" environmentalists are worried that mining is destroying this world. The fact is, without mining, we would not have a world to destroy to begin with! In the case of a mudslide in a river, capable of destroying a population of fish through sediment dispersal and etc, what do we do? We dig the mud out, and patch things up. Without mining, we wouldn't have had the steel to make the loader that moved the mud out of the river. There are heavy metals pollution in many of our lakes and streams. Much of that is cleaned up using equipment also made possible by mining. Dredges, commercial and recreational both, extract any heavy materials from the streambeds, which are processed out of the environment."

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[Dr. Sanit Samosorn]

Rubber is an environmental friendly material, therefore to overcome this problem is to establish rubber plantation to recover destroy mining land and also to prevent mudslide on hilly areas as well. Please learn more from our event or anywhere in Thailand.

[Juland R. Suazo]

You are also missing the point......that mining, particularly in the Philippines, is highly-extractive, export-oriented, foreign-controlled which is just plundering our national patrimony and environment. Try to reframe our mind on the mining debate.....use science and experience of the people affected my mining, particularly foreign and large-scale mining....para saan, para kanino ba ang mineral wealth ng Pilipinas? basic question yan? using the resource economic valuation and cost-benefits analysis....sino ba talaga ang nakikinabang sa mineral wealth ng Pilipinas? again, basic question yan? sino ba talaga ang tunay na nakikinabang sa environmental goods and services? again, basic question yan? matagal na na nagmimina sa Cordillera pero until now mataas pa rin ang poverty incidence, mas lalo na sa Caraga region at ComVal....sira pa ang kalikasan at halos paubos na ang biological diversity....But, we need mining...not for the foreigners and local elites....mineral wealth and environmental goods and services ang dapat makinabang ang sambayanang Pilipino....dapat ang mineral policy at practice ay need-based, serves the nationalist industrialization and geniune agrarian reform, at environment-friendly.....pero ma-realize lang yan kung mamamayang Pilipino na ang hahawak sa State Power at governance ng Pilipinas at hindi ang mga kurap na elite gaya nila Gloria Macapagal-Arroyo na madaling madiktahan ng mga dayuhan....

[Juland R. Suazo]

Try to read the alternative people's mining policy....

[Ednar Gempesaw Dayanghirang]

no mining, no metal structures like cars, steel bars, etc. ........... what we need is responsible mining.

[Rev. Dr. Jorge Garcia]

The evironmentalist is simply worshiping his god. He is pompous to belive that mere man can destroy the earth. The earth is resilient and has survived much more than man can dish out. People believe that the earth is fragile. Here is one example, flourocarbons was once a favorite issue of the evironmentalist movement. "We were destroying the ozone layer!" we were told. Aerosol cans were the villian. Then, and you would know when this happened, Mt. Pinatubo errupted and placed in a few moments more flourocarbons than man could have created in hundreds of years using aerosol cans!

We are hammered with the myth of global warming today. What is amazing is how we forgot that, in the 1950's-60's we were concerned of another ice age. The current militant environmentalist has solved the problem of "truth" by attributing EVERY fluctuation, from warm to cold, to global warming. It is his god and religion and he will die for it; foolishly thinking that salvation is his for his "concern" and "zeal" for his cause. Envronmentalist do not care about progress. They care about control - THEIRS. They want to control what people do. They do not care about freedom. They do not care about progress. They want to run out lives, tell us what to: eat, drive, do, live, raise our children (a real lust of the left), etc. They must be fought and be wary of the "slippery slope." They say, "Just a little control, not much, just want to save the planet for 'THE CHILDREN,'" (their favorite mantra). Be aware. The critical thing is to be a proper steward of the earth and its resources. Do good, feed people, save lives.

[Jean Lindo]

Of course everybody can come up with brilliant articles defending the mining industry. It can be a useful industry I agree but how do the mining industries operate here in the Philippines and in other 3rd world countries? How many companies adhere to genuine corporate responsibilities ... that when unmasked is actually CORPORATE GREENWASH trying to mislead the public that they are truly green? Do we need more and more mining companies?

The issue of mining should be considered in the light of the present reality of GLOBALIZATION which is about exploitation of human resources, rape of the environment (the key players do not live in the sites where there are mining anyway), and the like. Even the so-called respectable individuals become blinded by the corruption and greed. Look at how the issue of Aerial Spray Ban Ordinance in Davao City is treated? The powerful group of companies are favored by giving out reasons that the farmers residing near the plantations are "SQUATTERS" so they cannot complain of drifts. There is clearly a violation if there is drift. There have been evidences of harm but look how the honorable and supposed to be intelligent people ignore these evidences?

When the environmentalists oppose setting up of mining firms, it is withing the PRECAUTIONARY PRINCIPLE. This principle is not about being PRANING (paranoid)... this is about FORECARING and being PROACTIVE. This is about thinking long term.

The usual reasons they give like creation of jobs... well this argument also deserves very careful consideration. Is this the only indicator of progress? If people have jobs with the reality of how workers are being treated and neglected, definitely their money will be spent for their illnesses. Is this green economy?

We do not have even have GREEN TAXATION here. We do not follow POLLUTERS PAY formula.

[Armand Pacudan]

Thanks Mike for posting this... a good issue to discuss and debate upon... I would like to begin by saying that let us be careful of our analysis and simplistic association of the mining resource as if it is an infinite provider... While mineral resource does good things to humans (of course we have cell phones, watches, etc.) -- the place, the means, process, purpose, and intent of its extraction are oftentimes unreasonable that it compromises our ecosystems and the health and welfare of plants, animals and humans. It is not a sustainable practice... The excessive extractions beyond what the nature could provide (hey, minerals are non-renewable and non-replaceable) is propelled by GREED... to earn profits for the investors, not for the community or the host-country, but by foreign investors... Not to mention the displacements of lumads residing in their ancestral domains and local people who have survived in a century or half of it by tilling their farms for a living....and suddenly would lose it because the government has allowed the mountains to be excavated and leveled for the benefit of the select minority.... Listen, hear and see areas in the Philippines who have experienced the biggest mining disasters?... Let's open our eyes wider and ponder upon our choices -- to MINE (meron bang umasenso na lugar o kumunidad sa Pilipinas because of mining industry?) or not to MINE (Meron bang na-compromise na income kung pinababayaan lang natin na hindi "ginalaw" ang gubat, bundok at biodiversity na taglay na nagbibigay ng larger at sustainable ecosystem services sa ating lahat???)....

[ANNA LISA ACTUB- BAKER]

I agree with you Armand....

[ANNA LISA ACTUB- BAKER]

Michael as long as we dont rape the natural resources up to its last breath... ha ha ha! funny but scary... yeah we dont really think much about what our industrialization will bring us, we only think of the now most of the time and I'm not being an ass, I'm not anti development... Sometimes I can't stop thinking about the story of Howard Storm, when he died couple of minutes, that the Angels told him, in the near future we dont need to travel or build anymore huge infrastructures, and we dont need to plant like huge rice fields because we just need little garden and pray from seed to fruit when we need to eat, and we dont need to travel even to other galaxy because we can see whats in there through our minds... and experience other cultures by closing our eyes... Oh I wish this will happen soon, before we make a lot of diggings and minings because theres always negative effects to our environment, and only few people really make millions out of it the capitalist, the majority of the workers are still gonna be hand to mouth ... May God renew the whole world soon.