Mining - "no significant environmental effects"?

[SidVanRyswyk]

Man! I've got goosebumps, not from the slide show but from the music... Awesome!

[notmebut1]

this can Happen to Igiugig if they let them in for Gold

[leosimta]

its okay for u to support mining until they start doing to your own beautiful land....they're trying to start mining on my beautiful island Great Barrier Island in New Zealand....My people are against it and I'm against it....this mining will affect our way life down there....so miners can piss off....us kiwi's live off this land and we don't need bureau crats trying to bribe us with money....I DON'T CARE WHAT ANY BODY SAYS....mining is no good...

[rcsupercubbuilder]

you know what surprises me? That greeny peoples never look down at there shoes and realize that there shoes were pumped out of the ground on an oil rig. Then whats your car made up of????? well lets see, approx 80% is metal mined out of large scale mines. The rest is more oil pumped out of the ground! Until these greenies can come up with a way that has no mining done then the can shut up! By the way i love the idea of , wind turbines, and solar.

[dozer3man]

mining is are life i live not two miles from a surface job i see what they do and they do a good job at putting the land back and give us jobs god you all whats your problom just cause you all ant makeing a $ off of it

[Kokuraz]

I think those sites are very pretty

[bombdia]

Was this video uploaded by telepathy or did you use a computer with metal and plastic products? You know, plastic and metal from MINING? Hypocrite!

[LordPillsbury1959]

Mining causes Global Warming! And Global Warming is bad! And bad is not good! And Good is as good as Gold! And Gold is Mining! And Mining causes Global Warming! Uh, I think I've been here before...uh...where's Al Gore when you need him? Uh...uh...yeah...Global Warming! And look at all the mess these miners are making! It's causing Global Warming! And that makes me mad! Yeah...that's right...Global Warming! Bad & Mad! How much gold did you say? Gold is GOOD! Real Good! Nice to be a miner!

[facundohuidobro]

Realmente un video que solo muestra la vieja minería que se hacía antes y algunas otras imágenes fuera de contexto. La nueva minería es extremadamente exigente en términos de controles ambientales.

[siggurdsson]

Bien interesante que siempre dicen eso mientras vienen replicando las mismas prácticas y los mismos problemas. Donde ha habido mayor avance es en la reducción de la necesidad de la mano de obra, o sea hoy producen mas con menos empleos. Los impactos sobre el medio ambiente y la salud lamentablamente no parecen disminuir.

[frogdoondey]

@facundohuidobro Facundo me cago de risa pues en Panama en pleno corazon del corredor biologico mesoamericano harto en biodiversidad, estan habriendo una mina mas de cobre y ya hay una de oro! Y ya hubo un derrame de cianuro, y hay carreteras por todos lados y el lodo a eliminado todo pez de los rios!

A mi me parece la misma mierda de siempre presentada con nuevas palabras!

[Tombstoner]

Nicely done video. I'm a specialty miner/mineralogist for over 40 years. I recognize sites like Climax, Colorado. The largest US mines' controlled impacts added together dont equal even a tiny fraction of the areas of long-term military [& war-related] damage to US soil. Mining companies alone can terraform post-wildfire flood erosion, abandoned historic mines, other tasks states, feds cant. 3 days after mining in the US stops, the dependent economy, medicine, agriculture, will too.

[rabidquill]

Are the only arguments available to Environmentalists emotional ones? This video's case against mining is that it isn't cute and cuddly.

Humans need those natural resources. Why do Environmentalists prefer the difficult, brutish and short lives of stone age peasants to their own comfy western lifestyles? The people who can relate the least to the world's poor are the most active in keeping them poor.

[Tombstoner]

Which isn't to say Miners shouldn't be exemplary, and generous with & for the gifts earth provides us all. There is merit in this video's statement. BUT...Rare hightech minerals can only be HAND DUG by specialty miners,not machines-in very small operations & they are the heros + the keys to our futures, to science+peace.

[konopelli]

Problem is, nothing about the 'comfy western lifestyle' is even remotely sustainable. to bring the world's poor up to the standard of living of USer poor would require the existence and the ability to exploit of three MORE, identical earth-like planets.

[feelytouchy67]

The "claim-patent" system exists wherby public land is virtually given away to mining companies, and has been in place since 1872. It depletes the treasury, but profits mining companies, and is a HUGE subsidy.

[Tombstoner]

Simply put, oversimplified, misconception. Claims qualifying for "patent" (deeding from US to private hands) are subject to a "moratorium" now blocking transfers: proper & justified applicants wait while congress stalls, exploiters care not for lands not their own. Weeks Law intends local benefit- not the treasury benefiting no one.

[siggurdsson]

I like how you define "improve its standard" as "blow big black clouds of smoke". I also appreciate your selfless sacrifice. I wish more people could follow their convictions with action.

[pef286]

Do you want to pay higher prices for things that use things from the ground? It can be as envirementally friendly or unfriendly as you want it. But if you force to much extra costs on the mines they will close and go to third world nations that are worse.

China has over 1000 (or is it over 2000) die in coal mines each year. In the US a few die and it's national news. (as it should) Their is no easy answer.

[siggurdsson]

You're right - the prices we in North America pay for our consumer goods do not include the environmental costs. We should be paying many times more. But I think the idea was to better regulate mining all over the world, not to allow corporations to shop for jurisdictions with lax regulations or corrupt governments just so we can have cheap TVs.

[117wolf]

Countries with no service economy will try to attract heavy industry. If that means letting them blow big black clouds of smoke, like US plants in the 1800s-1950s then they will. No environmental protest will ever stop a society that wants to improve its standard and I like the idea that purchasing a cheap TV will help some plant in Indochina to exist longer, pay its people longer, and that they may eventually come to the standard of living that I and you enjoy today.

[amos2500]

Mining's not going away as long as you buy ANYTHING!

Mining has taken the average human lifespan of 45 100 years ago, to 83 where it stands today. Because almost everything in hospitals came from being mined too. Ever hear of lithium treatment, heart monitors, pacemakers, and stints? All metal, all dug out of the ground by someone making a living for himself while fashioning products you buy to extend your existence.

[siggurdsson]

I think you'll find this was due more to the development of antibiotics. If you do the research you'll find the number of lives saved or extended by "stints" (I think you mean stents) and pacemakers to be pretty much insignificant compared with, say, penicillin.

[117wolf]

I work in a hospital; drugs do more to save lives then mechanical parts at the present moment. However, many millions have been saved by X-ray machines, and other imaging modalities, all of which exist thanks to mining. I would also point out that the needles used to give drugs and the drug manufacturing plants that make them exist because of mining.

[117wolf]

Companies have been developing more efficient and consequently less environmental harmful methods of mining because it's economically viable for them to do so, not because they care or you tell them they should. The fact is you are benefiting from mining and if you want to protest it, give up everything that has result from mining which means you should never use a computer, car, or practically everything on the planet ever again.

[siggurdsson]

This is true, but only partially. "Companies have been developing more efficient and consequently less environmental harmful methods of mining because it's economically viable for them to do so, not because they care or you tell them they should." In fact, companies are forced to clean up old mine sites, limit effluent contamination, and forego mining in ecologically sensitive areas precisely because of public pressure.

[117wolf]

Companies are doing a good job when it comes to mine site cleanup. In PA a power company has designed a coal power plant that will burn the previously unusable "slag" coal mine waste. This removes the piles of slag that contaminate rivers. The companies will now keep better control of the waste product from coal because they make money.

[juliettelucie]

The point is not to start living like cavemen, it's to have sustainable development: making sure what we do today is not endangering others today and tomorrow.

[katakanadian]

To FutsinX and that ilk,

I don't think any environmentalist would claim that all mining should end because it is so essential to modern life. The point is to reduce it to the minimum though reduce/reuse/recycle and adopt a more thoughtful level of consumption that isn't based on selfishness and greed.

[pbauer666]

Hope you don't have any jewelery. Gold, silver, all has to be mined.

[groovyUtube]

Beautiful video, thanks!

[lowlights]

I see a lot of folks making the "either/or" fallacy, as if we can either have mining the way it is, or not at all. That's not how it has to be, duh.

[mgcnrgy]

True, alot of miners don't care enough about the enviornment but some do.. personally, i have a gold mine and use only bio-diesel and veggie based rock drill oil to do my mining.. I also dig for crystals.. But hey that house you are living in was once an enviornment for animals and bugs and plants as well.. It's all about balance..

[zurn123]

do you know how much water is wasted to recycle paper? also good point FutsinX

[siggurdsson]

Silly me. Of course, you're right. It's so much better to buy more nice fresh paper and burn or bury the old stuff.

[117wolf]

It is actually according to the New York Times; quote "Recycling may be the most wasteful activity in modern America. Waste of time and money, a waste of human and natural resources." It is also harmful to recycle paper because it takes more energy and creates more waste then just getting new paper. The only thing worth recycling now is aluminum cans.

[angyb333]

You know what recycling paper does save? Trees. It creates jobs. That article didn't even touch on all the different methods or recycling. Those are pretty important. And one claim by one single article shouldn't just be embraced as fact.

[FutsinX]

Well, you better put that video camera down and stop using the computer to edit it, because all of those materials had to be mined. Better yet, stop making phone calls, cooking with your stove, using your toaster or wearing a belt. No more driving in your car, or riding your bike...better stop reading this too.

Actually, all these pictures you show of "mine damage" make me want to go collect some more rocks.

[siggurdsson]

I'm concerned you may have missed the point. The idea is to get people thinking about the true costs - and values - of the things they take for granted. "Reduce, re-use, and recycle" is more than a catch-phrase; it actually sums up a rational approach to minimising the environmental costs we externalise in order to enjoy the things you mention.

[brett688]

Would you call ted kennedy, seems he's a big fan of yours until wind generators are proposed in his neighborhood. By the way when we no longer mine or manufacture anything, because somebody else will cut corners to make it cheaper, we can look forward to someone else being taking our place as numero uno. Now that really scares me. you like china? check out their enviromental record!