Gold Mine Threatens Peruvian Community

A community in Peru is speaking out about the threat to their livelihood posed by the Canadian company, Manhattan Minerals, which is working to develop a gold mine in Tambogrande, Peru. The woman in the video below expresses her fears about the mine, which are not unfounded. Here’s an excerpt from a report Friends of the Earth did about the Yanacocha gold mine in the Peruvian Andes,

“Had they just shot me in the head, I would have felt better. Nothing could be worse than seeing my daughters suffer and hear them tell me about the tremendous pain in their eyes, their backs, their heads, day in day out. What can a father say to his sick children? How can I explain that the world’s richest gold mine sitting on that mountain does not want to help us?”
-Alfonso Charrasco, more than three years after the mercury spill that forced him and his family to flee their birth village.

Mr. Trash Can Is Overworked!

While carbon emissions may be the current cause of the environmental movement, let’s not forget the more tangible waste products we are unleashing upon the earth. Annually, households and businesses throw out 251 million tons of trash. And while, not shockingly, the major offenders are industries such as mining, everyday American consumers are responsible for five pounds of trash a day.

Check out this cute animated video from GOOD about an over-worked American trash can. It serves as inspiration to reduce our own output of trash as well as industrial waste.

Chinese Villagers in Mining Region Stand up to Pollution

For far too long, the people who have suffered most from the side effects of China’s rapid economic rise have done so in silence. They breathe filthy, contaminant-filled air and drink water full of toxins. Birth defects, fertility problems and early death are just a few of the frightening consequences the poor Chinese citizens of mining areas have had to put up with. But now, residents of the tiny hamlet of Gaodong are standing up and demanding to be heard.

From Yale’s Environment 360:

Living in a county that produces one-fifth of all the manganese excavated on earth, the villagers had — like many ordinary Chinese — paid a high environmental price for fueling China’s economic boom. In this instance, however, the people of Gaodong had decided they would take it no more.

Gaodong is located in Xiushan, a county that is home to 41 licensed and more than 200 unlicensed manganese mines, which excavate the valuable metal — used in steel, aluminum, and copper production — by blasting the earth with dynamite. The residents of Gaodong and neighboring villages have been subjected to frequent explosions that crack the foundations of their homes and force their children to stuff cotton in their ears to do their homework. They have seen their underground aquifers drained by the mining activity, which empties all six of the village’s wells in the dry season.

Their rivers sometimes run black as the mining companies and manganese refineries dump tons of toxic mine waste directly into surrounding waterways. They have watched as badly polluted irrigation water destroys rice crops, kills fruit trees, and cuts harvests by more than half. In addition, the village air has been fouled with mining dust, and local health officials have diagnosed some local mine workers with neurological diseases caused by heavy metal pollution.

The people of Gaodong have been seeking compensation from the Chinese government for years, finally drawing township head Zhou Hui to their village – but when a meeting didn’t lead to a resolution, they rioted. Four women – including a 75-year-old and a 67-year-old – prevented his car from leaving, and latched onto Zhou’s legs when police tried to remove them. When the police became violent toward the women, the village men stepped in and fights ensued. One woman ended up in the hospital for 9 days, and the police later came back to interrogate every male villager over the age of 16.

Afterwards dozens of men left their jobs behind and lived in makeshift huts in the hills for months, fearful of arrest or retribution. No charges have been filed, but relations are still uneasy between the people, the mines and local officials. The clash is a dramatic example of Chinese people getting fed up with sacrificing their families’ health for their country’s economy.

It’s so good to hear that Chinese villagers are standing up for themselves, but the Chinese government is hardly known for being sympathetic to things like this. Corruption runs rampant as officials turn a blind eye to illegal mining operations so the country can continue building its economy. And, we’ve all heard stories about the Chinese government shutting people up when they speak out against government practices.

Read more about the effects of mining on China’s environment and people at Environment 360.

Link [Environment 360]
Photo credit: Wikimedia Commons

China Gets a Bargain on Peru’s ‘Copper Mountain’

One of the most productive copper mines on earth – Mount Toromocho in Peru – is now in the hands of China. Chinese officials plan to exploit the mountain for all it’s worth, sending all of the copper back home to carry out the electrification of the entire country. The deal not only cheats Peruvians out of the true value of the copper mine, since it was sold to China for such a ‘great bargain’, but will displace all of the residents of the area.

From the BBC:

The Peruvian government is happy with the $3bn (£1.53bn) that Chinalco will invest in the Toromocho mines.

The Chinese will be even happier. They have got themselves a bargain.

The copper Chinalco extracts from Toromocho will cost something like US$410 (£210) per ton. Today, the price for copper on the London Metal Exchange was $8,255 (£4,220) – 20 times more.

Chinalco stands to make a 2,000% profit on its investment.

As destructive as it is, there should be a worldwide ban on mountaintop removal for mining purposes. This isn’t just about frightening amounts of power in the hands of China, taking advantage of poor countries, forcing people out of their homes and displacing wildlife. It’s a scary trend that threatens the beauty of the natural world and has the potential to create even more pollution than we’re already dealing with. China has already shown that the environment is far from its top priority, and as the BBC mentions, it has ‘vast reserves of foreign currency’ at its disposal.

Link [BBC]

Brazil Government Threatens Uncontacted Amazon Tribe with a Highway

Last week, the Brazilian government released amazing photographs of one of the last uncontacted tribes in the Amazon. They stated that the reason for releasing the photos was to alert the world to threats to these native people – the same threats that have made other previously secluded tribes virtually unrecognizable, they’ve become so alarmingly enmeshed in modern life. And those are the lucky ones. Many tribes have been displaced and killed by unscrupulous loggers, miners and other opportunists who sought something valuable within the tribe’s land.

From MSNBC:

“We put the photos out because if things continue the way they are going, these people are going to disappear,” said Jose Carlos Meirelles, who coordinates government efforts to protect four “uncontacted” tribes for Brazil’s National Indian Foundation.

The (not so) funny thing is, the Brazilian government is saying one thing and doing another. A highway currently in the works would bring more than unwanted noise to these uncontacted tribes. They would likely bring outsiders – and with them, all of the ills of modern society.

The Belfast Telegraph has it:

The 711-mile Trans-Oceanic Highway, which will eventually link the Amazon river ports of Brazil with the Pacific ones of Peru, is the biggest threat to the indigenous peoples – uncontacted or otherwise – in that part of South America, says John Hemming, celebrated expert on Brazilian peoples and author of many books, among them the acclaimed Tree of Rivers. “The bad news,” he says, “is that the Chinese have persuaded Brazil and Peru to cut a road through this region, and it’s blazing ahead. In theory, it should not affect these peoples, and it won’t go slap through their land. But when it’s built, the settlers will come pouring in.” And, as he points out, one main road grows spurs and side roads, allowing those who do directly threaten the tribes – illegal loggers and mineral prospectors – far better access to the uncharted areas than they have now.

Fabulous. Thank you, Brazilian government! Just what these people need – we’re going to save them from their ignorance and introduce them to a life of modern convenience! How lucky they are! Soon they’ll be able to shop at El Bath y Beyond and eat Big Macs for lunch. Onward with progress!

Link [MSNBC] + [Belfast Telegraph]

Polluted Picher, Oklahoma Turned into a Ghost Town by Mining

A city in Oklahoma is left with just a tiny fraction of its population as residents move away from the site of mining gone wrong. Picher began as an Old West mining town that sounds like it could have been a movie set: saloons and movie parlors lined the streets, and at its peak it boasted nearly 20,000 residents. Now, only a few dozen remain in a town with no city water and no police, with a backdrop of barren, lead-laced hills.

From MSNBC:

Picher’s mines closed around 1970; the wounds they inflicted on the people and land never healed.

Today, Tar Creek runs orange with acidic water that flooded the mines. Cave-ins and sinkholes threaten; a mine collapse in 1967 took nine homes.

Bleak, gray mountains of lead-contaminated chat, or mine tailings, loom around town. Some rise 100 feet and look like sand dunes. They have names like Sooner, St. Joe and Golden Rod 8.

For years, before most knew better, the gravel-coated piles doubled as sledding hills for kids, a Lover’s Lane for teenagers and a makeshift proving grounds for dirt bikes and the high school’s track team.

It will take at least 15 more years to haul the stuff off, for use in highway construction projects, but that’s not soon enough.

The polluted dust that blows through every nook of this place has already affected a generation.

The federal government has started a buyout program and is helping residents move elsewhere. Those who plan to stay behind say they don’t care if it’s a ghost town; they won’t leave – they feel like they’re losing their heritage. One resident compared it to a death, and said they cried every day.

Something about this is so foreboding; the ghost of America’s future. It seems like what could happen to our country on a large scale if we sit back and do nothing about climate change. If we just allow the pollution to continue. It seems as though Picher, Oklahoma is a warning to us all: this could happen to your hometown, too. Maybe not from mining pollution, but from global warming-exacerbated natural disasters, a lack of water or severe food shortage. The time to act is yesterday, and we’d best do all we can to catch up.

Link [MSNBC]
Photo credit: Charlie Riedel / AP