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

Leadville, Colorado Fears Billion Gallon Flood of Cancer and Pain

Leadville, Colorado is a scary place to live in these days. It’s a high altitude town- the highest incorporated in the U.S. at over 10,000 feet- contaminated by decades of mining the slopes above and around. It was at one time the largest silver mine in the world and over the decades has been host to soldiers from the nearby Army base, famous writers and celebrities, and even gunslinger Doc Holiday.

Today it’s filled with a people fearful of the billion gallons of polluted water plugged up in a tunnel overlooking town that’s threatening to pop. If it blows the entire town will be awash in a watery stew of deadly chemicals, lead, mercury, and other heavy metals. Leadville’s 2,700 residents could find themselves knee deep in cancer and death.

Groovy Green says not to worry though, officials are all over this one:

Peter Soeth, a spokesman for the Bureau of Reclamation, which acquired the drainage tunnel in 1959, said there was no immediate threat to Leadville’s 2,700 residents.

Officials point out that a speaker system to broadcast evacuation notices has already been installed near a mobile home park that has 300 residents near the tunnel’s portal.

I’d feel so safe if I knew that and lived in Leadville. A speaker system. They have a speaker system. Great F.S.M.

Link [MSNBC] via Groovy Green

Green Geek’s Wetdream: The Super Tipper Truck Delivers Tons of Pure Awesome

Excuse me while I green geek out on you.

Great Flying Spaghetti Monster! Is this thing cool or what!?!

Meet the Super Tipper Truck, the coolest damn truck I’ve ever seen. It has independent suspension and electronic motors in all four wheels and it rips through the woods and up and down hills.

OK, so basically the thing is a dump truck sized Transformer-looking oversized ATV. You could do a lot of damage to the woods in that thing and it’s bound to be mainly utilized by mega sized multi-national mining and energy firms.

But… but…

It’s got electric wheels. That’s green, right?

Either way, it’s going on my Crazy Wish List, the list of things I will buy myself when I am a Billionaire. Maybe I’ll get a few and me and my friends can race them. We’ll charge ‘em up with the solar panels, I promise.

Link [Groovy Green]