Agriculture
Rapid growth of population, spread of cash crops,
introduction of new technologies developed in other ecological and
socio- economic contexts, pressures to earn foreign exchange, and
the vicissitudes of the terms of trade for agricultural exports
have all disturbed the ecological stability of traditional
agriculture in many low-income countries. These disturbances have
led to various sequences of deforestation, soil degradation and
desertification, and increasing scarcity of water.
Mineral extraction
People have extracted minerals from the earth
since ancient times. Babylonians, Assyrians, and Byzantines mined
for copper and lead thousands of years ago in what is today
southern Jordan, for example. Since the Industrial Revolution,
however, minerals have been
extracted and used in much larger quantities. In recent times, this
trend has accelerated greatly: in 1999, some 9.6 billion tons of
marketable minerals were dug out of the earth, nearly twice as much
as in 1970. This figure accounts for minerals that finally
reach markets, but does not include the wastes generated in
producing these minerals—the unused portion of the ore (the
rock or earth that contains minerals), or the earth moved to reach
the ore, which is known as overburden. If these categories were
included in the total amount of materials mined each year, the
figure would be considerably larger.
By weight, most of the minerals extracted are
used for construction, such as stone, sand, and gravel. Although
metals are mined in smaller quantities, they are more valuable per
unit of weight. Iron is by far the most mined metallic ore. Much of
this iron ore is used to make steel—some 845 million tons of
raw steel were produced in 2000. About 135 million tons of bauxite
ore were mined that same year, which produced some 24 million tons
of aluminum—a lightweight metal used in cars, aircraft, and
beverage cans. And about 15 million tons of refined copper were
produced in 2000, much of which was used in electrical equipment,
cables, and construction.
Although gold is produced in much tinier
quantities—less than 2,500 tons a year—it brings in a
disproportionate share of the revenue from metals mining.
Selected examples of impact of
mining
|
Issue
|
Place
|
Impact
|
|
Biodiversity loss
|
Okapi
Reserve and Kahuzi-Biega National Park, Democratic Republic of the
Congo
|
Mining
for coltan—used to make capacitors for cell phones and other
electronics—has resulted in an 80-90 percent decline in the
population of the eastern lowland gorilla in the Reserve. Only
3,000 gorillas remain.
|
|
Water pollution
|
OkTedi,Papua New Guinea
|
On
average, 200,000 tons of contaminated tailings and waste rock
dumped each day into OkTedi River, which feeds into the Fly
River.This has silted up the two rivers to four or five times more
than normal, flooding nearby villages and killing off plant life in
a 2,000- square-kilometre area near the river
basin.
|
|
Air pollution
|
Norilsk nickel smelter, Russia
|
The
smelter is the country's largest source of sulfur dioxide and other
air pollutants, which have destroyed an estimated 3,500 square
kilometres of forest and harmed the health of local
residents.
|
|
Water use
|
Gold
mines in northeastern Nevada
|
Mines
in the Nevadan desert pumped out more than 2.2 trillion litres of
groundwater between 1986 and 2000—as much water as New York
City uses each year.
|
|
Destruction ofindigenouslands
|
Zortman-Landusky mine, Montana, United
States
|
Mining
for gold has destroyed Spirit Mountain, a sacred site for the
Assiniboine and GrosVentre tribes.The mine was abandoned by the
Pegasus Gold company in 1998, when it went bankrupt, leaving the
tribes a toxic legacy of cyanide waste and acid
drainage.
|
|
Loss
oftraditionaloccupations
|
Tambo Grande,
Peru
|
Farmers have opposed a proposed Canadian gold mine,
complaining that it will drain water supplies, take over farmland,
and contaminate their soils. In a referendum in June 2002,94
percent of the area's residents voted against the proposed
mine.
|
|
Human
rights abuses
|
Monywa
Copper Mine, Myanmar (formerly Burma)
|
The
Burmese military government has partnered with the Canadian firm
Ivanhoe to develop the copper mine and build railways, dams, and
other infrastructure. Nearly a million labourers have been forced
to work on the project.
|
|
Health
hazards
|
Metals
refineries, Torreon, Mexico
|
Heavy
metals emissions from lead, silver, and bismuth refineries have
resulted in lead poisoning in children, which can cause permanent
brain damage.
|
