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-kilometer 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 kilometers 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 liters 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.
|
