Morgan Large propose un long entretien avec Célia Izoard, journaliste et philosophe, autrice de « La Ruée minière au XXIe siècle » (Seuil, 2024), qui était de passage en Centre-Bretagne, mi-avril. 📻 1/
Son travail questionne le paradoxe d'une (ré)ouverture des mines pour résoudre la crise climatique, solution pourtant préconisée derrière l'appellation de « transition énergétique ».
Mining next to the #Okefenokee National Wildlife Refuge would irrevocably damage this natural treasure. Yet #Georgia 's Environmental Protection Division just issued draft permits -- bringing the start of strip mining one step closer.
Imagine: Dump trucks carve deep ruts into once unspoiled #wetlands. Giant excavators rip through matted layers of ground-hugging plants.
The sound of bellowing #alligators is replaced by the industrial hum of the #mine 's new processing plant.
The Okefenokee is teeming with life: Cypress trees adorned with veils of long-hanging moss rise above shadowy waters filled with American alligators and wading birds like blue herons. The #OkefenokeeNationalWildlifeRefuge is a sprawling wilderness area on the #Florida - #Georgia border that protects over 630 square miles of biologically rich #swamps and #waterways.
The South Taranaki Bight is home to blue #whales, Māui and Hector’s #dolphins, kororā (little #penguins), and key fishing grounds. You may already know that it is under threat once again by the possibility of #SeabedMining. Trans Tasman Resources ( #TTR ) is seeking consent to #mine the seabed of the South Taranaki Bight - to dig up to 50 million tonnes of ironsands a year for over 30 years, dumping 45 million tonnes back onto the seafloor.
Opinion: Why the birthplace of the Western #Apache religion shouldn’t be destroyed by a #CopperMine
by Luke Goodrich
February 6, 2024·
"A federal court is poised to decide whether a #NativeAmerican#sacred site will be destroyed by a massive #copper#mine. Mining proponents claim that destroying the #SacredSite is necessary for the development of #GreenEnergy. That claim is both factually wrong and morally repugnant. And recent polling shows that the vast majority of Americans agree with what the constitution requires: #Native sacred sites deserve the same protection as all other houses of worship.
"Since before European contact, #WesternApache and other Native tribes have lived and honored their #Creator at #OakFlat, or 'Chi’chil Bildagoteel.' The site is the birthplace of Western Apache religion and the site of ancient religious ceremonies that cannot take place anywhere else. Because of its religious and cultural significance, Oak Flat is on the National Register of Historic Places and has been protected from mining and other destructive practices for decades.
"That changed in 2014, when several members of Congress, supported by #corporate#mining#lobbyists, slipped an amendment into a must-pass defense bill authorizing the transfer of Oak Flat to a foreign-owned mining giant. That company, #ResolutionCopper, announced plans to obliterate the sacred ground by swallowing it in a mining crater nearly two miles wide and 1,100-feet deep, ending Apache religious practices forever. That was no surprise given the company’s sordid history dealing with #IndigenousPeoples. The majority owner of Resolution Copper is #RioTinto (the world’s second largest mining company), which sparked international outrage in 2020 when it destroyed a 46,000-year-old rock shelter with some of the most significant #Aboriginal artifacts in all of #Australia.
"The Apache and their allies, represented by my firm, the #BecketFundForReligiousLiberty, have been fighting in court to ensure that such an atrocity won’t repeat itself at Oak Flat. After initial court rulings against the Apache, a full panel of 11 judges at the Ninth Circuit Court of Appeals reheard their appeal last spring. A decision on whether the government can execute the land transfer is expected any day.
"Resolution Copper and its backers want the public to believe that building the mine is essential for developing #renewable energy. Extracting the copper beneath Oak Flat, they say, will help to build batteries necessary for powering #ElectricVehicles and thus fight #ClimateChange. In other words, we have to destroy Oak Flat in order to save the planet.
"These claims, however, are false — and they are specifically designed to obscure the physical and cultural destruction the project would wreak on the land.
"The mine will destroy the #environment, not save it. It is undisputed that the mine will swallow the ecologically diverse landscape of Oak Flat in a massive crater, decimating the local #ecosystem. It will also leave behind approximately 1.37 billion tons of '#tailings,' or #MiningWaste, which, according to the government’s own environmental assessment, will pollute the #groundwater and scar the landscape permanently. And the mine will consume vast quantities of water at the time it is most needed by drought-stricken towns and #farmers.
"Supporters of the mine are also at odds with the majority of Americans. According to this year’s Religious Freedom Index, an annual survey conducted by Becket, 74% of Americans believe that Native sacred sites on federal land should be protected from mining projects, even when the projects are purportedly pro-jobs and pro-environment.
"That conclusion is both sensible and humane. America can transition to renewable energy without blasting the cradle of Western Apache religion into oblivion. And it should. For too long, our nation has made excuses for taking advantage of #IndigenousPeople and their land. Indeed, our nation drove the Western Apache off Oak Flat and surrounding lands in the 1800s precisely to make way for #MiningInterests. It shouldn’t repeat that #injustice again.
"It is past time to protect Indigenous sacred sites from further destruction. Basic fairness and our constitutional commitment to religious freedom require no less. And, happily, most Americans agree."
Here's everything you need to know about the WA government's backdown on its #Aboriginal Cultural Heritage laws
By Jake Sturmer
Posted Tue 8 Aug 2023
"The WA government's 2021 changes were supposed to prevent what it described as a 'global embarrassment' from ever happening again.
"Instead, the Aboriginal Cultural Heritage Act has left many farmers confused and traditional owners frustrated.
"After just five weeks in operation, the government has backflipped — trying to stem the political bleeding that is tainting WA's new premier and now muddying the waters of the Voice referendum debate.
So what's changing?
"It's important to remember that any activities that could damage Aboriginal cultural heritage still need approval.
"The old-but-soon-to-be-new 1972 act meant the minister had to tick off on every action no matter how minor — known as a Section 18 approval.
WA premier announces repeal of Aboriginal Cultural Heritage laws
"Just five weeks after being legislated, Roger Cook announces the WA government will be scrapping its #AboriginalCulturalHeritageLaws.
"The 2021 act created a system of tiers and approvals.
"Want to build a fence with no clearing? No approval required.
"New #mine site with deep excavation? You'll need a management plan that has to be ticked off by a local Aboriginal organisation at your expense.
"But the government acknowledged these tiers have caused massive confusion and will therefore be scrapped.
"There were reports the rules would have prevented everything from gardening to installing a swimming pool, building a garage or burying a pet in the backyard.
"In fact, such activities were exempt, as were all properties smaller than 1,100 square metres.
"So it's no surprise the biggest outcry came from farmers.
How will another Juukan Gorge be prevented?
"When landowners requested to damage or destroy heritage sites, they needed one of those #Section18 approvals from the minister.
"If the minister rejected that, developers had a right to appeal but traditional owners did not.
"As part of the government's backflip, it will amend the laws to give a right of appeal to the native title party whose cultural heritage is impacted.
"Developers will also have to bring any new heritage information to the government's attention."
The Cambodian Mine Action and Victim Assistance Authority (CMAA) requested Laos at a meeting on Monday to join the other 164 countries attending the Ottawa Convention while Cambodia is chair and hosts the 5th Review Meeting of the organisation....
Today I stumbled over an ancient phosphate #mine at my hike. I had my head lamp with me because of the early sunset and so I walked through the two large arms, each of them 200-400 meters long.
“The worldwide BTC mining network consumed 173.42 TWh of electricity during the 2020–2021 period, bigger than the electricity consumption of most nations. The mining process emitted over 85.89 Mt of CO2eq in the same timeframe, equivalent to the emission caused by burning [42 million tons] of coal or running 190 natural gas‐fired power plants.”
@ScottAkenhead And let's not get over the #energy wasted to build #Bitcoin :bitcoin: #ASIC|s, because fabricating custom #silicon that cannot be repurposed for anything at all alongside the #PCBs and auxiliary components takes a shitload of expensive and not envoirementally-friendly materials and an absurd amount of energy.
Compared to i.e. #Monero :monero: where COTS hardware is used that can be used for computing and not end up as #eWaste once it's unprofitable to #mine with...
"The #KivIA recommends that the proponent undertakes a fine-scale description and analysis of #caribou exposure and movements in the vicinity and at the #mine site to assess if the extension project will impact caribou exposure and movement."
This children’s book is perfect ! The art and text are amazing. Author Dave Eggers and artist Júlia Sardà spin a quirky historical event into a whimsical and tall-ish true tale of human ingenuity. Highly recommended if your child has a hard time reading nonfiction or history books.
237,000 tons of "arsenic trioxide dust, the lethal byproduct of extracting gold from the mineral arsenopyrite ore... Arsenic trioxide dust, which contains approximately 60% arsenic, is highly lethal even in small doses. " #toxic#mine#tourismhttps://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Giant_Mine
Cambodian Mine Action and Victim Assistance Authority (CMAA) asks Laos to join Ottawa Treaty (www.khmertimeskh.com)
The Cambodian Mine Action and Victim Assistance Authority (CMAA) requested Laos at a meeting on Monday to join the other 164 countries attending the Ottawa Convention while Cambodia is chair and hosts the 5th Review Meeting of the organisation....
Naval mine explodes near resort in Romania (www.pravda.com.ua)
An explosion occurred in the Black Sea near the resort village of Costinești, Romania, on the morning of 14 August.