The effects of mining on the environment

When I was a teenager we moved to live in a small mining community in north western Ontario where my dad  had hired on at one of the mines. The beauty of  the landscape, as we traveled along the highway leading toward our new home inspired me to go exploring, something I hadn't done since I was a very small child in Germany. We arrived at our new home well after dark and so I didn't see the area of land immediately surrounding the town as you came off the highway.  At the time I had no knowledge of the impact of human activity on nature and wildlife, much less the impact of mining on the immediate environment.  So the sight of  the dead areas of land immediately surrounding the town had a profound effect on me, once I finally saw them.  We were out with new friends, my sister and I exploring.

These dead areas surrounding the town consisted of  tracts of exposed unhealthy looking soil of undefined color, drenched by an ugly rusty red liquid spread over it in small puddles and rivulets,  and sparsely populated by dead, downed, and rotting trees.  We also found the remains of  innocent victims, a bunny, and several dead birds.  It was a repelling experience; the land a horrific sight.  It looked to me just  like a very bad disease. I asked one of my new friends what was wrong with the land and he explained what he knew to be the cause. Mining, specifically, the waste left over from the means by which gold was processed. It had simply been dumped everywhere with great carelessness.  His explanation had a great deal of impact, and created in me a deep anger and long lasting sadness.  I also knew instinctively that this couldn't be good for people's health, if the land was already affected this badly and the wildlife dying, but at the time no one seemed to care.

Environmental Messengers

What the environmental messengers around the globe are trying to get through to us is that this planet  we call earth is our pond.  It is our only pond.  As such taking  care of it must be a priority over everything else.   In taking care of this pond, we not only take care of ourselves but also our younger cousins: the birds, mammals, fish, reptiles and insects who share it with us.

We have forgotten one fundamental truth; that all things are connected in nature, therefore what affects one will eventually affect another.  We have unwittingly endangered both ourselves and our younger cousins through our actions; through our enthusiasm to beat nature at the survival game, and our subsequent, growing encroachment on all  the different habitats around the globe. This danger, you will see, if you take the time to look around, is very real and we need to take a step back and re-connect with what is truly important.