Mine, all mine

There’s an article in the Star Tribune that misses several significant points relative to its purported subject. The head states: Minnesota locked in global dilemma: More copper and nickel are needed, but mine development slow. That’s slightly off the mark, but not as misleading as the lede: “There's a not-in-my-backyard mentality surrounding new hardrock mine projects.” 

If the reporters had thought a bit, they might have noted that the global dilemma could have been avoided if the oil and gas industry had been honest and more forthcoming decades ago about the implications of consuming their products. Of course, the world leaders have been less than dynamic in responding to the scientific evidence and reports about the effects of greenhouse gasses and climate weirding. The real “not in my backyard” issue is global population growth accompanied by a capitalist economy dependent on quantitative rather than qualitative growth to provide return on investment.

There’s another aspect though that is more germane to Minnesota, and the rest of US. Some years ago the Initiative for Responsible Mining Assurance (IRMA) was begun. It has now reached the point where their standards form the basis against which mining activities can be audited. According to the IRMA web site, none of the audits completed or underway at this writing is in Minnesota or the United States. This is perhaps not surprising since the  lack of systems planning we are pursuing results in a national approach of building renewable generating capacity far from the centers of consumption and lack the transmission capacity to get the product to market, so to speak. We’re as likely to insist mining projects in this country meet stringent international standards as we are to place lots more emphasis on roof-top solar and micro-grids. Either would seem to be a better approach but would upset some of the major players, no doubt.

mining leaves many scars on the earth

Photo by J. Harrington

Aaron Brown, someone much closer to the Iron Range mining issues than I, recently had this and more to say:

Since the dawn of capitalism on this continent, people of northern Minnesota contended with challenging economic conditions. This is true whether we live in Eveleth or Onigum. Up and down. Boom and bust. We share these experiences.

We should be rightly concerned that the powerful deem the people of northern Minnesota less valuable than the logs and ore that define our manufactured regional identity. When companies are denied logs and ore, the powerful speak out. When people are denied health care, affordable housing and dignity, the powerful suddenly show remarkable restraint of tongue and pen. 

Since the evidence is growing daily that the climate scientists who try to inform and warn us of what we’re doing to ourselves, actually, allowing the global corporations to do to us, are telling the truth, maybe it’s time to focus more on working together to bring the corporatocracy, including its political toadies, to heal and spend less energy pointing fingers at various elements of the people who do the work and/or suffer the most while the profits continue to accrue to the 1%.

Love in a Time of Climate Change

By Craig Santos Perez

recycling Pablo Neruda's "Sonnet XVII"

I don't love you as if you were rare earth metals,

conflict diamonds, or reserves of crude oil that cause

war. I love you as one loves the most vulnerable

species: urgently, between the habitat and its loss.

I love you as one loves the last seed saved

within a vault, gestating the heritage of our roots,

and thanks to your body, the taste that ripens

from its fruit still lives sweetly on my tongue.

I love you without knowing how or when this world

will end. I love you organically, without pesticides.

I love you like this because we'll only survive

in the nitrogen rich compost of our embrace,

so close that your emissions of carbon are mine,

so close that your sea rises with my heat. 

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