Environmental Security Of The Mongolian Economy

Mongolia is a landlocked, central Asian country, between China and Russia, with many mountainous and desert areas. The climate in Mongolia can be very extreme, with droughts in the summer and heavy snow in the winters. Mongolia gained its independence in 1921, and was declared a socialist nation, until the late 1980s, since around 1990, the country has had a type of free market economy. There are branches similar to the United States, where there is a president, prime minister and cabinet in the executive, some members of parliament in the legislative branch and a constitutional court in the judicial branch. The government in Mongolia is fairly new and not incredibly developed. The capital of Mongolia is Ulaanbaatar, and about 45% of all of Mongolia’s population lives there. The population of Mongolia is young; the majority of the people are younger than 30 years old. The population’s social structure is mostly differentiated by the increasing gaps between the amounts of wealth people have, unlike the past where it had more social hierarchies of clans and tribes. Some of the main industries in Mongolia today are food processing, leather goods, carpets, and mining (specifically coal), all of these industries were built under the old socialistic practice of the country. In the past, Mongolia’s main trading partner was the Soviet Union, now the country trades items like livestock, various animal products and metals with 25 different countries specifically its neighboring

A nation with a lot to lose. The huge, industrial and overpopulated country we know as China, is going through a water scarcity crisis. North China’s lack of water affects more of the region than anyone can imagine. Causing negative problems for food supply, economic development, political stability, and international relations, including drying up their major rivers. What are creating these complications? Global Warming, Urbanization and Population Growth, and Industrialization are the three main causes of China’s water crisis. Of these, the biggest driver is Industrialization.

According to the United Nations' Food and Agriculture Organization (FAO), an estimated 18 million acres of forest, which is roughly the size of the country of Panama, are lost each year. Undeniably, the deteriorating environmental situation, the increasingly severe pollution of the atmosphere, and water, the severe damage to the living environment of wild animals and plants, the extinction of many species, the deforestation and the transitional mining of mineral resources caused contrary facts. Human existence and development have brought real and more serious potential threats. The scarcity of environmental resources is manifested gradually. As environmental issues are becoming a bottleneck restricting economic growth, it is imperative that lousy effect governed the environment.

Indians for example are being poorer. In 1853 E.A. Stevenson states, “The Indians in this portions of the State are wretchedly poor, having no horses, cattle or other property. They formerly survived on game, fish,acorns, etc. but it is now impossible for them to make a living by hunting or fishing”(Doc 2). This is due to miners turning the stream to mines to look for gold and they can do that because of the law of prior appropriations And after being use up, the stream become muddy causing fish to seek for new houses which will also be destroyed due to more miners using the streams carelessly. This causes Indians, animals and habitats to die. It is stated by Jerry Stanley in 1997, ”The gold rush meant death by starvation for thousands of Native Californians, and death from disease for thousands more”(Doc 7). This shows the consequence made by the miners. They use the water for their gold, polluting the rivers with mercury and to the Indians that drink the water they are die and if they don’t they will sooner ar later die of dehydrations. It also stated by Jerry Stanley that due the tree being cut downs, animals left which were a food source for Indians. The Indians are not the only one who were being harm. The environment is being harm. They cut down tree which are habitats for animals and the animals have to leave home and find a new one buts people will continue cutting trees and polluting water, and taking their home away again and the animals will sooner or later die out This create a cycle that will end with animals becoming endangered or extinct so we should start changing our water

In the middle ages, farmers came upon the issue of barren fields after their repeated use. By planting countless crops of corn in one area of land for decades, the soil became depleted of the nutrients necessary to grow the crop (The Editors of…”). Granted, the three field system became a popular method to combat this inconvenience, but throughout history, humans constantly need to solve the issues they created themselves. During the California Gold Rush, some 100,000 non-natives rushed to San Francisco and the surrounding area in the hopes of striking literal gold. However, commercial gold mining is the largest source of mercury release, a liquid metal that causes nervous system failure, kidney damage, and even death in humans and other organisms alike (“The Gold Rush of 1849”). Even disease contamination of surface-level water is caused by humans, whether by mistake or otherwise, affects not only those bathing and cooking with the water, but those living in the water - fish, aquatic plants, etc. Even by making valiant efforts to reduce our use of coal and oil by converting to nuclear and solar energy, the waste products cause more harm than good. The land that we use again and again is treated poorly and without much thought as agriculturalism becomes a larger part of survival throughout history.

Open pit mining creates a hole where groundwater will collect instead of flowing naturally into the watersheds. What water will flow into those watersheds will be contaminated by mercury--from the processing of the ore into taconite pellets and sulfuric acid, causing incredible damage to the ecosystem of the rivers and Lake

“In the waning days of

My first reason States that mining will affect many jobs including farmers and fishermen. I think this because, without good water, it would be hard for farmers to get good water for irrigating

Resource depletion is the consumption of a resource faster than the resource can be replenished. This is a big environmental issue because this issue is coming fast. If this issue is not stopped in time, then the people will die because of lack of food, trees, and water, etc (Impacts. 2017). COSIA (Canada’s Oil Sand Innovation Alliance) is a mining company and they find ways to reduce their amount of usage of resources when mining and use this more environmentally friendly, way throughout the company(The Water Technology Development Centre. 2015).

Aquatic life is literally suffocated by the waste rock thrown into valleys and gorges. For instance, an article by NASA stated that “The waste rock from the mountain is dumped into valleys and pollutes water/stream beds, causing a decline in aquatic life.” The pollution can create genetic mutations in fish and raises the amount of metal in streams. This affects the wildlife around the streams and humans, too. In fact, the article “Bad Rock: How Mountaintop Removal Mining Can Damage Streams” says “Many streams are buried under tens to hundreds of meters of waste rock.” The streams that are buried are home to many different aquatic species, but they are being killed because of the demand for coal. Many streams and animals are being killed, and it’s advancing throughout the land.

One of China’s best successes has in turn been one of its biggest downfalls. One of the main problems is China’s greatest success which has been its phenomenal economic growth. This is one of the main drivers of the current environmental problems that the country faces. Factories dump pollutants into the air and water. It is difficult to see the Chinese government making the significant sacrifices required to improve their environment if it means slowing down their economic growth.

These issues may be exacerbated by mismanagement of central governments, heavy political and economic pressures, widespread corruption, cronyism (appointing familiars to positions of authority), and illegal logging operations (Speth & Haas, 2006, p. 30). Corruption and illegal extracting activities are especially problematic because they allow for further abuse and destruction to this environment.

In our days, mining for resources is inevitable. The resources we need are valuable in everyday life. Such resources mined up are coal, copper, gold, silver, and sand. However, mining poses environmental risks that can degrade the quality of soil and water, which can end up effecting us humans if not taken care of and many of the damages are irreversible once they have occurred.

The mining industry has seen an explosive growth from the past few decades. It has played an important role in economic growth, infrastructure development and a raise in the living standard of the whole world. According to the Australian National Accounting System, the mining sector has made contributions of 9.8% GDP growth to the Australian economy between 2008 to 2009 (Australia Bureau of Statistics, 2012). However, the mining industry has caused many environmental issues such as adverse effect to air, land and water quality and continues to affect global environment as a whole. According to the World Health Organization, it evaluated that 25% of worldwide death are directly associated with environmental pollution (Blacksmith Institute, n.d). This essay will outline the environmental issue raised by the mining industry with pinpoint focus on the effects to air, water and land. It will also provide strategies for mining companies to improve the environmental conditions.

Mining Many of the planet's rainforests lie over rich mineral deposits. The mining process releases harmful toxins, like mercury and cyanide which are often used in the gold extraction process, into local streams and river, polluting both the waters and the surrounding lands. There is, however, good money in the mining industry and many residents are encouraged to work in the mines.