How Does Surface Mining Affect The Environment

When asked to think of coal mining, what comes to mind? A mountain with a hole cut into the side of it with a set of railroad tracks disappearing into it? Maybe an old mine car or two full of some rocks or coal, with a pickaxe and shovel leaning against it. A few guys with hard hats covered in a black powder coming walking out of the mine pushing a car or two full of coal. The technology has advanced but the process is basically still the same as well as the outcome. Coal is retrieved from underground and taken to factories to be burnt to create electricity or to fuel the steel mills.

Fossil Fuels are extremely harmful to the environment, especially in the ways the fuel is obtained, such as mining or hydraulic fracturing. Coal, a commonly used fossil fuel, can be obtained by strip mining, mountaintop mining, or underground mining (“Coal Explained”). Strip mining has disastrous effects on the environment because of the destructive nature of the process, which removes all soil, rock, trees, and plants above coal deposits. The runoff from this pollutes streams and rivers nearby, which can harm aquatic life and disfigure the body of water,

A number of actions and technologies are being made and used by mining productions to make less environmental impacts of mining, these are talked about below.

To recover diamonds, the industry is using modern mining methods and a more clinical approach to sustainability of mining and therefore the impact on the environment is being minimized while the benefits to the communities and countries where they are found are being maximized. These benefits are

Surface mining began to replace traditional underground mining around WWII (Bozzi 116). Rather than digging into the mountain to extract the coal, strip mining involves removing the overlying soil and rock that covers the coal deposits (Lutz 1). It seemed appealing at first because the previous known dangers of black-lung disease and cave-ins were now limited with the surface mining method (Bozzi 116). However, surface mining came with it’s own problems, a lot of them being more serious and irreversible than underground mining (Allen 182). This method of surface mining was the spark that created the trend of mountaintop removal (Bozzi 117). Mountaintop removal is the complete destruction of the mountain peak in order to reach coal

Of all the values plaguing Montana socially and environmentally, the issue of mining plays the greatest role in the state. Although recognized as being one of the largest pillars of Montana’s economy, mining poses a serious threat to the ecosystems surrounding it. The main problem within this industry is that after mining takes places, there are many toxic materials, like arsenic and zinc, that remain in the waste rock and tailings. These toxic substances are harmful to people as well as wildlife and once they enter the groundwater, rivers, or soil, they become a very serious health hazard. Currently, there are government regulations for all mining companies that assure none are participating in these harmful practices. Although many new companies

The process that factories are doing to create products could destroy the planet. These type of factories are called “maquiladoras” and the activities that they do bring many issues for the earth. For instance, general cleaning, manufacturing, and maintenance of machines contribute to the destruction of the planet. Therefore, the maquiladoras need to focus because this damages the soil, creates scrap which is difficult to recycle, and in general, harms the ecosystem.

The mining process involves many big vehicles and other technology that release huge amounts of pollution into the atmosphere speeding up global warming and causing climate change.

In 2014, mining contributed $54 billion to Canada’ gross domestic product. The mining industry has thrived on the concept of globalization. It has been reported that 75% of the world’s mining companies are headquartered in Canada (Dean, 2013) and many have expanded to other countries. Mining is notoriously known for acid mine draining; the pollutant that occurs when water flows through a sulfur-exposed material. Not only is treatment for acid mine drainage expensive, causing taxpayers millions of dollars to clean it; it also contaminates drinking water, kills wildlife, and destroys infrastructure. The Telkwa Coal Mine in Smithers, British Columbia, is especially known for its role in damaging one of the town’s biggest industries; fishing. The coal mine is located near the Skeena River; a river filled with fish. In 1997, the Skeena fishery reported a 12% decrease in salmon population (Zilker, 1998) due to the acid drainage material released by the Telkwa Coal Mine. This was a significant hit considering the Skeena fishery was one of the provinces’ most important sources of income (Zilker, 1998). Due to action taken by protesters, however; mining companies are faced with strict regulations by Environment Canada (Souza, 2013), and the effect of acid mine drainage has lessened over the years. However, bit by bit, globalization is continuously destroying Canada’s environment and negatively

| From a social perspective there is far less reticence about adverse environmental impact in Brazil as opposed to the UK for example, and as such Brazil and Petrobras have taken steps to reduce and control adverse effects of their exploration efforts (Petrobras, 2011). The Salt Institute (SI, 2012) indicate that mining for Rock salt does cause known environmental stresses such as fragmentation and also indicates that transportation of the salt can have adverse environmental impact. The SI strongly advocates the use of permits in order to regulate the industry, a view shared by Mol (2010).

It is a complex social process which already becomes part and parcel of our society.

Since Freeport started their journey of the mining operations, social and environmental issues raised. Environmental issues included the effects on glaciers, overburden storage and the tailing issue with water quality and deposition. Freeport reactively responded to each of those issues. Although there is a huge gap between when Freeport first signed the contract in 1966 until they developed the environmental management in 1991, Freeport allocated huge budget, time and effort to treat and mitigate these issues. However, such an expert company in mining it negatively viewed that their response was reactive, instead they are acquired to predict the consequential results on the environment from mining by proactively dealing with such issues.

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.

Since the Industrial Revolution, natural resources have been under increasing pressure. The significant changes in the amount of natural resources we have left have led to many issues, such as global public health and global development. Other areas affected include the loss of forest, water and air pollution, decrease in fresh water supply and degradation of soil. Today we are currently seeing dramatic increases in global population. As the world’s population continues to rise, natural resources will continue to dwindle as long as we remain the same. The one thing that I would say is the most challenging for humans is being able to advance in life, but still not destroy the environment. If you look at most developed countries, it is evident that they consume resources way more rapidly than developing countries. The problem with this is that all of these countries are consuming faster than they can produce. Places like Africa and Asia are experiencing population momentum. These areas have a tendency for population growth that continues to grow because of the high concentration of people having kids. Better living conditions are definitely needed in these countries because of the limited amount of resources being consumed by these regions. The over exploitation of these resources will eventually lead to problems for future uses.