Imagine a pit two miles wide by 2,000 feet deep, and an underground mine a mile deep. This gargantuan gold and copper operation would produce an estimated 10 billion tons of contaminated waste -- 3,000 pounds for every man, woman and child on Earth.
Massive earthen dams -- some taller than the Three Gorges Dam in China -- would be constructed to hold back that waste forever. Now imagine all this in an active earthquake zone at the headwaters of the largest sockeye salmon runs in the world. The threat to Bristol Bay just below is unimaginable.
No wonder the Pebble Mine is opposed by nearly 80 percent of Bristol Bay residents. The growing coalition to stop this disaster-in-the-making is led by Native village corporations, associations and tribes from around Bristol Bay. They've partnered with commercial and recreational fishermen, sportsmen and conservation groups to protect the thousands of jobs and hundreds of millions of dollars that come from Bristol Bay's renewable economic engine: wild salmon.
Anglo American's history is littered with one pollution disaster after another: from Zimbabwe to Ireland to Nevada. Rio Tinto has left a trail of toxic contamination that spans the globe: from Indonesia to Bolivia to Utah. Do you trust these companies to take a catastrophic risk with one of our last and greatest wild places?
Mr. Redford also provides this link to a petition that I am asking all of you to please sign in order to protect this sparkling jewel of Alaska from becoming a toilet filled with contaminated industrial sludge.
It will only take a moment, and afterward you will not only have the satisfaction of protecting such a gorgeous place, but you will have the added satisfaction of knowing that you have helped to sabotage yet another of Sarah Palin's carefully laid plans to ravage our pristine landscape.
Signed! I hope every reader of this blog follows suit. Thanks, Gryphen.
ReplyDeleteSigned, sealed and delivered! ;)
ReplyDeleteO/T It's the JUDGMENT, stupid.
ReplyDeletePALIN: THE NEED TO KNOW
http://www.newyorker.com/online/
blogs/closeread/2011/04/sarah-palin-
trig.html?mbid=social_mobile_tweet
Done and happy to do it and I have sent it on to all my expat Alaskans who will be horrified by this proposal. Thanks for brining this to our attention.
ReplyDeleteSigned, sealed & delivered. Thanks Gryphen! This is a project that must never come to fruition!
ReplyDeleteThanks 4:32, the ball is rolling. May it continue to escalate.
ReplyDeleteSigned..said I've lived here since 1963, suggested they might take a look at some of the pictures of Anchorage after the earthquake of 1964. No way a dam is going to withstand a large magnitude quake like that.
ReplyDeleteThanks, G! I signed the petition happily. I appreciate both your coverage and the link.
ReplyDeleteYeh, these bastards are desecrating the environment in my area as well. But what the hell, nobody cares about or needs desert anyway, right? Fuckers.
ReplyDeleteSigned!
ReplyDeleteSigned & Sent.
ReplyDeleteI'm in Canada and this mine would be a hazard for our First Nations salmon fishing for food, etc.
A short time ago, retired Supreme Court Justice Sandra Day O'Connor hosted a reception in Washington AGAINST Pebble Mine. She enjoys fly fishing.
ReplyDelete"Most recently, O'Connor hosted an after-hours reception at the court that was billed as a celebration of Bristol Bay in Alaska. But the featured speakers, other than O'Connor, were opponents of a proposed Alaskan copper and gold mine. They were in Washington to lobby lawmakers and regulators against the proposed Pebble Mine."
"O'Connor was the host of a Supreme Court reception "to celebrate the economic, cultural and ecological values of Alaska's Bristol Bay Watershed."
Opponents of the proposed huge mine near the bay fear it will devastate the world's largest wild sockeye salmon fishery. The Environmental Protection Agency recently said it would study potential effects from the mine. EPA Administrator Lisa Jackson attended and briefly spoke at the reception.
O'Connor declined to answer questions for this story. But the head of the Wild Salmon Center, lead sponsor of the event, said O'Connor's participation came about because of their friendship and her love of fly fishing.
Guido Rahr, the center's president, said his group hasn't taken a position on the mine and that the speakers were careful to "make sure we were respecting the location" of the reception at the court.
Rahr said participants mainly "ate yummy salmon treats" and looked at National Geographic photos of the bay.
But one speaker was a former Alaska state Senate president, Rick Halford, who told reporters the next day that the proposal was a "very, very dangerous kind of mine."
Supporters of the project made their own visit to Washington a couple of weeks earlier. They were not received at the high court."
(copied from Huffington story April 10, 2011)
Gryphen,
ReplyDeleteOne of Alaska's biggest issues is that the majority of the voters continually vote for republicans that will sell out the people and their beautiful and delicate environment. To make sure that arguments like the Pebble Mine never take place is to vote into office progressive democrats. Unfortunately, many of of that DO care cannot vote in AK,. The Alaskan people have to decide what is important and protect their own environment. It is in the hands of Alaskan citizens and Alaskan citizens alone to lead this charge...though many of us will be supportive of you.
Signed sealed and delivered :-) also too
ReplyDeleteAs a recently new stockholder in RIO I will customize the message and sign. I suggest to Redford and others that they look at stockholders as a way to influence the company.
ReplyDeleteSure continue to support social services, illegal immigration, welfare etc.... With no way to pay for it! From the research I have done on this project it's is years away, if this government and the responsible citizens don't change the way we give all these handouts the State of Alaska will have no choice but to adopt this project for much needed revenue. At this point I'm neutral in regards to this mine because we may just need it to assist us in paying off the debt the freeloaders are racking up!
ReplyDeleteAll computers used to read /create this blog were made with minerals that were mined from dirty polluting earth killing mines...think about that. We are supporting the very thing we hate.
ReplyDeleteWell I'm with Robert Redford, he's a stand up guy and if he opposes pebble mine then I will too. It's a difficult situation. I can see that both sides have valid points, but it's a mess.
ReplyDelete