Enough is Enough — Environmental Fallacies Confronted by the Mining Industry L W John 1 ABSTRACT For too long we, as an industry, have borne the brunt of irrational claims, poor science and even worse, journalism with regards to our affect on the environment. To some of us, the overwhelming media attention on greenhouse warming, the polluting outputs of mineral processing or unthinkable depletion of natural resources has left us embarrassed and more unfortunately has turned bright young people away from a career in the minerals industry. This paper shows the hypocrisy associated with an element of the green movement and dispels some general myths on mining disseminated by radical environmentalists. The fallacy of the greenhouse warming effect will be scrutinised by common sense and the mining industry’s use of land will be discussed and put in proper perspective. Problems associated with safety and emissions and the means to overcome such are discussed briefly. INTRODUCTION In this presentation I intend to provide you with some ammunition, which I hope you will use to shoot down the arguments of environmental doomsayers and also encourage those of you uncertain about a future in mining. Unfortunately I am not permitted the time today to show you how to discredit the many false claims we face, and the significant industry of misinformation fuelling a feel-good new age green movement. However in the next 15 minutes I will show you the hypocrisy associated with some environmental groups and dispel some general myths on mining, disseminated by radical environmentalists. Secondly I will show you that human-instigated greenhouse global warming is actually no more than a poor myth with no reasonable scientific evidence. And finally I will show you that the mining industry’s use of land is one of the least detrimental on the face of this planet. ENVIRONMENTAL HYPOCRISY Conservationist or environmentalist Firstly I’d like to clarify my position. I consider myself a conservationist. The difference between conservationist and environmentalist is probably rationality. Conservationists often conserve the environment for the purpose of recreation, its natural beauty or profit. Examples of conservationists include amateur and professional fishermen, eco-tourism operators and big game hunters to name a few. Such conservationists were the ones responsible for creating most of the national parks and reserves in the western world, not environmentalists. Having a passion for the mining industry, I am in contact with the environment every day. Contrary to popular belief, people of science also have the ability to see beauty in the environment. However, we not only see the beauty in a landscape but everything that is involved. We can stand there and ponder the rate of respiration as a result of photosynthesis, wonder how deep the ground water is, from which it indirectly draws. We can consider the trace elements in the soils and how that has allowed this ecosystem to evolve. We can see the exposed geology of the hills and postulate the fertility of the soils, the way in which the landscape has evolved to where it is now. The rock you just picked up is not just a nice green colour but is a fascinating combination of minerals, which under a microscope look like a kaleidoscope. With a bit of imagination and a lot of science we can even postulate what this landscape looked like before primates walked on two feet. This is true beauty – being able to see below the surface – to see the multidimensional aspects of a situation. It is the beauty of understanding and it is the beauty of science. In many ways we of the mining industry are much more in touch with nature than most environmentalists. Some of us have natural rock walls as our office. Some of us spend nine months a year trekking through some of the most remote country on this planet. And most of us have a better understanding of our natural environment and its intricate systems and cycles than the majority of the population. In many ways we of the mining industry are more environmentally aware than most so-called ‘greenies’. We understand the science of what we deal with and we take from the earth only what is required – otherwise it would not be economic. And most importantly we are not hypocrites – we know that everything we use in life is a direct or indirect product of mining. We have just discovered that we are potentially conservationists, now let us look at the hypocrisy of those who try and restrict our industry. Let us take an extreme example – after all that’s what is normally thrust upon us by the ‘rabid environmentalists’. This is the story of a chap called Seabreeze. Seabreeze considers himself a passionate and noble environmentalist and thus lives in a tree house in Nimbin, NSW. He is naked most of the day, claiming that clothing is a capitalistic conspiracy of controlling people. However, it does get cold at night and thus his ideology fades for a few hours of creature comforts on his electric blanket. Seabreeze grows what he thinks are totally organic vegetables on his small farm. Although all his organic products are consumed via the local barter cooperative, this doesn’t quite provide him the income to replace tools to hoe his market garden. Thus Seabreeze grows an additional cash crop, which is sold illicitly in the very capitalistic main street where supply and demand reign supreme. Seabreeze’s organic crops are irrigated with water from a windmill, the soil is tilled with a hand hoe and crops transported in a wheelbarrow. Not surprisingly neither the windmill, the poly piping, the corrugated iron tank, hoe or wheelbarrow are made from hemp. His tree house is made from milled planks, roofing iron, window glass, paint, nails, etc. These are all products of mining and mineral processing. Not to mention the multiple silver body piercings, everything he cooks and eats with, his prized Kevlar-coated backpack, his chrome tanned Italian hiking boots and the 747 he happily travels on in search of better organic herbs. No matter how organic or in-touch with the environment Seabreeze may think he is, he is also depending a great deal on mining related products – as we all do. The difference is that we here today don’t deny this fact – whereas the green movement and irrational environmentalists conveniently overlook this fact. The AusIMM New Leaders’ Conference Ballarat, VIC, 21 - 22 April 2004 1 1. MAusIMM, Managing Director, BioMetallurgical Pty Ltd, PO Box 1542, Kwekwe, Zimbabwe. E-mail: LWJ@BioMetallurgical.com