Posted on 11/03/2012 5:04:48 PM PDT by Olog-hai
Mining companies are flocking to northern Finland as new deposits of gold, nickel and other minerals promise vast profits. But the area’s fragile wetland ecosystem is paying the price. Conservationists are so far fighting a losing battle. …
Some 40 companies are now carrying out hundreds of exploration projects across the country. The town of Sodankylä in Lapland is essentially surrounded by mining claims with several mines already in operation—and their tailings seeping toxins into surrounding lakes and rivers.
Long-suffering as Finns may be, resistance is growing. Fifty-three companies in the tourist sector are protesting against a huge gold mine in Kuusamo in north-eastern Finland, where Australian company Dragon Mining is conducting test drilling in full view of a popular ski resort. Containing 4.9 grams per ton of rock, the gold content is high, but so is the uranium content. Much of the radioactive element would likely end up in nearby lakes during processing. Moreover, vast quantities of the greenhouse gas carbon dioxide are released when the ground’s peat layers are dug up during drilling. “The cost to the environment will exceed the profits from the gold mines,” warns the Finnish Association for Nature Conservation. …
(Excerpt) Read more at spiegel.de ...
I can understand mining things which are actually useful... Gold on the other hand is not useful in quantities beyond some tiny fraction of the stuff which is already stashed. The “value” of gold is entirely based on psychology and psychiatry, and not on economics or physics. Mining gold is a waste of human talent and energy.
There are strange things done in the midnight sun
By the men who moil for gold;
The Arctic trails have their secret tales
That would make your blood run cold;
The Northern Lights have seen queer sights,
But the queerest they ever did see
Was that night on the marge of Lake Lebarge
I cremated Sam McGee.
— Robert W Service
That, Ladies and Gentleman, is why God invented Bentonite.
The market has decided that Gold is indeed useful.
You can spend it as long as there is someone willing to make the trade. When everybody realizes the lack of consumability, the game's over.
To the extent that Gold is money, by definition, it has value beyond the use of its physical properties.
Besides, it looks nice and doesn't need polishing.
When was the last time that happened in the past, say, 3,000 years?
Gold is not going to lose its allure unless such massive deposits are found that it becomes cheap,in which case its uses will be even more common.
And your first comment is silly.
How about”you can’t eat steel and you can’t burn steel” or “you can’t eat marble and you can’t eat marble” ?
Finland appears to have better sense that the clueless greens in the US.
It is now the 21st century, and the morons are still fighting, for example, the gold mining methods of mid 19th century, or the oil exploration of the late 19th century.
They can't accept that this is a different more aware world, and not just drugged out losers care what the results of mining are.
I say let the Finns deal with their country, their resources and their needs and we can deal with ours.
Yup. There's nothing that gives a person a greater sense of security than a bank account backed by a computer's digital signals that can be burped out as real, U.S. Gummint-printed paper money.
Those idiots are no better than the domestic US ones. Not only lying bastards, but oblivious to real science and reason.
"On the one hand, as scientists we are ethically bound to the scientific method, in effect promising to tell the truth, the whole truth, and nothing but - which means that we must include all the doubts, the caveats, the ifs, ands, and buts. On the other hand, we are not just scientists but human beings as well. And like most people we'd like to see the world a better place, which in this context translates into our working to reduce the risk of potentially disastrous climatic change. To do that we need to get some broadbased support, to capture the public's imagination. That, of course, entails getting loads of media coverage. So we have to offer up scary scenarios, make simplified, dramatic statements, and make little mention of any doubts we might have. This 'double ethical bind' we frequently find ourselves in cannot be solved by any formula. Each of us has to decide what the right balance is between being effective and being honest. I hope that means being both."
-- Steven Schneider, Quoted in Discover, pp. 45-48, Oct. 1989; see also American Physical Society, APS News August/September 1996.
AND FOR THE LAST 20 YEARS, THESE WANNABE "SCIENTISTS" CHOOSE BADLY...
Your brain.
If you rely in any way on polls and professional opinion shapers, you are playing a fool's game and exposing yourself to eploitation by the scam artists.
For instance, promising "hope and change" without a hint of what that means, or any details whatsoever.
Just follow the news (what actually happened without filtering by opinion) as the number of participant yesterday's political rallies. Look it up. Don't rely on internet distortions.
Above all else, ignore "polls." The only poll that counts is at the ballot box.
Your brain.
If you rely in any way on polls and professional opinion shapers, you are playing a fool's game and exposing yourself to eploitation by the scam artists.
For instance, promising "hope and change" without a hint of what that means, or any details whatsoever.
Just follow the news (what actually happened without filtering by opinion) as the number of participant yesterday's political rallies. Look it up. Don't rely on internet distortions.
Above all else, ignore "polls." The only poll that counts is at the ballot box.
I concur. Gold is a barbarous relic. I much prefer credit cards, electronic entries on hard drives and green Federal Reserve Notes for keeping score.
I rather have a case of Heinz pork and beans and a bottle of Jack than a bar of gold
Containing 4.9 grams per ton of rock, the gold content is high, but so is the uranium content. Much of the radioactive element would likely end up in nearby lakes during processing.
A gold ore grade of 4.9 grams per ton is low, not high.
Uranium mining does not cause radioactive contamination, though greens frequently present this claim to the uninformed as a scare tactic.
FMCDH!
Chorus : Finland, Finland, Finland.
The country where I want to be,
Pony trekking or camping,
Or just watching TV,
Finland, Finland, Finland.
It’s the country for me.
Verse : You’re so near to Russia.
So far from Japan,
Quite a long way from Cairo,
Lots of miles from Vietnam.
Chorus : Finland, Finland, Finland.
The country where I want to be,
Eating breakfast or dinner,
Or snack lunch in the Hall,
Finland, Finland, Finland.
Finland has it all.
Verse: You’re so sadly neglected,
And often ignored.
A poor second to Belgium,
When going abroad.
Chorus : Finland, Finland, Finland.
The country where I quite want to be,
Your mountains so lofty,
Your treetops so tall,
Finland, Finland, Finland.
Finland has it all.
Repeat : Finland, Finland, Finland.
The country where I quite want to be,
Your treetops so tall,
Finland, Finland, Finland.
Finland has it all.
Fade : Finland has it all ...
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