Unlike most other households in close proximity to the mine, Sangweni did not accept Tendele’s compensation offer — in his case 800,000 rand ($44,000) — and remained in his home. But after 16 years of living so close to the mine, he feels defeated. He has complained fruitlessly to the traditional leadership about dust, pollution of rainwater and being cut off from the municipal water supply, cracks in his walls, and noise pollution. Now he says he needs to move. “I can’t live here anymore.”…
The Egyptian government was openly striking oil and gas deals on the sidelines of what is meant to be an anti-climate change conference. Other fossil fuel-dependent states did the same, each mounting spirited defenses of its own poison; coal for India, oil for Saudi Arabia, gas for Russia, and so on…
Contamination of farmland destroys their livelihoods and forces many women into dependent relationships, which exacerbates the pandemic of gender-based violence and femicide…
Mining pollution also threatens women’s reproductive health, resulting in higher rates of miscarriage and children born with abnormalities…
The dust sticks to the community’s plants. People have to scrub clean moringa before consuming the fruit, which is high in protein and other key nutrients.
“It’s brown,” one resident told Mongabay. “If you don’t clean it, it’s toxic to eat.”
…At a meeting with the provincial parliament, Adam told lawmakers on Aug. 29 that local communities likely face significant undocumented health risks…“There are residents who have been coughing for months,” he said…
…“I was not forced to sell my land — but I was forced to sell it,” he said…
Erin Savage, a scientist with Appalachian Voices, a Boone, North Carolina-based organization dealing with the long tail of coal mining pollution, has made it a pet project to research Indemnity’s holdings in states beyond West Virginia and was shocked by what she found…
The other possible danger, Savage says, is that “a lot of these mines won’t be cleaned up in a timely manner, and they will cause problems like water pollution, erosion, and earth instability for the people who live near them.”…
His report found that all but six of the coal companies with mining operations in the state and a minimum of $4 million of Indemnity bonds had had past bankruptcies…
So what happens if they go bankrupt and can’t clean up their mess?
When Congress wrote the Surface Mining Control and Reclamation Act in 1977, it gave states a fair bit of leeway on how to mandate mine cleanup. Some states, including West Virginia, formed their own reclamation funds with taxes on coal. These funds serve as a backup if mine owners go broke and their bonds aren’t sufficient…
Okobo and neighboring communities in Kogi State of Nigeria have been facing environmental risks from 11 years of coal mining, despite signing a Community Development Agreement (CDA) with the mining firm envisaged to address the impact of mining operations in the communities…
Coal mining has dissolved heavy metals into the water around the mine site, making it acidic and highly toxic…
“Water is scarce as our only river has become polluted by mining activities upstream. Because the boreholes are not operational, the company uses a tanker truck to supply water, but it doesn’t show up often. When this happens, we fetch the drainage water that flows from an open tap at the administrative yard of the company,” Mrs. Sule said…
Which requires more mining — fossil fuels or clean energy?
The short answer to this question is that fossil fuels require much more mining and drilling than clean energy technologies. Today the world mines 8 billion tons of coal every year, whereas the clean energy transition is estimated to require around 3.5 billion tons of minerals in total over the next three decades.
Are electric vehicles (EVs) better for the environment?
Based on today’s average U.S. power grid mix, driving an EV generates greenhouse gas emissions equivalent to an 88-mile-per-gallon (mpg) gasoline-fueled car.
Eighty-nine percent voted “no” to the development of mining activities, like the Cerro Blanco gold and silver open-pit mine owned by Bluestone Resources — a Canadian mining company — in a municipal consultation held last month…
The arsenic liberated in the proposed open-pit mine’s gold extraction process can cause toxic leaching and long-lasting contamination that affects the supply of water for drinking, agriculture, and cattle rearing by local communities… – Click to read more
One man described his grief as the grave of his son was exhumed and moved as a result of the mine…
Abdul’s sandals slipped off his feet while walking across the Roko-Roko River. He pointed to an area where children used to swim in water so clear you could see the finest twig sink to the riverbed. Now the water is a muddy brown…
The company has blocked drainage to the sea, so Abdul’s field is often flooded knee-deep when it rains. Sandalwood trees planted by his father decades ago have withered…
Company excavators started work at night, uprooting cacao and nutmeg trees that had sustained their families’ livelihoods…
According to a report from Newsweek, after it had been completely wiped out by mining pollution, overfishing, and competition from other species, the state of Colorado’s fish, the Greenback Cutthroat Trout, was believed to have gone extinct in the 1930s… – Click to read more
Why are so many of America’s waterways still polluted 50 years after the passage of the Clean Water Act?… Many of our waterways still face major pollution threats – including industrial facilities that continue to release large volumes of toxic substances, threatening the health of people and ecosystems… – Click to read more
