I personally never been aware with the amounts of toxins that pollute our planet earth from the gold mining era. After doing some research I came across some interesting facts and I was blown away by. I have heard of toxins such as Mercury and Asbestos and am I aware of the damaging effects that come from them, but I was more surprised when I learned about other toxins in our area that I was not aware of.
While mining does create jobs, for communities that are dependent upon the mining industry they can resemble ghost towns when they close. Often people not only depend on the government or mining owners for their jobs, but also their water and transportation. Toxins used in the extraction process such as cyanide and byproducts like mercury can permanently pollute the land and water which affects peoples ability to farm, hunt or fish. Spills into oceans and lakes from mining cause damage by adding toxic heavy metals and sulfuric acid to the environment which leaves damage that can take thousands of years to repair.
Mining is generally very destructive to the environment. It is one of the main causes of deforestation. In order to mine, trees and vegetation are cleared and burned. With the ground completely bare, large scale mining operations use huge bulldozers and excavators to extract the metals and minerals from the soil. In order to amalgamate (cluster) the extractions, they use chemicals such as cyanide, mercury, or methylmercury. These chemicals go through tailing's (pipes) and are often discharged into rivers, streams, bays, and oceans. This pollution contaminates all living organisms within the body of water and ultimately the people who depend on the fish for their main source of protein and their economic livelihood.
Toxic chemicals have the capability to enter the body by absorption through the skin. If toxic chemicals fall, drain or seep into our water supply, we drink, bathe and breathe them into our bodies. People believe if you bury the toxins in landfills, they will disappear, or it you burn it will will just disintegrate. I believe that no toxic chemicals will disappear by burring them or burning them. Are we forever stuck with these toxins? Will they ever go away?
You've done a wonderful job of explaining the problem and I completely agree with everything you said. You've stated your case and did a very good job of explaining WHY we need to cleanse our environment of toxins but you came up short on the how. Any suggestions?
ReplyDeleteI was very suprised by how many toxins are in our environment too. I never thought about all the toxins left out from the gold mining period. I think we need to deal with the toxins affecting our fish because I never knew that eating too much fish wasnt good for you. Also I didnt realize that we were getting toxins by eating fish.I think we need to clean our environment. We need to get people aware of the problems so we can start fixing it. Ya I dont know where we should put all the toxic waste because burry it will only solve the problem for a while. We need to find a permanent solution. You did a very good job explaining the problems we have with toxins and showing how dangerous they are to everything.
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