indyaj t1_j1vd0zv wrote
Reply to comment by Antnee83 in Large deposit of rare elements and minerals discovered in northern Maine by CptnAlex
> It's fine as long as it's someone else's backyard, eh?
Yes. Where mining is concerned, yes. Maine's great outdoors is its best moneymaking asset. Yeah, tourists suck but poison water sucks more.
lucidlilacdream t1_j1vd6h3 wrote
And poison air. I actually worked on an air quality project near a mining site. The consequences are awful. These communities become ghost towns once the site is “dried up” and jobs are no longer viable, except for the few very poor who cannot leave the area who continue to get poisoned from the site. The number of jobs can also be overblown because a lot of mining has become automated as well.
The answer should be less consumption, and more recycling/fixing/reuse of materials. It’s really easy to make bold claims on Reddit, but a mine in your backyard is not generally something most people would want. The people who profit of it are not going to live in the community that was destroyed either.
anyodan8675 t1_j1vkrrb wrote
I'm sure there are some valuable resources closer to like brownish people we can get. Nobody is trying to pay money to visit their dumb forests anyway.
indyaj t1_j1vlbmn wrote
What the fuck are you talking about? You want to turn this into a racist discussion? Go away.
Guygan t1_j1vprtb wrote
> You want to turn this into a racist discussion?
Mining and exploitation of natural resources is ABSOLUTELY a racial/class issue.
lucidlilacdream t1_j1vqyf2 wrote
So, what do you think will happen if they start mining this land in Northern Maine? It will benefit the wealthy who don’t have to live by the mine, who can conduct their business far away from the site, while it poisons the people who cannot move away from it by contamination of the water and air. That’s what happens. This isn’t going into Cape Elizabeth, it would be going into Aroostook county where the median income is $24k a year.
So, I don’t see what the argument is here. It’s another mine that would go into a poorer community and ultimately poison the resources there. You are not standing up for the “little people” by advocating for mining this material. All that’s going to happen is some CEO in another state will add to their wealth while the people in Maine suffer the consequences to their land.
Shh-NotUntilMyCoffee t1_j1w1bye wrote
And those communities should be defended from mining.
What doesn't at all make sense is trying to create equality by fucking up all poor communities equally across race.
You're trying to fight the good fight, but you're doing it as ass-backward as you can manage.
You should go join one of the organizations that fight mining in impoverished areas, or groups that are fighting against mining special interests by trying to force them to extract resources using better techniques while holding them responsible for the environmental damage they create.
The reason people are against this is because in the current state the US doesn't penalize corporations for their bad mining practices - it actually heavily rewards them. So nobody wants them.
indyaj t1_j1vqoah wrote
It is but that's not what we're talking about here. That's a completely different discussion.
Viewing a single comment thread. View all comments