Worth It

This week I'm attending the American Society of Mineland Reclamation's (ASMR) Annual Conference and will be immersing myself in gloriously geeky technical sessions with folks who are striving to figure out best practices for reclaiming the land after mining. As coincidence would have it, Facebook shared the following below as one of my memories for today, triggered by attending a political convention. Enjoy!

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I think I’ve hit a wall.

I’ve realized (I guess I knew but was in denial) that there is a significant chunk of very loud, very powerful voices that simply hate mining and do not care that the world does not function without it. They don’t want it. They don’t support it and I don’t believe it’s even a NIMBY issue based on what they say.

They push for renewable energy that is as dependent on mining as coal-fired power plants, although one could argue that it’s a “one-and-done” investment of minerals versus a continual need. They want a world fueled by 100% renewables but with seemingly no recognition of the significant, unavoidable impact that will require in the form of holes in the ground, either on the surface or underneath.

They say that it’s never been done well in a wet environment like Minnesota. So you ask about dry environments such as Arizona or Chile and they tell you how evil Antofagasta (the company funding Twin Metals) is in Chile or Phelps Dodge was in Arizona and how none of these companies can be trusted. None.

None.

So that leads me to look at all of the celebrations of these “clean” energy projects as a celebration of “dirty” metals because those solar panels, those windmills, each and every one is absolutely loaded with metals that have come primarily from “sulfide” ore bodies.

Cuz’ that’s how the Law of Conservation of Mass and Energy works.

And geology.

Seriously though, it’s easy as hell to be anti-something. It’s easy as hell to throw around phrases like “poison our water” and “destruction of habitat” and believe that you are standing up for something. It’s easy as hell to enter your name and address and click “send” on that Action Alert from the Sierra Club (who also authors resolutions to be put forth as political platforms).

That’s easy.

“As hell”, if you’re still paying attention.

You know what’s hard?

Doing stuff better today than it was done yesterday.

Engineering solutions.

Educating away misconceptions and falsehoods

Figuring out how you can Mine in a way that minimizes your impact and demonstrates respect to the Creation.

Cuz’ you’re not going to avoid an impact when you’re providing the world’s metals. It is pretty much (completely) impossible to have zero impact to the Earth when you are literally (used properly here) transferring the Earth into a process to be made into, ultimately, “green”stuff like windmills and solar panels.

So, should we support PolyMet or Twin Metals?

That’s a valid and absolutely important question to be discussed.

Note I said “discussed.”

We aren’t discussing these projects though. We’ve had over a decade to discuss PolyMet and we haven’t. We’ve thrown generic phrases around on both sides like a weird tennis game where we both keep serving and never lobbing a single ball back across the net to the other party.

We demonize or idealize these companies, depending on where we stand. No nuance.

Nuance shows weakness, doncha’ know?

Companies are just made up of people. People who make decisions. Some good. Some bad.

Wouldn’t it be something if instead of demonizing these companies, we instead encouraged green-minded students to go work for them instead of against them? If we told them that not only could they be making decisions that mattered, but that they could also grow up to be leaders and potentially “turn the world around” in the words of the great Harry Belafonte?

Cuz’ those goals of 100% renewables aren’t going to happen without mining. I can’t say whether or not it should happen “here”. I can only say that it has to happen somewhere and we can either put our brains together to figure out how to make green energy “green” throughout its entire life-cycle, cradle-to-grave, or we can continue to grow animosity and bitterness in our world.

We can choose to learn from each other. We can listen to fears and respond with care and respect and education. We can listen to professionals and respect their expertise.

I’ve been in mining for over a decade and I learn something new and cool every single day from our folks. Talk about an awesome opportunity I’ve been given as an environmental person huh?

We need to talk to each other if we’re going to build tomorrow together.

No more easy routes. It’ll be hard.

But it’ll be worth it.