Posted on 11/10/2007 5:52:24 AM PST by freemike
Approaching Sudbury from the east on Highway 40, the change in vegetation is surprisingly subtle. Subtle enough so that, it is not until you are within a few miles of the town limits that you ask the begging question, "What happened here"? It is this subtly that gives a clue as to how widespread the effects of human disturbance have been here. The barren landscape, blackened rock faces, lack of vegetation and endless sea of dead tree stumps make this place seem like a different planet. A moonscape. Indeed, it was these very features that prompted NASA to conduct its moon landing trials here. These very features that have earned Sudbury its international reputation as a highly polluted area; and these very features that have, more recently, led local residents and governments to initiate a massive reclamation effort.
Another link as well to check out. Just wanted to spur a little discussion. Drive a hybrid and feel good about yourself while you pollute the earth! LOL
I cringe, I wince when I see a monster SUV with a bumper sticker claiming credit for carbon offsets.
How stupid are these people? How stupid do they think we are?
I’m not opposed to people driving whatever kind of car they want, but please don’t lecture me on how to live and don’t complain about the price of gasoline.
I think Freud would offer an explanation that touches on having an overbearing nanny who insisted upon not sitting on the living room furniture, or things of that sort.
That's the only sort thing that might explain the pathology of the left and it rejection of all things that pertain to life and living (like sitting on furniture, or cutting a tree to build a house).
Self-loathing alert. Well, wait, modified-self-loathing-alert: "everyone but me is to be loathed."
In case I wasn’t clear,, this is the plant that produces nickel for the hybrid batteries.
Guess they haven’t heard of tenured UT’s Prof. Pianka’s simple solution to the whole mess of intentionally killing off 90% of the human population with ebola.
Every glacial period sees more and more of the overburden lifted off the site.
Eventually (couple, maybe three more ice cycles) this area will be able to be totally desolate without man's help.
I'm pretty sure they have a high tech physics lab at the bottom on the mine, catching the elusive and erstwhile neutrino now and then, that can penetrate Earth naturally, where little else can.
Speaking of mines, I had a Canadian tv channel on last night. The comedian was at a potash mine.
"What's this machine here?"
"That's an XYZ Company Model 123, but we just call the borer."
"Borer eh? I'll just can it the [Canadian politician's name]".
I really wish the writer would learn the difference between "effected" and "affected".
With glaring useage errors, it is difficult to lend creedence to the remainder of the article.
However, after the impact crater filled in....
And the ice sheets melted....
Human induced 'desolation' is a common byproduct of early mining and refining/smelting practices.
Virtually any large sulfide ore deposit mined starting in the 1800s had similar treeless areas or scrublands, partly as a result of cutting wood for fuel and timber, and partly as a result of sulfides liberated and pH shifts in the soil (toward acidic) from tailings runoff and what we now know as acid rain.
It sounds as if the current trend is toward reclamation/remediation, which is good. At the same time, however, that is not a cause to cease the extraction of resources which may prove essential in the future.
Been to Sudbury and the mine. The effects of the mining are NOT as widespread as is inferred in the article.
As a sidenote, folks from near Nikel (English transliteration of the Russian word for Nickel) left there in the early to mid 1600s for warmer climes in the Deep South (near Stockholm). They were captured and transshipped to America to join their kin in the defunct New Sweden colony. Many came here on the Kalmar Nykel (Kalmar Nickel). (Swedes were allowed to bring indentured and other laborers to America by the English and Dutch in this region).
Some of them found nickel in Eastern Pennsylvania and began mining it, just like they had at home. That's the place called Nickel Mines.
The Scandinavian people moved out of the area about 1700 to escape the Quakers (who didn't like Santa Claus). Others took up mining in that place. Eventually it was abandoned. Today Old Order Amish live in the area.
There are other sources of nickel in the world ~ most of them smaller than the two big ones noted above.
Sounds like the plot of "Rainbow 6", by Tom Clancy.
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