Environmental Engineering Reference
In-Depth Information
task to measure present environmental conditions, the baseline, far less to assess the signii -
cance of past trends and to extrapolate these accurately into the future. The assessment of
mining-induced changes is even more difi cult when human activities unrelated to mining
take place in the project area.
Development of new settlements or land conversion from forest areas to agricultural
land may occur in the absence of the project, and the challenge is to isolate incremental
changes that are direct consequences of mine development. A good example of a geo-
graphic area which is undergoing dramatic changes is the eastern part of Kalimantan in
Indonesia, as discussed in Case 9.2 .
Environmental Changes and the Stage of Development
'Is change good or bad?' Perceptions about environmental changes can be different in different
countries. Where poverty is widespread and large numbers of people do not have adequate
food, shelter, health care, or education, the lack of development may constitute a greater
collective degradation to quality of life than the negative environmental impacts of devel-
opment. The imperative for development to remedy these defects may be so great that the
consequent environmental degradation may be tolerated. The grinding and pervasive pov-
erty in developing countries has been spoken of as the 'pollution of poverty', while the wide-
spread social and environmental degradation in developed countries has been characterized
in its advanced state as the 'pollution of afl uence' (Scope 5 1975). Decisions on mine devel-
opments should be amenable to different value judgements concerning the net cost-benei t
assessment of project-induced environmental, economic, and social changes. This does not
mean accepting environmental degradation in the name of development; on the contrary, it
is now widely accepted that mine development can be planned to make the best use of natu-
ral resources without jeopardizing environmental quality for the future generations.
Sadly, over-dominant advocacy groups often impose limits on a balanced cost-benei t
assessment. Anti-mining advocacy groups tend to retreat to emotionally charged view-points,
disregarding project type and/or project location. They refuse to be open to the argument
that mining can contribute substantially to the Gross Domestic Product (GDP) of develop-
ing countries, hence contributing to the reduction of poverty and improvement in the quality
of life. Ironically, many of these advocacy groups are headquartered in countries with a long
history of mining, such as the USA, Canada or Australia, and so enjoy the benei ts that min-
ing has brought and continues to bring to these nations. It is also true that mining companies
Where poverty is widespread
and large numbers of people do
not have adequate food, shelter,
health care, or education, the lack
of development may constitute
a greater collective degradation
to quality of life than the negative
environmental impacts of
development.
CASE 9.1
Impact of Mining on the Melting of Glaciers
During the environmental impact assessment of
the Freeport Gold and Copper Mine Expansion in
Papua, East Indonesia (1997), the argument was
brought forward that mining will contribute to
the decline of the nearby picturesque Carstenz
Glacier, one of the few remaining equatorial
glaciers. However, it is well documented that
equatorial glaciers have been melting since the
end of the Little Ice Age in the nineteenth
century and this melting has accelerated with
the generally higher temperatures experienced
over the past 15 years. It is predicted that most
equatorial glaciers, including the Carstenz Glacier
will disappear by the middle of the twenty-fi rst
century. How much, if at all, will mining-induced
changes in micro climate contribute to the
retreat of the Carstenz Glacier, and are these
incremental changes signifi cant?
 
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