inhibits customer reimbursement to copper and gold mining companies for providing cleaner mines.
Who should pay for the environmental costs of mining being carried out now or
to be carried out in the future?
The mining industry is, generally, so unprofitable that customers cannot pinpoint
to huge company profits from which costs can be met. However, it is necessary that
mining companies clean up their pollution, so that the public does not suffer from
mining-related messes: unusable mined land surfaces, unsafe drinking water, and
polluted air.
On the other hand, it must be admitted that the environmental costs of extracting
metals form part of necessary expenses of hardrock mining, as genuine as the
expenses incurred for the bulldozer digging the pit or the furnace melting the ore.
The environmental costs should be factored into the price of metals before they are
sold to customers. Unfortunately, most mining companies have a bad history and
have found it difficult to do so, given the long and opaque supply chain from mineral
mines to the public.
4.3.3 The Logging Industry
The logging industry and the fishing industry differ from the oil industry, and from
the hardrock mining and coal industries, in two basic ways:
(1) Trees and fish are renewable resources which, if harvested at a lower rate than
the rate of reproduction will last indefinitely. In contrast, oil, metals, and coal are
not renewable.
(2) Trees and the fish are valuable parts of the environment, whose extraction can
entail environmental damage.
Forests represent our principal source of timber products, among which are
firewood, office paper, newspaper, paper for books, toilet paper, construction timber,
plywood, and wood for furniture. For Third World people, they also provide
non-timber products such natural rope and roofing materials, birds and mammals
hunted for food, fruits, and nuts and other edible plant parts, and plant-derived
medicines. For First World people, forests represent popular recreational sites.
Forests also behave as a major sink for carbon and its dangerous compounds, with
the consequence that deforestation is a major driving force behind global warming
by reducing that carbon sink. Evapotranspiration from trees returns water to the
atmosphere, so that deforestation entails reduced rainfall and increased desertification. Trees preserve water in the soil and keep it humid. They safeguard the land
surface against erosion, landslides and minimize sediment runoff into streams. Often
cleared land becomes infertile. Finally, forests offer a habitat to most other living
things on the land: for example, tropical forests cover 6% of the world’s land surface
but have between 50% and 80% of the world’s terrestrial species of plants and
animals.
116
4 Infrastructure Vision for Sustainable Development
Who should pay for the environmental costs of mining being carried out now or
to be carried out in the future?
The mining industry is, generally, so unprofitable that customers cannot pinpoint
to huge company profits from which costs can be met. However, it is necessary that
mining companies clean up their pollution, so that the public does not suffer from
mining-related messes: unusable mined land surfaces, unsafe drinking water, and
polluted air.
On the other hand, it must be admitted that the environmental costs of extracting
metals form part of necessary expenses of hardrock mining, as genuine as the
expenses incurred for the bulldozer digging the pit or the furnace melting the ore.
The environmental costs should be factored into the price of metals before they are
sold to customers. Unfortunately, most mining companies have a bad history and
have found it difficult to do so, given the long and opaque supply chain from mineral
mines to the public.
4.3.3 The Logging Industry
The logging industry and the fishing industry differ from the oil industry, and from
the hardrock mining and coal industries, in two basic ways:
(1) Trees and fish are renewable resources which, if harvested at a lower rate than
the rate of reproduction will last indefinitely. In contrast, oil, metals, and coal are
not renewable.
(2) Trees and the fish are valuable parts of the environment, whose extraction can
entail environmental damage.
Forests represent our principal source of timber products, among which are
firewood, office paper, newspaper, paper for books, toilet paper, construction timber,
plywood, and wood for furniture. For Third World people, they also provide
non-timber products such natural rope and roofing materials, birds and mammals
hunted for food, fruits, and nuts and other edible plant parts, and plant-derived
medicines. For First World people, forests represent popular recreational sites.
Forests also behave as a major sink for carbon and its dangerous compounds, with
the consequence that deforestation is a major driving force behind global warming
by reducing that carbon sink. Evapotranspiration from trees returns water to the
atmosphere, so that deforestation entails reduced rainfall and increased desertification. Trees preserve water in the soil and keep it humid. They safeguard the land
surface against erosion, landslides and minimize sediment runoff into streams. Often
cleared land becomes infertile. Finally, forests offer a habitat to most other living
things on the land: for example, tropical forests cover 6% of the world’s land surface
but have between 50% and 80% of the world’s terrestrial species of plants and
animals.
116
4 Infrastructure Vision for Sustainable Development