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Legal Response
Author Walter Van Tilburg Clark said that law, the code
of justice, is the essence of our sensations of right
and wrong, and the conscience of society (full
excerpt).
When the leaders of governments and heads of corporations
lack conscience, we must rely upon the law to restrain
their behavior. Large mining entities are well funded
and seemingly inclined to press their advantage, and
our business friendly government is even facilitating
environmental incursions by small scale mining operations
which employ environmentally unsound techniques. Sometimes
the best response is legal.
 Enter the attorneys at Western Mining Action Project.
Now in its thirteenth year, WMAP is a non-profit environmental
law center providing free legal services to grass-roots
organizations and Native Americans on mining issues and
cases in the West. WMAP enables these groups to effectively
challenge individual destructive mining proposals in
their communities, and works with the groups to reform
state and federal mining laws and regulations to increase
environmental and human resource protection.
Other Options
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| While it isn’t practical
to eliminate all extractive industries, there is some
mining we no longer need, such as that for diamonds
and mercury.
The remaining mining would obviously be reduced
if we recycled more, and any necessary extraction
would be performed more thoughtfully if informed
consumers demanded it. This brief introduction endeavors
to inform and inspire you. |
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| Gold Mining |
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There is often little
regard for the environment during gold mining, and
all too often, the spoils of the process continue
to poison the environment long after commercial operations
have ceased. In short, mining without an awareness
of issues related to the environment can result in
drastic and permanent changes in the mining areas.
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| Gem Mining |
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Perhaps no aspect of
our modern culture presents a greater contradiction
than the positive symbolism of diamonds, in contrast
to the suffering and environmental destruction those
diamonds carry as their legacy. We try to take comfort
from gems that are ‘conflict free’, but
that designation says nothing about the environmental
pedigree of the diamonds themselves. More…
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