blowing up mountains

(photo taken from Orionmagazine.org, no copyright info available)

I laughed for a full minute when I read this header the other day: Science confirms that blowing up mountains harms mountains. Yes, the reason why Grist.org is one of my favourite environmental news sources is because of its sense of humour.

The content, though, is no joke.

According to the blog, scientists have proved that "irreversible environmental impacts" and increased health risks for local residents occur as a result of mountaintop mining. In an article in journal Science, scientists are calling for a stop in issuing of new mountaintop mining permits.

I first learned about mountain-top removal mining in Orion, a magazine I subscribe to. According to the article Moving Mountains, tops of mountains are being blasted away in order to extract coal. Non-coal material that's extracted/blown away, such as forest and soil (including whole ecosystems that inhabit tops of mountains!) are simply dumped into the valleys, burying streams and polluting water sources. This practice also increases the occurance of flooding and mudslides, leaving residents of nearby vulnerable to such "natural" disasters.

Incidentally, I had the opportunity to attend a symposium where one of the co-authors of the article in the journal Science mentioned in the Grist.org blog gave a keynote speech. She was heavily pregnant at the time, and I remember being very pleasantly surprised to see her in the fieldtrip (hiking in a national park in Queensland, Australia) the following day. A true inspiration for me--being pregnant (and having children) does not necessarily need to hinder our professional and personal activities, as well as aspirations! I gave birth to my own daughter June a little over a year after I met this environmental scientist.

As the terrible news of the horrible catastrophe in Haiti floods the media, one cannot help but think, why has the aftermath of the terrible earthquake that hit Haiti on 12 January been as devastating as it has been? Why were there so many deaths--as a result of huge numbers of buildings collapsing, inability of the government to deal with the disaster, already poor people desperate for things to eat?

As was the case after the 2004 Indian Ocean earthquake and tsunami, it is now, more than ever, necessary to emphasize the social, cultural, and policy-based components that determine the extent of disasters when they strike; natural disasters do not just happen; "socio-natual disaster" are made.