Wednesday 16 May 2012

The Lapwings Descending

Slightly wide of topic but hey, it is good to share.

This is no tropical rainforest - though it has been pretty wet recently. But, if you'd like to support the campaign against habitat destruction through mineral extraction, please visit the Communities Against Gravel Extraction website and have an opinion or make a donation.

4 comments:

  1. That is interesting. What kind of gravel? Here in the States most gravel is only crushed rock. Rock quarries cause enough damage, but at least they keep in one area for decades (mostly, I'm sure some do not last long).

    I grew up in mining country and I know what mining companies do. They take. Take from the environment and the workers and the people around the mines. They could do different and better, but dont't. Not all mining companies are just greedy kind of companies, but there are more destructive ones than good ones, but we need minerals. Gravel?

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    1. Hi Bill, thanks for the thoughtful comment. The gravel here is poor quality, it is assessed by its resistance to crushing. Used as an aggregate in the construction industry, it will need to be augmented by crushed rock. All the extraction and processing due to happen on-site, over a 25 year period. The site itself will be left as a hole in the ground. It can't be used for regular landfill, only (ironically) for inert waste building materials. A furter irony is that the demand for gravel is falling as more demolition waste is converted on-site and used as road beds under asphalt. The gravel itself is small, rounded stone - ground up fragments of post-glacial rock.

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  2. A great video and thanks for posting it. It's also quite sad, given what they want to do.

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    1. Thanks Martin, even my old-tech Bolex tripod head isn't quite firm enough for the long end of my video camera's lens - hence there's a degree of camera shake :-(

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