The Effects Of Gold Mining In Peru. Ouch.

[Hobo]

Some random thoughts.      A hundred and fifty years ago there wasn't a tree to be seen around Lake tahoe. they were cut for the mining industry in VC.  If gold were so necessary, why is palladium half the price of gold and way more rare, but has more uses?    Two wrongs don't make a right. The world was a different place a hundred and fifty years ago. Destroying a a few hundred thousand acres wasn't a big deal and there were a few billion fewer people in the world. IMO suction dredging in Ca. (or anywhere else) is not harmful to the environment. Probably should be limited to 5 in. The mining scars in Peru is way worse than me forgetting to fill my detector hole.The planet will probably still be here long after the people are gone and there will be no sign of mining activity. Think I'll grab my ML and go detecting.

[flakmagnet]

Chris, when you say "…Nature heals itself at an amazing rate and the areas that were worked here are nearly completely reforested. Many have become tourist attractions where people come to see what the early miners did…"

I would add that these days with the planets burgeoning population demands,

Nature seems to be reaching a point where it is not able to heal itself as fast as we are harming it.

It goes without saying that a blight in the Peruvian jungle will never be much of a tourist attraction. 

Your other points are well taken…

[Norvic]

I live in a area that in a 300km radius has 350 once called extinct volcanoes now called dormant. If they become active suspect our species will go the way others have. Tis nature and we are just another species, overpopulating etc etc. But Mother Nature will sort that out, will be bugger all evidence left we ever existed. Enjoy the lifestyle mining has given us.