1A-Mining

1A-MINI ﻿ NG  How Mining is Causing Deforestation   Mining can be very hazardous to the environment. For large scale mining, trees and vegetation must be cleared and burned. Huge bulldozers and excators are use to extract the metals and minerals from the soil. In order to contain the extractions, chemicals such as cyanide, mercury, and methylmercury are used. These chemicals are discharged through pipes into rivers, streams, bays, and oceans which then contaminates the bodies of water and the forms of life that live in them. The fish that live in those waters that the native people depend on now lose a main food supply due to contamination in the fish. Small scale mining is also very dangerous. Groups of five to six people move from one mining site to another in search of precious metals such as gold. The two types of small scale mining are land dredging and river dredging. In land dredging the miners use a generator to dig a large hole in the ground. They use a high pressure hose to expose the gold bearing layer of sand and clay. The miners collect the gold and leave the pits be which usually become stagnant water pools. The pools become a breeding ground for mosquitoes. The mosquitoes carry a disease called Malaria which is a disease that can be passed to people living there, causing them to become ill. In river dredging miners use a hydrolic suction hose to pick up the mud and gravel. The remaining mud and gravel are then put back into the river, but in a different spot from which they were taken therefore causing an obstruction for the flowing water, which can kill the fish swimming and other organisms living there. ** 2 Animals that have been affected by deforestation caused by mining. ** First Animal The Tapir. Tapir facing extinction within the next twenty years, should conservation efforts not be introduced in its ever-shrinking natural range in Colombia and Ecuador. The Baird's Tapir, the largest mammal of the Americas, is facing a similar threat in its home range in Central America Even the Brazilian Tapir, the most numerous species of taminpir, is vulnerable because of the increasing rate of destruction of the Amazon. They require substantial tracts of undisturbed land to maintain a genetically-diverse population. Tapirs inhabit jungles, grasslands, swamps and cloud forests, yet each is threatened by human activity - be that mining, palm oil plantations, roads or settlements. The second

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 * Clearing, particularly where it occurs on fertile soils in valleys and on river flats that are suitable for agriculture and plantation forestry.
 * Loss of hollow-bearing trees.1
 * Conversion of a large proportion of known forests to early regrowth state as a result of logging
 * Ongoing logging while extensive previously logged forests are in early stages of recovery

Mining and Industy Mining andindustrial development lead to direct forest due to the clearing of land to establish projects. Roads are constructed through previously indaccesible land opening up the rainforest. Server water,air, and land pollition occursa from mining and industry. __**What we can do**__ > > > >  Organizations like the Rainforest Action Network, have programs like Protect-An-Acre which helps forest communities that are struggling to protect their rainforest homelands and the natural resource base on which these communities rely. []
 * 1)  Find any products that are produced from the rainforest, those that are not of a sustainable nature and refuse to buy them. Search for alternatives that do not harm the forests.
 * 1)  Pressure governments to stop logging, ask them to pursue alternative means for the indigenous peoples to receive an income from other means rather than logging, mining and cattle grazing etc.
 * 1)  Support and join environmental groups.
 * 1)  Buy an acre of rainforest to protect it from deforestation. Set up a collective to buy the forests. Although not ideal, this is a short term remedy.