Today, July 22, commemorates the World Day against Open Pit Mining 2024. A way of extracting minerals that is harmful to the environment, biodiversity, ecosystems, and the health of the people involved.
He World Day against Open Pit Mining 2024 It was created with the aim of informing everyone about the serious drawbacks associated with this form of mineral extraction, which unfortunately is used in many places on the planet.
World Day against Open Pit Mining 2024: Impacts
In the environment
Open pit mining has a significant environmental impact. First, because to practice it you must deforestar the area, but there is much more, since it is guilty of soil erosion, the contamination of nearby river currents and groundwater and the destruction of countless ecosystems and natural habitats. Furthermore, the use of machinery entails the emission of greenhouse gases that cause global warming.
The use of highly toxic chemicals such as cyanide that are essential to extract certain minerals is a source of pollution constant for the environment. Added to this is the serious problem of waste, which is generated in very significant quantities and can contain poisonous substances that, due to runoff, also end up contaminating surrounding waters and soils.
In Biodiversity
One of the goals of World Day against Open Pit Mining 2024 is to warn that its practice very negatively affects the biodiversity local, since species can be forced to emigrate or directly destroyed, so ecosystems are seriously altered.
In water
It is fundamental in the World Day against Open Pit Mining 2024 know that this type of activity consumes enormous amounts of agua that are intended for the various processes, from the extraction of the minerals to their processing and the generation of waste. In addition, much of the expanded water is contaminated, which can contaminate local sources.
On the health of workers
Those who work in this type of mines are not only exposed to various types of conditions, but their safety is also compromised. This happens because they run the risk of exposure to highly toxic substances and because accidents often have fatal consequences. Exposure to particles and dust usually causes various respiratory conditions.
In the landscape
In it World Day against Open Pit Mining 2024 Let us remember that thanks to the movement of enormous quantities of rocks and earth that are vital to carry out this type of exploitation, landscapes suffer various types of aesthetic degradation, practically impossible to reverse.
Generates economic dependence
The areas immediately affected by open pit mines usually generate an unhealthy economic dependence on these types of places. Since when mineral veins are exhausted, companies abandon them, which generates serious consequences for the most vulnerable and dependent people.
For these reasons, the World Day against Open Pit Mining 2024 and environmental associations and neighboring communities near these places are fighting to ensure that measures are toughened and infractions committed are harshly punished.
There are many examples of disasters related to this type of extractive form that should not occur again and could be considered true ecocides. Therefore, the World Day against Open Pit Mining 2024 It will remain in force until it is prohibited, or at least there are guarantees that its impacts will cease or be significantly reduced.