As mining is resurging in North America, debates across the continent over mines are simplified: “Do we prioritize jobs or the environment? Companies or communities?” These are worthy debates. Yet should the issue of mining really be reduced to “pro-con” statements?
Michigan Technological University experts from a wide range of disciplines say no.
“The worst type of communication has to do with the simplification of the mining issues. I think the biggest problem is creation of polar opposites so that one has to choose between employment or environmental and health protection” says Carol MacLennan, an environmental anthropologist at Michigan Tech who has studied mining communities for almost a decade. “Characterizing it that was is very destructive because you’re never forced to confront the complexity of the issue.”
Ted Bornhorst, director of Michigan Tech’s A.E. Seaman Mineral Museum and a mining geologist for more than 30 years, emphasizes that no one in modern society can deny their use of mining products. “Probably the biggest frustration in the mining controversy,” Bornhorst says, “is the complete, absolute disconnect that most people have between mining and their lives.” Consequently, Bornhorst believes there is a fundamental need to include more geology in pre-college education.