Related Posts
India blocks bauxite mining plans in indigenous homeland
The proposal by mining company Vedanta Resources to establish a bauxite mine on sacred indigenous land in India’s...
Avatar-style protest planned at mining company meeting in London
Mining giant Vedanta Resources will be having its annual shareholders meeting on Wednesday in London, where the company...
Mining company in eastern India loses millions in investments due to ‘ethical concerns’
Vedanta Resources plc, an India-based mining firm, has been the subject of much criticism from the press and...
More Streaming Trash: The Rampant Industrialization of China – Environmental, Political and Human ConsequencesTOXIC: Linfen, China
- VBS travels to the single most polluted place on earth, the coal-mining town of Linfen...
Venezuela’s gold rush is an ecological and human disaster
As international gold prices rise, demand for the precious metal increases and prospectors in search of fortune –...
Get your Eco Starter Kit
Create an account and start harvesting Carbon Credits! Exchange your Carbon Credits for green goodies, like the Eco-Hatchery Starter Kit!
-
Green network users
2,990 Users - Show All
Green Directory
Tip of the Day
Go grocery shopping locally to help reduce your carbon footprint
Bauxite mines highlight environmental and human consequences of aluminum extraction
photo by Steve Punter (source: Flickr Creative Commons)
Last week Queensland Alumina Limited was fined $90 thousand Australian (78k USD/63k euros) for an industrial incident that released caustic vapors within 6 km of their Gladstone alumina refinery last year. The company pleaded guilty to the charge of causing serious environmental harm.
According to a report by ABC News Australia, the main section of the refinery had not been inspected or maintained for up to 30 years.
Another Australian aluminum facility, the Rio Tinto Alcan bauxite and alumina mine east of Darwin, is being investigated by the Northern Territory department of resources due to a fuel leak of 70,000 liters, according to a report by the International Business Times.
Since aluminum (or aluminium) isn’t found in nature in its pure form, it is usually mined in the form of a soft ore called bauxite. Once a very difficult and expensive process, aluminum refining is still very energy intensive, requiring lots of power and water. In fact, aluminum used to be more valuable than gold. Now in some places it’s just more valuable than human lives.
Australia is by far the largest producer of bauxite, followed by China, Brazil and India. But it is the last country that has the most controversial bauxite-mining project, located in the eastern state of Orissa.
Vedanta resources, an India-based, partly British-owned mining firm, has been developing bauxite mining projects on tribal lands and plans to establish a mine on a hill which is considered crucial to local ecology, as well as the cultural and physical survival of local tribes. Vedanta has been accused of poisoning the local environment and committing human rights abuses.
Indian and international activist groups, such as Amnesty International and Survival International, have joined the cause of the tribes. Pressure has resulted in the Church of England and the Norwegian state pension fund withdrawing their investments from Vedanta due to ethical concerns.
From an ANI report:
If mining at the hills start, then the water left in the Bauxite, it will not be there. The alumina and aluminium smelters will contaminate the water after their use and the water will get finished in Kalahandi and Orissa.
–Vandana Shiva, activist.
For a well-known activist’s account of the plight of the tribes of Orissa in their desperate struggle to keep their land in tact, read this article in the Guardian entitled ‘The battle for Niyamgiri’ by human rights campaigner Bianca Jagger.
by Graham Land
Tags: activist, alumina, aluminium, aluminum, australia, Australian, bauxite, Bianca, environmental, human, Jagger, mine, Orissa, tribes, Vedanta
2 Comments
You can also log in to post a comment.
Other Greenfudge.org posts
Crab Species Discovered off Taiwan has Fruity Appeal
Another marine animal has been discovered and this one looks good enough to eat! Professor Ho Ping-ho—of the National Taiwan Ocean University—and found a new crab species off the coast of southern Taiwan. This particular crab has a striking resemblance to a favorite type of berry: the strawberry, complete with red coloring and those little white bumps. The finding was confirmed by crab specialist, Wang Chia-hsiang, and although the crab is similar to others found in Hawaiian and Polynesian areas, it has...
More on mountaintop removal coal mining from the Discovery Channel
As a follow-up to last weekend's post on U.S. scientists' call for an end to mountaintop removal coal mining, here is a short video report from the Discovery Channel: Scientists Seek Ban on Mountaintop Mining Mountaintop mining causes permanent damage to the environment and exposes people to serious health risks, says a new report by a leading group of scientists. Jorge Ribas reports. by Graham Land Additional resources: New York Times Dot Earth – Scientists Reject Mountaintop Mining Methods Discovery News – Earth...
Lavatories to provide methane fuel for refugee camps
We’ve all got to worry about our environment, even refugees. Actually, especially refugees: they often live in squalid conditions with poor sanitation and lack basic resources. Environmental engineers at the University of Weimar in Germany are working on a solution to sewage problems at refugee camps by converting it into something else they need: fuel. No shit? Yes, shit. I'm thinking of using this biogas for cooking purposes. The energy could also be used for other purposes. Lighting is also a huge problem...
New Fault Line Created by New Zealand’s 7.1 Earthquake
A 7.1 magnitude earthquake hit New Zealand on Saturday. The quake was centered near Christchurch, one of the largest cities on the island nation. At least 500 buildings were damaged or destroyed, roads were cracked, and surprisingly only 2 serious injuries were reported. Oh, and there’s one other thing. It’s possible the earthquake created a new fault line. Geology professor of Canterbury University, Mark Quiqley, explained: “One side of the earth has lurched to the right … up to 11 feet (3.5 m)...
Black gold in Tinseltown: The surprising tale of Los Angeles’ oil fields
There are oil fields in Beverly Hills. In West Hollywood too, right under the famous Farmers Market. Despite L.A.'s fame for being a city driven by film and entertainment, it began principally as an oil town. From the late 19th century and into the present day, the Los Angeles metropolitan area, home to the third largest oil field in the contiguous United States, has had a flourishing oil industry. The enclave of Signal Hill, within the city of Long Beach,...
Whaling Compromise Reaches a Dead End at Florida Talks
Last week, 25 nations met in Florida to discuss ongoing whaling issues. The main focus of the meeting was a compromise that would allow Iceland, Japan and Norway to hunt whales openly (despite a 1986 ban on commercial whaling); but in turn the 3 nations would be required to greatly reduce their quotas over a 10-year period and their whaling activities would also be closely monitored by the IWC. The meeting resulted in absolutely nothing. No compromise was struck and...
How to keep drivers Safer and cities Happier
City driving is frustrating to put it simply; stop and go traffic every other block, pedestrians walking in front of cars without regard for safety, even cars weaving in and out of lanes as if they own the road. These annoyances can turn into increased stress for drivers on the road today and a major factor in causing that stress might just be the city they’re driving in. Part of the issue with added stress while driving is found within the...
Wal-Mart Wants Suppliers to Reduce Emissions
Business has always been about supply and demand, and one business in particular is becoming very demanding of their suppliers. Wal-Mart Stores Inc. wants its suppliers to reduce their greenhouse gas emissions by 20 million metric tons—within the next 5 years. However, don’t think that this giant retailer won’t do their own part in reducing emissions. Currently, they are designing more energy-efficient stores and researching alternative fuels for their trucks. They claim that if their goal is reached, it will be...
Australian Surfer Attacked Twice by Shark in Stable Condition
A surfer was attacked by a shark on Sunday—not once, but twice. The attack happened to off Conspicuous Cliff Beach, located south of Perth, Australia. Surfer Michael Bedford, who was rescued by a friend and some fishermen, suffered deep gashes to his right leg, but fortunately he is in stable condition at a hospital. Apparently, he caught a wave into the beach when the incident happened and his rescuers used the surfboard as a stretcher to carry him to safety. According to...
Is Black Friday becoming the new capitalist Holiday?
Earlier this week we posted a reminder about today’s Buy Nothing Day. Although the Buy Nothing Day movement gets bigger every year, so does the Black Friday craze, on and off the Internet. According to the Wikipedia page, Black Friday is the day following Thanksgiving in the U.S., which also marks the start of the Christmas shopping season. That day shops open very early, offer plenty of discounts and special offers to lure customers in to kick off sales for the...
View all articles
Thanks for your comment Denzel. Using aluminum and encouraging the industry to keep good standards are not mutually exclusive things, I hope.
The statement from the ABC report about the refinery not maintaining its equipment for 30 years comes from the magistrate of the court which fined QAL (according to the report, anyway).
The main reason for writing this post was to spread the word about the situation in Orissa, India, where the situation is I’m sure far worse than any Australian facility. But it was interesting that there were two other current stories concerning problems with bauxite plants, both in Australia.
Understand your concern about the incident at QAL, however as usual the media never lets the facts get in the way of a good story. To suggest that the refinery, with produces 4 million tonnes of alumina annually has not maintained its equipment in the last thirty years is absolutely ridiculous. I am a green person and I also work for industry. It’s all good to trash industry but atthe end of the day, do you use aluminium??