A Modern Day Midas
From the airspace over the Indonesian gold mine Batu Hijau, it might seem as though the mythical King Midas has been resurrected in a modern, and twisted, form. Where King Midas of Greek lore was granted the touch of gold, the modern King Midas assumes the form of a global mining company that, in a myopic and endless search for gold, turns everything it touches into a dull, deserted, and toxic wasteland.
The National Geographic’s January issue investigates the modern gold rush, undertaken not by pioneers headed out to the North American west but by thousands of individuals in mostly developing countries, hoping to eke out a better existence. With the current financial market in shambles, investors are turning to gold as a safe investment, driving up prices and exacerbating the frenetic pursuit. In 2007, India purchased 20 per cent of the world gold market at 773.6 tons, distantly followed by China at 363.3 tons and the United States at 278.1 tons.
Obsession with gold has prompted some of the most far-reaching voyages in human history, from early Spanish exploration of the Americas to the ongoing search for gold. Most of the easily accessible and large …
When analog signals for broadcast television end on February 17, one problem of the digital signal switch for televisions will remain: what to do with older televisions that are incompatible with digital signals. While the federal government is providing rebates to purchasers of converter boxes for older televisions, the boxes are simply a stopgap measure and do not replicate digital-quality television. For example, because of the difference in image resolution, the view for a 17-inch television with an analog signal appears as a truncated 15-inch view on the same television with a digital signal. It’s not difficult to imagine that these televisions will eventually be replaced, ending up in domestic landfills or foreign processing centers. Between 2003 and 2005, the Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) estimates that 15 to 20 per cent of electronic products were recycled, and the remaining 80 to 85 per cent of products …
Environmentalists are not usually accustomed to having industry allies in their efforts to address climate change. However, behind the scenes large private insurance companies have long advocated for reducing the greenhouse gas emissions that contribute to climate change and ultimately threaten these companies’ bottom line.
Recently, reinsurance giant Munich Re attributed significant human and financial losses in 2008 to climate change and increasingly severe weather events. A deadly cocktail of hurricanes, earthquakes, and other natural disasters caused nearly 220,000 human deaths, as well as financial losses totaling $200 billion. These totals represent a 150-percent increase in financial losses from 2007.
According to a press release by Munich Re on the impacts of climate change on the insurance industry, major catastrophic events in 2008 included:
- Cyclone Nargis in Myanmar, which brought heavy rainfall and a storm surge that caused more than 3 meters of flooding and extended …
Chairmen Henry Waxman and James Oberstar have been busy sharpening water protection tools on the Congressional whetstone. In a memorandum to President-elect Obama, Waxman, chair of the House Oversight and Government Reform Committee, and Oberstar, chair of the House Committee on Transportation and Infrastructure, detail serious deterioration of Clean Water Act (CWA) enforcement. The investigation found nearly 500 enforcement cases, brought to protect the nation’s waters, that have been negatively affected as a result of a divided 2006 Supreme Court ruling and subsequent Bush administration guidance. The memo is here.
Among key findings, the memo concluded that:
- The Supreme Court’s 2006 decision in Rapanos v. United States and resulting EPA guidance for regional EPA offices to implement the decision have caused a decline in enforcing hundreds of CWA violations, contrary to sworn statements made by Bush Administration officials that the effects on CWA were “slight …
