Unbearable Accumulation of Riches

Then God blessed them, and God said to them,

“Be fruitful and multiply; fill the earth and subdue it;

have dominion over the fish of the sea, over the birds of the air,

and over every living thing that moves on the earth.” Genesis – 1:28

To many evangelicals, God’s biblical pledge after the Great Flood not to wreak global havoc was a carte blanche that took the lid off of any restrictions against pouring greenhouse gasses into the atmosphere, enabling those to deny the possibility of a massive disaster to humanity from climate change. But was that sanctified promise about God’s protection of whatever mankind might do to itself… as opposed to God-directed catastrophic and unilateral imposition of punishing natural disaster? Likewise, the above passage from Genesis is often cited (even by the Trump’s former head of the Environmental Protection Agency) as justification for unbridled and open exploitation of nature’s bounty, even as to non-renewable resources and species extinction.

Clearly, the official Papal dictate on behalf of the Catholic Church rejects the notion that God gave mankind permission to ravage the earth without any responsibility for the consequences. In 2015, Pope Francis released Laudato Si (“Praised Be”), an encyclical on climate and justice to “enter into dialogue with all people about our common home.” If anything, the Pope very much took a position precisely opposite from the above evangelical purported incantations. Indeed, even among evangelical communities the world over, the American evangelical movement stands apart on environmental issues; the American evangelical view is not globally endorsed.

Why is this relevant? Because so much in the way of governmental policy these days is determined and justified to religious references. From Hindu policies vis-a-vis Muslims to the belief by many, particularly Christians and Muslims, that it is their mandate to convert the world to their faith. Wars are started. People are persecuted. Freedoms crushed. Environments are trashed. All in the name of God. Can this truly be the dictate of a benevolent power for good? Personally, I obviously think not.

Once more, a little story – not so little to those immediately impacted, from human to animal – rises to make the point that American policy is being determined and justified by a religious minority with fierce and politically essential support for Donald Trump and his designees. To the detriment of our future, environment and the preservation of God’s creations. Fish, bears, clean water and sustainable land vs. ripping apart the earth in pursuit of copper and gold. Guess which side the Trump administration supports. The latter expects to generate a cool $1 billion or more a year. Money talks. Environment walks. Jobs and wealth trump respect for God’s creations.

There are big environmental battles everywhere, but those remaining vast untapped American natural resources are heavily concentrated in Alaska… as are some of this nation’s most vulnerable ecosystems and species.

Alaska’s Katmai National Park borders the largest unmined deposits of gold and copper in the world. There’s a company ready to exploit those valuable metals with the full support of the Trump administration: “Pebble Limited Partnership, a subsidiary of a Canadian company that aims to dig Pebble Mine, an open pit the size of 460 football fields and deeper than One World Trade Center is tall. To proponents, it’s a glittering prize that could yield sales of more than $1 billion a year in an initial two decades of mining… Pebble Partnership’s corporate parent, Northern Dynasty Minerals , originally envisioned 78 years of mining, which would recover a little more than half of the mother lode…. It could also, critics fear, bring about the destruction of one of the world’s great fisheries…

“The Pebble Mine site lies 200 miles southwest of Anchorage. One hundred miles farther southwest is Bristol Bay [pictured above], home to the world’s largest run of wild sockeye salmon. Early each summer, hundreds of 32-foot commercial fishing boats surge into the bay, charging into state-designated territories like riders in the Oklahoma Land Rush. The fishery generates 14,000 jobs and $1.5 billion a year.

“Captains and crews come from around the world to reel in as many tons of sockeye as they can during the lucrative two-month season. Regional tribal leader Robin Samuelsen Jr. worked the bay last summer for his 54th season, his four grandsons reeling in wildly wriggling fish… ‘We have a gold mine,’ he said. ‘It’s in salmon.’

“Alaska has long been known for grand ventures and great risks. It’s also known for the richness of its natural resources, including gold, copper — and salmon… In the case of the Pebble Mine, the question is: Can they coexist?...

“In hopes of getting the initial phase past the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers for permitting under the Clean Water Act, the company scaled down its project to a 20-year mine that would still be colossal, with waste piles and other facilities occupying a site more than half the size of Manhattan… Northern Dynasty’s plan leaves little margin for error.

“The development would destroy more than 3,400 acres of wetlands and 81 miles of streams. It would straddle Upper Talarik Creek and the Koktuli River, Bristol Bay tributaries known nationally for trophy trout fishing and salmon spawning… Mineralized rock would be blasted in the pit, crushed, ground into sand, floated and concentrated, producing 180,000 tons of material a day. The challenge facing the company, in a place that averages more than 50 inches of rain a year, is how to ensure that tainted water will never reach Bristol Bay, which contains more than half of the North Pacific’s sockeye salmon.

“Northern Dynasty would submerge particularly hazardous mine tailings, piled across more than 1,000 acres, in water to prevent acid generation. This waste would be contained in liners behind earthen dams and ultimately dumped back into Pebble’s open pit after mining ended.

“Less hazardous bulk tailings, heaped across 2,800 acres, would be held back by massive embankments designed to channel seepage into a treatment system. In all, these tailings dams, some as high as 40 stories, would extend more than 10 miles.

“Company representatives say the bulk waste would have the consistency of inert sand. They say their latest plan would move most operations out of Upper Talarik Creek to reduce risks. But mine opponents say subterranean water systems are interconnected, and federal scientists say the latest groundwater models are inadequate.

“The company plans to prevent contamination by treating as much as 13,000 gallons of discharge a minute on average from ore processing, tailings seepage and pit drainage, funneling it into the Koktuli River. The amount, which dwarfs quantities handled by other U.S. hard-rock mines, would increase to 22,000 gallons of water a minute after the mine closed. It would level out at 5,000 gallons a minute thereafter — perpetually, every day of the year, through storms, power outages and earthquakes.

“In Bristol Bay, commercial, sport and subsistence fishermen worry about the dams, fearing they could breach or water treatment could fail. If so, contaminants in Upper Talarik Creek could spew into Iliamna Lake, Alaska’s biggest, and from there down the Kvichak River into the bay. Or toxins could enter the north and south forks of the Koktuli, flowing into the bay through two more rivers also legendary for salmon spawning.

“And that isn’t the only concern… Northern Dynasty proposes a 188-mile natural-gas pipeline across Cook Inlet to supply a power plant that could light up a city the size of Gary, Ind. An icebreaking ferry would carry ore 18 miles across Iliamna Lake, connecting to a haul road built through bear migration territory, and from there to a proposed seaport…

“No one has studied Pebble Mine more thoroughly than scientists at the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency, whose Seattle branch spent three years examining the issue and concluded in 2014 that the mine could cause ‘unacceptable adverse effects.’… Chris Hladick, EPA regional administrator in Seattle, sent a 100-page critique to the corps on July 1, saying the draft probably underestimated the potential harm to water quality and fish. He warned that mine waste could discharge far more water than predicted, affecting a larger area, and suggested lining the bulk tailings to avoid contaminating groundwater.

“But a month later, after Alaska Gov. Mike Dunleavy lobbied Trump, Hladick followed instructions from EPA headquarters and withdrew the agency’s long-standing option to veto Pebble. The environmental organization Earthworks has sent the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission evidence of potential insider trading ahead of the agency’s reversal, which sent Northern Dynasty’s shares soaring… In Bristol Bay, the EPA’s turnaround stung. Fishermen knew Hladick as a former city manager of Dillingham, the bay’s commercial fishing hub. He’s no longer welcome on many of their boats.

“Opposition to the mine has united players often at odds, including Alaska Native communities and corporations, conservationists, sport fishermen and hunters. Several organizations sued the EPA this month calling for a reversal. On Wednesday, U.S. House Democrats opposing the mine argued with Republicans during a committee hearing on Capitol Hill.” Richard Read and Carolyn Cole writing for the October 27^th Los Angeles Times. 

Wouldn’t a massive open pit mine look so much better than the above photograph? What could possibly go wrong? In one of the most seismically active regions in the United States? Once gone, those species and that ecosystem might take decades to reestablish… if ever. The copper and gold aren’t going anywhere.

              I’m Peter Dekom, and nature does not seem to care how human beings interpret their perceptions of God; she started with nothing… and can start over without waiting for an election.