Here we go again....

===============================

https://www.saultstar.com/opinion/pillaging-ring-of-fires-mineral-wealth-has-no-silver-lining

Pillaging’ Ring of Fire’s mineral wealth has no silver lining

Author of the article:

The Sault Star

Publishing date:

Mar 12, 2021  •  13 minutes ago  •  2 minute read  •  Join the conversation

Article content

The James Bay Lowlands have been a valuable commodity to the First Nations Peoples for thousands of years. And they will not diminish one iota for countless generations should its custodians continue protecting their lands from looters.

No James Bay Lowlander has ever thought it would be nice to risk it all on such a destructive venture, as is the proposed Ring of Fire. Noront’s CEO Alan Coutts has recently fired up many local residents with the lure of short-term gains to be had from pillaging the Ring of Fire’s mineral wealth, that he alleges ranges between $60 and $250 billion. That’s a lot of money to a people who’ve never really drawn the attention of Canadian interests, until suddenly finding themselves in possession of something others wanted.

By either truck or train, massive amounts of fossil fuel is required for Noront to move the 1,500 to 3,000 tons of chromite daily the 500 miles to Sauklt Ste. Marie’s ferrochrome smelters —for a whole century. That’s how long they calculate it’ll take to extract the mineral wealth from James Bay. A whole lot of damage can accumulate during a century, which isn’t easily recognizable by those acclimatized to living year after year amongst its daily mining and smelting operations. Those living in a century will not have witnessed the destruction that’s taken place today; they will not comprehend the full extent of their loss.

Article content

Fossil fuel extraction has become disproportionately energy intensive and environmentally destructive as we exhaust this diminishing non-renewable resource. This trend will continue, so who’s to say there will actually be enough to carry this project to completion? There just won’t be enough fossil fuels towards the end of this ‘century of mining’ for the eventual reclamation of James Bay.

One century, and this project with all of its fleeting benefits, will have been for not, except for a traumatized landscape along with an abandoned people further estranged from their ancestral lands and cultural heritage.

Though Coutts emphasizes a partnering with First Nations people, we must remember that this is a capital venture, and not particularly as advantageous to the people of James Bay as he asserts.

His professed goodwill is merely a façade. He knows the only way shovels will ever touch the ground, and, in effect, realize a return on his financial investments, is to entice local First Nations people with a token share of the loot. Mining the Ring of Fire has nothing to do with reconciliation. It’s highway robbery, buying their co-operation with money dug from their own lands.

This is all beginning when we should be retreating from an extraction based civilization, withdrawing from our high energy consumption society and diminishing our dependence on non-renewable resources.

This tar sands fiasco, styled “chromium rush,” represents the momentum delaying the inevitable transition civilization must undertake to avoid a foreseeable dead end. This last ditch effort to prolong our wasteful lifestyles beyond the planet’s ability to sustain presents a setback our future just can’t afford.

Bruce Books,

Sault Ste. Marie