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Solids, Liquids, Gases: StudyJams! Science | Scholastic.com

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Water can be a solid, a liquid, or a gas. So can other forms of matter. This activity will teach students about how forms of matter can change states.

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Mining is the extraction (removal) of minerals and metals from earth. Manganese, tantalum, cassiterite, copper, tin, nickel, bauxite (aluminum ore), iron ore, gold, silver, and diamonds are just some examples of what is mined.
Why mine?
Mining is a money making business. Not only do mining companies prosper, but governments also make money from revenues. Workers also receive income and benefits.
What are the minerals and metals used for?
Large scale mining versus small scale mining:

Mining in Peru. Photos by Rhett Butler
How does mining affect the environment?

Minerals and metals are very valuable commodities. For example, manganese is a key component of low-cost stainless steel. It is also used to de-color glass (removing greenish hues), but in higher concentrations, it actually makes lavender-colored glass. Tantalum is used in cell phones, pagers, and lap-tops. Cooper and tin are used to make pipes, cookware, etc. And gold, silver, and diamonds are used to make jewelry.

Large scale mining usually involves a company with many employees. The company mines at one or two large sites and usually stays until the mineral or metal is completely excavated. An example of a large scale mine is the Serra Pelada mine in Brazil which yielded 29,000 tons of gold from 1980 to 1986 and employed 50,000 workers (Kricher, 1997).

Small scale mining usually involves a small group of nomadic men. They travel together and look for sites which they think will yield gold or another valuable metal or mineral. Small scale mining occurs in places such as Suriname, Guyana, Central Africa, and many other places around the world. Some researchers believe that small scale mining is more harmful to the environment and causes more social problems than large scale mining. This will become apparent later in the lesson.

Mining is generally very destructive to the environment. It is one of the main causes of deforestation. In order to mine, trees and vegetation are cleared and burned. With the ground completely bare, large scale mining operations use huge bulldozers and excavators to extract the metals and minerals from the soil. In order to amalgamate (cluster) the extractions, they use chemicals such as cyanide, mercury, or methylmercury. These chemicals go through tailings (pipes) and are often discharged into rivers, streams, bays, and oceans. This pollution contaminates all living organisms within the body of water and ultimately the people who depend on the fish for their main source of protein and their economic livelihood.

How does mining affect the people?

Small scale mining is equally devastating to the environment, if not more. Groups of 5-6 men migrate from one mining site to another in search of precious metals, usually gold. There are two types of small scale mining: land dredging and river dredging:

Land dredging involves miners using a generator to dig a large hole in the ground. They use a high pressure hose to expose the gold-bearing layer of sand and clay. The gold bearing slurry is pumped into a sluice box, which collects gold particles, while mine tailings flow into either an abandoned mining pit or adjacent forest. When the mining pits fill with water from the tailings, they become stagnant water pools. These pools create a breeding ground for mosquitoes and other water-born insects. Malaria and other water-born diseases increase significantly whenever open pools of water are nearby.

River dredging involves moving along a river on a platform or boat. The miners use a hydraulic suction hose and suction the gravel and mud as they move along the river. The gravel, mud, and rocks go through the tailings (pipes) and any gold fragments are collected on felt mats. The remaining gravel, mud, and rocks go back into the river, but in a different location than where it was originally suctioned. This creates problems for the river. The displaced gravel and mud disrupt the natural flow of the river. Fish and other living organisms often die and fishermen can no longer navigate in the obstructed rivers.

Where does mining occur?

The people who are exposed to the toxic waste from the tailings become sick. They develop skin rashes, headaches, vomiting, diarrhea, etc. In fact, the symptoms of mercury poisoning are very similar to the symptoms of malaria. Many people who can not afford to go to a doctor, or who live in a village where a doctor is not accessible, are often not treated for their illnesses.

If the water is contaminated, the people can not use it for bathing, cooking, or washing their clothes.

If the man of the household is a small scale miner, he often leaves his wife and children in search of work. This means that the wife and children must work and provide for themselves. They must also protect themselves from thieves.

Theft, drugs/alcohol, prostitution, rape, and sexual abuse are unfortunately some of the effects of mining.

Cultural degradation also occurs in mining villages. For example, mining often destroys sacred sites and cemeteries. In Guyana, a special fishing event called Haiari Fishing unfortunately can not take place if the river has been dredged for gold. Remember, the displacement of the gravel and mud obstruct the natural flow of the river. As a result, fish and other organisms die.

Three case studies: Guyana, Democratic Republic of Congo (DRC), and Indonesia:
What can we do as global citizens to curb the effects of mining?

Mining occurs in many places around the world, including the U.S. In South America, mining is particularly active in the Amazonia region, Guyana, Suriname, and other South American countries. In Central Africa, mining devastated a National Park called Kahuzi-Biega in the eastern Democratic Republic of Congo (DRC). South Africa is also very well known for mining diamonds. Mining also occurs in Indonesia and other S.E. Asian countries.

In Guyana , both large and small scale mining occur. In the early 1980's, the price of gold spiked from $100-$150 per ounce to $700 per ounce! This created huge incentives for governments to allow mining companies to come into their countries. Omai mining company established an 11,000 acre site in the middle of Guyana. From 1986 to 2001, this company excavated 3/4 of all the gold in Guyana. Not only was the mining company making huge sums of money, but the Guyana government was also benefiting from the revenues; owning 5% of the companies shares. However, in 1995 the tailings dam, which was filled with three million cubic meters of cyanide waste, collapsed and spilled into the Essequibo River, the biggest river in Guyana. The toxic waste drained north- exposing 10,000 people (both residents and eco-tourists). All of the fish in the river died, and although no one died from the toxic exposure, many people developed skin rashes and respiratory problems. In addition to large scale mining, small scale mining is very popular in Guyana. Miners apply for permits from the government and mine at sites where the residents do not have official land titles. This makes residents who never received official land titles from the government very vulnerable to both the detrimental environmental and social effects of mining. As mentioned previously, small and middle scale mining is often worse than large scale mining because of the area covered. For example, Omai (a large scale mining company) mined 11,000 acres, whereas small scale miners mined 234,000 acres, and middle scale miners mined 2 million acres! That's a lot of degradation that both small and middle scale miners can cause!

In the Democratic Republic of Congo (DRC) the Kahuzi-Biega National Park was designated a World Heritage Site in 1980 because of its rich bio-diversity in both plants and animals. In fact, 86% of the Grauer's gorilla, a subspecies which is endemic to this region, was found in this park. However, all that has changed. In the late 1990's, armed factions involved in the civil war set up mining operations within the boundaries of the park to extract valuable minerals such as tantalum and cassiterite. Thousands of Congolese whose lives had been devastated by the war subsequently flooded to the mines in search of a quick buck (Furniss, 2005). An estimated 15,000 people were thought to be working at about a hundred sites throughout the park. Tragically, not only were tantalum and cassiterite extracted, but also trees, vegetation, and large mammals. The miners hired hunters to feed the people working at the mining sites. Gorillas, elephants, chimpanzees, buffaloes and antelope at first were easily found within proximity to the park. But, as the months passed, it became increasingly more difficult to find large mammals. Hunters searched longer and farther. By March of 2001, most of the large animals had all been killed. The Grauer's gorilla suffered the most, since this unique gorilla sub-species is only found in this area. Before the mining, the total population was estimated to be 17,000- with 86% living in the Kahuzi-Biega National Park. Now, it is estimated that only 2-3,000 Grauer's gorillas remain. According to Ian Redmond, the chairman of the Ape Alliance, "If these numbers are confirmed, it would be catastrophic for the subspecies." He also states that the remaining Grauer's gorilla population is fragmented which makes them more vulnerable to poaching and inbreeding. The fate of this sub-species is unknown at this time.

In Indonesia, a U.S. mining company based in Denver (Newmont) has been extracting gold since 1996. This company no longer mines in this region for two reasons: (1) in 2004, they extracted all the gold, and (2) the company is currently being sued by the Indonesian government for intentionally dumping poisonous waste, such as arsenic and mercury, into the Buyat Bay. This waste has poisoned the fish in the bay. This was, sadly, their main source of protein and economic livelihood. In addition, many people in this region have complained of headaches, breathing difficulty, and skin rashes and tumors. One newborn was born with birth defects and died at the age of 3 months. The company has denied any wrong doing and blames these symptoms and incidents on poor sanitation and nutrition!

Make companies who exploit developing countries accountable for their actions.

Boycott products produced by companies who do not mine is environmentally responsible ways.

Start talking. Tell your family members, friends, teachers, and members in your community about the effects of mining and how jewelry made for gold, silver, and diamonds can be substituted for other metals which are mined in responsible ways.

Write letters to governments who do not properly compensate people who have been affected by pollution from mining companies.

Spread awareness of this issue by sharing your knowledge. This is how change occurs. Here's a great quote to keep in mind,

-Margaret Mead Now, show yourself what you've learned in this lesson my answering these questions:

"Never doubt that a small group of thoughtful, committed people can change the world. Indeed, it is the only thing that ever has."
Answers are located after the references.

1. Name two minerals or metals that are mined.

2. Choose the correct answer: Extraction means the (addition/removal) of minerals or metals from earth's soil.

3. What's the difference between large scale mining and small scale mining?

4. Why is mining destructive to the environment?

5. Fill in the blanks: One of the environmental effects of land dredging is stagnant ________ pools. These pools attract __________. People who live near these pools have a greater chance of getting ____________.

6. T or F River dredging is a type of small scale mining. This type of mining affects the natural flow of the river. Fish and other living organisms often die in these obstructed rivers. This also affects the fishermen's livelihood.

7. Name two effects of mining on the people.

8. T or F The Omai mining company's tailings dam collapsed in 1995.

9. Before mining occured in the Kahuzi-Biega National Park, what percentage of Grauer's gorillas lived there?

10. Now that mining has devastated this National Park, how many Grauer's gorillas are estimated to exist currently? What does this mean to this sub-species of gorilla?

References:

Pen Pal Conversation: After reading about the case studies, what do you think about both large and small scale mining? Do you think that governments have a responsibility to protect their environment and indigenous people from being exploited by mining companies? What role do you think the government has in regulating both small and medium scale miners?
www.africageographic.com
Kricher, J. (1997). A Neotropical Companion: An introduction to the animals, plants, & ecosystems of the New World Tropics. New Jersey: Princeton University Press.
Answers to questions:
Peterson, G. D., & Heemskerk, M. (2001) Deforestation and forest regeneration following small-scale gold mining in the Amazon: The case of Suriname. Environmental Conservation 28(2): 117-126.

Furniss, C. (2005) Seizing the moment: The Great Apes Survival Project. Africa Geographic, July issue: 41-51.

Lecture notes from ENVS 80 A: Logan Hennessy

1. Manganese and gold

2. removal

3. Large scale mining involves a large company with many workers. These are also localized at one or two sites. Small scale mining involves a group of traveling men, usually about 5-8, who migrate from one mining site to another. This type of mining tends to be more destructive to the environment because of the area of land covered. It also causes more social problems because small scale miners mine where residents do not have official land titles. Tension and resentment builds and causes many social quarrels and unfortunate effects to the indigenous people.

4. Trees and vegetation are cleared and burned. Natural minerals and metals are stripped from the soil. Chemicals used to amalgamate (cluster) the gold are often expelled into rivers, streams, and oceans causing pollution to the environment, animals, and people.

5. water, mosquitoes, malaria

6. T

7. Illnesses from contaminated water and cultural degradation

8. T

9. 86%

10. 2-3,000. This could be catastrophic to this species. They are more vulnerable to poaching and inbreeding.

How did you do? I bet you did TERRIFIC !

The following standards were covered in this lesson:

Reading: 1.5 Demonstrate knowledge of levels of specificity among grade-appropriate words and explain the importance of these relations.

Reading comprehension: Demonstrating comprehension by identifying answers in the text (lesson).

Social Studies: 3.12 Trace the ways in which people have used the resources of the local region and modified the physical environment.

Life Science: 3 (c) Students know living things cause changes in the environment in which they live: some of these changes are detrimental to the organism or other organisms, and some are beneficial.

About these lesson plans and resources

This lesson plan was developed by Lisa M. Algee, an Environmental Education Ph D student at the University of California at Santa Cruz (UCSC). Lisa runs a site called Kids Connected to Conservation and Culture which focuses on educating the next generation about environmental issues, such as deforestation, and what we can do as global citizens to curb these detrimental effects.

More Mining photos

Mining photos

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Mining is the extraction (removal) of minerals and metals from earth. Manganese, tantalum, cassiterite, copper, tin, nickel, bauxite (aluminum ore), iron ore, gold, silver, and diamonds are just some examples of what is mined. Why mine? Mining is a money making business. Not only do mining companies prosper, but governments also make money from revenues.

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Along with coconut oil, palm oil is one of the few highly saturated vegetable fats and is semisolid at room temperature. Palm oil is a common cooking ingredient in the tropical belt of Africa, Southeast Asia and parts of Brazil.

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Coal mining is the process of extracting coal from the ground. Coal is valued for its energy content, and, since the 1880s, has been widely used to generate electricity. Steel and cement industries use coal as a fuel for extraction of iron from iron ore and for cement production.

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金刚石 钻石 金钢石 金刚石物性数据 金刚石计算化学数据 金刚石物理性质 金刚石化学性质 金刚石结构性质 金刚石光学性质 金刚石稳定性 金刚石金刚石和石墨 金刚石人造金刚石 金刚石主要产地 金刚石用途

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金刚石（纯碳组成的矿物）_百度百科

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金刚石俗称"金刚钻"。也就是我们常说的钻石的原身，它是一种由碳元素组成的矿物，是碳元素的同素异形体。金刚石是自然界中天然存在的最坚硬的物质。金刚石的用途非常广泛，例如：工艺品、工业中的切割工具。石墨可以在高温、高压下形成人造金刚石。也是贵重宝石。2018年12月，加拿大出土了一颗重量高达552克拉的黄色钻石，这使它成为了在北美洲发现的最大的一颗钻石。...

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原油（化学性质和物理性质）

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原油（化学性质和物理性质）

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原油 crude oil 原油历史发展 原油组成与分类 原油性质 原油储运 原油进口量 原油市场价格 原油原油炼制 原油精炼过程 原油主要用途 原油资源分布 原油市场信息

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习惯上把未经加工处理的石油称为原油。一种黑褐色并带有绿色荧光，具有特殊气味的粘稠性油状液体。是烷烃、环烷烃、 芳香烃和烯烃等多种液态烃的混合物。主要成分是碳和氢两种元素，分别占83～87%和 11～14%；还有少量的硫、氧、氮和微量的 ...

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天然气 天然气来源 天然气理化性质 天然气组成分类 天然气基本特点 天然气形成原因 天然气各国储量排名 天然气毒性危害 天然气鉴别方法 天然气衍生产品 天然气具体用途 天然气分布地域 天然气开采方法 天然气发展状况 天然气行业现状 天然气勘探开发 天然气技术参数 中国天然气市场变局

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天然气（气体）_百度百科

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天然气是指自然界中天然存在的一切气体，包括大气圈、水圈、和岩石圈中各种自然过程形成的气体（包括油田气、气田气、泥火山气、煤层气和生物生成气等）。而人们长期以来通用的"天然气"的定义，是从能量角度出发的狭义定义，是指天然蕴藏于地层中的烃类和非烃类气体的混合物。在石油地质学中，通常指油田气和气田气。其组成以烃类为主，并含有非烃气体。...

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What is Palm Oil? Facts About the Palm Oil Industry

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As palm oil plantations spread rapidly, deforestation impacts wildlife habitats and human communities. The sustainable production and harvesting of palm oil is imperative.

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Extraction of Minerals and Energy from the Rainforest (Pictures)

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Extraction of Minerals and Energy from the Rainforest (Pictures)

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Gold, copper, diamonds, and other precious metals and gemstones are important resources that are found in rainforests around the world. Extracting these natural resources is frequently a destructive activity that damages the rainforest ecosystem and causes problems for people living nearby and downstream from mining operations, especially from toxic runoff into river systems. There have been cases of mining companies--sometimes working with local police or authorities--forcibly displacing forest people from their lands in order to exploit mineral riches. Examples are gold mining in the Brazilian and Peruvian Amazon, rare earth mining in the Congo, and gold and copper mining in Indonesia and Papua New Guinea.

Some of the world's most promising oil and gas deposits lie deep in tropical rainforests. Unfortunately oil and gas development often takes a heavy toll on the environment and local people. Oil and gas development in rainforest areas causes displacement of local people, air and water pollution, deforestation, and construction of roads that open previously inaccessible areas to deforestation. High energy prices in recent years have spurred increased exploration of rainforests for oil and gas. The western Amazon--including Colombia, Ecuador, Peru, and Brazil--has seen a lot of activity. More than 70 percent of the Peruvian Amazon--including indigenous territories and conservation areas--is now under concession for oil and gas.

Dams are also a big threat to rainforests, particularly in the Amazon, the Mekong (Laos and Burma or Myanmar), and Malaysia. Dams disrupt river systems, flood rainforest, displace forest people, and support activities that cause more deforestation. In Sarawak, which is part of Malaysian Borneo, more than a dozen dams are being planned. These will force thousands of forest-dependent people to move and will inundate important rainforest areas. The power generated by the dams will be used for large-scale mining activities, causing further destruction. Similarly, in Brazil, Belo Monte dam will block the Xingu river, a tributary of the Amazon, flooding more than 100,000 acres of rainforest and displacing more than 15,000 people. Electricity from the project will power mining activities and industrial agriculture that will destroy yet more rainforest. Indigenous people, scientists, and environmentalists strongly oppose the project.

PICTURES OF MINING IN THE RAINFOREST

By Rhett Butler

Date published: June 24, 2004 | Last updated: December 5, 2015

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Extraction of minerals and energy from the rainforest

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Gold, copper, diamonds, and other precious metals and gemstones are important resources that are found in rainforests around the world. Extracting these natural resources is frequently a destructive activity that damages the rainforest ecosystem and causes problems for people living nearby and downstream from mining operations, especially from toxic runoff into river systems. There have been cases of mining companies--sometimes working with local police or authorities--forcibly displacing forest people from their lands in order to exploit mineral riches.

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All around the world, palm oil consumption is increasing. However, it is a highly controversial food.

On one hand, it's reported to provide several health benefits.

On the other, it may pose risks to heart health. There are also environmental concerns related to the steady increase in its production.

This article takes a detailed look at palm oil and its effects on health, the environment and sustainability.

Palm oil comes from the fleshy fruit of oil palms. Unrefined palm oil is sometimes referred to as red palm oil because of its reddish-orange color.

The main source of palm oil is the Elaeis guineensis tree, which is native to West and Southwest Africa. Its use in this region dates back more than 5,000 years.

A similar oil palm known as Elais oleifera is found in South America, but it's rarely grown commercially. However, a hybrid of the two plants is sometimes used in palm oil production.

In recent years, oil palm growth has expanded to Southeast Asia, including Malaysia and Indonesia. These two countries currently produce more than 80% of the world's palm oil supply ( 1).

Like coconut oil, palm oil is semi-solid at room temperature. However, its melting point is 95°F (35°C), which is considerably higher than 76°F (24°C) for coconut oil. This is due to the different fatty acid compositions of the two oils.

Palm oil is one of the least expensive and most popular oils worldwide, accounting for one-third of global plant oil production ( 1).

It is important to note that palm oil should not be confused with palm kernel oil.

While both originate from the same plant, palm kernel oil is extracted from the seed of the fruit. It provides different health benefits.

Bottom Line: Palm oil comes from palm trees native to Africa, where it has been consumed for thousands of years. It is semi-solid at room temperature and differs from palm kernel oil in nutritional composition.

Palm oil is used for cooking and is also added to many ready-to-eat foods in your grocery store.

Its taste is considered savory and earthy.

Some people describe its flavor as being similar to carrot or pumpkin.

This oil is a staple in West African and tropical cuisines, and it's especially well suited for curries and other spicy dishes.

It is often used for sautéing or frying because it has a high smoke point of 450°F (232°C) and remains stable under high heat ( 2).

Palm oil is sometimes added to peanut butter and other nut butters as a stabilizer to prevent the oil from separating and settling at the top of the jar.

In addition to nut butters, palm oil can be found in several other foods, including:

Cereals

Baked goods like bread, cookies and muffins

Protein bars and diet bars

Chocolate

Coffee creamers

Margarine

In the 1980s, palm oil was replaced with trans fats in many products due to concerns that consuming tropical oils might jeopardize heart health. However, after studies revealed the health risks of trans fats, food manufacturers resumed using palm oil.

This oil is also found in many non-food products, such as toothpaste, soap and cosmetics.

In addition, it can be used to produce biodiesel fuel, which serves as an alternative energy source ( 3).

Bottom Line: Palm oil is used in cooking, especially in West African cuisines and curries. It is also found in certain foods, products and fuels.

Here is the nutritional content of one tablespoon (14 grams) of palm oil ( 4):

All of palm oil's calories come from fat. Its fatty acid breakdown is 50% saturated fatty acids, 40% monounsaturated fatty acids and 10% polyunsaturated fatty acids.

The main type of saturated fat found in palm oil is palmitic acid, which contributes 44% of its calories. It also contains high amounts of oleic acid and smaller amounts of linoleic acid and stearic acid.

Red palm oil's reddish-orange pigment stems from antioxidants known as carotenoids, including beta-carotene, which your body can convert into vitamin A.

In fractionated palm oil, the liquid portion is removed by a crystallizing and filtering process. The remaining solid portion is higher in saturated fat and has a higher melting temperature ( 5).

Bottom Line: Palm oil is 100% fat, half of which is saturated. It also contains vitamin E and red palm oil contains antioxidants called carotenoids, which your body can convert into vitamin A.

Palm oil has been linked to several health benefits, including protecting brain function, reducing heart disease risk factors and improving vitamin A status.

Brain Health

Palm oil is an excellent source of tocotrienols, a form of vitamin E with strong antioxidant properties that may support brain health.

Animal and human studies suggest that the tocotrienols in palm oil may help protect the delicate polyunsaturated fats in the brain, slow dementia progression, reduce the risk of stroke and prevent the growth of brain lesions ( 6, 7, 8, 9, 10).

In a two-year study of 121 people with brain lesions, the group who took palm oil-derived tocotrienols twice a day remained stable, whereas the group who received a placebo experienced lesion growth ( 10).

Heart Health

Palm oil has been credited with providing protection against heart disease.

Although some study results have been mixed, this oil generally appears to have beneficial effects on heart disease risk factors, including lowering "bad" LDL cholesterol and increasing "good" HDL cholesterol ( 11, 12, 13, 14, 15, 16, 17, 18).

A large analysis of 51 studies found that total and LDL cholesterol levels were lower in people who followed palm oil-rich diets than those who consumed diets high in trans fats or myristic and lauric acid ( 11).

A recent three-month study looked at the cholesterol-lowering effects of palm oil made from a hybrid of Elaeis guineensis and Elaeis oleifera trees.

In this study, people consumed either 25 ml (2 tablespoons) of olive oil or a hybrid palm oil daily. Based on a 15% drop in LDL cholesterol in both groups, researchers suggested this palm oil could be called "the tropical equivalent of olive oil" ( 12).

Nevertheless, it's important to note that an increase or decrease in LDL cholesterol levels alone cannot predict heart disease risk. There are many other factors involved.

However, a controlled study in 1995 suggested that palm oil might help slow disease progression in people with established heart disease.

In this 18-month study, seven of 25 people treated with the oil showed improvements and 16 remained stable. By contrast, 10 of 25 people in the placebo group experienced disease progression, and none showed improvement ( 18).

Improved Vitamin A Status

Palm oil can help improve vitamin A status in people who are deficient or at risk of deficiency.

Studies in pregnant women in developing countries have shown that consuming red palm oil increases vitamin A levels in their blood, as well as in their breastfed infants ( 19, 20, 21).

One study found that people with cystic fibrosis, who have difficulty absorbing fat-soluble vitamins, experienced an increase in blood levels of vitamin A after taking two to three tablespoons of red palm oil daily for eight weeks ( 22).

Red palm oil has also been shown to help boost vitamin A levels in adults and young children ( 23, 24).

In fact, a study from India reported that preschool-aged children who took 5 ml (1 teaspoon) per day had greater increases in vitamin A levels than children who received vitamin A supplements ( 24).

Bottom Line: Palm oil may help protect brain function, reduce heart disease risk factors and increase vitamin A levels in certain people.

Although most studies have found that palm oil has a protective effect on heart health, others have reported conflicting results ( 25, 26, 27, 28, 29).

One study was conducted in women with high cholesterol.

It showed that levels of small, dense LDL (sdLDL) - the type of cholesterol linked to heart disease - increased with palm oil but decreased with other oils. However, a combination of palm oil and rice bran oil decreased sdLDL levels ( 25).

Another study found that sdLDL didn't change in the group that consumed palm oil, while large LDL particles increased. Large LDL particles are considered less likely to cause heart attacks than small, dense LDL particles ( 26).

Other studies have reported elevations in LDL cholesterol levels in response to consuming palm oil. However, in these studies, LDL particle sizes weren't measured ( 27, 28, 29).

It's important to note that these are only potential risk factors and not evidence that palm oil can actually cause heart disease.

However, one animal study suggests that consuming oil that has been repeatedly reheated may cause plaque deposits in the arteries due to a decrease in the oil's antioxidant activity.

When rats ate food containing palm oil that had been reheated 10 times, they developed large arterial plaques and other signs of heart disease over the course of six months, whereas rats fed fresh palm oil did not ( 30).

Bottom Line: Palm oil may increase certain heart disease risk factors in some people. Repeatedly reheating the oil may decrease its antioxidant capacity and contribute to the development of heart disease.

There are several ethical issues regarding palm oil production's effects on the environment, wildlife and communities.

In the past decades, increasing demand has led to an unprecedented expansion of palm oil production in Malaysia, Indonesia and Thailand.

These countries have humid, tropical climates that are ideally suited for growing oil palm trees.

However, in order to accommodate oil palm plantations, tropical forests and peatland are being destroyed.

A recent analysis found that 45% of land in Southeast Asia currently used for palm oil production had been forest back in 1990, including more than half of all palm oil plantations in Indonesia and Malaysia ( 1).

Deforestation is anticipated to have devastating effects on global warming, as the forests play a crucial role in reducing greenhouse gasses by absorbing carbon from the atmosphere.

In addition, the destruction of native landscapes causes changes in the ecosystem that threaten the health and diversity of wildlife.

Especially concerning is the impact on endangered species such as Bornean orangutans, which are facing extinction due to habitat loss ( 31).

There have also been reports of human rights violations by palm oil corporations, such as clearing farmlands and forests without permission, paying low wages, providing unsafe working conditions and significantly reducing the quality of life ( 32).

Fortunately, experts say that there are more ethical and sustainable methods.

For instance, a 2015 analysis found that limiting the expansion of new palm oil plantations to areas without forests and planting only in areas with low carbon stocks could reduce greenhouse gas emissions by up to 60% ( 32).

The Roundtable on Sustainable Palm Oil (RSPO) is an organization committed to making oil production as environmentally friendly, culturally sensitive and sustainable as possible.

They only award RSPO certification to producers who adhere to their standards by following certain guidelines, including:

No clearing of forests or areas that contain endangered species, fragile ecosystems or areas critical to meeting basic or traditional community needs.

Significantly reduced use of pesticides and fires.

Fair treatment of workers, according to local and international labor rights standards.

Informing and consulting with local communities before the development of new oil palm plantations on their land.

Bottom Line: Replacing tropical forests and peatland with palm oil trees is devastating the environment, wildlife and people's quality of life.

Palm oil is one of the most widely used oils in the world.

However, the effects of its production on the environment, health of wild animals and lives of indigenous people are deeply concerning.

If you want to use palm oil, purchase ethical, RSPO-certified brands.

Additionally, since you can get similar health benefits from other oils and foods, it's probably best to use other fat sources for most of your daily needs.

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All around the world, palm oil consumption is increasing. However, it is a highly controversial food. On one hand, it's reported to provide several health benefits. On the other, it may pose risks to heart health. There are also environmental concerns related to the steady increase in its production.

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Coal

Coal is an abundant fossil resource that consists mostly of carbon. Energy content (Btu/pound) ranges from 5,000 to 15,000 depending on the type of coal. Coal reserves are located all over the world. Electric utilities consume about 87 percent of the total coal produced. In the United States, coal is used to generate more than half of all the electricity produced. It is also used as a basic energy source in many industries, and as a heating fuel. The U.S. is one of the top exporters of coal in the world. Most exported U.S. coal goes to Western Europe, Canada, and Japan.

Coal is recovered from the earth by surface mining or deep mining. Surface mining, or strip mining, is less expensive and usually occurs on flat land. Deep mining requires digging shafts and tunnels to get to the coal seam. Automation of deep mining has helped to counter its safety and health hazards. Coal can be gasified to form a synthetic fuel similar to natural gas. It can also be liquefied to make a synthetic crude oil. To date, it has not been economical to make synthetic fuels from coal on a large scale. As processes become more efficient, the use of synthetic fuels may become more economical.

Oil

Oil comes from crude oil, which is a mix of hydrocarbons with some oxygen, nitrogen, and sulfur impurities. One barrel of oil (42 U.S. gallons) can provide about 6 million Btu. Crude oil reserves are found all over the world, but the Middle East alone has about 63 percent of the known reserves. Of the oil consumed in the United States, most is used in transportation, and much of the rest goes to industrial, commercial, and residential uses. Crude oil is used to produce not only a range of fuels, but also petrochemical ingredients for plastics, inks, tires, pharmaceuticals, and a host of other products.

High-tech oil exploration technology and practices have led to the discovery of as many new reserves as have already been used. To make the most of this valuable resource, energy producers are developing more efficient refining methods, product makers are finding more efficient ways to use petrochemicals, and manufacturers are developing more efficient cars. New techniques of locating and extracting oil from the earth are also making it possible to recover oil that was once too expensive to produce.

Oil is usually recovered by drilling wells through the non-porous rock barrier that traps the oil. In general, about 30 percent of the oil trapped can be economically recovered by pumping. "Secondary" recovery can remove another 10 percent, by flooding the well with high-pressure water or gas. Another 10 percent can sometimes be recovered with "tertiary" methods that heat the oil to scrub it out. About half of the oil is left trapped in the rock. Oil producers are continually seeking economical ways to recover more of this oil.

The oil refining process separates crude oil into different hydrocarbons and removes impurities such as sulfur, nitrogen, and heavy metals. The first step is fractional distillation, a process that takes advantage of the fact that different hydrocarbons boil at different temperatures. In a tall tower called a fractionating column, crude oil is heated until it boils. Horizontal trays divide the column at intervals. As the oil boils, it vaporizes. Each hydrocarbon rises to a tray at a temperature just below its own boiling point. There, it cools and turns back into a liquid.

The lightest fractions are liquefied petroleum gases (propane and butane) and the petrochemicals used to make plastics, fabrics, and a wide array of consumer products. Next come gasoline, kerosene, and diesel fuel. Heavier fractions make home heating oil and fuel for ships and factories. Still heavier fractions are made into lubricants and waxes. The remains include asphalt.

The refining process then continues, with heavy fractions converted into lighter fractions. In most cases, "cracking" processes are used to transform large (heavy) hydrocarbon molecules and make the smaller, lighter molecules such as gasoline and jet fuel. Better refining technologies have made it possible to produce over 21 gallons of gasoline from a 42-gallon barrel of crude oil-a remarkable advance over the industry's early days, when a barrel of oil yielded just 11 gallons of gasoline.

Oil shale was never buried deeply enough or heated enough to form crude oil. Its hydrogen content is between that of coal and crude oil. Concentrations of oil are low, so that, at most, one barrel of oil can be recovered from 2.4 tons of sand or 1.5 tons of rock. Huge amounts of oil shale are found all over the world. In fact, the total global resource is 1,000 times greater than crude oil reserves. But extracting the energy value of oil shale is not practical today. Scientists and engineers continue working on ways to recover oil shale for a reasonable cost.

Natural gas

Natural gas is the gas component of coal and oil formation. It is used in industrial and commercial heating and cooking, and, increasingly, to fuel electricity generation. In a compressed form, natural gas can also be used as a transportation fuel. Natural gas is either found mixed in oil or is released from coal. Energy in 6,000 cubic feet of natural gas is equivalent to one barrel of oil. World reserves of natural gas are greatest in Russian, Iran, Qatar, Saudi Arabia, United Arab Emirates, and the U.S. The U.S. consumed 19.7 million cubic feet of natural gas in 1999, nearly all of which came from domestic production. Five states-Texas, Louisiana, Alaska, New Mexico, and Oklahoma-hold more than 85 percent of U.S. natural gas reserves.

Wells for natural gas are drilled in underground reservoirs of porous rock. When it is removed from a reservoir, natural gas can either be pumped to the processing station for removal of liquid hydrocarbons, sulfur, carbon dioxide, and other components, or stored in large caverns underground until it is needed. Pipelines are the main method of transporting natural gas. Natural gas can also be liquefied and shipped overseas, but this process is complex and expensive.

Electrical generation by natural gas has been improved by the development of combined-cycle systems. These systems put together a natural-gas-fueled combustion turbine with a heat-recovery steam generator and steam turbine, to produce electricity in two ways rather than just one. The result: roughly 60 percent of the heat from the natural gas is harnessed to make electricity, creating a more energy-efficient system.

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Coal is an abundant fossil resource that consists mostly of carbon. Energy content (Btu/pound) ranges from 5,000 to 15,000 depending on the type of coal. Coal reserves are located all over the world. Electric utilities consume about 87 percent of the total coal produced.

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钻石是怎么形成的_百度经验

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钻石是怎么形成的,宝石级的金刚石。因含微量的氮和硼等杂质而呈无色??浅黄色，少数为彩色。有"宝石之王"的美称。那么钻石是怎么形成的呢？戴维尼钻石专家和你一起分享钻石是怎么形成的！

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Energy comes from many sources, and to describe these sources we use two terms: renewable and non-renewable.

Non-renewable energy resources cannot be replaced - once they are used up, they will not be restored (or not for millions of years). Non-renewable energy resources include fossil fuels and nuclear power.

Fossil fuels

Fossil fuels (coal, oil and natural gas) were formed from animals and plants that lived hundreds of millions of years ago (before the time of the dinosaurs). They were formed during the Carboniferous period. The plants that lived millions of years ago converted the Sun's light energy into chemical energy through the process of photosynthesis. This 'solar' energy was (and still is) transferred down the food chain in animals, and when living organisms die, the chemical energy within them was trapped.

For a fossil fuel to form, there are three important steps necessary: accumulation of organic matter (animal or plant remains), preservation of organic matter to prevent it from oxidising (exclusion of air, for example, by being in the sea or a swamp) and conversion of organic matter into a fossil fuel such as oil or natural gas. This would typically occur due to the organic matter being covered by layers of sediments, which increases pressure and heat (50-150°C). Fossil fuels are described as non-renewable because it takes millions of years for this process to occur.

Burning fossil fuels produces carbon dioxide - one of the greenhouse gases. Burning coal - one of the fossil fuels - produces not just carbon dioxide but also releases sulfur into the air, which increases air pollution.

Coal

Coal is a solid form fossil fuel that can be classed into three types: lignite, bituminous and anthracite. Lignite coal is found close to the Earth surface, making it easy to mine, but it has high sulfur content. Bituminous coal is the most common coal we burn, and it is less polluting than lignite. Anthracite is the highest quality of coal - it is dark and shiny and found deeper in the Earth.

In addition to pollutants from burning coal, coal mining creates problems for the environment, as the coal must be dug from the ground. Large volumes of unwanted dirt and rock are removed, which can lead to water pollution, unstable ground and, in many cases, it is not appealing to look at. Working in coal mines can also be very dangerous.

New Zealand has a number of coal reserves including the West Coast of the South Island and the Coromandel area.

Oil

Oil is a liquid fossil fuel that can be dark brown, yellow or even green. It is easier to mine once it is found because, being a liquid, it will flow through pipes, which makes it easier for transport. However, it can be difficult to locate - oil forms in reservoirs and, to find these reservoirs, scientists must study rocks and landforms to find potential drilling sites.

Once a hole is drilled and if oil is found, it is then piped to the surface. In this form, it is called 'crude oil'. Crude oil is transported to a refinery that heats up the oil to different temperatures and sorts out the different types of fuel (such as petrol, jet-fuel and diesel) through a process called fractional distillation. Oil is used not just for transport but also in many different products such as plastics, tyres and synthetic material such as polyester.

Natural gas

As the name suggests, this is a fossil fuel in the form of a gas (for example, methane and LPG). It is often found under the oceans and near oil deposits. Surveying for natural gas reservoirs is similar to oil exploration. Once a natural gas field is found, the drilling process is similar to oil.

Gas can be piped from the source and stored for later use. Natural gas is used for cooking and heating as well as making a number of products such as plastics, fertilisers and medicines.

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Energy comes from many sources, and to describe these sources we use two terms: renewable and non-renewable. Non-renewable energy resources cannot be replaced - once they are used up, they will not be restored (or not for millions of years). Non-renewable energy resources include fossil fuels and nuclear power.

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Step 1: Buy as much as you can before you get to the goldfields, where everything is much more expensive. Unfortunately, you probably don't have much money, which is why you want to strike it rich!

Remember that you'll have to carry everything you own all the way to the goldfields. You'll definitely need enough clothing and bedding to keep you warm on frosty winter nights or to keep the sun off in summer. Buy enough food for the big journey to the goldfields. You'll need cooking equipment, something to start a fire with and simple mining equipment such as a shovel, a pick, a gold pan, a bucket and perhaps a wheelbarrow.

Step 2: Travel to the goldfields, either on a coach or by walking. Plan for a three-day walk at least and a coach isn't much faster.

Step 3. Buy a miners' licence for 30 shillings (about 30 hours' wages), which lasts one month. If you're a woman or a child, you don't need a licence to dig for gold.

Step 4. Stake a claim on a piece of land. You must mine that claim every day except Sunday to keep it as your own. If you don't work your claim, a claim jumper could come and start mining on your claim and there is nothing you can do about it.

Step 5. Dig with your pick and shovel, cart water in buckets, swirl your gold pan, rock your cradle and hope you find gold before you get sick or injured or run out of money to buy food.

Be careful, because it's dangerous out there. You could get hit with the handle of a windlass or a bucket full of rocks or fall down a mineshaft, or run out of air while you're down there. Then there are all the germs and diseases to watch out for. Many people have diarrhoea a lot of the time from flies and dirty water and there aren't terrific food choices to help you fight off illness. Oh well! It will all be worth it when you find a huge nugget.
HOW TO FIND GOLD
PANNING: You'll need a round metal pan - like a frying pan without a handle - and you're most likely to find small nuggets and flecks* of surface gold in creeks. To use a pan, put a couple of handfuls of dirt or gravel in the pan with a lot of water and swirl so the water and the sand sloshes out. Gold is much heavier than sand and water so it sinks to the bottom and isn't sloshed out. Use this method around creeks right at the start of the Gold Rush when there's plenty of gold to be found. It you're a child, this is a great way to find a few small bits of gold that miners miss when they're in a hurry and are only looking for big nuggets to get really rich.

WASHING CRADLE: This looks a bit like a wooden baby's cradle and is sometimes called a sluice* box or rocker box. You can search through a bigger quantity of rocks and sand more quickly than with a pan.

Shovel rocks and sand into the top of the cradle. A metal sieve allows the sand to fall through and catches big rocks. Look through the big rocks in case there is also a big nugget. Then pour water over the sand while rocking the handle of the cradle backwards and forwards. Wooden strips at the bottom, called riffles, catch the heavy gold but sand is washed away.

If you have someone mining with you, you can work together using the cradle, sharing the shovelling, pouring water and rocking the cradle.

PUDDLING: If there is clay mixed in with the sand and rocks where you are mining, you'll need to dissolve the clay by mixing it with water in a tub. Stir well with a stick. Tip or bucket most of the clay and water mix out and then sort through the rocks in the bottom with a pan or in your cradle. Hopefully there's some gold there after all that work.

SHAFT MINING: If there's no gold left on top of the ground, you may have to use your pick and shovel to dig a hole to access fresh rock and dirt. The hole straight down is called a shaft. Most miners dig a square shaft, but if you're Chinese, dig a circular shaft, which is much stronger and less likely to collapse and it will help you feel safer as there are no corner for evil spirits to hide in.

You'll have to lift all the dirt and rocks up to ground level to wash it through your cradle. Once you're underground a few metres you can start to tunnel sideways but you'll need to prop up the roof and sides of your tunnels with wooden logs to stop them from collapsing. When your shaft is deep, make a frame for a winch* or windlass* over the top of your shaft with wood logs so that you can wind up the buckets of rocks and dirt. You'd best work together with a few people if you're going to get into shaft mining as you'll need people down below digging and filling buckets and people above ground winding the buckets up and washing the contents to find the gold.

DEEP SHAFT MINING: If you're from Cornwall, Wales or Scotland, you may have mining experience. It's worth hanging around after everyone else has moved onto the next goldfields and getting together with lots of other people to help buy equipment. You'll need to dig really deep shafts and horses to wind the whim*, which is like a big winch. You'll also need water pumps, as deep shafts often fill with water. For your own safety it's also wise to have a wind sail, which works like a sail on a ship, to get fresh air down into the tunnels. You could find a massive amount of gold within layers of a white rock called quartz.
WHAT YOU WOULD EAT AS A MINER
How would you feel if, after all that incredibly hard work, tonight's dinner was a tough old piece of strongly flavoured sheep meat called mutton that flies had been hovering around? It would be served as a kind of boiled stew, perhaps with gravy and a hard lump of flour-and-water bread called damper cooked in the ashes of the fire. It might be interesting to try once, but how about the same thing for breakfast, lunch and dinner for weeks at a time with no more than a cup of black tea to liven things up?

One miner, sick of his food, wrote the following: "We had to content ourselves with mutton and damper three days a week, and damper and mutton on the other four days."

For variety, miners often caught native birds such as parrots and cockatoos, which were baked into pies. Some even tried "jackass pie", which was made with kookaburra.

As more people arrived, they brought chickens (for meat and eggs), potatoes, preserved food such as tinned oysters and fish and jars of jam and pickled vegetables. It took a lot of effort to bring supplies to the goldfields, so the groceries were really expensive and you had to be finding a lot of gold to afford to buy interesting food.

The miners probably ate better if they had a family with them. In the 1850s, women usually had more experience cooking and could make the few available ingredients more interesting. And if you had children, you had someone to look after animals and plant and water a vegetable garden. The nightly dinner was usually still mutton stew and damper, but now can you imagine how excited you'd be if there were a few vegetables floating around in the stew and maybe even some jam for the damper?

GOLD

- is a metal
- can be melted and poured into moulds
- is malleable, so can be hammered or pressed without breaking or cracking
- can be stretched into a thin sheet or wire
- conducts electricity
- has been valued for thousands of years
- is found as nuggets or in rocks, or washed along river beds mixed with sand
- when found as grains in river beds is called alluvial* (say uh-loo-vee-ul) gold
- is about six times heavier than rock and nearly 20 times heavier than water
- can't be made by humans, although many have tried
EXTRA READING Rough journey to the goldfields A big multicultural melting pot
FOR ALL GOLD RUSH STORIES, click HERE

GLOSSARY

flecks: a tiny speck

sluice: rinse or shower with water

winch: lifting equipment with a handle and rope or chain

windlass: another word for winch

whim: a big winch, sometimes wound by a horse walking in a circle pulling a handle, or by a machine

alluvial: silt, gravel, sand, rocks and clay carried there by a flood, river or creek

LISTEN TO THIS STORY
25 CLASSROOM ACTIVITIES
For 25 classroom activities on this story and much more, go to kidsnews.com.au/goldrush to purchase the Gold Rush workbook for $20 inc GST.
SOURCES

National Museum of Australia, nma.gov.au

National Library of Australia, nla.gov.au

State Library Victoria, slv.vic.gov.au

State Library of NSW, sl.nsw.gov.au

SBS, sbs.com.au/gold

KidCyber, kidcyber.com.au/gold-rush-in-australia

Growing up on the Australian Goldfields by Kimberley Webber, bit.ly/2nfbbqw

Sovereign Hill, sovereignhill.com.au and sovereignhilledblog.com

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Kids News: Gold mining in the Australian Gold Rush was hard work

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石油污染 石油污染简介 石油污染环境危害 石油污染防治治理 石油污染污染现状 石油污染污染事件

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石油污染是指石油开采、运输、装卸、加工和使用过程中，由于泄漏和排放石油引起的污染，主要发生在海洋。石油漂浮在海面上，迅速扩散形成油膜，可通过扩散、蒸发、溶解、乳化、光降解以及生物降解和吸收等进行迁移、转化。油类可沾附在鱼鳃上，使鱼窒息，抑制水鸟产卵和孵化，破坏其羽毛的不透水性，降低水产品质量。油膜形成可阻碍水体的复氧作用，影响海洋浮游生物生长，破坏海洋生态平衡，此外还可破坏海滨风景，影响海滨...

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石油,石油，地质勘探的主要对象之一，是一种粘稠的、深褐色液体，被称为"工业的血液"。地壳上层部分地区有石油储存。主要成分是各种烷烃、环烷烃、芳香烃的混合物。石油的成油机理有生物沉积变油和石化油两种学说，前者较广为接受，认为石油是古代海洋或湖泊中的生物经过漫长的演化形成，属于生物沉积变油，不可再生;后者认为石油是由地壳内本身的碳生成，与生物无关，可再生。石油主要被用来作为燃油和汽油，也是许多化...

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煤,煤主要由碳、氢、氧、氮、硫和磷等元素组成，碳、氢、氧三者总和约占有机质的95%以上，是非常重要的能源，也是冶金、化学工业的重要原料，有褐煤、烟煤、无烟煤、半无烟煤这几种分类。著名作家朱自清也曾以煤为标题写过一首诗，赋予其独特的象征意义。截至2011年，中国是世界上煤炭产量最大的国家，煤炭产量32.4亿吨，相当于18.004亿吨油当量，占世界比例高达48.3%;其次是美国，占世界产量比例为...

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Natural gas is mined much in the same way that oil is. First a large piece of drilling equipment is used to drill through the soil and rocks to reach the natural gas deposit. According to the Natural Gas Website, there are two different kinds of natural gas deposits, deep and conventional.

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What is Fracking

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Hydraulic fracturing, or "fracking" as it is more commonly known, is just one small method of the broader process of unconventional development of oil and natural gas. Fracking is a proven drilling technology used for extracting oil, natural gas, geothermal energy, or water from deep underground. Fracking has been safely used in the United States since 1947. More than 1.7 million U.S. wells have been completed using the fracking process, producing more than seven billion barrels of oil and 600 trillion cubic feet of natural gas.

Put simply, hydraulic fracturing is the process of injecting liquid and materials at high pressure to create small fractures within tight shale formations to stimulate the production and safely extract energy from an underground well after the drilling has ended and the rig and derrick are removed from the site. The process takes about three to five days, on average, to complete from start to finish. Once the fracturing operation is finished, the well is considered "completed" and is now ready to safely produce American oil or natural gas for years, even decades, to come.

Fracking is a uniquely American success story that has provided immense benefits around the nation. By safely unlocking America's abundant natural resources, fracking has created millions of American jobs, reduced energy prices, brought cleaner air by significantly reducing U.S. greenhouse gas emissions to 25-year-lows, strengthened our national security, and transformed the United States into a global energy superpower.

How has fracking impacted U.S. oil and natural gas production?

In roughly a decade's time, advances in fracking technology have reversed the United States' trajectory from that of energy scarcity to being "the undisputed leader of oil and gas production worldwide," according to International Energy Agency Executive Director Fatih Birol.

From 2007 to 2016, annual U.S. oil production increased 75 percent, while natural gas production increased 39 percent, thanks to the advancements in horizontal drilling and fracking technology.

How many American jobs has fracking created?

Millions. A 2015 Harvard Business School/Boston Consulting Group analysis estimates that shale development created roughly 2.7 million U.S. jobs in the first decade of the shale revolution. A 2013 study, commissioned by the U.S. Chamber of Commerce, projected fracking will create a total of 3.5 million U.S. jobs by 2035. A separate 2017 American Petroleum Institute (API) report found that the oil and natural gas industry supports 10.3 million jobs in the U.S. - a 500,000 increase since 2011 - and projects the industry will support an additional 1.9 million jobs by 2035.

Is fracking a threat to public health?

No. In fact, there is ample evidence that increased natural gas use - made possible by fracking - has improved public health by dramatically improving air quality in recent years. This is not to say there are no risks, but the full body of research on this issue shows that those risks are manageable.

Several state departments of environmental protection have also installed air monitors at well sites and found that emissions during oil and natural gas development do not exceed public health thresholds. For example, the Colorado Department of Public Health and the Environment released a 2017 report that found a "low risk of harmful health effects from combined exposure to all substances during oil and gas development." In contrast, many of the most headline-grabbing studies linking fracking to health issues have been plagued by questionable methodologies and contradictory results. Visit EIDHealth.org for more information.

Does fracking threaten groundwater?

No. And you don't have to take our word for it. No fewer than two dozen scientific studies have concluded that fracking does not pose a major threat to groundwater. Most notably, a landmark 2016 U.S. Environmental Protection Agency study concluded that, "[H]ydraulic fracturing operations are unlikely to generate sufficient pressure to drive fluids into shallow drinking water zones." The EPA reached this conclusion even after expanding the definition of fracking to include a wide range of other oilfield activities, demonstrating the safety of the entire development process.

Does fracking cause earthquakes?

Very rarely. Although induced seismicity (particularly in Oklahoma) has made headlines in recent years, earthquakes attributable to the actual fracking process are exceedingly rare and generally below the magnitude that people can actually feel. Induced earthquakes are more commonly linked to wastewater injection - a completely separate process from fracking.

The U.S. Geological Survey maintains a useful myths and misconceptions page regarding induced seismicity. According to the USGS: "Fracking is NOT causing most of the induced earthquakes." The USGS also notes: "Wastewater disposal is the primary cause of the recent increase in earthquakes in the central United States."

BLM Hydraulic Fracturing Rule

The Obama administration's Bureau of Land Management (BLM) released on March 20, 2015 its final rule regulating hydraulic fracturing activities on federal and Indian lands. As it was written, this precedent-setting regulation would be difficult and costly for small- and medium-sized businesses to comply with and would likely discourage U.S. investment and job creation in the West. IPAA and Western Energy Alliance immediately challenged the BLM hydraulic fracturing rule in the U.S. District Court of Wyoming, characterizing the federal government's rulemaking as unsubstantiated and duplicative of states' efforts to effectively regulate hydraulic fracturing operations. Soon after, the states of Colorado, Wyoming, North Dakota, and Utah, and the Ute Indian Tribe joined the legal challenge. States have successfully regulated more than 1.2 million hydraulic fracturing operations for 70 years and many states have recently strengthened their regulations as production has increased and technology has improved. The 2015 nationwide fracking rule is unnecessary and would add another layer of burden for America's independent oil and natural gas producers already struggling to navigate the complex and confusing regulatory program governing federal lands.

On September 30, 2015, a judge for the U.S. District Court of Wyoming granted IPAA and Western Energy Alliance's motion for a preliminary injunction of the rule, stating, "Congress has not authorized or delegated to the BLM authority to regulate hydraulic fracturing and, under our constitutional structure, it is only through Congressional action that the BLM can acquire this authority." On June 21, 2016, shortly after the preliminary injunction appeal case was fully briefed, the District Court judge struck down the BLM final rule. The judge agreed with industry that BLM does not have the congressional authority to regulate hydraulic fracturing on federal lands.

As expected, the Obama administration and environmental parties on June 30, 2016 filed an appeal to the District Court's ruling with the U.S. Tenth Circuit Court of Appeals. In September 2017, the Tenth Circuit Court dismissed the case, protecting producers from the business uncertainty of having to potentially comply with a regulation that is certain to be rewritten by the Trump administration. On December 29, 2017, President Trump's BLM published a repeal of the Obama-era hydraulic fracturing rule, which took immediate effect and ended the Tenth Circuit Court appellate case. On January 28, 2018, the state of California as well as the Sierra Club sued the BLM over the repeal of the 2015 rule in the U.S. District Court for the Northern District of California. IPAA and Western Energy Alliance have filed for intervention on behalf of the federal government as well as filed a motion for venue transfer back to Wyoming.

Read the Frequently Asked Questions on the 2015 BLM hydraulic fracturing rule.

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Hydraulic fracturing, or "fracking" as it is more commonly known, is just one small method of the broader process of unconventional development of oil and natural gas. Fracking is a proven drilling technology used for extracting oil, natural gas, geothermal energy, or water from deep underground.

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What is fracking and why is it controversial?

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Rishi Sunak has announced he will reinstate the moratorium on fracking in his first PMQs.

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Photos.com/Photos.com/Getty Images

Gold deposits are found in different types of rocks and geologic formations, falling into two mining categories: lode (primary) and placer (secondary). Lode deposits are contained within surrounding rock whereas placer deposits are dust particles contained in streams and stream beds. Geographically, gold can be found on all seven continents, and the world's oceans also contain vast amounts of gold.

Lode deposits are the result of magna, high temperature and high pressure that thrust liquid gold up from Earth's crust. Cooling water seeping through the metamorphic rocks hardens the gold, resulting in ore deposits that run through sedimentary rocks as veins. Lode deposits are found in old rocks, older than 2.5 billion years, belonging to the Archanean geologic period and near sea floor volcanoes. Typically, granite, basalts and komatites are found along with lode deposits.

Placer deposits are concentrations of gold transported from enclosed rocks through erosion and gravity. Gold is resistant to weathering, but flakes and dust are easily transported via streams that surround gold-bearing geologic formations. Placer deposits accumulate in stream beds and in sand and gravel, also known as "black sands," and are heavier than other types of minerals. Other minerals found in black sands include magetite, cassitente, monazite, ilmenite, chromite, platnium metals and sometime gem stones.

Gold deposits are found in Northeast Canada, Brazil, Russia, the Congo, Egypt, Indonesia, Kazahstan and Australia. The world's oceans contain vast amounts of gold within sea floor sedimentary rock. The advantages of undersea mining include large deposits and unaffected landmass and populations. Furthermore, cyanide pollution will not be a factor because deposits are large enough to be recovered without acidic leaching; however, ocean floor mining techniques have not yet been developed to mine gold profitably from the seabed. The ocean floor around Papau New Guinea will likely be the first place gold mining exploration occurs once land deposits are fully exploited.

Politics play a role in mining available gold from across the globe. As of 2011, political stability in Canada, the United States and Australia are conducive to profitable gold mining. South Africa, on the other hand, provides a significant amount of gold, but political instability creates uncertainties regarding long-term supplies.

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Geological and Geographical Characteristics of Gold Mines

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Gold deposits are found in different types of rocks and geologic formations, falling into two mining categories: lode (primary) and placer (secondary). Lode deposits are contained within surrounding rock whereas placer deposits are dust particles contained in streams and stream beds. Geographically, gold can be found ...

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Illegal gold mining in Venezuela causing deaths, malaria, gang fights and deforestation

A three-year recession in Venezuela paired with ramping inflation and food shortages has prompted many to turn to illegal gold mining with the hope of getting rich or at least have the means to get basic supplies in the overpriced black market.

However, the recent boom of illegal gold mines in the country has not only caused deforestation but also gang fights, deaths of innocent people and even an epidemic of malaria.

About 90% of Venezuela's total gold production comes from clandestine mines.

It's estimated that about 100,000 people are currently involved in the illegal extraction and smuggling of gold to the point that about 90% of Venezuela's total gold production comes from clandestine mines, AFP notes in an in-depth report.

While most of those operations are believed to be in the Eastern side of the country, close to the border with Colombia, they have recently begun to spread out, with many of them now "primarily in mafia hands," the head of the Venezuelan Mining Chamber, Luis Rojas, told the news agency.

Armed gangs are not only directly threatening the life of those who mine for them, their unlicensed and supervised operations are also causing lethal diseases, such as malaria, to come back. The disease has abandoned the remote jungle areas where it quietly persisted until the last decade, and spreading it around the nation at levels not seen in Venezuela for 75 years, local medical experts have said (in Spanish).

Because they hunt for gold in watery pits, the perfect breeding ground for the mosquitoes that spread the disease, illegal miners are catching malaria by the tens of thousands. As Venezuela's economy is in tatters, there is often little fumigation and no medicine to prevent mosquitoes from biting miners and then carrying the disease back home, which is leaving entire towns desperate for help.

And while local health authorities have tried fighting the disease by distributing mosquito nets and basic treatment, NGOs have focused on finding the root causes of the increase in cases of malaria across the country.

One of the best-known initiatives is the Wesoichay Project created by the Venezuelan Association for the Conservation of Natural Areas ( Acoana), which researched the relationship between malaria and mining. The study concluded that limited job opportunities, poor access to education and little involvement of indigenous people in public policy led to more illegal mining.

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Illegal gold mining in Venezuela causing deaths, malaria, gang fights and deforestation | MINING.com

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A three-year recession in Venezuela paired with ramping inflation and food shortages has prompted many to turn to illegal gold mining with the hope of getting rich or at least have the means to get basic supplies in the overpriced black market.

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A global campaign to boycott what activists are calling "dirty gold" gained its 100th official follower three days before Valentine's Day.

The pledge was launched in 2004 by the environmental group Earthworks, which has asked retail companies not to carry gold that was produced through environmentally and socially destructive mining practices. Eight of the ten largest jewelry retailers in the United States have now made the pledge, including Tiffany & Co., Target and Helzberg Diamonds. The No Dirty Gold campaign is anchored in its " golden rules," a set of criteria encouraging the metal mining industry to respect human rights and the natural environment.

While the list of retailers aligned in their opposition to dirty gold continues to grow longer, most gold remains quite filthy. The majority of the world's gold is extracted from open pit mines, where huge volumes of earth are scoured away and processed for trace elements. Earthworks estimates that, to produce enough raw gold to make a single ring, 20 tons of rock and soil are dislodged and discarded. Much of this waste carries with it mercury and cyanide, which are used to extract the gold from the rock. The resulting erosion clogs streams and rivers and can eventually taint marine ecosystems far downstream of the mine site. Exposing the deep earth to air and water also causes chemical reactions that produce sulfuric acid, which can leak into drainage systems. Air quality is also compromised by gold mining, which releases hundreds of tons of airborne elemental mercury every year.

Gold has traditionally been a gift of love, and, not surprisingly, jewelry sales spike around Valentine's Day. According to a recent survey released by National Jeweler, about 20 percent of Americans who planned to give a Valentine's Day gift this year said they would be buying jewelry-sales estimated to total about $4 billion. Thus, activists see Valentine's Day as a prime opportunity to educate consumers and stifle the trade of dirty gold. Payal Sampat, Earthworks' director of the No Dirty Gold campaign, wants consumers to understand the back story of the gold industry. This, she believes, would spur an improvement in mining practices.

"We believe gold and metal mining can be done much more responsibly," Sampat says. "It's feasible, but consumers need to think about the impacts they have when they buy jewelry."

But the demand for gold is tremendous now. Several months ago, gold's value hit $1,800 an ounce. It has since dropped to roughly $1,300-though that's still five times its price in the late 1990s. The money to be made at all levels of the industry, from l aborers knee-deep in mud to executive officers reaping thousands of dollars a day, creates powerful incentive to find gold -even though doing so may now be harder than ever. Alan Septoff, communications manager for the No Dirty Gold campaign, says that easily accessible gold has become scarcer and scarcer through time. "What we have left in most mines is very low-quality ore, with a greater ratio of rock to gold," Septoff said.

This, he explains, makes the energy required to mine that gold-and the waste and pollution produced in the process-proportionally greater and greater. In other words, dirty gold is only getting dirtier. What's more, gold that cannot be traced back to some level of deforestation, air and watershed pollution, and human injury and death is virtually nonexistent, according to Septoff.

"There is no such thing as clean gold, unless it's recycled or vintage," he says.

But James Webster, the curator of mineral deposits at the American Museum of Natural History, says the story is not as dark and one-sided as some may spin it. A clean gold mining industry is indeed possible, he says. Moreover, the industry is not as destructive at it may seem. Some states have strict-and effective-regulations on the handling of mine waste and runoff, Webster says.

"Cyanide is not as nasty/scary as it may sound," he wrote in an email. "Its half-life is brief in the presence of sunlight."

Yet the Environmental Protection Agency has reported that 40 percent of watershed headwaters in the western United States have been contaminated by mining operations. Many of these are tiny sites, and there are, overall, roughly 500,000 defunct metal mines in 32 western states that the EPA has plans to clean up. Remediation of these sites may cost more than $35 billion.

One of the largest open pit mines is located near Salt Lake City-the Bingham Canyon Mine. The deepest mine in the world, it is about 4,000 vertical feet from its rim to the bottom. Bingham Canyon is known as a copper mine, but the site yields gold, too. More than 600 tons of gold have come out of the mine since its opening in 1906, and every year, $1.8 billion worth of metals are produced here.

Another infamous American mine is the Berkeley Pit, in Montana. This mine made the nearby town of Butte rich and prosperous for a time, but the site was eventually exhausted of riches-including copper and gold-and retired. In the decades since, water has seeped into the Berkeley Pit and filled the mine, and today it contains one of the most lethally polluted lakes in the world. The toxic, acidic water killed 342 snow geese that landed here in 1995. The water, many people fear, will eventually taint the region's groundwater supply.

The Grasberg Mine, in Indonesia, is one of the largest gold mines in the world and is owned by American company Freeport McMoRan. The Grasberg Mine is also located smack in the middle of Lorentz National Park, creating such a huge scar on the Earth that can be seen from space. The mine dumps about 80 million tons of waste debris into the Ajkwa river system every year, according to Sampat at Earthworks. Another American company, Newmont, owns the Batu Hijau mine, also in Indonesia. This operation dumps its waste into the ocean near the island of Sumbawa.

While the EPA struggles to remediate and restore almost countless mine sites in the United States, and while activists work to stem the tide of demand on the gold industry, efforts are underway to develop more open pit mines. Among the most controversial is the Pebble Mine, proposed for Alaska's Bristol Bay region. The project, critics say, could destroy or seriously damage unspoiled wilderness, wildlife habitat, indigenous cultures and the region's sockeye salmon fishery. Of the Pebble Mine, Septoff at Earthworks said, "There could not be a clearer example of a short-term profit gained at a long-term loss."

The road ahead for the Pebble Mine's proponents will not likely be a smooth one. A major investor in the project backed out late last year, and the jewelry industry-which uses about half of all gold mined each year -has expressed opposition to the project. Several days ago, Tiffany & Co.'s chairman and CEO Michael Kowalski told JCK Magazine that developing the Pebble Mine site will almost certainly do more damage than it's worth to the environment, the region's salmon-based economy and the face of the gold industry itself.

"The possibility of this ending in disaster is so high, it's hard to see how any mining company could go forward," Kowalski told JCK.

The EPA released a report in January in which the agency said development of the mine would carry many risks of damage to the ecology and culture of the region.

There is an activist slogan that says, "The more you know, the less gold glows."

But ethical, responsibly mined gold may actually be possible. It has been estimated that about 165,000 metric tons of gold have been mined in all of human history. Most of this gold is still in circulation -and a growing number of jewelers are making use of this material. Brilliant Earth, Leber Jeweler and Toby Pomeroy are three companies that have abandoned new gold and opted,instead, to only deal in recycled and second-hand material, thereby cutting mining out of the equation.

Beth Gerstein, co-founder of Brilliant Earth, based in San Francisco, says there have long been "inconsistencies" between the traditional perceived value of gold as a romantic symbol and the realities of extracting raw gold from the Earth.

"Jewelry is a symbol of commitment and values and we want this to be true inside and out," Gerstein said.

Gerstein, along with her business partner, launched Brilliant Earth in 2005, and she says demand for recycled gold has grown since the beginning.

"Consumers want to know that the product they're buying hasn't had a negative impact on the world," Gerstein said. The gesture of recycled precious metals seems a virtuous one, and public interest in supporting the effort seems to reflect goodwill. But Webster, at the American Museum of Natural History, says that recycling gold has so far done little to offset the destruction of mining.

"Unfortunately, the demand for gold, annually, far exceeds the amount recycled," he wrote.

He even feels that applying any symbolic or superficial value to gold, whether recycled or fresh from an open pit mine, is ultimately only furthering the problems linked to much of the mining industry:

"To me, it is interesting that because the majority of gold that is mined and extracted from ores is directed to the jewelry industry (an enterprise that societies might be able to survive with less of), we could run societies on Earth with much less gold mining."

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The Environmental Disaster That is the Gold Industry

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The mining industry has had a devastating impact on ecosystems worldwide. Is there any hope in sight?

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Gold mining affects the environment in many negative ways, including the release of large amounts of exhaust from heavy equipment and transport, toxic drainage into nearby waterways and the release of mercury fumes from ore processing. Gold is most commonly mined in open pits dug specifically for that purpose. Even in the richest of mines, the gold content is a tiny fraction of the material dug up.

Gold mining creates large amounts of waste rock, more than almost any other type of mining. This is because of the relative rarity of gold, with almost all large deposits easily obtained near the surface having already been extracted. The rocks in which gold is found tend to be high in sulfur compounds, and when exposed to air and water via the digging of large pits, these rocks easily leach toxic chemicals into the environment, according to The Washington Post. In addition, some mining operations use cyanide compounds to help process ore, which leak and even spill into the environment.

The quantities of waste rock produced by these mines must be transported away, requiring a great deal of fossil fuel consumption and emissions. The leftovers of this waste, once processed, are full of toxic metals that never biodegrade, creating permanent toxic hazards at disposal sites.

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How Does Gold Mining Affect the Environment?

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Gold mining affects the environment in many negative ways, including the release of large amounts of exhaust from heavy equipment and transport, toxic drainage into nearby waterways and the release of mercury fumes from ore processing. Gold is most commonly mined in open pits dug specifically for that purpose.

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1. Environmental Science

2. What Is the Environmental Impact of Mining and Burning Coal?

By Alecia M. Spooner

Mining and burning coal for fuel is harmful to the environment; but, because coal is so abundant and cheap, many people are reluctant to give it up as a fuel source.

Coal starts as peat, or sections of partially decomposed organic matter that accumulate on the earth's surface. Over millions of years, the peat is buried and heat and pressure transform it into increasingly pure forms of coal called lignite, sub-bituminous, bituminous, and anthracite coal.

These fossil fuels are limited or nonrenewable resources; after they serve their fuel purpose, they can't be recycled back into a useful energy source. Their supplies are finite; when they're gone, they're gone. True, more coal, oil, and gas supplies may be created over time, but that won't occur in our lifetime; fossil fuel production takes many millions of years.

Coal is found in layers of rock that have been compacted and folded into mountains. Coal resources are fairly abundant throughout the world, though like any geologic resource, they aren't evenly distributed. The largest coal sources in the world appear in the U.S., Russia, China, India, and Australia.

The purest coal forms (bituminous and anthracite) provide the most energy, but in general, coal requires little to no refining before it can be burned as fuel. Coal's abundance and ease of use make it an inexpensive fuel resource, particularly for developing nations that don't yet have fancy industrial refineries.

Using coal for fuel has several downsides, including the following:

Burning coal releases toxins. Coal contains sulfur and other elements, including dangerous metals such as mercury, lead, and arsenic, that escape into the air when coal is burned. Burning coal also produces particulates that increase air pollution and health dangers.

Burning coal emits large amounts of carbon dioxide into the atmosphere. Coal is composed almost entirely of carbon, so burning coal unleashes large amounts of carbon dioxide (CO ₂) into the atmosphere. These emissions have been shown to increase the greenhouse effect in the atmosphere and lead to global warming.

Subsurface coal mining is dangerous. Coal is often mined in subsurface mines, which may collapse and trap miners. And the air in subsurface coal mines leads to black lung disease, where coal particles and pollutants fill the lungs and cause inflammation and respiratory illness.

Surface coal mining damages the environment. Mountaintop removal mining is used to access layers of coal buried deep within mountains. This mining technique alters the landscape and damages ecosystems.

Because coal is so abundant and relatively inexpensive, many people are reluctant to give it up as a fuel source. Luckily, ways to use coal more sustainably and minimize its environmental damage are available. Clean coal solutions include the following:

Integrated gasification combined cycle (IGCC): IGCC technology converts coal into gas, removing sulfur and metals. This gas generates electricity by fueling turbines while the side products (sulfur and metals) are concentrated and sold. IGCC plants are cleaner and more efficient than coal-burning electric plants and have the potential to capture CO ₂ emissions in the future.

Carbon sequestration: One of the biggest problems with burning coal is the amount of CO ₂ it adds to the atmosphere. Carbon sequestration includes various ways to capture and store carbon underground instead of allowing it to fill the atmosphere. Currently, some coal-burning plants store carbon in underground abandoned mines or in oil wells. Other plants pump the carbon into sedimentary rocks or below the ocean floor.

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What Is the Environmental Impact of Mining and Burning Coal? - dummies

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Mining and burning coal for fuel is harmful to the environment; but, because coal is so abundant and cheap, many people are reluctant to give it up as a fuel source. Coal starts as peat, or sections of partially decomposed organic matter that accumulate on the earth's surface.

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10 reasons why coal is a good energy source:

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Coal is good for Kentucky's economy. The Kentucky coal industry brought $3.1 billion into Kentucky from out-of-state during Fiscal Year 1996-97 through coal sales to customers in 29 other states and 15 foreign countries. In Kentucky, it paid over $800 million in direct wages, directly employing over 19,000 persons and indirectly providing an additional 60,000 jobs.

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Given current gas prices, the arguments for and against drilling for oil offshore are being reconsidered.

Credit: stock.xchng

With gas prices skyrocketing and President Bush and other politicians calling to lift a ban against offshore drilling, a polarized debate has again flared up over the true risks and rewards of this approach to oil prospecting.

"There are extremes on both sides," said Judy Penniman of the American Petroleum Institute.

A federal ban was initiated by Congress in 1981 to protect sites off California and Massachusetts and has been repeatedly expanded since then. President George H.W. Bush put his own ban in place, by executive order, in 1991, and Bill Clinton extended it to 2012. Together, the rules now thwart drilling in Alaska's oil-rich Arctic National Wildlife Refuge and elsewhere.

Scientists and politicians disagree on how much effect any new drilling might have on prices at the pump. Further, they argue about potential impacts on the ecosystem.

Impact on marine life

Concerns over new drilling amount to more than just a worry about spills.

To find potential oil reserves, researchers send seismic waves into the ground. The waves bounce back to reveal the buried topography and can hint at a possible reserve. But seismic noise disorientates whales and leads to mass beachings, said Richard Charter, a government relations consultant for the Defenders of Wildlife Action Fund.

Laboratory experiments attempting to pin down the impact of seismic waves on wildlife often must rely on caged animals, which raises questions about whether the animals would have fled and avoided ear damage if they could have, note Robert McCauley and colleagues in The Journal of the Acoustical Society of America.

However, Andy Radford, a policy advisor at the American Petroleum Institute, isn't worried. "[We] make sure there are no whales in the area when we are doing our seismic search," Radford said.

Several weeks ago, ExxonMobil suspended exploration near Madagascar because more than 100 whales had beached themselves.

Ultimately, the seismic tests only help geologists make educated guesses. "You never know until you drill," said Eric Potter, associate director of the Bureau of Economic Geology at the University of Texas at Austin. The usual outcome is failure, Potter said, sending wildcatters back to the seismic drawing board.

Questions on land too

There are also questions about the impacts on land.

Radford described advances that reduce oil drilling's environmental footprint. For instance, oil companies are now able to drain several oil fields from one platform. And new horizontal drilling techniques allow more oil to be extracted from a single well.

Major infrastructure - such as roads, jet landing strips, repair shops, homes and industrial complexes - is, of course, still necessary and could disturb wildlife that is accustomed to pristine land, said Charles Clusen, director of National Parks and Alaska Projects for the Natural Resources Defense Council.

Similar concerns about wildlife arose before construction of the Alaskan Pipeline, built in the 1970s.

"But there hasn't really been any effect on the wildlife; they congregate near the pipeline and it doesn't seem to bother them," said UT's Eric Potter.

However, any development of the Arctic National Wildlife Refuge (ANWR) for drilling, as President Bush has long advocated for, could have a greater impact. Polar bears, caribou and other animals trek across this unique area to give birth, said Clusen. Birth is the most vulnerable time in a species' life cycle and disrupting it will lead to diminished populations, he explained.

The true overall environmental impact of oil drilling is hard to gauge, due to the paucity of baseline studies, said Jeff Short, a supervisory researcher for the U.S. National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA).

In the wild, most animals quickly flush PAH, a toxin associated with oil wells, from their bodies - which is why PAH rarely concentrates in the food web and is of minimal risk to humans. The animal's justifiably panicked immune response to PAH can cause cancer - especially if the animal is exposed continually by, say, living near an oil platform, explained Short.

As for human populations, many coastal communities depend on tourism and fishing - both of which may be affected by off-shore drilling by increased development, pollution and disruption of marine life habitats. Among traditional communities in the ANWR, some oppose drilling while others have cautiously welcomed it - within limits - for the improved access to jobs and amenities it could bring.

Spills and transportation

"The public doesn't have a clear idea of how much oil is moved every day," said Potter. "The amount spilled is miniscule, compared to the amount that is transported," he said.

The industry now has a great track record, said API's Penniman. "Back in the 1880s, we would have had a pretty good chance of ruining the world," she said, but technology and safety regulations are now significantly improved.

Today, according to the Mineral Management Service, of the billions of oil transported in U.S. water, 0.001 percent is spilled. Far more oil seeps naturally into the sea, reports the National Research Council (NRC). According to the NRC's most recent analysis, almost half of oceanic oil worldwide arises from natural processes. Oil spills contribute about 12 percent.

Even so, says Clusen, there are 300 to 500 spills every year, a number which will grow with increased production.

"And once you have a spill, you are pretty much screwed," NOAA's Short said. That's because oil spreads on water at a rate of one-half a football field per second. Recovery can take decades.

After 20 years of natural weathering, Prince William Sound - the area affected by the Exxon-Valdez spill - appears completely recovered to the casual observer, said Short, but animals high up on the food chain are just now starting to re-colonize.

Even a perfectly functioning oil well is a cause of concern due to "produced water," explained Short.

Produced water - which rises with oil and contains environmental toxins such as polycyclic aromatic hydrocarbons (PAH) - is usually tossed overboard. At high concentrations, the contaminants are lethal to marine life. At lower concentrations, according to lab experiments, they can cause birth defects, impaired growth and skewed sex ratios.

Prices at the pump

Estimates for the output of oil drilling sites can only accurately be given in very large ranges, Potter explained. For example, the Energy Information Administration predicts ANWR could produce between 1.9 and 4.3 billion barrels of oil, and that might not do much for our pocketbooks. In 2007, the United States consumed 7.5 billion barrels, according to the U.S. Energy Information Administration (EIA).

In the best-case scenarios, said Clusen, "we're talking lowering the price of gas by three cents, 20 years from now."

The American Petroleum Institute is more optimistic. "When we went into Prudhoe Bay [in northern Alaska], we expected nine billion barrels, and we have already pumped 15," Radford said. And the White House estimates that lifting the drilling bans would produce an extra 18 billion barrels from various locations.

But the federal EIA sees no short-term value in additional drilling, a process that takes years for awarding contracts and obtaining permits.

"Access to the Pacific, Atlantic, and eastern Gulf regions would not have a significant impact on domestic crude oil and natural gas production or prices before 2030," the EIA states on its web site. "Leasing would begin no sooner than 2012, and production would not be expected to start before 2017."

Potter and others note that drilling that began 30 years ago, such as in Prudhoe Bay, Alaska, are helping meet today's demands.

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With gas prices skyrocketing and President Bush and other politicians calling to lift a ban against offshore drilling, a polarized debate has again flared up over the true risks and rewards of this approach to oil prospecting. "There are extremes on both sides," said Judy Penniman of the American Petroleum Institute.

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Many aspects of the offshore drilling process can cause environmental impacts, from locating the oil, to drilling and pumping the oil to the surface, to the infrastructure required to drill and transport it. These environmental impacts may vary in intensity depending on many factors, so this is just a summary of some of the potential impacts that are likely to occur.
Locating the oil
Seismic surveys have been reported to impact fish and marine life. Whales in particular are extremely sensitive to the seismic waves generated when searching for oil and gas deposits in the sea bed. The noise causes them to become disoriented, which can lead to disruption to migratory patterns and even mass beachings. It is also reported to impair the health and hearing of fish.
Effects on the ocean floor
Offshore drilling physically disrupts the seafloor habitat and the benthic community. Between the actual footprint of the drill rig, undersea pipelines, dredging ship channels, and the cuttings and other drilling debris, there are many elements of drilling that leave a lasting impact on the ocean floor. This is important to note, especially when considering that many of the world's most sensitive ocean floor habitats are also good sources of oil and gas. For instance, the Gulf of Mexico, the arctic and the Great Barrier Reef are all extremely diverse ecosystems with significant oil and gas deposits.

Some experts claim that oil rig platforms are good habitat for fish. In fact, as part of the "rigs to reefs" program, old oil rigs are tipped over and left on the ocean floor to become artificial reefs.
Water pollution
There are two main sources of water pollution from offshore drilling: drilling fluid and oil spills and leaks.

Firstly, the drilling fluid is claimed to be toxic to marine life. This fluid, used to lubricate, cool and regulate pressure when drilling, contains petroleum products and heavy metals. The impacts of drilling fluid differ significantly, because it's so often made up of different concentrations of the above elements and applied in different ways. Reported impacts include affecting the health and reproduction of marine life, reducing the populations of bottom-dwelling creatures and biomagnifying toxic substances in the food chain.

Secondly, the risk of oil spills, leaks and catastrophes is another key consideration. Opponents of offshore oil drilling claim that one oil rig can "dump more than 90,000 metric tons of drilling fluid and metal cuttings into the ocean" over its lifetime (data from Culture Change). Although we are all aware of the effects of oil on seabirds, oil is also extremely toxic to marine life (see Pew Trusts' "The Future of Oil and Water" for a good explanation). However, it should be noted that some specialists say that significantly more oil is spilled into US waters by marine transportation and industrial and municipal sources than offshore oil and gas drilling. Some proponents of offshore drilling in the Gulf of Mexico claim that the marine life in that region is pre-adapted to oil in the water due to natural seeps. There have also been claims that offshore oil drilling can reduce the amount of oil leaking into the ocean from these natural seeps.

There is mixed opinion about the amount of water pollution caused by offshore oil drilling (when there are no catastrophic oil spills). Some specialists claim that discharges into the ocean from offshore drilling (in the US) contain insignificant levels of toxic chemicals due to the regulations at the state and federal level. Environmental groups would disagree, claiming that offshore oil drilling has a significant negative impact on fragile marine and coastal ecosystems, and that the risk of a devastating spill isn't worth taking.

The effects from large offshore oil spills like the recent Deepwater Horizon catastophe are twofold; we must consider the effect of the oil spill itself and the effects of cleanup efforts. When a large amount of oil spills into a body of water, the oil spreads mainly onto the surface of the water and can either remain cohesive or break up due to wave action. Over time, the oil may degrade naturally by weathering, the effects of sunlight, or be broken down by microorganisms. If the oil spill reaches the shore, then terrestrial environments will also be contaminated. Oil spills are extremely detrimental to fisheries and wildlife in both coastal and marine environments, due to the toxicity of the oil and its lasting impacts on the food chain.

Oil spill cleanups can introduce other impacts onto the environment. Floating rings are often used to contain the oil, while other physical, biological and chemical methods are used to remove the oil. Physical removal of the oil can remove large amounts of oil, but decontamination efforts can damage marine and coastal environments. Biological methods include bioremediation; the addition of microorganisms to speed up the degradation of the oil. Finally, chemical methods include the addition of dispersants, which break the oil down into smaller particles. Some dispersants, including Corexit, which was used in the Gulf of Mexico cleanup in 2010, are considered toxic in some parts of the world. The long term effects of the use of bioremediation and chemical dispersants, especially on such a large scale, are unknown.

Air Pollution
Air pollution is generated from the operation of machinery on offshore oil rigs as well as the burn-off of gases. Without factoring in the air pollution from its end product or the refinement process, the oil platforms themselves have an impact on local air quality and globally on climate change. It is estimated that over its lifetime, which is ten to twenty years, "a single rig can pollute as much as 7,000 cars driving 50 miles per day" (USPIRG). The NRDC States that "an average oil and gas exploration well spews roughly 50 tons of nitrogen oxides, 13 tons of carbon monoxide, 6 tons of sulfur oxides, and 5 tons of volatile organic chemicals.

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The Environmental Impacts of Offshore Oil Drilling

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If there had been any doubt before, the recent catastrophe on the Deepwater Horizon in the Gulf of Mexico has really driven home the message that drilling for oil is a messy and risky business. Consequently, decisions are now being made that affect the future of offshore oil drilling.

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The following timelines list significant crude by rail accidents in North America in 2013 and 2014, as well as relevant spills from barges, tankers and pipelines relevant to proposals for the Hudson Valley.

April 2017, Money, Mississippi
A train collision causes 10-12 cars to derail. Crude oil tank cars caught fire.

A history of accidents on the Hudson River and elsewhere point to a risk even from transporting oil in double-hulled vessels, which are more protective in groundings than collisions. These are just a few relevant spills:

December 2014, Belton, South Carolina
Over 300,000 gallons of gasoline spilled from a Kinder Morgan Pipeline in Belton South Carolina.
Link to article

October 2013, Smithville, Texas
A Koch Pipeline Company pipeline spilled 17,000 gallons of crude oil near Smithville, Texas.
Link to article

New York has had at least four near misses, and joint federal-state inspection blitzes have identified numerous track and rail car deficiencies in the rail yards that have been inspected.

December 2012, Upper Hudson River
The first ship to leave the Port of Albany, the Stena Primorsk, ran aground just 6 miles after leaving the Port of Albany. Link to article
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Crude Oil Transportation: A Timeline of Failure - Riverkeeper

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The following timelines list significant crude by rail accidents in North America in 2013 and 2014, as well as relevant spills from barges, tankers and pipelines relevant to proposals for the Hudson Valley. April 2017, Money, Mississippi A train collision causes 10-12 cars to derail. Crude oil tank cars caught fire.

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Lacking strong controls and regulation, diamond mining has wreaked environmental havoc throughout Africa and other parts of the world.

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Trucost finds the world's large-scale diamond producers infuse billions of dollars in benefits into communities, provide higher than national average wages and are working to minimize environmental impacts.

The Diamond Producers Association ( DPA), a global alliance of the seven leading diamond mining companies - which represents 75 percent of the world's diamond production - on Thursday released its first independent research report on Members' impact on local communities, employees and the environment.The Socioeconomic and Environmental Impact of Large-Scale Diamond Mining, authored by Trucost, is the world's first comprehensive analysis of the contributions of DPA Members, examining socioeconomic and environmental benefits and impacts.

Data from Trucost, part of S&P Global, reveals that DPA Members generate more than US$16 billion in net socioeconomic and environmental benefits through their diamond mining operations. The report finds that the vast majority of these benefits are infused into communities through local employment, sourcing of goods and services, taxes and royalties, social programs and infrastructure investment. The report also uncovers that DPA Members pay employees and contractors on average 66 percent above national average salaries and that companies focus extensively on employee training to ensure a highly skilled workforce.

Despite significant progress toward responsible and transparent practices over the past 15 years - case in point: in January, Tiffany & Co. began disclosing the provenance of its diamonds, and committed to 100 percent geographic transparency by 2020 - the current reality of the diamond mining sector remains largely unknown. This report provides access into a highly scrutinized, yet largely misunderstood, sector.

"This report marks an industry first. Diamond producing companies representing three-quarters of the world's production have come together to provide a window into the impacts and benefits of their activities on the communities and environments of the countries and regions in which they operate," said DPA CEO Jean-Marc Lieberherr. "This independent research report breaks outdated stereotypes and misconceptions and identifies the next set of challenges that must be met to continue to evolve and improve as an industry. It also provides a baseline for industry participants and observers to track future progress."

The analysis also creates a baseline from which DPA Members will further build to demonstrate progress toward their emissions-reduction goals. Collectively, Members emitted the equivalent of 160 kg of CO2 per polished carat produced - equivalent to the amount of carbon dioxide generated by driving 390 miles (628 kilometers) in an average passenger vehicle. Each Member has set goals to reduce these emissions, which constitute the majority of diamond mining's environmental footprint.

The world's leading diamond producers are comprised of seven companies - ALROSA, De Beers Group, Dominion Diamond Mines, Lucara Diamond Corp., Murowa Diamonds, Petra Diamonds and Rio Tinto - and employ more than 77,000 individuals globally. DPA Members operate diamond mines in Botswana, Russia, Canada, Namibia, South Africa, Lesotho, Australia, Zimbabwe and Tanzania.

Rio Tinto's Diavik Diamond Mine in Canada's remote Northwest Territories | Image credit: Dominion Diamond Mines

"This report marks the first time Trucost has seen an industry come together to measure its environmental, social and economic benefits and impacts," said Libby Bernick, Managing Director and Global Head of Trucost Corporate Business, part of S&P Global. "This data provides a baseline for future progress on issues, including environmental impact. We are very excited to work with the Diamond Producers Association and its Member companies to release this research on the total value of their benefits and impacts, promoting greater transparency on environmental and social performance to the capital markets."

Trucost measured the total benefits and impacts of the diamond mining activities of the DPA Members across 21 key socioeconomic and environmental indicators, based on data collected for over 150 different metrics, from DPA sites representing 70 percent of the DPA Member's total rough diamond production. These data were verified by Trucost and then analyzed using Trucost's proprietary methodologies for quantifying and valuing social andnatural capital, which have been employed in more than 100 studies over the past 15 years.

The report's findings include:

People

DPA Members offer high-paying jobs, excellent job training and a safe work environment. DPA Members employ people from local communities and provide high-quality employment opportunities that often become long-term careers.
Key Findings:

Salaries and wages paid by DPA Members created US$3.9 billion in direct and indirect benefits.

DPA Members employ 77,000 people in their operations worldwide - comparable to Fortune 500 companies such as The Coca-Cola Company, Hewlett Packard Enterprise, Alphabet, Nordstrom and Nike Inc.

DPA Members' employees and contractors are highly trained; the average DPA Member employee or contractor is paid 66 percent more than the national average salary and receives nearly five times the living wage in his/her country.

All Members have also made a commitment to zero harm in the workplace. The report shows that safety incidents at Member companies are a fraction of those observed in similar sectors. For example, on average there are 17x more lost time injuries in the construction industry than in DPA diamond mining.

Communities

Beyond employment, the diamond mining industry makes a vital contribution to the socioeconomic development of diamond-producing countries and communities that goes beyond employment. Members purchase the bulk of the goods and services needed for their operations from local businesses, creating a significant, lasting impact on local economies. Moreover, they pay a large share of their revenues to diamond-mining countries in the form of taxes, royalties and dividends. Entire countries, such as Botswana, have been transformed by diamond revenues over the past 50 years.
Key Findings:

60 percent of the total benefits from DPA Members are infused into local communities through sourcing of goods and services, taxes and royalties, social programs and infrastructure investment.

DPA Members infused US$6.8 billion in benefits into local communities through the purchase of local goods and services.

Local communities receive US$3.9 billion in positive benefits through employment and social programs (US$292 million), such as health and education.

DPA Members provided US$3 billion in tax revenue, royalties and dividends which, in turn, fund local infrastructure and other civic improvements.

Modern diamond mining is a long-term investment, and Members actively build long-term partnerships with the communities in which they work.

Environment

DPA and its Members recognize that environmental stewardship is one of the main obligations of the diamond mining industry, and every DPA Member works in close collaboration with local governments and communities to control their environmental impact. Today, controlling and continuing to reduce its environmental footprint is a clear priority for diamond mining companies. DPA Member companies are tackling this challenge through a range of initiatives, including increased access to renewable energies, energy reduction initiatives and carbon capture research programs.
Key Findings:

The largest source of DPA Members' environmental footprint is its CO2e emissions: 160 kg of CO2e per polished carat.

The estimated CO2e associated with energy use in laboratory-created diamond production is nearly three times greater than diamonds produced by DPA members in 2016.

DPA Members collectively protected more than 260,000 hectares (1,000 square miles) of natural land in Russia, Botswana, South Africa, Tanzania, Australia and Canada - three times the land they use for mining globally.

The environmental cost of producing a diamond is 37 percent of a single one-way airline ticket from New York City to Los Angeles.

DPA Members currently implement long-term biodiversity conservation programs.

Each DPA Member produces sustainability reports, available on DPA's website, to measure and analyze initiatives and progress.

Commitments

The DPA has organized active collaboration and sharing of best practices amongst the Member companies around two absolute priority areas: energy conservation and CO2e emissions, and employee health and safety. Moving forward, DPA will report on ongoing sustainability progress to share individual and collective progress made by DPA Members toward these objectives and, in general, toward achieving the UN's Sustainable Development Goals.

Building on the Trucost report, DPA is launching its Total Clarity platform, designed as a transparent and reliable source of information on the socioeconomic and environmental impact of the diamond industry.

Despite the positive steps it represents for transparency in the diamond industry, the Trucost analysis does not cover diamond mining done in West African countries such as Angola, Côte d'Ivoire, Guinea, Guinea Bissau, Liberia and Sierra Leone - where the products of the diamond trade earned the term "blood diamonds" or "conflict diamonds," due to their use in financing wars and war crimes.

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Study of Diamond Mining Reveals Impact on Local Communities, Challenges Stereotypes

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Trucost finds the world's large-scale diamond producers infuse billions of dollars in benefits into communities, provide higher than national average wages and are working to minimize environmental impacts.

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What are the effects of mining on the African countries?

For centuries towns were been built around mines all over Africa. These towns housed families and had facilities like electricity and water, housing, shops, hospitals and schools. People moved from afar to live in mining towns where there were employment opportunities, and towns soon expanded to accommodate a growing industry. Over the course of several years mining was considered as an industry that brought much needed economic wealth and prosperity to African countries.

If it Sounds too Good to be True...

Despite the obvious benefits of the mining industry through the years, it is also an industry fraught with problems. After most of the African countries gained independence some of the mines closed and poverty and a high rate of unemployment ensued. Other mines went the opposite way, where there was a shift towards machine oriented mining and operations were expanded. Although the shift had a positive impact on local economic growth, it also had a major negative impact on the countries and there have been social, economic and environmental consequences.

Negative Effects of Mining in Africa on the Environment

Mining firms are not only attracted to developing countries in Africa because of mineral riches - they are also attracted to the countries because of lower safety and environmental standards. To establish a mine vegetation is cleared. This causes deforestation, and a loss of biodiversity which has an impact on locals. Another largely ungoverned environmental concern is the pollution caused by mining through leakage and tailings dumping. Tailings are left-over materials from mining and are often dumped in rivers causing metals contamination. Several African mines have also experienced cyanide leaks - the deadly poison is used to extract gold. Rivers and dams are re-routed to create exposed riverbeds for mining which has a detrimental effect on fish and wildlife that use rivers for sustenance. Open-pit mines are eventually abandoned and fill up with stagnant water which becomes infested with mosquitos. These sites are ideal breeding areas for malaria and other deadly diseases.

Long-term Sustainability in Mining

Although companies ought to provide resources and financial aid to ensure that the environment is returned to its natural state after mining ends, this is not always the case. The effects of mining in Africa have left large-scale devastation when companies do not honour their responsibility. Because mining areas are left in an unsustainable condition, plant species and wildlife are threatened and these areas are at risk of becoming lifeless wastelands.

Attempts to Rectify the Situation

Several African countries are showing concern with the effects of mining in Africa and are taking steps to resolve issues. South Africa has responded to the situation by making a law that states that mines have to leave areas in an equivalent, or better state than what it was prior to mining starting. Although not all mining companies are heeding these laws, the South African diamond industry has responded by establishing several nature reserves with breeding programs for endangered species. The Angolan government has started a tree planting initiative in which the plan is to increase the amount of trees by 50% to make up for deforestation during mining. Despite the devastating effects, hope remains.

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For centuries towns were been built around mines all over Africa. These towns housed families and had facilities like electricity and water, housing, shops, hospitals and schools. People moved from afar to live in mining towns where there were employment opportunities, and towns soon expanded to accommodate a growing industry.