Pebble (Mine) Wars Heat Up as Sides Seek Support

[Blue_In_AK]

I don't know how much publicity the proposed Pebble Mine has gotten in the Lower 48, but to most Alaskans it is a far more serious ecological disaster in the making than drilling in ANWR ever thought of being. This must be stopped before it goes any further.

http://www.adn.com/2011/08/13/2014064/pebble-wars-heat-up-as-sides-seek.html

The battle over the giant Pebble gold and copper prospect is escalating across Alaska with a blitz of radio and television ads.

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Pebble's buried treasure is immense, an estimated 80 billion pounds of copper and more than 100 million ounces of gold, though the developers stress no decisions have been made on how much -- if any -- to extract. The claim area spans 150 square miles. Pebble could become North America's largest open pit mine.

Some welcome the project as a source of sorely needed jobs in the cash-poor Bristol Bay region. But the deposit also straddles the headwaters of streams that feed rich runs of red salmon, king salmon and rainbow trout.

So where supporters see the promise of jobs, revitalized communities and glittering gold, opponents see a risk of destroyed habitat and the ruin of commercial and sport fisheries pursued by Alaskans for generations.

<snip>

Also see Shannyn Moore's opinion piece detailing how our ALEC governor has filed an amicus brief on the side of the FOREIGN corporations against the people of the Lake & Peninsula Borough where the mine prospect is located.

http://www.adn.com/2011/08/13/2013701/pebble-mine-backers-try-to-silence.html

I will argue with people about voting. More vehemently if they don't vote than if they vote for someone different than me. No, candidates aren't all the same, and it's a form of freeloading if you don't vote. If democracy were a religion, voting would be the sacrament.

<snip>

Whether it's exercising the right to vote or shilling for transnational corporations, Sean Parnell always sides with corporations over people. He is still pushing to give away, with absolutely no strings attached or incentives for new exploration or investment, $2 billion back to the Oil Producers. It's as though he never stopped being Exxon's attorney or Conoco Phillips' lobbyist. Then there was the day of prayer and before that his surrender of sovereignty to the feds with the loss of the coastal zone program.

<snip>

Protecting the largest wild salmon stock in the world is taken pretty seriously out there. The statewide polling shows the majority of Alaskans oppose the mine for good reasons -- over 10 billion tons of waste to be maintained far after the life of the mine.

Pebble spokesperson Mike Heatwole expressed confidence in having the support of the locals this week. Well, then you won't have a problem getting them to vote the way you'd like. Right? The truth is, Heatwole's children won't be drinking water from the area, and neither will the grandchildren of his boss, John Shively.

So when it comes to "being nice" about the Pebble fight, I'm good with that. You go first. Let the people of Bristol Bay vote. Gov. Parnell has taken orders from corporate masters (both foreign and domestic) over his vow to represent the people of Alaska, specifically our brothers and sisters in Bristol Bay.

This is all-out war, and if people in the Lower 48 care about their wild Alaskan salmon they'll fight iwth us to stop this abomination.

Please familiarize yourselves with this issue. Background is here:


http://www.savebristolbay.org/about-the-bay/about-pebble-mine

http://www.bristolbayalliance.com/

[TexasProgresive]

1. K&R

I've been sort of following this on Shannyn's blog. This needs to be out in front. It's too bad there are no real reporters in the main stream media anymore.

[XemaSab]

2. I've been following it

and I might be in a position to follow it a lot more if a job opportunity, er, pans out. :P

[Blue_In_AK]

3. I have no problem with pans. :)

[txlibdem]

4. I'm afraid that the lure of a quick buck is once again going to win out over the environment

I hope I'm wrong but Capitalism is a sickness that afflicts even the wisest of us sometimes. Whoever goes up there to mine that once beautiful place is going to rake in the bucks, serious bucks. People will be lining up for miles for a job at that mine.

There has to be a change to our economic system, one that puts the health of the environment and our own health above a quick buck.