#270 / The Ugly Truths Of Mining On My Mind

I seem to have mining on my mind. 

Yesterday, of course, I passed on a report about the courageous struggle of Máxima Acuña de Chaupe, who has been fighting a proposed gold mine in Peru. 

The picture above is of the Syncrude Canada mine at the Athabasca oil sands near Fort McMurray, Alberta, as published on August 20, 2015 in The Wall Street Journal.

The destructive impact of these operations is obvious. Could it be that our aesthetic judgments are important ways that we get information about good and bad?

Here's what's lost, when the oil sands are mined: 

Truth is beauty, and beauty truth. That is what John Keats said.

I do think they are related.

We also know that we must leave hydrocarbon resources in the ground, not extract them and burn them, if we want to continue to have a habitable planet. 

There's that, too. That's the truth. 

All questions of beauty put aside.

Image Credits:
(1) - http://www.wsj.com/articles/oil-sands-producers-struggle-1440017716
(2) - http://www.mining.com/unesco-asks-canada-to-check-impact-of-oil-sands-projects-on-national-park/