Let’s inform Trump’s EPA

For those feeling somewhat powerless in the Trump era, here’s an opportunity to help preserve a pristine ecosystem and to frustrate The Donald with the stroke of a key. Support the Natural Resources Defense Council (NRDC) in its effort to thwart construction of the Pebble Mine in south-central Alaska. Trump’s EPA is making a travesty of the permitting process for construction of this colossal copper and gold mine. Their strategy is to limit information in order to achieve a permitting decision favoring the interests of a thoughtless few.

Montana and Idaho serve as historic testimony to the tragedy of ecosystems destroyed by mining. However, the inevitability of toxic destruction is of little importance for Trump University types. The flimflam begins as mining interests guarantee containment of toxic mining wastes over the coming centuries. But here’s the fact: “guaranteed” containment systems don’t exist. Given enough time and the shenanigans of Mother Earth (aka “Big Mama”) these toxin containers virtually always fail. (Think Anaconda and Berkely Pit mines, even Hanford).

In this case the threatened ecosystem is the world renowned Bristol Bay and its tributaries. This summer alone we saw a record-breaking 62 million fish returning to its fantastically healthy rivers and streams. As we know, these salmon then help sustain a myriad of species such as orcas, grizzlies and eagles to name a small fraction. At some point, inevitable mine toxin spills will likely exterminate these salmon and ultimately the entire animal ecosystem. Not “if”, but “when”.

Google “NRDC Pebble Mine”.