How does mining for metals impact on the environment?
The machinery used leaves its own carbon footprint. “Norilsk, Russia: Potentially Affected People: 134,000. Source of Pollution: Major nickel and related metals mining and processing. Initially founded as a slave labor camp, this Siberian industrial city is the northernmost major city of Russia and the second largest city (after Murmansk) above the Arctic Circle. Here the snow is black, the air tastes like sulfur and the night landscape seems taken from one of Tolkien’s novels. The local population is severely affected by the air quality where air samples exceed the maximum allowable concentrations for both copper and nickel. It also houses the world’s largest heavy metals smelting complex.”
