WEBVTT NOTE 26. The Stripminer 1 00:00:00.000 --> 00:00:04.320 Part 7 Ecology 2 00:00:04.320 --> 00:00:09.040 Chapter 26 The Strip Miner 3 00:00:09.040 --> 00:00:15.560 There are basically two methods of mining coal, strip mining and deep mining. 4 00:00:15.560 --> 00:00:22.720 In deep mining, an intricate set of tunnels, shafts and braces are set deep in the earth. 5 00:00:22.720 --> 00:00:29.480 People who work in such mines for long periods of time commonly contract black lung disease, 6 00:00:29.480 --> 00:00:35.000 The dreaded miners' malady caused by breathing in coal particles. 7 00:00:35.000 --> 00:00:38.720 Deep mining is hazardous to workers in other ways. 8 00:00:38.720 --> 00:00:44.120 Mine entrapments, for example, in which hundreds of miners are trapped far below the surface 9 00:00:44.120 --> 00:00:47.880 of the earth, occur with deadly regularity. 10 00:00:47.880 --> 00:00:54.640 The immediate cause may be a cave-in, escaping gas, an explosion, or water seepage. 11 00:00:54.640 --> 00:00:59.600 But the ultimate cause is the deep mining method itself. 12 00:00:59.600 --> 00:01:05.540 In strip mining, as the name implies, the earth is stripped layer by layer until the 13 00:01:05.540 --> 00:01:08.120 coal stream is unearthed. 14 00:01:08.120 --> 00:01:13.600 Although especially well suited for coal beds that lie close to the surface, strip mining 15 00:01:13.600 --> 00:01:17.600 has also proven feasible at moderate depths. 16 00:01:17.600 --> 00:01:23.140 Strip mining is free of the danger of cave-ins and other forms of entrapment and of black 17 00:01:23.140 --> 00:01:46.340 The Supposed Explanation for this otherwise inexplicable state of affairs centers around 18 00:01:46.340 --> 00:01:49.220 two criticisms of strip mining. 19 00:01:49.220 --> 00:01:55.860 It is said to cause pollution and to despoil the natural beauty of the landscape. 20 00:01:55.860 --> 00:02:02.620 But as can be seen from even a cursory examination, these criticisms hardly suffice. 21 00:02:02.620 --> 00:02:08.820 Even if they were correct, it would be difficult to reconcile humanistic impulses with a preference 22 00:02:08.820 --> 00:02:10.780 for deep mining. 23 00:02:10.780 --> 00:02:16.040 For there is no black lung disease among miners who work on the surface of the earth. 24 00:02:16.040 --> 00:02:23.840 There is no danger of cave-ins or entrapment. Clearly, life is on the side of strip mining. 25 00:02:23.840 --> 00:02:31.000 But upon examination it is clear that the criticism is by no means correct. First, consider 26 00:02:31.000 --> 00:02:36.640 pollution. Although it is true that pollution does in fact result from strip mining, it 27 00:02:36.640 --> 00:02:43.480 is not a necessary concomitant. It can be eliminated, and it would be eliminated if 28 00:02:43.480 --> 00:02:47.960 Laws Prohibiting Trespass were enforced. 29 00:02:47.960 --> 00:02:54.160 What is presently done during the strip mining of coal is to pile up in high mounds the earth 30 00:02:54.160 --> 00:02:58.360 that must be peeled away to expose the coal. 31 00:02:58.360 --> 00:03:03.160 These mounds are usually piled near streams of water. 32 00:03:03.160 --> 00:03:07.980 Substantial amounts are borne away by the streams, contaminating them and the lakes 33 00:03:07.980 --> 00:03:10.800 and waterways into which they feed. 34 00:03:10.800 --> 00:03:15.360 Also, the denuded land becomes a source of mudslides. 35 00:03:15.360 --> 00:03:22.140 Thus, as a result of what the strip miner does, the whole environment is damaged. 36 00:03:22.140 --> 00:03:26.920 But these are not necessary elements of the strip mining process. 37 00:03:26.920 --> 00:03:32.920 Although a person may do whatever he wishes with land that he owns, if what he does damages 38 00:03:32.920 --> 00:03:39.080 land belonging to others, he should be made to bear the costs of the damage. 39 00:03:39.080 --> 00:03:44.680 If, for example, the strip miners' activities result in mudslides and destruction of other 40 00:03:44.680 --> 00:03:48.880 people's land and goods, he is liable. 41 00:03:48.880 --> 00:03:55.440 Part of his responsibility may be to reseed or otherwise rehabilitate the land to eliminate 42 00:03:55.440 --> 00:03:58.860 the possibility of future mudslides. 43 00:03:58.860 --> 00:04:04.600 If strip miners were made to bear the full costs of their activity, and if the property 44 00:04:04.600 --> 00:04:09.840 The industry owners downstream were granted preventative injunctions if they were unwilling 45 00:04:09.840 --> 00:04:15.240 to be compensated for damages, then the pollution would cease. 46 00:04:15.240 --> 00:04:21.160 It is most important to see that the present link between pollution and strip mining has 47 00:04:21.160 --> 00:04:28.380 no inherent status, but is rather entirely due to the failure to apply the common laws 48 00:04:28.380 --> 00:04:32.680 of trespass against the strip miners. 49 00:04:32.680 --> 00:04:38.160 In any other industry, such as the hula hoop industry, that was allowed to violate the 50 00:04:38.160 --> 00:04:40.360 law in this manner. 51 00:04:40.360 --> 00:04:46.440 Now there is no necessary connection between the hula hoop industry and pollution. 52 00:04:46.440 --> 00:04:52.800 But if excess plastic clutter were allowed, there soon would be a connection between this 53 00:04:52.800 --> 00:04:57.540 industry and pollution, at least in the mind of the public. 54 00:04:57.540 --> 00:05:03.460 And so it is with the coal mining industry, and with strip mining in particular. 55 00:05:03.460 --> 00:05:10.300 There is nothing about the strip mining method of coal mining that is inherently pollution-causing. 56 00:05:10.300 --> 00:05:16.700 It is only because the laws of trespass have not been rigidly applied to the strip miners 57 00:05:16.700 --> 00:05:21.180 that the link between stripping and pollution exists. 58 00:05:21.180 --> 00:05:28.300 Let these laws be fully adhered to and this argument against strip mining will disappear. 59 00:05:28.300 --> 00:05:33.660 What of the other argument against the strip miner, that stripping spoils the natural beauty 60 00:05:33.660 --> 00:05:35.900 of the landscape? 61 00:05:35.900 --> 00:05:41.660 This is a shaky objection at best, because when it comes to beauty or aesthetics there 62 00:05:41.660 --> 00:05:44.340 are no objective standards. 63 00:05:44.340 --> 00:05:49.560 What is beautiful to one person may be ugly to another and vice versa. 64 00:05:49.560 --> 00:05:56.060 It is true that strip mining removes the vegetation, grass and trees from the landscape. 65 00:05:56.060 --> 00:06:01.040 It can turn a lush, fertile landscape into a veritable desert. 66 00:06:01.040 --> 00:06:05.720 But some people prefer the desolation and emptiness of the desert. 67 00:06:05.720 --> 00:06:12.000 The Painted Desert in Arizona, the Salt Flats of Utah and the Grand Canyon of Colorado are 68 00:06:12.000 --> 00:06:16.760 considered by many people to be places of great beauty. 69 00:06:16.760 --> 00:06:31.760 If contrast is one of the concomitants of natural beauty, then the small bits of barren land created by strip miners amidst the lush greenery of the Appalachians actually add to the beauty of the scene. 70 00:06:31.760 --> 00:06:41.760 Certainly we cannot unambiguously and objectively fault the strip miner on the grounds that he destroys the beauty of the landscape. 71 00:06:41.760 --> 00:06:47.760 But discussions about aesthetic criteria will not resolve the issue raised by the critics, 72 00:06:47.760 --> 00:06:53.760 since the issue is not really about beauty, though it is phrased as if it were. 73 00:06:53.760 --> 00:07:02.760 The real objection seems to be that strip mining is an intrusion upon nature by an offensive industrial society. 74 00:07:02.760 --> 00:07:09.760 The notion that land areas should be left in their natural state seems to be the operative one. 75 00:07:09.760 --> 00:07:17.000 But if the lovers and protectors of nature as is have the right to prevent strip miners 76 00:07:17.000 --> 00:07:23.140 from operating, then they also have the right to prevent farmers from clearing virgin soil 77 00:07:23.140 --> 00:07:29.720 and planting upon it, and to prevent builders from erecting buildings, bridges, factories, 78 00:07:29.720 --> 00:07:32.220 airports and hospitals. 79 00:07:32.220 --> 00:07:38.320 The argument from nature is really an argument against civilization and against the use of 80 00:07:38.320 --> 00:07:40.240 of Human Intelligence. 81 00:07:40.240 --> 00:07:47.060 Actually, many among those who condemn strip mining as unnatural would themselves object 82 00:07:47.060 --> 00:07:53.720 vigorously if other conditions, homosexuality or miscegenation, for example, were objected 83 00:07:53.720 --> 00:07:55.920 to on those grounds. 84 00:07:55.920 --> 00:08:02.160 They would point out very little is natural to man, and that sometimes what is natural, 85 00:08:02.160 --> 00:08:07.280 murderous rage, for example, is not what is best. 86 00:08:07.280 --> 00:08:13.560 One depends to a great extent upon our being able to transcend nature. 87 00:08:13.560 --> 00:08:19.920 To say of a thing that it is natural or unnatural is not to say anything about that thing's 88 00:08:19.920 --> 00:08:21.800 intrinsic value. 89 00:08:21.800 --> 00:08:28.140 A thing's value depends upon whether or not it satisfies our needs and contributes to 90 00:08:28.140 --> 00:08:30.460 our well-being. 91 00:08:30.460 --> 00:08:36.300 Mining, when evaluated rationally, fulfills these more rational criteria.