Mining Footprint, Green Choices

Mining Footprint, Green Choices

It is because of Aldo Leopold that the modern society has a sense of ecological awareness. Because of this renewed consciousness, many movements took place, such as:

•The land ethic

•Bioregionalism

•Deep ecology

According to Aldo Leopold in ‘A Sand County Almanac’, there are two ‘spiritual dangers’ in not owning a farm. One is the danger of supposing that breakfast comes from the grocery, and the other, that heat comes from the furnace.

Moreover, through Leopold’s ecological awareness, a number of metrics emerged, these are:

•Ecological footprint

•Carbon footprint

•Water footprint

However, our reverence for nature and ecological awareness must be in combination with material awareness as well as the respect for tools we need for a sustainable, green society. 

In this regard, we take Aldo Leopold’s statement a step further to say that,

There is, in fact, a third spiritual danger in not owning a farm; it is supposing that the axe used to cut the tree and the brick used to build a furnace, simply come from the local hardware store.

Redefining Footprints  

For a green economy, we need a broader approach than that which is allowed in a ‘carbon footprint’ paradigm. For this, we define ‘human footprint’ as:

Environmental footprints + Material footprints + Socioeconomic footprints 

The goal is to lower the environmental footprints, raise the socioeconomic footprints by leveraging the material footprints. 

Environmental footprints are divided into ecological footprints (in acres), carbon footprints (in tons of CO2) and water footprints (in gallons). These basically show how our activities impact land, air and water.

Material footprints involve ecological footprint, mineral footprint, chemical footprint and energy footprint. These show that materials require heavy amounts of plant, animal, energy and mineral inputs. 

The socioeconomic footprints involve both the above-mentioned footprints and are related to the various jobs in the world. This is, in fact, our human footprints. 

A Few Questions To Consider

Here, a few questions arise:

• What lens do we use when we look at the complete picture?
• Are we really making the best decisions if we’re not looking at all of these footprints at the same time in relation to one another?
• How do the footprints overlap or interact with the others?
• How are our choices reinforcing, distorting or severing these relationships?  

A Few Relationships To Consider 

To think that these footprints exist individually is not the way to go in reducing them. Here are a few relationships to consider:

• While reducing our carbon footprints, what minerals can we use to build technologies? This is, in fact, related with mineral footprint.
• While reducing carbon footprints, what plastics and polymers can we use? This is related to chemical footprint.
• Do we have such energy resources that can enable a low carbon economy? 
• While reducing mineral footprint, how can we use mines in relation with industrial ecology in order to have more valuable minerals per acre of land? This is in relation to ecological footprint.

There are many such questions that arise when dealing with reducing footprints and working towards a green economy. As policy makers, it is vital to look through various lenses and research in a number of fields to ensure all issues are addressed. 

In this regard, extensive information is needed on materials and minerals, the scrap generation, recycling, in-use stocks, downstream uses, material flows, reserves and resources, subeconomic resources and international information. 

The Final Verdict On Mineral Availability 

In regard to mineral availability, questions arise, such as, its geological availability, technical availability, political availability, social and environmental availability, economic availability, etc. Engineers, sociologists, policy makers, manufacturers and consumers will need an in-depth analysis and understanding of various materials in order to make informed decisions resulting in economic sustainability.