Will you be able to tell your Grandchilden you did everything you could to protect the Lake Superior and Rainy River Watersheds?

I’ve been haunted by Fletcher Freeman’s letter (4/6/13 Ely Echo), in which he says that “sulfide mining is going to happen” because the rich “don’t let rules, regulations and laws get in their way.”  Based on his experience with millionaires and billionaires in Texas, Fletcher knows that they can, and will, buy legislators and special favors.  The rich have ways to get their way.  Therefore, Fletcher argues, the best that environmentalists opposed to copper/nickel mining can hope for is “negotiating a cleanup and/or damage mitigation fund.”

I suppose that Fletcher is right about how the CEOs who control Glencore, Antofagasta, and the other big international mining corporations will proceed with their plans to get richer.  But I cannot accept Fletcher’s depressing conclusion that giant sulfide mines here at the edge of the BWCAW, with resultant environmental damage, are inevitable.  I will continue to add my voice to many others who think that the gains of this kind of mining here are not worth the risks.  Why?  Because (1) I am an American who believes in democracy, (2) I am a grandfather, and (3) stuff happens:

1. Our country is special because it is founded on the belief that government exists by, for, and of the people — all the people, not just the rich.  I believe that my vote should count exactly the same as the vote of a rich person.  I fear that our democracy is in grave danger if we allow special interests, with their legions of lobbyists and  undisclosed funding of political candidates, to call the shots.
2. I want to congratulate Fletcher on recently becoming a grandfather! Grandparenthood changes us. I know I want my grandkids to be able to enjoy canoe trips on pristine lakes, to be able to catch and eat a fish, to see the starry host in the dark northern sky.  I do not want a grandchild to confront me, years from now, and ask why I didn’t do more to protect the BWCAW or put the brakes on global warming.
3. The mining corporations can make all kinds of promises, but we all know that stuff happens:  floods, explosions, human error, shortcuts to save money.  In our water-rich environment,  we know that water will eventually get to wherever we humans try to prevent it — and the result in this case will be damaging acid runoff.

With a new Climate Change Study Group here in Ely, I’ve been reading Storms of My Grandchildren, by climate scientist James Hansen.  Alongside good science and dire forecasts, the author tells many stories of how special interests have connived to discredit  and silence scientists, manipulate politicians, and postpone any meaningful legislation to slow down human-caused climate change.  In other words, the gas and coal CEOs are determined to keep enriching themselves and their stockholders, democracy and grandchildren be damned!  Which is just what Fletcher would expect, but just what we the people cannot accept.  There’s too much at stake now to resign ourselves to the way the rich (in Fletcher’s words) play their games.

Elton Brown, Morse Township