America like Greece? Yes, but not because of debt.

Updated Feb. 23, 2013 — Republican's often claim the United States is on the road to Greece because of the so-called debt crisis.  Paul Krugman speaking to Bill Moyers says "impossible."

Sign protesting gold mine in rural Greek community. Click here to watch the New York Times video.

The irony is that America may actually be on the same road as Greece, but not because of debt, but because (as in Greece) mining companies are stepping up efforts to exploit the earth's minerals, taking advantage of our antiquated mining law and rural communities—the hardest hit the victims of the financial crisis. What you never hear from mine proponents is the high cost of mining to our environment and human health. For example in 2011, metal mining was responsible for 46% of all "reported" toxic releases in the United States alone (see below).


A January 13, 2013 New York Times article, Greece sees gold boom, but at a price, discusses Eldorado Gold Corporation's (a Canadian owned company) big push to mine lead, gold, copper and zinc in Greece at the expense of everything else, including the environment. The opposition, as is often the case with mining, is local. The in-depth article reports:

Only 10 years ago, they like to point out, Greece’s highest court ruled that the amount of environmental damage that mining would do here was not worth the economic gain.

“This will be a business for 10, maybe 15 years, and then this company will just disappear, leaving all the pollution behind like all the others did,” said Christos Adamidis, a hotel owner here who fears that the new mining operations will end up destroying other local businesses, including tourism...

Tensions over new development schemes are being felt elsewhere in Greece, too, as the country stumbles into its sixth year of recession, eager to bring in moneymaking operations and forced by its creditors to streamline approval processes...

“We see laws changing, policies changing,” said Theodota Nantsou, the policy coordinator in Athens for the World Wide Fund for Nature. “We see things getting rolled back under the guise of eliminating impediments to investment. But over the long run, all these things will have a heavy cost.”

The situation is similar in the United States (and Canada) but the stories of communities fighting big mines and Republicans in the House attempting to weaken an already irrationally weak mining law get little attention. How can a country like ours, with supposedly strong environmental laws and regulations, be like Greece? Consider the evidence.

Last year the Republicans in the House introduced a bill to expedite mining on public lands at the expense of local communities and the environment. See Earthworks Action fact sheet.

On January 16, 2013, the Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) identified the metal mining industry as the nation’s largest toxic polluter. The annual Toxic Release Inventory (TRI) found that the metal mining industry reported the release of 1.9 billion pounds of toxic chemicals in 2011,  or 46% of all reported toxics. See press release and information about the TRI on Earthworks' website.

Only a few days before however, E&E News reported that a new pro-mining group (Mined in America) called on the Obama Administration to nominate a new EPA administrator who would encourage job creation through mining. Job creation is not the "job" of EPA, but the mining industry is calling on the Environmental Protection Agency to promote the most environmentally damaging industry in the nation in the name of "jobs."

In Wisconsin, mining companies are targeting the state's longstanding landmark Mining Moratorium law (Prove It First). A hugely destructive open pit strip mine is proposed in the Bad River Watershed. Read the opposition's press release here. In addition, a destructive mining bill has been introduced in the Wisconsin legislature. A letter to Wisconsin legislators on the John Muir Wisconsin Chapter of the Sierra Club states:

The Iron Mining bill, which exempts the mining of ferrous (iron ore) minerals from the state’s current metallic mining law is the wrong way to make mining policy and is such a threat to the environmental and human health protections that Wisconsin citizens have a right to expect, that the bill should be rejected. 

This bill, written by mining industry representatives for the single largest mine in state history, severely limits the fundamental right of citizens and Wisconsin’s Indian tribes to participate in the mine permitting process. The bill contains widespread exemptions from existing environmental regulations and deprives citizens of the protections to public water rights guaranteed by Wisconsin’s Public Trust Doctrine.

In Northern Minnesota, wild forests and pristine lakes, including Boundary Waters, are at risk from two large mining proposals to mine nickel, copper and other metals from sulfide deposits. Visit Mining Truth to learn more about this struggle against multinational mining companies.

The New York Times just reported on the growing rift in communities in southern Virginia over proposed uranium mining. The articles states:

A National Academy of Sciences report in 2011 stopped the momentum in last year’s General Assembly for lifting the ban, imposed three decades earlier in the wake of the Three Mile Island nuclear plant accident. The report warned of “steep hurdles” to safe mining and “significant human health” dangers if a capped tailings pile leaks because of the state’s “frequent storms.”

And yet bills have been introduced in the Virginia General Assembly to lift the ban. There's even a Canadian company that's inching closer to approval for an oil sands mine in Utah's Uintah Basin. In Arizona, communities are fighting a proposal for a huge open pit copper mine by a Canadian Company. This article in the New York Times describes the situation:

A plan to dig a vast copper mine in arid southern Arizona is pitting the needs of American industry — and arguably the national economy — against a coalition of local residents and environmentalists.

Go to the Save the Scenic Santa Ritas website to learn more about Rosemont Copper and how a community in Sardina, Italy was left with the toxic legacy of an abandoned open pit gold mine after it operated for only a short time.

Watch the Frontline documentary Alaska Gold on the proposed Pebble Mine in the watershed of the worlds last best salmon fishery and learn about the growing battle over fishing rights and mining wealth in Alaska.

And back to Greece. According to the New York Time:

Officials of Greece’s environment ministry, responding in writing to questions, acknowledged that they were overhauling regulations with a view to making “modern environmental policies” go hand in hand with much needed investments. But they said the WWF report was “excessively negative” in its conclusions.

They also defended the decision to reintroduce mining in the Chalkidiki area, saying that northern Greece constituted a “wealth reservoir” of metals worth more than 20 billion euros based on current prices. The officials said the permit was issued after an eight-year period of preparations, evaluations and public consultations that ensured that the mining activity would not damage the environment.

The story is always the same. Mining companies and many government officials promise no harm and clean up but it's the taxpayers, citizens and communities that bear the burden of the mining—financially, in ruined home grounds and rivers and often with their health.

Is the U.S. on the road to Greece. Sounds like it. But not because of a manufactured debt ceiling.