To stand on the rim of a giant open-pit copper mine is an amazing experience. It's truly mind boggling, a scale of landscape alteration that few people get a chance to see. To descend the spiral ramp, passing enormous trucks that could crush a car without noticing, and stand at the bottom of the pit next to a copper-stained green pool, is another thing entirely. The entire horizon is bare rock exposing the guts of the mineralizing system's structure. As a geologist, it is captivating to stand inside the earth, her secrets laid bare by the hand of man.

Yet another part of my brain is overwhelmed at the scale of the effect on the landscape and my own personal responsibility for it, as an average consumer. In that place I cannot ignore the effects of my own consumption.

I admit my own failings at conveying the scale of an open pit mine and the feelings it can evoke upon the visitor. I wish I could take all of you on a tour of one of the big mines so that you might experience that same complex feeling of awe. But I can't, therefore I recommend this movie, which has a segment documenting an open-pit mine that approaches the feeling of actually being there.

I can't make you watch it, Tom. And I doubt I can persuade you to watch it, if only for the visuals alone. But I hope you do rent it, and watch it, just for the experience.