On another note, some things are moving forward: Judge gives uranium mill the go-ahead, well, to the next step in the approval process, anyway.

I don't think the rank and file enviromentalists want us all to go back to the 1600's, I think many of them operate in a knee-jerk reaction to the issues. An example is a gold mine I worked with a few years back. They were de-watering the mine and treating the mine water to drinking water standards before they dumped it into the creek. The creek water above the discharge was not potable due to the seepage from other mines. It was a good thing, the right thing, enviromentally speaking. Well, some local group found out that the water treatment permit was up for review, and planned to stall the project by shutting down the water plant. The protest fizzled, though, when one of our geologists, who happened to also run the water testing program, wrote a letter to the local papers, outlining exactly how the water was treated and tested, and how reducing the seepage of mine water into the creek, and diluting it with potable water, was actually consistant with EPA goals for cleaning up the old mining district.

Another example: Years ago a college student came to my door wanting me to sign a petition to convince the local utility company to switch from coal to natural gas to generate electricity. Which was fine by me. The next year another student from the same group came to my door wanting me to sign a petition to severly limit natural gas drilling in the area.

I stared at her for a long minute. When I told her of the disconnect between their yearly goals, she stared at me for a full minute. Then nodded her head and walked away, looking confused.

I support "sustainable mining", which is basically making as little impact as possible, and returning the land to other uses once the resource is spent. I don't like mountain top coal mining because it is too destructive. But there are coal mines north of here that have been so well reclaimed, one would be hard pressed to discern there was ever a mine there.

In the biz, one of the common phrases is that if it can't be farmed, it has to be mined. We, as consumers, do not like to think about where the raw materials come from. Farms are pretty. Mines are ugly. I used to list all the exotic metals in a high-tech mountain bike to enviromentalists. They didn't like hearing where all those things came from, nor accept their role in the demand.

An old mentor of mine once told me, "if people didn't want copper, they wouldn't pay us to go find it."