Today we have a mining system built upon bankruptcies. Whenever a mining company files for a concession for mining, they promise to take care of the excess waste from the mining. In many circumstances these are costly procedures. Therefore some individuals use a bankruptcy strategy. They mine for minerals and put the surplus into their own pockets. When they are done, they file for bankruptcy and society has to take responsibility for the continuous environmental afterwork.

This is bad for society as well as the environment.

All in all, modern mining management leads to everybody getting poorer, because of negative environmental effects, while a few persons consciously use the legal system to enrich themselves. As soon as one mining company is put to bankruptcy, the owners will start another mine somewhere else.

This needs to be stopped.

One way societies have tried to fix this problem is by demanding mining companies to stash away some money. To get their concession, the mining companies need to stow away money in a restoration fund. The problem with this procedure is that these restoration funds never seem to be large enough to remedy all damage done by the mining. Some abandoned mines keep on flushing toxins and poisons into fresh water reservoirs, every second, every minute, every hour, every day of the year. And the fund is never enough.

There is this saying about engineers in ancient Rome. Whenever someone built a bridge, they had to live under that bridge. If the bridge fell down, the bridge builder and his family died. Cause and effect. People had to take responsibility for their actions.

We should implement responsibility for actions in our modern world as well. When our environment is at stake, whenever contamination has dire consequences, as death of people and animals, those responsible need to put their own safety at stake as well.

Those who mine for resources and leave incurable wounds in our nature, need to face consequences for their actions. When water gets contamined, the responsible will have to drink that water every day. If the earth get polluted, those responsible for the pollution must live where the mine once was, for as long as the pollution lasts.

Some might deem these things as barbaric, but we need to take care of our common resources. We need water, air and soil to survive. We cannot promote those who destroy these common resources. We must inhibit their destructive behaviour instead.

For the sake of the poor man’s baby. For the sake of the innocent habitants. For the sake of our world. Let those who destroy our world face consequences.