The Human and Environmental Toll of Harvesting Nonrenewable Resources

Early one morning in September, a group of artists, landscape architects, geographers, and architects, among others, boarded a charter bus in Minneapolis bound for the Hibbing Taconite mine, a part of the Mesabi Iron Range. Discovered in 1866, this 100-mile-long geological seam stretches across northern Minnesota from Grand Rapids to Babbitt and now comprises a string of open pit mines that contributed sufficiently large quantities of iron ore to boost U.S. economic growth for much of the 20th century. “Put simply, America is America because steel, the most important man-made element in all forms of manufacturing and construction, was relatively easy to produce with the abnormally rich and abundant iron ore of northern Minnesota,” wrote Aaron Brown in a Daily Yonder article, “Mesabi Range: Land of the Sleeping Giant.”

Articulo completo: http://www.architectmagazine.com/technology/the-human-and-environmental-toll-of-harvesting-nonrenewable-resources_o