Statement from Nelson Tasman Climate Forum to public meeting on Sam’s Creek gold-mining proposal – July 2024
Greetings to the caring and committed people in this gathering.
Nelson Tasman Climate Forum is concerned particularly with climate change, but beyond that, with ecological overshoot – the damage our extractive economy has done to atmosphere, land, freshwater and ocean.
In the words of a well-known whakataukī or proverb, Toitū te marae a Tane Mahuta, Toitū te marae a Tangaroa, Toitū te tangata – If the land is well and the sea is well, the people will thrive.
Ecologist Aldo Leopold wrote in 1949,
“A thing is right when it tends to preserve the integrity, stability and beauty of the biotic community. It is wrong when it tends otherwise”.
The Sam’s Creek gold-mining proposal is wrong.
You’ve already put together important arguments for why it is so glaringly wrong. Here are a couple of ours.
- As climate activists we’re concerned with the very high carbon emissions of all extractive industries. To contribute a fair share to our region’s emissions reductions we should be reducing emissions at about 10% a year. Our carbon budget can’t afford the emissions associated with gold mining – the construction of infrastructure, the extraction of ore, crushing of rock, extraction of gold from the ore, transport of tailings – thousands of litres of fuel burnt to thousands of tonnes of carbon in these activities.
- To live in balance with Nature, we must cut back on our use of energy and use it for activities we agree are essential. Getting more gold is not one of them. We don’t need more gold. Most gold is used for jewellery, medals and gold bullion stored in vaults. We don’t need those. 6% might be said to be useful – it’s used in electronic devices – almost all of them, including 1 billion new ‘phones a year. Piles of electronic waste have a higher concentration of gold than mineral ores. We know how to extract it from such sources. We don’t need to mine gold.
- And how can any amount of gold, extracted over a few decades, equal the value of the natural beauty of Sam’s Creek, accessible over centuries to generations that follow us?
The Climate Forum stands with you in your resistance to this deeply wrong intention.
Joanna Santa Barbara – Co-Chair of the Forum