In “Between the Heavens and the Earth” Tim LeCain writes about some of the challenges miners face while underground mining and two main problems are having a clean source of light that will not fill the underground mine with smoke, making it impossible to breathe and intern death. The other huge challenge faced mostly with hard rock mining is after going deep underground traditional wooden beams would not hold the force of the rock and cause a cave in. The way that we got past the first challenge of clean light was buy creating a superior light with a strong vacuum which makes a long-lasting bright light. The problem with this would be making an energy source that could create and transport enough electricity to light all the light bulbs in the mine, and they would have to make sure no water got in and damaged bulbs or wires. The second problem would be having stronger supports using square pattern, page 40 LeCain. The problem with this would be using more lumber and transporting it deep into the mine.
The negative aspects of mining should be addressed but I do not think that mining can be a completely safe activity to both humans and the environment. No matter how much the problems are addressed and fixed there will always be more and humans can only add safety to the environment and them selves but it will never be complete “safe”. I feel like in order to save the earth it needs to be 100% safe but that is almost impossible and I do not expect to happen.