Bryce Dawkins
Paragraph 1: The lasting effects of mining as we have gone over the past two weeks are very impactful. Both for the natural world that we live on and the economic world. Technological fixes have been a topic for the whole semester, “do they actually work”, “whats the consequences in using technology to fix our problems”. These are the things we here when technology is looked at as a solution. But sometimes they do work, well sort of work. For example using Cottrell’s machine the Electrostatic Precipitator they were able to zero in on the issue surrounding Anacondas arsenic problem. The commissioners were then able to prove that the arsenic was one-third the level it was previously. What shocked me the mst was that they just pushed it to the side. The found a sliver of light in that moment and ran with it, and if that wasn’t worse enough already was the fact that they ended up selling the arsenic to manufacturers that used arsenic in there insecticides. Basically profiting off of what was killing peoples way of life. Another techno-fix was used that treated mine timbers with an aresencial solution that helped to preserve them in the humid climate bellow. As they go on to tell this did work for a while, it allowed the miners to not have to handle the material. But once the mine was shut down and the pumps turned off that stored arsenic ended up being carried out by the water that was filling up the mines. These techno fixes all seem to work for a period of time, but what I notice is how one technological fix just ended up leading to another technological fix of that.
Paragraph 2: I do agree with how Lecain views this problem because he is correct in his thinking. For example when the commissioners could finally prove that the arsenic that there mine was producing had dropped to one-third the amount it had previously been at they ran with it. Stating that the problem had been “solved” and that it was now at an unharmful amount. When in reality the one-third difference still resulted in twenty-five tons of Arsenic a day. If twenty-five tons is not an “issue: and if that is a “safe amount” of arsenic to be pumped out each day then we should reevaluate our morales while we’re at it. After applying the lining of Arsenic to the timbers in the mind to deal with humidity issues they still continued to work in the mine, These technological fixes are scapegoats in my eyes. They are the clean up crew that we see in old movies. The guys come in and clean up everything and make it look as if nothing had happened, when in reality everything is falling apart and failing around you. They speak of the arsenic being “contained: in the mines but in reality the true effects of the arsenic were only delayed, the problem was not handled or solved. We used a scapegoat to shield people from the truth of what this particular mine was doing. It seems to me that we do not want to find the solutions to fix the problem but rather find a way to just delay the inevitable. There are multiple attempts to contain these harmful elements but we continue to find the easy way out of things and a way around the problem.