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Serving Northern St. Louis County, Minnesota

Small numbers with big consequences

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Recently thousands of people marched to the United Nations General Assembly to demand that the world’s leaders take bold action to curb greenhouse gas emissions and slow climate change.  The seriousness of the earth’s rising temperatures should make all of us reevaluate the proposal to bring copper-nickel mining to NE Minnesota. In the SDEIS for PolyMet the document reveals that when in operation the PolyMet site will account for 0.44 percent of Minnesota’s yearly greenhouse gas emissions. This number represents the total emissions (both direct and cumulative) that will occur yearly for the life of the project.

The number seems exceptionally small until you do the math to illustrate its total effect on Minnesota’s carbon emission and economic development. The consequences of the project are sobering. Let’s do the math together.

Minnesota is taking important steps to keep its carbon footprint at current levels with the hope that we can actually reduce our greenhouse gas emissions. Our carbon footprint is generated by all the human activity in our state—how we fuel our transportation, generate electricity, heat our homes, and grow our food. If we take the total level of carbon emissions of just the PolyMet project it amounts to 0.44 percent of our total carbon emissions. Another way to look at this number is that this one project amounts to 1/227 of our carbon emissions. If there were 226 other businesses in Minnesota that generated this much carbon emissions we would be at 100 percent of our current level.

In addition, if those 226 businesses had a workforce of 350 persons like the proposed PolyMet project it would mean that a workforce of 29,450 people would generate the entire current carbon emissions for our state. If we are attempting to cap Minnesota’s carbon emissions at current levels it would mean there would be no carbon emissions left for the rest of the state to work, heat their homes, fuel their cars, or grow their food.

Recently the world’s climate scientists have projected that unless we find a way to greatly reduce the growth of carbon emissions we may reach a critical point-of-no-return in just 20 years. The United States is currently the Number Two carbon emissions producer topped only by China. If we are serious about avoiding the greatest ecological disaster in human history we will have to make some painful decisions as to how we manage the earth’s resources. Very soon the value of copper, gold and other “precious” metals will seem insignificant against the value of a moderate climate, clean air, pure water, and land on which to grow our crops.

We have heard our politicians say time and time again that they believe copper-nickel mining can be done and still protect the environment. Allowing one project to contribute 1/227 of our state’s carbon emissions to create 350 jobs for twenty years is both foolish and dangerous. The hard decisions to curb greenhouse gases must be made now and must be made by us.

Andrew Urban

Eagles Nest Twp., Minn.