Mining Technology interviews Grew about impact of mining on environment
Edward Grew, a research professor of geological sciences at the University of Maine, spoke with Mining Technology about the significant impact of mining on the environment and why experts believe a new mineralogical era called the Anthropocene Epoch merits acknowledgement. For the first time, researchers in America have identified a group of 208 mineral species that originated either principally or exclusively due to human activities, mostly large-scale mining, according to the article. “In a way, you can say that human activity has increased mineralogical diversity and that contrasts with its impact on biological diversity, which has not been very good,” said Grew, a co-author of the report. According to Grew and his fellow researchers, human industry and ingenuity has done more to diversify and distribute minerals on Earth than any development since the rise of oxygen over 2.2 billion years ago, the article states.