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[–] 128 points 1 year ago (18 children)

We make logging companies "replant forests" (yes it's not at all the same as the old growth but it's something). Why do we let mining companies completely rape the land and replace nothing? It doesn't even look like they backfill with the unused debris, much less restore topsoil or plant anything.

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  • [–] 50 points 1 year ago* (3 children)

    Here in the UK I know of lots of old mines and quarries that, because the ground is inherently unstable once the mining has finished, the land gets reclaimed as a nature reserve. Think nice walks, wildflowers, native trees, marshlands etc. A lot of effort goes into making habitats for insects, birds and animals.

    Whether or not it is all paid for by the mining companies, I don't know.

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  • [–] 8 points 1 year ago (1 child)

    That's how we do it here in the US if they're operating near an urban area. My understanding is that they are required by law to do that in exchange for the permits or something.

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  • [–] 5 points 1 year ago

    Underground mining and strip mining are very different in the possibilities to recover.

    Both underground mining and strip mining will devastate natural and urban areas in Germany for centuries. For the former black coal and iron mining areas they basically have no solution except to keep the pumps running indefinitely as the flooded underground mines would collapse, causing sinkholes and eating the houses on top. For the strip mining, these will be scars on the earth until geology has taken care of it in a few million years.

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  • [–] 16 points 1 year ago (1 child)

    Where I live they are required to rehabilitate the land afterwards, but usually that's after the mine has been running for like 30+ years and by the time they shut down, they do some weird financial trickery and declare bankruptcy despite having made millions in profits the previous decades and then they just walk away and tax payers need to clean up.

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  • [–] 7 points 1 year ago

    Why do we let mining companies completely rape the land and replace nothing?

    The government spend billions to brainwash people and turn them complicit. Check out the "germany rearming" threads to see how even on lemmy plenty of people are happy with the raping.

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    [–] 93 points 1 year ago (1 child)
  • [–] 66 points 1 year ago (3 children)

    Being destroyed by a giant machine is terrible but it did file the proper paperwork first so what can be done at this point?

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  • [–] 53 points 1 year ago

    Uhm no bagger-288 was created to protect mankind from godzillas and doom robots from the future.

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  • [–] 47 points 1 year ago (1 child)
  • [–] 40 points 1 year ago

    ok I hate coal and fossil fuels, but this thing is so cool

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  • [–] 39 points 1 year ago (2 children)

    Alternatively, build a flying machine with TNT duplicators

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    [–] 36 points 1 year ago (10 children)
  • [–] 42 points 1 year ago (4 children)

    Those photos are from planes.

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  • [–] 40 points 1 year ago* (2 children)

    Probably, but the entire idea of "you can see it from space" is stupid anyways. Its only meaningful if its with the naked eye and the distance is specified. You can see anything from space if you have enough optical zoom...

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  • [–] 9 points 1 year ago

    You can see anything from space if you have enough optical zoom...

    Naw, there's theoretical a maximum resolution, iirc it's a few centimeters. Too much air in the way diffracting the light

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    [–] 33 points 1 year ago

    This is very real and has been an issue for years. I remember when I was younger, watching public TV, and I saw a news report about an elderly lady who was forced to sell her home along with the rest of her village so that they could dig up the entire area for coal. At the time it was a big deal, because she took so long to agree, which got media attention. It was incredibly depressing. It felt dystopian.

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  • [+] 31 points 1 year ago* (last edited 1 year ago)
    [–] 30 points 1 year ago (2 children)

    It is an engineering marvel, indeed, as it is the biggest mobile machine of the world.

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  • [–] 23 points 1 year ago

    every rational part of my brain fighting the 7 year old me inside me who knows Bagger 288 is the coolest thing ever

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  • [+] 20 points 1 year ago* (last edited 1 year ago)
    [–] 18 points 1 year ago

    Looks like a Final Fantasy optional boss.

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  • [–] 13 points 1 year ago

    Funny and sad

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  • [–] 13 points 1 year ago

    It's a man-made Langolier.... slowly eating a dying world no one wants.

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  • [–] 11 points 1 year ago

    I love how I know the name Bagger 288 because of a 16 year old meme

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  • [–] 10 points 1 year ago (1 child)

    Removed from the environment.

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  • [–] 7 points 1 year ago

    Just as well. 'tis a silly place.

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