Wednesday, December 19, 2012

Industrial Disease–TP 226

Bingham Copper “Mine”.  When I hear the word “mine” I usually think of a hole dug into the ground.  Small, cramped and just barely held up by rickety old wood beams.

Not this one.  It’s just a big hole in the ground, that can actually be seen from space with the naked eye.

This used to be a mountain, and now it goes down into the ground about as far as it used to go up.

All so we can still drop our pennies on the ground just to decide they’re not worth the trouble to pick up.  (ok, also to help move the electricity to and within all the electronic devices we adore.)

6 comments:

Lisa Shafer said...

Yes, I have walked the great wall of China, but, in spite of living most of a lifetime within sight of the Bingham Copper Pit, I have never been there even once. Weird.
That last shot is really good -- in spite of the subject matter.

Bob Scotney said...

These are the sort of scars that cannot easily be restored; it will take centuries for nature to restore what man has defiled and even then it cannot replace what has been removed.

21 Wits said...

That is one mighty mine for sure! You are right, I've been inside quite a few mines, even in Minnesota we have the Soudan mine that takes us down in an elevator you're kind of sorry you boarded! Great post for Carmi's TP- gosh I've got to think about what to post!

Alexia said...

Wow these are really good. I can't believe i didn't think of posting our local hole-in-the-ground, our open-cast gold mine. The shots would actually look really similar to these.

Max Sartin said...

Alexia - you should post them, I'd love to see and compare your open pit to ours.

Gilly said...

Those are very interesting shots. And good photographs, too! We violate our planet - some day soon we are going to have to answer for it.