The Cleanest Line

For my reading response on The Cleanest line I chose an article about gold mining harming the environment in Northern Ireland. This article caught my attention mainly because of the location. Typically when you hear about resource extracting harming the environment it’s in poor countries with very few laws regarding protecting the environment. I thought it was very odd that a country within the UK would allow this to happen. The article talked about how a Canadian gold company had received a license to gold mine a large piece of land in Northern Ireland. Most locals in the area are very against the land being used for mining due to the catasrophical effects to the environment. The goal is to gather enough support against the mines being built so that the company will back off. One really important point the article makes is how silly gold is. Gold serves very little purpose other than being used as a way for rich people to show that they’re rich. I think this is a really important point because it shows how we as a society dictate what we need and don’t need. Is it really worth it to harm the environment for a material object that can’t really be used to help our society function? I believe that we can help save the environment by cutting back on material objects like jewelry, phones, clothes, and other accessories. The fact that these groups are coming out in protest of their government and this company is really powerful and shows that if enough common people can come together they can stay up to people who don’t have good intentions.