Eugene weekly., March 01, 2012, Page 11, Image 11

PHOTO BY TODD COOPER
MINES, RIVERS
AND MONGOLIA
M
PIELC brings international lawyers
BY CAMILLA MORTENSEN
PHOTO BY TODD COOPER
ongol hordes, nomadic herders, sweeping steppes, the
vast Gobi Desert. Contemplate Mongolia and images
of wild and untouched lands spring to mind. But these
days Mongolia has earned the nickname “Minegolia”
as companies rush in to exploit the area for its mineral
resources. Corporations with names like “Khan
Resources,” along with local and multinational
corporations are looking to plunder Mongolia by mining coal,
copper, gold, silver and phosphate, among others.
Erdenechimeg “Chimgee” Dashdorj and Bazardad Nanjindorj
of the Center for Human Rights and Development in Mongolia
want to see the land, air and water protected. They have come
to the U.S. through the Environmental Law Alliance Worldwide
(ELAW) to attend this week’s Public Interest Environmental Law
Conference (PIELC), present on panels and meet with attorneys
from all over the world who work on similar issues.
Through ELAW the Mongolian attorneys met Elena
Chernobrovkina, an attorney working to protect Russia’s Lake
Baikal watershed from threats posed by dams, pipelines and
mining operations. The Mongolian attorneys seek to protect the
ELENA CHERNOBROVKINA
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ROLES THÉARD
lake as well. Lake Baikal, the oldest and deepest lake in the world,
holds 20 percent of the world’s total unfrozen freshwater reserve.
Baikal, in Siberia, and the neighboring country of Mongolia are
intertwined — pollution that fl ows from Russian and Mongolian
mining operations affects the lake. And Chernobrovkina says
research shows that the vast amount of water in Lake Baikal has
a global effect — or more precisely, a global warming effect.
Damming the rivers that fl ow into the lake has changed the
local climate. And Baikal’s only outlet, the Angara River, is also
dammed, and faces more damming, which will affect the water
that fl ows from the lake into the Arctic Ocean.
Chernobrovkina and her colleague from Buryat Regional
Organization for Lake Baikal, Sergey Shapkhaev, say that Lake
Baikal “plays a crucial role in regulating the Siberian rivers’
fl ow into the Arctic Ocean.” These fl ows are “one of the key
vulnerabilities in the climate system of the Arctic.”
As a result of the damages to Lake Baikal and its rivers,
Chernobrovkina says that “now we are seeing the global climate
is also changing.”
Climate change is a global issue. Mining and pollution are
cross-border issues, Chernobrovkina says as she sits around a
table with Dashdorj, Nanjindorj and another ELAW fellow,
Roles Théard of the Haitian Environmental Foundation. Théard
says that Haiti might have mining on its horizons, and he wants
to make sure that the country isn’t hit by the problems mining has
caused elsewhere. If companies are given permission to mine,
they must commit to protecting the site, he says. “If they don’t
protect the site, they don’t have the project.”
Théard says he works to educate the Haitian people about
the need for protecting the land against soil erosion. In a country
where only 20 percent of the land is on the plains, and everything
else is mountainous, and whose major activity is agriculture, the
rural poor “put pressure on the land” as they cut trees for fuel and
to make space for farming, he says.
ELAW and PIELC have brought these geographically and
culturally separated environmental attorneys together so they
can learn from each other and gain understanding through each
country’s successes and errors. Furthermore, they will trade
knowledge with the more than 3,000 conference attendees
fl ooding the UO Law School throughout the weekend.
In Mongolia, 40 percent of the population is nomadic,
Nanjindorj explains as Dashdorj translates. “The nature is beautiful,
and the people depend on nature, environment and climate.”
“The main problem our beautiful environment is facing is
mining,” Nanjindorj continues. “Our largest commitment is to
work for the public interest and the environment.”
Mongolia has a history of rivers and streams destroyed by
mines, and according to Dashdorj, “thousands of hectares of land
without proper rehabilitation after mining.” Now there is the
prospect of more mega-mines on the horizon, and the vast land
of Ghengis Kahn and the immense waters of Lake Baikal face a
battle against further destruction.
Erdenechimeg Dashdorj and Elena Chernobrovkina speak
on a PIELC panel about Lake Baikal at 9 am Friday, March 2,
and about mining with Roles Théard and Bazardad Nanjindorj
at 10:30 am. Glenn Miller, an ELAW mining expert, joins them.
Later that same day at the conference there will be a panel on
coal exports. Peabody Coal, an American company looking to
export coal through the Northwest to China, is one of the many
foreign corporations currently mining in Mongolia.
HEINBERG AND
END OF GROWTH
According to the internationally
known author and speaker Richard
Heinberg, the balloon of growth is
on the verge of explosion. Heinberg,
known for his work on “peak oil,”
is a keynote speaker March 1 at
PIELC, and he will also be kicking off
the Eugene Neighborhood Leaders
Council’s Green Neighbors Faire
March 3 with a discussion of the
impending transformations that he
says our civilization faces.
Heinberg has written ten books,
including The Party’s Over and Peak
Everything . Peak oil is the idea that the
rate of oil extraction has hit a peak and
because there is a fi nite amount of the
resource it is now in decline.
Reviewers say Heinberg’s work
conveys civilization’s crucial need to
transition toward sustainability with
lucidity and passion. He is known for
his perspectives on such issues as the
economic crisis, food and agriculture,
community resilience and global
climate change. “I don’t think that
it’s the end of the world, but some
major things will defi nitely have to
change during our lifetimes and our
children’s lifetimes,” Heinberg said in
an interview with EW .
Heinberg’s Saturday, March 3,
presentation is called “Transitioning
After Growth: Connecting Community,
Economy, Energy and Environment.”
“I’ll be talking about the reasons that
I believe that economic growth as
we know it is coming to an end,” he
says. “I’ll explain how we’ve set up a
fi nancial system that only works when
it’s growing and how it’s coming apart
at the seams.” Heinberg will describe
how, in the face of energy descent,
society must build and rebuild local
connections and resources.
Heinberg will be speaking at
PIELC at 6 pm Thursday, March
1, along with Barbara and Ken
Brower, the children of David
Brower, a founder of the Sierra Club
Foundation, the John Muir Institute
for Environmental Studies, Friends
of the Earth and the League of
Conservation Voters.
The Green Neighbors Faire
presentation begins at 11 am at the
United Methodist Church. A daylong
workshop exploring the ways in
which Eugene is striving to build
a more sustainable economy will
follow. The faire includes workshops
and panels on topics ranging from
energy and water conservation to
bees and backyard ducks.
Admission to the Green Neigh-
bors Faire is free, and the suggested
donation for Heinberg’s talk at the
faire is $5-$10. — Caitlin McKimmy
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