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Image is from this article on the excellent Canadian environmental journalism outlet, The Narwhal.


The Giant Mine just outside of Yellowknife, Northwest Territories, Canada is one of the country's largest recognized environmental liabilities. The mine's 100 plus year history illustrates the continuity between resource colonialism in the late 19th/early 20th century and neoliberalism at the turn of the millennium.

There were several gold rushes in northern Canada/US in the late 19th century, such as the Klondike. The Giant gold strike on was first discovered by settlers about the same time as the Klondike, but as Giant is on Great Slave Lake (named for an Anglicization of the name of local peoples, not after slavery) instead of the Pacific Ocean, it is much less accessible and didn't take off like the Klondike. Parallel with displacement of local Yellowknives Dene people https://ykdene.com/, the town of Yellowknife sprung up around small mining operations through the 30s. It wasn't until after WW2 that the mine was developed at a large scale. Starting operation in 1948, Giant was owned by a Canadian mining conglomerate through the 80s, then some Australians, and for the last ten years of its operating life, by Americans, who went bankrupt and abandoned the property in 1999. The Canadian federal government is responsible for the site and its remediation now, similar to the way the EPA has Superfund sites in the USA.

The project is infamous for poisoning the people and environment of the surrounding area through arsenic poisoning. The ore at giant is arsenopyrite, an arsenic sulphide mineral that often contains gold. Roasting it in large furnaces or kilns releases the gold as well as fine arsenic trioxide dust. The most infamous arsenic poisoning incident was in 1951 when a Yellowknives Dene toddler in died after eating contaminated snow in the fallout area, 2 kilometers from the processing mill's smokestack. Over the years, improvements to the mill reduced the amount of toxic dust released to the environment. This is better than blasting it into the air wildly, but meant that the site accumulated hundreds of thousands of tonnes of arsenic trioxide dust that they chucked in empty mine workings underground. Unfortunately, arsenic trioxide dissolves in water as easily as sugar and so represents a tremendous risk to groundwater and waterbodies nearby, like Great Slave Lake and Yellowknife's water supply.

Arsenic issues contributed to labour disputes as well. In 1991 the union workers of the plant went on strike, refusing management's demand to reduce their salary and wanting better safety measures for workers . The company brought in Pinkertons and strikebreakers, backed by RCMP thugs. The situation escalated, culminating in a bomb planted on a train track deep in the mine. When it was triggered, it killed 6 scabs and 3 Pinkertons. For the next year, the RCMP interrogated mine workers, their family and community without determining who did it, supporting the company in their refusal to sign a new contract until an arrest was made. Finally a worker named Roger Warren confessed to doing it alone and was sentenced to life in prison. He was released in 2014 and died in 2017.

Since 1999, the site has been the responsibility of the Canadian federal government and is being every so gradually remediated. Operated through what are effectively private-public partnership contracts, environmental engineering companies are attempting to clean up and isolate the huge amounts of arsenic trioxide dust. The concept is move the dust into specially ventilated chambers of the underground mine, where it is frozen in place and thus prevented from leaching into groundwater. Active remediation is supposed to be finished in about 15 years at a cost of $1 billion CAD, but will surely take longer and cost more than this. Also, freezing material in place will definitely work because the climate isn't changing, and the Canadian north is definitely not seeing extreme levels of temperature rise.

After active works are complete, the site will require perpetual care.


Please check out the HexAtlas!

The bulletins site is here!
The RSS feed is here.
Last week's thread is here.

Israel-Palestine Conflict

If you have evidence of Israeli crimes and atrocities that you wish to preserve, there is a thread here in which to do so.

Sources on the fighting in Palestine against Israel. In general, CW for footage of battles, explosions, dead people, and so on:

UNRWA reports on Israel's destruction and siege of Gaza and the West Bank.

English-language Palestinian Marxist-Leninist twitter account. Alt here.
English-language twitter account that collates news.
Arab-language twitter account with videos and images of fighting.
English-language (with some Arab retweets) Twitter account based in Lebanon. - Telegram is @IbnRiad.
English-language Palestinian Twitter account which reports on news from the Resistance Axis. - Telegram is @EyesOnSouth.
English-language Twitter account in the same group as the previous two. - Telegram here.

English-language PalestineResist telegram channel.
More telegram channels here for those interested.

Russia-Ukraine Conflict

Examples of Ukrainian Nazis and fascists
Examples of racism/euro-centrism during the Russia-Ukraine conflict

Sources:

Defense Politics Asia's youtube channel and their map. Their youtube channel has substantially diminished in quality but the map is still useful.
Moon of Alabama, which tends to have interesting analysis. Avoid the comment section.
Understanding War and the Saker: reactionary sources that have occasional insights on the war.
Alexander Mercouris, who does daily videos on the conflict. While he is a reactionary and surrounds himself with likeminded people, his daily update videos are relatively brainworm-free and good if you don't want to follow Russian telegram channels to get news. He also co-hosts The Duran, which is more explicitly conservative, racist, sexist, transphobic, anti-communist, etc when guests are invited on, but is just about tolerable when it's just the two of them if you want a little more analysis.
Simplicius, who publishes on Substack. Like others, his political analysis should be soundly ignored, but his knowledge of weaponry and military strategy is generally quite good.
On the ground: Patrick Lancaster, an independent and very good journalist reporting in the warzone on the separatists' side.

Unedited videos of Russian/Ukrainian press conferences and speeches.

Pro-Russian Telegram Channels:

Again, CW for anti-LGBT and racist, sexist, etc speech, as well as combat footage.

https://t.me/aleksandr_skif ~ DPR's former Defense Minister and Colonel in the DPR's forces. Russian language.
https://t.me/Slavyangrad ~ A few different pro-Russian people gather frequent content for this channel (~100 posts per day), some socialist, but all socially reactionary. If you can only tolerate using one Russian telegram channel, I would recommend this one.
https://t.me/s/levigodman ~ Does daily update posts.
https://t.me/patricklancasternewstoday ~ Patrick Lancaster's telegram channel.
https://t.me/gonzowarr ~ A big Russian commentator.
https://t.me/rybar ~ One of, if not the, biggest Russian telegram channels focussing on the war out there. Actually quite balanced, maybe even pessimistic about Russia. Produces interesting and useful maps.
https://t.me/epoddubny ~ Russian language.
https://t.me/boris_rozhin ~ Russian language.
https://t.me/mod_russia_en ~ Russian Ministry of Defense. Does daily, if rather bland updates on the number of Ukrainians killed, etc. The figures appear to be approximately accurate; if you want, reduce all numbers by 25% as a 'propaganda tax', if you don't believe them. Does not cover everything, for obvious reasons, and virtually never details Russian losses.
https://t.me/UkraineHumanRightsAbuses ~ Pro-Russian, documents abuses that Ukraine commits.

Pro-Ukraine Telegram Channels:

Almost every Western media outlet.
https://discord.gg/projectowl ~ Pro-Ukrainian OSINT Discord.
https://t.me/ice_inii ~ Alleged Ukrainian account with a rather cynical take on the entire thing.


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[-] SeventyTwoTrillion@hexbear.net 97 points 2 days ago* (last edited 2 days ago)

@carpoftruth@hexbear.net is hosting the news megathread this week while I'm busy irl!

Make sure to head to the US electoral containment thread for everything to do with the election on a domestic level, as we don't want too much US-centric news to flood this thread. Discussion of Harris' or Trump's potential geopolitical impacts is still perfectly fine here.

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[-] Redcuban1959@hexbear.net 12 points 32 minutes ago

During the campaign, Trump advocated increasing protectionist tariffs to stop imports, especially from China, in order to stimulate domestic production and, consequently, the US economy.

This could have repercussions for Brazil, since the country has China as one of its main trading partners. The Republican has also threatened to retaliate against those who exchange the dollar for the Chinese currency, the yuan, in commercial transactions.

De-dollarization is one of Brazil's main flagships with the BRICS, precisely to expand trade in the local currencies of the countries in the group and, in practice, to circumvent the dollar Trump may also boycott the climate summit to be held in Brazil, which could be emptied without the presence of the United States. In addition, he has repeatedly denied certain climate consensuses, such as the effects of global warming.

[-] HelltakerHomosexual@hexbear.net 19 points 45 minutes ago

US officially announced donald trump as the next elected president, all the news sites from CNN to FOX have called it for trump

https://www.washingtonpost.com/elections/2024/11/06/trump-harris-presidential-election-live-updates/ https://www.aljazeera.com/news/liveblog/2024/11/5/us-election-results-live-polls-shut-in-trump-harris-indiana-kentucky-race https://www.foxnews.com/live-news/2024-presidential-election-results-news https://www.cnn.com/politics/live-news/election-trump-harris-11-06-24/index.html

it seems kamala's strategy of not trying fucking flopped, who knew?

It also seems that republicans have gained a majority in every branch of government. the senate and the governors have a republican majority, while the house is still heavily contested, but leaning towards republicans.

what does this change? nothing. America is descending towards fascism either way.

[-] Frogmanfromlake@hexbear.net 6 points 14 minutes ago* (last edited 9 minutes ago)

This US election outcome seems to be testing the resolve of a lot of leftists who were earlier discussing how both parties served the same masters and change wouldn’t be that different under either one. A lot of them have quickly turned to doomerism after years of seemingly expecting this outcome.

In Guatemala it’s more of a shoulder shrug. We weren’t expecting much from Kamala and Trump didn’t really have any major impact on us. No more than every other President that’s been increasingly anti-immigrant

[-] grandepequeno@hexbear.net 12 points 1 hour ago

Branko Milanovic's take on Trump/Democrats and Russia/China

The conventional view is that Trump is good for Russia and bad for China.

The truth is the oposite. He is bad for Russia b/c he will be unable, due to general opposition to him, to end the war in Ukraine.

He is good for China b/c he will not wage a (crazy) ideological war that Biden did, but will be a transactional president.

China can live much more comfortably with a US president who insists that they should buy more soya beans than with the president who wants to overthrow their political system.

[-] RNAi@hexbear.net 8 points 31 minutes ago* (last edited 31 minutes ago)

What if Trump chooses to not get involved in anything due to fear of more ear piercings and let the capable ghouls run the death machine?

[-] anaesidemus@hexbear.net 28 points 2 hours ago

Fucking lol, European lapdogs rush to congratulate tromp in a stunning display of performative civility.

Putin, who is in the minds of liberals Trumps greatest ally, will not congratulate him since the US is a hostile country and will instead judge him on his deeds.

[-] ClathrateG@hexbear.net 19 points 2 hours ago

I'm in non-burger land and have been awake for about 5 mins, did donny boy win? Lol I knew I should have put some money on it

[-] HelltakerHomosexual@hexbear.net 8 points 44 minutes ago

he's won now officially

[-] CarmineCatboy2@hexbear.net 27 points 3 hours ago* (last edited 3 hours ago)

While this is breaking the containment measures a bit, it's at least news thread adjacent: I'll be quite interested to see how certain right wing anti Ukraine War commentators we occasionally source from will contort themselves to justify the reasons why Trump will (probably) just continue all the anti Russia, pro Zionist, anti China policies of the american state.

Likewise, as some others have mentioned - I'm looking forward to liberal opinion on the genocidal war against the gaza ghetto. Some think that Trump will give them a justification to emulate a conscience. I'm more of the opinion that they'll scapegoat muslim americans the same way they are scapegoating latinos now.

[-] Redcuban1959@hexbear.net 7 points 47 minutes ago

How do you think Trump will deal with Latin America? I think he'll probably ignore or just continue what Biden did (coup in Peru, support for Ecuador and Argentina, sanctions on Nicaragua, Venezuela and Cuba). I doubt Bolsonaro or Camacho will get anything out of it, since they both lost their political rights, but I think it will push the socdem governments (except Boric lol) more towards China. Milei will be very happy, which is annoying, but I doubt he'll get anything from Trump and will probably be called a slur or told to get a haircut.

[-] Staines@hexbear.net 13 points 2 hours ago

Emulating a conscience might just be too much to ask from them.

Liberals will always let you down.

[-] GeorgeZBush@hexbear.net 27 points 3 hours ago

I honestly don't think Gaza had a major impact on Copmala losing. Trump's victory was assured in August 2021.

[-] SkolShakedown@hexbear.net 13 points 3 hours ago

remind me what happened that month again?

[-] GeorgeZBush@hexbear.net 21 points 2 hours ago

Afghanistan withdrawal. That was the real start of the Let's Go Brandon era

[-] GeorgeZBush@hexbear.net 3 points 2 hours ago

Afghanistan withdrawal. That was the real start of the Let's Go Brandon era

[-] HonestMistake_@lemmy.ml 29 points 3 hours ago
[-] SexUnderSocialism@hexbear.net 4 points 46 minutes ago

I'm with Marshal Tito. 07

[-] Redcuban1959@hexbear.net 3 points 46 minutes ago

Big if True

[-] sisatici@hexbear.net 48 points 5 hours ago

Here is another iconic image

[-] bazingabrain@hexbear.net 25 points 3 hours ago

I know 1984 is a dead horse way past decomposition and dust, but this is literally 1984, peace=hate lmao. Comically evil.

[-] HoiPolloi@hexbear.net 28 points 3 hours ago

Honestly, the cry bully fascism of the Israelis it's just infuriating at this point. How can anyone say that with a straight face.

[-] vovchik_ilich@hexbear.net 17 points 4 hours ago

Hahahahahahahahhahagaga

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[-] SoyViking@hexbear.net 43 points 5 hours ago* (last edited 5 hours ago)

Following recent electoral developments in Burgerland, Euro libs are shitting and pissing themselves over how the Ukraine war will proceed.

Michael Aastrup Jensen, Liberal Party chair of the foreign policy committee of the f Danish Parliament has reacted to said electoral developments by posting the following on X, the everything app (formerly Twitter):

The EU and the rest of NATO must make sure to shoulder the necessary responsibility, for this war must not be lost. This is really a fateful hour for it the EU can put action behind the pretty words about unity.

His Estonian counterpart Marko Mikhelson is equally salty and has posted:

Good morning Europe! Be ready to fight for yourself and your friends

He goes on to write that NATO's "hardest years are ahead of us" and that Europe should do everything it can to maintain the pro-American alliance.

Seeing their tears already makes me happy.

[-] HoiPolloi@hexbear.net 28 points 3 hours ago

What can they do about it? The US blew up Nordstream and the Germans didn't even complain.

[-] thethirdgracchi@hexbear.net 50 points 6 hours ago

zelensky-pain Zelensky is about to have an awful morning.

[-] ShimmeringKoi@hexbear.net 12 points 1 hour ago

My "feeling better about my life by reminding myself at least I'm not Zelensky" strategy continues to pay dividends.

[-] jackmarxist@hexbear.net 9 points 2 hours ago

It has been Zelenskover since the Kursk Invasion 2.0 lmao. Nothing but L's since then.

[-] kleeon@hexbear.net 1 points 4 minutes ago

Invading Kursk tends to do that

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this post was submitted on 04 Nov 2024
125 points (99.2% liked)

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