TABLE OF CONTENTS Many environmental issues and problems do not properly fit within a single media. Metals are particularly troublesome, since they can readily change forms and move within and among the water, air, sediment, soil, and biota. Some problems are better defined by scale, such as planetary problems of ozone depletion and climate change. Other problems are better addressed from the standpoint of risk assessment and risk perception, such as product scares. And other problems, though having technical aspects, are best approached as societal and cultural problems, such as those that have come about because of injustices.
This eclectic mix of cases in Part III provides insights into some of the most important emerging environmental problems and opportunities to address them.
Men's mighty mine-machines digging in the ground, Stealing rare minerals where they can be found. Concrete caves with iron doors bury it again, While a starving frightened world fills the sea with grain.
Mike Pender, Why Is It We Are Here? 1970
Since the Iron Age, humans have depended on metals in their quests to modernize. Metals are needed for industry, farming, defense, housing, transportation, and almost every aspect of contemporary life. But, as Pender points out, finding and extracting metals is a costly enterprise. Pender's song is part of a collection from the Moody Blues' album A Question...
