action alert!
I spent most of my childhood in the Holaveden forest, in the fields and meadows around Lake Vättern in southern Sweden. But now the government has given a Canadian company, Tasman Metals, a 25-year-lease to open a huge rare earth mine nearby.
Dear Friends,
Rare earth minerals, which are used in everything from cell phones to wind turbines, may be valuable. But extracting them from the ground can be incredibly dangerous.The projects can produce ponds that leak acids, heavy metals, toxic waste and radioactive elements into groundwater -- putting the surrounding environment in peril.
Tasman Metals has not set aside any funds for clean up and says the Norra Karr mine is safe. But rare earth mining is far from that. In China, 50 years of rare earth mining has, according to the State Council, severely damaged surface vegetation, caused soil erosion, pollution, and acidification, and reduced or even eliminated food crop output." Mines in other countries have put local residents at increased risk of lung, pancreatic and other cancers.
Do we really want the same thing to happen in Sweden, especially considering how close the mine's site will be to Lake Vättern and an enormous nature preserve?
As a child, I spent thousands of hours in silence just observing the animals, little ones and big ones like moose, near Lake Vättern. Tell the government to revoke Tasman's lease and stop the Norra Karr mine!
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Thank you for taking action,
Anna Bäck Care2 and ThePetitionSite Team
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