Any type of mining releases Carbon Dioxide and Methane gas, both of which are greenhouse gases which add to global warming and climate change. In gold mining Cyanide is also discharged and small concentrations of this can be harmful to people and wildlife. Other risks in mining involve collapsing of the mine. For example, as we all know of the recent incident of the Chile miners being trapped nearly 700m below the Earth's surface. This was quite a dangerous incident caused by a mine that collapsed and the miners were lucky to come out alive. In some cases, the workers aren't as lucky. Just days after the Chile miners were rescued, four miners in Ecuador were trapped 150m underground, out of which 2 were found dead and the other two are still missing.
I think IT can help reduce the risk of future incidents. This can be done by having better communication systems with the miners underground so their position can be regularly monitored. They could also install sensors in the mine which could indicate if a mine was getting too weak and if that was the case, they could take extra precautions or in the worse case, change the mine location.
Jawad
An interesting appreciation of the future role(s) of IT in the company, and they seem to respond to the mission and vision, don't you think?
ReplyDeleteIT also played a key role in the Chilean miners case bu enabling communication. Shame that it became a media spectacle in my view. The power of IT can be harnessed in many different ways!
Regards,
JR