Opponents of the quarry also question the impact in terms of noise, dust and pollution levels of the estimated many hundreds of trucks a day that will transport the aggregate away from the quarry site. The social and cultural fabric of the area, the esthetics of its landscapes, the health of its fish and wildlife, the toxicity levels of the land and water, the viability of a ‘local food’ movement, all these and other contentious issues have come into the debate surrounding the proposed mega-quarry. The book of photography that follows does not argue a position or purport to answer the difficult questions. The issues are admittedly complex. We are neither the first nor the last community whose interests may be displaced by the agenda of a multi-national resource extraction company. Around the globe, mining companies contribute simultaneously to growth and destruction: The interests of development and modern ‘essentials’ (roads, buildings, computers and cell phones to name a few) cannot exist without large scale resource extraction that often destroys the local environment and, sometimes even, the life of its inhabitants. Do we care more in this case because it is happening in our own backyard? I would suggest not. Rather, the proposed mega-quarry opens our minds to, and enables us to care more about, the experiences of those globally who wake up feeling displaced, fearful, powerless, or simply questioning the seemingly insatiable demands of ‘development’.
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