Robert Redford opposes mega-mine in Alaska

Veteran actor and director Robert Redford has expressed his opposition to mining in Alaska, underscoring an ‘environmental tragedy waits to happen’ should the plan pushes through.

“I'm not against mining. I am against putting mega-mines where they don't belong,” Robert Redford said in his article posted on Huffington Post, “As Companies Gather for Shareholder Meetings, Opposition to Bristol Bay Mine Mounts”.

The actor began with the impact of a mining company in his hometown in Utah.

He said: “Near my home in Utah, Rio Tinto's massive Bingham Canyon Mine is one of the biggest man-made excavations on Earth and has rendered a large area of local groundwater too polluted for human consumption.”

The actor then expressed concern warning how things could go wrong if a mining company of the same magnitude is set up in Alaska, a place “filled with salmon, bears, moose, caribou, wolves and whales”.

Redford said: “Now, the Rio Tinto and Anglo American companies want to put a mine even bigger than Bingham at the headwaters of our planet's greatest wild salmon river systems in Bristol Bay, Alaska. It's an environmental tragedy waiting to happen.”

The environmental activist continued describing the beauty that will be destroyed by the Pebble Mine.

He said: “Their Pebble Mine would be gouged out of an American paradise -- filled with salmon, bears, moose, caribou, wolves and whales -- that has sustained Native communities for thousands of years.”

Robert Redford is Charles Robert Redford Jr. in real life and best known for his films including Butch Cassidy and the Sundance Kid (1969), Jeremiah Johnson (1972), The Candidate (1972), The Sting (1973), The Way We Were (1973), The Great Gatsby (1974), Three Days of the Condor (1975), All the President's Men (1976), The Natural (1984), Out of Africa (1985), and Sneakers (1992).

He is not only an actor but he has also directed and produced hit movies including Ordinary People (1980), A River Runs Through It (1992), Quiz Show (1994), The Horse Whisperer (1998), and The Legend of Bagger Vance (2000).
Redford is also an active environmentalist, philanthropist and a businessman. The actor has also two Oscar awards to his credit. His achievements also includes founding the successful and highly regarded Sundance Film Festival.