Originally I posted this as part of a response to another thread started by Shivan about being watched, but when I finished this diatribe I re-read it and realised I had gone off-topic.
It was too good a rant, and too much typing to waste. So I have started this topic to post it.
I have had a recent discussion with a Watermelon (green on the outside, pink inside) which saw me defending the "environmental vandalism" that is our hobby. She wasn't impressed at my choice of passtime.
So in the guise of an explanation, what I did was I showed her a google earth view of my favourite prospecting spot from about 1km elevation. I explained to her that each hole I dig when detecting (which I backfill of course) is less than 1 pixel on screen at that height. Indeed I have calculated it to be aproximately 1/100th of a pixel. So that IF I could dig 100 holes in a day (10 x10 holes) it would account for 1 whole pixel per day. IF I would then repeat this every day for 100 days = 100 pixels, and IF I do that for 10 years (1,000 pixels). Then IF another thousand (for ease of calcs) of my best & closest mates came and did exactly the same in the same location for 100 days a year (100,000 pixels) and IF they stayed for 10 years = 1,000,000 pixels.
I then pointed out that as my screen resolution was 1920x1080 full screen = 2,073,600 pixels, you could say that combined we could all working together dig up about half my screen. Which I used Google Earth's measuring tool to show was an area of approximately 250m x 250m (a few sporting fields)
Reminded her that all these IFs had to come together in one location for 10 years of intensive work.
I told her to keep an eye on the area of environmental vandalism we could possibly cause!
And then I started to slowly zoom out.
When I got high enough to see a nearby town I mentioned that would take 100 years for us to turnover that land area (everyone working together) and I just kept on zooming out. A billion years to dig up NSW.....
Then I reminded her that we dig lots of little holes all over the country, not all in one spot like my example, and we backfill them anyway.
Once the area on my screen representing the amount of digging we could altogether possibly manage had itself zoomed out to being 1 pixel in size, I showed her an overlay of the extent of the recent bushfires in victoria, I then continued to zoom out and then overlayed the extent of the queensland floods. (as an aside I had showed her the size of my highbanker hole earlier, and now showed her the same location after a flood had gone through....)
Then I just kept zooming out until you could see the whole of Australia on screen. When I got to that scale (approx altitude 6000km up) I simply asked her to show me the city of Sydney, the largest construction and civil engineering project in Australia. She could not point to it. (At night she might have found it)
I asked her if she thought it was worthwhile having thousands of people every year pick up sharp metal objects from the ground in parks, reservers and forests, people who remove lead shot & bullets from the environment, who remove barbed wire and nails, people who volunteer, indeed pay their own way to perform this service?
As for turbidity, even if we highbanked straight into the creek, all of us working together would be out-turbidified by 10mm of rain.
The point of all this is: When you get the opportunity to show a watermelon from the city just how bloody huge this country is - do it. The trick is maintaining their attention span long enough to show them. They have their very firm fixed beliefs and nothing you say is going to sway them. We are evil people who destroy nature for fun.
As for dealing with the pinkness:
They claim that the wealth in the ground belongs to the people.
a) that wealth is worth nothing in the ground
b) I am a "people" and I would like to share that wealth and not see it go to mining companies, and I am prepared to work to earn it from the ground.
c) I share the wealth around indirectly by spending money in small local economies (certainly more than I make from gold prospecting)
As a digger I encourage others to go out and see how wonderful this land of ours is, how rich, diverse and bloody big it is. Enjoy the environment, don't wrap it in cotton wool for fear of looking at it so hard you damage it. I don't pass judgement on the environmental vandalism of fossickers from the chaise lounge of an inner city cafe latte club.
Anyway, that was my rebuttal.
It was too good a rant, and too much typing to waste. So I have started this topic to post it.
I have had a recent discussion with a Watermelon (green on the outside, pink inside) which saw me defending the "environmental vandalism" that is our hobby. She wasn't impressed at my choice of passtime.
So in the guise of an explanation, what I did was I showed her a google earth view of my favourite prospecting spot from about 1km elevation. I explained to her that each hole I dig when detecting (which I backfill of course) is less than 1 pixel on screen at that height. Indeed I have calculated it to be aproximately 1/100th of a pixel. So that IF I could dig 100 holes in a day (10 x10 holes) it would account for 1 whole pixel per day. IF I would then repeat this every day for 100 days = 100 pixels, and IF I do that for 10 years (1,000 pixels). Then IF another thousand (for ease of calcs) of my best & closest mates came and did exactly the same in the same location for 100 days a year (100,000 pixels) and IF they stayed for 10 years = 1,000,000 pixels.
I then pointed out that as my screen resolution was 1920x1080 full screen = 2,073,600 pixels, you could say that combined we could all working together dig up about half my screen. Which I used Google Earth's measuring tool to show was an area of approximately 250m x 250m (a few sporting fields)
Reminded her that all these IFs had to come together in one location for 10 years of intensive work.
I told her to keep an eye on the area of environmental vandalism we could possibly cause!
And then I started to slowly zoom out.
When I got high enough to see a nearby town I mentioned that would take 100 years for us to turnover that land area (everyone working together) and I just kept on zooming out. A billion years to dig up NSW.....
Then I reminded her that we dig lots of little holes all over the country, not all in one spot like my example, and we backfill them anyway.
Once the area on my screen representing the amount of digging we could altogether possibly manage had itself zoomed out to being 1 pixel in size, I showed her an overlay of the extent of the recent bushfires in victoria, I then continued to zoom out and then overlayed the extent of the queensland floods. (as an aside I had showed her the size of my highbanker hole earlier, and now showed her the same location after a flood had gone through....)
Then I just kept zooming out until you could see the whole of Australia on screen. When I got to that scale (approx altitude 6000km up) I simply asked her to show me the city of Sydney, the largest construction and civil engineering project in Australia. She could not point to it. (At night she might have found it)
I asked her if she thought it was worthwhile having thousands of people every year pick up sharp metal objects from the ground in parks, reservers and forests, people who remove lead shot & bullets from the environment, who remove barbed wire and nails, people who volunteer, indeed pay their own way to perform this service?
As for turbidity, even if we highbanked straight into the creek, all of us working together would be out-turbidified by 10mm of rain.
The point of all this is: When you get the opportunity to show a watermelon from the city just how bloody huge this country is - do it. The trick is maintaining their attention span long enough to show them. They have their very firm fixed beliefs and nothing you say is going to sway them. We are evil people who destroy nature for fun.
As for dealing with the pinkness:
They claim that the wealth in the ground belongs to the people.
a) that wealth is worth nothing in the ground
b) I am a "people" and I would like to share that wealth and not see it go to mining companies, and I am prepared to work to earn it from the ground.
c) I share the wealth around indirectly by spending money in small local economies (certainly more than I make from gold prospecting)
As a digger I encourage others to go out and see how wonderful this land of ours is, how rich, diverse and bloody big it is. Enjoy the environment, don't wrap it in cotton wool for fear of looking at it so hard you damage it. I don't pass judgement on the environmental vandalism of fossickers from the chaise lounge of an inner city cafe latte club.
Anyway, that was my rebuttal.
