British-owned mines, social upheavals, Maximiliano Tornet, ecological demonstration
Ecology
Ecology is often misused as a synonym for environment, but it differs from environmental studies, for example, because it is one of the few academic disciplines dedicated to holism. The environment describes all factors and scales of study that are external to an organism, including abiotic factors such as temperature, radiation, light, chemistry, climate and geology, and biotic factors, including genes, cells, organisms, members of the same species (conspecifics) and other species that share a habitat
Ecology
Ecology is the scientific study of the distributions, abundance, share affects, and relations of organisms and their interactions with each other in a common environment. The word ecology is also used in the medical field which has a somewhat different meaning. The definition here applies to the study of Nature. Ecology is the study of the interactions between life and its physical environment; the relationship between animals and plants and how one species affect another. A component in ecological study usually focuses on the ecosystem of an area. An ecosystem is the unique network of animal and plant species who depends on the other to sustain life. The interactions between and among organisms at every stage of life and death can impact the system. An ecosystem can be a small area or big as the ocean. In fact, one can say the whole world is one big ecosystem. So an ecologist could be studying and researching everything from the tiniest forms of life like bacteria to every chain of organisms it affects and how those organisms can impact the tropical rain forests, the deserts, the oceans, the atmosphere, etc. The discipline of ecology emerged from the natural sciences in the late 19th century. Ecology is not synonymous with environment, environmentalism, or environmental science. Ecology is closely related to the disciplines of physiology, evolution, genetics and behavior.
Mining Industry
Mining exists in many countries but Australia and Canada have a reputation for domestic mining expertise, and London is known as the capital of global "mining houses" such as Rio Tinto, BHP Billiton, and Anglo American PLC. The US mining industry is also large but it is dominated by the coal and nonmetal mineals, and the various regulations have worked to reduce the significance of mining in the United States. In 2007 the total market cap of mining companies was reported at US$962 billion, which compares to a total global market cap of publicly traded companies of about US$50 trillion in 2007.
While exploration and mining can sometimes be conducted by individual entrepreneurs or small business, most modern-day mines are large enterprises requiring large amounts of capital to establish. Consequently, the mining sector of the industry is dominated by large, often multinational companies, most of them publicly listed. See Mining Companies for a list. It can be argued that what is referred to as the 'mining industry' is actually two sectors, one specializing in exploration for new resources, the other specializing in mining those resources. The exploration sector is typically made up of individuals and small mineral resource companies ("juniors") dependent on venture capital. The mining sector is typically large and multi-national companies sustained by mineral production from their mining operations. In addition to these two sectors, various other industries such as equipment manufacture, environmental testing and metallurgy analysis also rely on and support the mining industry throughout the world. Canadian stock exchanges have a particular focus on mining companies, particularly junior exploration companies through the TSX Venture Exchange; Canadian companies raise capital on these exchanges and then invest the money in exploration globally. Some have argued that below juniors there exists a substantial sector of illegitimate companies primarily focused on manipulating stock prices.
Mining operations can be grouped into five major categories in terms of their respective resources. These are, oil and gas extraction, coal mining, metal ore mining, nonmetallic mineral mining and quarrying, and support activities for mining. Out of all these categories oil and gas extraction remains one of the largest in terms of its global economic importance. Prospecting potential mining sites, a vital area of concern for the mining industry is now done using sophisticated new technologies such as seismic prospecting and remote-sensing satellites.