Letters

Earth fights back

The increase in volcanic activity and earthquakes around the world should alert us to a more deadly aspect of climate change and global warming. So far we have only been assessing the damage that pollution and environmental degradation have done to the surface of the earth and the atmosphere, caused by increased human activity and the extensive use of non-renewable energy sources.

As far as I know, little or no research has been carried out on the effects of extracting fossil fuels, iron ore, and other materials from the earth itself. It may well be that, just as the surface of the earth is suffering from the over-use of fossil fuels, so too is the earth itself suffering from so much material being extracted from beneath its surface. This may be contributing to the current increase in seismic activity around the world.