Great Journey 🇸🇪 Day 534
When you are in Kiruna, you can't help but learn about the world's largest iron ore mine. In every local family there are several people who work in or for the state mine.
Every year, around 20 to 30 million tonnes of ore are brought out of the mine. Shafts are currently being dug over 1360 metres underground. What is it all for? Iron and its derivatives.
We set off to take a closer look, book a tour down into the interior of the mountain, which is getting a little smaller every day. Kiruna itself sinks a little deeper every year, parts of the old town have to be relocated. In 2040, Kiruna is supposed to stand 5 kilometres to the east with a new old town centre. This also explains a bit of the charmlessness of the current town...
We are sitting in a bus that actually takes us to minus 500 metres. Main road here, crossroads there. Everything is underground. We get out, put on helmets that make us look pretty dumb, and let ourselves be guided through disused shafts for about 3 hours. We learn a lot about mining, about the responsibility regarding ecological damage (although it all sounds a bit like green-washing) and above all about the quantities that are scrubbed out of the mountain here.
The technology is impressive, the progress rapid and the information masses! At some point, our brains are overflowing with numbers and concepts. We (and also the other visitors) keep shaking our heads. What is man doing to nature?
Only to pick up our own smartphone (partly based on iron ore?) a little later, take pictures with the camera (partly based on iron ore?) and later get into the car/van (partly based on iron ore?). Here we turn on the cooker (partly based on iron ore?) and cook a hot chocolate in the saucepan (partly based on iron ore?).
Yes, yes, let's just shake our heads. We are all part of the problem ourselves. And unfortunately we don't have a solution that suits us.
