Swanson School of Engineering

The safety and environmental costs are always placed upon the locals who depend on the extraction and make it possible. As we saw in the rain today, the dust from the marble (the calcium carbonate) flows down the mountain and effects the nearby mountain environment. We also heard from our tour guide in the museum that the mines today— while having a lower rate of injury— still experiences a large scale incident once in a year. While the Carrara mines were able to benefit from industrialization, there are still many places across the world where an important resource, or a lucrative resource is not able to be found naturally using machines. For example, cobalt and mica mines still are extremely human labor intensive and many people are injured in the harsh, unregulated conditions. Even beyond engineers, all anyone sourcing material for anything should examine their supply chain and ensure human practices are being used in production. Many materials, unlike Carrara marble, can at least be synthesized or recycled.