How Economic Theory Can Protect the Boundary Waters, May Myint Mo Zaw’27

May Myint Mo Zaw’27 presented about her experience during her time in the Boundary Waters in Northern Minnesota at the Coe College Wilderness Field Station. During her time there, she interviewed various people in the nearby town of Ely about the recent legislation that overturned a 20-year mining ban. Zaw spoke about how Ely has a long history of being a town that is heavily involved in mining, and how a Chilean mining company plans to come into the town start copper mining in the Boundary Waters. There are promises of jobs, resources and minimal environmental impact, but research found that while jobs will be created, pollution will still drift downstream and the resources mined will be sold off to Chinese companies. The upstream pollution will affect both the town of Ely and local native populations, including Ojibwe tribes. Using different economic frameworks like a cost benefit analysis and boom bust framework, these faults can be exposed in an attempt to save the boundary waters and the neighboring environments