Resource-intensive industries could also be called land-intensive industries. Clearly, this type of industry involved sectors dependent on land and related resources, the most typical being agriculture and mining.
East Africa was a major agricultural and mining power. Agriculture needed no further explanation, while mining had expanded at breakneck speed alongside the expansion of East Africa's territory. Especially in central and southern East Africa, large numbers of cities had sprung up because of mineral resources.
As economic cooperation with Germany and Austria unfolded, East Africa's mineral exports also began climbing year by year. Agriculture was one thing; because East Africa's chemical industry lagged behind, agriculture still mainly relied on organic farming. Mineral development, however, caused extremely serious pollution of land and rivers.
Take Kabwe City as an example. Do not underestimate Kabwe merely because it was an obscure city. In Ernst's previous life, Kabwe had been one of the ten most polluted cities in the world.
Kabwe City's key mineral advantages were lead and zinc. Their extraction caused severe heavy-metal pollution, and it was almost irreversible. Yet humanity's demand for lead and zinc was indispensable, so a lead-zinc production area like Kabwe City could not possibly be shut down directly by East Africa. On the contrary, output had to be increased to meet the demands of electric power, military industry, metallurgy, chemicals, and other sectors.
"We cannot turn a blind eye to industrial pollution prevention, blindly pursuing production efficiency while neglecting environmental issues—especially environmental issues in inland regions," Ernst specifically emphasized at a government meeting.
"Mineral resource development produces massive amounts of pollution, which, in order, comes in solid, liquid, and gaseous forms."
"Gaseous pollution is indeed difficult to address, but solid and liquid pollution must be dealt with as they arise. After all, resource development in mining produces huge amounts