“If the Hamersley iron deposits did not exist, then neither would we.” The massive deposits of iron ore upon which Australia’s economy so heavily depends hold vastly greater significance for us and for our species than mere money can begin to define. Most humans now live in cities and use steel motor vehicles and rail systems to move about their sprawling conurbations. Bedazzled as we are by our glittering technology it is easy to forget that we owe our existence to global pollution. If marine bacteria had not rusted the seas with their oxygen waste, and the sedimentary fallout had not formed the Hamersley Ranges, our species, like most of the others that we see about us, could not have evolved.

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