etcm; I will agree with you that a thermonuclear detonation is a bad thing, once the Guvnor of our fair state decided he knew best about fishery mgt and tried to take over BB openings. Courts shut him down within 24 hrs, but special interests have political power. Look at the bycatch in the drag fisheries, think reason can change that? Go for it. Not sure about drug users, but yes there are places north of BB that only have one buyer and if he doesn't show they don't have a fishery. China has done quite a bit of regulating the people population.
The understanding I have on the Pebble prospect is that it is the headwaters of productive salmon streams and normally stuff like Arsenic is used to extract metals from ore than apparently precipitated out and leaves behind a toxic fluid that would impact salmon survival for years, in a negative way.
Because of the fish and wildlife resources in BB people have and are able to survive regardless of the presence or absence of dividends.