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Glitter and Greed: Adverse economic, health, environmental, and human rights consequences of gold jewelry. Martin Donohoe. Uses of Gold.
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Glitter and Greed:Adverse economic, health, environmental, and human rights consequences of gold jewelry Martin Donohoe
Uses of Gold • Dominant role throughout history in the growth of empires and the evolution of the world’s financial institutions 80-90% of gold mined today turned into jewelry • 10-20% used by industry • Malleable, ductile, good thermal conductivity, durable, and resistance to corrosion
History of Gold • 4000 BC: first decorative objects • By 1500 BC: standard medium of exchange for international trade • Mid-1800s: CA/S African Gold Rushes • As with diamonds, aggressive marketing has helped to popularize the modern gold wedding band
Gold Production • Top producers: South Africa, United States, Australia, Indonesia, and China • 2500 tons mined each year • Valued at $21 billion • Typical piece of gold jewelry sells for at least 4 times the value of the gold itself
Where is the Gold? • Currently 3 times more gold sits in bank vaults, in jewelry boxes, and with private investors than is identified in underground reserves • Enough gold to meet current consumer demand for 17 years
Mining:The World’s Deadliest Industry • Tens of thousands killed over last century (40/day presently) • Union-busting/human rights abuses help maintain cheap labor force • Local communities suffer environmental damage, pollution, dislocations • STDs rampant, spread by miners to wives and children
The Resource Curse • ½ of gold produced worldwide comes from indigenous peoples’ lands • Dependence upon gold mining slows/reverses economic growth, increases poverty, and encourages governmental corruption • Benefits go to corrupt central governments and overseas corporations
The Resource Curse • Little returned to local communities • Casino economy • Rural and indigenous peoples evicted without prior consultation, meaningful compensation, or the offer of equivalent lands elsewhere • ¾ of active gold mining and exploration sites overlap with regions of high conservation value, such as National Parks and World Heritage Sites
U.S. Gold Mining • Mining Law of 1872 (mine purchase price between $2.50 and $5.00 per acre) • Generous government subsidies (cheap fuel, road building and other infrastructure, reclamation and cleanup) • Local communities stuck with multi-million to multi-billion dollar environmental cleanup costs when mines declare bankruptcy or move on • Native Americans’ rights violated
Gold MiningGold = Cyanide + Mercury • At least 18 tons of mine waste created to obtain the gold for a single 3 oz., 18k ring • Gold leached from ore using cyanide • Mercury used to capture gold particles as an amalgam • Mercury converted to neurotoxic methylmercury in environment
Gold MiningGold = Cyanide + Mercury • 4000 tons used to purify gold during 19th-Century Northern California Gold Rush • Fish in Sacramento River and San Francisco Bay still show elevated levels
Gold Mining:Environmental Damage • Contaminated groundwater often sits in large toxic lakes held in place by tenuous dams • Release of cyanide and mercury into local waterways kills fish, harms fish-eating animals, and poisons drinking water
Gold Mining:Environmental Damage • Omai gold mine in Guyana (one of the largest open-pit mines in the world): • Tailings dam failed in 1995 • 3 billion cubic liters of cyanide-laden tailings renders downstream 32 miles of Omai River, home to 23,000 people, an “environmental disaster zone”
Gold Mining:Environmental Damage • Baia Mare gold mine in Romania • Tailings dam broke in 2000 • 100,000 metric tons of toxic wastwater spilled • Fish killed, other animals harmed, drinking water of 2.5 million people in Danube River watershed • Coastal dumping of gold mine waste elsewhere damages estuaries and coral reefs
Gold, Mercury and Malaria • Mercury pollution contributes to the spread of malaria: • Mercury may lower immunity to malaria • Still pools of water serve as mosquito breeding grounds • Migrant miners import new strains, infecting indigenous peoples • E.g., Thousands of Yanomami Indians killed in Brazil in late 1960s / early 1970s
Gold: Other Environmental Harms • Gold smelting uses large amounts of energy and releases SO2, nitrogen dioxide, and other components of acid rain • Contributes to asthma, skin ailments • Release of lead causes lead poisoning
Gold: Other Environmental Harms • 40% of Western U.S. watersheds affected by gold mining pollution • More than 25 mines (some still active) on Superfund list • Mine pollution ruins farmlands and strains local food resources • Water tables decline due to pumping of enormous quantity of water to release gold from ore
Gold Mining Harms Women and Children • By displacing agriculture (where women play a major role), removes women from labor force • Concentrates economic power in hands of men • Employs a few women in low-level, clerical positions, where they face severe discrimination, sexual harassment, and firing for pregnancy • Utilizes child labor
Gold Mining: Human Rights Abuses • Grassberg mine (world’s largest, owned by U.S.-based Freeport-McMoRan) • On land seized from Amunge and Komoro peoples • Dumps tons of cyanide-laced waste into local rivers each day • Operators implicated in forced evictions, murders, rape, torture, extra-judicial killings, and arbitrary detentions • Abetted by Indonesian military, which it has paid millions of dollars
Gold Mining: Terrorism • Echo Bay Mines Limited purportedly paid off Abu Sayef (affiliated with Al Qaeda) in exchange for protection of its Philippines-based gold mine
Gold: Markets vs. Morals • Mining industry maintains strong ties with governments to maintain status quo • $21 million political contributions in U.S. between 1997 and 2001 • Subsidies make it cheaper to extract new gold than to recycle existing gold
Gold: Markets vs. Morals • U.S. government has 8,134 tons of gold secured in vaults (worth approximately $122 billion) • Federal Reserve and other major central banks have agreed to severely restrict sales from their reserves, offering, in effect, a price support to gold
Gold: Markets vs. Morals • Gold mining supported by World Bank and its profit-making arm, the International Finance Corporation • Gold industry blocking International Monetary Fund- and World Bank-sponsored debt-forgiveness package
Symbols of Love: Alternatives and Solutions • Gold: • No Dirty Gold Campaign: • Halt to production and sale of gold produced at expense of communities, workers, and the environment • Mining companies not to operate in areas of armed conflict • Companies representing 23% of US jewelry market (accounting for $14.5 billion in sales) pledged • Take the pledge at http://www.nodirtygold.org • System similar to Kimberly Process
No Dirty Gold Campaign • Companies pledged include: • Zale Corporation • Signet Group (parent firm of Sterling and Kay jewelers) • Tiffany and Company • Helzberg Diamonds • JC Penney
No Dirty Gold Campaign • Companies pledged include: • Cartier • Piaget • Van Cleef and Arpels • Fred Meyer • Wal-Mart • Jostens • QVC
No Dirty Gold Campaign • Companies not pledged include: • Target • Rolex • Sears/Kmart • Pledging is just the first step
Alternatives and Solutions • International Labor Organization’s Convention #169 Concerning Indigenous and Tribal Peoples in Independent Countries • Requires culturally-relevant consultation before appropriation of indigenous peoples’ lands and that indigenous peoples participate in benefits of mining • Signed and ratified by 19 countries (but none of major gold mining countries)
Alternatives and Solutions • Consumer pressure, boycotts, shareholder resolutions • Consider recycled/vintage gold, eco-friendly gold, alternatives to traditional wedding ring/class ring • Develop biological and chemical treatments to decrease/destroy cyanide, mercury and other mining contaminants
Alternatives and Solutions • Consider alternative tokens of affection • Homemade gifts (cards, photo collages, videos, poems, meals, home improvement projects) • Donations to charities • Eco-jewelry made from recycled materials by indigenous peoples • Profits returned to local communities, providing wide-ranging social and economic benefit
Conclusions • Gold production involves significant damage to local communities and the environment and harms men, women and children • Production supports human rights abuses, armed conflict, and even terrorism • Symbols of love should not be constant reminders of death and destruction • Consider alternative symbols of love • Work for social justice and change
Paper/References Donohoe MT. Flowers, diamonds, and gold: The destructive human rights and environmental consequences of symbols of love. Human Rights Quarterly 2008;30:164-82. http://www.publichealthandsocialjustice.org http://www.phsj.org martindonohoe@phsj.org