Fool's Gold

In an article written for Dollars and Sense magazine, some interesting points about gold mining are pointed out. First, gold is NOT a necessity. We need food and we might even need paper, but we do not need gold. What we do need is to protect our natural resources and our environment for ourselves and for the generations of our families that are to come. It does not make any sense to completely destroy the environment and reduce resources that will produce food in order to mine for gold.

Violence, damage to water and water resources, waste rock damage, negation of indigenous rights, the release of cyanide (used to extract gold from crushed ore) into the ecosystem, mercury emissions, destruction of habitats and biodiversity, and the industrialization of wilderness lands are some of the devastating effects that gold mining has on the environment.

The article also points out that the United States value of a dollar no longer goes off of the gold standard, and therefore, it has “no special value as a commodity, with only 280 tons going to industrial uses per year.” Some governments, however, are continuing to hold on to their reserves. But after governments such as the Canadian and the British sold their reserves, the price of gold plummeted. For the 35,000 tons of bullion gold held in banks around the world, the value has already decreased by 30 percent.

What is the answer to decreasing the value of gold? The article does a good job of presenting the case for governments to sell off their reserves. When the price of gold plummets, illegal mining and destroying the environment will become less profitable. Perhaps this can contribute to a decrease in the harm being done to the environment.

For more information, read the full article at
http://www.thirdworldtraveler.com/Transnational_corps/Fools_Gold.html

Posted by Abdullah Alruwaished