Turkish olive producers vow to fight gold miners

Gold mining causes more harm than just the emissions it releases into the environment and the damage it does to the land. Mining for gold also affects the farming and other industries. Consider, for instance, olive trees. Right now, growing olives is a billions of dollars a year business, but companies wanting to buy the land used for growing olive trees are threatening the livelihood of olive producers. In the article “Turkish olive producers vow to fight gold miners,” the author wrote quoted a Turkish olive grower as stating, “Olive oil production is increasing. Annual consumption per person has risen from one kilogram to 1.5 kilos in five years. But the mining sector has an eye on our olive trees. If they succeed, we will not be able to harvest anymore.”

While olive trees can produce for thousands of years, the average lifespan of a gold mine is about ten years. So, gold mining will come into an area where olive trees are grown, and destroy the soil and air around it, making it impossible to continue to grow the olive trees. The mathematics of that comparison just does not add up. Gold will eventually run out, and there will be no more to mine. But olive trees could continue to be profitable and used to provide sustenance for thousands of years per tree. It just doesn’t make sense to kill olive trees to mine for gold to make more jewelry. The final quote of the article says it all: “Obviously the best option is to exploit both those resources that are on the surface as well as those lying beneath. But that is not always possible. And in this case we need to opt for what is best for humanity. Mining has tremendous side effects on the environment. And the figures show that olive production is more valuable than gold production.”

For more information, read the full article at
http://www.hurriyetdailynews.com/n.php?n=olive-producers-vow-to-fight-gold-miners-2010-10-26.

Posted by Abdullah Alruwaished