Gold Mining and rainforest devastation

Gold mining and rainforest devastation
Our view :
Amazon and other rain forests worldwide are undergoing irreversible changes due to deforestation as well as global warming. A large part of this has to do with the logging and mining concessions given by the local governments to the industry. This is done both because of the lucrative revenue earned by the nations that house these rainforests as well as the employment potential that such contracts have. The benefit package and the money involved, including the slush money normally paid to secure the contracts , are often too attractive for politicians to resist in most parts of the world, especially the third world.

Whereas tree felling has reportedly risen alarmingly both due to logging contracts as well as illegal felling, the mining industry causes devastation irreversible not only to the flora and fauna but to the entire land, making it incapable of nurturing any future growth. The open cast mines are the most damaging as they stretch over huge areas and require the removal of the top soils to reach to the rock and mineral strata hidden below.

The most damaging of all mining operations is open cast gold mining . A recent National Geographic report claims that “extracting a single ounce of gold there—the amount in a typical wedding ring—requires the removal of more than 250 tons of rock and ore” And the world with voracious and ever increasing gold consumption trends in India, China and United States laps up more than 150 Tons of gold each month.

The sprawling gold mines usually located in the heart of rain forest area in South America or Africa or South Asia like the “ Valley Of Good Fortune at Quebrada Beuna Fortuna or the Transoceanic mines employ thousands of earthmoving machines and heavy duty dump trucks to to fery alluvial soil from the valleys for manual and chemical processing using toxic cyanides. Since 25 % of gold mining is illegal due to the huge profits it brings a large part of the processing chemicals are not treated but find there way back to the earth or the water bodies near the mining sites making the entire area inhabitable for plant and animal life.

Our friends at saving the rainforest campaigns are doing a commendable job by highlighting the depletion of rainforests and the accompanying global warming
I request you to join the campaign at http://tinyurl.com/dzc478

We could be wrong. Tell us if we are & why? We encourage diverse opinion even if it is from commercially interested groups opposed to our thinking.