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Environmental impact of mining for diamonds
Diamond mining and environmental and social impacts academic article
The positive and negative impacts of diamonds
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Diamonds, the beautiful clear-cut gem, the ultimate symbol of esteem and love. I 've always had a love for diamonds, a love I wasn 't sure why existed, maybe it was the promise of the value and self-esteem they brought, or maybe it was the beautiful, shiny presence of them on any valuable ornament. Looking at diamonds, you can tell they are one of a kind, right ? Well aren 't they? I used to be of the former perception, that diamonds are the ultimate height of wealth and value, but not anymore. I have to give credit to my high-school economics teacher, who barged into my argument of how I was going to buy the biggest and most expensive diamond ever, with “you know diamonds are intrinsically worthless right?”. With the shock and awe of any lover …show more content…
I have found quite a few sources on the JSTOR in terms of the economic side of diamonds, and the reality and science behind man-made diamonds, something I would like to inform the reader of. There are also many sources that describe the unfortunate reality of how this market has become very involved in not only child-labor, but also civil wars, human rights violations, environmental consequences and overall mass violence in the continental African region. Dilemmas I would like to very deeply go into. There are also many articles on the web, written by respectable economic sources such as Priconomics, HuffingtonPost, and NPR, and TheAtlantic, which cover the social implications of diamonds, the history behind their worth, and marketing strategies of diamonds. All which is important to know to get to the mystery of the worth of diamonds. There are also a couple sources looking into this psycho-sociological aspect of diamonds in the psychology section of the library database, and quite a few articles on Google-Scholar, these articles can provide me a look on the sociological and psychological aspect of diamonds, to determine why we indulge in buying diamonds, what norms have been set in the marriage department, and the social esteem of buying diamonds, I would like to look at all these things to point to the bigger picture of the real worth of diamonds, and who sets
Deep within African mines, elusive diamonds lay enveloped in the Earth’s crust. Possessing much influence, beauty, and tension, nature’s hardest known substance causes parallel occurrences of unity and destruction on opposite sides of the globe. Diamonds, derived from the Greek word "adamas", meaning invincible, are formed deep within the mantle, and are composed entirely from carbon. Moreover, only under tremendous amounts of heat and pressure can diamonds form into their preliminary crystal state. In fact, diamonds are formed approximately 150km- 200km below the surface and at radical temperatures ranging from 900-1300 C°. When these extremes meet, carbon atoms are forced together creating diamond crystals. Yet how do these gems, ranking a ten on Moh’s hardness scale, impact the individual lives of millions of people besides coaxing a squeal out of brides-to-be? These colorless, yellow, brown, green, blue, reddish, pink, grey and black minerals are gorgeous in their cut state, but how are these otherwise dull gems recognized and harvested? Furthermore, how and why is bloodshed and violence caused over diamonds in Africa, the supplier of approximately 65% of the world’s diamonds? (Bertoni) The environmental, social, and economic impact of harvesting, transporting, and processing diamonds is crucial because contrary to popular belief, much blood has been spilled over first-world “bling”.
The theory of “Diamond-water paradox” which also known as paradox of value was first introduced by the economist Adam smith in the 1700s. In his theories, he points out that practical thing that we use it frequently often have little or even no value in exchange. Examples for the things are like cups, socks and water. In contrast, things that is not practically or has little use to us often have the greatest value in the market. An example may be Sir Alex Ferguson’s last piece of chewing gum that has reportedly sold for nearly £390,000. Apparently, there is no other use but just looking at the chewing gum in the box for display but it has almost the same value as a luxury car or house. This is what “Diamond-water paradox” theory about by Adam
A diamond ain't a thing in the world but a piece of dirt that got
...sumption, creates emission of greenhouse gases and other harmful chemical materials. Once released into the air, it can cause environmental problems, which in turn threatens not only the environment, but also the health of the people who live in it. In order to reduce the use of energy to help protect our planet and our health, the diamond mining industry has implemented renewable energy programs to monitor energy and carbon emission. Since its beginning, mining company PHP Billiton program has saved an equivalent of one million liters of diesel fuel per year at their Ekati Diamond Mine in Canada’s Northwest Territories. The health of the environment and the health of humanity are as one. Whatever we do to our planet, we do to ourselves. Reducing energy consumption of diamond mining not only helps protect our planet, but also helps protect the health of our people.
You’re browsing along various websites searching for a new piece of jewelry to add to your collection. Suddenly - you see it. The piece that screams your name. It’s an elaborate piece with large cut diamonds and you just know those can’t be real. But they look so real, so you check out the price.
The controversial artist Kanye West has always attempted to make known what he thinks, no matter if he has to be disrespectful or graphic in his illustrations of said topic. So it wasn't a real surprise when he chose to focus his energy into reveling to the American public horrors happening that had a direct connection with the beloved diamond stone. West's 2005 music video “Diamonds from Sierra Leone” shows the corrupted underground diamond trade in the African country, Sierra Leone. From this groundbreaking video, West showed the devastated lives those who worked on the mining rivers live. However upon further investigation into the issue of diamond workers in Sierra Leone there emerged the true source of the situation, a violent conflict between the government and rebel leaders. Due to this conflict the entire country was thrown on a downward spiral. This downward spiral eventually resulted in the people longing for the conflict to stop and for the country to come together as one again. The people of Sierra Leone want to forget about the events that transpired during their civil war, however the more we look and attempt to learn from what happened, the better we set ourselves up for the future. West's video only depicts one side of a multifaceted struggle of the diamonds in Sierra Leone, however from this one side the public is encouraged to research more into the conflict themselves and uncover the truth behind the diamonds that we so desperately love.
In “ “Blood Diamonds” and Africa’s Armed Conflicts in the Post – Cold War Era, “ Orogun (2004) said that diamonds are referring as “clean stones”. This article explains about the black market is really happening in African. I am using this article to support how the black market of diamond trades is still not regulated, and they defined it as “licit” trade.
About status within your peer group. Even people on low monthly salaries would buy a high quality diamond: it was a family driven purchase.
A beautiful precious diamond can last forever, but what most people do not know is that a majority of our diamonds come from Africa. The civil wars in Africa over diamonds began around 1961 and ended in 2003. Conflict diamonds were rampant and it would be difficult to say if any jewelry sold prior to 2003 was conflict free. Conflict diamonds are diamonds that have been mined and were controlled by African rebels. The rebels would use the profits from selling conflict diamonds to fund illegal activity and to purchase more weapons for their armies. While rebels had control of the diamond mines they killed approximately 4 million people and countless families were displaced.
It’s hard to imagine that a mineral could be fueling wars and funding corrupt governments. This mineral can be smuggled undetected across countries in a coat pocket, then be sold for vast amounts of money. This mineral is used in power tools, parts of x-ray machines, and microchips but mostly jewelry. Once considered the ultimate symbol of love, the diamond has a darker story. "Blood" diamonds or "conflict" diamonds are those mined, polished, or traded in areas of the world where the rule of law does not exist. They often originate in war-torn countries like Liberia, Sierra Leone, Angola, and Côte d'Ivoire were rebels use these gems to fund genocide or other questionable objectives. Even with a system known as the Kimberly process which tracks diamonds to prevent trade of these illicit gems, infractions continue as the process is seriously flawed. The continuation of the blood diamond trade is inhuman, and unethical, and in order to cease this illicit trade further action to redefine a conflict diamond, as well as reform to the diamond certification prosess is nessasary.
In 1785, the court jewelers, Bohmer and Basange, constructed a necklace with five hundred and forty diamonds of varying sizes in an ugly arrangement that resembled the collars worn by circus animals. They hoped that King Louis XV would purchase it for his favorite, Madame du Barry. Unfortunately, the king died before the necklace was completed. So, naturally the jewelers tried to sell the piece to the newly crowned Queen, Marie Antoinette, because she was known for her extravagant spending and taste. They priced the jewelry at and equivalent of two million dollars in modern money. The Queen declined the offer. She did not like the necklace and the price was even too high for her. Knowing that they would be ruined if the Queen didn’t buy their product the jewelers continued to plead with her for ten years. Each time she turned them down. Then, one day the Queen received a note signed by Bassange which said, “We have real satisfaction in thinking that the most beautiful set of diamonds in existence will belong to the greatest and best of Queens.” Puzzled by the message, the Queen, put the note to flame by a candle sitting on a nearby table (Komroff 85).
...l the flow of conflict diamonds. Both assure consumers that more than 99% of rough stones today come from conflict-free sources which are regulated by the Kimberley process. According to the people who profited from diamonds, the blood diamonds problem is passé5. Further research tells us that it is not. According to Father Rocco Puopolo of the Africa Faith and Justice Network, he says “It’s not passé,” “the diamond industry can claim what they want and the film will always serve as a template for what is going on in Africa today.” This point out that labour exploitation and conflict (for control of precious resources such as gold) may still be going on in Africa.
The movie shows different villages in different scenarios, with rich natural colors like brown, green, red etc. The cities are portrayed as hectic and intimidating, dirty and poor. After watching the movie “Blood Diamond” Directed by Edward Zwick I realized that the main issue or problem in the movie was the blood diamonds. There are much more issues and problems in the movie but I believe this is the most important because the whole movie revolves around the blood diamonds. Blood diamonds were used in this movie and were the main focus of the movie. The reason for blood diamonds being the main economic issue or problem is because of the blood diamonds people were forced to work as slaves to find diamonds in the water so they can be used to buy guns. Blood diamonds were the cause of all of these terrible acts, people dying to search for these diamonds so they can be sold. Also the other issues of blood diamonds were that a big company was buying a lot of these conflict diamonds from Africa for really cheap, the company was Van Da Kaap. It would buy an abundance of these diamonds and store them so the diamonds they acquire seem rare and so they can stay at a high price. The economic issue with this was that the company Van Da Kaap would not tell anyone of these abundance of diamonds because than if they did tell anyone, the prices of the diamonds would fall and this is called supply and
Santarossa, B. (2004, January 13). Diamonds: Adding lustre to the Canadian economy. Retrieved November 06, 2017, from https://www.statcan.gc.ca/pub/11-621-m/11-621-m2004008-eng.htm
Mining is the process or industry of obtaining minerals from the earth. Topics in this paper I’ll be specifically discussing are pros and cons of mining, structures of a mine, mining in general, California gold rush, diamonds in Africa, and comparison of diamond and gold mines.