1000 Flowers for the Planet - #412 Buy Ethically Sourced Gold

1000 Flowers for the Planet - #412 Buy Ethically Sourced Gold

$135 billion is spent globally per year on gold jewellery. That means a lot more gold has to be mined from the ground to support this trade, and it’s a very difficult trade to understand what is being done right and what is wrong. There’s an extremely interesting and thought provoking article about ethical gold at:

http://newint.org/features/2014/09/01/myth-ethical-gold/

Meanwhile, you can support better working conditions for miners if you source Fairtrade gold jewellery, which comes with a Fairtrade stamp (see www.fairgold.org to learn more about that). Big mining companies can take advantage of their workforce, paying low wages, failing to ensure safe work practices and providing poor working conditions. They are also capable of damaging the environment in big ways through mercury and arsenic spills. Sometimes they forcefully remove indigenous people from their ancestral lands, or farmers from their properties. And they use huge amounts of water. These are the possibilities, and sometimes the realities, of big mining. The best way we can prevent bad mining practices is via the way we make our purchases. When looking for gold jewellery, look for the Fairtrade symbol and ask questions about its origins – buy only ethically sourced gold. Here’s a website to help you find it:

http://www.fairgold.org/where-to-buy/