The greedy capitalists who caused the last economic crash then put their cash in gold. Causing the price to soar to crazy levels and triggering new gold rushes, with tragic consequences for the miners and the environment.
The rising price of gold has multiplied by six the pace of deforestation in the Amazon rainforest in the Peruvian region of Madre de Dios in recent years. Swenson said. “Given the rate of recent increases, we project mercury imports will more than double by the end of 2011, to about 500 tons a year,” she said.
The highly poisonous metal is used by poor gold-diggers to wash gold off rock and sand. It is not only harmful to the health of those who handle it, but it also pollutes the region’s rivers and air. Mercury also gets into the food chain and harms local indigenous communities and even those that live further away.
Once the gold searchers are done, they leave behind a desert landscape that is poisoned by mercury. Peruvian Environment Minister Antonio Brack said gold-diggers have already destroyed 32,000 hectares of rainforest in Madre de Dios. In March, a large joint operation by police and the military targeted tens of thousands of gold searchers, and 32 floating dredges were seized, Brack said. The minister said he was sorry about the death of two prospectors during the raid, although he stressed that the use of force had been justified in the face of an “environmental tragedy.” However, the problem is far from solved. Police assume that at least 250 floating dredges are in use in the region. According to Brack, it will take at least five years to get those searching for gold to leave. And yet poverty in Peru continues to push more and more people into searching for gold, as well as into other equally illegal activities like logging or settling in the rainforest.
There are other factors at work. Climate change in the Andes is already affecting small farming communities, forcing them to adapt or move elsewhere.
The near completion of the Inter-Oceanic Highway, which cuts a swathe straight through this once inaccessible part of the Peruvian Amazon, will lead to migration on an unprecedented scale.
The road, which will link Pacific ports in southern Peru to the Atlantic coast in Brazil, could well become the greatest factor in the environmental degradation of this once pristine pocket of biodiversity.
The Free 