Women Should be (an environmental) Priority

My theory is that limits on women's rights lead to the worst environmental harms, including mining harms and worst e-waste recycling practices.




In nations where women do not inherit land, jewelry demand is very high, per capita... if you love your daughter, it's the normal wealth you can give her.  Unfortunately, Gold mining is the worst environmental activity invented.   Gold mining releases more mercury into the environment than mercury mining!

Gold and silver are sometimes mined for industrial use... but mostly these metals go into jewelry, for (a) vanity, or (b) dowry.  It's not like the petroleum humans need for transportation and food production, or copper for electricity and electronics.  Gold is purchased to be worn by normal people, including people of modest means.

So here is a French jewelry site which may do more for the world, long term, than my electronics recycling.  They make really cool jewelry out of pretty stones.   As China's income levels rise, we need to market sustainable jewelry to them, tout de suite.

So lets split up, dudes.  The French will make sustainable jewelry fashionable.  The Chinese and Africans will follow the example of women e-waste recycling from Mexican Las Chicas Bravas, leading to safer and more sustainable ewaste operations.  Instead of taking their income sources away, we will reward them through Fair Trade Recycling contracts.  And America can reform the General Mining Act of 1872, leading the World Bank to stop subsidizing mining projects in rain forests of Philippines, Borneo, etc.

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The music above, "(Women Should Be) a Priority" is sung/rapped by Sweet Honey in the Rock, an all women a Capella group I've seen several times and adore.  This Land is a great CD  gift, I also promote it because the group is supporting reform of Arizona's immigration policy.

I first saw them at the University of Arkansas, when I begged in for two songs so that  a group of Asian exchange students I was with could hear something truly American.  Hiroku was a girl I had a crush on, met her at a women's shelter in Fayetteville I used to volunteer as a baby-sitter for (some of the women had young kids, and Hiroku and I were both volunteering to entertain the kids when the moms had group therapy or legal sessions).

If you are looking for volunteer work, that is some of the best.  I remember one night one of the women didn't go in for the group session, she just hung out and observed Hiroku and I.  I figured it was to keep an eye on me, because of her bad experiences, and me being a stranger.

Afterwards she told me that she just found it beautiful to see the kids laughing, and said she had never seen a man play with children before.