In Ghana Africa, we see "the real criminals", or the bad environmental activity we export. Bankrupt California boys, Catepillar tractors, Mercury, guns, and a toxic extraction process allowed by the mineral policies we exported, policies developed during the Apache Indian wars in the western USA... all in an easy to watch "Survivor-like" reality documentary.
At the end of the Jungle Gold episode (different from the one linked above, I couldn't find it), the two American lads George Wright and Scott Lomu are deep in debt. The last scene focuses on the worst environmental act performed in Ghana. Gold mining, and the extraction of the gold from clay (not the same as panning for specks) with highly toxic liquid mercury.
The Americans don't do the dangerous part themselves, they let an African man use the mercury to soak up the gold into a ball, wrapped in a cloth, and burned off (mercury vaporizes) into the atmosphere. One of the Americans actually talks about how difficult it is, watching his coworker posion himself, and says that someday he hopes to buy a centrifuge for the guy. Right.
The mercury itself comes from America. It is imported from Recycling Programs for mercury lamps in places like Vermont, where lamps are sent for retort and the mercury is exported to miners in Africa. Recycled mercury is virtually the onlly source of mercury, it's almost impossible to find a mercury mine, because the environmental net on waste disposal is so efficient.
Export Bans and Reducing Mercury Consumption in Artisanal and Small Scale Gold Mining
is a presentation by Kevin Telmer, University of Victoria
GEF/UNDP/UNIDO Global Mercury Project
An export ban that actually makes sense. While we are at it, let's ban the export of dumbasses.
