BillCosby

A lot of environmental damage for something that for the most part is a mere vanity...........

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Preventive war is not war!!!!Counter-terror is not terror

The_Heretic

By no means are diamond mines worth it. They fuel violence, slavery, environmental damage [as mentioned and still more] as well as inducing a fixation that's just not healthy for the mind.

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"Enough!!" -so rang Barack Obama's voice off the walls of Mile High Stadium

BillCosby

I was watching modern marvels on the topic............

What they go through to get them is environmentally nuts.........

They talk about blood diamonds..... Hell they all seem to have some blood on them..........

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Preventive war is not war!!!!Counter-terror is not terror

Dianekkdi

Diamonds are simply another form of money. They are just as much a currency as silver, gold or your hundred dollar bill.

At this point any form of money likely has blood on it. Drug dogs have been known to sniff out bills in wallets because of the bills were part of drug money. There is a good chance some bill in your possession this very moment was drug money. Thus it too is blood money.

Where does one stop?

Yes, the strip mining is an environmental horror story. Strip mining is very detrimental regardless of the material being mined.

Anything taken to extreme is bad for the health of the mind.

It is the greed that kills in any monetary business.

"Progress has been made on the conflict diamond problem since the 1990s, with the proportion of conflict diamonds in the global diamond market decreasing from approximately 15 percent to an estimated 1 percent today. According to some estimates, as much as 20% of the diamonds traded in the 1990s were in some way illicit – used for money laundering; to evade taxes; to buy drugs, weapons and other clandestine goods – or were simply stolen." (Online Africa Policy Forum » Conflict Diamonds: The Problem Persists Despite Progress)

Here is another good article from January 2007: newsobserver.com | Blood diamonds' many facets


Do you know where any of your money has been? Why do you think they tell you not to put it in your mouth or to wash your hands after touching it before eating? At least a diamond is taken off and washed every now and then.

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Reinvestigate 9/11
Impeach......Prosecute......Imprison

"...The force of public opinion cannot be resisted when permitted freely to be expressed...."
--Thomas Jefferson

disfigured

I don't allow diamonds in my house.

My wife's wedding ring is Emerald. I believe it's synthetic.

She picked it out, but I refused here a diamond.

Neither gold. I don't buy, nor do I allow my wife to buy gold jewelry.

Perhaps some small earrings that have something embedded in gold, but no "chains", crosses, rings, or other large items who's soul purpose is having a lot of gold as its means of decor.

With out these larger items that rely on large amounts of gold we could eliminate 9 out of 10 gold mines. Gold needed for industry (connectors and such), is but a tiny fraction, and can be spread ultra thin now. Also it's easier to process used gold for industry.

Diamonds although the rarer of the common gem stones, is a controlled market. The price of diamonds has been estimated between a 3000 and 5000 percent mark up. If they could be sold not as a monopoly the market would probably crash. I for one will not pay that much more a price simply so people can have steady jobs. If it's a commodity that we all "need" then yes some control and price fixing is expected to ensure the supply is steady. But for vanity. No way.

Plus it takes massive amounts of destruction of the earth to produce diamonds.

I haven't bought a piece of ornamental adornment in 25 years.

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BillCosby

lol............ My wife don't allow me to "not allow her".........

I have not bought any in a long time but I will certainly be considering these issues in the future........

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Preventive war is not war!!!!Counter-terror is not terror

MarkMiller

Yes gold uses strip mining as well. And it has effected Sacramento to this very day.

This photo shows were the American River (to the right) flows into the Sacramento River (to the left). The color difference is from soil erosion from strip mining stopped decades ago. The Sacramento River was as clear as the American River when Sac was founded, but now the River is as muddy as the Mississippi and is expected to remain so for the next hundred years or longer and some think it may never clear up.

MarkMiller

De Beers is a cartel of companies that trade in rough diamond exploration, diamond mining and diamond trading. Founded by Cecil Rhodes, the various companies within the De Beers "family of companies" are responsible for around 40% of world diamond production by value.[1]
De Beers is active in every category of diamond mining: open-pit, underground, large-scale alluvial, coastal and deep sea.
De Beers has a presence in 25 countries, largely on account of its extensive exploration activities. Mining takes place in Botswana, Namibia, South Africa and Tanzania. Mining in Botswana takes place through the mining company Debswana,[2] a 50-50 joint venture with the government of Botswana. In Namibia it takes place through Namdeb,[3] a 50-50 joint venture with the government of Namibia. Mining in South Africa takes place through De Beers Consolidated Mines (DBCM),[4] a partnership with the broad based black economic empowerment partner, Ponahalo Investments. In Tanzania it occurs through a partnership with the government of Tanzania, 75% owned by De Beers, 25% by government. In 2007, De Beers is expected to open its first mine in Canada (called "Snap Lake", Northwest Territories, Canada).
The sales and marketing arm of De Beers is a company called the Diamond Trading Company (the DTC).[5] This company sells almost half of the world’s rough diamonds by value. Other diamonds sold through the DTC include those purchased from the Russian diamond mining company Alrosa[6], although that relationship is due to end in 2009 after a ruling by the European Commission, the EU's anti-trust watchdog, effectively establishing Alrosa as a direct competitor to De Beers from that time[7]. The DTC also creates and develops marketing programmes to stimulate interest in, and demand for, diamonds and diamond jewellery.
The rough diamonds sold by the DTC are purchased by a group of the world’s leading diamantaires known as Sightholders.[8] Sightholders buy tailored assortments of rough diamonds from a blended (or aggregated) “mix” of diamonds from the different mines. These clients are chosen following assessment against a set of objective selection criteria according to their ability to add value to diamonds as well as their audited adherence to the DTC’s Diamond Best Practice Principles,.[9][10] which cover business ethics, the Kimberley Process Certification Scheme[11] and the industry’s System of Warranties,[12] labour standards, health and safety as well as environment.

The De Beers Company is to blame for much of the environmental issues.

MarkMiller

Check this out!
https://diamondsclassaction.com/

disfigured

GE had an international lawsuit against DeBeers for a while.

They attempted to buy large quantities for machines that grind parts to very small tolerances.

DeBeers wouldn't give them a price break no matter how much they attempted to buy. When they searched for other suppliers, it wasn't viable since DeBeers controlled far to much of the buying power.

No one is able to break in and make a run at it, even with the orders GE was attempting to purchase.

So GE had to make a facility to create their own industrial grade diamonds synthetically. They are or were (dunno anymore) suing DeBeers for $700,000,000, the cost of setting up the plant.

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