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As Gold Prices Go Up, Forests Are Coming Down http://apocadocs.com/s.pl?1303337649
A worldwide growth in the price of gold has accelerated the pace of deforestation in some of the most pristine parts of the Peruvian Amazon, where miners are cutting down trees in order to extract the valuable natural resource.
From 2003 to 2009, found a new study, the rate of deforestation in two gold-mining areas increased six-fold alongside record-setting leaps in the international price of gold. During one two-year period, as gold prices climbed steadily, forests disappeared at a rate of 4.5 American football fields a day from one of the two sites.
Alongside the accelerating paces of both mining and deforestation, the study found, there has also been an exponential rise in the use of mercury, which helps miners extract gold from the Earth.
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[Read more stories about:
capitalist greed, carbon sinks, climate impacts, deforestation, economic myopia, ecosystem interrelationships, global warming, habitat loss, health impacts, heavy metals, short-term thinking]
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'Doc Jim says:
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Someday soon we'll realize these trees were worth their weight in gold.
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