No Dirty Gold

In light of Valentines Day, today I received an email from Earthworks detailing Macy's practice of selling jewelry that uses "Dirty Gold." This topic especially resonates for me since a Canadian Mining Company, Goldcorp, owns a gold mine just south of some of the Mayan Mam communities I volunteer with through AFOPADI via Earthways in Guatemala. I have photos of people from these communities visiting the nearby Marlin Mine. I'm not linking here to many sites about Goldcorp & Marlin: if you do an Internet search you will find a fascinating range from propaganda through more reliable sources. (Wikipedia is especially interesting as it appears Goldcorp's corporate interests have clearly weighed in.)
Nor am I going to list the myriad negative environmental impacts on land and the people (in this case subsistence farmers living on land that is largely deforested and has poor quality soil). Suffice it to say that there are obvious reasons why the local indigenous communities have been organizing against the mines as well as why the government of Guatemala has not been advocating for the best interests of its citizens. This economic blog, TripleCrisis, provides a recent (1/19/12) and fairly accurate overview.
It is painful for me to know that Goldcorps owns the mining rights to land underneath the homes of some of the Mam people I have grown to know and admire and love since I first became involved with NGOs in this Highland area of Guatemala. In my hat as a project director for Earthways, I will be making a site visit next month to learn updates on this important struggle against environmental degradation. In communities where people already struggle to get sufficient crops & water (women and children in many of the communities we serve often have to walk about four hours per day to get water and it is certainly not particularly "potable" to begin with), there is no room for gold mining. Its possible effects (like arsenic leaching into the groundwater) are unacceptable. But like much of Guatemala's history, true and present.
I urge my readers to look around virtually, educate yourself and see what action you can take. For my part, I will try to give some useful updates after my trip. Of course, you can always make a donation to Earthways and specify it for that project. Or contact me to learn more about ways we are expanding.
In a few weeks, you can imagine this little gringa (hopefully with fully healed ankle as I am walking on it again and began driving yesterday) hiking up and down paths alongside scenes like the one above up at 8000'.