You’ve probably come across many gift guides for the holiday season.
Many of these lists feature the latest electronic gadgets or a sparkling piece of jewelry.
You might be surprised by the high costs of extracting the metals they contain – felt not just by your wallet, but by people and the environment.
Check out the No Dirty Gold campaign’s gift guide to learn about the true costs of some popular gifts of the season.
And think twice about putting poisoned drinking water, forest destruction, and violent conflict in that gift box. Or you just might get a lump of coal in your stocking.
Gold and Diamond Ring
This stunning gold and diamond wedding ring is a once-in-a-lifetime holiday gift. However, the average gold ring generates 20 tons of mine waste.
Tablet
Know someone who still doesn’t have a tablet? They’ll be surfing in style with this sleek gift. However, the mining needed to produce tablet parts contributes 180 million tonnes of hazardous mine waste into waterways annually.
Video Game Console
Not just for the kids! Get the whole family hooked on this hot video game console. Producing this console involves mining too, and it’s estimated that half of all gold mined from 1995 to 2015 has or will come from native land.
Diamond Cuff Links
The perfect touch of luxury for the man who has everything! Except the diamond trade has funded brutal wars in Africa, with profits going to armed militias.
Disclaimer: Product names used are intended to be illustrative. We do not claim to know the exact sourcing of specific products.
Photo credits:
- Gold ring – James Allen / Pascua Lama – I love CL
- Kindle fire – Amazon / Tailings
- Xbox – dvice.com / Protest
- Cufflinks – Cuff link stock