Coal and Gold Mines

The first real snow fell here in Halifax this weekend, which was kind of fun, I won’t lie. On Friday, schools were closed. While I definitely worry about people who have to show up for work regardless, and may be faced with slim options for childcare, I do enjoy the quiet hush of those days, especially in the morning, before the beeping and rattling of snow plows begins.

I heard some interesting news this week, too, which I would like to share. Things are beginning to shift (the highlighted words will get you to the articles):

• Yellowknife is working hard on finding a solution to the 237,000 tonnes of toxic arsenic dust (yup!) leftover from gold mining there. They may be able to stabilize the arsenic in glass, which at least would be stable.

et

• in BC, a coal-mining company is ‘stepping out on an awareness limb’ by inviting the indigenous community of a proposed development to the table: not just ‘consult’, but actually giving veto rights on their projects. Bravo!

Finally

• in a webinar offered to the jewellery community by Christina T. Miller I learned that ‘recycled gold’ has its own issues (also I need to clean my laptop screen).

It is such an interesting dilemma:

to learn about the harm being done because of the metal I love so much.

It’s a bit like when I found out about commercial beef…. . So yummy, yet such a flawed industry (unless you do it like Holdenca Farm et Fill Yer Boots)

Watch on CBC: Farmers Reducing Their Carbon Footprint

I wonder if I might switch to all Fairmined gold one day.

We’ll see.