Destroying the environment to search for gold?

[Duer 157099]

So I was watching the new season of Gold Rush or whatever it is called, about how the current high price of gold is resulting in another gold rush, and I'm watching these huge machines destroy the pristine land up in Alaska while these folks search for a few specks of the yellow metal, and I'm thinking: you know, if the 1% weren't HOARDING all of their wealth, we wouldn't need to be destroying the environment looking for a few more specks of gold, just so people can have enough to pay their bills to survive.

It was the most concrete demonstration of how the wealth inequality has a dramatic and immediate impact on the planet. People tearing up the wilderness to find something that people on Wall Street are hoarding.

[Arctic Dave]

1. And for the most part, worthless.

Same thing with diamonds. Sure there is a limited use for both but for the most part both are used as trinkets or sit in a vault.

[ThomWV]

2. Here the gold is black and sells for $20 a ton, and the hills go away all the same.

Mountain top removal is just taking diamonds out of the ground a million years too early.

[Duer 157099]

3. But at least with an energy source, you can sort of understand it

I can't make the same argument about oil or coal that I'm making about gold.