Marry me, Superforest... and I'll give you a ring from GreenKarat!

Marriage is all about commitment.  But how long will that commitment be if we aren't taking care of our world well enough to assure we're going to be around for a long time?

GreenKarat.com is an organization built on sustainable jewelry practices.

I don't know about you guys, but I never even considered the effects of gold mining on the environment and how INCREDIBLY wasteful it is.  Just think of all the energy put into mining these "precious" metals out of the ground, and people aren't even using them in a particularly productive way.  Gold is a very valuable metal... and not just in terms of how pretty we all think it is:

"Gold is a very versatile metal. It is malleable and ductile. It’s a good conductor of heat and electricity, immune to tarnish, and resistant to acids. Although these properties make it very useful in industrial applications, 80% of the gold used each year nonetheless goes into jewelry.

While gold is valuable enough to provide an incentive to recycle, significant amounts of gold sit idle, while mining continues at a pace of 2,500 tons a year. In fact, there is enough gold above ground (already mined) to satisfy all demands of the jewelry industry for the next 50 years. Much of it sits in bank vaults and in the form of old and unused jewelry."

Excellent point, I say!  The romantic ideas of gold and diamonds "lasting forever" and symbolizing marriage and love in that regard are so sugary sweet; who wouldn't want to buy into them?  The dark side of it all is that both large and small mining operations are harmful to the environment and to the workers.  On a small scale, miners will even use the very dangerous cyanide and mercury to separate the precious things from the rock.  Thats no good in my book.

Luckily people at GreenKarat and some of their friends strive to do the following:

1. Stop the use of mercury in mining
2. Start the process of recovering damaged land
3. Help miners learn to operate with ecological awareness
4. Transition to the miners to sustainable livelihoods.

There plenty to read on the greenkarat site so i suggest you check it out!  Way cool!  And although its recycled jewelry, remind your loved one that you're proposing with a piece of jewelry that will ensure a VERY long life together :)

You can help them fundraise.  You can get recycle your unused jewelry.  YOU can help the environment!

Love to all!