deforestation

🌍 Indonesia’s Illegal Gold Boom Leaves Toxic Mercury Legacy

Illegal gold mining in Indonesia has surged with rising global gold prices, causing widespread mercury pollution, deforestation and health risks that are devastating forests, rivers and communities.

🛠️ Boom in illegal mining: Nearly 1,200 illegal mining sites operate across Indonesia, including in protected forests such as Bukit Gajah Berani near national parks.

☣️ Mercury pollution: Illegal mining is now Indonesia’s single largest source of mercury emissions, contaminating rivers, fish, crops and drinking water.

🐟 Health impact: Mercury levels in fish and soils in mining regions far exceed World Health Organization safety limits, endangering human and animal health.

🌲 Environmental damage: Forests, farmland and watersheds are destroyed, reducing rice production, worsening floods, and displacing wildlife habitats.

⚖️ Weak enforcement: Despite Indonesia’s commitments under the Minamata Convention to eliminate mercury use by 2025, regulations are poorly enforced and criminal networks adapt faster than authorities.

📉 Community effects: Local people have seen lands the size of hundreds of football fields wrecked by illegal mining, with traditional livelihoods disrupted.

The illegal gold boom highlights how high commodity prices can fuel destructive activities that outpace regulation, undermining public health, food security and forest ecosystems in vulnerable regions.

#GoldMining #MercuryPollution #EnvironmentalCrisis #Deforestation #HealthRisks
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The development of Tesla’s gigafactory near Berlin has become a flashpoint in the ongoing debate over the environmental costs of advancing a green economy.

According to a recent satellite analysis conducted by environmental intelligence company Kayrros, the construction of this massive facility has resulted in the felling of approximately 500,000 trees, covering an area of 329 hectares (813 acres) between March 2020 and May 2023.

The factory, intended to be a cornerstone of Tesla’s European operations, has been embroiled in controversy since its inception. Environmental activists have voiced strong opposition, arguing that the project contradicts the principles of sustainability that the company claims to uphold.

These protests have ranged from peaceful demonstrations to more extreme actions, such as the setting of a fire at an electricity pylon, which temporarily halted production at the plant in March.

Elon Musk, Tesla’s outspoken CEO, has not shied away from the controversy. He has publicly criticized local law enforcement for what he perceives as a lenient stance towards “leftwing protesters” who have taken aggressive measures to oppose the factory’s expansion.

However, the company itself has remained largely silent on the matter, not responding to requests for comments on the environmental impact of their operations.

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#elonmusk
#deforestation