5 Comments
Forget everything Al Gore has ever told us -- it turns out that it's Beyoncé who's destroying the Earth. Or at least the huge pieces of gold bling hanging from her ears.That's because celebrity gold-buying habits are just about as detrimental to the environment, indigenous people and the world at large as driving that H3 to your job at ExxonMobil.

That's according to No Dirty Gold, a Web site that breaks down the impact of gold jewelry production by some of the, uh, less responsible companies in the industry. Gold mining might even be the worst thing ever, and at least as bad as Big Al's recent appearance on "30 Rock."

"To produce a single gold wedding band," says No Dirty Gold Campaign Director Payal Sampat, "a mining company must blast the earth, dig out the gold, crush it, spray it with cyanide, and so on." All told, it takes a staggering 20 tons of mine waste to produce a single wedding band. And that's nothing compared to what it costs to manufacture those gold earrings Ms. Knowles is wearing in the above snap. Judging by the size of those things, at least 300 lbs. of waste was produced to manufacture her appearance.

The singer was made fun of in the past for wearing giant gold earrings to the beach, but Sampat notes that Mrs. Jay-Z probably wasn't aware of the damage she was doing: "I would say Beyoncé had no idea that her earrings could be linked to human rights abuses and health problems in these communities."

She says gold mining has a disproportionate impact on poor, often indigenous peoples, severely damaging drinking water, community health and local ecosystems. Their countrysides and dirt roads are often covered by toxic chemicals like arsenic and lead for years to come.

The damage affects us here in the United States, as well. "Gold mines in Nevada are some of the largest sources of mercury in the United States. The metals-mining industry has been ranked our number one toxic polluter," says Sampat.

Sampat hopes Beyoncé -- and non-famous gazillionaires alike -- will follow in the footsteps of other celebs like Cameron Diaz and Jennifer Connelly who have joined the campaign and sworn off irresponsibly-mined gold bracelets, toilet seats and other accessories: "On the Web site, readers could sign on to the No Dirty Gold pledge that will be sent directly to mining companies and retailers." Where it's possible, Sampat says Beyoncé should try and buy from retailers who specifically sell recycled gold. "We have a list of the 60 retailers that have signed on. These retailers are all trying to find cleaner sources of gold and working with us to build a solution."

Still no word on where Flava Flav gets the gold for his ridiculous clock chains.