Fueling that demand is not just the world’s appetite for gold bars and jewelry — the largest categories for which gold is used — but also high tech. Tiny electrical currents are constantly running through your iPhone, Alexa speaker, and laptop — and carrying those currents is gold, a fantastic conductor of electricity that’s also resistant to corrosion. While there isn’t much gold inside a single device — an iPhone 6, for example, contains 0.014 grams, or around 50 cents’ worth — in the aggregate, the amount is staggering. According to market researcher Gartner, over 1.5 billion smartphones were sold last year, with 1.3 billion of them being Android devices. It was followed by 215 million iOS devices.
“You could drop a nuclear bomb on the forest, and it would be better than mining it.”
An aerial view over a chemically deforested area of the Amazon jungle caused by illegal mining activities in the river basin of the Madre de Dios region in southeast Peru, on May 17, 2019, during the ‘Mercury’ joint operation by Peruvian military and police ongoing since February 2019.
The wildfires ripping through the Amazon have drawn the world’s attention to the destruction of the “lungs of the planet.” Many scientists believe cattle ranchers clearing land caused the flames, spurring groups around the world — including the government of Finland — to call for a boycott of…
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The Most Revolutionary Act 
Thanks for sharing Nicole Nguyen’s article.
It becomes clearer with each passing day that we need immediate, drastic changes to slow down our runaway train, hurtling towards the precipice. As an intelligent species, we have truly outdone ourselves.
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Indeed, Rosaliene, especially when you contemplate how mass marketers are leading us by the nose to crave these products.
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Hmm, i once worked for Cominco Electronics who made Gold wire using gold from their Canadian Smelter Operations, Wire and other Electronic made from rare metals were used on Satellites. Ironically Lee Oswald had a similar job in Minsk. The Canadian Government allowed the sale of Electronic part and the jobs moved to the US. Who knows where Jobs are now?
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Very interesting, gerry. It really helps to understand these developments in context.
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