Counterpoints
Thesis: The diamond mining industry should be eradicated because it is the cause of immense human suffering in the form of bloodshed and poverty, and because it also has a significant negative impact on the environment.
Summary: Many of the profits from diamond mining have been used to fund the work of violent rebel insurgencies in unstable countries across Africa, and as a result have contributed to millions of deaths. Despite a recent international agreement intended to sever the link between mining and conflict, "blood diamonds," also known as conflict diamonds, or war diamonds, continue to be bought and sold in markets in the developed world. Diamond mining is also associated with grave poverty and terrible working conditions, as the profits from the billion-dollar industry do not benefit the miners who work to extract diamond ore, some of them, children. Diamond mining is also responsible for the destruction of natural landscapes and habitats, as well as for the consumption of vast quantities of water that could be used for drinking. The mining of natural diamonds should be replaced with the production of synthetic diamonds, which are indistinguishable from the real thing.
The Cost of a Diamond
Of the throngs of starry-eyed American consumers who collectively spend billions of dollars each year on diamond engagement rings, necklaces, bracelets, watches, and earrings, not many reflect on the trail of blood, sweat, and tears that their glittering new rocks have traveled in order to reach them. Yet, the shimmering surface of the diamond industry has long hidden a dirty truth: the mines from which raw diamonds are extracted are intimately linked to shocking human rights abuses and major environmental destruction. The profits from diamond mining have helped to fund bloody civil wars in countries across Africa, particularly in countries like Sierra Leone and Angola. While diamond industry executives are reaping huge profits from these gems, the people who work in the mines themselves, some of whom are part of an illegal slave trade, see practically no rewards for their back-breaking efforts. The beauty of a piece of diamond jewelry comes at a very high price, paid for by vulnerable countries in the developing world that can least afford it.
Diamonds and War
For many years, diamond mining has played an important role in paying for arms and military actions undertaken by rebel groups who are working to unseat internationally recognized governments in unstable regions. The earnings from diamond mines have thus been directly responsible for perpetuating prolonged armed conflicts. The diamonds that are produced in conflict zones, under the control and direction of insurgent forces, are often called "blood diamonds," due to their close association with brutal warfare and violence. The rebel groups who run the mines are not above using threats, torture, murder, and even child and slave labor in order to keep their operations going.
Of course, such diamond mining and trading is illegal, but due to widespread smuggling, it is has proven extremely difficult to prevent illegally-mined diamonds from entering the supply chain and becoming mingled with legitimate diamonds in international markets. According to Amnesty International, since 1991, some 75,000 people in Sierra Leone alone, many of them children, have lost their lives as a result of the diamond-funded conflict in their country. Another 20,000 have been maimed or mutilated. In addition, half a million people in Angola and almost 4 million citizens of the Democratic Republic of Congo have been killed in other armed conflicts fueled and financed by diamond mining.
In the late 1990s, a wave of international outrage over the link between diamond mining and human rights abuses led to the creation of a new international system for regulating the diamond trade and preventing, in theory, the export of blood diamonds. In January, 2001, diamond industry representatives formed the the World Diamond Council, which drafted a new process, whereby all diamond rough could be certified as coming from a non-conflict source. Known as the Kimberley Process Certification System (KPCS), this agreement, which was designed by the diamond industry itself, requires participating diamond-producing countries to guarantee that the diamonds they export have not been mined in conflict zones, and are not used to fund rebel troops. The KPCS was approved by the UN in March, 2002, and since then, diamond companies like De Beers claim that the Kimberley Process has virtually eliminated the supply of blood diamonds, or at least reduced it to a mere trickle.
However, there is no external monitor or watchdog group overseeing these certifications, and no requirement for diamond retailers in other countries to prove that they have purchased only certified diamonds. Any country can become a member of the Kimberley Process by sending a letter to the organization's president, even if the country does not meet the standards of the Kimberley Process. Because of its weaknesses, the Kimberley Process can effect little hard change. Amnesty International figures show that fewer than one out of five diamond retailers bother to ensure that their diamonds have been certified "conflict-free." The international human rights organization also estimates that up to 300,000 carats of diamonds mined in the Ivory Coast by enslaved workers are still being sold to fund violent rebel insurgencies. In 2003, the United States, the world's largest consumer of diamonds, enacted the Clean Diamond Trade Act (CDTA), legislation meant to implement the KPCS in law in the United States.
Since December 2005, Côte d'Ivoire has remained the only country which is currently under embargo by the United Nations for the export of 'conflict diamonds' that have made war profitable for both the military and rebels. It was hoped that some modest progress would be made following the elections of November 2008; however, those elections were recently postponed indefinitely.
Diamonds and Poverty
Even when diamond mining is no longer used to fund rebel activities, the profits from the mines fail to benefit those who work the hardest. In Sierra Leone, for example, miners continue to be exploited by those who own the mines, many of which are actually foreign companies. Some work for a pitiful wage of $2 a day. Some work for less than a dollar, and are paid a tiny fraction of the eventual value of the diamonds they find during hours of exhausting work in dangerous and crowded conditions, after the mine owners deduct their expenses. Some miners work for no pay at all, subsisting only on the money they can make by selling the gravel that they pull up from the open diamond pits. In addition, many mine workers and diamond polishers are young children.
The United Nations (UN) Human Development Index (HDI) classifies Sierra Leone as the poorest nation in the world, despite the millions of dollars of diamonds it produces each year out of the Kono District alone. Nine out of ten people who live in the Congo live in poverty, and its chief diamond-mining region lacks adequate water and electricity, though it produces billions of dollars worth of diamonds each year. In Angola, wealthy diamond corporations have taken to hiring security forces to threaten and punish local villagers who dare to farm or fish in areas that have been declared reserved diamond mining areas. In the absence of regulation by local governments or international watch groups, the continued proliferation of diamond mines does nothing but exacerbate human suffering in every form.
Diamond Mining and the Environment
While Canada's diamond mining industry has grown, offering the consumer the prospect of purchasing a conflict-free diamond, the fact still remains that the human cost of diamond mining is not the only dirty secret of this seemingly sparkling trade. The practice also exacts a heavy toll on the environment. Exploration and mining for diamonds uses both electricity and hydrocarbons, which emit CO2 into the environment, generally held responsible for global warming and climate change. In addition, open-pit diamond mining requires digging out and removing large amounts of soil and vegetation in order to access the diamond ore. This material is then dumped elsewhere. Both these steps cause great disruption to delicate ecosystems and devastate wildlife habitats. Theoretically, the displaced material can eventually be restored after the pits have been exhausted, but this seldom happens. Even if it does, the damage to the land can take years to correct itself.
Alluvial diamond mining, in which diamond ore is sifted out of riverbeds and ocean shores, disturbs marine soils and plant life, and displaces natural river flows. Both forms of mining also require huge amounts of water, which is particularly worrying in water-scarce Africa. Although the environmental impact of diamond mining may not tug at the heartstrings as powerfully as the human suffering it causes, it is no less important. In an age when species of living things become extinct every day, and when entire continents of Africa and Australia are experiencing epic droughts that threaten to permanently change their landscapes, we must be keenly aware of the environmental price we pay as a result of all of our activities.
Conclusion
Diamond mining serves no useful purpose beyond putting money in the pockets of rich corporations and providing a little piece of sparkling satisfaction to consumers in the developed world. Compared to these trivial benefits, its social, economic, and environmental costs are weighty indeed. There is no reason to continue tolerating the negative impacts of diamond mining, especially when the technology exists to produce synthetic diamonds that are indistinguishable from their natural counterparts. At least 15 of the 35 diamond-producing countries, also have the technology to produce synthetic diamonds. These countries include Ireland, Japan, Russia, South Africa, and the United States.