It is definitely a fundamental truth that ‘needing and having’ are the current basis of what drives Capitalism. Our over-reliance on technology and machines is also driving the unfolding ecocide.
This is well illustrated by the story of the Silverback Gorillas in the African Congo. The mining of Gold, Diamonds and Coltan, (geological name – Columbite Tantalite), a mineral used in the microchips of every single new electronic device, cell phone or tablet and laptop, comes from the African Congo, Virungas National Park which is a UNESCO World Heritage Site. A biodiverse ecosystem where a small group of the world’s last remaining Silverback Gorillas are critically threatened with extinction from poaching and continually reduced habitat due to these existing ‘Conflict Minerals’ being extracted in the area, that the world is responsible for plundering.
Coltan can only be found in a few places in the world, one of which is in Australia, which was the world’s largest producer at Wodinga Tantalum mine in Western Australia, however they closed their mine in 2012 because it is cheaper to mine it using slave labour in inhumane conditions in Africa’s Democratic Republic of Congo.
To make matters worse for the Silverback Gorillas, the SOCO International energy company are pushing to extract gas and oil reserves from under Lake Edward in the National Park, all this, at the cost of one of the last greatest African forests and majestic Gorillas which have only been given an estimated 15 years of survival amidst the adversities they face and through our lack of global responsibility to better manage conservation of such situations, because minerals, gold, diamonds and oil are far more important than saving the Silverback Gorillas and their forest home.
Almost 80 percent of all present primates will be extinct in less than 40 years’ time. There are only 620 Western Silverback gorillas left in the wild. Orang-utans are native to Malaysia and Borneo, and while there are about 40,000 Orang-utans left, due to rapid destruction of their habitats with palm oil plantations and deforestation, it is likely that they will disappear within 25 years.
Excerpt from The Silent Ecocide-the environmental crisis is a crisis of human consciousness by Carlita Shaw
Carlita is an environmental scientist, teacher and writer, currently living in South America.