Due to the great popularity of “Can Diet Coke Kill You?” combined with a lot of controversy over it, I have decided to write this follow-up post.

Most of the controversy over the last article was around the fact that the documentary I referenced cited data from the National Cancer Institute (NCI) but that organization itself claims there is no proven link between aspartame and cancer.

What was presented previously was a short explanation of why aspartame is expected to cause cancer and other health problems and a summary of some information presented in Sweet Misery, including findings from analyzing NCI and other data. This article, however, cites other scientific findings and discusses the economic-political history of this topic a little bit as well.

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1. The Biggest Open Cast, Hand Dug Mine in the World

The Big Hole of Kimberly was dug by hand, using picks and shovels. There is debate about whether the Big Hole is the biggest hand dug open cast mine in the world. Its surface area of 17 hectares (42 acres) and depth of around 200 metres (650 ft) required the excavation of around 25 million tons of earth and rock. This was achieved in 52 years between 1866 and 1914 by a workforce of up to 50,000 miners. What is beyond dispute though is that The Big Hole yielded 2,720 kilograms (6000 lb) of diamonds significantly more than the Jagersfontein mine, the other contender for the title of biggest. After all what better metric is there than output!

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Scientists are continuously looking for a way to make solar power cheaper, and they may have found it - in iron pyrite.

Iron pyrite, or fool’s gold, is just one of the alternatives to silicon that’s being researched for use in solar panels.

From BusinessGreen:

Iron pyrite, copper sulphide and copper oxide were at the top of the list of potential silicon and thin film replacements, with iron pyrite – more commonly known as fool’s gold – deemed the leading candidate in terms of both cost and abundance.

Of the 23 semiconductors studied, Berkeley scientists found that 12 of them are more plentiful than silicone and 9 would be cheaper to use.

Picture via Nojhan

But to mine it you first must find it, and a revamped website now provides an extremely easy way to do just that. While all that glitters is indeed not gold, this precious resource is far more valuable – wind.

3Tier’s website tool FirstLook allows average Internet users to mine their neighborhoods for wind power potential. Users familiar with Google Maps will feel right at ease with the software, which offers wind assessment for all of North America. For those of us fooled by intentionally vague oil and gas ads, that region includes the US, Canada and Mexico.

Users can type in their town and state, and the site will direct a cursor to the spot. The wind prospector then zooms in for a more detailed view of the resource’s potential for that area.  For greater precision, coordinates can be fed into the search in lieu of a town or state. FirstLook essentially puts a push pin in the area of the user’s choice, providing detailed reports of wind resources at that site.

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Potential investors include Ivanhoe Mines and Rio Tinto, claim that an agreement on the Oyu Tolgoi gold mine would increase Mongolia’s GDP by 34%.

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A Peruvian engineer has created a device that drops the use of mercury in the gold mining process by instead using “a foam flotation process with simple gravitational techniques” to separate gold from rocks.

The most commonly used process in developing countries uses mercury to separate the gold from the ore, and then burns off the mercury leaving only gold. The mercury pollutes ground water initially and the air once burned, affecting the health of miners and nearby residents alike.  While alternatives exist, the process is the most efficient for low gold-yielding ore.

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Once abundant throughout American territories, the Bald Eagle has been negatively impacted by poaching, habitat destruction, pesticides and food source contamination. Its population has dropped from approximately 100,000 nesting pairs at the nation’s founding to just over 400 nesting pairs in the early 1960’s.

The Bald Eagle, nearing the brink of extinction just 35 years ago, has made remarkable progress and is still expanding its presence throughout our nation’s lands and skies. Public Law 108-486, signed by President George W. Bush on December 23, 2004, called for the United States Mint to mint and issue three commemorative coins that celebrate the encouraging recovery of the Bald Eagle species and the removal of the Bald Eagle from the Endangered Species List.

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As I recently discussed, sometimes we need to look to the past for solutions to our current problems. Queensland University professor Zhu Huai Yong has done just that, noting that painting glass windows with gold particles can purify the air.

Zhu came across this realization after studying medieval painted church windows, which were often decorated using glass colored with gold nanoparticles.

Though people likely did not realize it at the time the churches were built, the sun-energized nanoparticles destroy air-borne pollutants, as sunlight creates an electromagnetic field that resonates with the gold particles’ oscillations.

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First up: Gold. We'll give you the skinny on how to make sure your Valentine's bling is eco- and people-friendly.

The movie Blood Diamond brought mass attention to the issues surrounding conflict diamonds. But did you know that gold has just as dirty a past? Here's the statistic that will make you shiver: the production of one gold ring produces 20 tons of mine waste.

Gold is harmful to the environment, the communities that are involved in the mining, and is dangerous for the workers. The mining pollutes the air and water, creates massive amounts of solid, toxic waste, and of course threatens natural areas (including ones that are protected).

According to No Dirty Gold, many mines leach a cyanide through piles of ore in order to find the gold. They later abandon these huge toxic masses of waste. Can you imagine?

About 80% of this gold goes to make jewelry, which means we as consumers can make an impact. Many large retailers have already signed on in support of 'The Golden Rules' for more environmentally and socially friendly gold practices. If you're going to buy new gold, they might be a good place to start.

However, as always with the environment, reuse is the best solution. Look for an original vintage, used, or recycled gold ring and you won't be using any new gold at all! You can even melt an old ring into a new one and make it quite romantic.

Rebecca says: I only recently learned of all of the waste created to produce just one ounce of gold. I wonder what untold stories my own rings hold.

Resources:

No Dirty Gold

Earthworks

greenKarat

Hull is a little peninsula of a town on Massachusetts’ south shore. Small in stature, the community yet looms large in its renewable energy ambitions.  The town’s two turbines currently provide up to 20 percent of its electrical power. Adding four more towers would bring that to over 100 percent.

Hull has been model for communities hoping to take control of their own energy future and assume responsibility for climate change.

While the rush for real gold has been a romanticized part of our country’s history, it’s effects on the environment are an often untold story. Boom towns sprung up in the west and settlers flocked there as reports of gold filtered eastward. While many a prospector patiently panned for nuggets in streams and rivers, mining companies sprung up also, and with them came strip and hydraulic mining.

The wind resources communities and states are now seeking to mine all over the country couldn’t be a starker contrast to the gold sought after nearly 150 years ago. Wind power’s effects on the surrounding environment are counted in nature’s debit column; it provides a clean and renewable power source, replaces dirty fuels and stymies climate change.

Many boomtowns that were a symptom of the gold rush inevitably went bust as their nuggets dwindled. Wind power may ebb and flow at a given site, but will never disappear. Therein lies another value of this resource, the sustainable jobs that appear and remain with the wind towers.

3Tier’s improved site now offers individuals and communities a better tool with which to strike it rich for the environment and job creation.

3 turbines credit : Iberdrola Renewables NREL/DOE http://www.nrel.gov/data/pix/searchpix.cgi?getrec=40046&display_type=verbose&search_reverse=1

Gold Rush Poster http://flickr.com/photos/waterkant/249056739/

Prospector http://flickr.com/photos/tooliver/497511638/

Single Turbine insert http://flickr.com/photos/robyn-gallagher/232609277/