Essay/Term paper: M & ms - miners and mercury

Essay, term paper, research paper:  Miscellaneous

Most miners of the Amazon lead a very polluted

way of life. They pollute the environment they live in

and they pollute themselves. The, "garimpeiros" as

the miners are called in Brazil are independent

farmers of the gold that flows beneath the rivers of

the Amazon rain-forest. Their daily routine of early

mornings, long hard days, and late nights drinking

and taking cocaine contribute to their way of life.

Their only goal in life is to drill for the gold dust

which seems to collect at the bottoms of waterfalls

then use the profits for illegal self indulgences like

cocaine. To extract this gold dust they must

combine mercury with the dust, and because of the

mercury"s chemical make-up it is able to extract the

gold from the useless rock and debris. The mercury,

however, isn"t the cleanest element for the

environment. Many garimpeiros carelessly use the

mercury then dump it into the rivers polluting the

water and the food. Also, the dust from the mercury

gets inhaled and eating by the miners, contributing

to their polluted way of life. All day dragas, which

are boats used for mining the bottom of rivers, are

pulled to locations where gold is thought to be

found, moving and polluting. Then there is the

common drug use among these farmers. The author

even quotes a man named Lincoln, an owner of a

draga, saying, "[n]ot that I object to cocaine. It"s no

worse than anything else, as far as I know, and

addicts make good workers." To sum the

garimpeiros" way of life, they live a life of drinking

and drugs, women and murder. So the polluted way

of life is obvious, men poison the waters and the

food and then ultimately themselves, with the illegal

activities of the mining trade in Brazil.



Although most do not realize their way of life and

its defects, the struggling people of the Brazillian

mining trade have special situations and great

aspirations. Most men are poor and the temptation

to work as a garimpeiros is great. Their isn"t much

work other then that of an independent miner. Their

line of work has what the author describes as a,

"free-spirited, picaresque hero." Most men aspire

to inevitably find that big strike that"s just around the

corner, then get out and raise a decent life,

however, this isn"t the typical case, most do not,

"get-out." Now, although this seems really negative,

the positive aspect of the garimpo way of life keeps

young men out of social trouble and keeps the

dragas moving and operating. The garimpeiros way

of life should not be subject to the American

standard way of living, these people do what they

are brought up to do and act like the culture acts. To

simplify the miners way of life is to quote a man

named Ludwig that the author interviewed, "It"s a

Catch 22 situation," Damned if you do, Damned if

you don"t.