M & Ms - Miners and Mercury :: essays research papers

Most miners of the Amazon lead a very pollutedway of life. They pollute the environs they outlast inand they pollute themselves. The, "garimpeiros" asthe miners are called in Brazil are independentfarmers of the gold that flows beneath the rivers ofthe Amazon rain-forest. Their daily routine of previous(predicate)mornings, long hard days, and late nights drinkingand taking cocaine contribute to their way of life.Their only goal in life is to drill for the gold claywhich seems to collect at the bungholes of waterfalls so use the profits for illegal self indulgences likecocaine. To extract this gold dust they mustcombine quicksilver with the dust, and because of themercurys chemical make-up it is able to extract thegold from the useless rock and debris. The mercury,however, isnt the cleanest element for theenvironment. Many garimpeiros carelessly use themercury so dump it into the rivers polluting thewater and the food. Also, the dust from the mercurygets inhaled and ea ting by the miners, contributingto their polluted way of life. All day dragas, whichare boats used for tap the bottom of rivers, arepulled to locations where gold is thought to befound, moving and polluting. Then there is thecommon drug use among these farmers. The authoreven quotes a man named Lincoln, an proprietor of adraga, saying, "not that I object to cocaine. Its noworse than anything else, as far as I know, andaddicts make good workers." To sum thegarimpeiros way of life, they live a life of drinkingand drugs, women and murder. So the polluted wayof life is obvious, men poison the waters and thefood and then ultimately themselves, with the illegalactivities of the mining trade in Brazil.Although most do not realize their way of life andits defects, the struggling people of the Brazillianmining trade have special situations and great(p)aspirations. Most men are poor and the temptationto work as a garimpeiros is great. Their isnt muchwork other then that of an indepe ndent miner. Their subscriber line of work has what the author describes as a,"free-spirited, picaresque hero." Most men aspireto inevitably find that big strike thats just around thecorner, then get out and raise a decent life,however, this isnt the typical case, most do not,