The Western Shoshone Defense Project writes, "Newmont has been pushing the United States to privatize huge tracts of land in order that the gold industry can have even greater access to this area which has been the forefront of Native American land rights for decades. The land base is the home of the Western Shoshone and holds foods, medicines, healing waters and spiritual places which date back to Shoshone creation stories. The United Nations Committee on the Elimination of Racial Discrimination has recently ruled in favor of the Western Shoshone and told the United States to "freeze", "desist", and "stop" from further mining and other destructive activities. Newmont was immediately notified of this decision and yet has done nothing to address the impact of their operations on the ongoing human rights violations against the Western Shoshone." Great Basin Resource Watch says Newmont's Nevada mines emit unacceptable quantities of mercury into the air, threatening the health of developing fetuses and young children. The mines deplete water quantity in an arid region, and at some sites mine-contaminated water will require treatment forever. Newmont is infamous worldwide for abusing the environment and the rights of local communities.

Wal-Mart comes through on only one claim for its "Love, Earth" jewelry: customers can trace the gold and silver in their pendants through a "chain of custody." They learn where the gold was mined (either Newmont mines in Nevada or Rio Tinto mines in Utah) and manufactured (factories in either Peru or Bolivia). But so what? We still have no evidence that these mines and factories are any more responsible than others. Yet that is what Wal-Mart wants us to believe. Their chain of custody is a chain of deception.

This has got to stop. Wal-Mart takes advantage of people's genuine concern for the planet and lures them into purchasing a product that "honors the Earth." In fact the product - gold - is extracted at great cost to the earth and to human communities. Modern mines carve meteor-sized cavities into the earth and use cyanide to separate minute quantities of gold from the rock. A single gold ring leaves behind as much as 20 tons of waste rock and tailings that can keep leaching toxic metals into groundwater for centuries to come.

The only "sustainable" gold is recycled gold - your grandmother's wedding ring remade into a new piece. When Love,Earth jewelry is made entirely of recycled gold, it will earn its name. Until then, Cry, Earth.

A model letter is available here