Using the blow links and quote answer the following questions.
Questions-
1) What are some of the social/political ramifications surrounding mining these minerals?
2) In your own words, what do you think Robert Sack is saying here?
Focus on the big picture as well as mineral mining in Africa.
3) Even though you live in the United States, how are you personally connected to the mining of minerals on the continent of Africa?
4) Should companies be required to inform consumers where and how they got the resources to build their products? Why or Why not, Explain.
5) If you found out that a company you like was funding dirty mining operations would you continue to buy from them?
Quote from geographer/philosopher Robert Sack (1992) regarding our connectivity to the global world market.
“Whether liberating or alienating, we are still interdependent, and in a world of strangers, it is they on whom we must rely. I trust the skill of people around the world when I buy my clothes, drive my car, and eat my food. I trust engineers, contractors, and inspectors when I cross a bridge, ride an elevator, or fly in an airplane. I trust I will receive fair treatment by such strangers as librarians, ambulance drivers, nurses, doctors, policemen or firemen.
They are there to serve strangers. Our territorial segmentation makes us strangers and our global integration makes us depend on and trust strangers often more than family and friends. We know we are linked globally because we have constructed communication, transportation, and technology links to tie us all together.
These networks empower us–our actions go far beyond the local to transform nature and culture virtually anywhere… These networks are so complex and shifting that we are rarely able to trace the extent and consequences of our actions.”
Links to related articles:
1) https://www.techrepublic.com/article/how-conflict-minerals-funded-a-war-that-killed-millions/
2) https://www.cnn.com/interactive/2018/05/africa/congo-cobalt-dirty-energy-intl/
