In an article posted on the websites of the Broward and Miami New Times, journalist Jean Friedman-Rudovsky picks up where our Global Response campaign left off: she exposes the emptiness of Walmart’s claim that its “Love, Earth” gold jewelry comes from socially and environmentally responsible mines and manufacturers.
Friedman-Rudovsky reports from the lands of the Western Shoshone people in Nevada, where Newmont Mining Corporation mines gold for the “Love, Earth” brand against the wishes of the Western Shoshone people, and from Bolivia, where Aymara Indigenous workers manufacture the “Love, Earth” jewelry under harsh and exploitative labor conditions.
Two years ago, Global Response launched a campaign denouncing Walmart’s “greenwashing” and urging the company to retract its false claims for the “Love, Earth” products. There is no basis for Walmart’s assertion that the mines and manufacturers that produce “Love, Earth” products have “a net positive effect on the environmental and human health and well being,” as they claim on their website. There is no independent monitoring of the environmental and social impacts of the “Love, Earth” mines and manufacturing plants.
Friedman-Rudovsky’s interviews with the affected Indigenous communities and with environmental watchdog organizations reveal brutal labor conditions, environmental destruction and contamination, and human rights violations at the source of Walmart’s “Love, Earth” products – a far cry from Walmart’s claims that they “contribute to the sustainable development of the communities and regions touched by mining operations.”
See Friedman-Rudovsky’s article HERE.
See the Global Response action alert HERE.
For more information from Friedman-Rudovsky on her article and research, please contact David Lerner, Riptide Communications (212)-260-5000, Dlerner@riptideonline.com
For more information on Newmont Mine, download PDF "Environmental Problems in Newmont Mines", from Great Basin Resource Watch
