[jdietrich]

Not really. I think that the gold and diamond industry is hugely destructive and I'd encourage everyone to avoid their products wherever possible. Gold has some valid industrial uses, but diamonds are just bullshit and I think the world would be a better place if everyone believed that.

If De Beers found diamonds in my neighbourhood, I'd petition my local government to refuse them a permit to mine; if that permit was granted, I'd petition them to enforce high environmental standards and ensure that the externalities of that mining activity are appropriately priced.

[PyroLagus]

Diamonds do have some industrial uses, but those can be lab-grown with absolute purity, and for jewelry, synthetic diamonds are actually 20-40% cheaper than mined diamonds and look better, whether that's because of a higher clarity or colors that "real" diamonds don't have. So there's really no reason to mine diamonds anymore except to market them as more expensive and more luxurious "real" diamonds, which is just bullshit. And there's no reason to buy mined diamonds unless you look to spend extra money and want to support an environmentally destructive and exploitative industry; the very same industry that financed wars to get what they want and tried to make sure that lab-grown diamonds couldn't be called diamonds even though they have the very same chemical composition so they could keep selling their blood diamonds without ethical and cheaper competition. Luckily, they lost that battle.

And since we can't create gold in labs yet, at least not more than a few atoms, it's actually better to buy diamond jewelry (as long they're lab-grown) than gold at this point. Just don't buy the De Beers lab-grown diamonds; even if those are ethically produced, we shouldn't support that company in any way, shape, or form.