Module 1 – Entry 5
Today when I was looking at other people’s posts, I came across Seleen G’s post about Jade Fever. I was instantly drawn to this post because I have watched every season of Jade Fever on Discovery Channel. For me, watching the show was highly addictive because I always wondered if the miners were going to find the elusive grade 1 jade.
I also watched every episode of Gold Rush, Yukon Gold, Gold Rush – White Water edition for the same reason I watched Jade Fever. The scale of the mining on these shows is immense! Parker Schnabel mined over 7000 ounces of gold worth over 10 million dollars.
Source: wikimedia.org/wikipedia/en/e/ec/Gold_Rush_Title.jpg
The thing I never considered when watching any of these shows was the impact they might be having on the communities they occur in. I know that when I watch these shows, they are mining huge areas of land and require massive amounts of water. The shows focus on the miners and gold totals, but like Jade Fever, there is no mention of how the mining affects indigenous communities (or any surrounding community) in the area. There are regulatory bodies that make sure everyone is acting within the law, but, does that mean everyone is being represented fairly?
A quick Google search hints that may not be the case. A news article by CBC sheds light on how placer mining is dividing Yukoners about water rights.
“The Tr’ondek Hwech’in First Nation is asking the Yukon Water Board to hold a public hearing about mining on undisturbed wetlands in the Indian River valley” (CBC News, 2018). It is noteworthy that most of the mining that occurs on Gold Rush happens on the Indian River.
The next time I am watching these TV shows, I will be thinking in the back of my mind about the impacts these shows have on all stakeholders in the area. I think I just developed a new perspective on these shows.
References
Croft, D. (2018, September 4). Environmental permitting needs more flexibility, says Yukon placer miner | CBC News. CBCnews. https://www.cbc.ca/news/canada/north/yukon-placer-mining-indian-river-water-board-schmidt-1.4807022.
Gold Rush (TV series). Wikiwand. (n.d.). https://www.wikiwand.com/en/Gold_Rush_(TV_series).