WEBVTT

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- [Narrator] For many people
seeking good vibes however

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they could this year, healing
crystals were the answer.

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As Americans turn away from religion

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and toward general spirituality,

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healing crystals have gone
increasingly mainstream.

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- You lost it.

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- [Jenna] I find crystals
to be one of the best ways

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I have found to stay
connected to the earth.

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(jazzy music)

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- [Narrator] They're
popular for their assumed

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metaphysical properties,
but have you ever thought

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about how those crystals got
from the earth into your hand?

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- It's very common to say that stones

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come from Mother Earth,
that they come from Gaia,

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that they are, you know,
gifts of the earth,

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and that's true, and they come from mines.

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- [Narrator] Julie
Abouzelof is the owner of

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Moonrise Crystals and an
advocate for ethical sourcing.

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- [Julie] If you're
selling healing, how do you

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talk about something like
mining, and talk about

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poisoning rivers, and
talk about child labor?

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For most sellers, it's
better to just let it go.

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- [Narrator] If you use healing crystals,

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chances are some of
your stones are actually

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a byproduct of industrial
copper, cobalt, and gold mining.

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And it's no secret that those mining

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practices are far from perfect.

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- Copper mining is
extremely energy intensive,

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and it also can be associated
with incidents of pollution,

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especially groundwater pollution.

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- [Narrator] Clare Church
studies the impacts of mining

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at the International Institute
for Sustainable Development.

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- In the case of cobalt,
there is, as well,

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a concern about environmental degradation,

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but we're also kind of
more concerned with the

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instance of child labor and violence

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that can sometimes be
found in that supply chain.

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Most of it is mined in
Democratic Republic of Congo,

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which is also the sixth most
fragile state in the world,

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and the seventeenth most corrupt.

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- [Narrator] Whether you're a consumer

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or a seller, it's surprisingly difficult

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to find out where a crystal came from.

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But the first step in ethical sourcing

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is to ask smart questions.

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- [Julie] If you see a lot of
arrogance or an unwillingness

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to talk about things, or
somebody who wants to make it

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very black and white, those
should be a little bit

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of red flags, because in
reality, this is a very complex

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topic, there's a lot of gray within it.

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(heavy breathing)

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- Take it.

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- [Clare] Ten years ago,
there was a lot of uproar

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against the idea of kind of
these blood diamonds, right,

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in Sierra Leone, and
then that movie came out.

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There have been a few
initiatives since then

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focusing to make that supply
chain more transparent,

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and now if you go to buy
an engagement ring, you can

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double-check and say is this
a conflict-free diamond.

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So those kind of mechanisms are in place.

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I think it's just we need
to not stop at the diamond

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and gold industries, and
we need to look at kind of

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cobalt and copper and
lithium is another one

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that I think we need to
be looking at as well.

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- [Narrator] Copper and
cobalt are also found in other

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products that most of us use
everyday, like cell phones.

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But because healing crystals
are marketed as a natural way

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to connect with the earth,
any complicity with the

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negative impacts of
traditional mining practices

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feels hypocritical, and
antithetical to the community's

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focus on positive spirituality.

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(light music)