A third of a million Peruvians make their living from gold mining, but illegal tactics and deforestation methods are damaging the environment and inflicting health risks on the local population.
Pulitzer Center grantee and Emmy Award-winning journalist Steve Sapienza visits Guilford College to discuss "The True Cost of Gold." Sapienza's evening lecture on Thursday, September 27 reveals how the global consumption of goods impacts precious resources in Peru, Thailand, and Bangladesh. He examines these issues through his collection of reporting for PBS NewsHour supported by the Pulitzer Center on Crisis Reporting, including his project "Peru's Gold Rush: Wealth and Woes."
In addition to illegal mining in Peru's Amazon, Sapienza's recent Pulitzer Center-supported projects have focused on Burma’s hidden war with the Kachin people, human trafficking in the Thai shrimp industry, and accountability in the water sector in West Africa. Sapienza's connections with the Pulitzer Center run deep: he was co-producer for the Pulitzer Center’s Emmy Award-winning web-based reporting project called "Hope: Living & Loving with HIV in Jamaica" and producer of four short documentary films for the Pulitzer Center web-based reporting series on HIV in the Caribbean called "Heroes of HIV".
The Pulitzer Center and Guilford College are sponsoring Sapienza's evening talk and other class visits on campus. Sapienza is in North Carolina for one week in conjunction with the Pulitzer Center Campus Consortium partnership with Guilford College, High Point University and Wake Forest University.
Thursday, September 27
7pm
East Gallery, Founders Hall
Guilford College
5800 West Friendly Avenue
Greensboro, NC 27410
This event is free and open to the public.
Recently
Cross continents with eleven of our grantee journalists as they take you into the mines to show you where we get our gold––exposing the hidden social and environmental costs of this business.
“Tarnished: The True Cost of Gold,” the Pulitzer Center’s new e-book, is now available on iTunes.
Gateways
Pulitzer Center staff
Steve Sapienza is an award-winning news and documentary producer who has covered a wide range of human security stories in dozens of countries, including the HIV crisis in Haiti and the Dominican...