Not only poor ones, i can tell you large amounts of Canadian mining companies are milking silver and copper mines in Central Mexico. Its definitely happening globally
@@LagMar100 Yeah, when I said poor ones, I didn't mean the origin of the companies, but just the local of operations. Of course most of the operations are done by international companies exploiting the lax situations of these countries in collusion with their local elites. Not just mines, but agriculture as well.
@@Zedigan Yeah, the bad of a particular industry should not justify it. I just wanted to say it's sadly the overall reality of mining industry at large.
*At the Prehistoric Fatalities Convention* Smilodon: I died fighting a mammoth in a tar pit T-rex: I died defending my babies from the asteroid impact Bird: I faceplanted into tree sap
Nick Carlson Iceman: Oh you think you had it bad? 'Hey Otzi let's go hunting together. My wife leaving me for you? Pfft, water under the bridge.' What's a bridge?!
must have been some old Trex, they where supposed to have gone extinct like 10 million years earlier (sorry, dino nerd her. nitpicking jokes is an involuntary reaction)
Ovaraptor: I'm in the same boat as you Rex. Although for some reason these hairless apes have the audacity to think I was trying to steal the eggs! Why would I steal my own eggs?
Fossils are when biological material is replaced by mineralised material, so fossils are type of mineral, just as coal (a fossil fuel) is a mineral. So amber is both a fossil and a mineral.
Sir, if you really think that making this video does not have a positive effect on the issue than you are wrong. Before seeing your video I was completely unaware of this issue, and I am sure that many others learned of it here too. If we remained ignorant to the fact, then what would we do? Knowledge is the first step my friend. And you are doing a fantastic job informing us! Thank~you.
@@michaeljordan4457 Yes, well people are feeding their families on the heroin industry and human trafficking and every sweatshop full of abused children is feeding someone who lives a desperate life. But that does not make these things morally right. We need ethics. There is a better way of doing things. If we want a world that is good we have to make it that way.
@@Inertia888 I agree that we need ethics. I know it is unethical to feed an industry that is so dangerous yet at the same time I fear what will happen to all of the children involved if there is no longer any money to feed them. The solution seems to be something other than what has been proposed already but I myself can't think of it. Military involvement is all I can come up with and that doesn't satisfy me either
This doesn't mean we should stop mining amber for scientific discovery. It just means that we need to be doing so in a humane way... which, considering this is taking place in Myanmar might be difficult.
Well technically... they aren’t even mining amber for the right cause they are mining because they want jewelry and in the process they find fossils. So basically the right government needs to make the right move for the correct people to mine.
People are not aware that even most of the semi-precious stones and gems used for rather cheap jewellery as well as the more expensive is mined under comparable conditions. Teenagers crouching trough narrow unventilated tunnels is absolutly normal in Sri Lanka where a significant percentage of small semi-precious stones for the western market comes from, later sold as a fancy accessoire to new agers and elderly women or via teleshopping.. Thanks for mentioning the horrible mining conditions of the general asian gem/jewellery industry!
I'm just glad I don't give a shit about jewelry. I'll weird crunched up aluminum foil in the shape of a ring, I don't care. Hell, the ties on bread can make pretty cool rings hahaha. No but seriously, as a woman, I don't understand what the hell the obsession with some rocks and other junk like jewelry is. It's always been baffling for me. For technological purposes, like gold and copper, THAT makes sense to me. But for purely fashion? (And I'm saying all of this as an artist as well.)
@@ElysetheEevee the same happens with aluminum, gold and the rare earth elements we use in our hardware and shit, go virtue signaling somewhere else, worm.
When I was in prison the only books we could order were educational, I found some paleontology books and I've been in love since, it's my favorite hobby now.
@@jq7323 Yeah but don't do it by stabbing a prostitute, it turns out people actually cares for them and expect you to face the harsh justice (´_ゝ｀) Better to just steal something.
We should continue to buy these fossils, review these papers, and include information as to how they were obtained, use our research as a platform to inform others on the conflict. Instead of worrying about fueling the industry we can use science to shed a light on it, that's what science does, it sheds light.
I feel like boycotting the amber would do a lot more damage than continuing to purchase it. While some of the funds may be used for more nefarious things, I guarantee you some of it is used to support people just like normal money. Yes, they could still sell it as jewelry, but then we'd be missing out on historical things as well, and I would think good pieces fetch higher prices as some of the fossils versus regular jewelry. It creates more dramatic disadvantages rather than fixing anything honestly. This is very reminiscent of the blood diamond controversy to me, minus the fact that the diamonds didn't necessarily provide fossil pieces like the amber. I don't claim to be an expert in any of this stuff, I'm going with the information in aware of. I just feel that there are better ways to try to solve all of this before completely foregoing the industry for these amazing finds.
I'd rather that valuable knowledge like this doesn't disappear. I'm not agreeing with what's happening in Myanmar, but I don't think boycotting the amber is the way to go. Or at least, I don't think boycotting it forever is the way to go.
It's not like this knowledge is *actually* that valuable though. Having a slightly better understanding of ancient organisms doesn't cure disease or something. The *most* you can argue for is that it helps understand how fragile our ecosystems are. And people already know that. Bottom line, no matter how ground breaking these discoveries are in the paleontological community, they aren't worth the continued death and suffering to attain them.
@@FoxerBoxerNaaniwa I would have to disagree, the progression of our collective knowledge is humanity's greatest tool. It may seem cold, but I look at it in a longer term than just the present, day and current suffering. These finds are irreplaceable, however if they are cared for and preserved can far outlast anyones(individual or nation) legacy or memory. This way these amazing finds can benefit future generations. I believe under valuing suck things over ethnics is simply ignorant emotionally motivated thinking.
@@FoxerBoxerNaaniwa We can extract proteins from these ambers and we can form DNA sequence. Basically, we can bring these ancient organisms to life in future. It's worth it.
@@aditya-ml6km those proteins decay over time. the oldest thing we've been able to partially sequence the genes for are wooly mammoth and cave lion specimens that were frozen in ice. amber is an organic compound that contains acids and enzymes, and breaks down those proteins at the molecular level.
I think the problem is the fact that the amber will be bought anyways. Paleontologists not buying it will not affect the issue in any way due to the amber industry in China being so lucrative. The ember will be mined and sold either way, it's just a choice between taking the moral high ground and letting these things be turned into jewelry(which will not affect the problem in any meaningful way), or buying them to study them, which could potentially benefit all of mankind.
Григорий Ремез as a lover of learning and new knowledge I find it hard to admit, but proportionally very few of the scientific discoveries such as most of astronomy or paleontology have bettered mankind.
The main difference is that an amber piece like Occuludentavis can be sold tens of thousand of dollars to a paleontologist. It will worth a lot less in jewelry, all the inclusions of what seem like plants or trash around the amber is ugly, the skull is not very pretty and even quite scary, I don't think they'll sold that very high.... unless they sold it to scientists ^^
I agree with you. But. If we realy wanna give to this mess an even more cynical view. Using amber to study ancient organisms will not realy give any benefit to mankind... Besides satisfying our infinite desire for knowlege. But, besides that, it realy doesn't... This thought can actualy apply to every thing we humans decided to admire and hold as important. We actualy need only a few things: Food, water, protection and mates. Everything else is just stuff we decided to create to satisfy ephimeral things and our own obsessive desire to learn more. Wich is good. But on a philosophical lense, it's rather... Sad. We may have learned more about the long lost past But this will not realy help humanity in the long run... Well, who cares No big deal. I still love paleontology. 🤷✨ I do hope that EVENTUALY the whole amber market will become more humane and profitable for the actual native labourers, as they rightfully deserve Such is the fate of a developing country... Hopefully they'll push backgain, and will gain independence.
@@asin8757 without astronomy we have no theory of relativity or quantum theory the backbone of modern physics and electronics, without paleontology we have no theory of evolution, the backbone of modern biology and medicine.
Honestly, as awful as it is, the conflict is going to continue regardless on if it’s paleontologists buying the amber or Chinese jewelers. The conflict isn’t about the amber, and will continue regardless of us cutting ourselves off from the data and specimens there. Why cut ourselves off from discovery for a moral dilemma that won’t even change based on our boycott?
@Glorious Bastard Let me fix that, "It is a shame that we contribute to make those countries so unstables that they cant mine and research them themselves"
@Glorious Bastard Give them money (or weapons) for their ambar, drugs, endangered species like elephants, pangolins, rhinoceros, etc. Is being part of the problem.
@Glorious Bastard Huge areas of the forest on that region and the biodiversity and archeological remains are also being destroyed, the life of people that could be great researchers but are being forced to slavery, prostitution and combat. But most people see as more profitable their need for drugs, "magical medicine", decoration, jewerly, sex, or un-ethical science. We could save way more knowledge doing something for the well being of people that picking up the remains of the world we are helping to destroy. There are way more fossils that could saved from doing something to end those conflicts that from ignore them.
@Glorious Bastard I dont expect the people that did this article to go and fight like Rambo, but at least realice that buy from war criminals would damage human lives. What they can do? They already did a point whit this awesome find, now never buy from them, keep their profesional career with proper/ legal material and talk about this problem until it is solved. The rising Anti-Science sentiment is already a growing problem, for economic, political and religious reasons, we dont need more bad reputation as "insensitive mad scientists", because by the way most of the natural scientists I know are sensitive and responsable people.
Mario Alberto Campos Camacho either we buy from them or the jewelers do. I understand your sentiment, but the amber will flow to someone or us, would you rather us get it or priceless paleontology get turned into jewelry for some wealthy Chinese wife?
@@nickg5341 and with communism you wont get any consumption at all, not even food. There is some ethical "capitalist" Consumption. Like growing your own veggies, and selling them at a farmers market
I cant see how scientists purchasing specific pieces of amber would even have the tiniest of an impact. Based on the billion dollar estimate the market is not effected by the purchase of specific pieces by specific pieces, the market will continue to flourish, because they will always be buyers regardless if its scientists or interests in china.
@@nickg5341 you can't just start anywhere/anyway you want and expect it to work. It needs to be given more attention before any strong attempts at stopping this would happen simply stopping the scientist isn't gonna change much if at all.you'd need to strongly impact the market for it to start by directly affecting the sales of it with laws or indirectly affecting the sales by trying to stop a part of those that tries to buy this in somewhat big amount. There would be the need for a good snowball effect for it to work and i dont think stopping the buying for science when its already in very very small amount due to those specific reason is not the best idea.and also the presence of a good alternative for those that work as a living in those mining condition would be needed..
@@Zeptrio I don’t necessarily disagree, especially considering most of the problem comes from other industries, but I definitely see it getting a lot of attention if a union of paleontologists vocally said “we can’t continue to take from here.” I think you’d see regular people who are casually interested in paleontology being like “what? Why are they stopping?” And become more educated on the issue. Then it would be about creating public pressure to get other industries to stop exploiting the area.
Ben, you have done very well bringing this to light. Unless we read journals that many of us don't we don't know the Darkside of our beloved dinosaurs. A big thank you.
Sadly that's probably not a bird or even a dinosaur. The teeth, scleral ring, skin and other signs point to other type of reptile. Still a very significant specimen.
Thank you for making such a great video on this new creature and spreading the news of what is happening in Myanmar in a logical unbiased way. I love your videos and will definitely share ♡
This news doesn’t surprise me. If you knew how the miners were treated even in the “well maintained” diamond mines around the world you would be disgusted by every person wearing a diamond ring and become physically ill upon seeing a diamond necklace.
most of the diamonds normal people are wearing are made in labs unless they are old (not to discredit your point about horrible conditions in mines in general)
@@modestrocker1 I think most of them are actually still mined. Industrial diamonds are mostly used for tools and such. Partly because they don't look as pretty and partly because the De Beers corporation has a monopoly on the jewelry industry. Which is also really bullshit because personally I think an industrial diamond is way way cooler than a mined one.
modestrocker1 I don’t believe a majority of people are wearing synthetic. Diamonds are so common and easy to find De behrs has warehouses of natural flawless diamonds just sitting around the world. There are more natural diamonds waiting to be worn, than are in circulation. Synthetic diamonds are mostly used for industrial purposes.
modestrocker1 also, the colored diamond craze we are experiencing right now, only exists to try and push what used to be consider trash diamonds. So de behrs is truly, truly in control of how you express your love with jewelry.
It seems dangerous to say that scientists shouldn't study specimens gained from terrible conditions. It would mean that we'd have to ignore thousands of potentially groundbreaking finds because of the politics, and also possibly means nothing will come from the suffering of the people involved. Even if paleontologists stopped paying for amber, the jewelry trade alone would more than make up for it, and many of these amazing finds would likely be ground down and turned into jewelry that will never be used by a scientist. The money from the jewel trade would then continue to fund the war and keep people in those nightmarish conditions. Perhaps this is a cold, pragmatic way to look at things, but I think it's a side to consider. A lot of people like to take the seemingly righteous position, but it might not end up helping anyone.
you hit it on the money, not buying the preserved fossils wont stop anyone. They will just end up selling the amber as jewellery which makes up most of the business, hell they might even amp up the production of jewel quality amber to compensate if it actually does impact the market.
Wow I was completely unaware of that. Thank you for shedding light onto the horrible and unfortunate ways these fossils are found. I hope they find a humane way to solve this and still are able to study these incredible fossils
If the separatists were to regain control of the mines, would it then be ethical to boycott Burmese amber given that it would be one of the few ways they have of financing their resistance against the genocidal Myanmar government? War is never as simple as "violence bad".
If a scientific field, such as paleontology, was to take a strong political stance against one political actor, a backlash is to be expected. The Myanmari government could feasibly intentionally destroy scientifically interesting artifacts, such as these pieces of amber, as a way of projecting pressure against the given scientific field.
Well, you then also would need to throw away every electronic device, as the tantalum in this items comes often from the Kongo, where most of it gets mined by de- facto- slaves in mines that are controlled by regional warlords. By exporting this ressource they can fund their never ending armed conflicts with each other. Buying electronics is far more common and not that different to obtaining burmese amber, yet we see only one of those two as "problematic".
I think you did a good job presenting the reality of the situation in Myanmar. I, for one, was not aware of it until now. I don't believe it does any good to wonder about what little impact you may or may not have, especially when it's likely greater than you suspect. Cheers.
I'm glad you did that video even if EDGE produced one (I've seen that video too few days ago) When it comes to ethic questions such as Myanmar amber, it's for the best to spread the information as much as possible. By the way, it might be a good idea to explore this dark side of fossils in a fully dedicated video. You could cover hidden gems in private collections, stolen Mongolian fossils, skull poachers, combined fossils to create fake specimens, fakes plaster fossils sold as genuine ones, use of valuable specimen as currency for crime transactions and commercial exploitation of fossil sites.
Nice to see it from a different point of view. Edge goes into details of what it might be and Ben goes into detail of the events surrounding the amber.
I hope this channel gets to at least 500k by the end of 2020. It deserves a lot more. Fantastic content every time, so glad I came across this channel a few months ago!
Neat! I wonder if there is any usable DNA. I'm aware that DNA has a shelf life, but if nobody at least tries to extract any something potentially valuable could go completely missed.
Awesome video dude. Like a lot of people are saying here, even the metals that are inside the laptop I'm watching this video on are harvested from mines in developing countries with really horrible working conditions, and whoever has the money or the guns sets the regulations. It's really a shame that this isn't more widely acknowledged in general, so I appreciate you taking the time to talk about this tough subject.
while in reality if you dont buy the dino head preserved in amber some Chinese milliniare will buy it and turn it into soup or something. the bottom line is if you dint buy it then someone will. at the very least if we buy it you know itll be for study, not to be ground up into a bread or tea.
Way I see it is, someone will buy it regardless if it has valuable information stored inside of it. You can rightfully argue it should be considered heavily but regardless it will continue and they do exist. If they offer a deep look into the past I find it somewhat foolish not to learn from them tho. Stuff like this can be extremely rare, with finds like this contributing more information than decades of speculation. If it exists, someone will buy it, frankly stupid not to utilize it from the standpoint of progressing knowledge alone. I get the idea of not wanting to be involved I really do but regardless the information to be learned from it is valuable and someone will buy it. Why willingly lose something so valuable to history?
thank you for not separating the product from the production process. we deserve scientific progress, but only without corruption and complete transparency
Oh boy we got Triassic park material here. I'm not going to lie but this looks kinda like a bird. That beak just looks like some type of bird. This is still pretty interesting anyway.
4 things stuck to me.. 1: Dino DNA in Masquitos in Amber, could actually be 'Giant Bug DNA.' 2: That Jurassic Park really didn't get into the Amber Issue. 3: The concepts from the books and movies are probably a really a bad idea. 3: Now with actual Pre-Historical DNA, of not just dinosaurs but of Dodos and Mammoths.... Is it too late, to admit that we Humans probably screwed this all up the first time.
Lizards can get that small because they are ectothermic. An endothermic animal -- which birds and dinosaurs in general are -- would have to consume an immense amount of food to not succumb to hypothermia at such a small size, which hummingbirds do by nectar feeding. This doesn't appear to be a nectar feeder, and I doubt flowers where around long enough at this point to select for such a small bird in the first place.
POWPUCK !!! They obviously had another abundant source of nutrition. Alternatively they may have been less active, hummingbirds fly everywhere, which contributes greatly to their energy consumption.
you are aware that rodents exist right? all sorts of little birds and mammals who arent nectar feeders exist, not to mention the fact that even in this proposal there were still warm climates during this time
@@makaylakraus1897 Rodents di have a very high metabolism. If you have ever been around one you'd know that they need a lot of food to sustain themselves
@@sephikong8323 I never implied that they didn't. But these dino birds wouldn't have had to drink nectar to sustain themselves, which is what POWPUCK is saying...
yes. people are self righteous morons. The shop will always sell it, you cant shut it down because you have no power too, and you cant stop customers from going there, so whats the difference between someone buying a necklace, and a scientist buying a specimen in the grand scheme of things? Nothing. Not a lot of critical thinking happening anymore. Im sorry bad shit happens in the world, but hurting/punishing yourself because of that fact is ridiculous.
I mean the precious meyals your phone is made of, the gas your car uses, and the soil you stand on are all extremely unethically obtained if this is the standard for unethical. I say keep buying the the Burmese Amber. Only the Myannmarese can/should solve their own problems. (Edited for multiple egregious typos and grammatical errors.)
I think this is a good thing, but I'm concerned why scientists will do this for amber-- literally the focus of their life work-- and not for less important things like chocolate, meat, dairy, and certain chemicals.
Blood fossils. Lovely. This is just screwed up on a ton of levels. Even if the amber doesn't contain fossils it gets sold off to make jewelry, anyway, so the incentive for the miners to be victimized still remains. There's probably already several potential discoveries that are in private hands, the question of whether any other amber finds in the area contributed to human suffering is always going to be there, and demand for amber of any kind isn't go to go anywhere. No scientific discovery is worth an 8 year old being brainwashed into a killer.
Let's be clear. This is daily life in the region and has always been. I'm not sure that a few paleontological finds have anything to do with the society in which humans are disposable.
There is no reason to lose potential discoveries just because of human violence. There will always be violence and if we stop because of it we wont get anywhere but we could always do our best to resolve the conflict or if need be take out the aggressor from the equation and if we arent sure who the aggressor is then take out the equation in general
I would say that these mines should be bought by Paleontologists so that the mining can be ensured to be ethical. Otherwise, if you just boycott them they will continue to be sold for Chinese jewelry.
How do you know every palaeontologist is ethical? Where do you think they're gonna get the money? Oh yeah right the go to leftist solution, by taxing the shit out of the blue collar worker on minimum wage of course..
@@Chris-nn3vu Well taxation is not the only route to buy things. I would like to think that most of this audience would help Paleontologists buy up these mines.
Helluva thing to "like," but not much else I can do, aside from watching all the way through to the end, to help raise this video up, and let it get spread out to as many people as possible.
Um.... this form of suffering for valuable mined artifacts is hardly new. These people aren't children; it's their responsibility to get their crap together. Don't turn away priceless fossilized artifacts, because of how they were collected. If scientists don't take them, private collectors will and the science could be lost.
Some perspective is needed here when we are not talking about things like the Nazi live human experiments, cruel vivisection tests upon animals or Cold War atomic test fallout 'accidently on purpose' affecting civilians and servicemen. We're talking about mines with terrible working conditions in a civil war zone involving a separatist movement and a government, which no amount of boycotting will change. And if that is so morally challenging for us, then where do we draw the line elsewhere? Do we boycott any reearch or finds from China where human rights abuses and oppression are well known? Do we cease buying oil from authoritarian regimes that use their wealth to directly fund terrorist groups? Do we halt production of technology that relies on rare earths that are also mined under horrific conditions? The mere fact that boycotting scientific reviews on amber research will never do anything to change the situation at the amber mines, or even make the owners pause for a second's thought makes it an ethically pointless action compared to things like banning the ivory trade, sourcing food from environmentally sustainable farms or boycotting clothing brands that use foreign slave labour sweat shops when we know that it hits them directly in the pocket. There are other avenues for applying pressure to stop abuses of human labour, even though it is intrinsically hard to intervene in the sovereign affairs of a nation, especially if the workers themselves still think they have no better choices and voluntarily submit themselves to that employment.
Ben, I applaud your concern for the Humanitarian issue in this situation. As an A-level student, I was torn between Paleontology and Physics for my degree course, but in the end I became a Theoretical Physiscist but Geology, Geophyphysics and Paleontology still remain passionate to my heart. I admire your channel for the work you do and the information you provide.
Well done.👍 Including adding what the locals are going thru. Unfortunately if most of the amber is going thru China I don't think what ethical questions there are will be addressed. As you pointed out in China it's a billion dollar plus industry. Unless China does something, which I doubt, sadly business as usual will prevail. I can only wish I was proven wrong. Humanity isn't very humane. :(
I truly appreciate your explanation of the Myanmar fossil mining situation. I had no idea what was going on there. ..You’ve given me a good jumping-off area to pursue further info. I know paleontology is often a matter of guesswork. This tiny critter head’s certainly intriguing!
I don’t think ignoring important biological history due to current human issues is responsible or the right thing to do. If you’re going to do something to fix this issue, then Why not have the museums or educational institutions that have the specimens donate money to fixing the region. Or something akin to that. Ignoring or god-forbid destroying irreplaceable and intellectually/historically-priceless fossils due to current politics is insane in my opinion.
@Glorious Bastard Nah, not the US. It Shouldn't always have to be the US. It's common consensus that rhe US is a better World Leader than other Alternatives such as China and Russia. But if another country stepped in for Myanmar I think it would be interesting. I think Thailand could manage Myanmar for a while. I think they have the resources for that. Or perhaps one of the European countries. Spain has a good military but is not as politically powerful. The Brits are a goof candidate but they have their own problems now. Germans would be organizationally effective but their hardware is not reliable. The Swedes would be a good bet. They have a surprisingly good military. Sweden can do some world policing then. Or a German- Swedish coalition. The Swedes have the Hardware, the Germans the knowhow.
If we wanna face reality, most mining industries in poor unstable countries are in similar horrific situation.
Not only poor ones, i can tell you large amounts of Canadian mining companies are milking silver and copper mines in Central Mexico. Its definitely happening globally
I completely agree, however it one bad mining practice doesn't justify another. Not that that was what you were implying.
@@LagMar100 Yeah, when I said poor ones, I didn't mean the origin of the companies, but just the local of operations. Of course most of the operations are done by international companies exploiting the lax situations of these countries in collusion with their local elites.
Not just mines, but agriculture as well.
@@Zedigan Yeah, the bad of a particular industry should not justify it. I just wanted to say it's sadly the overall reality of mining industry at large.
Well working on it one at a time is better than doing nothing and spreding awareness helps.
*At the Prehistoric Fatalities Convention*
Smilodon: I died fighting a mammoth in a tar pit
T-rex: I died defending my babies from the asteroid impact
Bird: I faceplanted into tree sap
Nick Carlson Iceman: Oh you think you had it bad? 'Hey Otzi let's go hunting together. My wife leaving me for you? Pfft, water under the bridge.' What's a bridge?!
must have been some old Trex, they where supposed to have gone extinct like 10 million years earlier (sorry, dino nerd her. nitpicking jokes is an involuntary reaction)
Ovaraptor: I'm in the same boat as you Rex. Although for some reason these hairless apes have the audacity to think I was trying to steal the eggs! Why would I steal my own eggs?
@@coreytaylor447 uhhh... NO
@@coreytaylor447 What the hell? I've never once heard this claim before.
Amber should be reclassified as a fossil and not a gemstone considering amber is formed from tree sap it is biological and not a mineral.
Fossils are when biological material is replaced by mineralised material, so fossils are type of mineral, just as coal (a fossil fuel) is a mineral.
So amber is both a fossil and a mineral.
So pearls aren’t gemstones by your definition.
@@Ozraptor4 They never have been on account of not being a stone.
@@hedgehog3180
stone = piece of hard non-metallic mineral.
A pearl is pure calcium carbonate, the same stuff as limestone.
@@Ozraptor4 Living things cannot make minerals as a general rule. Pearls and coal are exceptions.
Sir, if you really think that making this video does not have a positive effect on the issue than you are wrong. Before seeing your video I was completely unaware of this issue, and I am sure that many others learned of it here too. If we remained ignorant to the fact, then what would we do?
Knowledge is the first step my friend. And you are doing a fantastic job informing us! Thank~you.
These people are risking their lives to feed their families. If you stop funding the industry people starve.
Right? Learning about dinosaurs and modern humanitarian history that's relevant!? Talk about professionalism!
@@michaeljordan4457 Yes, well people are feeding their families on the heroin industry and human trafficking and every sweatshop full of abused children is feeding someone who lives a desperate life. But that does not make these things morally right. We need ethics. There is a better way of doing things. If we want a world that is good we have to make it that way.
Spot on darrick thank you
@@Inertia888 I agree that we need ethics. I know it is unethical to feed an industry that is so dangerous yet at the same time I fear what will happen to all of the children involved if there is no longer any money to feed them. The solution seems to be something other than what has been proposed already but I myself can't think of it. Military involvement is all I can come up with and that doesn't satisfy me either
This doesn't mean we should stop mining amber for scientific discovery. It just means that we need to be doing so in a humane way... which, considering this is taking place in Myanmar might be difficult.
McHitler with the hot-take
McBullshit.
Exactly, McHitler, you are right, McHitler
Daddy, I'm tired of McNukes, I want McHydrogen bombs!
Well technically... they aren’t even mining amber for the right cause they are mining because they want jewelry and in the process they find fossils. So basically the right government needs to make the right move for the correct people to mine.
People are not aware that even most of the semi-precious stones and gems used for rather cheap jewellery as well as the more expensive is mined under comparable conditions. Teenagers crouching trough narrow unventilated tunnels is absolutly normal in Sri Lanka where a significant percentage of small semi-precious stones for the western market comes from, later sold as a fancy accessoire to new agers and elderly women or via teleshopping..
Thanks for mentioning the horrible mining conditions of the general asian gem/jewellery industry!
This is exactly why I only buy lab made gems for my jewellery
This is one of the reasons Ill never be buying. It's horrible
They are just colorful rocks.
I'm just glad I don't give a shit about jewelry. I'll weird crunched up aluminum foil in the shape of a ring, I don't care.
Hell, the ties on bread can make pretty cool rings hahaha.
No but seriously, as a woman, I don't understand what the hell the obsession with some rocks and other junk like jewelry is. It's always been baffling for me. For technological purposes, like gold and copper, THAT makes sense to me. But for purely fashion? (And I'm saying all of this as an artist as well.)
@@ElysetheEevee the same happens with aluminum, gold and the rare earth elements we use in our hardware and shit, go virtue signaling somewhere else, worm.
So.. Did it catch the worm?
The mitochondria is the powerhouse of the cell
no, it face planted in some tree sap hahaha
Cuz its an early Bird?
It ate arthropods, maybe it caught the centipede
Yall missed the joke. Its am "early bird" who gets the worm? Lol
When I was in prison the only books we could order were educational, I found some paleontology books and I've been in love since, it's my favorite hobby now.
I personally love prison. I'm planning to go back soon
@@Snakue there's many ways to get into prison... almost too many
@@jq7323 Yeah but don't do it by stabbing a prostitute, it turns out people actually cares for them and expect you to face the harsh justice (´_ゝ｀) Better to just steal something.
You should check out ‘Crime Pays But Botany Doesn’t’!
@@Snakue Why would you beat up hunters?
I was so excited, worried and interested about your video when it was announced and you haven’t failed to impress as usual!
We should continue to buy these fossils, review these papers, and include information as to how they were obtained, use our research as a platform to inform others on the conflict. Instead of worrying about fueling the industry we can use science to shed a light on it, that's what science does, it sheds light.
I feel like boycotting the amber would do a lot more damage than continuing to purchase it. While some of the funds may be used for more nefarious things, I guarantee you some of it is used to support people just like normal money. Yes, they could still sell it as jewelry, but then we'd be missing out on historical things as well, and I would think good pieces fetch higher prices as some of the fossils versus regular jewelry. It creates more dramatic disadvantages rather than fixing anything honestly.
This is very reminiscent of the blood diamond controversy to me, minus the fact that the diamonds didn't necessarily provide fossil pieces like the amber. I don't claim to be an expert in any of this stuff, I'm going with the information in aware of. I just feel that there are better ways to try to solve all of this before completely foregoing the industry for these amazing finds.
If the Chinese market is interested then a boycott would be as effective as the one on ivory.
Wow! Fascinating. Never clicked this fast. Thank you for shedding light on the atrocities happening right now.
I'd rather that valuable knowledge like this doesn't disappear. I'm not agreeing with what's happening in Myanmar, but I don't think boycotting the amber is the way to go. Or at least, I don't think boycotting it forever is the way to go.
It's not like this knowledge is *actually* that valuable though. Having a slightly better understanding of ancient organisms doesn't cure disease or something. The *most* you can argue for is that it helps understand how fragile our ecosystems are. And people already know that. Bottom line, no matter how ground breaking these discoveries are in the paleontological community, they aren't worth the continued death and suffering to attain them.
@@FoxerBoxerNaaniwa I would have to disagree, the progression of our collective knowledge is humanity's greatest tool. It may seem cold, but I look at it in a longer term than just the present, day and current suffering. These finds are irreplaceable, however if they are cared for and preserved can far outlast anyones(individual or nation) legacy or memory. This way these amazing finds can benefit future generations. I believe under valuing suck things over ethnics is simply ignorant emotionally motivated thinking.
Boycott does not change anything. What is not bought for science is bought by rich orivate collectors. No mine will close, no war will be ended.
@@FoxerBoxerNaaniwa We can extract proteins from these ambers and we can form DNA sequence. Basically, we can bring these ancient organisms to life in future. It's worth it.
@@aditya-ml6km those proteins decay over time. the oldest thing we've been able to partially sequence the genes for are wooly mammoth and cave lion specimens that were frozen in ice. amber is an organic compound that contains acids and enzymes, and breaks down those proteins at the molecular level.
I think the problem is the fact that the amber will be bought anyways. Paleontologists not buying it will not affect the issue in any way due to the amber industry in China being so lucrative. The ember will be mined and sold either way, it's just a choice between taking the moral high ground and letting these things be turned into jewelry(which will not affect the problem in any meaningful way), or buying them to study them, which could potentially benefit all of mankind.
Григорий Ремез as a lover of learning and new knowledge I find it hard to admit, but proportionally very few of the scientific discoveries such as most of astronomy or paleontology have bettered mankind.
The main difference is that an amber piece like Occuludentavis can be sold tens of thousand of dollars to a paleontologist. It will worth a lot less in jewelry, all the inclusions of what seem like plants or trash around the amber is ugly, the skull is not very pretty and even quite scary, I don't think they'll sold that very high.... unless they sold it to scientists ^^
i mean, thats like saying its ok to finance research with money laundering because we cant stop crime so might as well put it to good use.
I agree with you.
But.
If we realy wanna give to this mess an even more cynical view.
Using amber to study ancient organisms will not realy give any benefit to mankind...
Besides satisfying our infinite desire for knowlege.
But, besides that, it realy doesn't...
This thought can actualy apply to every thing we humans decided to admire and hold as important.
We actualy need only a few things:
Food, water, protection and mates.
Everything else is just stuff we decided to create to satisfy ephimeral things and our own obsessive desire to learn more.
Wich is good.
But on a philosophical lense, it's rather...
Sad.
We may have learned more about the long lost past
But this will not realy help humanity in the long run...
Well, who cares
No big deal.
I still love paleontology.
🤷✨
I do hope that EVENTUALY the whole amber market will become more humane and profitable for the actual native labourers, as they rightfully deserve
Such is the fate of a developing country...
Hopefully they'll push backgain, and will gain independence.
@@asin8757 without astronomy we have no theory of relativity or quantum theory the backbone of modern physics and electronics, without paleontology we have no theory of evolution, the backbone of modern biology and medicine.
Honestly, as awful as it is, the conflict is going to continue regardless on if it’s paleontologists buying the amber or Chinese jewelers. The conflict isn’t about the amber, and will continue regardless of us cutting ourselves off from the data and specimens there. Why cut ourselves off from discovery for a moral dilemma that won’t even change based on our boycott?
@Glorious Bastard Let me fix that, "It is a shame that we contribute to make those countries so unstables that they cant mine and research them themselves"
@Glorious Bastard Give them money (or weapons) for their ambar, drugs, endangered species like elephants, pangolins, rhinoceros, etc. Is being part of the problem.
@Glorious Bastard Huge areas of the forest on that region and the biodiversity and archeological remains are also being destroyed, the life of people that could be great researchers but are being forced to slavery, prostitution and combat. But most people see as more profitable their need for drugs, "magical medicine", decoration, jewerly, sex, or un-ethical science. We could save way more knowledge doing something for the well being of people that picking up the remains of the world we are helping to destroy. There are way more fossils that could saved from doing something to end those conflicts that from ignore them.
@Glorious Bastard I dont expect the people that did this article to go and fight like Rambo, but at least realice that buy from war criminals would damage human lives. What they can do? They already did a point whit this awesome find, now never buy from them, keep their profesional career with proper/
legal material and talk about this problem until it is solved. The rising Anti-Science sentiment is already a growing problem, for economic, political and religious reasons, we dont need more bad reputation as "insensitive mad scientists", because by the way most of the natural scientists I know are sensitive and responsable people.
Mario Alberto Campos Camacho either we buy from them or the jewelers do. I understand your sentiment, but the amber will flow to someone or us, would you rather us get it or priceless paleontology get turned into jewelry for some wealthy Chinese wife?
Ethical grey area? It’s literally impossible to go a day without benefitting from workers in very poor countries.
Change the wording from “poor countries” to “countries exploited by politicians you vote for” and it’ll start making more sense
greed makes a man lose all his senses.
@@nickg5341 are you making these virtuous comments from a smartphone or computer by any chance? Because I have some bad news for you…
@@jk3253 There is no ethical consumption under capitalism, unfortunately.
@@nickg5341 and with communism you wont get any consumption at all, not even food.
There is some ethical "capitalist" Consumption. Like growing your own veggies, and selling them at a farmers market
I cant see how scientists purchasing specific pieces of amber would even have the tiniest of an impact. Based on the billion dollar estimate the market is not effected by the purchase of specific pieces by specific pieces, the market will continue to flourish, because they will always be buyers regardless if its scientists or interests in china.
But you have to start somewhere, right? By that logic slavery wouldn’t have ended.
@@nickg5341 you can't just start anywhere/anyway you want and expect it to work. It needs to be given more attention before any strong attempts at stopping this would happen simply stopping the scientist isn't gonna change much if at all.you'd need to strongly impact the market for it to start by directly affecting the sales of it with laws or indirectly affecting the sales by trying to stop a part of those that tries to buy this in somewhat big amount. There would be the need for a good snowball effect for it to work and i dont think stopping the buying for science when its already in very very small amount due to those specific reason is not the best idea.and also the presence of a good alternative for those that work as a living in those mining condition would be needed..
@@Zeptrio I don’t necessarily disagree, especially considering most of the problem comes from other industries, but I definitely see it getting a lot of attention if a union of paleontologists vocally said “we can’t continue to take from here.” I think you’d see regular people who are casually interested in paleontology being like “what? Why are they stopping?” And become more educated on the issue. Then it would be about creating public pressure to get other industries to stop exploiting the area.
This has been my most anticipated video from you.
Ben, you have done very well bringing this to light. Unless we read journals that many of us don't we don't know the Darkside of our beloved dinosaurs. A big thank you.
Wario: “we found a small dinosaur head, but at what cost?”😔
A few grand.
Everything...
😂 I was gonna say that! 🤣
Yoshi’s taxes
Lizard head
"The huge number of teeth is also very unusual for birds."
Things that only paleontologists say non-sarcastically.
Sadly that's probably not a bird or even a dinosaur. The teeth, scleral ring, skin and other signs point to other type of reptile. Still a very significant specimen.
Profezor Snayp coulda said it’s just a lizard
@@azurexj692 Saying it's a lizard without any back up to his statement will just make it seem like he's jumping to conclusions.
@@azurexj692 lizard =/= reptile
@@luckyblockyoshi are you dense
@@malnutritionboy ?
Thank you for making such a great video on this new creature and spreading the news of what is happening in Myanmar in a logical unbiased way. I love your videos and will definitely share ♡
Was waiting for this video ever since you mentioned it in your previous video.
Jurassic Park: 👀
True
scientist: we can bring this beast back but instead of a park we will only need a birdcage.
@@jimmyschmidt14 no just a mini paddock
Watching part 2 rn
Well this makes Jurassic Park even darker
They should add this shit for a better story line for the sequels
Xenomorphs, coming to a school yard near you.
@@missymoonwillow6545 hell no
This news doesn’t surprise me. If you knew how the miners were treated even in the “well maintained” diamond mines around the world you would be disgusted by every person wearing a diamond ring and become physically ill upon seeing a diamond necklace.
most of the diamonds normal people are wearing are made in labs unless they are old (not to discredit your point about horrible conditions in mines in general)
@@modestrocker1 I think most of them are actually still mined. Industrial diamonds are mostly used for tools and such. Partly because they don't look as pretty and partly because the De Beers corporation has a monopoly on the jewelry industry.
Which is also really bullshit because personally I think an industrial diamond is way way cooler than a mined one.
modestrocker1 I don’t believe a majority of people are wearing synthetic. Diamonds are so common and easy to find De behrs has warehouses of natural flawless diamonds just sitting around the world. There are more natural diamonds waiting to be worn, than are in circulation. Synthetic diamonds are mostly used for industrial purposes.
modestrocker1 also, the colored diamond craze we are experiencing right now, only exists to try and push what used to be consider trash diamonds. So de behrs is truly, truly in control of how you express your love with jewelry.
@@juliankirby9880 🤔 hmm now I understand a thing or two more
I really appreciate being given the context behind the amber. Thank you for including that, it's important.
It seems dangerous to say that scientists shouldn't study specimens gained from terrible conditions. It would mean that we'd have to ignore thousands of potentially groundbreaking finds because of the politics, and also possibly means nothing will come from the suffering of the people involved. Even if paleontologists stopped paying for amber, the jewelry trade alone would more than make up for it, and many of these amazing finds would likely be ground down and turned into jewelry that will never be used by a scientist. The money from the jewel trade would then continue to fund the war and keep people in those nightmarish conditions.
Perhaps this is a cold, pragmatic way to look at things, but I think it's a side to consider. A lot of people like to take the seemingly righteous position, but it might not end up helping anyone.
you hit it on the money, not buying the preserved fossils wont stop anyone. They will just end up selling the amber as jewellery which makes up most of the business, hell they might even amp up the production of jewel quality amber to compensate if it actually does impact the market.
The right solution is acceleration, once the mines are clean the miners can move on to other industries and leave the area.
Wow I was completely unaware of that. Thank you for shedding light onto the horrible and unfortunate ways these fossils are found. I hope they find a humane way to solve this and still are able to study these incredible fossils
If the separatists were to regain control of the mines, would it then be ethical to boycott Burmese amber given that it would be one of the few ways they have of financing their resistance against the genocidal Myanmar government? War is never as simple as "violence bad".
If a scientific field, such as paleontology, was to take a strong political stance against one political actor, a backlash is to be expected. The Myanmari government could feasibly intentionally destroy scientifically interesting artifacts, such as these pieces of amber, as a way of projecting pressure against the given scientific field.
Well, you then also would need to throw away every electronic device, as the tantalum in this items comes often from the Kongo, where most of it gets mined by de- facto- slaves in mines that are controlled by regional warlords. By exporting this ressource they can fund their never ending armed conflicts with each other. Buying electronics is far more common and not that different to obtaining burmese amber, yet we see only one of those two as "problematic".
@@valentinmitterbauer4196 That is the problem. It's impossible to ethically consume products in our current system.
I think you did a good job presenting the reality of the situation in Myanmar. I, for one, was not aware of it until now. I don't believe it does any good to wonder about what little impact you may or may not have, especially when it's likely greater than you suspect.
Cheers.
I'm glad you did that video even if EDGE produced one (I've seen that video too few days ago) When it comes to ethic questions such as Myanmar amber, it's for the best to spread the information as much as possible.
By the way, it might be a good idea to explore this dark side of fossils in a fully dedicated video. You could cover hidden gems in private collections, stolen Mongolian fossils, skull poachers, combined fossils to create fake specimens, fakes plaster fossils sold as genuine ones, use of valuable specimen as currency for crime transactions and commercial exploitation of fossil sites.
Nice to see it from a different point of view. Edge goes into details of what it might be and Ben goes into detail of the events surrounding the amber.
I hope this channel gets to at least 500k by the end of 2020. It deserves a lot more.
Fantastic content every time, so glad I came across this channel a few months ago!
Bird:I’ve won!!! But at what cost?
Birdn't.
Please can you do a video on the tooth billed pigeon, the closest living relative of the famous dodo it is also on the brink of extinction
Your video is definitely a positive contribution to public awareness of the plight of the workers, and to scientific education as well.
Things I love.
history,paleontology,astronomy and this channel❤️❤️❤️
It sounds like we need a paleontologist Indiana Jones to sort this one out.
Indian Jones was an archeologist which is a completely different field of study than paleontology.
@@slipstreamxr3763 Please look up the word modifier and rethink the meaning of my comment.
Thanks for making a video about this, I have heard a lot about it but I never really understood what really happened, thanks for simplifying it
as long as nobody complains about rare earth minerals and iPhones.
Uh huh.
Neat! I wonder if there is any usable DNA. I'm aware that DNA has a shelf life, but if nobody at least tries to extract any something potentially valuable could go completely missed.
The chad wonderchicken - Asteriornis > The virgin blood diamond - Oculudentavis
Awesome video dude. Like a lot of people are saying here, even the metals that are inside the laptop I'm watching this video on are harvested from mines in developing countries with really horrible working conditions, and whoever has the money or the guns sets the regulations. It's really a shame that this isn't more widely acknowledged in general, so I appreciate you taking the time to talk about this tough subject.
Thank you for a thoughtful treatment of a serious subject. Knowledge is a noble goal, but what are we without our humanity.
Love your videos. They are not only entertaining but informative. Thank you for all you do!❤️
while in reality if you dont buy the dino head preserved in amber some Chinese milliniare will buy it and turn it into soup or something. the bottom line is if you dint buy it then someone will. at the very least if we buy it you know itll be for study, not to be ground up into a bread or tea.
@@cursedGalataea There have been more than a 100 billion people ever on this planet but fossils are much rarer. I guess it's the buyers opinion
I actually laughed with the soup thing XD
@Gary Allen never had I held presence to a roast like this one, bravo sir
Well written and presented, this is an issue that needs as much publicity as possible.
Way I see it is, someone will buy it regardless if it has valuable information stored inside of it. You can rightfully argue it should be considered heavily but regardless it will continue and they do exist. If they offer a deep look into the past I find it somewhat foolish not to learn from them tho.
Stuff like this can be extremely rare, with finds like this contributing more information than decades of speculation. If it exists, someone will buy it, frankly stupid not to utilize it from the standpoint of progressing knowledge alone.
I get the idea of not wanting to be involved I really do but regardless the information to be learned from it is valuable and someone will buy it. Why willingly lose something so valuable to history?
its this mentality that has powered atrocities for generations.
@@SaladofStones ok liberal
Yeah that seems about right
thank you for not separating the product from the production process. we deserve scientific progress, but only without corruption and complete transparency
Oh boy we got Triassic park material here.
I'm not going to lie but this looks kinda like a bird.
That beak just looks like some type of bird.
This is still pretty interesting anyway.
Birds are dinosaurs
sm1carnage is right, edge lord
''Looks like'' is definitely not always proof of ''being'' in evolution.
@@michable100 i mean just look at hyenas, they look like dogs but they are actually giant mongoose. XD
@@michable100 yeah but avians fall under dinosauria. So if a bird looks like a Dinosaur, it's still a dinosaur
your best video so far
Great video. You have a point with the high human cost of the amber. However, we all contribute to conflict minerals by purchasing most electronics.
Thank you for giving us insight to the situation in Myanmar, it's something that rarely gets brought in relation to these amazing finds.
If it were avian, wouldn't there be well preserved feathers in the amber?
It may have been a skull prior to ending up in the sap that is now amber.
@@superfluityme Very good point.
They half-mentioned that on the video
Why would you assume all avians would have feathers?
@@kokko9507 It's the definition of avian. All avians have feathers, not all therapods do.
Thanks for a really great, thoughtful and informative video.
I'm glad you've taken the time to research and bring up this issue in a video.
so, if that's unethical are we going to recognise the ethics of batteries? Or oil? Or cheap electronics?
shouldn’t we?
4 things stuck to me..
1: Dino DNA in Masquitos in Amber, could actually be 'Giant Bug DNA.'
2: That Jurassic Park really didn't get into the Amber Issue.
3: The concepts from the books and movies are probably a really a bad idea.
3: Now with actual Pre-Historical DNA, of not just dinosaurs but of Dodos and Mammoths.... Is it too late, to admit that we Humans probably screwed this all up the first time.
Wow, first video, I’ve seen that failed to mention the Corona Scare in any way. Good on them!
It's actually a lizard, everybody, the paper was even retracted!
Lizards can get that small because they are ectothermic. An endothermic animal -- which birds and dinosaurs in general are -- would have to consume an immense amount of food to not succumb to hypothermia at such a small size, which hummingbirds do by nectar feeding. This doesn't appear to be a nectar feeder, and I doubt flowers where around long enough at this point to select for such a small bird in the first place.
POWPUCK !!! They obviously had another abundant source of nutrition. Alternatively they may have been less active, hummingbirds fly everywhere, which contributes greatly to their energy consumption.
you are aware that rodents exist right? all sorts of little birds and mammals who arent nectar feeders exist, not to mention the fact that even in this proposal there were still warm climates during this time
I think it’s behavior would be more akin to a shrew.
@@makaylakraus1897 Rodents di have a very high metabolism.
If you have ever been around one you'd know that they need a lot of food to sustain themselves
@@sephikong8323 I never implied that they didn't. But these dino birds wouldn't have had to drink nectar to sustain themselves, which is what POWPUCK is saying...
Great, informative video (as always), as well as responsible and ethical treatment of the subject matter; well done!
If the scientist don't buy the amber won't it just be destroyed and turned into jewelry?
yes. people are self righteous morons. The shop will always sell it, you cant shut it down because you have no power too, and you cant stop customers from going there, so whats the difference between someone buying a necklace, and a scientist buying a specimen in the grand scheme of things? Nothing. Not a lot of critical thinking happening anymore. Im sorry bad shit happens in the world, but hurting/punishing yourself because of that fact is ridiculous.
I thank you for the information on Myanmar and fossils. Human life is above all else.
I mean the precious meyals your phone is made of, the gas your car uses, and the soil you stand on are all extremely unethically obtained if this is the standard for unethical. I say keep buying the the Burmese Amber. Only the Myannmarese can/should solve their own problems. (Edited for multiple egregious typos and grammatical errors.)
I mean not buying them will just make the locals unempolyed.
I think this is a good thing, but I'm concerned why scientists will do this for amber-- literally the focus of their life work-- and not for less important things like chocolate, meat, dairy, and certain chemicals.
2 weeks into quarantine and we're already recreating Jurassic Park
I love how things can be held in a time capsule created by tree liquid that is beautiful 🤘
Blood fossils. Lovely. This is just screwed up on a ton of levels. Even if the amber doesn't contain fossils it gets sold off to make jewelry, anyway, so the incentive for the miners to be victimized still remains. There's probably already several potential discoveries that are in private hands, the question of whether any other amber finds in the area contributed to human suffering is always going to be there, and demand for amber of any kind isn't go to go anywhere. No scientific discovery is worth an 8 year old being brainwashed into a killer.
Thank you for bringing up such a difficult topic
Let's be clear. This is daily life in the region and has always been. I'm not sure that a few paleontological finds have anything to do with the society in which humans are disposable.
Turns out this wasn't a dinosaur, but likely a lizard.
Congratulations on highlighting this difficult subject.
This is so well written and presented!
Well done for covering this issue you got my respect
There is no reason to lose potential discoveries just because of human violence. There will always be violence and if we stop because of it we wont get anywhere but we could always do our best to resolve the conflict or if need be take out the aggressor from the equation and if we arent sure who the aggressor is then take out the equation in general
Wasn't aware this was where amber preservation's like this came from, great video.
We either get sientific advances or you get ethics pick one every region has a "conflict resource"
Being aware of all the information is always a good thing. Thanks for sharing.
I would say that these mines should be bought by Paleontologists so that the mining can be ensured to be ethical. Otherwise, if you just boycott them they will continue to be sold for Chinese jewelry.
How do you know every palaeontologist is ethical? Where do you think they're gonna get the money? Oh yeah right the go to leftist solution, by taxing the shit out of the blue collar worker on minimum wage of course..
@@Chris-nn3vu
Well taxation is not the only route to buy things. I would like to think that most of this audience would help Paleontologists buy up these mines.
Helluva thing to "like," but not much else I can do, aside from watching all the way through to the end, to help raise this video up, and let it get spread out to as many people as possible.
Um.... this form of suffering for valuable mined artifacts is hardly new. These people aren't children; it's their responsibility to get their crap together. Don't turn away priceless fossilized artifacts, because of how they were collected. If scientists don't take them, private collectors will and the science could be lost.
Looks like a mean hummingbird
Some perspective is needed here when we are not talking about things like the Nazi live human experiments, cruel vivisection tests upon animals or Cold War atomic test fallout 'accidently on purpose' affecting civilians and servicemen.
We're talking about mines with terrible working conditions in a civil war zone involving a separatist movement and a government, which no amount of boycotting will change.
And if that is so morally challenging for us, then where do we draw the line elsewhere?
Do we boycott any reearch or finds from China where human rights abuses and oppression are well known?
Do we cease buying oil from authoritarian regimes that use their wealth to directly fund terrorist groups?
Do we halt production of technology that relies on rare earths that are also mined under horrific conditions?
The mere fact that boycotting scientific reviews on amber research will never do anything to change the situation at the amber mines, or even make the owners pause for a second's thought makes it an ethically pointless action compared to things like banning the ivory trade, sourcing food from environmentally sustainable farms or boycotting clothing brands that use foreign slave labour sweat shops when we know that it hits them directly in the pocket.
There are other avenues for applying pressure to stop abuses of human labour, even though it is intrinsically hard to intervene in the sovereign affairs of a nation, especially if the workers themselves still think they have no better choices and voluntarily submit themselves to that employment.
Thanks Ben, very informative. Less to think about when we know what the problem is.
Me: wondering why humming birds would get so small
New avian dinosaurs:😅
Thank you for speaking on Myanmar. Respect and safety for life > objects
You really think the Chinese are gonna stop due to “poor working conditions” LOL
Yep they’re just another conservative nation like most others
@@kx7500 Like socialist countries are doing better
@@oreos922 none exist right now because capitalist nations such as the US intentionally destroy them
@@kx7500 NPC
@@Chris-nn3vu keep projecting lol
Well put. Nice job.
Ben, I applaud your concern for the Humanitarian issue in this situation. As an A-level student, I was torn between Paleontology and Physics for my degree course, but in the end I became a Theoretical Physiscist but Geology, Geophyphysics and Paleontology still remain passionate to my heart. I admire your channel for the work you do and the information you provide.
Wow. Thank you for letting us know about the human cost of these finds.
Thank you for addressing the provenance of this fossil amber.
Creationists tried making fun of a crockoduck, then science raises them a crockolibri?
I loved dinosaurs ever since I was a kid and I just found your channel I love it
Remember that the fossils we DO have only represent less than 1% of the creatures that actually existed.
Thanks for bringing my attention to this issue.
Well done.👍 Including adding what the locals are going thru. Unfortunately if most of the amber is going thru China I don't think what ethical questions there are will be addressed. As you pointed out in China it's a billion dollar plus industry. Unless China does something, which I doubt, sadly business as usual will prevail. I can only wish I was proven wrong. Humanity isn't very humane. :(
I truly appreciate your explanation of the Myanmar fossil mining situation. I had no idea what was going on there. ..You’ve given me a good jumping-off area to pursue further info. I know paleontology is often a matter of guesswork. This tiny critter head’s certainly intriguing!
Can someone get DNA out of that Amber out of that piece of bird?
I don’t think ignoring important biological history due to current human issues is responsible or the right thing to do. If you’re going to do something to fix this issue, then Why not have the museums or educational institutions that have the specimens donate money to fixing the region. Or something akin to that. Ignoring or god-forbid destroying irreplaceable and intellectually/historically-priceless fossils due to current politics is insane in my opinion.
I kinda agree with you.
But it's not a clear cut situation
I don't think there is a way to donate to 'fixing' Burma but perhaps the museums could raise awareness of the issue.
@Glorious Bastard we'll just say we found some oil there and the US will sort out the rest
@Glorious Bastard
Nah, not the US. It Shouldn't always have to be the US.
It's common consensus that rhe US is a better World Leader than other Alternatives such as China and Russia. But if another country stepped in for Myanmar I think it would be interesting. I think Thailand could manage Myanmar for a while. I think they have the resources for that.
Or perhaps one of the European countries. Spain has a good military but is not as politically powerful. The Brits are a goof candidate but they have their own problems now.
Germans would be organizationally effective but their hardware is not reliable.
The Swedes would be a good bet.
They have a surprisingly good military. Sweden can do some world policing then. Or a German- Swedish coalition. The Swedes have the Hardware, the Germans the knowhow.
Thank you for informing me about a situation i didn't even know was happening. Such a unfortunate way to make scientific updates