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Action Alert:
Stop Destruction of Gorillas by Hi-Tech Companies
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Letter |
Addresses |
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Forward a Friend
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Computer chip and cell phone companies—such as Intel, Motorola and Nokia—are causing the destruction of Eastern Lowland Gorillas in Africa by their mining of Coltan (aka tantalum). The following letter, addressed to these companies, demands that they make their practices gorilla-friendly. Please copy and paste this letter into your favorite word-processing program, address it to each of the companies listed below, and personalize, sign and mail it as soon as possible. And please email at least 3 of your friends to do the same!
Let's use the power of technology to convince those who develop technology to do the right thing. Thank you.
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Draft Letter
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Dear Sir or Madam:
On behalf of The Gorilla Foundation, I write to ask if you will please
consider the plight of the eastern lowland gorilla in Kahuzi Biega National Park in
eastern Democratic Republic of Congo. As you no doubt already know, these
Great Apes and their World Heritage habitat are being destroyed because
thousands of miners have invaded the park to mine tantalum, which provides you
with the vital components you need for your products, while using the gorillas
as a convenient food source.
I wish to register my concern with regard to this appalling situation and ask you to
reflect on how your corporation might help mitigate the effects mining is having
on these rare (and extremely intelligent and sensitive) primates and their habitat.
We ask that you do not simply turn away from this terrible situation and seek your
raw materials from safer sources like Australia and Canada. So much damage
has already been done. A ban of tantalum from central Africa, and its effects on
the communities in whose hands the future of these creatures depend,
will surely bring about the final demise of the eastern lowland gorilla.
We demand gorilla-friendly tantalum in your products. Gorilla-friendly tantalum is
tantalum mined in such a way as to both benefit the environment and provide
better economic returns for peasant miners.
Please, for the sake of these precious Great Apes, do not wash your hands of the
problem. Get involved and help save our closest relatives in the wild.
Contact the Gorilla Foundation (P.O. Box 620530, Woodside, CA 94062, USA; ATT: Dir. Conservation)
and join the growing international movement that is striving to help save these most endangered animals.
Yours truly,
Your Name
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Addresses of Companies to Send Letter
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Nokia Group
Keilalahdentie 4
P.O. Box 226
FIN-02150 Espoo
Finland
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Intel Corporation
2200 Mission College Blvd.
Santa Clara, CA 95052-8119
USA
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Motorola, Inc
1303 East Algonquin Road
Schaumburg, IL 60196
USA
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Related Links
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- Leonardo DiCaprio "save the gorillas" website:
articles on this crisis, plus the transcript of a Sep. 27 webchat in which DiCaprio and Arthur C. Clarke addressed
this issue in conjunction with the Dian Fossey Gorilla Fund (and in collaboration with The Gorilla Foundation).
- Wildlife Protectors Fund: The Gorilla Foundation's program to educate the local African population, governments and infringing corporations about the true nature of gorillas (via Project Koko) in order to stop the bushmeat crisis created by international logging and mining, and convert poachers to protectors.
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Forward to a Friend
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Please email the address of this web page to a friend (ask ask him/her to do the same) to significantly multiply the effect of this letter-writing campaign to save gorillas.
Just copy and paste the current web browser location ( http://www.koko.org/action_coltan_letter.html )
into an email message, and send it to anyone who might care about protecting gorillas (like Koko).
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