How my project was successful/not successful? + What I would have done to improve my work? + What I would do to develop the project in the future?

I thought that my project overall was very successful as it outlined a lot of key connections between science and the wider world. The format in which I presented my information was also successful as it was engaging but at the same time still gave away all the information I wanted to present to my specific audience. I wanted to educate them about synthetic and naturally occurring diamonds and the social, environmental, and economic impacts that follow and how diamond production will vary in the future. I think to improve next time I could have used more real-world examples as I did with Botswana and how the diamond industry accounts for 32% of their GDP. Although I explained well the implications I could have maybe incorporated more examples to make it even better. This would have backed up my ideas in a better way. At this moment I talk about a lot of key ideas and impacts but maybe I could show how these are impacting specific countries with examples if I was to do it again.

What have I learned through this whole process? + What impact might the results of my project have on other people/the wider world?

Diamonds are classified as scarce resources as there are limited numbers of them left occurring naturally in the world. Due to the high demand from the jewelry industry, humans need to come up with a way to maintain the demand for these resources. I have also learned how synthetic diamonds are made and this was something I was not aware of before. Natural diamonds that have already been mined are cut into small shavings that act as diamond seeds in order to produce more synthetic ones. Subsequently, carbon gas is deployed inside the chamber with the diamond seedling under high temperature and under high pressure. Over several weeks this will form small synthetic diamonds that have the same physical and chemical properties as natural diamonds.

I believe and have learned that there are lots of different factors that need to be taken into account when deciding which method has the most beneficial impact. In terms of economic implications, although, significantly more money needs to be spent on traditional mining for diamonds, it won’t create a larger gap between LEDC’s and MEDC’s and will instead help developing countries industrialize. Diamond mining accounts for a lot of the GDP of many LEDC’s who are involved in the diamond industry and for them to advance and profit off of this, synthetic diamond production needs to stay low. For-profits to significantly outweigh the costs of production and for LEDC’s to advance in the modern world, traditional mining for diamonds needs to be the significantly favored option.

In terms of social impacts, even though synthetic diamonds might be considered to be ‘fake’ by some people, workers aren’t exploited and do not risk having major health issues as a result of many years of work underground. Companies should declare, however, whether or not the diamonds they are selling are natural or not to avoid further problems. There should also always be a small supply of natural diamonds on the market so that the consumers won’t only have to rely on synthetic diamonds. 

Environmentally, there is no significant impact on the production of synthetic diamonds, however, the extraction of natural diamonds involves huge impacts on the environment including deforestation and soil erosion that can even lead to entire ecosystems collapsing. For that reason, synthetic diamonds are more ethical and environmental alternatives.

I believe, In the future, as we are starting to realize how big of an impact we are having on the earth, I think the majority of diamond production will be synthetic as it has little to no environmental impact. Additionally, for this to happen there would need to be a fund created by stronger developing countries for LEDC’s in the diamond industry so that they also could advance into creating synthetic diamonds without this significantly impacting their economy.