oooh what a juicy topic and one that isn't talked about/discussed enough. i want you to know that i hear you and as a person who loves stones this is an interesting topic for me. i am with you in that a lot of the gem shows and a lot of the gems you can buy do have the ethos of exploitation -- they are exploiting the earth for capital gain. having been to gem shows and felt the power of all of the stones, while i am not an advote of the exploitation that can (but doesn't always happen: more on that later), i have always felt like perhaps the energy that is created, positively, from the mining of the stones and the ways they help shift consciousness, is more positive than if that didn't happen at all. i too feel badly for all that is taken/extracted and then ways that people buy it up willy nilly without seeing How they got to the surface of the earth or Who took them and with what intention.

personally i am a person who goes around the earth and wherever i am, i will go rockhounding. i am a rockhound by heart, since i was young looking for the shiny rocks, like your daughters. that never left me and as i got older and learned about the powers of the stones, i became a bigger collector. i have found garnets in washes in nevada on the surface of the earth. when it rains, they become revealed and gather where the water flows. recently i found amethyst and quartz crystals at the top of a mountain in new mexico and earlier in the year i dug for quartz from trailings at a quartz mine in arkansas... for me, especially if the stones are revealed at the top of the earth, it is no problem. i feel like these treasures bring more consciousness and love for the earth to humans and that is a positive thing now adays because humans, as a whole, are having trouble connecting with the earth and are doing so much damage because they're out of touch or not listening to the calls of the earth.

when it comes to mining i don't really agree with it-- but as you said, there are far worse things going on. for me, i take the crystals and other gems back to my home and put them on altars that i have made and use them for healing purposes.. we will put crystals in the foundation of our house and we put them by plants to energize and activate healing grids. it seems to be a natural human tendency. i respect your opinion and hear you and this what i have shared above, is basically mine. respect, enjoy, love and amplify.. be conscious of where you got your crystals from and what that person's energy is like/intention is.