Natural Diamonds or Lab Grown Diamonds? Debate @ The Young Writers' Club

A news that was heard to miss is about two companies under the same legendary group brand TATA competing for a market share. Tanishq, a TATA company sells real diamonds. Trent, a TATA company launched its own lab grown diamonds brand, Pome. Both believe that there is a market for their products. What began as a debate, Natural Diamonds vs Lab Grown diamonds, soon led us on an exploratory path in which curiosity showed the way.

To get a sense of how consumers are likely to see the advent of lab grown diamonds, we watched an example of consumer behavior on BBC. The customer looks happy as her sister tries out a variety of diamond earrings. She is buying a diamond earring set for her sister as a gift. But these are not natural diamonds, they are lab grown diamonds. When asked why she is buying these instead of natural diamonds, she says they look the same and these are lighter on my pocket. So why not?

The advent of lab grown diamonds has shaken up the diamond industry. While many jewelers and diamond producers believe that there will always be demand for natural diamonds, it is hard to discount lab grown diamonds too.

Teens at the Young Writers' Club divided themselves into teams and considered both sides. Their discussion led to many interesting discoveries. Read on...

Natural Vs Lab Grown Diamonds - Debate

The teens at the Young Writers' Club never shy away from a debate. This subject might have been new to them but they refused to back down. At first they relied on what they know and their own experiences.

Diamond as a legacy:

Teens who were familiar with diamond jewelry and the importance that families associate with the diamond brought to the table the inexplicable desire to own natural diamonds. Some spoke of legacy being attached and how a diamond gets passed on from generation to generation thus boosting its value. Lab grown diamonds are barely unique and hardly suitable for creating a legacy. "How does legacy get created?" challenged the opposing team. "Through stories that human beings create. So why not create memorable stories with lab grown diamonds that are a whole lot cheaper?"

Diamond will lose its sheen if it becomes common

Diamond has its allure because not everyone can have it. Making a luxury more affordable is a good move. Why not share the joy of owning a diamond?

A good source of revenue to the government in diamond rich areas will go down

Examples of Botswana came up.

Environmental concerns

Easily found information in the internet would suggest that natural diamond mining has devastating effect on the environment. Questions about energy consumption in lab grown diamonds was also raised. Examples such as Green Labs were introduced to demonstrate how renewable sources of energy could be used to energize the labs on a sustainable basis.

Displacement

Could lab grown diamonds result in smaller places being occupied rather than large diamond mines?

Working conditions are dismal in diamond mines. Labs are far better

After having considered diamond mining in the big picture covering social and environmental issues in the process, it was time to dig deeper and get to the micro level.

How is a diamond grown in the lab?

This exploration enabled the teens to apply all the science that they have learnt in school to understand the process. We learnt that a diamond seed, a thin layer cut from a natural diamond is the starting point of the process. This seed is subject to identical conditions under the earth's surface required for the formation of a diamond. The only difference is that these conditions are artificially created.

Chemically speaking there is no difference!

If that's the case one natural diamond could be cut into several diamond seeds thus resulting in many more diamonds.

Lab grown diamonds are diamond clones, argued the natural diamonds team. Maybe so, but it started to seem like a losing battle.

Lab grown diamonds are a lot more affordable, look exactly like a natural diamond, so why not?

Watch how a lab grown diamond is created here.

Connections made across fields

A discussion that started as a debate that touched upon the costs involved, the price difference, the environmental impact, the social perspective gradually found its way to science that all the teens have studied about in school. They were aware that diamond is after all carbon and is formed under specific conditions beneath the earth's surface. The fact that today it is possible to artificially create the same conditions in the lab is definitely mind boggling.

We are not about to stop there as yet. In our upcoming sessions we are going to make a connection to marketing and how good marketing techniques can deeply engrave the intended message in our minds across generations. Language is power there. The way the intended message is written and projected also plays such a huge role in influencing human psychology. Stay tuned for the follow up blog.

Previously published on Talking Circles