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via JoNova
August 8, 2024 at 09:17AM
Month: August 2024
August 06, 2024
Unless you’ve been living under a rock, you are probably aware of the massive push to transition to green energy. The goal is to have wind and solar replace coal and natural gas; the electric vehicle (EV) will supposedly replace internal combustion engines. Directives are coming from the highest office in the land; the current administration has made green energy a large part of its agenda.
We are being told that these technologies are clean and will save the planet from climate change. However, these alternative forms of energy being espoused are riddled with their own problems.
Hidden behind the solar panels, wind turbines, and EV batteries are some dirty secrets that get swept under the rug and ignored by climate enthusiasts. Fossil fuels are constantly put under a microscope and condemned as an evil destructive polluter; green energy is typically put on a pedestal. Green energy, however, is not as perfect and wonderful as we are made to believe. Yet, we are putting a lot of trust into these energy sources, without considering their ramifications.
The American Consumer Institute just released a report detailing many of the environmental impacts associated with the so-called green energy forms being heavily promoted. The life cycle of all three—the wind turbine, solar panel, and EV battery—involve significant environmental consequences that should not be overlooked and need to be part of the discussion when implementing energy policies.
One of the biggest issues involved with these forms is the extraction and manufacturing processes of various critical minerals that are required for wind turbines, solar panels, and EV batteries. Many underdeveloped nations, where there’s an abundance of minerals, are at risk. The operations and procedures not only overtake land but contaminate surrounding soil and water sources. In the worst cases, this work is accomplished through slave labor.
Various toxins and other greenhouse gases are released into the atmosphere, where workers and even nearby communities are potentially affected. Landscape is tarnished and various animal habitats are shrinking and/or experiencing stress. The massive amount of land occupied by both wind and solar may never be recoverable.
China dominates the green energy supply chains, but their environmental standards are subpar. CO2 emissions associated with refineries in China are 1.5 times greater than those in the EU or U.S.
All three energy sources are also creating a huge waste problem. Since any kind of recycling is very limited on a large scale, more than 90% wind turbine blades, solar panels, and EV batteries end up in landfills. By 2050 it is predicted that used turbine blades will exceed 43 million tons of waste worldwide. Solar waste is predicted to be close to 80 million tons. And with the U.S. projecting 33 million EVs on the road by 2030, that is a lot of batteries to end up in landfills.
Ironically, the same folks who want to charge customers for every plastic bag they use at the grocery store, out of fear of single-use plastics ending up in landfills, don’t seem to have a problem with potentially toxic machinery filling that space instead.
In a penchant for trying to solve one crisis, we are creating others.
Some of the environmental impacts and hazards posed by green energy are far more detrimental than fossil fuels, and yet the latter is often dismissed. Such risks associated with green technologies should actually be an argument against vigorous pursuit of them.
Each energy source, including fossil fuels, should be considered as part of an all-of-the-above strategy for supplying the necessary energy to power homes, businesses, and the U.S. economy at large. All of them come with some degree of environmental concerns, and each should be weighed and measured—along with costs, logistics, reliability, and geopolitical factors—when developing public policy. Instead of completely trying to phase out fossil fuels, a robust and healthy energy mix ought to be established; we need a balanced approach that does not breed additional problems.
It is past time to come clean on so-called clean energy. The real-life consequences and detrimental effects of it demand more honest conversations and a thoughtful course of action.
Kristen Walker is a policy analyst for the American Consumer Institute, a nonprofit education and research organization. For more information about the Institute, visit www.theamericanconsumer.org or follow us on Twitter @ConsumerPal
This article was originally published by RealClearEnergy and made available via RealClearWire.
via Watts Up With That?
August 8, 2024 at 08:01AM
By Paul Homewood
h/t Philip Bratby
Swathes of rainforest and coastal communities are being destroyed by a nickel mining boom in Indonesia sparked by the race to transition away from fossil fuels.
Across the country, a major drive to exploit the country’s abundant natural resources is underway. These photographs capture the sheer scale of the production process.
Rows of chimneys, belching smoke and fumes, tower over the schools and houses of what were once rural communities in scenes recalling the work of L.S. Lowry, whose paintings captured life in the industrial districts of North West England in the mid-20th century.
Indonesia is now the world’s largest nickel producer, with 15 per cent of the globe’s lateritic nickel resources – typically low-grade deposits found near the surface.
But demand is still soaring in tandem with the rise of the electric vehicles (EVs), which depend on it for their batteries.
Billion dollar Chinese firms anchor the nickel market in Indonesia, but they are often fed cheap ore by hundreds of smaller, mostly locally-owned mines that dot the rainforest. These mines have transformed once-peaceful agrarian villages and communities, providing economic opportunity but a health and environmental crisis looms from pollution.
In just three years, Indonesia has signed more than a dozen deals worth more than $15 billion for battery materials and electric vehicle production with global manufacturers including Hyundai, LG and Foxconn.
In 2021, Indonesia unveiled a new nickel smelter in North Morowali Regency of Central Sulawesi. It has been equipped to process 13 million tons of nickel ore annually.
Sulawesi, an Indonesian island east of Borneo, is a peaceful land known for its pristine coral reefs, dive sites and prehistoric cave paintings. But it is fast becoming an industrial heartland.
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The chimneys of PT Obsidian Stainless Steel, a nickel processing complex, spew smoke into the air 24-hours a day, with flames lighting up the night sky.
The land in Molawe district – once filled with vibrant fishing villages – is peppered with craters left by large scale mining.
The coastline has been abandoned. Sandy beaches are discoloured with a kaleidoscope of ore pigments and dotted with jetties where barges wait to deliver nickel ore.
After sunrise in the village of Labola, thousands of workers on scooters, clad in yellow helmets and dust-stained overalls, thronged the pothole-ridden main road. The mass of traffic crawled toward the Indonesia Morowali Industrial Park, better known as IMIP, the heart of the country’s nickel production.
IMIP primarily processes nickel ore for stainless steel but now is increasingly producing higher-grade nickel for electric vehicle batteries…..
Investigations have revealed the widespread exploitation of Chinese workers in some of the nickel factories, where they are forced to work long hours with little pay, and enjoy few workers’ rights. China Labour Watch recently found illegal contracting practices, workplace injuries and deaths, dangerous conditions, abuse, and an overall culture of silence, are commonplace.
According to a report by German policy lobby group Rosa-Luxemburg-Stiftung (RLS), the nickel-processing factories at IMIP pollute the air by spewing out sulphur dioxide, nitrogen oxides, and coal ash — particles that are “finer than beach sand and can be extremely harmful when inhaled”.
In Labota village, an Islamic school called Madrasah Tsanawiyah Negeri (MTSN) has a coal plant operating just behind it. Pupils are constantly exposed to coal dust in the air.
Fishermen have also suffered from the impact of nickel pollution, having to travel further and further afield to find their daily catch. But fish are harder to catch in the deeper water and fishermen have to spend more money on petrol.
At Tapunggaya, a village in the North Konawe Regency in Southeat Sulawesi province, locals said pollution had destroyed their livelihoods.
“There are no fish here anymore,” said Alwi, a 78-year-old fisherman sitting next to a boat. “Children also suffer from respiratory problems due to the very severe air pollution here, which is very disturbing,” he added.
Other fishermen described the seawater as murky and said it often becomes so warm that it causes the fish to move away.
“We have to drive the boat at least two hours away and probably bring home just two kilograms of fish after a long day at sea,” another fisherman, named Mamat, said.
Locals have reported their land being seized by conglomerates without their consent.
The impact of the nickel mining boom reaches far inland.
In order to mine nickel, large areas of trees are cut down and the land is excavated to create open pits. With the roots of the trees no longer present to stabilise the ground, when it rains earth is more easily swept away.
In 2022, there were at least 21 floods and mudslides in Southeast Sulawesi, according to government data. Comparatively, between 2005 and 2008, before the proliferation of mines, there were two to three per year, according to the National Agency for Disaster Countermeasures.
Other environmental hazards of expanding mining operations include pollution of water streams and fishing grounds.
Alwi said that the lives of his fellow villagers have changed forever.
“The waste and pollution from mining have been killing us slowly,” he said.
What Indonesia do is up to them, and we certainly should not deny them the chance capitalise on their resources.
But it undermines environmentalists claims about clean energy. They know full well the impact on the environment from nickel mining, not to mention cobalt, lithium and all of the other materials needed to power the renewable economy.
It is hypocritical for them to ignore it.
via NOT A LOT OF PEOPLE KNOW THAT
August 8, 2024 at 06:23AM
Michael Mann forecast 33 named Atlantic storms this year, so far there have been four. Weather Street: 2024 Atlantic Hurricanes and Tropical Storms
via Real Climate Science
August 8, 2024 at 04:32AM
Iowa Climate Science Education 