This was an interesting read and well researched read that brings up a question I have been struggling with a for a while. Are some "green" initiatives worth it? Personally I believe that this mine should not continue if it risks the extinction of the buckwheat even if it's for batteries for electrified bikes and cars. While they are, on the surface, better than gas powered cars when it comes to green house gas emissions, it's also important to consider the impact of electrified vehicles in other areas. For example, the upholding of car centric infrastructure, pollution from mining, and more things like this, that result in direct environmental destruction. I think right now we are in a world saturated with greenwashing and should continue to look at all actions with a critical environmental and human health centric eye.
I'm eager to see the ESA report when it releases. We are in a weird space where relying upon other nations to produce lithium needed for EVs is unwise, but destroying our own ecosystem in the USA is unwise as well. Others have commented on consumerism and sprawl so I won't mention it. I wonder if we could find a way to save this plant by transplanting it to other areas. Protect the existing patches while also moving some to other areas that may be better protected. There is no good solution here.
Yeah, tough call. My view is that we need batteries if we have any hope of limiting GHG emissions. We need to electrify everything (including vehicles) and use batteries to back up an increasingly renewable grid. Without that, nothing is going to survive in the Nevada desert in any case.
If mining lithium is necessary to manufacture batteries to power electric vehicles, it is a misnomer to call such vehicles and the betteries that are necessary to make them operate a green vehicle. As part of the Green Revolution.
Let's start to tell the truth. There is no Green Revolution going on; it is merely a transition away from fossil fuels to electric powered vehicles and the like. This keeps the consumer economy running at hyper speed, and thus continues its destructive effects on our natural world.
A true Green Revolution would not have that effect.
This was an interesting read and well researched read that brings up a question I have been struggling with a for a while. Are some "green" initiatives worth it? Personally I believe that this mine should not continue if it risks the extinction of the buckwheat even if it's for batteries for electrified bikes and cars. While they are, on the surface, better than gas powered cars when it comes to green house gas emissions, it's also important to consider the impact of electrified vehicles in other areas. For example, the upholding of car centric infrastructure, pollution from mining, and more things like this, that result in direct environmental destruction. I think right now we are in a world saturated with greenwashing and should continue to look at all actions with a critical environmental and human health centric eye.
I'm eager to see the ESA report when it releases. We are in a weird space where relying upon other nations to produce lithium needed for EVs is unwise, but destroying our own ecosystem in the USA is unwise as well. Others have commented on consumerism and sprawl so I won't mention it. I wonder if we could find a way to save this plant by transplanting it to other areas. Protect the existing patches while also moving some to other areas that may be better protected. There is no good solution here.
Yeah, tough call. My view is that we need batteries if we have any hope of limiting GHG emissions. We need to electrify everything (including vehicles) and use batteries to back up an increasingly renewable grid. Without that, nothing is going to survive in the Nevada desert in any case.
If mining lithium is necessary to manufacture batteries to power electric vehicles, it is a misnomer to call such vehicles and the betteries that are necessary to make them operate a green vehicle. As part of the Green Revolution.
Let's start to tell the truth. There is no Green Revolution going on; it is merely a transition away from fossil fuels to electric powered vehicles and the like. This keeps the consumer economy running at hyper speed, and thus continues its destructive effects on our natural world.
A true Green Revolution would not have that effect.