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.
As I said in a previous response, electric cars continue the consumerist paradigm. We still have clogged freeways and sprawl. Back during the first Earth Day, folks talked about renouncing cars, line drying clothes, and living modestly. I’m not sure what happened, whether those voices were drowned out or it really was an impossibility to convince people to get out of their cars and lead simpler lives. Thank you for your thoughtful comment.
Paul, you and your readers may be interested in knowing about the lithium mine at Thacker Pass, NV. Mining is a filthy enterprise, and this operation tramples the rights and culture of tribal communities in the area, and requires extreme amounts of water. Water requirements come to 30 billion gallons a year, and it turns out my estimate for the life of the mine, 1.38 trillion gallons, was considerably low. This in a region of extreme historic drought. There is nothing green about lithium. https://geoffreydeihl.substack.com/p/showdown-at-thacker-pass
Geoffrey, thanks for your comment. Yes, I know a number of electric car enthusiasts who say they need to be developed no matter what the environmental cost. And lithium has become ubiquitous. It's in your cell phone and other devices.
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.
Joel, good to hear from you, and you make a good point. In caring for one part of nature, are we jeopardizing even more of the planet? Personally, I believe there are lots of lithium mines that are now becoming more feasible. We may be able to mine these minerals without endangering the buckwheat.
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.
Perry, thanks for your thoughtful comment. Yes, so much of what we think of as "green" is just another way--albeit perhaps not quite as destructive--of continuing down the same paths of consumerism and consumption. Lots of folks are promoting electric cars and not a whole bunch of folks are out there advocating for getting out of our cars altogether.
My colleague from Rancho Santa Ana Botanic Garden, Naomi Fraga, was one of the first to sound the alarm. It’s NOT green energy if it destroys endangered species.
Bryant, a friend who is a botanist advocates for this, find other habitat that is favorable to the buckwheat and, through greenhouse propagation, plant the buckwheat in that location. Favorable locations would have the same soil type and climate, the same type of pollinators as well.
As a gardener, I do this. I have several rare and endangered species that I care for, some that I've propagated myself. I have a few that should not grow where they are planted. They lack the rainfall or are planted in soil that should not suit them, but they thrive nevertheless.
As you said, there is no good solution here. Thanks for your thoughtful comment.
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.
Destiny, I wholeheartedly agree. Electric vehicles still leave us with extractive industries for all the metal and plastic that go into making a car. Just think of all the rubber to make all the tires! And tire on an electric vehicle still pollute as much as tires on a regular car. https://www.theguardian.com/environment/2022/jun/03/car-tyres-produce-more-particle-pollution-than-exhausts-tests-show
As I said in a previous response, electric cars continue the consumerist paradigm. We still have clogged freeways and sprawl. Back during the first Earth Day, folks talked about renouncing cars, line drying clothes, and living modestly. I’m not sure what happened, whether those voices were drowned out or it really was an impossibility to convince people to get out of their cars and lead simpler lives. Thank you for your thoughtful comment.
Paul, you and your readers may be interested in knowing about the lithium mine at Thacker Pass, NV. Mining is a filthy enterprise, and this operation tramples the rights and culture of tribal communities in the area, and requires extreme amounts of water. Water requirements come to 30 billion gallons a year, and it turns out my estimate for the life of the mine, 1.38 trillion gallons, was considerably low. This in a region of extreme historic drought. There is nothing green about lithium. https://geoffreydeihl.substack.com/p/showdown-at-thacker-pass
Geoffrey, thanks for your comment. Yes, I know a number of electric car enthusiasts who say they need to be developed no matter what the environmental cost. And lithium has become ubiquitous. It's in your cell phone and other devices.
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.
Joel, good to hear from you, and you make a good point. In caring for one part of nature, are we jeopardizing even more of the planet? Personally, I believe there are lots of lithium mines that are now becoming more feasible. We may be able to mine these minerals without endangering the buckwheat.
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.
Perry, thanks for your thoughtful comment. Yes, so much of what we think of as "green" is just another way--albeit perhaps not quite as destructive--of continuing down the same paths of consumerism and consumption. Lots of folks are promoting electric cars and not a whole bunch of folks are out there advocating for getting out of our cars altogether.
My colleague from Rancho Santa Ana Botanic Garden, Naomi Fraga, was one of the first to sound the alarm. It’s NOT green energy if it destroys endangered species.
Bryant, a friend who is a botanist advocates for this, find other habitat that is favorable to the buckwheat and, through greenhouse propagation, plant the buckwheat in that location. Favorable locations would have the same soil type and climate, the same type of pollinators as well.
As a gardener, I do this. I have several rare and endangered species that I care for, some that I've propagated myself. I have a few that should not grow where they are planted. They lack the rainfall or are planted in soil that should not suit them, but they thrive nevertheless.
As you said, there is no good solution here. Thanks for your thoughtful comment.