Back in the day on HF, I once had the temerity to suggest that Greta Thunberg should rather concentrate more on her studies so that she could find out exactly how much pollution is going to be caused by electric vehicles, solar panels and wind turbines.
According to the internet that renewable or clean energy produces no greenhouse gasses, no pollutants or toxic substances that could harm us or our environment. That’s sort of true but the real problem lies firstly in the production of these items and what will happen at the end of their lifespan.
For example to make a single electric vehicle battery 500,000 pounds of raw material has to be mined, moved and then processed. Among these raw materials are lithium, nickel, cobalt and graphite. A single wind turbine requires 900 ton of steel, 2500 ton of concrete and 45 ton of non-recyclable plastic. The blades of a single wind turbine contain more plastic than five million smartphones. Also large amounts of copper is required for the production of electric vehicles, wind turbines and solar panels. It is estimated that about 800 billion ton of copper will be needed in the next 30 years, about the same amount as has been mined since the dawn of time.
More than 60% of cobalt is strip mined in the Democratic Republic of Congo, a country with a more than abysmal record when it comes to most mining operations. Men, women and about 35,000 children work on these mines without even the most basic protective equipment such as gloves and face masks. In some villages the water in streams that they drink is contaminated by the discharge of waste from a mineral processing plant. Birth defects from pollution are common in the DRC.
Currently China produces 70 to 80 % of the world’s graphite in Baotou in Inner Mongolia. Here a 10 square kilometer artificial lake of toxic effluent including vast amounts of heavy metals such as Mercury, has been created by graphite processing waste. This effluent seeps into the earth polluting the ground water.
So what happens to these so called “clean, green non-polluting” items at the end of their life? Despite the manufacturers assurance, many millions of tons of electric car batteries, wind turbine blades and solar panels will eventually end up in landfills causing as much or even more pollution than their production did.
Clean and Green? Never ever. Dirty and dark? You betcha!
According to the internet that renewable or clean energy produces no greenhouse gasses, no pollutants or toxic substances that could harm us or our environment. That’s sort of true but the real problem lies firstly in the production of these items and what will happen at the end of their lifespan.
For example to make a single electric vehicle battery 500,000 pounds of raw material has to be mined, moved and then processed. Among these raw materials are lithium, nickel, cobalt and graphite. A single wind turbine requires 900 ton of steel, 2500 ton of concrete and 45 ton of non-recyclable plastic. The blades of a single wind turbine contain more plastic than five million smartphones. Also large amounts of copper is required for the production of electric vehicles, wind turbines and solar panels. It is estimated that about 800 billion ton of copper will be needed in the next 30 years, about the same amount as has been mined since the dawn of time.
More than 60% of cobalt is strip mined in the Democratic Republic of Congo, a country with a more than abysmal record when it comes to most mining operations. Men, women and about 35,000 children work on these mines without even the most basic protective equipment such as gloves and face masks. In some villages the water in streams that they drink is contaminated by the discharge of waste from a mineral processing plant. Birth defects from pollution are common in the DRC.
Currently China produces 70 to 80 % of the world’s graphite in Baotou in Inner Mongolia. Here a 10 square kilometer artificial lake of toxic effluent including vast amounts of heavy metals such as Mercury, has been created by graphite processing waste. This effluent seeps into the earth polluting the ground water.
So what happens to these so called “clean, green non-polluting” items at the end of their life? Despite the manufacturers assurance, many millions of tons of electric car batteries, wind turbine blades and solar panels will eventually end up in landfills causing as much or even more pollution than their production did.
Clean and Green? Never ever. Dirty and dark? You betcha!
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