In Between Times 9-8-2023
Lithium NIMBY, Global carbon tax, Making baby glaciers, Next-gen carbon capture
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Lithium mining in the USA is desperately needed for “green” tech, But people fear the mining
This is one of the great challenges of creating a greener grid in the United States (particularly). We are a litigious society and anytime anyone wants to mine something or put in transmission lines (to distribute wind or solar) there is always opposition. The laws in the US encourage this opposition and there are many law firms that are more than happy to engage in NIMBY lawsuits.
The truth is mining is often ugly. It’s usually ugly. People in the United States do not like ugly. They certainly do not want ugly in their back yards. But without mining, and transmission lines, and other “ugly” projects there is no way we will be able scale reliable renewable energy at the level that many people want.
A great example of this is the proposed lithium mining operation in and around the Salton Sea in southern California. In this poor area of the state many people see potential jobs. Others however see environmental destruction on top of the rather dire current environmental problems. Nothing is at loggerheads at this point, but history has shown us that things could soon be in the California desert.
Lithium is absolutely vital to the creation of lithium ion batteries found in electric vehicles. Right now we are reliant on other countries for this precious resource. The question is if we can afford to stop things like lithium mines in the US if we want a reliable, more renewable energy grid. Increasingly it looks like we can not.
(From Inside Climate News)
…the rise of these new mining endeavors has been met with significant controversy due to their potential to damage the surrounding land and environment. In Nevada, several Indigenous tribes filed lawsuitsagainst the proposed Thacker Pass mine, arguing that it would desecrate sacred land and violate cultural rights. Environmental organizations also opposed the project because it would use billions of gallons of groundwater at a time the region is suffering from drought, and would deplete clean water sources while destroying important wildlife habitats.
A neighboring proposed project, the Rhyolite Ridge lithium mine, also faces fierce opposition from various environmental groups because of concerns that the project will drive an endangered plant, Tiehm’s buckwheat, to extinction.
Patrick Donnelly, a Great Basin director at the Center for Biological Diversity who opposes the Rhyolite Ridge project, acknowledges that the U.S. is caught in a double bind as it pursues a necessary transition to cleaner transportation and energy.
Click here for the article.
Related: Green groups are divided over a proposal to boost the nation’s hydropower. Here’s why
Global carbon tax proposal comes from some African leaders
The idea of a global tax, not just a global carbon trading market, but a global carbon tax, is unlikely to see much support from the more developed parts of the world.
The first question is, who gathers such a tax? The next is, how are the revenues collected from such a tax distributed? Is this supposed to go through the United Nations? If so it is pretty unlikely that most of the world’s biggest energy players would get on board. Such a tax would constitute a significant loss of sovereignty for any participant country.
It is understandable that some African nations would call for this. As we reported in a past letter many countries in the global south are afraid that they will miss out on “green investment” because they can not afford to pay market rates for capital. A global tax distributed directly to the global south would in theory address this. But why would the rest of the world engage? A cleaner world? Sure. But at the price of a global tax that sucks capital from mostly functional markets and distributes it to areas where the rule of law and market transparency are significant challenges (to say the least)? That’s a tough one for most of the world to swallow.
(From The BBC)
The African Climate Summit was dominated by discussions on how to mobilise financing to adapt to increasingly extreme weather, conserve natural resources and develop renewable energy.
Africa is among the most vulnerable continents to the impact of climate change, but according to researchers, it only receives about 12% of the nearly $300bn (£240bn) in annual financing it needs to cope.
The Nairobi Declaration urged world leaders "to rally behind the proposal for a global carbon taxation regime including a carbon tax on fossil fuel trade, maritime transport and aviation, that may also be augmented by a global financial transaction tax".
Plus a “global financial transaction tax”? That makes this even harder for many to take seriously as potential policy. A world tax on finance is not exactly positive for world trade and global wealth creation.
Click here for the article.
UAE pitches itself as Africa’s carbon credits leader
In case the global carbon tax thing doesn’t work out there are alternatives. (Though some may not like them.)
(From Climate Change News)
During a panel event at the climate summit on Monday, ACMI announced a non-binding agreement to buy $450 of carbon credits from the UAE Carbon Alliance. Founded last June, this coalition includes the Mubadala sovereign wealth fund, renewable energy company Masdar and the UAE’s largest lender, First Abu Dhabi Bank.
The UAE Carbon Alliance wants to establish the Emirates as “a leading hub for high integrity, high quality carbon markets”, facilitating the trading of offsets between companies.
The ACMI’s head Paul Muthaura says the deal gives a clear indication there is an appetite for African carbon credits. “There is often a sentiment that African credits are not equivalent to those from other regions,” the CEO told Climate Home News. “Having advanced market signals from strong reputable entities reaffirms that there are high quality credits being generated on the African continent.”
Click here for the article.
A glacier baby is born: Mating glaciers to replace water lost to climate change
Allsides: What can America do about rising obesity rates?
Allsides asks this, and unlike many questions about what to do about difficult problems this one has some pretty obvious answers.
The food in this country is often atrocious. We eat, generally speaking, far too much fast food. We eat, generally speaking, far too much sugar. We eat, generally speaking, way way way too much bread. We generally do not exercise enough.
Your editor writes this as one who has always had to pay attention to his weight. Out of college, I got a little plump for my tastes. Gone were the days of surfing all day, and intramural soccer. I had yet to take up running. (Which did kill my feet. Run on pillowed sneakers if you are not built like a bird but want to run.) That Dr. Pepper which had never found its way to my waistline in years past now did. I ate badly and I didn’t exercise. I was approaching solidly fat.
Years later, I now eat reasonably well and I exercise almost every day. Smallish portions of food, avoiding sugar generally (which is bad for you in all kinds of ways), avoiding piles of bread, and the occasional 18 hour fast has kept me relatively trim. Though I will never under any circumstances be “thin” I still get to enjoy most things in my 40s that I enjoyed in my teens and twenties.
It is intriguing that obesity rates have flipped in this country over the past 100 years. It used to be that the poor were skinny and the well-to-do were often fat. Now, largely because of American food policy, and programs like SNAP which subsidize low value foods for poor Americans, the opposite is true.*
Plus, and no one talks about this, millions and millions of Americans don’t know how to cook. That’s a problem. Whole foods, which for most people should be the go-to, (which are also relatively inexpensive) usually need to be prepared. Many people just don’t know how to bake a chicken. Shoot, your editor didn’t until he was 35.
Alternatively there’s Ozempic.
(From Allsides)
According to the Center for Disease Control and Prevention, 41.9% of American adults aged 20 and above are obese. What is the national impact of a near-majority obese population, and what could be done to address rising obesity rates?
Click here for the article.
*Not that food assistance isn’t needed. But in the USA, the way it is constructed does encourage the consumption of unhealthy stuff.
MIT unveils next-gen carbon capture technology
Carbon capture technology is just now really getting rolling. Despite some naysayers who fear the new environmental equations associated with feasible, scalable carbon capture tech, carbon capture is moving forward at a relatively rapid pace. MIT might have just taken a big step forward. The new carbon capture method developed there uses much less (95% less) energy to extract carbon directly from the atmosphere.
(From Oilprice.com)
Currently when CO2 is trapped before it escapes into the atmosphere, the process requires a large amount of energy and equipment. Now MIT researchers have designed a capture system using an electrochemical cell that can easily grab and release CO2. The device operates at room temperature and requires less energy than conventional, amine-based carbon-capture systems.
The researchers reported in ACS Central Science that the design is a capture system using an electrochemical cell that can easily grab and release CO2. The device operates at room temperature and requires less energy than conventional, amine-based carbon-capture systems.
Click here for the article.
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National Constitution Day Conversations
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Designed to reach across differences, the National Constitution Day Conversation creates a space for open discussion of the U.S. Constitution. This national facilitated dialogue is based on the fundamental value of the pursuit of knowledge for the public good.
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The event is open to all higher education students, faculty, and staff. Bring your classes and student organizations, and join us on Friday, September 15 from 2:00-3:15 p.m. ET for this national dialogue.