As we’re moving into ‘scramble for solutions’ stage of Climate Crisis I want everyone to keep in mind that all solutions have a real, tangible footprint.
Rare earth metals are used in computer chips and the development of higher level tech- so all these smart energy solutions? They require mining. They are also rare, so there isn’t that much and they don’t replenish.
Need I remind you, this is what the mines look like:
These are places where no plants or trees grow. These are places where no animals can live. These are places where the rule of ‘humans get to extract whatever they want from the earth, as much as they want’ still apply.
When you hear about wind farms being proposed as a solution for energy, they are often being built ‘offshore’ as if that keeps them from disturbing life. But remember– the ocean is home to beings, and the amount of disturbance we’ve already caused the ocean is killing the ecosystem. Unless it’s a floating farm too, it requires construction equipment drilling into and disturbing the seafloor. There’s a limit as to how many times and how many places we can do that without disturbing sealife- and I’d argue that technically we’ve already passed it.
Tangentially, if you’re not paying attention to this issue and would much rather look starward, I’m sure news of what new proposed telescopes can help us discover about the universe always seems great to you! Wonderful! Advancement! Discovery! Except every telescope has to be physically built somewhere, usually on mountains, which involves destroying a relatively undisturbed ecosystem for construction- in some cases it involves building on sacred land, as is the case with the current protests to refuse construction of YET ANOTHER telescope (larger this time) on Mauna Kea.
This is what Mauna Kea already looks like- mind you this mountain is sacred to the people of Hawaii:
Everything goes somewhere. Everything affects something. Our desires for energy or advancement or the next new big thing don’t come out of nowhere- we live on the earth, they happen to the earth.
We LIVE here. We cannot continue to think that endless excess and advancement is logical or sustainable- it always happens to destroy what we already have. If we have to destroy the Earth to get there, it’s not worth it.
What humanity needs is to recognize that the Earth is precious. Global warming increases the more we destroy the environment and continue with unsustainable, non-replenishing practices. We must focus on planting more trees and siphoning less energy from the earth, because again, it all comes from somewhere.
Doing our best to return the Earth to its natural balance is the only solution; more new tech will never save us when it is just about trying to ‘clean’ our unsustainable energy consumption. There is NO good way to continue ‘life as usual’.
We must commit to no longer bleeding the Earth dry.
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