Analysis: ‘If fossil fuels are destructive, renewable alternatives are maybe even more so’

[rangerrebew]

Analysis: ‘If fossil fuels are destructive, renewable alternatives are maybe even more so’

Terence Corcoran: Solar panels, wind mills or electric cars cannot be built without mining more copper, lithium, iron and aluminum. “That means vastly more destructive scraping and digging of ocean floors, rainforests and tundras on a scale inconceivable to most environmentalists.”


By: Admin - Climate DepotMay 3, 2023 9:04 AM

Terence Corcoran: A not-so-green reality behind green transition

Financial Post, 3 May 2023



If fossil fuels are destructive, renewable alternatives are maybe even more so

In the rollicking world of net-zero policy-making and initiatives, Canada aims to be a global leader. The country’s bankers, mining executives, auto companies, electricity producers and political leaders have merged into a unified machine around the idea that a new green economy can be achieved via a just transition to a global energy system free of carbon emissions.

The nationalist clatter last week around the possible sale of Teck Resources of Vancouver to Swiss mining giant Glencore reflected the new official Canadian corporatist approach. As a key global player in the business of producing “critical minerals” — copper, zinc, molybdenum — Teck is seen as a vital cog in the wheel of economic fortune swirling around the net-zero objectives.

https://www.climatedepot.com/2023/05/03/analysis-if-fossil-fuels-are-destructive-renewable-alternatives-are-maybe-even-more-so/

[Smokin Joe]

Every electric vehicle contains about 75 kilograms of copper or three times more than a conventional vehicle. A single wind turbine generally contains 500 kilograms of nickel. That nickel requires 100 tonnes of steelmaking coal to be refined. And every crystalline silicon solar panel contains 20 grams of silver paste. It takes 80 metric tons of silver to generate approximately a gigawatt of solar power.”

On copper, Michaux states that current copper reserves at 880 million tonnes are equal to approximately 30 years of production. “But industry will need 4.5 billion tonnes of copper to manufacture just one generation of renewable technologies,” he estimates. “That’s six times the volume of copper mined throughout history.”

More pipe dreams...pie in the sky.
The only thing 'green' about the 'green agenda' is the money it costs and what they are smoking.

[Kamaji]

More pipe dreams...pie in the sky.
The only thing 'green' about the 'green agenda' is the money it costs and what they are smoking.