Limitations on mining for electricity
By Ronald Stein |June 15th, 2023
Just for electricity from EV batteries and the electricity occasionally generated from wind turbines and solar panels, the World Bank estimates that more than three billion tons of metals and minerals could be required over the next three decades to power the technologies for a global electricity transition. The transition to electricity and its inescapable mineral requirements is discussed in detail in this 46-minute video by Mark Mills.
Almost never discussed is the supply of cost-effective products essential to human flourishing. But wait, life without oil is NOT AS SIMPLE AS YOU MAY THINK as breezes and sunshine can only generate intermittent electricity, and NEITHER wind turbines, nor solar panels, can manufacture anything for society. Low-cost, reliable, versatile products (currently made from oil derivatives manufactured from crude oil) make modern life possible. There’s a simple reason for this. Products make the machines that allow us to be productive and prosperous—from the combine harvesters that allow one farm worker to do the work of 1,000 to the incubators that save the lives of millions of premature babies. Everything depends on products.
Climate change challenges may impact humanity, but being mandated to live without the supply of products and fuels currently manufactured from crude oil to meet ever increasing demand, will necessitate lifestyles being mandated back to the horse and buggy days of the 1800s and could be the greatest threat to the planet’s eight billion residents.
https://www.cfact.org/2023/06/15/limitations-on-mining-for-electricity/
