Link: https://www.onlineopinion.com.au/view.asp?article=21676 Please see link above for source text, embedded hotlinks, and comments.
Biden promoting environmental destruction and human rights abuses By Jay Lehr and Tom Harris October 19, 2021 By now, many people are aware of the mass slaughter of wildlife caused by industrial wind turbines. They are nothing less than bird and bat-killing machines that will drive some species to extinction. Yet, like his love of solar power and electric vehicles, U.S. President Joe Biden's support of wind power is promoting some of the worst human rights abuses and environmental destruction in the world, all in the name of so-called "clean energy." In support of his Build Back Better plan and the infrastructure bill currently in Congress, Biden told a union audience in Howell, Michigan on Oct 5: "This bill helps us get there in a way that creates good jobs, makes us global leaders of fast-growing clean energy industries, like electric vehicles, solar and wind power, battery power." Michael Moore's new film, "Planet of the Humans," demonstrates that, when you consider how these machines are made, wind and solar power, electric vehicles and batteries are anything but clean. They may very well be the dirtiest and most environmentally destructive energy technologies on the planet. To understand what has happened, and how so many good-hearted people across the world have been deceived by the clean, renewable energy myth, readers should look up the newly released book, "Clean Energy Exploitations – Helping citizens understand the environmental and humanity abuses that support 'clean' energy," by engineer and energy consultant Ronald Stein and Todd Royal, an independent public policy consultant focusing on the geopolitical implications of energy. Stein and Royal's book helps the public understand how the development of so-called clean energy by countries such as the U.S., Canada, Germany, and Australia are exploiting the most vulnerable people in the world and destroying their environments.
1
They explain that many African, Asian, and South American children are being enslaved and dying in mines and factories to extract and process the rare-earths and exotic minerals required for solar panels, wind turbines, electric vehicles, and utility-scale storage systems to work. These are unquestionably BLOOD MINERALS. The most important components of electric vehicles, for example, are lithium-ion rechargeable batteries. The principal materials used in lithium-ion batteries are cobalt, lithium, manganese, and graphite. ICSC-Canada Economics/Policy Advisor Robert Lyman explained: "A recent United Nations report warned that the raw materials used in EV batteries are highly concentrated in a small number of countries where environmental, labor, and safety regulations are weak or non-existent. 'Artisanal' cobalt production in the Democratic Republic of the Congo now supplies two-thirds of the global output of the mineral. Many of the mines employ child labor in extremely dangerous tasks. Up to 40,000 children are estimated to be working in extremely dangerous conditions, with inadequate safety equipment, for very little money in the mines in Southern Katanga. The children are exposed to multiple physical risks and psychological violations and abuse, only to earn a meager income to support their families. "Lithium mining also presents social and environmental risks. Again, to quote the UNCTAD report: 'For example, indigenous communities that have lived in the Andean region of Chile, Bolivia, and Argentina for centuries must contend with miners for access to communal land and water. The mining industry depends on a large amount of groundwater in one of the driest desert regions in the world to pump out brines from drilled wells. Some estimates show that approximately 1.9 million liters of water are needed to produce a tonne of lithium. In Chile's Salar de Atacama, lithium and other mining activities consumed 65 percent of the region's water. That is having a big impact on local farmers – who grow quinoa and herd llamas – in an area where some communities already must get water driven in from elsewhere.'" So less-developed countries are mining for these materials in jurisdictions with virtually non-existent environmental regulations to help wealthy nations "decarbonize" and move to an all-electric society. This lack of oversight inflicts humanitarian atrocities and environmental degradation to the local landscape beyond comprehension. Whatever emission reductions the U.S., Canadian, European Union, and other governments believe they are achieving by using solar panels and wind turbines for electricity is entirely negated by the heavy reliance of the third world, vulnerable populations on coal-fired power.
2
About the Authors Jay Lehr is Senior Policy Advisor to the Ottawa, Canada-based International Climate Science Coalition (ICSC). . Tom Harris is an Ottawa-based mechanical engineer and Executive Director of the International Climate Science Coalition. Other articles by these Authors ● » We must reject huge financial demands at UN climate conference - October 29, 2021 ● » UN claims to 'climate truth' impossible - September 16, 2021 ● » Environmentalists responsible for much of Australia’s bushfire problem February 4, 2020 ● » The sun dominates climate change - March 7, 2019 ● » Global warming won't make it colder! - February 15, 2019 All articles by Jay Lehr All articles by Tom Harris
3