We must be smarter than that

According to this report, Myanmar is now the world’s largest –and China’s proxy–supplier of heavy rare earth minerals. These minerals are essential to the production of electric cars, wind turbines, smartphones and other consumer electronics. However, the rare earth mining industry comes at an extremely high social and environmental cost, which if widely known would/should become unacceptable and prohibitive. 

It is disturbing to think that so much injustice in the world is being fueled by (a) China’s hypocrisy, (b) Myanmar’s despotic, complicit and unruly state, and (c) people’s, mostly in the West, blind demand for ‘green’ gadgets without being critical of their methods.

Dysprosium and terbium are “basically irreplaceable” materials, and the rare earth mining industry is highly-polluting. By definition this is not sustainable, we cannot sustain/keep exploiting these materials because they are finite on earth, its mining contaminates valuable drinking water resources, creating multiple health issues for people, and endangering biodiversity and ecosystem equilibrium. Therefore, the use of rare earth minerals defeats the purpose of using them to make products (EVs and wind turbines), that were sought in the first place as alternatives to coal-fired products, and were believed to be more sustainable. Therefore, the mining of rare earth materials (especially done in such an illegal, unregulated, uncontrolled ways that completely disregard social and environmental issues) is not sustainable either, and is just another toxic industry. 

There are many other concerns with the (social and environmental) sustainability of EVs and wind turbines. The fact that they use rare earth materials and therefore, their supply chain includes such a toxic and damaging industry, is another criticism. However, we must be careful to discern the root of the issue, which is the toxic industry of rare earth mining they are linked to, but not the technology itself of EVs or of wind turbines. In fact, if these technologies would find alternative ways to operate, that would not necessitate dysprosium and terbium, nor any other “basically irreplaceable” material, nor any other component whose production is linked to toxic and human-rights-violating industries, then we can think of EVs and wind turbines as truly sustainable alternatives for the transport and energy sectors; but not while rare earth materials are part of their supply chain.

“we should discard the idea that our mere existence on this planet imminently would pollute our habitats… we must be smarter than that”

Then, both options: the carbon economy and the exploitation of rare earth minerals are highly-polluting and put in risk the human rights of people, especially local communities where these materials are mined (as the report shows). It is incredible that people are willing to risk their lives to protest, because the cost of inaction is so high as to be killed slowly by the toxic industry. This on top of all the negative issues involved with this industry: child labour, funds to illegal militias, environmental and biodiversity degradation, and devastating effects on local water and soil affecting the lives of millions of people. 

But the issue of energy production is not a binary dilemma: we are not, and should not be, forced to choose between a carbon-intensive economy or the exploitation of rare earth minerals to make ‘green gadgets’. In the seek for alternatives to the carbon economy, we should not seek for the ‘lesser of two evils’, or what is less polluting; we should think outside of the box, and think of real alternatives to the notion that our mere existence imminently would pollute our habitats. We must refuse that idea and seek for ways to co-exist in harmony with nature without damaging it at all.

Another blog to come on what truly green and sustainable alternatives to energy production could be, but I hint it might have to do with the work and experiments of Nikola Tesla and Edward Leedskalnin, who could provide insights from at a time when rare earth mining did not exist.