Thanks for this, Moshe. RMI are the geniuses running point on the path to a better energy future, so I won't second-guess them. But I'll note the sense I get from their summary that their best case scenario is contingent upon the current momentum. The financials of emerging battery tech seem solid enough to ward off politics and economic nonsense, but we'll have to see.
Excellent essay on a new motivation that will undoubtably harm the ocean and its life. I believe "renewables" are a dead end. The mining, processing, manufacturing, and installation all depends on heavy equipment and diesel. How much longer will there be EROI on harvesting fossil fuels? Trump is destroying incentives in renewable energy. Perhaps that will halt profit some forms of driven motivation which will further destroy an inhabitable planet. Other motivations will continue, though, tragically. Annexing Canada and Greenland is no joke. It's strategy in competition with Russia and China to exploit the melting Arctic.
Thanks for the note, Geoffrey. Renewables have an ugly startup cost but a far more rational future than fossil fuels. The problem, as with all things Anthropocene, is the scale. Any cultural change for 8 billion people also changes the world. The fossil fuel use in building out the change should taper off as mineral exploitation tapers when battery/panel recycling becomes normalized and profitable. That's a bit optimistic, I know, but that's the direction we're traveling, finally.
You might be interested in the RMI report Moshe links to in his comment above.
As for Arctic geopolitics, that's another topic entirely, however connected. I should do an Arctic essay sometime.
Won’t see me driving an electric vehicle any time soon. Getting my 1980s Peugeot road bike out of hibernation this weekend. The only metal I use for transportation is vintage steel. Anything else and you’re complicit in global destruction. 😜
Thank you, Stacy. And yes, we're largely trapped in a system we benefit from but didn't design. The designers don't believe in bounds, so we've forgotten the virtue of restraint.
Rich and bleak is a good summary of some of my essays, Elisabeth... But as for where we start, in this case it's simple: Don't provide permits for this nonsense, or at least keep it to as few as possible. Change the demand upstream so that the exploitation isn't worth it.
A marvelous essay Jason. Maybe it was reading an earlier version of it that spurred me to purchasing a large number of coffee table books on the ocean and its abysses. But I don't recall the mention of polymetsllic nodules. Those books are now in storage, their contents and the richness they conveyed to me now forgotten in my faltering memory, a metaphor perhaps for the Anthropocene as we slash and burn and stripmine our way through our brief time of suzerainity, using up irreplaceable resources before we too are forgotten. The whole world is an abyss. Deep history confounds. We know so little, yet we have so much power. Did God will that we have sovereignty and to what end? We don't know. We are as children here.
I remember you describing your serious collection of books on the ocean depths, Michael. None of us can hold all we need to know about all the world's depths, though. And yes, forgetfulness is a metaphor for the ecological amnesia we all suffer. We've never had sovereignty, only leverage, and that seems to be outliving its usefulness...
What do you think about this article Jason? Do you think it's a little too optimistic? https://rmi.org/insight/the-battery-mineral-loop/
Thanks for this, Moshe. RMI are the geniuses running point on the path to a better energy future, so I won't second-guess them. But I'll note the sense I get from their summary that their best case scenario is contingent upon the current momentum. The financials of emerging battery tech seem solid enough to ward off politics and economic nonsense, but we'll have to see.
Thanks for your thoughtful essay and thanks for your shoutout about my book, Wild in Seattle.
Thank you, David. I hope the readers are flocking to your book.
I hope they do, too.
Excellent essay on a new motivation that will undoubtably harm the ocean and its life. I believe "renewables" are a dead end. The mining, processing, manufacturing, and installation all depends on heavy equipment and diesel. How much longer will there be EROI on harvesting fossil fuels? Trump is destroying incentives in renewable energy. Perhaps that will halt profit some forms of driven motivation which will further destroy an inhabitable planet. Other motivations will continue, though, tragically. Annexing Canada and Greenland is no joke. It's strategy in competition with Russia and China to exploit the melting Arctic.
https://geoffreydeihl.substack.com/p/massive-alaska-willow-drilling-project
Thanks for the note, Geoffrey. Renewables have an ugly startup cost but a far more rational future than fossil fuels. The problem, as with all things Anthropocene, is the scale. Any cultural change for 8 billion people also changes the world. The fossil fuel use in building out the change should taper off as mineral exploitation tapers when battery/panel recycling becomes normalized and profitable. That's a bit optimistic, I know, but that's the direction we're traveling, finally.
You might be interested in the RMI report Moshe links to in his comment above.
As for Arctic geopolitics, that's another topic entirely, however connected. I should do an Arctic essay sometime.
Excavation deals,
extraction, exploitation.
Destruction. Now what?
Won’t see me driving an electric vehicle any time soon. Getting my 1980s Peugeot road bike out of hibernation this weekend. The only metal I use for transportation is vintage steel. Anything else and you’re complicit in global destruction. 😜
Pretty sure I've seen you in a car somewhere... But yes, you and I have beautiful old steel road bikes that are a stylish model for saving the world.
Humans seem to know no bounds to excavation and destruction. A deep, educating essay to which we are all playing a part.
Thank you, Stacy. And yes, we're largely trapped in a system we benefit from but didn't design. The designers don't believe in bounds, so we've forgotten the virtue of restraint.
Such a rich essay, but so bleak -- our species! - where do we start?
Rich and bleak is a good summary of some of my essays, Elisabeth... But as for where we start, in this case it's simple: Don't provide permits for this nonsense, or at least keep it to as few as possible. Change the demand upstream so that the exploitation isn't worth it.
Thank you Jason -- here's hoping those with the power to do this will be clear-sighted.
Indeed, Jan. And I owe you an apology for calling you by your last name. It happens enough to me that you'd think I would pay more attention...
thank you and no problem at all -- it's a double first name and either is good :)
A marvelous essay Jason. Maybe it was reading an earlier version of it that spurred me to purchasing a large number of coffee table books on the ocean and its abysses. But I don't recall the mention of polymetsllic nodules. Those books are now in storage, their contents and the richness they conveyed to me now forgotten in my faltering memory, a metaphor perhaps for the Anthropocene as we slash and burn and stripmine our way through our brief time of suzerainity, using up irreplaceable resources before we too are forgotten. The whole world is an abyss. Deep history confounds. We know so little, yet we have so much power. Did God will that we have sovereignty and to what end? We don't know. We are as children here.
I remember you describing your serious collection of books on the ocean depths, Michael. None of us can hold all we need to know about all the world's depths, though. And yes, forgetfulness is a metaphor for the ecological amnesia we all suffer. We've never had sovereignty, only leverage, and that seems to be outliving its usefulness...