It has been a remarkable journey out of Africa. Millions of years of weather, geologic turmoil, and contributions from many incredible groups and individuals have brought us to this point.
I ran across James Clear's summary of Yuval Noah Harari's book, "Sapiens: A Brief History of Humankind" that succinctly captures where we've been: Human history has been shaped by three major revolutions: the Cognitive Revolution (70,000 years ago), the Agricultural Revolution (10,000 years ago), and the Scientific Revolution (500 years ago). These revolutions have empowered humans to do something no other form of life has done, which is to create and connect around ideas that do not physically exist (think religion, capitalism, and politics). These shared “myths” have enabled humans to take over the globe and have put humankind on the verge of overcoming the forces of natural selection.
These layers upon layers of evolution and history have brought us to the brink of a climate-altering tipping point. Along the way, scientific discoveries, compelling data, and just plain ol' facts point the finger back at us.
We are accelerating global warming at an unsustainable pace, and we find ourselves in the early stages of what has been referred to as the Anthropocene Extinction, which is being brought about by habitat destruction, species extinction, overexploitation, pollution, invasive species, and climate change.
Here are a few related facts:
1824: French physicist Joseph Fourier described the Earth's natural greenhouse effect.
1861: Irish physicist John Tyndall discovered that some gases, like CO2, trap heat.
1896: Swedish scientist Svante Arrhenius published the first calculation of global warming from human emissions of CO2.
1938: English engineer Guy Callendar compiles temperature records from the previous century and links rising CO2 levels to global warming. ...more
1958: Charles David Keeling begins continuous measurements of atmospheric CO2 at Mauna Loa Observatory, establishing the "Keeling Curve," demonstrating a steady rise in CO2 levels.
In 1965, President Lyndon B. Johnson’s Science Advisory Committee issued a report warning about the impacts of pollution and humanity’s role in curbing its effects. The report raised awareness, helped influence policy, and spurred more scientific research.
But letting go of our limited resource-consuming ways was bound to meet with resistance. Climate denial, the fossil fuels industry PR machine, congressional lobbying, and the general public's inertia-indifference-ignorance--call it what you will--have slowed the pace of change.
Fear of the unknown, loss of control, lack of trust, and maintaining the status quo; put them all in a pot, stir in news and social media, and we end up with an incredible amount of noise and Trumpian misinformation. It is a wonder anything gets done.
I worry that motivating a majority of nation-states, their leaders, and citizens to change course is beyond the collective "us." I am reminded of the metaphor of a burning house. A crowd gathers. The scene is chaotic: Some people watch, others run around bumping into one another, fights break out, and it's pandemonium--eventually, the house burns to the ground.
However, there is a teeny-weeny part of me that remains hopeful. Throughout history, the human animal has experienced and overcome many challenges: wars, pandemics, and profound cultural shifts ranging from the abolition of slavery to women's suffrage to same-sex marriage--all is not lost! Change, however painfully slow, continues:
1979: The first World Climate Climate Conference calls on government to "foresee and prevent potential man-made changes in climate
1988: The Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC) is established to provide comprehensive assessments of climate science.
1990: The IPCC's First Assessment Report confirms the scientific basis for climate change concerns.
1992: The United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change (UNFCCC) is adopted to stabilize greenhouse gas concentrations in the atmosphere.
1997: The Kyoto Protocol, the first international treaty to limit greenhouse gas emissions, is adopted.
From the 2000s onward, the IPCC releases a series of reports with increasing certainty about the human cause of climate change and the need for urgent action.
2015: The Paris Agreement, a landmark international accord to combat climate change, is adopted, with the goal of limiting global warming to well below 2 degrees Celsius above pre-industrial levels.
2021: On November 15, President Biden signed the U.S. Infrastructure Investment and Jobs Act (IIJA), which includes provisions to address global warming and promote sustainability. ...more
Critical Minerals and Autocracies
Our government defines a critical mineral as a non-fuel mineral or mineral material whose supply chain is considered vulnerable to disruption, and its supply is seen as essential to the economic or national security of the US. Unfortunately, we live in a world of extreme poverty and extreme wealth, oppressors and the oppressed, democracies and autocracies.
According to V-Dem Varieties of Democracy:
"The world is almost evenly divided between 91 democracies and 88 autocracies. But 71% of the world’s population – 5.7 billion people – live in autocracies – an increase from 48% ten years ago.
Electoral autocracies have the most people—44% of the world’s population, or 3.5 billion people.
29% of the world’s population – 2.3 billion people – live in liberal and electoral democracies.
Israel falls out of the liberal democracy category for the first time in over 50 years." You can download a report here.
Consequently, not all of the world's nation-states are marching to the same drummer.
Too many competing geopolitical agendas, power struggles, and economic challenges exist, making the prospect of the US or any other nation ever becoming critical minerals independent highly unlikely. According to the U.S. Geological Survey, the US produces zero percent of the world’s refined cobalt, gallium, and rare earths, while China produces 72, 98, and 85 percent, respectively. These materials are vital in superalloys, semiconductors, and permanent magnets and are essential for advanced technologies such as jet engines, quantum computing, and defense applications.
Right now, Chinese companies lead the rest of the world in everything from mining and refining critical minerals to manufacturing battery cells and packs. Western countries have a lot of catch-up to do when it comes to gaining expertise and scaling up domestic production.
China is also heavily involved in international mining projects, especially cobalt-producing mines in the Democratic Republic of Congo (DRC).
Chile and Peru are top destinations for foreign investment in critical minerals, particularly copper and lithium, essential for energy transition technologies.
Indonesia is a key exporter of nickel, which is crucial for battery production and plays a significant role in the global supply chain for critical minerals.
So, back to mining and the push supporting efforts to make us more critical minerals self-sufficient. The G7 countries (Canada, France, Germany, Italy, Japan, the United Kingdom, and the US) do not possess all of the natural resources necessary to support the many day-to-day technologies that we have come to rely on. The G20, which includes the authoritarian regimes of China (critical minerals, batteries, solar panels, manufacturing), Russia (nickel, palladium, platinum, titanium), and Saudi Arabia (oil), supplies resources that are essential to the world's economies.
For the foreseeable future, democratic G7/G20 nations must maintain pragmatic economic relationships with authoritarian regimes. All nations have, of necessity, had to balance their professed values against their practical economic considerations. Moral ambiguity and our comfortable lifestyles have blinded us to the poverty, injustice, and environmental destruction taking place around us. I leave it to you to weigh the moral and ethical implications.
FAST 41: Fixing America's Surface Transportation Act, Title 41
The US now finds itself in a "giddyup" mode. Weening ourselves from this reliance on China and other authoritarian regimes has broad implications for various industries, of which mining and South32 are examples. FAST 41's primary goals:
Improving the efficiency and transparency of major infrastructure projects' federal environmental review and permitting process.
Accelerating the completion of critical infrastructure projects. By streamlining the permitting process,
Enhance accountability and oversight in the permitting process.
I ran across the following during my research: "A Proposed Rule by the Federal Permitting Improvement Steering Council on 09/22/2023", which states, "The Federal Permitting Improvement Steering Council (Permitting Council) proposes to amend its regulations to revise the scope of “mining” as a sector with infrastructure projects eligible for coverage under Title 41 of the Fixing America's Surface Transportation Act (FAST-41). The Permitting Council added “mining” as a FAST-41 sector in January 2021. This proposed rule would: (1) revise the FAST-41 “mining” sector to apply solely to critical minerals mining projects; and (2) expand the scope of the sector to include infrastructure constructed to support critical minerals supply chain activities, including critical minerals beneficiation, processing, and recycling. The proposed modification will help ensure that qualified critical minerals supply chain projects beyond critical minerals mining can obtain FAST-41 coverage. FAST-41 was enacted to improve the timeliness, predictability, transparency, and accountability of the Federal environmental review and authorization processes for covered infrastructure projects. FAST-41 coverage does not predetermine or affect the outcome of any Federal decision-making process with respect to a covered project, or modify any required environmental review or public or tribal consultation process."
Energy Dependence and the Smartphone
Let's take the smartphone, for example. More than 60% of the world's population owns a cell phone, and that number continues to rise. Here's a breakdown of the number of elements found in most smartphones -- the numbers will vary based on the model and maker chosen:
Smartscreen: 14
Battery: 5
Electronics: 18
Casing: 4
Of these, there are 14 critical minerals:
Manganese (Mn)
The U.S. Geological Survey considers Mn a critical mineral and included it in the 2022 Final List of Critical Minerals. It is deemed essential to the US economy and national security. Currently, the US sources its supply from countries with lax or non-existent environmental policies and/or controlled by autocracies, making it vulnerable to disruption.
The demand for Mn will continue to rise because of the increasing demand for batteries to store energy, power EVs, and other products. South Africa is the largest supplier of manganese, and China has the infrastructure to process both domestic and imported manganese ore. China is also a major producer of ferromanganese and silicomanganese alloys, which are crucial for steelmaking.
Currently, South Carolina is the only active manganese mine in the US. It produces a very low-grade ore that is primarily used to color brick. The only other US manganese mining operation is South32, which is not online yet.
[Factoid] South32 is the world's largest producer of Manganese, produced at the Groote Eylandt Mining Company (GEMCO) in Australia and South Africa's Manganese operations in South Africa's Northern Cape. ...more "The Kalahari Manganese Fields (“KMF”), which covers an area of approximately 23,000 hectares (~88 sq. miles). The KMF is known to contain approximately 80% of the world’s in-situ manganese resources."
Another large manganese deposit exists in Emily, Crow Wing County, Minnesota, within the Cuyuna Iron Range. This deposit was discovered in the early 1910s. The mining company, North Star Manganese, wants to mine it, and the folks in Emily are dealing with some of the same issues and concerns that the townspeople of Patagonia, Arizona, are facing--change, disruption, and the impact on the environment balanced again economic interests and the country's need for critical minerals.
It is important to distinguish between manganese, the trace element essential for all known living organisms, and manganese, the mineral distributed in the earth's crust. Its trace form is found in whole grains, nuts, and legumes. Mn (II) ions are cofactors for several enzymes in higher organisms and are necessary for the formation of connective tissue and bone for growth, embryonic development, and reproductive functions. ...more
The mineral form of Mn is found in soils, sediments, and rocks. Because of its atomic structure and bonding properties, Mn is an essential ingredient in steel-making and a key material in battery manufacturing for the EV industry. This industry is changing rapidly, and much work is being done on alternative battery formulations. Stay tuned.
Here are a few interesting facts about Mn from the Royal Society of Chemistry's website and a podcast on Manganese:
It's the fifth most abundant metal in the Earth's crust and the second most abundant transition metal after iron.
There are more than 300 different minerals that contain manganese.
Large deposits are found in Australia, Gabon, South Africa, Brazil, and Russia.
An estimated three trillion tons of manganese nodules cover large parts of the ocean floor, mostly at a depth of 4 to 6 kilometers.
It can exist in six different oxidation states.
In nature, it is usually found in either its reduced +2 state, which easily dissolves in water or its +4 state, which forms many types of insoluble oxides.
Dry rot fungi that break down wood use the +3 form of manganese as a powerful weapon. A fungal enzyme, manganese peroxidase, oxidizes manganese +2 atoms to manganese +3, which is then sent to the tiny spaces within the wood lattice. Manganese +3 is highly reactive and can break down the chemical bonds of lignin, making it available as food for the fungus.
Manganese is an essential element for all life forms. It is necessary for the activity of several enzymes that must bind a manganese atom before they can function, including superoxide dismutase. This enzyme protects us from the harmful effects of toxic oxygen radicals.
One of the most important biological reactions, photosynthesis, is completely dependent on manganese. It is the star player in the reaction center of photosystem II, where water molecules are converted to oxygen. Without manganese, there would be no photosynthesis as we know it and no oxygen in the atmosphere.
Survey
I wanted to learn how the topic is playing among the general public. I came across the results of a 2023 Pew Research Center survey. The survey contains eight charts that illustrate Americans’ views on climate change ...more
They concluded, "Overall, 37% of Americans say addressing climate change should be a top priority for the president and Congress in 2023, and another 34% say it’s an important but lower priority. This ranks climate change 17th out of 21 national issues included in a Center survey from January... ... As with views of the threat that climate change poses, there’s a striking contrast between how Republicans and Democrats prioritize the issue. For Democrats, it falls in the top half of priority issues, and 59% call it a top priority. By comparison, among Republicans, it ranks second to last, and just 13% describe it as a top priority.
... Concern over climate change has also risen internationally, as shown by separate Pew Research Center polling across 19 countries in 2022. People in many advanced economies express higher levels of concern than Americans. For instance, 81% of French adults and 73% of Germans describe climate change as a major threat."
NIMBY
None of us want to see our environment, water, and air violated in any way. The best we can hope for is to remain vigilant, press for accountability, and, in the face of an antiquated Mining Law and economic and national security interests, do what we can to preserve a healthy environment.
Like it or not, FAST41, South32, and scratching the earth for the resources that make up all of our "stuff" will continue.
I welcome your comments.
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