Throughout all of human history, mining has been among our species' most destructive behaviors. Its environmental impact has been staggering, yet we live in a world so indelibly shaped by its proliferation that it's almost impossible to imagine anything else. Organized, commercial mining has been among the worst means of economic exploitation against man devised by man, in the present in the global south as much as in the days of Blair Mountain and the Wobblies.
I support doing a lot less of it. I also believe that listening to indigenous people is something very vital that is not done enough by this nation's government. If you say something about how that'll have unprecedented global economic impact and require the global north to adapt its gluttonous lifestyle, I'll just post the yes chad and be on my way.
It's an objective fact that the environment would be better off if the lithium were extracted and then put to use in batteries. You can make the indigenous argument if you like, but the environmental one is a losing argument for you.
Every half-wit "environmental policy" is bound to have an environmental impact that vastly outweighs any damage prevention or mitigation that it might have. Carbon capture plants usually consume an amount of electricity that is acquired by burning CO2 in greater amounts than the CO2 they actually take in. The stories about policy wonks feuding over whether or not it's worth it to raze desert ecosystems to build ludicrous amounts of solar panels are common knowledge now, and one of the Discord servers I'm in that hosts folks with Strong Opinions on both sides never shuts up about it. Obviously any human activity at this point in time is bound to have an environmental impact that, if we dedicated ourselves to absorbing it, would leave all non-sociopaths alive in a state of catatonia. but we tend to relieve ourselves of that for the sake of functioning within this spiraling death cult ride to oblivion.
I'm erring on the side that involves doing less and making less noise, also.
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