31% Increase in Leaf Area since 1982 !!!

CO2 is Definitely Good !!!

 

Public and private conversations are needed to discuss the conundrums about the transition to a so-called “green” society.

 

 

Energy Literacy Newsletter – Let’s Face The Elephant in the room

 

 

 

The dependency on China and ‘blood minerals’ human rights abuses for EV batteries supported by our government

 

Public and private conversations are needed to discuss the conundrums about the transition to a so-called “green” society.



 

 

Published November 29, 2024 at America Out Loud NEWS

https://www.americaoutloud.news/the-dependency-on-china-and-blood-minerals-human-rights-abuses-for-ev-batteries-supported-by-our-government/

 

Be sure to share this with family and friends. Education is absolutely necessary to avoid the impending catastrophe if we allow the climate change scaremongers to have their way.

Ronald Stein | Tustin, CA,

 

 

Summary: Conversations are needed to learn why there are no ethical or moral apprehensions of the Clean Energy Exploitations of people that support the supply chain of “blood minerals” for EV batteries!

 

 

 

 

Many of us had a chance to view the 2006 movie “Blood Diamond” starring  Leonardo DiCaprio that portrays many of the similar atrocities now occurring in poorer developing countries in pursuit of the those exotic minerals and metals to support the “green” movement within wealthy countries, i.e., “Blood Minerals”. 

 

The “green” movement continues promoting environmental degradation to landscapes in poorer underdeveloped countries, and imposes humanity atrocities to citizens with yellow, brown, and black skinned workers in those poorer countries being exploited for the green movement of the few wealthy nations.

 

Despite the Biden administration declaration in 2022 that batteries from China may be tainted by child labor and a report by the U.S. Labor Department that excoriated “clean energy” supply chains for using forced labor, the march toward more ”blood minerals” continues.

 

Today, policymakers and EV owners have NO ethical or moral apprehensions of the Clean Energy Exploitations of people that support the supply chain of “blood minerals” for EV batteries!

 

Short of visiting a mining operation to see for themselves, policymakers and potential EV buyer should read the Pulitzer Prize nominated book “Clean Energy Exploitations – Helping Citizens Understand the Environmental and Humanity Abuses That Support Clean Energy. The book does an excellent job of discussing the lack of transparency to the world of the green movement’s impact upon humanity exploitations in the developing countries that are mining for the exotic minerals and metals required to create the batteries needed to store “green energy”, and the environmental degradation to their landscapes.

 

In those developing countries, those mining operations exploit child labor, and are responsible for the most egregious human rights’ violations of vulnerable minority populations. These operations are also directly destroying the planet through environmental degradation.

 

Today, a typical EV battery for a Tesla sedan weighs 1,000 pounds and includes these exotic minerals and metals: 

  • 25 pounds of lithium
  • 30 pounds of cobalt
  • 60 pounds of nickel
  • 44 pounds of manganese 
  •  200 pounds of copper 
  • 400 pounds of aluminum, steel, and plastic

 

It should concern everyone that all those “blood minerals” come from mining at locations in the world that are never seen by policymakers and EV buyers.

 

The oxymoron to the EV battery supply chain is that both Lithium and Cobalt, the major components of the EV battery, are noted on The Periodic Table of Endangered Elements as having a limited availability or facing supply limitations in the coming years due to increased usage.

 

Here are a few EV “blood mineral” component sources:

  • Lithium: Argentina comprises a significant portion of the so-called Lithium Triangle, which covers northwestern Argentina, Chile, and Bolivia, and which is home to more than half of the world’s resources of lithium. This district produces about half of the world’s lithium and hosts approximately 60% of the known lithium reserves.

Cobalt: The Democratic Republic of Congo (DRC) in Africa is by far the world’s largest producer of cobalt, accounting for roughly 70 percent of global production.

Nickel: Indonesia, Australia, and Brazil make up the lion’s share of global nickel reserves.

Manganese: Manganese mines can be found all over the world. The highest concentration of reserves and mining activity are in South Africa.

Copper: The USA is the second largest producer of copper in the world. The largest copper mine is found in Utah (Bingham Canyon). Other major mines are found in Arizona, Michigan, New Mexico, and Montana. In South America, Chile, the world’s largest producer, and Peru are both major producers of copper. EVs are at the forefront of the electrification revolution, account for 55% of copper demand and require 2.5 times more copper than an average internal combustion engine car.

 

The International Energy Agency (IEA) calculated that the needs for “energy transition minerals” such as lithium, graphite, nickel and rare-earth metals would rise by 4,200%, 2,500%, 1,900% and 700%, respectively, by 2040.

 

SPECIAL NOTE:

  • A battery for a heavy-duty electric truck can weigh up to 16,000 pounds, which is 16 times more than the Tesla battery !!!! A single truck battery requires 8,000,000 pounds of earth to be dug up. That’s astounding – digging up 8 million pounds of earth for each truck battery!

 

Shockingly, the California GREEN movement is progressing at warp speed at any cost.

 

In 2023, California passed regulations that would turn the trucking industry upside down. Zero emission mandates would disrupt the industry, raise shipping costs, and put trucking companies out of business. A group including 19 states and several trucking organizations recently filed suit to block the California regulation.

 

A little background on the EV Truck mandate: California’s Advanced Clean Fleets (ACF) Regulation went into effect on January 1, 2024. The ACF requires that truck operators buy only Zero Emissions Vehicle (ZEV) trucks for medium-duty and heavy-duty trucking operations as early as January 2024. The ACF also requires that trucking companies transition their fleets to 100 percent ZEV trucks by 2035 to 2042, depending upon class of truck.

 

Electric trucks at any cost in dollars, and the environmental degradation to landscapes in poorer countries, and the humanity exploitations in those developing countries that are mining for the exotic minerals and metals required to create the batteries needed to store “green energy”, should have conversations about the conundrums associated with this mandate, before implementing a Mandate.

 

This EV truck mandate lacks conversations about the many conundrums associated with this mandate, i.e., the elephant in the room that no one wants to talk about:

 

  • For those huge EV truck batteries there is virtually non-existing transparency of the environmental degradation and the human rights abuses occurring in developing countries with yellow, brown, and black skinned people. Both human rights abuses and environmental degradation are directly connected to the mining for the exotic minerals and metals that are required to manufacture those EV batteries. The children used to produce the lithium for an EV battery is appalling.

 

Public and private conversations are needed to discuss the ethical and moral challenges to support the supply chain of “blood minerals” for EV batteries!

 

 

Publications

My books have a common theme as they address the elephant in the room that the ruling class and the media refuse to talk about, i.e., the lack of products in the future, and the lack of fuels for planes, ships, militaries, and space programs, manufactured from the fossil fuels that built the world from 1 to 8 billion people in less than 200 years.

Without a planned replacement for crude oil to make those same products, limiting the supply of the products and fuels manufactured from crude oil will inflict shortages and inflation in perpetuity on current lifestyles.

 

More Information

 

 

Energy literacy starts with the knowledge that Crude oil is the basis of our materialistic society... All the components and equipment for the generation of electricity by wind, solar, coal, natural gas, nuclear, and hydro are all made from the oil derivatives manufactured from crude oil !

For the 8 billion on this planet that are quite dependent on food and medications, those wind turbines and solar panels cannot manufacture any of the fuels for 50,000 ships, 50,000 planes, militaries, and space programs, nor can they make the 6,000 products in our daily lives. Enhancing ones energy literacy will empower individuals to have conversations on energy at the dinner table with friends and co-workers .

 

 

 

 

A few takeaways on energy literacy, i.e., the elephant in the room that no one wants to talk about

 

  1. The potential for nuclear fusion for unlimited zero-emission electricity is exciting. It has the potential, in the decades ahead, to wean the world from coal and natural gas for electricity generation.
  2. Facing reality, fusion, like wind, solar, nuclear, and hydro, ONLY generate electricity. None can manufacture any products, or fuels for transportation infrastructures needed by the 8 billion on this planet.
  3. On the other hand, we have crude oil that is never used for generating electricity, AND is virtually useless until its manufactured into usable products via the 700 refineries around the world. 
  4. Today, the world’s 8 billion are dependent on food and medicine moving around the world via 50,000-merchant ships and 50,000 jets, and more than 6,000 products made from the oil derivatives manufactured from crude oil.
  5. The militaries and space programs are all based on the fuels manufactured from crude oil.
  6. We may have long-range plans to generate electricity from wind, solar, and nuclear fusion, but no plans to replace crude oil that is manufactured into everything in our daily lives.

 

 

 

Hal Doiron, Climate Alarmists Are A Threat To Our National Security, Mar. 2018

Panel 8A – The Right Climate Stuff Team on Energy – Saturday, Feb. 25, 2023
(Whole video)

Jim Peacock TRCS Chairman, Zoom Symposium, 3 Oct 2020 – 01 Jim Peacock

The reports listed below are selected to provide the empirical data supporting our conclusions. 

 If you have questions, please contact us through our contact page.

These Reports prove CO2 is good, not harmful:

Truth about Climate change and CO2 by Tom Moser, Retired NASA, Founder of TRCS. Click here

Our conclusions, based on empirical data, are clear:  The warming of the atmosphere caused by increased amounts of CO2 are small and insignificant, only about one degree centigrade for this century. Our further studies showed that the claims of climate change causing more frequent and more severe hurricanes, tornadoes, droughts, floods, sea level rise, forest fires, etc. are false. The actual measured data shows no increase in any of these serious conditions.  Our conclusion is simple: Mother Nature is controlling the climate; CO2 emissions are not.And more CO2 is definitely beneficial to Mother Nature’s work. There is valid proof of significant greening of the earth since the beginning of fossil fuel use.

To view a 20 minute video of our most recently updated analysis   

(click here – https://vimeo.com/260593910)(OUTSTANDING)

         by Harold H. Doiron, B.S. Physics, Ph.D. in Mechanical Engineering

To View TRCS Report  “What Climate Crisis?” Developing Policy Based on Reality

(click here –  https://bit.ly/3iKATzN)

         by Marty Cornell, TRCS member since 2012 (2 page Report)

To View TRCS Report “Reality-Based Warming Potential of Anthropogenic Greenhouse Gas Emissions” (click here – https://bit.ly/3wYGO9v)

         by Marty Cornell, TRCS member since 2012 (12 page Report)

*** For general public & national policy makers “Climate Change in Perspective“ ***

 by Marty Cornell, TRCS member since 2012 (33 page Report)

To view a comphensive 2 hour video on “Climate in Perspective”   

(click here – https://vimeo.com/411280874)
           by Marty Cornell, TRCS member since 2012

The phrase “Climate Change”, currently used by politicians and popular media, has been a politically driven evolutionary change from the more specific scientific phrase “Anthropogenic (Human-Caused) Global Warming” (AGW).  

     The phrase has become political shorthand for the theorized worst case effects of the increasing atmospheric CO2 and other Greenhouse Gas (GHG) levels during the Industrial Age, believed to be caused primarily from the use of fossil fuels to provide the energy for the industrialized world.  These GHG concentrations in our atmosphere (other than the strong naturally occurring GHG provided by water vapor) will always be at trace gas levels, though much less than at previous times of our planet.  The theorized worst case effects are predicted by un-validated climate simulation models whose alarming projections have not been supported by the actual data observed so far.

  We, a group of retired and highly experienced engineers and scientists from the Apollo, Skylab, Space Shuttle and International Space Station eras, have volunteered our time and effort conducting an objective, independent assessment of the AGW alarm and reality of the actual threat. We have reviewed hundreds of reports and technical papers relevant to the subject matter, and discussed key issues with experts on both sides of this controversy.  We need to give you a word of caution when we refer to “NASA.” The TRCS Research Team was founded by engineers and scientists retired from the NASA Johnson Space Center (JSC) in Houston. We sometimes arrive at conclusions about climate change and its effects significantly different from conclusions published by other NASA Centers.        

     During our pioneering years in the US manned space program, scientific controversy over complex technical issues was commonplace at numerous times when NASA needed to make critical spacecraft design and operational decisions affecting safety of astronauts. We have unique skills and experience in problem identification, specification, root cause analysis and rational decision-making applicable to public policy decisions related to the AGW concern.

We have taken this quote as an important part of our policy:

It doesn’t matter how beautiful your theory is, it doesn’t matter how smart you are, 

If it doesn’t agree with experiment, it’s wrong.   Richard Feynman, 1918-1988

To aid in monitoring the AGW concern, we have developed our own simple, but rigorous, earth surface temperature model using Conservation of Energy principles, similar to the way we analyze surface and internal temperature of spacecraft.  We have validated the model with 169 years of atmospheric GHG data and data on earth surface temperature variations, counting 1850 through 2019. We have used this model to forecast what we believe will be the maximum, but small and non-harmful effects on earth surface temperature, from continued unrestricted use of fossil fuels, until they become too scarce and costly to meet the growing energy demand of our planet.

     We expect a world-wide, market-driven transition to alternate sources of energy generation will be completed by 2150, leaving less than 600 ppm of CO2 in the atmosphere, 50 percent more than current levels.  Highest levels of CO2 in our atmosphere have exceeded 7000 ppm from greater volcanic activity more than 400 million years ago. Naturally occurring planetary processes reduced atmospheric CO2 levels to a low of about 180 ppm experienced at the last Ice Age glacial maximum about 21,000 years ago. This was dangerously close to the critical 150 ppm limit required for green plants to grow.

     We have produced reports which, in our judgment, provide a more realistic projection of the maximum expected earth surface temperature rise over the next 80 years from rising atmospheric GHG levels. We believe that these more realistic projections do not justify the extent to which the UN and others propose to manipulate and likely devastate the various major economies of the world through mandating drastic reductions in the use of fossil fuels.

     The power and uniqueness of our approach is that we used only two sets of data as inputs to the analysis. We accepted the fact that the earth global temperature is the results of a few thousand years of natural climate variations. We took the measured rise in CO2 caused by fossil fuel emissions since 1850, and the current accepted value of average global temperature for the two variables. It is unnecessary to have a complete computer analysis of all of 20 or so input variables. Correctly modeling the input of all functions is impossible, because all inputs are not well known. This problem has confounded all attempts to solve this complex problem by use of computerized climate models for the last 41 years. We came up with a solution that passes the test of validation by comparison with measured data in two years.

     Our experience during the early days of manned spaceflight proved the importance of this motto:

“In God we trust, all others bring data.”

These were not only words that guided us during Apollo, but more importantly, words that defined how we did our work. This is what made us proud to be called “Astronauts,” and “Rocket Scientists.” Our study team will continue to adhere to these attitudes in order to achieve the goals of this study.

E-mail comments to me by the contact form, please.

Jim Peacock, TRCS Chairman
( Retired NASA aerospace engineer, USAF R & D, Apollo, Sky Lab, & Space Shuttle) 

Steve Jordan, TRCS Web Editor; Chief Technologist, Uraniborg Systems Alliance

*********************************************************************** 

The TRCS Foundation is a 501(c)3 tax-exempt organization and your donation is tax-deductible within the guidelines of U.S. law. To claim a donation as a deduction on your U.S. taxes, please keep your email donation receipt as your official record. You will automatically receive a receipt via email upon successful completion of your donation. 

*********************************************************************** 

We are an all volunteer Research Team, your donation will go toward education of the general public, schools, and our federal and local policy makers.

Please click this link to go to TRCS Foundation  https://trcsfoundation.org/*