The quantity of mining is even greater in the event you take into consideration that some minerals are current in fairly low concentrations. Take copper, for instance—a standard materials used for the whole lot from transmission strains to EV batteries. Getting one ton of copper can require shifting over 500 tons of rock, since websites mined immediately are likely to have concentrations of copper beneath 1%.
However, even in the event you take into consideration all that waste rock, the power transition is probably going going to contain much less mining than the fossil-fuel economic system does immediately. The particulars will rely on how a lot recycling we will do, in addition to how applied sciences evolve. If you need extra particulars, I’d extremely suggest this stellar evaluation from Hannah Ritchie for a comparability.
Any mining might be dangerous for the setting and for individuals dwelling close to mines. So it’s nonetheless value paying cautious consideration to how these tasks are progressing, and the way we will lighten the burden of latest applied sciences. But local weather know-how isn’t going to create a brand-new degree of mining.
Touchy Climate Topic # 3: I heard they’re stacking wind turbine blades, photo voltaic panels, and EV batteries in landfills. Isn’t the waste from all this “clean” tech going to be a giant drawback?
Manufacturers are racing to get extra clear power applied sciences constructed and operating, which implies that in a couple of a long time many might be reaching the tip of their helpful lives, and we’ll want to determine what to do with them.
Take photo voltaic panels, for instance. In 2050, we may see as a lot as 160 million metric tons of cumulative waste from photo voltaic panels. Sounds like so much—and it’s—however there’s a much bigger drawback. By then we’ll have generated a complete of about 1.8 billion metric tons of e-waste, and plastic waste will prime 12 billion metric tons. (For different comparisons, try this Inside Climate News story, and the authentic article these numbers come from in Nature Physics.)
Overall, waste from local weather tech is more likely to be a side of a way more substantial drawback. Even so, there are nonetheless loads of good causes to not simply throw previous know-how into the landfill. Many of the supplies wanted to make these things are costly and might be reused to alleviate the necessity for extra mining.