Green is the way to go, or so we’ve all been told. We are inundated with photos of oil soaked birds and dirt covered coal miners; we’re reminded of nuclear accidents at Chernobyl and Three Mile Island. We get to see satellite photos that blast big oil companies. They all show the result of our demand for electricity. They subliminally tell us that, ultimately, we’re to blame. So, go green, right? Seems simple, make sustainable energy from existing sources like solar radiant light, wind, or inertia. But many don’t think of the new costs. I know that some of you are thinking money right now. New green energy can be prohibitively expensive to set up and maintain. But this isn’t the only cost of green.
To begin the story we need to think components. We need to think about solar cells, wind turbine towers, banks upon banks of batteries, power inverters, and metering systems. We need to think differently. We need to think deep inside the components. Now we’re talking.
Let us go deep enough to at least see the tip of the iceberg. Deep enough to find the metals and minerals that are needed to build our green energy systems and green technologies. So, we’ll start with a short list:
- Lead
- Fluorspar
- Beryllium
- Cobalt
- Tantalum
- Niobium
- Platinum
- Gold
- Silver
- Magnesium
- Graphite
- Indium
- Antimony
- Gallium
- Germanium
- Tungsten
- Lithium
The list is obvious, and implies an oxymoron. Big oil companies pump oil by the millions of barrels out of the deep earth. Coal mines strip the earth and destroy mountain tops. People put their lives on the line for these energy producing fuels. Meanwhile, a lead mine pulls this dangerous metal out of the ground to be put into batteries, backups, and eventually, who knows where. Platinum group metal are being mined feverishly in Russia to produce components for sustainable energy. The list is actually huge. What about when those minerals and metals deplete? Now, I don’t worry about people salvaging platinum, gold, or silver, but what about lithium, tantalum, germanium, and the others? How green is your green?
From a technological standpoint, green energy is cleaner, but still leads down the path to big companies making big profits off of our desire to have the newest and most technologically advanced of whatever it is that we own. The components truly save money, and pollutants are kept in better check, however, green is not always safe, not always affordable, and the story is never simple.
We are pushing for greener cars. I personally worry about accidents where acid burns from batteries are a prominent danger. I have seen the disfigurement of burn victims. I worry about lead contaminants leeching into our clean water; from batteries ill disposed of. I think of lithium and how it is proven to have psychological effects on people. I think that we aren’t versed enough on the scientific side to understand even what we mean when we say that we are going green. I worry that we have a short term view. Not to say that our reasons aren’t sound. Saying that our green may need to be greener, that is the point.
In light of this, I beg, I truly beg that green conscious people understand the details. I began thinking green is green, but as it turned out, I needed to know more. I did find several websites offering green energy, books, DVD’s, and instruction, and decided that knowledge would be needed first. My green was going to be the greenest.
Now I’m as guilty of collecting tech as the next guy; I have eight cellular telephones in my box in the garage. I wanted the newest, best, and fastest. I have updated my stereo a few times, with nothing being wrong with the old one. My dad used to say, “there’s nothing wrong with the one you have”, I remember. Now i see the wisdom in his words. I’m not happy with some of what I see being called green. My great friend Wally hooked me up at Build wind Turbine, they have a collection of great books and DVD’s to help understand the best of green energy, the right and greenest components, and insight to help deeper understand the impact of deciding to go green.
Are we saying that we’d like to do something about all of this, or are we jumping on the bandwagon to fit a mob mentality? If we truly want to go green, this is the starting path, but if we are trying to gain constituents, think again. This is a real problem.
