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Commentary on the book Waste Wars: The Wild Afterlife Of Your Trash by Alexander Clapp
The author states: “Electronic waste is currently the world’s fastest-growing type of garbage. According to the Global E-Waste Monitor, an annual United Nations report on the state of electronics disposal, nearly 50 million metric tons of old cell phones and computers and televisions enter disposal streams every year, the equivalent of 125,000 jumbo jets of materials that require–though scarcely ever receive–careful handling.
That amount is expected to double by 2050, by which time the production of electronics will be responsible for nearly 15 percent of all global carbon emissions.”
He goes on in Chapter 16 to say that the world is on the verge of a dramatic restructuring of the mining industry as societies embrace the “Green Energy Transition”. Extraction of Petroleum will be replaced by extraction of minerals required to produce the batteries and other devices and that initially will result in yet more carbon being released into the atmosphere than ever before. As he puts it a new topography of “electric states” as opposed to the current Petro States will emerge. In order to meet the requirements of the Paris Agreement, intended to achieve a net zero carbon emissions level by the year 2100, 40% more copper, 70% more cobalt and nearly 90% more lithium will have to come out of the ground. This is more minerals in two decades than humanity has extracted in all previous history.
I’ve received several comments on the quotes and remarks for which I thank you.
Submitted by Gaen McClendon
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