Collapse: Earth Overshoot Day

[grarpamp]

All is not Green in Woke Globalists Plans for you...
Many of these EV's also have spycams and microphones
uploading to their makers cloud 24x365, and come with
remote lockdown switches for when you speak too freely...


States to Ban Gas-Powered Cars Despite EVs’ Human, Environmental Costs

https://www.theepochtimes.com/states-to-ban-gas-powered-cars-despite-human-and-environmental-cost-of-electric-vehicles_4726635.html
https://www.hrw.org/news/2022/07/14/child-labor-and-human-rights-violations-mining-industry-democratic-republic-congo
https://www.wilsoncenter.org/blog-post/drc-mining-industry-child-labor-and-formalization-small-scale-mining
https://www.theepochtimes.com/us-lithium-mine-set-to-destroy-the-environment-cultural-heritage-site-and-displace-farmers-watchdog-group_4707669.html
https://www.theepochtimes.com/more-states-move-toward-banning-gas-powered-vehicles_4716879.html
https://www.nrdc.org/stories/lithium-mining-leaving-chiles-indigenous-communities-high-and-dry-literally
https://www.instituteforenergyresearch.org/renewable/the-environmental-impact-of-lithium-batteries/
https://unctad.org/system/files/official-document/ditccom2019d5_en.pdf


In Chile’s Salar de Atacama, locals watch helplessly as their
ancestral lands wither and die, their precious water resources
evaporating in briny salars.

In the Democratic Republic of Congo, hope for a better life dissolves
as well-funded Ugandan-led extremist groups force children as young as
6 to work in cobalt mines.

Closer to home, Nevada’s Fort McDermitt Tribe and local ranchers fight
to protect a sacred burial site and agricultural lands set to be
sacrificed by Lithium Nevada, a mining company, in the coming days.

Meanwhile, in California and other states, politicians such as Gov.
Gavin Newsom (D-Calif.) pat themselves on the back for their
“aggressive” environmental stance and boast that their gas-powered
vehicle bans are leading “the revolution towards our zero-emission
transportation future.”
The Hidden Costs

According to politicians like Newsom and President Joe Biden, electric
vehicles (EV) are “zero-emission” because they use lithium-ion
batteries—consisting of lithium, cobalt, graphite, and other
materials—instead of gas.

Thus, starting in 2035, California will ban gas-powered vehicle sales,
while several other states plan to follow suit, citing that as a goal
and “critical milestone in our climate fight,” on Twitter.

Additionally, according to a statement from Biden, banning gas-powered
vehicles will “save consumers money, cut pollution, boost public
health, advance environmental justice, and tackle the climate crisis.”

John Hadder, director of the Great Basin Resource Watch, disagrees,
pointing out to The Epoch Times that “industrial” nations might
benefit from the transition to EVs, but it’s at the expense of others.
Kamala Harris charges an electric vehicle Vice President Kamala Harris
charges an electric vehicle in Prince George’s County, Md., on Dec.
13, 2021. (Manuel Balce Ceneta/AP Photo)

“This expansion of [lithium] mining will have immediate consequences
for front-line communities that are taking the ‘hit.’”

For example, Copiapó, the capital of Chile’s Atacama region, is the
location of one of the world’s largest known lithium reserves.

“We used to have a river before, that now doesn’t exist. There isn’t a
drop of water,” Elena Rivera Cardoso, president of the Indigenous
Colla community of the Copiapó commune, told the National Resources
Defense Council (NRDC).

She added that all of Chile’s water is disappearing because of the
local lithium mine.

“In all of Chile, there are rivers and lakes that have disappeared—all
because a company has a lot more right to water than we do as human
beings or citizens of Chile.”
unique lithium technology Brine pools from a lithium mine that belongs
to U.S.-based Albemarle Corp., are seen on the Atacama salt flat in
the Atacama desert, Chile, on Aug. 16, 2018. (Ivan Alvarado/Reuters)

In collaboration with Cardosa’s statement, the Institute for Energy
Research reports that 65 percent of the area’s limited water resources
are consumed by mining activities.

That’s displacing indigenous communities who have called Atacama home
for more than 6,000 years, because farmers and ranchers have cracked,
dry soil, and no choice but to abandon their ancestral settlements,
according to the U.N. Conference on Trade and Development (UNCTAD).
Mine Proposed in Northern Nevada

Saying goodbye to an ancestral homeland as a local lithium mine
destroys it is something the communities in northern Nevada are
fighting to avoid.

“The agricultural communities on either side of the pass are likely to
be changed forever,” Hadder told The Epoch Times. “The [Thacker Pass
mine] could affect their ability to farm and ranch in the area. The
air quality will decrease … and increased water scarcity is likely.”
Epoch Times Photo Thacker Pass. (Lithium Americas)

Hadder pointed out that the Quinn-Production well in Orovada Subarea
Hydrographic Basin, which supplies water to Thacker Pass, is already
heavily overallocated.

But, lacking water isn’t the only concern locals have with Thacker
Pass, he says.

“[The National Congress of American Indians] are deeply concerned that
the mine will threaten the community with man-camps and large labor
forces,” Hadder said. “The introduction of man-camps near reservations
has been shown to correlate strongly with an increase in sexual
assaults, domestic violence, and sex trafficking.”

That concern has merit. In 2014, the United Nations found that
“extractive industries,” aka mines, led to increased instances of
sexual harassment, violence, rape, and assault, due to “man-camps” or
workers at the mine.
Epoch Times Photo Tesla Motors Inc. plans to build a 6,500-worker
“gigafactory” to mass produce cheaper lithium batteries for its next
line of more-affordable electric cars near the center. (AP Photo/Scott
Sonner)

In 2019, the U.S. Bureau of Justice Statistics published a study
validating the above information. It found a 70 percent increase in
violent crime “corresponding to the growth of extractive industry in
the areas, with no such increase observed in adjacent counties without
extractive industries.”
Experience of Congolese Miners

That’s something the people of the Democratic Republic of Congo (DRC)
know from first-hand experience.

In its 2022 report, the U.S. Geological Survey reported that in 2021,
more than 70 percent of the global cobalt production came from the DRC
and that southern Congo sits atop an estimated 3.5 million metric
tons—almost half—of the world’s known supply.

It’s also one of the world’s poorest countries, according to the
nonpartisan Wilson Center, and plagued by humanitarian crises, some of
which are directly caused by mining.
Epoch Times Photo A child walks past a truck carrying rocks extracted
from a cobalt mine at a copper quarry and cobalt pit in Lubumbashi,
Democratic Republic of the Congo, on May 23, 2016. (Junior Kannah/AFP
via Getty Images)

In December 2021, researchers at Northwestern University conducted an
environmental life cycle assessment on extracting raw materials needed
for EVs and published their paper in One Earth’s Journal.

They found cobalt mining was associated with increased violence,
physical and mental health challenges, substance abuse, and food and
water insecurity, among other issues. They further noted that
community members lost communal land, farmland, and homes, which
miners dug up to extract cobalt.

“You might think of mining as just digging something up,” said Sera L.
Young, an associate professor of anthropology at Northwestern
University. “But they are not digging on vacant land. Homelands are
dug up. People are literally digging holes in their living room
floors. The repercussions of mining can touch almost every aspect of
life.”

That “every aspect of life” includes children. In the DRC, an
estimated 40,000 children are working in the mines under slave labor
conditions—some as young as 6. Initially, there was hope that DRC
President Felix Tschisekedi would curb the abuses, but now those hopes
are dwindling.
Epoch Times Photo People work at the Kalimbi cassiterite artisanal
mining site north of Bukavu, in the Democratic Republic of Congo, on
March 30, 2017. (Griff Tapper/AFP via Getty Images)

In her address before the U.S. Congress on July 14, Crisis and
Conflict Director for Human Rights Watch Ida Sawyer stated that “child
labor and other serious human rights abuses in the mining sector
remain widespread, and these challenges only become harder to address
amidst rampant corruption.”

“The Allied Democratic Forces (ADF), a Ugandan-led armed Islamist
group with ties to the Islamic State (ISIS) … as well as their backers
among the Congolese political and military elite, control lucrative
mineral resources, land, and taxation rackets.”

The Wilson Center reports that there are an estimated 255,000
Congolese miners laboring for cobalt, primarily using their hands.

“As global demand for Congolese mineral resources increases, so do the
associated dangers that raise red flags for Congolese miners’ human
rights,” it said.

And human rights violations aren’t the only concern with cobalt
mining. Wilson Center states: “The extraction of DRC mineral resources
includes cutting down trees and building roads, negatively impacting
the environment and biodiversity … Cobalt mining operations generate
incredibly high carbon dioxide and nitrogen dioxide emissions and
substantial electricity consumption. These emissions contribute to the
fact that Africa produces five percent of carbon dioxide emissions
globally.”
Epoch Times Photo California Gov. Gavin Newsom speaks in Los Angeles,
on Sept. 29, 2021. (John Fredricks/The Epoch Times)

Meanwhile, in California, Newsom extolled his state’s move away from
fossil fuels.

“This plan’s yearly targets—35 percent ZEV sales by 2026, 68 percent
by 2030, and 100 percent by 2035—provide our roadmap to reducing
dangerous carbon emissions and moving away from fossil fuels. That’s
915 million oil barrels’ worth of emissions that won’t pollute our
communities