Description: Earth, Science and Society
In my previous blog post , I criticized the Mining Association of Nova Scotia (MANS) for displaying a lack of environmental, social and cultural awareness. I received many positive reactions, but not from MANS of course. Its executive director Sean Kirby responded with an all too familiar sounding broken-record statement . That weak response, displaying a lack of deeper insight, is exactly why I have a problem with MANS. But of course I shouldn’t expect anything else from what is just an industry lobbying g
Climate change is an accepted existential threat to humanity. So governments are working to decarbonize energy production and consumption, a hugely complex task. While every effort that mitigates warming has a positive global effect, there are many inconsistencies. For example, worldwide demand for coal is still growing because of China and India’s demand, but does that mean we should mine more coal in Nova Scotia? Clearly – and fortunately – that’s not the plan of successive NS governments of all political
So what’s an important mineral in one part of the world, is off the table in another part. This doesn’t mean decarbonization is not an exact science. Hence Natural Resources Canada – together with similar expert organizations from other countries – has identified a list of critical minerals . This is great, because now we can at least separate greed (minerals we mine only for profit) from need (minerals we mine because they are critically important for building a carbon-free economy). What contribution can