Rare Earth Minerals, Murder by Technology

The continuing tidal wave of ripping stuff out of the earth keeps on rolling. This time, under the Pacific Ocean. Rare earth minerals, tons of them, have been "discovered" by Japanese "explorers". 

"Rare earth metals have emerged as one of the most sought after resources in [the] commodities boom. Minerals present in the mud include gadolinium, lutetium, terbium and dysprosium." Some of these are used in the manufacture of those eco-friendly hybrid cars. Here is a handy image with notes about which minerals are used in the Prius, created by Lee Allison, state geologist and Director of the Arizona Geological Survey. Gadolinium is used in x-ray systems, CDs, and nuclear medicine.

The "commodities boom." Does that include frac sand? The excitement and anticipation of profits by scooping tons of mud off the ocean floor makes me sick. To what lengths will we continue our pillaging of the very body that bears us and makes us human? We are all complicit, here in the privileged West. I am sick to death of new solutions and technologies that are really assassination attempts. While we consume the death of the oceans and the forests and the ecological systems that continue to get in the way of our lifestyles, we lose more and more of our humanity.

It all seems part of the end of Empire and it's a long way down yet.

1000 Acres

According to a reliable source, there are plans for 140 frac sand mines in northwest Wisconsin right now, with some as large as 1000 acres.


1,000 acres.


These are plans to strip the land of its hills full of sand, add chemicals and water, and leave the wreckage of our water and air to all of us who have to live here, with untold and unchecked profit for a few. I am astonished and very, very pissed.  A banker wrote in an open letter recently: "Eventually the sand mine will return to farmland, and, 50 years from now, no one will remember that there had once been a hill where the flat, fertile farm now lies." It's all nostalgia to him; progress is the real value, and all of us emotional environmentalists are out to harm the community with our misplaced and unpatriotic outrage.


So what do we care about those unprofitable hills anyway? We're just a bunch of emotional wackos who don't want to buck up and provide the country with this valuable and necessary resource. 


Unless of course, we are just people who have educated ourselves about frac sand, mining, and processing plants and the permanent divisions they create in community and safety, and sincerely want to protect our children and all our descendants from this latest end-of-empire devastation. Not any of us stand to make any money from frac sand and all it entails, and none of us think any profit should be made off of the suffering of others. 


Duh.


This is a good time to remind you check the Hay River Frac Watch for updates.

Japanese elders offer to help clean up Fukushima

Even though it is little reported in the US news media, the meltdowns at Fukushima's nuclear power plants continue to deteriorate. There is much, much work to do; each unit must still be cooled and contained, and the kilometers around Fukushima will remain contaminated for a very long time. Work demands workers. Who will volunteer, under full consent, to help clean up this corporate and governmental disaster?


A group of elders has stepped forward to offer their services. 


The complete negligence and greed of TEPCO and the disinformation of the IAEA and the Japanese government has doomed not only the land and environment of Japan and its people to dramatic increases in cancer and death and toxic food and economic devastation. It will now also lose cherished grandparents to nuclear power.


"Kazuko Sasaki, 69, the co-founder of the group, says she has a number of personal reasons why she wants to work at the plant. 'My generation, the old generation, promoted the nuclear plants. If we don't take responsibility, who will?'"


In the face of Ms. Sasaki's responsibility, I ask again: Where are the designers, builders, and owners of these nuclear power plants? Why are those who are truly responsible not volunteering their time to clean soil, dump water, and fix leaks? As always, the failure of a few to experience real connection with the land base and their communities cost the lives and well-being of many. What can we learn, here? Who is next?