Tag: Natural Resources

Ukraine Mineral Deal

Remember that was why Zelenskyy came to DC to sign a mineral deal between the US and Ukraine….and then there was that planned mash-up by Trump and mini me, Vance attacking the Z Man……and the deal was off because Z left DC without signing the deal.

Well it seems, according to Speaker Johnson, Zelenskyy has changed course….

House Speaker Mike Johnson (R-La.) said during a radio interview that Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky has done a complete “about-face” on the U.S.-Ukraine minerals deal that was not signed after a heated meeting between the two delegations late last month.

“I’m really grateful and glad that Zelensky, in the last several days, has done an about-face. He’s effectively apologized for all that. And he said, ‘Oh no, no, we would like that deal after all.’ I think he had a rude awakening,” Johnson said during his Saturday appearance on John Catsimatidis’s radio show “Cats Roundtable” on WABC 770 AM.

“I think a lot of the people in his country were upset with the way that was handled. Certainly we all were, but we’ve got to get him back to the table,” Johnson told Catsimatidis.

https://thehill.com/policy/international/5184547-johnson-says-zelensky-has-done-about-face-on-mineral-deal/

I know some people were worried that with this deal Russia or China would get these minerals that are needed for our electronics industry.

This is a super plus for American industry, right?

What could go wrong?

To begin with, the contentious 28 February Oval Office meeting can’t be understood without a crucial piece of context: there are no deposits of rare-earth ore in Ukraine known to be minable in an economically viable way. And that would be true even if full-scale warfare were not raging in the country’s east, where a great deal of its mineral resources are concentrated.

Ukraine is believed to have four areas with substantial deposits of rare earth ores, according to Erik Jonsson, senior geologist with the Geological Survey of Sweden. “There are four slightly bigger deposits: Yastrubetske, Novopoltavske, Azovske, and Mazurivske. All but one of them seem to be now within or near the zone that the Russians control, as far as I can tell,” says Jonsson. “And when it comes to resources in those deposits, I mean, we have numbers; yes, that’s nice. But we have no real, detailed, outline of how those numbers were arrived at.” The numbers are believed to come from Soviet surveys dating as far back as the 1960s.

“The rare-earth deposits don’t look that relevant,” Jonsson concludes. “I mean, I wouldn’t go for them.” Two of the deposits are dominated by a mineral called britholite, he notes, which is not desirable because it has not been processed for rare earths, which means that almost nothing exists in the way of process chemistry and equipment.

https://spectrum.ieee.org/ukraine-rare-earth-minerals

If this deal was not the viable at this time what was all this drama about?

Was it another show?

Is it cover for something else going on?

Was this another of the misdirection plans that this administration has?

Any thoughts?

I Read, I Write, You Know

“lego ergo scribo”

Who’s Got The Water?

The news is not good about the state of food and water as climate change ravishes the planet….

The Climate Crisis is depressing crop yields and fuelling a growing global hunger crisis that has already reached “unprecedented proportions“, with between 3.1bn and 4.2bn people now unable to afford a healthy diet, according to recent reports from the United Nations’ World Food Programme (WFP) and the Food and Agriculture Organization (FAO).

Fewer people are in immediate danger of starving, but even that number is rising rapidly, according to the WFP.

“Conflict, economic shocks, climate extremes and soaring fertiliser prices are combining to create a food crisis of unprecedented proportions. As many as 309mn people are facing chronic hunger in 71 countries. We have a choice: act now to save lives and invest in solutions that secure food security, stability and peace for all, or see people around the world facing rising hunger,” the WFP said in a recent statement.

Conflict is still the biggest driver of hunger, with 70%of the world’s hungry people living in areas affected by war and violence, according to the WFP. Events in countries such as Palestine and Ukraine have created humanitarian disasters in both countries. But climate change poses to significantly worsen the situation in the most vulnerable countries.

https://www.intellinews.com/hundreds-of-millions-on-verge-of-starvation-billions-more-undernourished-as-climate-crisis-droughts-take-their-toll-341676/

We humans go to war over a wide array of reasons….land acquisition self-defense…..so we have finite resource called water and the way this planet is going it is only a matter of time before someone will run short and attack its neighbor….

Several analyses reviewed by CNBC suggest that there will probably be military clashes over water in areas where it is scarce but in good supply nearby. Among the most convincing came from “Control Risk.”

The Control Risk researchers wrote, “The average monthly number of security incidents (war, unrest, terrorism and crime) in relation to water has increased by over 230% between Jan 2019 and May 2024. “ They also pointed out it will get worse. The World Resouces Institute maid a related observation. “And at least 50% of the world’s population — around 4 billion people — live under highly water-stressed conditions for at least one month of the year.”

The battles over water and other environmental problems have been coming for a long time. Drought is only one of these issues. Extreme heat and severe air pollution are others. Much of India, the world’s largest country by population, is among the regions affected by those.  There is a similar problem with food.

The most difficult problem is that the climate migration problem cannot solve it. Tens of millions of people cannot be moved from locations with dangerous climate conditions. Delhi, the capital of India, a city of 34 million, has air pollution rarely matched anywhere else. Temperatures there topped 20 degrees F earlier this year. The ability for humans to survive outdoors at these temperatures at this level will drop, and more and more days are so hot. Cities in Pakistan and Iraq have similar problems.

The water and temperature problems have no solution, so military conflicts cannot be avoided

(climatecrisis247.com)

Whatcha think?

Is the earth on the point for water wars?

Climate change (does exist if you are an idiot) will bring humans to the point of genocide to secure the tasteless but necessary commodity?

How will the world handle wars of this type?

Questions….lots of questions….

I Read, I Write, You Know

“lego ergo scribo”

Water….Is Not Everywhere

For decades the Colorado River has been tapped for its water supply….and now that resource is running out thanks to the 20 year drought in the American West.

After 22 straight years of drought, the Colorado River’s flow is in increasingly bad shape—and two of the seven states that rely on its water are going to have to make more cuts. Last year, a Tier 1 shortage was declared on the river for the first time, causing mandatory cuts to the use of its water in Arizona, Nevada, and Mexico under a plan the seven states and Mexico signed in 2019, CNN reports. But with the water shortage getting worse, the Department of the Interior announced Tuesday that a Tier 2 shortage will be declared starting in 2023, causing more cuts for Arizona, Nevada, and Mexico. Arizona will lose more than a fifth of its yearly allotment.

The cuts are based on water levels at Lake Mead, which are now at historic lows and are expected to fall even further next year, the AP reports. The lake, America’s largest reservoir, is currently just a quarter full, and experts warn that it is getting dangerously close to the level where the Hoover Dam can no longer generate power. Bureau of Reclamation chief Camille Touton warned in June that states need to come up with a plan to cut water usage by next year. But negotiations between states are not going well, and the federal government might have to step in, reports CNN. The states missed the bureau’s August 15 deadline for announcing proposals to cut water use.

Authorities say any cuts made are likely to be in place for a long time as the West becomes hotter and drier. “In order to avoid a catastrophic collapse of the Colorado River System and a future of uncertainty and conflict, water use in the Basin must be reduced,” said Tanya Trujillo, the Interior Department’s assistant secretary for water and science, per the Los Angeles Times. Water managers say a long-term plan is needed, but their main priority is coming up with a plan to get through the next three years without the system falling apart.

The Colorado is so bad it can be seen from space……

The full scale of the drought, however, can only be seen from space. NASA satellites have been monitoring waterways in the West for years and documenting how the region is drying up. It’s part of a trend lasting almost two decades, making it the worst drought in 1,200 years. Part of the severity of this “megadrought” has been worsened by climate change.

https://www.vox.com/science-and-health/23308281/colorado-river-western-drought-satellite-hoover-dam-mead-powell

Now there is a proposal to help the struggling Colorado River by sucking water out of the Mississippi River……

Two hundred miles north of New Orleans, in the heart of swampy Cajun Country, the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers in 1963 cut a rogue arm of the Mississippi River in half with giant levees to keep the main river intact and flowing to the Gulf of Mexico. 

The Old River Control Structure, as it was dubbed, is also the linchpin of massive but delicate locks and pulsed flows that feed the largest bottomland hardwood forests and wetlands in the United States, outstripping Florida’s better known Okefenokee Swamp. 

Clouds of birds – hundreds of species – live in or travel through Louisiana’s rich Atchafalaya forests each year, said National Audubon Society Delta Conservation Director Erik Johnson. They include gawky pink roseate spoonbills, tiny bright yellow warblers, known as swamp candles because of their bright glow in the humid, green woods, and more. 

This summer, as seven states and Mexico push to meet a Tuesday deadline to agree on plans to shore up the Colorado River and its shriveling reservoirs, retired engineer Don Siefkes of San Leandro, California, wrote a letter to The Desert Sun of the USA TODAY Network with what he said was a solution to the West’s water woes: Build an aqueduct from the Old River Control Structure to Lake Powell, 1,489 miles west, to refill the Colorado River system with Mississippi River water. 

https://www.usatoday.com/story/news/nation/2022/08/15/climate-change-west-mississippi-river-pipeline/10332092002/

Seriously?

These people are killing the mighty Colorado and now that it is dying they want to impose their need on a major watery artery to the middle of the country.

I have a problem with this plan.

You?

I Read, I Write, You Know

“lego ergo scribo”

Where Will Next War Be?

There are a couple of spots and/or situations that could very well be the next location for an major armed conflict……

First there is the chest thumping on China…..right now it appears to be a new Cold War but could that change?

Washington appears to have decided to engage in a new cold war with China. The demand that Beijing close its consulate in Houston is the latest salvo on this front—reciprocated by China ordering the closure of the U.S. consulate in Chengdu—with every step increasing the possibility of stumbling into a military conflict between the world’s two largest economies. An immediate policy course-correction may be the only thing that can pull Washington and Beijing back from the brink.

To be clear, China has engaged in behaviors antithetical to U.S. interests in recent years. It has long been tepid on combating intellectual property theft. It has unequivocally said that it is willing to use force to solve the “Taiwan problem.” It has reversed course on promised freedoms for Hong Kong residents. Plus, Beijing’s initial attempts to hide the coronavirus facilitated the virus’s spread. But there is an effective way—and a destructive way—to deal with such issues. Washington appears to have chosen the latter.

Secretary of State Mike Pompeo was in London in July trying to “build out a coalition” against China. The intent, Pompeo said, is to “work collectively to convince the Chinese Communist Party that it is not in their best interest to engage in this kind of behavior.” Prior to this visit—and before ordering China to close its consulate in Houston—the United States had already taken inflammatory actions against China, including removing Hong Kong’s special trading status, sanctioning Chinese officials, blaming China for the fallout over the coronavirus, increasing naval activity to challenge China’s claims in the South China Sea.

https://nationalinterest.org/feature/america-and-china-hurtling-towards-war-165979

Next is an old reliable foe for the US….Iran……and October looks like the perfect month for a new conflict…..

Was Donald Trump’s January 3rd drone assassination of Major General Qasem Soleimani the first step in turning the simmering Cold War between the United States and Iran into a hot war in the weeks before an American presidential election? Of course, there’s no way to know, but behind by double digits in most national polls and flanked by ultra-hawkish Secretary of State Mike Pompeo, Trump is a notoriously impetuous and erratic figure. In recent weeks, for instance, he didn’t hesitate to dispatch federal paramilitary forces to American cities run by Democratic mayors and his administration also seems to have launched a series of covert actions against Tehran that look increasingly overt and have Iran watchers concerned about whether an October surprise could be in the cards.

Could Covert War With Iran Become Overt Before November 3rd?

Lastly the next possibility may be over a resource and not anything else…..

Disputes over fisheries could spark the next war. The Indonesian government is blowing up foreign vessels found to be fishing illegally. In the Gulf of Aden, fishing vessels are conduits for arming rebel and terrorist groups. In Latin America, illegal fishing and the drug trade are linked. In the South China Seas, territorial conflict between the Philippines, Vietnam, China, and other regional nations is inflaming tensions over fishing grounds and increasing the risk of major conflict. It is important to better understand the causes and consequences of fisheries conflict – including which ones could ignite armed disputes and which will fizzle out.

One Earth Future (OEF) today announced the creation of the Fisheries Conflict Research Consortium (FCRC) to investigate this issue and answer key questions relating to fisheries conflict, marine resource sustainability, and national security.

https://oneearthfuture.org/press-releases/will-next-global-war-be-over-fish

Of course there are conflicts all over the globe and at any time one or more could devolve into a shooting war….and IST will be watching….so you do not have to…..

I Read, I Write, You Know

“lego ergo scribo”

They’re Not Poor, We Are Stealing From Them

There was an uproar from the world when Trump made his sh*tholes comment…..but the truth is that the West has had centuries to steal wealth from these countries….colonialism may be long gone but the theft continues….

More than three decades after most African nations became independent, there is no consensus on the legacy of colonialism. With most African countries still only tottering on their feet and many close to collapse, some people ask whether the problem is due to Africa’s colonial experience or inherent adequacies of the African? For apologists of colonialism the answer is simple. Whatever may have been the shortcomings of colonial rule, the overall effect was positive for Africa. Sure, the colonial powers exploited Africa’s natural resources but on the balance, colonialism reduced the economic gap between Africa and the West, the apologists argue. Colonialism laid the seeds of the intellectual and material development in Africans. It brought enlightenment where there was ignorance. It suppressed slavery and other barbaric practices such as pagan worship and cannibalism. Formal education and modern medicine were brought to people who had limited understanding or control of their physical environment. The introduction of modern communications, exportable agricultural crops and some new industries provided a foundation for economic development. Africans received new and more efficient forms of political and economic organisation. Warring communities were united into modern nation-states with greater opportunity of survival in a competitive world than the numerous mini entities that existed before. Africa is in political and economic turmoil today, defenders of imperialism say, because it failed to take advantage of its inheritance from colonial rule. It was, they summarise, Africa’s inadequacies that made colonisation necessary and the outcome of post-independence self-rule suggests that the withdrawal by the colonial powers was premature.

http://www.afbis.com/analysis/neo-colonialism.html

What about those sh*thole countries?

Why are we having all these people from shithole countries come here?”

Donald Trump’s question to US politicians referred to African countries, Haiti and El Salvador in particular.

One answer to his racist question is historical and another is structural. Both underline how responsible the United States – and Europe – are for the conditions driving many to flee poverty and what the most developed states can do by working with African and central American governments and peoples to counteract and manage that flow. An African Union spokeswoman said: “Given the historical reality of how many Africans arrived in the United States as slaves, this statement flies in the face of all accepted behaviour and practice.”

https://www.irishtimes.com/opinion/west-s-wealth-was-built-up-over-centuries-from-trump-sh-tholes-1.3361520#.WmNS8Y7r6bg.

Maybe you cannot see the theft……but in case you would like to know the facts……

Africa is poor, but we can try to help its people.

It’s a simple statement, repeated through a thousand images, newspaper stories and charity appeals each year, so that it takes on the weight of truth. When we read it, we reinforce assumptions and stories about Africa that we’ve heard throughout our lives. We reconfirm our image of Africa.

Try something different. Africa is rich, but we steal its wealth.

http://www.aljazeera.com/indepth/opinion/2017/05/africa-poor-stealing-wealth-170524063731884.html

Africa is not poor, we are stealing its wealth

The West has been stealing Africa’s future….one resource at a time.

Who Cares About Africa?

There is a line in the movie “Sahara” when a corrupt leader was told that the international community was looking to investigate his doings and the leader said…”Not to worry….nobody cares about Africa”

In the 21st century that is not quite accurate…..the US has a command structure there…Russia is making in-roads, so is India and China….but what is it that makes all these nations so damn interested in the continent of Africa?

That is an easy question to answer……

AFRICA

Does it make sense now?

Mining A New Frontier

The weekend and sciencey stuff runs rampant……..as we deplete our natural resources    what will we do?

(Newser) – Asteroid mining is just a few years away, according to a US company, but there won’t be any jobs for pickaxe-wielding spacemen just yet: The first probes will only be the size of laptops. Deep Space Industries plans to send the probes on prospecting trips to some of the 1,700 near-Earth asteroids in 2015, the CBC reports. Larger spacecraft will follow to extract valuable metals and gases from the asteroids, says the company, which aims to sell the resources to Mars missions and to the builders of orbiting space platforms.

Asteroids “can be like the Iron Range of Minnesota was for the Detroit car industry last century—a key resource located near where it was needed,” the company’s CEO says. “In this case, metals and fuel from asteroids can expand the in-space industries of this century.” Director James Cameron has announced a similar venture, but experts aren’t sure if asteroid mining is ready to get off the ground, the Guardian notes. “Is the prospect of using asteroid resources crazy? No, it’s not. Is it difficult? Yes, it is,” says the editor of NasaWatch.com. “Can you make a business case for it? People are trying, and making progress.”

But now the question is……AT WHAT PRICE?  Sorry but I do not trust corporations to do the right thing…..I understand the need for profit……….but once again…..At What Price?

Water, Water, Not Everywhere

I have written in the past that the next major war, one that involves a considerable part of the world, will be fought over water…..and I found an article along those lines…..now I can return to my usual format of posting anything but politics on the weekend……Isaac is but a fond memory with lots of rain…..and speaking of water………

(Newser) – If you’re not a fan of black beans and tofu, you may be out of luck in about 40 years. Some of the world’s foremost water scientists say the planet will have to cut its consumption of animal-based products from 20% to about 5% by 2050, assuming we want to feed the additional 2 billion people who are projected to occupy the Earth by that date. Basically, we need to figure out how to squeeze more food out of our existing land and water, and a vegetarian diet uses five to 10 times less water than animal-based foods, reports the Guardian.

“The UN predicts that we must increase food production by 70% by mid-century. This will place additional pressure on our already stressed water resources,” reads the report, whose release coincides with the start of the annual world water conference in Stockholm. And water supply issues won’t be limited to food: The report notes that the need to feed more will come as “we also need to allocate more water to satisfy global energy demand—which is expected to rise 60% over the coming 30 years—and to generate electricity for the 1.3 billion people currently without it.”

There are some issues that are more important than the emotional crap we embrace today…..but as usual they are just ignored until it is too late to do something about them……..ignore the problem and they will go away.  (BTW that is sarcasm in case you missed it)

Safe, Clean Energy

That is what we are subjected to daily from the Nat. Gas people….they are pushing for more drilling in the US and selling the idea that it is cleaner then the alternative…..that it will be better for the environment……….is it?

From an article in Pro Publica……..

Advocates for natural gas routinely assert that it produces 50 percent less greenhouse gases than coal and is a significant step toward a greener energy future. But those assumptions are based on emissions from the tailpipe or smokestack and don’t account for the methane and other pollution emitted when gas is extracted and piped to power plants and other customers.

The EPA’s new analysis doubles its previous estimates for the amount of methane gas that leaks from loose pipe fittings and is vented from gas wells, drastically changing the picture of the nation’s emissions that the agency painted as recently as April. Calculations for some gas-field emissions jumped by several hundred percent. Methane levels from the hydraulic fracturing of shale gas were 9,000 times higher than previously reported.

Billions of cubic feet of climate-changing greenhouse gases—roughly the equivalent of the annual emissions from 35 million automobiles—seep from loose pipe valves or are vented intentionally from gas production facilities into the atmosphere each year, according to the EPA. Gas drilling emissions alone account for at least one-fifth of human-caused methane in the world’s atmosphere, the World Bank estimates, and as more natural gas is drilled, the EPA expects these emissions to increase dramatically.

But roughly half of the 1,600 gas-fired power plants in the United States operate at the lowest end of the efficiency spectrum. And even before the EPA sharply revised its data, these plants were only 32 percent cleaner than coal, according to a lifecycle analysis by Paulina Jaramillo, an energy expert and associate professor of engineering and public policy at Carnegie Mellon University.

So we see that the promise of clean safe energy source maybe what it sounds like….too goo to be true…..and we know what they say about that…….don’t we?  If I recall correctly back in 2008, the McCain/Palin ticket, had this plank that was basically “cap and trade”…….but now Palin is calling it cap and tax……see if you snooze you lose….it is virtually impossible to keep up with politics and its leap Right, if you only watch the news once a day….

And the dance goes on for alt energy….but can we have an energy source that does not include drilling the crap out of the earth?  We need a renewable source that is almost limitless…..nat gas does not meet that criteria……but yet the Prez thinks it is a good idea….why?

Can we please stop all this now?  NOTHING will be done!  You know…..I know it…..Obama knows it!