Solar and Wind Power Require Massive Toxic Mines. Wind turbines kill bats and birds in numbers that most people would find unacceptable.
Some environmentalists are calling for return to their original mission and passion … to protect nature and wild things from the impacts of industrial civilization.
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From a conversation with filmmaker Julia Barnes, producer of Bright Green Lies.
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HARSH REALITIES BEHIND SOLAR POWER
HART HAGAN: Let's talk about solar. For example, when you see a solar panel, it looks so bright and clean. It seems that once the solar panel is made, you put it on your roof, then it generates electricity without having to burn coal. What's not to like about that?
JULIA BARNES: Right. And I think the reason that solar panels and a lot of these technologies have this green image--and the reason that the companies that market them have gotten away with saying they are environmentally friendly--is because most people who are purchasing a solar panel, or looking at an installation, don't live in Baotou, China next to the rare earth mine.
It is a horrible wasteland where nothing can live. That’s what was required to make that solar panel.
People don't see the supply lines, they don't see the extraction sites all over the world for all of the various components that went into making these things. I think if people really understood what goes into a solar panel, there's no way we could call it green or environmentally friendly.
But the reason they get away with it is because people are so disconnected from that process.
MASSIVE TOXIC MINE IN CHINA FOR RARE EARTH METALS
HART HAGAN: Baotou, China is the site of a massive open pit mine. What else can you tell us about that? The mine is in an area that's 19 square miles. It has a huge tailings pond. That kind of thing.
JULIA BARNES: Yeah. You said it. It’s where they get a lot of the rare earth minerals that go into these technologies, and it's a toxic wasteland. There have been articles about it. People have gone there. There’s some footage of it in the film. You can see this black sludge coming out of a pipe into this giant lake of more black sludge. And all of the wildlife there has been wiped out. Nothing can live there.
HART HAGAN: That's a sacrifice zone. Naomi Klein in “The Shock Doctrine” talks about sacrifice zones. She uses the term NIMBY, not in my backyard. It’s like what happens in China stays in China. We don't see what's going on there. It doesn’t affect us, so we don’t worry about it.
JULIA BARNES: Yeah, there are sacrificing zones all over the planet in the name of green technology.
HART HAGAN: And mining is only expected to increase, with the rollout of solar, wind and EVs. Mining requires fossil fuels. Mining is destructive in its own right. It is destructive of habitat. It causes water pollution, in whatever you’re mining--and you have to mine a lot of different things to make any form of technology, including a solar panel or a wind turbine.
WIND TURBINES KILL BIRDS AND BATS BY SUCKING THE AIR OUT OF THEIR LUNGS, DUE TO THE PRESSURE DIFFERENTIAL THAT OCCURS AS THEY FLY CLOSE TO THE BLADES
HART HAGAN: So let's talk about wind. When you see a windmill, you say, okay, the wind is blowing on the windmill. The wind is turning a turbine. So instead of coal turning the turbine, you've got wind turning the turbine. I don't see any smoke coming out of it. What could be wrong with this? Right?
JULIA BARNES: Wind turbines are these usually very large machines. And there's a lot of steel and copper and concrete and plastic that goes into making them. So you follow the supply lines for any of those processes and, you know, it is not a nice thing.
I live quite near a place where they process and manufacture steel products and you can smell sometimes if the air goes the wrong way. If it shifts, even from here you can smell the pollution from that. It is not a pleasant thing. And, you know, that's just one point along the production of this one component in the process. So there's the “what are they made of” side of things?
There's also the fact that they have to pour very large concrete bases for them, which is a big emitter of CO2. Actually, it's concrete, but then as they're operating, there's the direct harm to things like birds and bats in incredible numbers--I don't remember exactly what it is but it's mentioned in the film--that are struck by wind turbines.
And creatures don’t even have to be struck directly by a turbine that spins, because when wind turbines are spinning, they create a pressure differential in the air and it can actually cause bats’ lungs to explode, if they're just flying in the area because of the pressure differential, which is pretty horrific.
A lot of times when you talk about wind turbines and the effects on birds or bats people say, you know, buildings are really bad for birds, or cats are really bad for birds. The thing about wind turbines is that this is just an addition on top of buildings.
But wind turbines harm more birds that are like the larger birds of prey, like bald eagles and golden eagles, which are not the ones that are running into skyscrapers.
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For the entire interview, please click on the link to the YouTube video.