Thanks to science and education we know of the hazards and have the technologies to extract something from the ground and mitigate the impact on the workers and the environment. It's why we generally have better regulations than other countries, unions are technically legal to form (however difficult that may be) to help raise the minimum standards set by law.
I just spoke to a millworker/carpenter that said his doctor told him he has wood dust embedded in his lungs, it's incurable, and he'll cough and hack the rest of his life until he dies. Never smoked a day in his life. This conversation came up because I brought up his dust mitigation while cutting manufactured stone counter tops. Silicosis is the new mesothelioma (asbestos disease).
Gas and oil extraction have their own death count and tolls on our air and water. In the construction industry we believe that any accident that happens is inherently preventable. Most cases where injury or death occur a rule was broken, bypassing engineered systems/controls, and personal protective equipment.
I can tell you if American citizens were tasked with extracting lithium or whatever other heavy metals, we would probably do it better and safer. The Fair Labor Standards Act should be mandatory to learn in highschool, and every middle schooler should have an OSHA 10 card by the time they're of employment age at about 16.
We don't mine large quantities of lithium or any rare earth metals in the USA because the EPA will not approve. Meaning it's so harmful for the environment it's illegal in the USA and most 'first world' countries.
'renewable energy' is a media tagline. The pollution caused by mining and manufacturing the rare earth metals for wind farms, solar panels and batteries is not renewable. We can scrub carbon from the air relatively easily. We can't replace a coastline destroyed by lithium mining or replace the mountainside that was strip-mined with arsenic and cyanide. Cobalt and nickel mining are not clean either.
Until batteries are carbon based (graphene) we are just replacing one problem with another.
I will echo my statement, if we stop carbon pollution 100% today, climate change will not stop or slow. Lowering carbon emissions is not a solution. It's not even a band-aid. So why spend billions on something that won't change the outcome?
Notice how the focus is on buying an EV, ditching single use plastics for other options and making tax payers subsidize 'clean energy'? These are all ways to make you spend money.
The real solutions are planting trees, implementing carbon scrubbing technology, clean nuclear and eventually fusion. But those dont make anyone money and require individuals to take action. The media will cover a protest, but schedule a trash pick up or tree-planting and barely anyone participates or notices.
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