2.2 - "Clean" Energy Is Omnicide-as-Usual
Dig Baby Dig
Our things are made of stuff. Stuff comes from somewhere.
Humans’ project to metabolize resources at an exceptionally high rate is causing a Sixth Mass Extinction. The associated atmospheric pollution is definitely a concern, but it’s crucial to see the bigger picture: The rate at which humans are collectively metabolizing Earth is causing the many problems we observe. “Clean” energy isn’t a transition away from fossil-fueled industrialism; it’s an extension of it. All the Green New Deals, taken together, call for habitat destruction on a massive scale.
For every 1 ton of copper, companies displace 125 tons of soil and rock. According to ChatGPT, the number is even higher, around over 136 tons for an underground mine and 400 tons for an open pit mine. In Thailand, of the rock mined in the name of lithium extraction, only 0.45% is usable. Here’s another discussion, citing a Harvard paper. For neodymium, we need 637.8 tons of ore just to get 1 ton of the milled product. That’s just ore; the dent made in the Earth would be even greater.
A “kin-centric worldview” would have us “think of ourselves as expressions of that territory”1 and engage in a symbiotic relationship where humans help the planet groom itself. In that sense, the proposed “energy transition” amounts to biospheric self-harm. As we extract materials to produce this power-generation system (and possibly to maintain it, if the original endeavor isn’t enough to do us in), we assault the more-than-human world and create more dead zones on our one planet. We push farther in the wrong direction past critical boundaries and exacerbate the problems that we already observe. These massive extraction and industrial manufacturing projects are emblematic of civilization’s sadism toward any living thing that is not domesticated/educated and any non-living thing that is not manmade. We could accidentally commit “anticipatory ruination”, producing greater ecological crises in our attempt to mitigate and adapt to them. If (as described in the previous post) fossil fuel depletion doesn’t hobble the civilization machine, the “clean” energy endeavor’s impacts in the form of habitat destruction, biodiversity erasure and air/water/soil pollution might be the nail in the coffin that forces civilization to cease-and-desist.
Further material extraction is further harm. Allegedly-environmental groups are green-washing our march toward self-destruction just so that they can claim to have a win-win solution (for machines/infrastructure and for the planet). Max Wilbert calls this a “false ideological security blanket” & “an attempt to maintain industrial civilization and avoid [its] collapse in the face of peak oil [i.e. declining extraction rates] - a fools errand”.
Extinction-by-Electrification
Once we’ve produced the machinery to generate “clean” energy, we don’t use it toward benign ends, either. It’s usually to serve human interests, and that rarely involves the preservation or restoration of non-human life:
nighttime lighting kills insects in droves, with wreaks havoc on the food web (our food web) - because we can’t possibly tolerate nighttime darkness like every other species does
transporting our stuff and bodies, speedily and en-masse, along roads and railways that replace and disrupt other species’ homes
solar panels enable us to further deplete groundwater
etc etc…
The substack, An Animist’s Ramblings, observes:
“In its relentless war against Nature, the dominant culture makes it our Manifest Destiny to ‘civilize’ every last square mile of this planet. What this means in practice is killing off and/or selling all its inhabitants, extracting and carrying off its mineral wealth and other natural resources, dusting it with micro-plastics and PFAS, sealing it (if not immediately with concrete or asphalt, then at least under a hard crust of exhausted soil), and generally polluting and degrading it in every imaginable way. And, apparently, illuminating it as brightly as possible.”
Self-proclaimed “recovering astrophysicist” Tom Murphy speaks to this in episode 11 of this Metastatic Modernity series, “Renewable Salvation?”
"What is electricity besides an exercise in human self-importance? it accomplishes nothing else. it does no good for nature. it is not required for any function that the [biotic] world itself performs. what little electricity the world requires it makes itself, cheaply and with no pollution."
- Clark Strand, Waking Up to the Dark
“It’s basic math. When you have one living planet and you destroy it, that’s one minus one”
For a glimpse of “clean” energy’s devastating impact:
5 of the 6 most species-rich biomes provided 79% of the metal ore extracted globally in 2019
“Renewable energy production will exacerbate mining threats to biodiversity”
“Deforesting the Amazon for Wind Energy in the Global North”
“Toxic rare earth mines fuel deforestation, rights abuses in Myanmar, report says”
“Rare earth mining in China comes at a heavy cost for local villages”
“How the rise of electric cars endangers the ‘last frontier’ of the Philippines”
“South America’s Lithium Fields Reveal the Dark Side of Our Electric Future”
“Impacts for half of the world’s mining areas are undocumented”
“Panama copper mine to close after Supreme Court rules concession unconstitutional“ - “the mine produced over 86,000 tons of copper, around 1% of the world’s total production … the operation is also exacerbating a current drought and threatening migratory birds, protestors said”
“Copper Mine or Sacred Land: The Fight for Oak Flat“ - “The group Apache Stronghold rallies against an Arizona copper mine that would create a nearly 2-mile-wide crater of public land at Oak Flat”
At ocean depths of 5km, where sunlight is insufficient for photosynthesis, naturally-occurring metallic “nodules” split water to create oxygen - and companies want to mine them for “clean tech”… “Norway Approves Controversial Deep-Sea Mining for Profit Despite Environmental Concerns” … “Norwegian Deep-Sea Mining Threatens Arctic Biodiversity With 'Irreversible Harm’” … Trump signed an executive order that “instructed federal agencies to expedite the process for reviewing and issuing permits for mining on the seafloor in both U.S. and international territory”; this “could disrupt important marine ecosystems, and damage the fishing industry … ‘It would have catastrophic biological consequences.’” A Canadian company, “the U.S. The Metals Company”, has sought a permit and, following the executive order, its share prices rose 44% … Environmentalists call bid to skirt UN treaty ‘reckless’ amid fears that mining will cause irreversible loss of biodiversity”
Trump’s 2025 energy edict privatizes public land and turns it over to foreign (lithium) mining corporations; gives priority to mining over other uses of public lands; and applies the Defense Production Act to allow mineral processing on military bases … “As a Critical Minerals Mine Nears Approval in Arizona, Residents Fear It’s Already Affecting Area Water” (2025)
Hydropower dams destroy habitat, block fish migration (Since 1970, Europe’s freshwater migratory fish populations fell by 93%, largely due to dams), and generate methane.
Once installed over a pond or lake, “floating solar” cuts off oxygen to the aquatic ecosystem.
In 2022, at least 177 environmental defenders were killed. This “highlights the scramble for resources in Latin America, Asia and Africa as a driver of the violence, including the extraction of rare earth minerals used in the production of electric cars and wind turbines.”
“renewable power requires at least ten times more land area per unit of power produced” (Brookings Institution, page 3)
source & source. n.b. wind turbines are not (and cannot be) made of braided sweetgras
The “clean” energy industry encroaching on indigenous societies:
Images of humanity’s quest to harness exosomatic energy
from the Honest Sorcerer substack, “Musings on the Nature of Technology” (nature regenerates; industrial tech degenerates)
“Dispelling the Myths of a Renewable Energy Transition”, a presentation by Bill Rees and John Mulrow, hosted by Gaian Way
a review of the documentary “Bright Green Lies”, based on the book by Max Wilbert, Derrick Jensen, Lierre Keith
I heard that phrase on this Daniel Wahl interview and find it an effective way to convey what Daniel Quinn describes as behaving as if we belong to the Earth, and not the other way around
Yes, to the excellent basic points and great photos of omnicide in your post, but no, "Bright Green Lies" is the product of an authoritarian cult, and they have nothing but urging jail terms on monkey-wrenchers to show for their bogus fake-revolution stances.