Miscellaneous News Gleanings: Green Elitism, Lithium Mining, EVs, and the War on Lawns

Items of note from various sources the past couple days.

The first is from Michael Shellenberger:

Green Elitism Behind Farmer Crackdowns
What role is the World Economic Forum playing?
 

Farmers in the Netherlands reduced nitrogen pollution by nearly 70% through a voluntary system. But the government says that is not enough and is demanding that they cut pollution by another 50% by 2030.
By the Dutch government’s own estimates, 11,200 farms out of the roughly 35,000 dedicated to dairy and livestock would have to close under its policies; 17,600 farmers would have to reduce livestock; and total livestock would need to be reduced by one-half to one-third. The Dutch government has demanded that animal farming stop entirely in many places.

EdNote: Is there not a global food shortage in the making already? What's the deal here? Is this the beginning of a more widespread trend? How will this impact the price of steak?

Item Two: Lithium shortages coming

Satellite view of salt flats in Bolivia and Argentina
that are rich in Lithium.

Another article I read was about the Lithium shortages that are coming... EVs are dependent on batteries, but Lithium Inflation is up 750%. More than half the world's Lithium comes from So
uth America, but those countries have two things going against Lithium. (1) Leaders who want more of the profits from mining in their countries. (I can't entirely blame them) and (2) indigenous people who are protesting mining altogether, like they do in the U.S. ... "Protect our water" groups. What we have is competing Green objectives colliding.

Here's the story from the Wall Street Journal:

South American setbacks for lithium, a key battery component, worry the electric-vehicle industry.

Lithium is an essential element in EV batteries. Less than 2% of the world's lithium comes from the U.S., though actually 4% is available but we have designated it as off limits. 

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Item Three: The War on Lawns.

Thursday's NYTimes eNews daily had a story on the war on lawns.

Early in the piece the authors write, "But while the lawn may be a powerful symbol of American postwar prosperity, it’s also an ecological dead zone that’s sucking the nation’s aquifers dry."

OK, so my initial reactions to the story ran like this. First, it seems to me that there's an inherent hatred of suburbia that I've never fully understood. People in Manhattan don't have lawns. So why this assault on yet another aspect of the suburban lifestyle?

It brings to mind the assault on SUVs twenty years ago. Well guess what? SUVs are useful for taking eight kids to a soccer game. They save gas because you don't have to take three vehicles. And when you have a hobby farm, pickups and SUVs are quite useful for conveying hay or feed.

Until I read this NYTimes piece (it looks like an opinion presented as news) I never knew lawns were a "powerful symbol" of anything. Then again, when things get cast in a political light, everything tends to be turned into symbols of one kind or another.

And when you look at a map of the U.S. from above, what percentage of the U.S. is covered with lawns? It has to be less than 5%. Most of the country is mountains, forests, plains and lakes. Can this small slice of American landscape really suck the entire North American aquifers into an ecological dead zone? 

I'm skeptical. 

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Whoever watches the wind will not plant... and two upcoming events.

"Whoever watches the wind will not plant; whoever looks at the clouds will not reap." ~Ecclesiastes 11:4

New Living Translation puts it this way: Farmers who wait for perfect weather never plant. If they watch every cloud, they never harvest.

This Old Testament verse doesn't say to ignore the weather. It simply says that one can get so hung up on waiting for perfect conditions that they never do anything.

Whereas it's true that you have to sensitive to external conditions, all too often we use those conditions as an excuse for why we didn't do something in the first place. As Shakespeare wrote, "The fault is not in the stars but in ourselves."

What is it you're looking for? Don't wait till conditions are perfect to begin your quest. Start your preparations. Take action. Don't sit back and let life pass you by.

Last weekend we went to a movie and dinner downtown here in Duluth and noticed that our town was hopping. Weather that shuts down other parts of the country made little impact here. The only challenge is probably parking because sooner or later experience teaches you to beware of parking horizontally on the hills in the winter. In short, unless the event is outright cancelled, the locals here venture forth.

Tomorrow evening at Glensheen Mansion, in conjunction with the UMD Office of Civic Engagement and the Duluth News Tribune, is hosting another CHESTER CHAT, a Ted Talk-styled event designed to foster critical thinking. The topic is Regional Art. The speakers slated include local artist: Sarah Brokke Duluth Art Institute curator: Anne Dugan and UMD art historian: Dr. Jennifer Webb

Dr. Webb will talk about the many works of art housed in the historic Glensheen. Doors open to historic Glensheen’s Winter Garden at 7:00 p.m. for a happy half-hour with the guest speakers. The program starts promptly at 7:30 p.m., each talking for approximately 10 minutes.

I first heard about this through KUMD who will be rebroadcasting the talk as a regular monthly feature. In the event that you were unaware, Glensheen is a unit of the School of Fine Arts within the University of Minnesota Duluth.

The next TWEEVENINGS at UMD is Tuesday, February 4 at 6:30 p.m. It should be another good one with artist and critic Ann Klefstad sharing how art traditions both within and beyond the Western influence link daily life, spiritual life, and natural sciences. She'll be speaking about works by several artists: mathematician and artist Dennis White's finger-woven sash, a traditional Anishinaabe work; John Sims' African-inspired Mathematical Art Brain, a drawing and inkjet print; a Frank Big Bear colored drawing; and a duck-headed carved spoon from the Rawlings Nelson's Collection of American Indian Art. Image of the drawing by: Frank Big Bear, Spirit of Things, 1986

In short, here are two rich opportunities to go deeper in your understanding of the arts, especially as it intersects our life and times here and now.