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this post was submitted on 06 Dec 2023
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Australia stands to be the nation that can do so damned much towards pushing for a green future right now.
It's a mining powerhouse with access to the minerals needed for future green energy tech. It should be able to mine them more safely, wholesomely, and justly than pretty much any other nation. Mining stuff like lithium is an ugly business, but doing it in a country that has basic labor and environmental protection rules with the technology to do so at scale would be huge. If the Aussies really dedicated themselves to it, current issues with lithium or cobalt could be deflated substantially.
A rational "mining magnate" has everything to gain from a green future, and Australia has an opportunity to become very wealthy in the process -- provided it builds the industry, gets support from the government, and the rest of the world is buying. The IRA in the US means at least that market is very keen on friendsourced raw materials.
Sorry but all I'm hearing is that it would be marginally more expensive, which means the market will either need to go where there aren't protections, or they'll have to gut protections here to accommodate the rights of the wealthy to make money by spilling other people's blood.
Capitalism got us into this mess, it won't get us out. It puts money above all else, so if you ask it to do anything good it will laugh at you and make a jerk off motion.
Australia is currently the worlds largest producer of lithium, so it can’t be that much more expensive. It would definitely make more sense to invest in scaleing up than their the coal mines.
Compared to all the other expenses, safety measures really are marginal costs, so it's kind of wild that bosses will cut them whenever possible.
But capitalists know that anything that constrains their abuse of workers gives them less power over them, and they can't accept that. Being a boss is really about domination above all else. The money is a proxy for that goal.
The owner class have to view the rest of us as inferior. When they're forced to acknowledge our humanity they respond with rage, because that sense of superiority justifies their position.
Without it there's no explanation for why their money allows them to do what they do. It's the floor they stand on, and if it's not there then they look down and see a yawning pit of horror. That separation between them and us both protects them from seeing how monstrous they really are, and it traps them.
It's not all bad news.
West Aus is getting big into renewable hydrogen. Basically using solar farms to crack hydrogen from sea water.
Last time I read up about it there were three new cracking facilities under development.
The whole process seems so magical to me as a non-science person, basically selling sun & sea water as a form of energy that for all intents and purposes has no waste products.
All I can find is this government PDF where there is no mention of investing in the renewables they plan as input.
I fear there is a scammy intention to build the infrastructure, promising green hydrogen then "in the meantime" just use gas to produce blue hydrogen.
From my other comment:
Here's a good primer on electrolyzers, though it is very US (IRA)-oriented. Assuming you like a podcast (or reading a transcript of one).