Miners Explore Amazon Basin to Support “Green” Energy; The New York Times Terrible – Frustrated with that?
The front page of today’s New York Times features a massive article that is clearly meant to get readers on board about the latest environmental horror that needs to be stopped. The title is “Illegal flight routes bring malicious mining to the native lands of Brazil.” Sub-headline: “The Times has identified hundreds of runways that bring criminal exploits to the most remote corners of the Amazon.”
Well, that’s bad. The runway is “illegal.” Mining is “malicious”, not only malicious but also “criminal”. And it all takes place in the most unspoiled place left in the entire world, “the remote corners of the Amazon,” largely inhabited by the most innocent of indigenous people, the Yanomami.
So what is driving the massive influx of miners to these remote regions? Does the so-called “green energy” – with the huge demand for raw materials such as nickel, manganese, aluminum and iron – have anything to do with it? If so, you won’t learn anything about that from the Times.
The express purpose of this lengthy Times piece is to make you angry about the wild mining criminals that are now said to be swarming the Amazon jungle. This section begins with research conducted by the Times, which, using satellite images, has identified a large number of runways – nearly 1,300 – that have been carved deep into the Amazon jungle, and are currently under construction. used to bring supplies to support. the development of new mines.
According to an investigation by the Times, hundreds of airstrips have been secretly built on protected lands in Brazil to fuel the illegal mining industry, of which 61 are in indigenous territory. this Yanomami region. The Times has identified more than 1,200 other unregistered airstrips across the Brazilian Amazon – many of which are part of a criminal network that is destroying indigenous lands and threatening their people. . . . Carved into the dense, lush landscape, [the clandestine airstrips] . . . activity is largely unregulated. . . .
And you won’t be surprised to learn that all this outrageous and illegal activity is facilitated by the callous and disinterested right-wing government of incumbent Brazilian President Jair Bolsonaro.
Since taking office in 2019, Mr. Bolsonaro has advocated for industries that promote rainforests destructionlead to record level of deforestation. He has just loosened regulations to expand logging and logging in the Amazon and scale back protections. He also cut federal funding and staffing, weakening indigenous and environmental law enforcement agencies.
Illegal mining is causing great damage to the indigenous peoples of the area, at least if you believe the Times:
Recently research by Hutukara, a Yanomami nonprofit, estimates that more than half of the people living in the Brazilian territory of Yanomami have been injured by illegal mining. According to the report, consequences include malnutrition from destroyed or abandoned crops, and malaria spread by mosquito breeding in open pit mines and deforested areas.
Okay, but why exactly is there this sudden rush of mining businesses into these remote areas? The Times gives little clue, basically just one line saying illegal runways are “Promoting illegal gold and tin ore mining” into remote areas. But gold and tin are relatively small volume commodities on the world market. Could these really be the main drivers?
For a slightly different perspective on the mining situation in Amazon, check out this February 28, 2022 from a publication called Undark (launched by MIT), titled “US-backed companies ready to expand mining in Amazon.”
Since November [2021], the nine major mining companies considered key players in the extraction of rare metals for electric vehicle batteries already have 225 active applications to expand operations into or near native territories. in the Amazon rainforest of Brazil.
Aha! The “major players” in the mining rush to Amazon are large companies looking for “rare metals for electric vehicle batteries.” Why am I not surprised?
So are the materials people are looking for mostly just gold and tin, or are there many other more massive things to be found? From a publication named Mining Technology, February 12, 2018:
The Amazon rainforest in South America has large amounts of copper, tin, nickel, bauxite, manganese, iron ore and gold, making it attractive to miners worldwide.
Nickel and manganese – these are big inputs for electric vehicle batteries. Bauxite is the ore for the production of aluminum, the main raw material needed, along with copper, for a large number of new power transmission lines that need to be built to support wind and solar power. Iron ore? Large numbers of them will be needed for the coming onslaught of wind turbine facilities.
Undark tells us that all of America’s major financial institutions – the same ones that are currently boycotting the fossil fuel industry – are lining up to fund big new mines in the Amazon:
U.S.-based financial institutions are among their top donors, according to a new report by Amazon Watch and the Association of Indigenous Peoples of Brazil, or APIB. . . . The report focuses on nine miners, including Vale, Anglo American, Belo Sun and Glencore. . . . Capital Group, BlackRock and Vanguard, which have collectively invested $14.8 billion in mining companies, are among the top US investors named in the report. The leading US-based creditor is Bank of America, which has provided $670 million in loans and underwriting services to companies. Citigroup and JPMorgan Chase were also named as top creditors.
Hey, this is for EV batteries, transmission lines, wind turbine bases and all the other nice things to make the world “green”. Of course all the major financial institutions are behind it. It’s ESG investment!
And please don’t blame the people at the New York Times for undermining their own unwavering and unwavering advocacy for green energy. They follow only the essential principles of the official progressive orthodoxy in New York as brilliantly distilled on the Manhattan Contrarian “About” pageOriginally posted in 2012 – specifically this one:
[U]sage energy is a human right, but all known methods of actual energy production are environmentally unacceptable. . . .
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