Sometimes we seem to solve one problem only by creating another; such is the paradox we find ourselves faced with when trying to tackle the issue of climate change.
We start relying more on cardboard than plastic, only to find that we’re cutting down trees faster than we can plant them. We develop electric cars that are better for the environment, but which can only be achieved by sending people, often children, to work in appalling conditions in order to mine the nickel, copper and cobalt that powers their batteries.
These are both classic examples of environmental problem-shifting, and shows how the ‘great green’ narrative is effectively blinding us to other global problems that, not only did we help create, but which are just as, if not more, worthy of our attention.
And yet we’re so quick to pat ourselves on the back for any so-called ‘green initiative’ that some muppet in Westminster or the EU comes up with, no matter how deluded, without considering the true human and environmental cost of our ignorance.
The Democratic ( any country that needs to put democratic in its name is clearly anything but!!) Republic of the Congo produces an estimated 70% of the world’s cobalt supply, and the global demand has increased dramatically over recent years. This is hardly surprising given the fanfare behind electric vehicles, which were touted as being the ultimate solution to the green transport conundrum.
And it’s not just EVs. Chances are that you’re probably reading this article on a smartphone, which is powered by — you guessed it — our old friend the lithium battery. And where does that lithium come from? Mainly from Australia and South America, where the extraction process uses up to 500,000 gallons of water in order to produce a single tonne. Of course, this presents serious environmental problems for these notoriously dry landscapes and the indigenous people who call them home.
And yet, every day we read another headline with some catastrophic prediction or doom-laden statistic about impending climate disaster. But I can’t remember the last time I saw a single paragraph dedicated to this, or indeed any of the other countless problems that our collective obsession with climate change both creates, and demands that we ignore.
Because the sad reality is that every big corporation and environmental organisation is well aware of the human tragedy that plays out in the cobalt mines everyday, and yet their silence on the matter is deafening. Perhaps their voices are hoarse from shouting so loud about their ‘green’ credentials?
And whilst the transition to net zero is an admirable and worthwhile goal, we cannot continue turning a blind eye to the problems that our ‘green solutions’ are inadvertently creating, especially when those problems happen to be the scarring of agricultural landscapes, the displacement and exploitation of indigenous people, and what basically amounts to child slavery.
Do the means really justify the end, or is the net zero equation more complex than we ever could have anticipated?
Human beings have always been prone to trying to oversimplify complex problems, and perhaps net zero is the perfect example of this. Of course, we should all be doing everything within our power to help protect the planet for future generations, but we must realise that every action, however well-intentioned, has a knock-on effect. And although it may look as though the net zero campaign is achieving its aim of reducing emissions and creating a greener future, on a superficial basis at least, what of the human cost? Do we simply ignore every other metric because the climate change gospel insists that carbon emissions are the only metric that counts?
There are no easy answers, but surely we have a moral responsibility to tackle these problems with the same level of urgency and fervour as the oh-so-virtuous big corporations claim to have with climate change.