Renewed demand for the metal cobalt is breathing new life into Cobalt, the town
bloomberg.com
bloomberg.com
Then they talked about the toxic sea next to it, the ground instability, the poverty stemming from having a single industry propping up the local economy... not as romantic as it first sounded.
Still, it helped me recognize my craving for a place where I can afford to have a workshop and some land...
I'd say it gave me a nuanced view of some things despite me being quite liberal overall.
- I don't think about "the environment" the way most people seem to. There are many environments and ecosystems typically cover more area than a single mine or factory can pollute. Places like Cobalt, the tar sands in Alberta, or Siberian nuclear test sites are basically uninhabitable without shipping food and fuel in from afar, so it doesn't bother me that they're ecological disasters. Even if those places are ruined, it's easy for humans to leave them alone for a century or more without much inconvenience.
- Mining practices in the 3rd world are exploitative and dangerous but there's not much you can do about it specifically. My dad designed machinery to prevent rock fall, that position is inconceivable in Africa. But the market for cheap minerals will never go away. Even if Tesla stops buying, other firms in other countries will. The only way to prevent it is to raise the standard of living in these African countries so that no one would consider taking a mining job there in their current form.
After the boom, Elliot Lake rebranded itself as a retirement community with some measure of success. It hilarious to see the cost of housing there. A 3 bed, 2 bath house built in the 70's goes for $75K. But good luck trying to sell it.
That being said, I like the town. A lake in the middle of town with a natural beach, hiking, bike, cross country ski trails at your doorstop. Minutes away from great fishing, hunting, ATV'ing.. Its an outdoor persons paradise. I have a recurring dream of doing a startup, and attracting tech workers to the area. Imagine the money you could save while I enjoying a very high standard of living. Granted, those attracted to the idea would be 'seasoned', as the lack of access to major events would be a big negative for some.
In the meantime, I'll stay in Sudbury, making 60% of what I should be making, but enjoying the outdoors at my doorstep.
For 5 months out of the year. Unless you enjoy cold weather outdoor activity as well.
(Grew up in Sudbury, tried to leave the cold for good, ended up back in Ontario but further south.)
But you have a very valid point. I like winter, the seasons, but winter itself, up here, is very long and can be quite harsh. The flipside is, we tend to stay inside with our appliances and get work done.
I've had the same idea but for Maine. There are all these old, closed-down lumber and paper mills right near the ocean, islands, lakes, and mountains. I would love to bring a startup there to so I could do interesting work and have such close proximity to an awesome outdoor environment.
The limiting factors, I think, are more (1) lack of VC interest in funding something where the company is going to be based in the middle of nowhere, and (2) the lack of job security for tech workers who choose to live somewhere like that.
On the first point, VCs are very attached to the orbit of their cities. Silicon Valley is of course the big innovation centre, but basically any city above around 250k people now has at least a small tech industry with affiliated venture capital firms. Unfortunately, I can't see VCs interested in something where if they want to go see their investment they have to go get on a plane, then rent a car, and drive a couple of hours. So, any successful rural tech startup is going to need to be at least partially bootstrapped.
The second point is the inherent risk in moving somewhere like that for a job, especially a job as volatile as a tech startup. You move out there, buy a house, maybe start a family - and then the company folds or downsizes. You basically have no choice at that point but to uproot and move, leaving all your friends and your home behind.
Of course, you could also maybe spin this as a positive point: the "company man" is considered dead these days, especially so in high tech. Nobody sticks around anymore, there's very little loyalty on both the part of the employer and employee. However, in an environment where you're literally the only tech employer in town, you would probably get employees who actually stuck with the company and stayed committed.
I just don’t agree with that. There are many ways to improve this situation. Apple has done a lot to improve their supply chains and the conditions workers work there. As far as I know, Apple has gotten completely rid of child labor for their products because of its high standards. If more companies would take that stance, there would a lot less child labor in total. Although I believe Apple made a pretty big difference because of its size.
Furthermore, the government should regulat how imported goods and raw materials should be mined. They should have clear guidelines what is allowed and what is not for raw materials. There should not be a loophole for the supply chain. Every company chooses their supply chain and is thus responsible. If every company suddenly demands that their supply chain will not employ children and use safer techniques in their mines, the supply chain will make sure demands are met.
Employing such regulations is not unheard of either. The US government already is pretty strict about bribery in foreign countries, so they should be able to place similar regulations. Enforcing such a regulation can be hard but it is possible. If companies cheat, they will get chaught eventuall and if they are fined appropriately, it should not be worth the risk.
Even getting right and left wing people to vote for that should be easy. The right wing can use that regulation to keep the mines in the country and protect jobs, and the left wing can say it is better for the environment and humanity this way. The real problem are lobbies, though. There are a lot of companies which would suffer from that a lot and they are willing to spend a lot of money on lobbing. Maybe Apple, combined with Tesla and other environmental responsible companies can make a difference.
Just hoping that the standard in another countries suddenly improves a lot is not enough. We have no control over that country and many thing can prevent that. Furthermore, this just shifts the mining to another country and it will continue there. By applying regulations which set standards how materials can be mined, including requiring a living wage for that country, Afria has a good way to raise their overall standard.
Studies have found that caring seems to start at about a GDP per capita of $10K or so.
As in other countries should raise their standard of living? Or internally?
Seems intuitive that there is a minimum threshold of confort for political participation
The depends on the size of the coalition that the government's power depends on. If the government needs the support 25% of voting citizens (a majority of legislators, each elected by a majority of constituents), then the citizens can likely pruessure their government to do something.
If the government's power depends on 300 high-ranking administrators and military officers, then it would be stupid of a ruler to enact such legislation. Doing so would reduce the amount of money flowing into government coffers and would threaten their ability to lavishly reward the generals. That could lead to a coup and to the death of the ruler.
South african miners in 2012 tried to raise their standard of living from 500usd to 1500usd per month; 47 people died[0] and I don't think any real change took place; sad.
Those things have destroyed enormous watersheds though. A lot of the largest rivers and lakes in Canada are now highly polluted to the point where it's not safe to eat the fish.
There are literally places in Canada that are so remote that no one has ever been there, but so polluted they are uninhabitable.
Often these places that are polluted are really only diluted as the waste moves from one central location to wherever watersheds take it, destroying life as it goes. This is the problem. The tar sands are an ecological disaster! They are not contained.
It's also threatening the Boundary Waters of Minnesota/Canada -- a famed nature-intense recreation area.
In many of these projects, companies want to mine lower grade sulfate ores. This creates a tremendous problem of acidification, which leaches all sorts of things and especially heavy metals from the tailings. Things that disperse into the environment and never go away. And that, history demonstrates, are practically impossible to contain.
Mitigation plans are written on 50 and some magical 500 year plans. Neither of which suffice with respect to the continuing presence of the toxic byproduct. Not to mention, that most companies don't even survive the lesser timeframe, and that they have always chosen to spend money on lawyers to evade their obligations rather than on cleanup costs -- until coerced, and if there are even any non-disbursed company funds left to pay for same.
I think our next generation energy resources development is essential. But along with it should come 100% recycling of the metals and as much other involved materials, as possible.
Governments should also insist on pro-actively funded mitigation trusts that exist separate from both company and government and cannot be "raided" by other for other expenditures.
How that competes with extra-territorial, natural resource poisoning competition? Well, that's a corner that the U.S. and Canada, among many others, have well painted themselves into.
P.S. I forgot to mention Wisconsin, sharing the south shore with Michigan. A proposed mine there threatened (threatens -- have they really given up?) the Bad River Reservation including the Reservation's wild rice beds. And if you think "what's a little wild rice?", well, aside from treaty obligations (are we really going to continue to break those?), consider it a harbinger of broader impact, as well as taking away self-sufficiency and cultural heritage from a chronically, coercively disadvantaged population.
And consider that, long term, the environment holds much more opportunity -- including essential health -- than a mine that will ruin same while exporting most of its economic gains outside the community.
Here are the six longest rivers in Canada. Please indicate which are so polluted that they are unsafe to fish from because of pollution from mining or oil extraction:
1. Mackenzie River
2. Yukon River
3. St. Lawrence River
4. Nelson River
5. Slave River
6. Columbia River
Hint: none of them.
I'd also like to know more about these uninhabitable places that no one has ever been to.
https://www.nytimes.com/2016/11/11/world/canada/clean-energy...
You just spoke my heart, man.
This is such a dangerous game and Ontario small towns have played it and lost for decades.
Consider Smith's Falls, Ontario. Hersey built a nice big chocolate factory there, employing half the town. The town grew, lots of local businesses began existing by offering goods and services to the employees of that factory. They even offered factory tours with a rejected chocolate bar store at the end, and kids like me would beg their parents to go on the tour.
And then Hersey closed the factory. Everyone lost their jobs, many of the businesses closed, even Walmart struggled.
YMMV; maybe having the Internet would have helped the experience of isolation? but I would urge parents to give rural school systems the same scrutiny that they do schools in the big scary city.
So this economic resurgence is based on African politics? Not a very solid foundation imho. Canada has plenty of Cobalt. Canada has plenty of everything. It's a big place. But it isn't a poor and corrupt nation where permits may be purchased and safety standards disregarded. Its resources won't ever be the cheap option. One day Congo will get its act together and then Cobalt is back where it started.
FYI, Cobalt is no ghost town. Western Canada is littered with proper ghost towns that shut when their local mine or sawmill closed. Cobalt may be sleepy and poor but nowhere near deserving ghost status.
I can't speak from experience, but I imagine a company foreseeing a large demand for a material will gladly pay more for a constant, secure supply rather than pay less for one that could be halted at the drop of a hat.
I once had a conversation with a guy in oil and gas at a party. I'm not sure what his job was but he basically said that in most African countries there is hundreds of millions of dollar of equipment just sitting collecting dust. When a company leaves, the government demands crazy amounts of (bribe) money to export the equipment, to the point where the company just walks away from it and writes it off as a loss.
Much of that equipment, in a place like Canada, is a liability. It must be dealt with properly and that costs money, often far more than the equipment is worth. You cannot just leave stuff in the field. I'd be that many of these companies are happy to abandon oil equipment rather than transport and dispose of it properly.
that's a bit of an understatement... If it only doubles we're in trouble, I'd say it's going to go 10 to 20x
There's a couple of reasons to that:
- Some cars like the leaf have Vehicle to Grid technology allowing the car to essentially become a trading machine, buy when cheap, sell when expensive. This massively helps the spread of renewable as you can let your car plugged and make money. Buy when production of solar is big (low price), sell at peak time.
- Car batteries are exceeding expectations in terms of lifetimes, which means even when the car is dead, or if the battery has been upgraded (like it's possible on the Renault Zoe and BMW i3) you can basically stack the old car batteries in a container and again, store and trade energy on the grid
So it really goes together with renewable, especially the ones that are less stable over time like solar or wind. The earlier the productions increases, the earlier the second market can be created for the batteries.
It's also worth noting that it's apparently cheaper to recycle a battery than mine the minerals, which leaves hope for large scale battery recycling.
Yes, it's cheap, but there aren't many good job opportunities around a ghost town.
I'm sure some of the residents love their hometown, but there's a reason the real estate is so cheap. Personally you would probably have to pay me a lot of money to move my family there.