Green Rocks

Thanks as ever for an interesting read & many interesting questions (still more questions than answers :-)) I am glad you're considering the whack-a-mole - have long felt that is a troubling approach, but to me the more troubling approaching is coming at the question from an energy transition mineral lens. It is a narrative I think mainly set up by the industry (& those who want it to expand), so if we start our questions from there it limits how mining is expanding for all sorts of uses.

Climate technologies require enormous amounts of metal. I’m Ian Morse, and this is Green Rocks, a newsletter that doesn’t want dirty mining to ruin clean energy. Apologies for the radio silence in the past several months! I’ve been busy with not only PhD work, but also transferring to UW-Madison with my advisor, the move to Wisconsin, fieldwork, consulting, and a project I mention below.

A newsletter that doesn't want dirty mining to ruin clean energy By Ian Morse · Over 2,000 subscribers By subscribing, I agree to Substack’s Terms of Use and acknowledge its Information Collection Notice and Privacy Policy “A great way to keep up on the critical minerals + energy transition issue around the world; debunks the myth that decarbonization depends on more mining.

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Climate technologies require enormous amounts of metal. I’m Ian Morse, and this is Green Rocks, a newsletter that doesn’t want dirty mining to ruin clean energy. A lot of news, so I’ll highlight some major stories at the top. El Salvador was the first country to ban metals mining, but its legislature overturned the ban last month.

Hi Vince! Thanks for asking the question; it prompted me to apply some structure to my research. I could make that stance clearer, but at this point my aim is to highlight that the 'need' is not predetermined but socially constructed by a mess of actors and factors. That then opens up other possibilities for reducing emissions, as it tries to make sure the solution doesn’t define the problem.

Climate technologies require enormous amounts of metal. I’m Ian Morse, and this is Green Rocks, a newsletter that doesn’t want dirty mining to ruin clean energy. By my count, there have been four books on the demands that certain climate actions put on mining production. There’s Volt Rush, which I reviewed in 2022 alongside a battery and transportation book. There’s Pitfall, the author of which joined me in Green Rocks’ first podcast and in the keynote conference session linked at the bottom.

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Climate technologies require enormous amounts of metal. I’m Ian Morse, and this is Green Rocks, a newsletter that doesn’t want dirty mining to ruin clean energy. First, a note to check out a Mongabay webinar in which I and SIRGE Coalition member Galina Angarova discuss some tips on investigating the grand world of ‘energy transition minerals’. It’s aimed at journalists, but it includes insights in the field from a variety of perspectives, so Mongabay put it in podcast form, too.

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