Butterfly effect

Immigration once again is a contentious issue leading up to elections. Candidates from both major parties have vowed to “get tough” on immigration, each seeking to demonstrate their superior might when it comes to border control. In Iowa, the most recent legislative session saw multiple anti-immigration bills. And as of Aug. 23, Iowa Attorney General Brenna Bird joined 15 other states in filing a suit to block protection for immigrant spouses of American citizens.

An increasing number of Americans see immigration as the “ most important problem” facing the country. Reasons for this sentiment range from concerns about potential shifts in national identity to resource scarcity to claims of immigrant crime. (Let’s be clear, that last one has been refuted by many sources.)

Yet in all this passionate talk about the harm to the United States due to immigration, there is little talk about the exploitative practices that not only fuel immigration, but cause resource scarcity, exacerbate poverty, and change the national identity in other countries.

We live in a global society with political, social and economic implications. Our borders are permeable when it comes to business, living, and as we learned the hard way in 2019, severe and mutable diseases.

Tourists trounce all over the globe, many with little regard for the harmful effects of tourism. Expats drive up the cost of housing in countries around the world, forcing some local workers to live in tents. And some groups from the Western world are becoming the “ new leading cause of large-scale deforestation” in the Peruvian Amazon.

Yet we cling to our privileged concerns and cry scarcity.

Mineral and gas extraction processes are often touted as a way to improve development or reduce poverty in developing countries. However, this extraction is often managed by foreign companies that have few repercussions when things go horribly wrong. And the proliferation of such predatory extractivism is cause for great concern.

Talk about scarcity. Although minerals are abundant, ways to profitably extract them are not. And in the wake of resource extraction, local residents face numerous threats to their safety, health, and long-term well-being.

Every year the great majority of the minerals we use for health care and defense are imported by the United States. We are hyper-dependent on other countries for our minerals, in fact, the United States Geological Survey — part of the Department of the Interior — reports a 250% increase in foreign reliance over the past sixty years. Reliance on other countries is critical to our “economy and national security.” Over “80% of our nation’s supply of critical minerals” come from foreign countries.

While the Environmental Protection Agency creates regulations and guidelines to (somewhat) mitigate harm that comes from mining activities, protections in other countries are seriously lacking. The destruction caused by harmful foreign mining practices in the state of Minas Gerais have been described as some of the “worst humanitarian and environmental disasters” that Brazil has witnessed.

These disasters were due to mine tailings. Mine “tailings” are essentially extremely dangerous landfills — lakes of mud, water, and mining byproducts that are that are easily susceptible to any environmental or human event that can liquefy dams and create toxic flooding.

In 2019, 154 people in Minas Gerais were killed in the collapse of a mine tailing. Enough mining waste to fill “5,000 Olympic size pools” was unleashed, devastating workers and the town downhill from the mine. This was a little over 3 years after 19 people were killed in a similar fashion.

Evidence shows the problem is not getting better, it is getting worse.

But it doesn’t have to be that way. There are ways to sustainably mine all of the benefits of these resources, and to abide by regulations that protect the land and the people that inhabit it. And the role that these resources have in producing sustainable and renewable energy cannot be underestimated. The minerals that are in high demand also can have a critical role in ameliorating climate change. Lithium, cobalt, and nickel are critical components in clean energy technology.

It is just a matter of doing business sensibly in other countries. And even becoming innovative with materials that can be reused. This work is already happening, and Iowa has an opportunity to be a leader in this technology.

Ratul Chowdhury is assistant professor of chemical and biological engineering at Iowa State University and is one Iowan making this innovative work a reality. Chowdhury explained “If you can extract metals back, then you can make fresher magnets and ultimately contribute to making better windmills and harvest the non-renewable sources of energy. So it ultimately leads to a circular economy as we say.”

He is collaborating with partners across the country to extract critical minerals from electronic waste. This work is funded by the Critical Minerals Innovation Hub. “It works in a way like you have a roster for endangered species which is maintained by different agencies which take care of wild animals. Similarly, CMI maintains a roster for materials for minerals or molecules of nature that are getting scarce.”

This work has the opportunity to not only reduce predatory extractivism but improve Iowa’s economy at the same time. Chowdhury told me, “Ultimately if you have better magnets, you have better windmills and you can have more grids and harvest more wind energy. So ultimately this propels a self-fulfilling cycle because Iowa has a lot of wind harvesting that's happening.”

This work should be commended and hopefully will be replicated in other ways. In an increasingly globally connected world, there is no excuse for not conducting business responsibly.

If we are going to complain about people coming to our backyard, it’s time we stopped destroying theirs.

Chris Espersen is a Gazette editorial fellow. chris.espersen@thegazette.com