NIMBY

During and after WW 2 many plant managers, who were mostly chemical engineers, decided to bury toxic waste in various locations across the country. These materials were mostly placed in steel drums which in time rusted and leaked. These engineers knew this would happen but it would take years so they closed their eyes to the situation. In 1977 the most famous of these sites called Love Canal was discovered and after that a Super Fund was set up to clean up the mess. As of today 1,344 sites were uncovered and 457 have been cleaned up at a cost of billions. The country learned an important lesson from all this and took steps to move all such activities over seas, mostly to China and Africa. Under Biden's Inflation Reduction Act (IRA) billions are sent to companies to promote wind, solar and EV's. The money is sent overseas to places like China for manufacture and the finished product returned to the US for installation. Looking more closely at two areas, solar panels from China and cobalt from Africa. The mining, processing and disposal of the material needed to make solar panels is poisoning the ground water in China and in Africa boys as young as six work in the cobalt mines. As if to add insult to injury the aged out parts are then sent back to Africa to be buried, setting up their own Love Canals. Meanwhile the solar companies here take the profits and use part as campaign contributions to promote further government investments and subsidies. The fears associated with climate change are used to keep this process going even though many engineers know full well that wind and solar will not replace fossil fuels but they want to keep the good times going. The only hope is on the horizon as more scientist are speaking up about the ultimate answer to climate change which is nuclear. The answer is not in spoiling the environment in other countries but for now is all about NIMBY.