Por Joshua Frank
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Image by Getty and Unsplash+ |
We often laud China for its boom in renewable energy projects, but seem to ignore the fact that it’s still building coal-fired power plants at a faster pace than any other country. Experts are questioning whether China’s gains in green energy will be clouded by the black smoke billowing from its robust fleet of coal plants. Air pollution in China kills 2 million a year.
On the topic of China’s “green” energy boom, it’s also important to note that many of the critical mineral operations key to its renewable projects are harming workers and the environment across South America and Africa. This week, as Trump landed for talks in Beijing, the feeble US Congress released a paper on China’s “mineral mafia”. The report wasn’t driven so much by criticism of China’s practices but by imperial jealousy. China dominates critical mineral mining in Africa, and the US doesn’t (but wants to). On China’s intentions in Africa, the usually spot-on Jason Hickel missed the mark, arguing that China is not engaging in green imperialism in Africa.
Some numbers. China controls 90% of Zimbabwe’s lithium supply and over 70% of the DRC’s copper and cobalt mining (the DRC holds 50% of the world’s cobalt). In Zambia, China and Canada dominate the copper industry. China also controls nearly 90% of global critical mineral processing. While Hickel points out that Chinese-backed development loans aren’t your typical “structural adjustment” loans that the IMF and World Bank dole out (thank God!), many of these loans are what we call “resource-backed loans.” This collateral (often in the form of natural resources like critical minerals) ensures that China will maintain access to Africa’s mineral supplies even if the countries can’t repay their loans. It’s a new form of forever debt, and it’s very, very bad.
China holds hundreds of billions of dollars in these loan deals (trillions globally) and today controls one-third of Africa’s total mineral exports. It is the single largest consumer of Africa’s critical minerals, which they use in electric cars, batteries, smartphones, solar panels, weapons tech, AI chips, and basically everything. It is also the largest supplier of arms to sub-Saharan Africa, often to groups that maintain political dominance, frequently coupling these weapons with loans.
While this isn’t your old-school, violent colonialism that’s ravaged Africa in the past, it’s still blatant capitalist (in China’s case, state-run) exploitation. This doesn’t negate Western crimes, and they are plentiful (like recent news that the DRC is establishing a US-backed paramilitary to protect their mining interests). It simply recognizes that China’s influence in Africa remains a form of economic imperialism (which is very much rooted in colonial policies). So let’s call it what it is.
Enough about China.
Here in the Western US, we have some big problems on the horizon. In Lake Tahoe, nearly 50,000 residents are desperately seeking a new power source. NV Energy recently told the area’s supplier, Liberty Utilities, that it won’t be selling electricity to them starting in May 2027. The reason? NV Energy will be supplying data centers in northern Nevada instead.
It’s not just energy. The West’s water crisis is about to be turbo-charged this summer. The Colorado River is drying up, and it’s about time we stopped draining it to grow alfalfa (the largest use of the river’s water) for cattle. What this means for the West remains to be seen, but it’s not looking good for a large swath of the Southwest that relies on the river. Over in Georgia, we learned this week that a data center there guzzled 30 million gallons of water and didn’t even report or pay for it.
Elon Musk is also not reporting to regulators in Mississippi, where the 50 “mobile” natural gas turbines that power his xAI data center remain completely unregulated.
As Elon’s data center heats up Mississippi, Jeff Masters writes in Yale Climate Connections that the Gulf of Mexico is warming twice as fast as the rest of the world’s oceans. This will have all sorts of impacts, but the one that ought to concern Gulf states most is that it will mean even more intense hurricanes—stronger winds, heavier rains, and greater damage.
While China mines its way through Africa, the Trump administration (with the help of the Supreme Court and complacent Democrats) is moving quickly to dig up copper at Oak Flat in Arizona. Resolution Copper now owns Oak Flat, a sacred Native site, and thus far, all legal challenges to stop the mine have failed. The mine, if built, could produce as much as 40 billion pounds of copper over the next forty years. We talk about lithium and other critical minerals, but copper may be the most crucial element for the world’s electric future.
This isn’t to say lithium won’t remain a booming biz, as Thea Riofrancos details in her excellent book Extraction. Here at CounterPunch, we ran an insightful piece this week on the huge lithium find in Appalachia and what it means for the future of this region, already suffering from its dark coal-mining legacy.
In the Southwest, where there is only one operating lithium mine, that’s about to change. Companies there have laid claim to over 100 potential deposits, and Indigenous communities will be hit the hardest. All of this, as Johanna Hansel, Carla Samon Ros, and Wyatt Myskow write in an eye-opening piece for Inside Climate News, echoes America’s colonial past.
Deep breath. That’s enough depressing news for one week, and there is lots more, but let’s wrap this up on a positive note.
Here’s one worth celebrating. Hill County, Texas, has banned all data center development for one year. It’s the first county in the Lone Star State to impose such a moratorium. The ban also highlights that the fight against data centers crosses political boundaries. Over 80% of Hill County voters supported Donald Trump in 2024. A new Gallup poll this week revealed that 7 out of 10 Americans oppose data centers in their communities. Check out Astra Taylor talking about this growing resistance on Democracy Now!
Another nice development. Richard Martens, over at YaleEnvironment360, has an engaging piece on the successful effort to restore 55,000 acres of the Everglades. And here in Los Angeles, the Bowtie Project has broken ground to recreate a 3.2-acre wetland along the LA River. It’s not much, but every bit counts.
Lastly, also in California, the world’s oldest oak has secured protection. Palmer’s oak in Jurupa Valley is estimated to be at least 13,000 years old, making it one of the oldest living plants on earth. A massive development was set to encroach on the tree, raising concerns that it could imperil the ancient oak by reducing its water supply. An agreement finalized this week will protect the tree from development with a 50-acre buffer.
Stir that into your drink, and I’ll see ya next week.
JOSHUA FRANK is co-editor of CounterPunch and co-host of CounterPunch Radio. He is the author of Atomic Days: The Untold Story of the Most Toxic Place in America, and the forthcoming, Bad Energy: The AI Hucksters, Rogue Lithium Extractors, and Wind Industrialists Who are Selling Off Our Future, both with Haymarket Books. He can be reached at joshua@counterpunch.org. You can troll him on Bluesky @joshuafrank.bsky.social
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