The Big Problem with Renewable Energy — Documentary Addicts

[00:00:00] Speaker 1: For years, its existence has been denied, but today, climate change has become a global concern. Citizens are asking their elected officials for concrete solutions to fight pollution and rising temperatures. [00:00:28] Speaker 2: "Why should we study for a future that is being taken away from us?" [00:00:35] Speaker 1: In 2015, 195 countries committed to reducing their CO2 emissions. At the end of the COP21 conference, the new energy transition initiatives were officially launched. [00:00:49] Speaker 2: "If I don't hear any objections, the Paris Climate Agreement is accepted." [00:00:56] Speaker 1: The age of petroleum dominance has come to an end. Green technologies, such as wind turbines and solar panels, will now find their place. [00:01:08] Speaker 3: "This is one of the most impressive and astounding technological revolutions in all of history." [00:01:15] Speaker 4: "Make our planet great again." [00:01:26] Speaker 1: One object becomes a symbol of this new ecological era: the electric car. [00:01:32] Speaker 5: "People are convinced, we convince them, that if they all drove electric cars, then we would solve all CO2-related problems, all the problems that exist." [00:01:44] Speaker 4: "People are just talking about wind and solar as if that's going to solve the problem. [00:01:50] Speaker 1: As the energy transition takes us away from fossil fuel resources, it is already generating new environmental disasters." [00:02:03] Speaker 6: "Everything we surround us with in society is made up of minerals basically. Electric cars are made of metals and minerals and they need to be mined somewhere." [00:02:12] Speaker 2: "Completely clean energies don't exist. Whenever humans act and produce things, we create pollution." [00:02:23] Speaker 1: A dark side of green energies, and often overlooked, because the industrial and political challenges are numerous. [00:02:32] Speaker 5: "The energy transition is a huge green washing. We pretend to be clean, and in reality we're dirty. We simply relocated the pollution." [00:02:40] Speaker 2: "These areas are sacrificed areas. They sacrifice their territory, their geography, and the health of their people." [00:02:52] Speaker 1: What if the promise of clean energy was only an illusion? What if Green Tech's remedies were actually worse than the evils of fossil fuels? The ecological transition is above all an economic transition. To be convinced, one only needs to visit the stands at Geneva's huge car show. Electric is in fashion. It is even the industry's future. New vehicles are presented as green or stamped ZE for zero emissions. The ecological argument offers traditional car makers the opportunity to reinvent themselves. Because since the Dieselgate scandal in 2015, buyers have become more responsible. "Adopters of electric vehicles are people who believe in sustainability. [00:04:13] Speaker 7: They want to do good for the environment and they want to do their part to contribute to fewer emissions and less pollution." [00:04:24] Speaker 5: Just like it's chic and responsible to buy organic food, tomorrow we will buy a clean car and that's the electric car. [00:04:31] Speaker 7: And this is why for us at BMW Group, it's important to offer electrified driving in each of our segments. [00:04:44] Speaker 1: In addition to the public's newfound awareness, there are new environmental constraints. This is one of the effects of COP21, especially in the European Union. By 2030, vehicles will have to emit almost 40 percent less CO2 per kilometer. The electric car results firstly from political decisions. [00:05:12] Speaker 7: "We have to meet the CO2 emission targets that are set by the European Commission that all of us manufacturers have to make. And they're becoming more and more stringent. If we don't meet those targets, there are penalties that will follow. And we will have to pay those penalties and this is what we, of course, want to avoid." [00:05:41] Speaker 1: What we hear from the automakers is that the electric car presents only advantages. On top of preserving the environment, it will create new jobs. So, it would be a technological miracle. Tomorrow, hundreds of millions of electric vehicles will drive all over the planet. But manufacturers know perfectly well. Electric vehicles are not as clean as they are telling us. [00:06:26] Speaker ?: And they are not as clean as they are saying. [00:06:30] Speaker 1: Yes. Oil has been abandoned. But other raw materials, which have become essential, have replaced it. These are rare metals. [00:06:44] Speaker 5: Rare metals are a geological criterion. They are rare because they are less abundant in the Earth's crust. So, we will find classic rare metals, like gold, silver, tin, platinum, and then we will find rare metals a little more exotic, that we know less, like europium, samarium, gadolinium. And these rare metals have physical and chemical characteristics that allow them to make an electric car run. [00:07:14] Speaker 1: Rare metals are already present everywhere in gas-fueled vehicles. In gas-fueled vehicles. Cerium, for example, allows windshields to filter out the sun's UV rays. Thanks to europium and terbium, screens are coloured red or blue. But in an electric car, the role of rare metals is much more important. They even impact the vehicle's vital functions. Without neodymium, the electric car simply could not roll. [00:08:04] Speaker 5: Neodymium is used to make magnets. These magnets are used in electric motors, where they transform electrical energy into mechanical energy and therefore move the car forward. [00:08:17] Speaker 1: The battery is the heart of an electric car. It weighs up to half the weight of the vehicle and would not function without rare metals. To produce a maximum autonomy, an electric battery contains, among other things, cobalt or graphite. But that's not all. [00:08:40] Speaker 5: In a battery, you will find a number of rare metals, in particular lithium. Lithium is the lightest metal, making it possible to exchange electrons, thus to store or release energy. [00:08:54] Speaker 1: The automobile industry has therefore become entirely dependent on these unknown raw materials. Raw materials that are also found in most green technologies. Rare metals are not only in electric cars. We need magnets for wind turbine engines. Also, rare metals are used to make cells for solar panels. Photovoltaic cells need rare metals. So, to produce green energy, renewable energy, we need rare metals. Clean energy currently represents only 7% of the planet's electricity production. With the energy transition, solar and wind power will supply almost half of our electricity in 2050. In this greener world, it will soon be difficult to light, heat or move around without rare metals. Mechanically, global demand will explode. In wind turbines, we find rare metals, mainly in the rotor, to rotate the blades of the wind turbine. So, in these large wind turbines, for example, offshore wind turbines, installed in the sea, we will use a ton of rare metals per wind turbine. After oil dependence, we are in the process of setting up a new dependence. So, where do these absolutely essential resources come from? Why are manufacturers not communicating on their importance? Perhaps because rare metals are extracted far from our cities, far from sight. Cobalt comes mainly from mines in the Democratic Republic of the Congo. Australia, Chile and Bolivia have abundant lithium deposits. Indonesia is a key producer of tantalum, zirconium or tin. Thousands of mines on four continents are already producing hundreds of millions of tons of these resources. But one country in particular has colossal reserves of these strategic raw materials: China. The world's leading producer of rare metals, China extracts 70% of one mineral that is particularly prized by green tech manufacturers. Graphite. We are in China's far north region, in the province of Heilongjiang. All the images you will see were filmed without authorization, in total secrecy. What the Chinese authorities want to hide from the general public, is the hidden side of green energy. Here, the giant excavators brought down the mountain, and laid bare the water tables. To ensure our green future, graphite is refined in antiquated factories. These men work day and night, almost completely unprotected, in an unbreathable environment. These are the darkened faces in the 21st century. [00:13:55] Speaker 2: We know the risk of illness is linked to our work, but we wear masks to protect ourselves. It's certain that if we breathe it for too long without a mask, it can cause silicosis, and your lungs turn to stone. [00:14:12] Speaker 1: The air is saturated, with a fine black dust, that contains hydrofluoric acid. When breathed in high doses, it is a particularly toxic compound, and it can even cause death. [00:14:32] Speaker 8: Do you know what the graphite you produce here is used for? Many things. [00:14:36] Speaker 1: Like what, for example? [00:14:38] Speaker 2: The most common is in new energies, batteries in electric cars, and for electronics, too. [00:14:46] Speaker 1: The entire world uses these products. [00:14:48] Speaker 8: What do you think of that? [00:14:50] Speaker 2: It makes no difference to me. [00:14:53] Speaker 8: Are you not proud or happy? [00:14:58] Speaker 2: We workers don't think in those terms. We're not particularly proud of what we do. We simply want to feed our family. So we work and if we can live properly, just that is a good thing. [00:15:23] Speaker 1: Humans run great risks, and nature is destroyed. Graphite residues are scattered across the countryside. And tens of miles around. A huge carpet of toxic waste has gradually covered this former agricultural region, under the watchful eyes of the small farming peasants. Here, the trees no longer have leaves, and all the plants are sick. But pollution is a taboo subject, and testimonies are rare. [00:16:03] Speaker 5: The waste residue from the mine is everywhere. It's like garbage. Of course, I'm angry. I'm furious, because the industrialists and the government are irresponsible. We are victims, but there is nothing we can do. They are big and we are small. We cannot reach them. And you know, if we show that we are too angry, they handcuff us. You have to come here to understand it. [00:16:41] Speaker 9: You have to come here, to understand it. [00:16:53] Speaker 1: These lives count very little, compared to the billions in business that graphite produces for Beijing. And China has thousands of rare earth metal mines and refineries. They are scattered throughout the country. [00:17:21] Speaker 2: China's position on the world market for rare metals is very important. And the demand for rare metals for the new energy industry is expected to increase rapidly over the next 10 to 20 years. For certain rare metals, demand is growing by around 25 percent per year. [00:17:54] Speaker 1: The Chinese are paying a particularly heavy environmental and human price to allow our world to transition to green energy. In some areas, residents have to leave their homes. Entire villages are abandoned because the environment is too polluted. [00:18:19] Speaker 5: What a number of companies want above all is to lower their production costs. Instead of sanitizing their waste water, gases and other wastes, before discharging them into the environment, they dump them secretly without treating them. Or they process them only when the government supervises and requests it. And you know, they don't hesitate to lie and again dump their waste as soon as the authorities turn their back. There's no question that irresponsible businesses like this exist. [00:18:56] Speaker 1: Two thousand miles from Heilongjiang, in Inner Mongolia, the Chinese have built spectacular industrial centers. Those in the town of Baotu are entirely dedicated to the refining of rare earth metals, a specific family of rare metals. The main pollution discharged from these factories is untreated wastewater. At the gates of the city, a huge artificial lake is born, fed by torrents of black water, saturated with acids and heavy metals such as fluorine or mercury. [00:19:49] Speaker 5: "Wastewater from the production of rare earth minerals infiltrates the soil. When people get their drinking water from the water table, it damages their health. For example, waters with high fluorite content cause brittle bone disease. Bones fracture very easily. In some places, there are thorium residue. It's a radioactive element which infiltrates the soil with wastewater and diffuses slowly. Thorium also proliferates in the air. It is transported by dust when it is very dry. This can cause radioactive contamination. [00:20:34] Speaker 1: These sources of pollution are the price to be paid so our wind turbines, our solar panels, and our green cars can purify the air in Europe. Whole regions at the other end of the world are destroyed. And the height of the paradox is that these toxic discharges and polluting emissions continue to worsen our planet's atmospheric pollution. [00:21:06] Speaker 5: To make clean technology, we always make dirty residue. There is no zero-impact product, no zero CO2, 100% green, like we sometimes read on labels. Everything has an impact. And if we want to see the pollution generated by our beautiful, clean objects, which we imagine come from a factory with people in white coats like they show us, you have to go to China, to their industrial zones. [00:21:45] Speaker 1: Our green technologies contain not only rare minerals. They are also made up of all kinds of metals, even the most abundant. To build a wind turbine, you need on average 20 tons of aluminum and up to 500 tons of steel. An electric vehicle can contain up to 175 pounds of copper. This is four times more than some gasoline-powered cars. This red-brown metal is particularly popular with Greentech manufacturers. [00:22:35] Speaker 2: Switching to electric requires a lot of copper because a wind turbine uses a lot. You have to wire them, you have to put them together, you have to transport the electric current to your destination. When you want electric cars in Paris, you have to put charging stations everywhere, so you have to wire Paris with copper. And right now, that's what's going on. [00:22:56] Speaker 5: If we take the case of copper, for example, to define where we are since the dawn of humanity, we have manufactured between 800 million and a billion tons of copper. Okay? So if we continue, at current growth rates, we must produce the same quantity in the next 30 years. So in 30 years, we will have to produce what we have already produced since the dawn of humanity. So the demand we currently anticipate is monstrous. [00:23:36] Speaker 1: With the need for abundant metals such as copper, many other countries are now impacted by the production of green energies. It's a subject the promoters of the energy transition are remaining very discreet about. To measure the extent of the damage, we must travel thousands of miles. In northern Chile, the Chuquikamada mine is the world's largest open-pit copper mine. This mine is state-owned. It is a huge crater 2.5 miles in diameter and more than half a mile deep. As global demand increases, the number of people and machines in operation continues to increase. [00:24:45] Speaker 2: In Chuquikamada, we refined 330,000 tons of fine copper last year. It's already available for sale. This year, with our means of production, we will be able to produce 470,000 tons of fine copper. This is a historic year for the mine. [00:25:14] Speaker 1: Chuquikamada contains 13% of the world copper reserves. But the deeper you dig into the rock, the less metal there is. With the current rates, the material is already starting to become scarce. [00:25:32] Speaker 5: Geologists anticipate real copper supply problems in the coming years. There are even very alarmist forecasts, which predict a fall in production, with a peak in production in the years 2030-2040, meaning tomorrow and after a decrease in primary copper production. [00:25:56] Speaker 1: As with graphite in China, Chuquikamada contaminates the surrounding soils and rivers with its toxic releases of heavy metals discharged into nature. But in Chile, copper mining has serious cascading effects. In a country where this metal supports almost 10% of the working population, only a handful of individuals dare to publicly denounce the impact of the mine on the environment. [00:26:34] Speaker 2: We have urgent water problems, which are a very serious consequence of the mining activity in our region. [00:26:45] Speaker 1: To extract and refine the copper, you need water, lots of water. Chuquikamada consumes almost 2000 liters of water per second. However, in certain areas of this desert, one of the most arid zones in the world, it has not rained for 500 years. [00:27:12] Speaker 5: Much of the wetlands and our groundwater is literally absorbed by the large mining industry. It is really a large-scale consumption. [00:27:25] Speaker 2: There is practically no more water because they extract more than nature generates. This water, which we have naturally as a reserve in our region, is over-exploited, and it is because of the mining industry. [00:27:46] Speaker 1: To measure the real impact of mining, the whole system must be analyzed, not just the mine, because the contamination zone extends over several thousand square kilometers. The city of Antofagasta is a four-hour drive southwest of the Chuquikamada mine. Its inhabitants live to the rhythm of the daily ballet of trucks and trains, which transport the copper from this industrial port, where it's exported to the four continents. The air is saturated with particles of heavy metals, disseminated by these convoys, which nobody pays attention to anymore. Even far from the mine, the 200,000 inhabitants of Antofagasta suffer from the diseases associated with it. In the city center, a healthy disaster has already started. In 2016, this doctor published a study that was ignored by the mining industrialists. [00:29:06] Speaker 5: "We have done studies on the roofs of our schools, the contamination of schools and kindergartens, and we discovered a heavy contamination with heavy metals. In most of Chile, people die from cardiovascular disease. Here in the north, cancers, and in particular, lung cancer, are the main cause of death, and the link with contamination is indisputable." [00:29:46] Speaker 1: In Antofagasta, in certain districts, more than 10% of the population suffers from cancer due to the copper industry. [00:30:04] Speaker 5: The problem is not limited in time. We're talking about a population that is contaminated, and studies have shown that this population is transmitting genetically from one generation to another an increased sensitivity to lung cancer. All of this is becoming a genetic condition. [00:30:33] Speaker 2: It's a chain linked to an extractivist economic model, which shows absolutely no interest in its impact on people's health and the environment. The only thing that interests industrialists is to produce and produce more at any cost. [00:30:51] Speaker 5: These areas are sacrificed areas. They sacrifice their territory, their geography, the health of their people, and all of these sacrifices are created for the benefit of others, in other zones. Those privileged, benefited zones can afford the luxury of promoting clean energy, healthy energy, renewable energy, green energy, but someone has to pay the price for it. [00:31:14] Speaker 1: The energy transition sometimes turns to absurdity. To make green energies, the use of coal is increasing in certain places on the planet. The world of Greentex is not as virtuous as some consumers imagine. On the outskirts of Oslo, the countryside is immaculate, and the Norwegians are proud to be among the most environmentally friendly populations on earth. Here the streets are clean, and the locals breathe clean air. It must be said that in the Scandinavian Kingdom, the energy transition was launched 20 years ago already. Electromobility has become a religion. Today, one in two new cars purchased is electric. It's the world record. In Norway, we have had strong sales of electric cars for several years. Last year, we reached 200,000 electric cars on Norwegian roads. This will increase in the future. Norway has a specific goal: that by 2025, all new cars sold will have to be zero-emission cars. Charging stations have invaded Oslo's streets. There are 400 today. They will be 8,000 in 2025. [00:33:18] Speaker ?: All new cars will be 4,000 in the country. [00:33:23] Speaker 1: We have many advantages with the use of electric cars in Norway. In particular, tolls have been free up to now. In addition, many municipalities have offered free parking. And they are exempt from VAT. The success of electric cars in Norway shows an example for other countries to learn from. [00:33:46] Speaker 10: They can learn from other countries to learn from other countries. [00:33:57] Speaker 1: Norway is a country entirely dominated by green energies. Renewable is visible everywhere. [00:34:12] Speaker 6: There is some degree of hypocrisy involved here. Politicians are aware of the situation, of where minerals and materials are sourced from. But they consider them maybe less important than electrifying Norwegian society and having electric cars in our streets. [00:34:40] Speaker 1: For the Norwegian authorities, the calculation of CO2 emissions seems to stop at the country's borders. [00:34:52] Speaker 2: The relocation of pollution generated by the production of electric cars elsewhere in the world is an important subject. We Norwegians aren't congratulating ourselves by proclaiming that we are at the top of the class and that we have solved all our environmental challenges because we import cars that don't pollute here at home. But it is true that this solves the specific challenges of air pollution at a local level in the transport sector. [00:35:21] Speaker 1: In Norway, the electric vehicle, the emblem of green tech, is universally popular as it is everywhere else in Europe. Politicians and industry are promoting them everywhere, even if many have known about its true ecological impact for a long time. [00:35:41] Speaker 5: The electric car has become a religion. From the moment, we start to say that it is not the Alpha and Omega. And the same is also true, to a certain extent, for solar panels or wind turbines. For governments in particular, all the talk that they built up around the electric car, how it would save the planet, it's collapsing. If we will wake up in 20 years, the CO2 emissions will continue to increase, and the electric car will have changed nothing. And by doing this, we are preparing the next electric gate. [00:36:39] Speaker 1: The profits of the energy transition are sweeping aside the questions raised by green technologies. Because in the short term, the green techs are primarily synonymous with a new industrial revolution. Globally, at a time of recession, 25 million green jobs will be created in the next 10 years. Western leaders dream of taking advantage of the economic windfall represented by green technologies. And this dream may never come true. Because a country has already taken control of these new professions. China, which holds 75 percent of the rare metal reserves in the world, intends to take advantage of its advantage. [00:37:36] Speaker 2: "As Deng Xiaoping, the former leader of China, once said, the Middle East has oil, China has rare earth minerals. They are all the more strategic, as they are irreplaceable." [00:37:54] Speaker 1: China is much more ambitious than the petro-monarchies of the Middle East. It is not content with a monopoly of mines. It also wants to assume the monopoly of factories. [00:38:16] Speaker 5: "China is no longer satisfied with being a supplier of cheap resources, materials and products. We want to become a manufacturer and exporter of new high-tech products." [00:38:36] Speaker 1: In the south of China, the old fishing port of Shenzhen is today a thriving economic center. A capital city of 12 million inhabitants, growing at the rate of China's largest technology companies. BYD is one of the most important. From a subcontractor manufacturing batteries, in just 10 years, the company has become a behemoth of automobile construction. [00:39:16] Speaker 2: "In 2018, BYD produced more than 250,000 new energy vehicles, placing us at the forefront of the world, with a global revenue exceeding 18.5 billion dollars and a total growth of 23 percent." [00:39:32] Speaker 1: 400 vehicles leave these production lines every day. They are mostly intended for the Chinese market. Here, pollution of city centers is so bad that the authorities are shifting to all-electric transport, for BYD's great benefit. [00:39:58] Speaker 2: "We hope to replace public transport vehicles such as cars, buses and taxis in big cities. Completely replacing them with zero-emission vehicles." [00:40:12] Speaker 1: The 16,000 buses that run in Shenzhen today are 100 percent electric. BYD also supplies taxi companies. And the ambitions of this economic giant are now global. [00:40:29] Speaker 2: BYD technologies have now spread around the world, on six continents, in 60 cities and regions. Regarding Europe, we have factories in Hungary and France, which produce passenger and commercial vehicles. [00:40:41] Speaker 5: "All Chinese brands of electric cars that have managed to achieve economies of scale, since China is the world's largest market with more than half of sales, these brands will arrive in Europe with inexpensive cars and will be fierce competition for European manufacturers already on the spot." [00:41:07] Speaker 1: Chinese industry is no longer the only one threatening European jobs. Many other mining countries are dreaming of becoming the new motors of the energy transition. [00:41:22] Speaker 2: "The Chinese have already developed a nationalism of resources thanks to rare metals. It's very likely that this type of nationalism will develop elsewhere in the world, because considerable incomes are at stake. Countries which until now were poor countries can become rich. Countries like Chile and Bolivia that have lithium for batteries. A country like Bolivia, for example, which is a very poor and underdeveloped country, needs to seize this opportunity right away, while demand for lithium is strong." [00:41:57] Speaker ?: "We need to be able to reach the world." [00:42:01] Speaker 1: With batteries needed for electric cars, the world demand for lithium has literally exploded. And this demand is expected to be multiplied by 20 within 15 years. In southwest Bolivia, at an altitude of more than 11,000 feet, the Uyuni salt flat is a sea of salt covering 4,000 square miles. A no-man's land with the largest reserves of lithium on the planet. [00:42:51] Speaker 5: "We are currently in the process of validating all of our resources. What are the real capacities? What we can say, with the information we have at this point, is that we have over 50 or even over 60 percent of the world's lithium reserves." "That's huge." "It's huge." [00:43:11] Speaker 1: By becoming the number one producer of lithium in the world, the Bolivians hope one day to be able to fix the price to better enrich themselves, as China does today with many rare metals. The public company, which operates this brand new factory, was created for this purpose 10 years ago by the government. [00:43:37] Speaker 5: Unfortunately, Bolivia cannot build a big factory like this. This is why we called on the services of a foreign country. Germans, Chinese and Russians made their offers. And ultimately it was a Chinese company that built this factory. [00:43:59] Speaker 1: To invest in Bolivia, you must now commit to buying local lithium. An effective way to gain access to markets in countries around the world. [00:44:13] Speaker 11: One of our steps is to have strategic partnerships. [00:44:20] Speaker 5: Because Bolivia does not have a large domestic demand for lithium batteries. On the other hand, Europe, yes, and Asia too. China, which is our partner in this factory, has a high demand for lithium. Therefore, we wish to sell to them." [00:44:41] Speaker 1: The world lithium market will be 45 billion dollars by 2022. The post-oil era is a unique and almost unseen opportunity for this Andean Republic. La Paz even dreams of exporting green technologies produced with its own resources. [00:45:10] Speaker 5: "The country considers lithium as one of the most concrete hopes for the development of the economy, and more generally, of Bolivia. We will industrialize it and provide added value. We're working on that. On a small scale, we already know how to make batteries. And the next step is to develop this industry on a very large scale. We will not just sell raw materials. We won't only do that." [00:45:34] Speaker 1: Like Bolivia, many countries dream of taking their place in the global economy as it takes shape. This is also the revolution in green technologies. As for the promise of a limited human impact on the environment, it does not weigh heavily in the face of these considerable challenges. And the rush for these new raw materials will also ultimately destroy our planet. The ultimate paradox in the world of green tech is the question of recycling it. Like that of wind turbines, for example, whose lifespan is limited. In northern Germany, huge blades have been abandoned in the wild. For several years, Lothar Meyer has been denouncing the multiplication of these unauthorized dumps. [00:47:10] Speaker 2: 20 years ago, Germany took up the challenge of generating electricity from the wind or the sun. But this creates problems since we must now dismantle the first installations. [00:47:25] Speaker 1: In Germany alone, between 20 and 30,000 tons of wind turbine blades must now be recycled each year. [00:47:36] Speaker 2: The blades have been abandoned there for several years, and nobody has complained. It's absolutely not allowed, but nothing seen, nothing done. This waste is here because it's too complicated to recycle it. Now we're entering a new technological era with green technologies that are very popular with citizens. And yet we don't know what to do with the waste. In short, we find ourselves faced with the same problem that we experienced with nuclear waste. In the end, we reproduce the same errors. [00:48:16] Speaker 1: And the question of rare metals remains: What to do with these raw materials? Present in solar panels, electric batteries, and wind turbine rotors. Due to the lack of investment, and despite their rarity, most of them are hardly recycled at all. [00:48:44] Speaker 5: If we don't recycle it, it's mainly because what is extracted from mines costs less than extraction from recycling processes. That's the reason, in most cases. All these metals, emblematic of new technologies. Not all, but some. Indium, gallium, germanium, selenium, tantalum. We don't actually know how to recycle them. And so we've fallen to a recycling rate of almost zero. [00:49:14] Speaker 1: Will the salvation of green energies be in new discoveries? This is the gamble being made by industrialists. Persuaded they'll find ways to make the sector more virtuous. Today, we haven't seen everything in the energy transition. There are many things that will happen. One example, organic solar cells are very different from today's silicon panels. They aren't based on silicon, with no silicon component. It's like a sheet of paper. It's very simple, very flexible. It can be installed anywhere. If we could put sheets of paper everywhere on the buildings, we would have an incredible production. [00:50:00] Speaker 5: We have great variations and great technological evolutions. With increasing efficiency with research on these subjects and improvements in performance, [00:50:09] Speaker ?: etc. [00:50:09] Speaker 5: And we must bet on this. We must not think these technologies are frozen. [00:50:14] Speaker 1: And what if we have forgotten that in any change brought about by industry, it is primarily their business sustainability that prevails? [00:50:32] Speaker 4: The world of business and commerce is driving the energy transition. And so it's not like there's benevolent, heartful people out there trying to solve the problems in the best possible ways. The wind companies and the solar companies, they're trying to make a profit. They're trying to have a profitable business. And that's not going to save the planet or save our human race. [00:51:00] Speaker 5: Today our energy and resource consumption is absolutely incredible. To maintain it from a resource point of view, the oil, gas and mining extraction will be gigantic. The question is: Can we maintain it or not? [00:51:17] Speaker 4: Right now, industrial society talks about growth. And the elected officials, the politicians, all want to have global growth. Growth in the economy, growth in spending, growth in investments. Everybody wants growth. But the truth is, we need to orchestrate a major U-turn in a fundamentally different direction. We need to live in a different kind of way. We need to start reducing the amount of damage we do to the Earth. [00:51:53] Speaker 2: If the Chinese want to live like in the West, like the Americans, five planets will not be enough. The ecological pressures on the natural resources we face are enormous. We must change. We must not follow the path already taken by the Western developed countries. We have to choose another development model. [00:52:19] Speaker 4: We need to radically reduce the energy and material consumption in our lives. That is not a message you can easily sell to the world of business, to the captains of industry. That is not a message you can sell to the politicians who want to be re-elected. [00:52:42] Speaker 1: Can we really give up on growth, even if it is green? And with it, give up on a part of our material comfort? It is urgent to rethink our relationship with raw materials, to ultimately consume less energy, and extract fewer resources. [00:53:15] Speaker ?: We'll see you in the next hour. We'll see you in the next hour. We'll see you in the next hour. We'll see you in the next hour. We'll see you in the next hour. We'll see you in the next hour. We'll see you in the next hour. We'll see you in the next hour. We'll see you in the next hour. We'll see you in the next hour. We'll see you in the next hour. We'll see you in the next hour. We'll see you in the next hour. We'll see you in the next hour. We'll see you in the next hour. We'll see you in the next hour. We'll see you in the next hour. We'll see you in the next hour. We'll see you in the next hour. We'll see you in the next hour. Thank you.