The Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC) once again sounded the alarm about global warming last April. In question in particular: the weight of industry in the pollution of the air and the seas. Overview of three countries directly confronted with ecological problems.
In Indonesia, the manna of nickel makes the States and Elon Musk dream
In Indonesia, the exploitation of nickel, which is nicknamed the “metal of the devil”, arouses the interest of States and industrialists. This mining also raises concern that it is far from harmless for marine ecosystems.
>> More About Indonesia, Master in Nickel Strategy
The Indonesian president was in the United States last month and his interview with Joe Biden went almost unnoticed next to his meeting with Elon Musk. The two men were discussing ambitious plans to mine Indonesian nickel. As the world’s largest producer, the Southeast Asian archipelago has something to appeal to the entrepreneur at the head of Tesla. Last year, Elon Musk was already making eyes at Indonesia by announcing that he wanted to sign “a giant contract for a long period” for his electric car production, which “would exploit nickel in an efficient and environmentally friendly way “.
>> Nickel strategy: Indonesia makes eyes at Tesla hoping for huge investments
However, for many Indonesian observers, an environmentally friendly exploitation of this essential raw material for the electric vehicle industry is not possible. These observers only note a scarcity of fish or heavy metal pollution near the mines.
Authorities last year gave a major mining company permission to dump seven million tonnes of mining waste a year into the sea, only to backtrack after protests. However, according to the specialists interviewed by the Mongabay media, the possible alternatives to replace this initial project could also be just as harmful.
These environmental ravages of the production of electric cars are relatively unknown, and in Indonesia, some do not hesitate to see in it a certain hypocrisy. This is the case, for example, of WALHI, the largest Indonesian environmental protection association. In the past, its leader has been able to point out a certain discrepancy in the way the European Union hastens on the one hand to condemn the environmental ravages of the palm oil industry and, on the other , its relative silence when it comes to nickel.
It must be said that it seems very difficult for the European Union to shun Indonesian nickel: a report estimates that the Union’s demand for nickel will be multiplied by 31 between 2020 and 2040 and Indonesia remains by far the leading producer. of this devil’s metal.
In Turkey, an increase in wild dumps
If Asian countries, like China since 2018, now refuse to be the garbage cans of Western countries, Turkey imports massive plastic waste to recycle it and create raw materials useful to its economy.
The numbers are impressive. Last year, Turkey imported about 43,000 tons of waste per month, compared to only 4,000 tons before 2018. The country has become the first importer of European plastic waste, to which is added 4 to 6 million tons generated each year. by 84 million Turks.
Consequence of this phenomenon: the multiplication of wild dumps. The NGO Greenpeace denounces summary controls at the borders and inside the country. It thus happens that imported plastics are ultimately not recyclable, or that recycling companies ultimately do not have the means to recycle everything they import. There are also businesses operating illegally, some of which have been closed in recent years.
>> Waste trafficking: how fake sorting companies manage one of the juiciest veins of French organized crime
Moreover, there is not only the problem of fly tipping. The number of fires at plastic recycling factories is exploding. Last year, fires at plastic waste recycling centers occurred every three days. According to experts and environmental activists, some companies may have found an inexpensive way to dispose of non-recyclable waste, which would normally have to be sent to incineration plants.
Since October 2021, a regulation provides for the withdrawal of its operating authorization from any company in the sector found guilty of arson. However, the authorities lack the means and above all the political will to curb these massive imports of European waste. Faced with the outcry caused by the publication of images of fly dumps, Turkey had decreed in May 2021 a ban on the import of plastic waste before lifting the ban a week after its entry into force.
In the Netherlands, a fight against rising waters
The fight against rising waters is illustrated nowhere as well as in the Netherlands. The kingdom precisely takes its name from its low altitude with a quarter (26%) of its territory located below mean sea level. polders began in the tenth century.
The joint struggle was formally organized with the first local water management councils created in 1255. Over the centuries, the Dutch reclaimed hundreds of thousands of hectares of agricultural land from the waters with very striking gains such as the former inland sea of the Zuyderzée, now half occupied by polders.
The problem of the kingdom is twofold. On the one hand, there is the age-old threat of the sea, aggravated by the current prospect of rising oceans. On the other hand, 60% of the territory is considered vulnerable to flooding. Because of this double threat, the Dutch have acquired considerable know-how to fight against the waters that they now even export throughout the world.
The Dutch first built dikes to make polders and learned that the most important thing is not the height but the width of the dike. They then realized that you can’t have a polder without having a lake next to it. After having built pharaonic structures to block the entrance to the North Sea, the Batavians now believe that we must fight with water and not against water.
The reinforcement of the dykes continues but today the priority is to create new flood zones. Old polders have been filled with water, river branches have been widened or even created and millions of tonnes of sand are extracted from the seabed to create new coastal dunes. Finally, in the lowest towns, such as Rotterdam, public squares or lowered sports grounds are built to serve as storm basins.