Commentary: Nova Scotia Continues its Race to the Bottom

Climate change being used to justify green-lighting dirty and dangerous 'critical' and 'strategic' mining operations

In a move it says is “helping to advance” to “clean energy,” the Nova Scotia government says it has “unlocked the full potential” of the province’s “abundant natural resources.”

“We’ve lifted blanket bans and we’re targeting minerals that are in great demand for the clean energy transition,” says Natural Resources Minister Tory Rushton in a recent press release.

According to the release:

Critical minerals are used in areas such as clean energy, defence and healthcare. These additions to the critical minerals list bring the total to 20:
- high purity silica used for solar panels and semiconductors
- silver used for solar panels and thermoelectric devices
- tellurium used for solar panels and thermoelectric devices
- uranium used for nuclear energy and health applications.

The strategic minerals are:
- aggregate used for construction of roads, buildings, concrete and landscaping
- gold used for electronics, dentistry and finance (as currency or investment)
- gypsum used for drywall, plaster, cement and agriculture (as a soil conditioner)
- potash used in fertilizer and industrial applications

Sean Kirby, who heads up the Mining Association of Nova Scotia was also quoted in the government’s release saying, “Nova Scotians know we need to create jobs, become more self-reliant and build a stronger province. The mining and quarrying industry is part of the solution. We have significant potential to contribute to global supply of the critical minerals that are essential to achieving climate goals. Many other minerals are also of strategic importance to the province’s economy and efforts to keep Nova Scotia and Canada strong and free.”

I suppose the extractivist coup of the Houston government is right there in plain sight. It’s been going on for some time now, but the melding of the corporate and government sectors seems to be near complete.

There were no assurances in the release of enhanced environmental protections or real-time monitoring of air and water to ensure residents living near, or down wind/ water from these dangerous industrial sacrifice zones will be safe to breathe the air and drink the water. No mention of all the critical habitat for species at risk or wetlands of special significance that will likely be decimated in the process.

Climate change is being used to green-light extractive industries of the worst kind.

For instance, the province recently repealed legislation that banned uranium exploration and mining and is “working with industry” (again) to explore and develop the industry. According to its recent request for proposals, there are 3 areas in the province known to have higher levels of uranium, and individuals and companies are being invited to explore for uranium in 1 or more of the 3 areas:

• East Dalhousie - Uranium Exploration Request for Proposals (PDF)

• Louisville - Uranium Exploration Request for Proposals (PDF)

• Millet Brook - Uranium Exploration Request for Proposals (PDF)

Three areas in the province are known to have higher levels of uranium: East Dalhousie, Millet Brook, and Louisville. The NS government is now inviting individuals and companies to explore for uranium in 1 or more of the 3 areas.

There is so much more to be said about this and these areas, and the dangers associated with uranium mining, but at the moment, I’d like to offer the 7-part series I recently completed on the late Rosalie Bertell, who spent most of her working life exposing the dangers of low-level radiation, uranium mining, nuclear energy and nuclear weapons experimentation.

I also want to offer you this 4-part series I wrote several years ago that raises questions about whether the planet will be able to support the kind of growth that green growth advocates have in mind. There are nine “planetary boundaries,” and climate change is only one of them. In 2015 a team of international scientists identified nine of these areas that underpin life on earth and they found that on a global level humans are “eating away at our life support systems” at a rate unseen in the past 10,000 years. Each of the nine boundaries, many of them inter-related, has a “safe operating space.”

In other words, the Earth can only absorb so much growth and after a certain point it becomes overwhelmed and less hospitable to human life. According to the study authors, we’re also pushing the limits with land system change through land clearing and deforestation, and with biodiversity loss or biosphere integrity. Crossing any of these boundaries “might push the Earth system into a new state,” they predict.

The Nova Scotia government is using the specter of climate change to justify continued economic growth, which, on a finite planet, is a delusional operating system. What about pollution? What about biodiversity loss, which is highly connected to habitat loss? All are a result of human activity, and will be outcomes of the extractive industry boom the government is now triggering.

This won’t likely make me any friends, but there is also a denial among the so-called green economic growth advocates who fail to acknowledge that the extractive activities related to shifting the global energy systems away from fossil fuels will result in further environmental damage — that could also shift the Earth systems.

In a nutshell: You can’t save the planet by destroying it first.

[Note to readers: An upcoming piece will be looking at one long-running, and controversial quarrying operation in the province that has a history of non-compliance. Will Houston’s “strategic minerals” designation give it an even greener light to operate?]