OMNI CLIMATE MEMO MONDAYS #257, November 24, 2025.

 

OMNI CLIMATE MEMO MONDAYS #257,  November 24, 2025. Compiled by Dick Bennett.

 

 LITHIUM DISCOVERED IN ARKANSAS
Jonathan Neale.  Fight the Fire: Green New Deals and Global Climate Jobs.   2025.
Mark Goodale.  Extracting the Future: Lithium in an Era of Energy Transition.    2021.

ABBY MARTIN, MILITARISM AND CLIMATE FILMMAKER, EARTH’S GREATEST ENEMY.

 

The transition to green energy does not have to be powered by destructive and poisonous mineral extraction: READ Jonathan Neale’s new book, Fight the Fire.   For a free copy, click the cover image.

Click to download free pdf or ebook.

by Jonathan Neale

I have spent the last year working on a book called Fight the Fire: Green New Deals and Global Climate Jobs. Most of it is about both the politics and the engineering of any possible transition that can avert catastrophic climate breakdown. One thing I had to think about long and hard was lithium and car batteries.

I often hear people say that we can’t cover the world with electric vehicles, because there simply is not enough lithium for batteries. In any case, they add, lithium production is toxic, and the only supplies are in the Global South. Moreover, so the story goes, there are not enough rare earth metals for wind turbines and all the other hardware we will need for renewable energy.

People often smile after they say those things, which is hard for me to understand, because it means eight billion people will go to hell.   So I went and found out about lithium batteries and the uses of rare earth. What I found out is that the transition will be possible, but neither the politics nor the engineering is simple. This article explains why. I start by describing the situation simply, and then add in some of the complexity. . . .more

Mark Goodale.  EXTRACTING THE FUTURE:  Lithium in an Era of Energy Transition.    University of California P.   2021.
The lithium economy is deeply embedded in a system that relies on resource extraction, unsustainable economic growth, and geopolitical violence. Goodale traces the development of Bolivia’s closely  guarded lithium project, highlighting the fundamental contradiction of a green energy transition that is dependent on a nonrenewable resource.

 

 

 

NEW FILM BY ABBY MARTIN ON THE US MILITARY/CLIMATE CATASTROPHE COMPLEX is being shown around the country.  Code Pink, for example, advertised the film as follows: 

Earth’s Greatest Enemy is the second documentary from journalist Abby Martin that uncovers a shocking blind spot in the climate conversation: the U.S. military.

Exempt from international climate agreements and rarely scrutinized in mainstream reporting, the Pentagon is revealed here as the world’s largest single institutional polluter — spewing carbon, contaminating water, and scarring landscapes across the globe. Combining investigative journalism, striking visuals, and stories from impacted communities, the film challenges audiences to rethink the hidden costs of a global military empire and its planetary consequences. Provocative, urgent, and eye-opening, this is a documentary that will change how you see both the military and environmentalism.

This is a great opportunity to raise up the War is Not Green campaign!

Watch for a local showing.  Organize it.

 

END OMNI CLIMATE MEMO MONDAYS #257,  November 24, 2025. Compiled by Dick Bennett.