I‘m beginning these weekly posts again! this time it’s about GGID–Giving Good Its Due. Each week I’ll share something that to me contributes to understanding good or about what’s good in the society. I also have a podcast with that name, available on Spotify, iTunes etc… If you think these posts worthwhile, I hope you will share them. And should you want to unsubscribe, just send an email to with the word. I’ll begin where I left off by wishing you Happy Holidays. Some of you I know personally may have received this message. If so, it is still heartfelt this time around. I’m also including the transcript of the last podcast.
It’s been a hard year. Problems are in front of us, difficult issues are all around us , and it’s easy to get lost in them and feel the society and the world are just being swallowed. Yet in all my decades of living and surviving traumas and problems, I have learned that good cannot die. It is overshadowed, but only for a while, even when that while seems too long. I can’t promise that the clouds will lift in this next year, I can however promise that somehow, at some time in the future, good will prevail. So let’s see how many steps towards this progress we can take in 2022! Meanwhile let’s make sure we notice all that’s good out there and enjoy every bit of it!
Phytomining and the Environment
Phytomining means extracting minerals from plants. Some plants it turns out can suck up metals from the earth, 700 of them as it turns out. It is usually done through their roots which absorb the metal from the soil. Nickel is the one metal that has proven to be effectively harvested in this way, but others it is hoped can also be, such as zinc and rare earth minerals. Mining nickel in a traditional way is hard on the environment, as all mining is. It is also expensive and requires equipment. Growing plants as has been done in Malaysia and Indonesia is not. The plants take about 6 months to grow, and then the neon blue green sap that oozes can be harvested. Nickel is used in making steel, and increasingly in the making of batteries for electric vehicles and for renewable energies. Nickel is expensive and harvesting instead of mining it reduces the cost. More importantly it provides livelihood for many farmers. It can not only help the environment by avoiding mining, it can also help clean up areas harmed by the deposits of mining and other industries. The plants can extract the minerals from that soil and in time make that soil usable again. Unlike the devastation of the rain forests in Borneo or the Amazon, the plants which extract the minerals grow in grassy areas, so the consequence of destroying natural resources can be avoided. The idea of Phytomining is actually 500 years old but it took a while for it to be rediscovered and for it to become practical, and as can be expected, it took many years for the patents to be obtained. Now that all that is behind, the process can go forward. It’s promising and it’s fascinating. For one, the whole notion that plants can extract minerals from the soil is one of nature’s amazing traits.
