Lithium and energy independence. Will God’s creation be destroyed again?

Deep in the Southern California desert, a massive drill rig taps into what could be the energy of the future.  That's the opening line from an NBC News article. But my question isn't just about lithium and energy independence. No. I want to ask if, yet again, will God's creation be destroyed in our rush to get that independence. In other words, are we ruling over the earth, or are our desires ruling over us?

Let's be honest here. We don't exactly have a good track record on this kind of stuff.

And while the image isn't of what's going on in the desert right now, it is a good indication of the kinds of things we do to get resources. And money from them.

Rule over the earth in this fashion isn't what God had in mind.

But - will the self-proclaimed Christians in Congress stand up and be counted? What about those so-called religious right folks that are so pro-business? Or maybe the so-called godless Democrats that do seem to be much more concerned about the environment, God's creation, than those on the right?

Or, will "we the people" finally wake up and realize that neither party is really all that concerned about God's creation? That they're much more concerned about their jobs, their own security, and remaining in power?

Sadly, I don't hold out any hope at all that even one of those things is likely to happen.

What's Lithium and energy independence about?

... under the lake lies lithium, a key ingredient for electric vehicle batteries, and the billion-dollar drilling project promises to not only transform an impoverished region, but also help the United States gain energy independence.

OK - car batteries, which means lots of money for the auto industry. And a billion dollars just for this project.

What about the impoverished region? Given out past, a few people will make buckets and buckets of money. Especially the ones that already have lots of it. The local people? Most likely, they'll end up with various kinds of pollution, just added to the stuff that's already there. We'll see that in a moment. And since they're poor, they're probably not well enough educated to get the high-paying jobs. And so a likely scenario is that, by comparison, they become even poorer.

Sadly, that's our past. And even more sadly, in a time when God's name gets thrown out all over the place during elections and speeches, God's wishes, both for His people and His earth, are likely to be ignored.

What's there now?

Temperatures in the region can reach 120 degrees Fahrenheit, and residents live under the threat of toxic dust caused by decades of agricultural runoff depositing chemicals into the Salton Sea, a saltwater lake. 

Yeah - we haven't exactly done a good job in the past, have we? Lots of chemicals there. Put there by the farm industry. Yea, to grow more crops. But mostly to make more money. And done by throwing more and more toxic stuff into the area where these people, God's creation, live and work.

But in the brine of an aquifer under the lake lies lithium, a key ingredient for electric vehicle batteries, and the billion-dollar drilling project promises to not only transform an impoverished region, but also help the United States gain energy independence.

And there's the money for the project. The auto industry. And the energy industry. We can see why these poor people have no hope. Their hope levels must be at slim to none. And Slim's not home.

“You can bring that brine to the surface" said Jim Turner, chief operating officer for Controlled Thermal Resources, the company conducting the project. "You have a lot of energy in the form of heat that you can use to do work.”

More money for energy companies. More opportunities for the tragic accidents that always happen. And that those in power always ask, how could this happen? Yes, Slim is getting further and further from home. Hope is rapidly approaching an even more intense degree of none.

Geothermal energy production has been around for years, but this effort will double dip by extracting lithium from the brine. Much of the lithium used today comes from Australia and South America and is shipped to Asia, where it's refined and used in batteries, which are mostly made in China. 

I wonder. Will the lithium still be sent off to China?

If it is, there's no energy independence. We're still dependent on someone else. China. Just as dependent as we are for so many other products. Slim is almost at the border now.

If the lithium is processed in this country, guess what that means? More money. More pollution. More damage to God's earth. And more taking advantage of God's people that need help the most.

Maybe Slim is coming back inside the border. But if he is, it's false hope. The choice between slim hope and no hope is no choice at all.

Lithium and energy independence. Will God's creation be destroyed again?

So what do you think? Will part of God's creation be destroyed again in the pursuit of lithium and energy independence?

It's hard to believe it won't happen. To the land where they're working. and to the air near where the work is being done. As well as to the environment as a whole, since this stuff spreads around the globe. And let's not forget about the people. They will suffer.

All of this suffering is a twisted version of something Jesus said.

Setting up the parables

We're going to look at The Parable of the Talents and The Parable of the Ten Minas

The Parable of the Talents

25:14-30 Ref—Lk 19:12-27

Let's start off by finding out what a "talent" is in Matthew's Gospel. It's not what we think of today, like the ability to sing.

5007 τάλαντον [talanton /tal·an·ton/] n n. From a presumed derivative of the original form of tlao (to bear, equivalent to 5342); GK 5419; 15 occurrences; AV translates as “talent” 15 times. 1 the scale of a balance, a balance, a pair of scales. 2 that which is weighed, a talent. 2A a weight varying in different places and times. 2B a sum of money weighing a talent and varying in different states and according to the changes in the laws regulating currency. 2B1 the Attic talent was equal to 60 Attic minae or 6000 drachmae. 2B2 a talent of silver in Israel weighed about 100 pounds (45 kg). 2B3 a talent of gold in Israel weighed about 200 pounds (91 kg).  ¹Strong, J. (1995). In Enhanced Strong’s Lexicon. Woodside Bible Fellowship.

So basically it's some amount of money. Some of the more modern translations say bags of gold instead of talents. As you saw above, a talent of gold in Israel weighed about 200 pounds. That's one really big bag! So let's just say it's a lot of money. If we round up to make the math easy, that's 200 pounds times $22,000 per pound - for a total of $4,400,000.

Certainly not the kind of money the average person has. And the guy in the parable is going to give a total of 8 talents to the three servants.

Also, notice that there are two Gospels with similar parables. We're starting with Matthew's, but will look at Luke's as we go through it. There will also be some references to other things Jesus said, when they seem to apply to the context that's set up in the parables.

Next, let's see what a "mina" is in Luke's Gospel.

3414 μνᾶ [mna /mnah/] n f. Of Latin origin; GK 3641; Nine occurrences; AV translates as “pound” nine times. 1 in the OT, a weight of 300 shekels was one pound. 2 In the NT, a weight and sum of money equal to 100 drachmae, one talent was 100 pounds, a pound equalled 10 1/3 oz. (300 gm).  ²Strong, J. (1995). In Enhanced Strong’s Lexicon. Woodside Bible Fellowship.

The amount in Luke is less than what Matthew recorded. Why? There are two possible reasons that come to mind right away.

The first possibility for the difference in amounts is that we're reading two different events, with different social and/or economic situations.

Another is that the amounts are different because the message that Jesus wanted to get across was either different and/or the people had a different level of faith, commitment to God, or some other reason.

Either case, or something else entirely may explain why the amounts were different. Some people choose to say there's an error, therefore the parables are to be ignored because one or both was wrong. Ultimately, I think whether we want to dismiss the parables entirely, because of the differences like that, comes down to a matter of faith for us. Are we looking for a clear error? Or are we just looking for an excuse to say the Bible is in error?

A socio-economic issue: Lithium and energy independence. Will God's creation be destroyed again?

Let's see what happens, and how it relates to the money and the people involved in this lithium and energy independence issue. As the heading says, lithium and energy independence really is a socio-economic question. But since we're adding in God's creation, it adds in the element of how a responsible Christian looks at the entire set of issues.

As such, we're after a social commentary here more than what I normally do for Bible study. The cultures, then and now, are very important. And the application must be applied with the two cultures in mind. Therefore, the basis for what follows comes from Craig Keener's The Gospel of Matthew: A Socio-Rhetorical Commentary.  Note - To make this more readable, I left out the references within Keener's Commentary.  Rather than have them as only footnotes, He embedded names within the text of the book.  This makes it a rather difficult read for someone who's not doing scholarly research.  Since we aren't doing that, but are focusing on what he wrote rather than what the sources were, I chose to not include them.