Rio talks up China iron ore feat, but what about the planet?

Rio Tinto has been talking up the 4 billion tonnes of iron ore it’s shipped to China, but has the miner forgotten about its commitment to saving the planet?

Rio Tinto iron ore chief executive Simon Trott. Picture: Supplied by Rio Tinto.

Two headlines on press releases on the same day really leapt out at me.

The first, from Rio Tinto, proudly announced “Rio Tinto ships 4 billion tonnes of iron ore to China”.

Rio’s iron ore CEO Simon Trott figuratively puffed out his chest with beating pride and declaimed: “Every time I visit China and see the skyscrapers, the high-speed rail, and all the infrastructure … it makes me proud to think that most of what I see contains steel that was made with Rio Tinto iron ore”.

Yes, Simon, I personally, absolutely agree, including especially your additional comment on how Rio and its iron ore had “helped improve the lives of 1.4 billion people”.

And, I’d add, not just 1.4 billion Chinese, but 26 million Australians - big time, through lush taxes and royalties; and indeed the other 8 billion people on the planet, thanks to all that cheap ‘stuff’ China has pumped out over the years.

Indeed, what ultra-expensive smart TVs - for dumb people - would we have had today without all that Rio (and BHP) iron ore having headed north?

So, yes, great. And, for me, happily onto 8 billion tonnes, and then 16 billion tonnes after that.

But yes also, Simon, but, but, what about the planet?

What about the stepping up from the era of “Global Warming” to - in the deeply, calmly, considered words of UN chief António Guterres - “Global Boiling”?

What about Rio’s complicity in that?

Bluntly, how many tonnes of planet-boiling CO2 - as the fully woke 2020s Rio itself has it -have those 4 billion tonnes of iron ore, when combined with coal, pumped into the atmosphere?

How many more will the next 4 billion pump out?

Back in the 1960s, protestors chanted “Hey, hey, LBJ, how many kids did you kill today”.

In the 2020s should their successors be chanting: “Hey, hey Rio, how many people have you helped fry today”?

Indeed, should Rio - if it truly, sincerely believed in what it says it believes in - be at least stopping immediately its role in the “planet’s boiling”.

Yet, there was not a word of even the tiniest remorse, in the Rio statement.

As a former media host would intone: “Shame, shame, shame”.

The other release figuratively leapt out of my inbox in a very different way.

They were words, I could never have conceivably imagined ever likely reading.

“DeLorean Motor Company and Karate Combat Announce Strategic Partnership.”

Never mind a “strategic partnership”, how could there be any union of a DeLorean and a karate exponent?

Unless: what, was this a subtle announcement of a coming whole new movie franchise: Back to a Martial Arts Future?

An AI-generated Bruce Lee - or even a real life Chuck Norris - stepping out of a 2020s DeLorean in place of Michael Fox?

Sadly, that’s not to be. At least not yet.

There are no 2020s DeLoreans: the company provides parts and servicing for the original 1970s fleet.

Karate Combat is, as it describes itself, the “premier professional karate league”.

DMC is to become its “official luxury auto partner”.

Whatever that quite means. Or whatever future it, well, heads to.

Originally published as Rio talks up China iron ore feat, but what about the planet?