The unstoppable rise of batteries is leading to a domino effect that puts half of global fossil fuel demand at risk::The unstoppable rise of batteries is leading to a domino effect that puts half of global fossil fuel demand at risk.
The unstoppable rise of batteries is leading to a domino effect that puts half of global fossil fuel demand at risk::The unstoppable rise of batteries is leading to a domino effect that puts half of global fossil fuel demand at risk.
Eh…
Batteries take “rare earth metals” like cobalt.
https://www.abc.net.au/news/2022-02-24/cobalt-mining-in-the-congo-green-energy/100802588
There’s an environmental cost, and a huge cost on a personal level to the people who mine it.
It’s like if your house is burning down, but then a flood comes and puts out the fire.
Sure, the fire is out, but now your house is underwater. We’re just switching one problem for another, not really solving anything
Edit:
Not sure why so many people think this comment is pro fossil fuels…
But I’m not going to repeatedly explain the very basic concept that with two bad things, one is sometimes less bad.
I really really thought people would already know that…
Some Lithium-Ion batteries use Cobalt, but many don’t. Lithium-Iron-Phosphate, for example, is a popular variant without any Cobalt. There is a push going on to move to battery chemistries without Cobalt or to reduce the actual amount of Cobalt where it is still required.
Lithium production does still take an insane amount of water to produce
Wait until you hear about the oil refining process!
My car meme groups keep recirculating a shitty gotcha anti-EV screenshot of a post listing out how many tons of rock get processed for the minerals, the gallon-per-hour rate of the mining trucks, generators, transportation, blah blah blah as if petroleum just naturally drips put of weeds and into their gas tanks. But I guess if you dilute into the ocean and atmosphere, it doesn’t really count because you can’t see it.
People think your comment is pro fossil fuels because it’s literally a pro fossil fuel talking point. This is the kind of stuff they parrot. Dumb people think that having batteries somehow makes EVs equivalent to ICE when it comes to environmental impacts and will repeat exactly what you wrote while ignoring all the other facts.
You can be right and still be a mouthpiece spreading oil propoganda.
Funny how people are overly concerned about cobalt in EV batteries but never cellphone batteries.
I said cobalt was an issue…
Not just cobalt for EVs, even tho I shouldn’t need to explain that bigger batteries take more cobalt…
Things might seem “funny” to you because you’re not understanding what they’re saying mate.
If you’re nicer about being confused, people may be more willing to take time to help you. But this is the most help I’m giving considering what you said.
Funny how people are overly concerned about gotcha games online rather than considering what the poster is trying to highlight or say.
Almost like I’m pointing out that they don’t actually give a shit about cobalt.
Current Li-ion batteries have numerous issues, but fortunately there are several alternatives too. Bringing a new battery chemistry to production scale hasn’t been easy, but we’re taking small steps like that every year.
We may still need lithium, nickel or manganese in the near future, but the demand for cobalt (per cell) has been decreasing gradually. Who knows which alternative ends up dominating the market after a few decades
Eventually I hope we end up with sodium batteries.
But that’s probably a long way off still
Not that far off actually, China started producing the first sodium ion battery powered car in series this year