I will tell you flatly that forests are getting bulldozed to clear space for cobalt and lithium mines which is releasing alot of heat and CO2 while slashing and burning, I will tell you that electric vehicles are only as good as their energy source and for alot of places that source is as dirty as coal or dangerous as uranium, I will tell you that each car has a very unenvironmental production and disposal and the time in between they use alot of energy from these same dirty/dangerous power plants, and that little children are forced to mine lithium and cobalt in inhumane conditions while you sit there and self-congratulate.
Your like an out of date encyclopaedia written by an orangutang.
Australia's Greenbushes mine is the worlds largest lithium mine, it currently produces more than 10% of global lithium supply by itself. From one end to end, measured at the furthest points on the mine, is about 4km across. https://goo.gl/maps/2mWV1v2Uah6r7etu9
Then you have Athabasca oil sands in Canada, this produdes about 1.6% of global oil supply and covers and area over 4000km2. https://goo.gl/maps/jgvaBjYLDno7jLCs7
Every single Lithium mine on earth is smaller than one Tar sands mine that produces 1.6% of the worlds oil.
Also, most new batteries for EV's dont use Cobalt. And if you want to make the moral argument that kids where at some point briefly used to mine cobalt, then you should include the 150 000 innocent people who got blown to bits in Iraq for oil too.
Fair enough, let's look at the five types of batteries and you can tell me which ones they use that are now perfect and worthy of your virtue signalling.
https://www.greencars.com/greencars-101/different-types-of-ev-batteries1. Lithium-Ion
2. Nickel-Metal Hydride
3. Lead-Acid
4. Ultracapacitors
5. Solid-State
So let's see...
1. Continued mining of lithium. I don't see how the exclusion of cobalt makes much of a difference.
https://www.lithiumbatterytech.com/the-impact-of-lithium-mining-on-the-environment/Environmental Impact of Lithium Mining
Most papers point out that the raw brine produced during the mining of lithium mines in salt lakes can change the physicochemical properties of the soil, leading to soil salinization. Large-scale salt lake mining will also aggravate the erosion of soil, water and soil in the area, and even change the original topography and destroy the local landscape environment.
This is mainly manifested in the damage caused by the construction of roads during the infrastructure construction period, the construction of salt fields and various buildings during the mining period, which cannot be repaired in the short term, and most of the salt lake lithium mining areas mentioned above have harsh climates but good ecology. Therefore, the ecological restoration of the mining area will also be difficult.
Although the mining method of spodumene mine is hole mining, which has little impact on the surface ecological environment, the beneficiation requires a large amount of land, which seriously damages the local vegetation, and may even change the composition and fertility of the soil. Large-scale earthwork development is likely to cause disasters such as soil erosion and landslides.
2. So now you're mining for nickel.
https://www.theguardian.com/sustainable-business/2017/aug/24/nickel-mining-hidden-environmental-cost-electric-cars-batteriesPlumes of sulphur dioxide choking the skies, churned earth blanketed in cancerous dust, rivers running blood-red – environmental campaigners have painted a grim picture of the nickel mines and smelters feeding the electric vehicle industry.
3. Do I need to tell you that lead itself is toxic, that mining it probably kills people in fair amounts, and that whatever acid is in this probably is no good either? Apparently, yes, I do.
https://pubmed.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/21573711/Mining and smelting are important economic activities. However, mining-related industries are also some of the largest sources of environmental pollution from heavy metals. China is one of the largest producers and consumers of lead and zinc in the world. A large amount of lead, zinc, and related elements, such as cadmium, have been released into the environment due to mineral processing activities and have impacted water resources, soils, vegetables, and crops. In some areas, this pollution is hazardous to human health.
4. I had to look up what Ultracapacitors were.
https://vlab.amrita.edu/?sub=77&brch=270&sim=1390&cnt=1Ultracapacitors are made up of two metal plates coated with loosely packed activated carbon which is immersed in electrolyte with positive and negative ions.
Wasn't everyone telling us that carbon is so bad, and we should be cutting down on the amount we use? Yet here we're using it for batteries. Also, the article mentions that these are not really batteries, but the back-up energy systems to help lighten the load of lithium batteries. So anything bad about lithium is still true of this.
5. Solid state batteries are supposedly made by using ceramics. These are the only ones that sound good. However...
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Solid-state_battery#ChallengesIt was estimated in 2012 that, based on then-current technology, a 20 Ah solid-state battery cell would cost US$100,000, and a high-range electric car would require between 800 and 1,000 of such cells.
The cost is impractical (wikipedia goes on to say that the technology has alot of problems and failures, so paying $100k doesn't guarantee it will work), meaning that this is just a pipedream and you are stuck with the other options, all of which are not eco-friendly.
I never said we don't have a very high amount of evil involved in the oil trade. But any alternative starts with using materials we already have, not scouring the world for ones that force more people into unclean mining conditions. Or simply spraying chemicals into the soil and air.
You get to buy whatever car you want. But I get to slam you for virtue signalling about it. I am well aware of the amount of wars we've had with the Middle East, despite having a supply of oil in our own backyard. You seem to like to play pretend that your cars run on sunshine and daisies and unicorns. Sorry, but this is what lithium mining does to soil.
Here's an actual environmentalist scoffing at you.
https://peaceandplanetnews.org/everything-invented-isnt-progress/
We are told we need this mine because we are too reliant on foreign sources of lithium. The mining process will contaminate billions of gallons of ground water that will remain contaminated for hundreds of years. The mine will consume 3,224 gallons of water a minute and also create massive mounds of waste. Tribal lands will be harmed. The largest shareholder in the mining operation on leased federal land is a foreign company.