Like most of these puff pieces, the destructive mining and limited volume of all the precious metals like copper, lithium & nickel are ignored. Until iron-sulphide can effectively produce the same results, it's still trading rats for snakes. Then there's the whole tire problem...
While simple articles like this may not cover the effects of mining, many other studies and articles do. What we see from those is that the impacts of mining related to EVs is only incrementally worse than the impacts from mining the minerals (and oil) used in ICEVs. Nickel and copper are used in conventional vehicles and in many other products. EVs are not the major usage of copper. Lithium is mostly “mined” by flushing warm water thought salt deposits. (Those photos you have seen online of massive lithium “mines” are usually a photo of a gold mine in Australia https://thewest.com.au/news/wa/hanking-to-pour-first-gold-fr...)
Yes, EVs are not without their problems, but compared to the status quo they are a major improvement, in particular to the much larger problem of CO2 and climate change that dwarf the local impacts from mining.
An article is not a puff piece simply because it casts something in a good light. This article is largely a transcription of the images from the linked report, and also addresses a common counter argument, “the power plants are dirty”. Batteries as energy storage/source are a related but entirely separate concern from the ratio of energy in to energy out (the focus of the article).
I also find it interesting to replace “precious metals” in your comment with “fossil fuels”, which also require destructive mining and have limited volume.
Neither nickel, cooper or lithium are theoretically limited. There might be temporary shortfalls until new mines come online but there is plenty in the ground.
Lithium iron phosphate battery are already in mass production and will be a huge part of the EV industry going forward.
> iron-sulphide
Not sure what iron-sulphide has to do with anything. There are lots of competing chemistries. Sodium will likely have a large part in the market. LFP already is and has lots of room for improvement as well.
> Then there's the whole tire problem...
I prefer trains to cars too but that's no reason to make up stuff.
Yeah but we risk “perfect” being the enemy of “progress” if we think that way, and people invested in the status quo will surely co-opt and fund this thinking too.
In my area, a local republican committee is very concerned about the fate of bunny rabbits, birds of prey and riverbank erosion. Amazing and inspirational, except the catalyst is that a bunch of land was cleared to build a factory, in an polluted industrial park, to manufacture wind turbine components.
Even though said turbines will be installed ~200 miles away, windmills attract a lot of ire in some circles.
...is an inspiration for sure! And a proof of the need for more support for dads. But it's also a gigantic mess. We're trying to build a resource for dads wrapped in a more quiet experience.
