Though #EVs emit fewer greenhouse gases than fuel-powered vehicles, their batteries require rare minerals – especially lithium.
Lithium extraction is speeding up in Bolivia, where it holds significance to Indigenous communities. The very idea of a ‘raw material’ is foreign to them.
Also, it bears repeating that petroleum doesn’t just cleanly appear at the gas pump. The industry is replete with environmental catastrophes at points of extraction, transport, and refining—all of which cause human and ecosystem damage on massive scales. For example:
https://chevrontoxico.com
Hopefully cleaner tech scaled up soon (sodium batteries, green hydrogen).
Over three decades of oil drilling in the Ecuadorian Amazon, Chevron dumped more than 16 billion gallons of toxic wastewater into the rainforest, leaving local people suffering a wave of cancers, miscarriages, and birth defects. Now, with the support of an international campaign for justice, the communities affected by Chevron's negligence are holding one of the world's largest oil companies to account.
@MarkBrigham @TheConversationUS yup, still preferable to continually mining and refining oil products for the entire usable life of the vehicle!
(Also, auto batteries are highly recyclable)
The Conversation U.S.
Mark
Erik Szewczyk 