Dec 18 2022 - Dirty secrets of Electric vehicles

The electric vehicle revolution comes with its own dirty cost. The materials that go in today’s batteries, such as nickel, lithium and cobalt, are in extreme demand. Prices for these minerals are soaring for the countries in which these elements are buried, The electric vehicle boom promises profits, but also it means massive extraction efforts, and the environmental and social issues that these cause. For instance, in Chile, huge evaporation pools draw lithium out of the salt flats. It’s taking the water rights away from the indigenous people there. In the Congo Cobal mining operations blast the Earth with such a disruption that the people were forced to relocate. In Indonesia scramble for nickel has never been more urgent, And the runoff has killed the fishing industry.