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.
Thats a weird way to frame it.
The rise of vaccines puts viruses at risk.
Good.
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…
Batteries take “rare earth metals” like cobalt.
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!
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
