Electric cars will cause a lithium mining catastrophe

MichaelBluejay · 2023-01-24 22:36:42

As per The Guardian:

By 2050, the transition to battery-powered cars will cause a massive demand for lithium, the mining of which comes with big environmental and human rights consequences.

The only hope is to move away from the car culture to more mass/public transit, or bicycles. Like that'll ever happen.

One interesting thing was the table of how much lithium is required per rider for various transport options:

4.8kg • Hummer
1.6kg • Car
0.52kg • Bus
0.02kg • Bike

https://amp.theguardian.com/us-news/202 … s-research

MichaelBluejay · 2023-01-26 15:19:17

Roger Baker mistakenly submitted this by email rather than posting to the web forum, so I'm posting it for him. (Don't think I'll do the same for you, everyone else must post to the web forum, and even Roger after this time.)

Roger Baker wrote:

It isn't just the lithium that is the commodity problem with EVs. Because of the mineral content of their batteries, EVs take about twice as much fossil fuel to make as regular cars before they hit the road. Then about 70% of their electric power used to charge them still comes from fossil fuels like coal and natural gas, so their climate superiority is debatable. About 85% of total global power comes from fossil fuels in places like China, so even if all our cars required no carbon to make and run, it would not move the global warming needle. We are highly addicted to fossil fuels and with addiction comes denial that the whole world has to burn less to reduce climate change. We might as well get used to the fact that fossil fuels should and will soon cost a lot more, and that this is what will finally cause us to burn less.
Lithium has soared in price in the last few years, but the list goes on. EVs require lots of child labor to get their Congo cobalt and lots of nickel and mined graphite. They use lots of Chinese rare earths for their magnets, and about 160 pounds of copper. Global copper supplies now appear to be peaking at about 20 million tons per year, which is broadly bad news for green energy -- which needs a lot of copper and energy storage capacity to be useful. Also, China controls about 80% of global copper production, as well as most global aluminum and steel production.
I laid out a lot of these problems and relevant numbers in this presentation to the International Society for Biophysical Economics here.
https://docs.google.com/presentation/d/ … sp=sharing
One obvious solution to our mobility problems is more bikes and electric bikes instead of EVs for commuting from our car-addictive suburbs where our low pay service workers have to live. TxDOT is conspicuously unaware of global warming as its lack of consideration in its planning documents for I-35 widening reveals. Molly Ivins accurately nailed its character when she called TxDOT "the Pentagon of Texas", which still remains stubbornly impervious to reform. Now that the cheap easy oil is gone, suburban sprawl real estate development remains a major source of wealth in Texas.
Accordingly, TxDOT has gone deeply in debt in order to build underpriced roads that stimulate profitable suburban real estate development which surrounds the major urban areas of Texas. I laid out the details here.
https://www.theragblog.com/roger-baker- … ggle-ever/

MichaelBluejay · 2023-02-01 20:47:41

Toyota is pushing back on the EV-only idea for cars, saying that spreading the same amount of scarce lithium over a larger number of hybrid cars saves more energy than using it for a smaller number of EV-only cars. I think they're right.

Of course, bicycles/scooters/transit use even less lithium and energy per passenger mile.

MichaelBluejay · 2023-03-10 23:21:25

A new study ranks the greenest cars, incorporating not just fuel economy but also tailpipe emissions, manufacturing & disposal, and production and distribution of fuel and electricity.

A finding that may surprise many (but not me) was that electrics were only marginally better than EVs (like around 10% better).

Another finding that may surprise many (but again, not me, go me) is that huge electrics (like the Ford F-150) scored way lower than even small/efficient gas-only cars.

https://www.aceee.org/press-release/202 … -gas-shape

Bicycle Austin forum

#1 2023-01-24 22:36:42

Electric cars will cause a lithium mining catastrophe

#2 2023-01-26 15:19:17

Re: Electric cars will cause a lithium mining catastrophe

#3 2023-02-01 20:47:41

Re: Electric cars will cause a lithium mining catastrophe

#4 2023-03-10 23:21:25

Re: Electric cars will cause a lithium mining catastrophe

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