The Dirty Secrets of “Clean” Electric Vehicles. Reposted from Forbes.
By Tilak Doshi, The widespread view that fossil fuels are “dirty” and renewables such as wind and solar energy and electric vehicles are “clean” has become a fixture of mainstream media and policy assumptions across the political spectrum in developed countries, perhaps with the exception of the Trump-led US administration. Indeed the ultimate question we are led to believe is how quickly can enlightened Western governments, led by an alleged scientific consensus, “decarbonize” with clean energy in a race to save the world from impending climate catastrophe. The ‘net zero by 2050’ mantra, calling for carbon emissions to be completely mitigated within three decades, is now the clarion call by governments and intergovernmental agencies around the developed world, ranging from several EU member states and the UK, to the International Energy Agency and the International Monetary Fund.
Mining out of sight, out of mind. Are Electric Cars Really Green? Mean and Unclean: Electric Cars Powered by Child Labor in Africa – JunkScience.com. “A CBS News investigation has found child labor being used in the dangerous mining of cobalt in the Democratic Republic of Congo.
The mineral cobalt is used in virtually all batteries in common devices, including cellphones, laptops and even electric vehicles.A report by Amnesty International first revealed that cobalt mined by children was ending up in products from several companies, including Apple, Microsoft, Tesla and Samsung.There’s such sensitivity around cobalt mining in the DRC that every few hundred feet the CBS News team was stopped, with security personnel requesting letters and documentation, even though we had official permission to be there.
But for the Chinese middlemen who buy the cobalt, there were no such constraints; they have free access.In the mines, women and children help with the so-called artisanal mining, but don’t be fooled — it is no quaint cottage industry. At barely 10 years old, children lug heavy sacks of cobalt to be washed in rivers. Green tech’s dark side. The hype these days is to stop using those dirty fossil fuel driven cars and trucks and convert everyone to those clean electric vehicles.
But wait! Before you jump onto the EV train, those EV’s have a very dark side of environmental atrocities and non-existent transparency of human rights abuses associated with mining for the exotic minerals that power them. The dark side of Governor Newsom’s gas-powered vehicle ban. California Governor Newsom has convinced himself that green EV’s made from “fairy dust” must replace those dirty gas-powered vehicles.
Sharing a few realities of the darker side of his fairy dust beliefs may burst his bubble. Electric Car’s Carbon Footprint Criticised In New Report. November 28, 2020 12:12 pm I don’t believe these studies for the simple reason, from what I have seen, the researchers simply take the average CO per Mwatt hr say and extrapolate that as being the figure to charge electric cars (And heat pumps).
They do not understand how the grid works. This is not accurate, taken simply if electric cars require x amounts of power then that power will only come from dispatchable sources of generation, mainly gas. 'Clean Green' Electric Vehicles Exposed. Factcheck: How electric vehicles help to tackle climate change. Update 7/2/2020: The lifecycle emissions figures were revised to reflect more recent data on electricity carbon intensity and battery manufacture. Electric vehicles (EVs) are an important part of meeting global goals on climate change. They feature prominently in mitigation pathways that limit warming to well-below 2C or 1.5C, which would be inline with the Paris Agreement’s targets. However, while no greenhouse gas emissions directly come from EVs, they run on electricity that is, in large part, still produced from fossil fuels in many parts of the world. Energy is also used to manufacture the vehicle – and, in particular, the battery.
Here, in response to recent misleading media reports on the topic, Carbon Brief provides a detailed look at the climate impacts of EVs. There are also large uncertainties around the emissions associated with electric vehicle battery production, with different studies producing widely differing numbers. Different studies find different results Methodology. New German Study: E-Car Climate Benefits Based On “Great Miscalculation”…”Actually Exacerbate Global Warming”! The German online Business Insider here reports on just how climate (un)friendly electric cars really are.
It concludes that e-cars in Germany are “far from being climate friendly”. As much of the public already suspects, the electricity coming out of the German outlets today is still largely produced by fossil fuel plants. And so e-cars indeed leave a large carbon footprint. Moreover all the mining of raw materials and the massive amounts of energy needed to produce the batteries in the first place means it takes a very long time before the electric car ends up with a better carbon budget than a comparably sized internal combustion engine. And never mind other disadvantages such as long charging times, high vehicle purchase price and low range.
EVen the UN is warning about the environmental damage Electric Vehicles will cause. Welcome to the Clean Green Future.
Demand for rechargeable car batteries is predicted to rise 700% in the next four years. But even at current levels, children are already dying in mines in the Congo, and farmers in Chile are being forced off their land. The UN is now slightly “concerned” about a car battery boom which it helped create. …a new report from UNCTAD, warns that the raw materials used in electric car batteries, are highly concentrated in a small number of countries, which raises a number of concerns. Australian: New Report: Electric Cars Have ‘Higher CO2 Emissions’