The spiralling environmental cost of our lithium battery addiction

[Hoodat]

The spiralling environmental cost of our lithium battery addiction

AMIT KATWALA   |   Sunday 5 August 2018

Here’s a thoroughly modern riddle: what links the battery in your smartphone with a dead yak floating down a Tibetan river? The answer is lithium – the reactive alkali metal that powers our phones, tablets, laptops and electric cars.

In May 2016, hundreds of protestors threw dead fish onto the streets of Tagong, a town on the eastern edge of the Tibetan plateau. They had plucked them from the waters of the Liqi river, where a toxic chemical leak from the Ganzizhou Rongda Lithium mine had wreaked havoc with the local ecosystem.

There are pictures of masses of dead fish on the surface of the stream. Some eyewitnesses reported seeing cow and yak carcasses floating downstream, dead from drinking contaminated water. It was the third such incident in the space of seven years in an area which has seen a sharp rise in mining activity, including operations run by BYD, the world’ biggest supplier of lithium-ion batteries for smartphones and electric cars. After the second incident, in 2013, officials closed the mine, but when it reopened in April 2016, the fish started dying again.  .  .  .

https://www.wired.co.uk/article/lithium-batteries-environment-impact

[Hoodat]

Life is full of trade-offs.  In the example above, the net effect of increased lithium production will result in a highly damaging environmental impact - all in the name of saving the environment.  In typical fashion, liberals never think through their policies.  They grasp the first thing they see that makes them feel good about themselves, with zero forethought of the damage those policies will impinge on others.

There is also an economic trade-off.  In only two years, the price of lithium has doubled.  As demand for lithium increases, so does the price.  This makes lithium batteries less feasible economically.  I once did a paper on hydrogen fuel cells that estimated the affect on world platinum and ruthenium prices with the addition of 7 million new fuel cell cars sold per year.  The same estimate can be done on lithium.

[XenaLee]

Life is full of trade-offs.  In the example above, the net effect of increased lithium production will result in a highly damaging environmental impact - all in the name of saving the environment.  In typical fashion, liberals never think through their policies.  They grasp the first thing they see that makes them feel good about themselves, with zero forethought of the damage those policies will impinge on others.

There is also an economic trade-off.  In only two years, the price of lithium has doubled.  As demand for lithium increases, so does the price.  This makes lithium batteries less feasible economically.  I once did a paper on hydrogen fuel cells that estimated the affect on world platinum and ruthenium prices with the addition of 7 million new fuel cell cars sold per year.  The same estimate can be done on lithium.

And just think.... these same idiots are going to try to force Americans to 'fundamentally transform' into electric car buyers/drivers/users.   All in the name of saving the environment.   No mention or thought to what all those used batteries will do to the environment.  Oh hell no.   Frickin dumb@sses.

[Cyber Liberty]

Nobody gives a carp about yaks.

[Smokin Joe]

And just think.... these same idiots are going to try to force Americans to 'fundamentally transform' into electric car buyers/drivers/users.   All in the name of saving the environment.   No mention or thought to what all those used batteries will do to the environment.  Oh hell no.   Frickin dumb@sses.

They are trading real pollution for a minute reduction in Carbon Dioxide. It's just the opposite of what the Ecology movement started out doing, ending real chemical wastes and pollution and pushing for 'cleaner' air, water, and soils.

Amazing what you can do when something can be declared a pollutant. What if Dihydrogen Monoxide was so declared?

[Hoodat]

Amazing what you can do when something can be declared a pollutant. What if Dihydrogen Monoxide was so declared?

It can easily kill you if inhaled.

[XenaLee]

They are trading real pollution for a minute reduction in Carbon Dioxide. It's just the opposite of what the Ecology movement started out doing, ending real chemical wastes and pollution and pushing for 'cleaner' air, water, and soils.

Amazing what you can do when something can be declared a pollutant. What if Dihydrogen Monoxide was so declared?

And also notice.... that they never ever seem to bitch, harp, moan and whine about pollution at China (or India) or any non-democratic nation.   Funny how that always works with the rats, eh?

[Smokin Joe]

And also notice.... that they never ever seem to bitch, harp, moan and whine about pollution at China (or India) or any non-democratic nation.   Funny how that always works with the rats, eh?

Their silence is assured as long as the money keeps rolling in. They aren't doing this to keep anything clean, they are doing this to clean up (ka-Chink!)