From NOT A LOT OF PEOPLE KNOW THAT
APRIL 29, 2022
By Paul Homewood
h/t Philip Bratby
Are Electric Vehicles really clean? They run on dirty energy and blood of children as young as 6. Electric cars drive human rights abuse and child labour. China is one of the villains in this story. Are electric carmakers equally guilty too?
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All the slavery, suffering and death aside, the batteries and attendant power systems components manufacturing produces vast amounts of toxic waste, which 3rd world shyteholes like China and India are dumping into the environment, that leftards pushing EV stupidity not just ignore, they actively cover up. Quinn’s 1st Law, writ large.
The people pushing EVs don’t care. Joe Average doesn’t see it, so it’s as though it doesn’t exist.
Actually, Joe Average does see the lies inherent in the EV putsch the left has created, msm and academia hide reality.
Practical and actual slavery, including diversity [dogma] (i.e. color judgment, class-based bigotry), inequity, and exclusion.(DIE) (e.g. racism) for social, redistributive, clinical, and fair weather causes.
What about the “Democratic Republic of the Congo?
No black slave labor?
Oh, yes, there is plenty of slave labor in the Congo at TWO DOLLARS PER DAY!!
https://www.wilsoncenter.org/blog-post/drc-mining-industry-child-labor-and-formalization-small-scale-mining
Here is an excerpt from my battery article:
BATTERY SYSTEM CAPITAL COSTS, OPERATING COSTS, ENERGY LOSSES, AND AGING
https://www.windtaskforce.org/profiles/blogs/battery-system-capital-costs-losses-and-aging
NOTE: World Cobalt production was 142,000 and 170,000 metric ton, in 2020 and 2021, respectively, of which the Democratic Republic of the Congo was 120,000 metric ton in 2021.
https://www.kitco.com/news/2022-02-02/Global-cobalt-production-hits-record-in-2021-as-mined-cobalt-output-in-DR-Congo-jumps-22-4.html
I would explain what I wrote if it needed explained, it does not. Reading comprehension is key.
Indeed, it is possible that what you wrote implied no slavery outside of China and India.
Slavery is endemic throughout Asia, Africa, South America and all islamic majority countries. Only morons do not know this.
So long as the pollution isn’t being expelled from a tailpipe on the vehicle, it doesn’t exist. The phrases “zero local emissions” or “zero tailpipe emissions” tells you that the auto industry knows about the pollution from mining and manufacturing the vehicles, but the smug environmentalist driving the car could care less.
Oh, and yes, they are just as guilty as the governments involved in this atrocity against humanity.
Please post videos on Rumble, as youtube is getting ridiculous with the commercials lately…
Or just use sufficiently robust adblocking.
Opera Mobile for some reason never shows ads on YT.
FYI opera is now owned by the Chinese. Use at your own risk.
Will Rumble get rid of that dot I kept trying to wipe off my screen?
Who exactly is propelling this electric car rubbish, especially, why the rush?
Coz I just did a quick search on Ford and VW and both parties are bragging about how wonderful their Lithium Ion batteries are..
It’s even more heartbreaking and soul-destroying than hearing about “the radiation is re-emitted in all directions ” or “feedback feedback feedback” – those thing being at The Very Root Cause of this insane atrocity
Why Li-Ions?
Why not LiFePO4 battery?
They ‘manage’ pretty well like Lead-Acids, don’t catch fire, don’t contain Cobalt and have cycle lives counted in thousands
Are all Western Governments really that bankrupt: scientifically, politically, morally & financially?
“Are all Western Governments really that bankrupt: scientifically, politically, morally & financially?”
Yes, yes they are. Our politicians are morally bankrupt, plus they are ignorant of the facts, and are thus leading us down the Road to Ruin with their delusional thinking.
And when it goes boobs up they will quote the saintly Tony Blair…
“I did it in good faith. I believed it was the right thing to do. I can’t apologise…” etc
Those in elected government primarily are motivated by job security, which means getting re-elected. Which means they pander to what it appears the electors want, mainly ‘bread and circuses’ but also to be kept safe from dangers real or imagined. We elected them. We are responsible for their idiocy.
that ignores the complicity of a corrupt media controlled by a few billionaires.
Questions on LiFePO4 batteries. Based on this link, https://batteryfinds.com/lifepo4-battery-charging-guide/ it appears that these batteries may not be well suited for use in too cold or too hot environments, but frankly, I don’t know if I am interpreting the info correctly. So, my question is – if someone in North Dakota owns a Tesla with one of these batteries, will they be able to drive and use the car in the winter? Or conversely if someone lives in Phoenix, will the heat negatively impact the performance as well? And, it looks like the up-front cost of these batteries is significantly higher than other batteries, but that cost may be offset by the longer useful life. And, what other materials are used in these batteries? As has been reported here https://wattsupwiththat.com/2021/02/15/weakest-link-to-ev-growth-is-the-material-supply-chain/ the material supply chain for EV batteries is one possible kink in the move to EVs. Reading about LiFeFO4 batteries, it appears they are much lighter so may not use many of the same raw materials. Most of what is found by searching on this battery type is biased marketing – not a lot of critical analysis that I have found so far.
To your question about regions with extreme temps, they both will dramatically reduce the cars range due to the fact that one guy has the heaters on full blast and the other the air-con.
Uh, Peta, LiFePO4 has an energy density of up to 120 kWh /kg while Li-Ion is up to 200 kWh/kg. If an EV’s range was 300 miles with Li-Ion it would be only 180 miles with LiFePO4. Few people are going to buy an EV with that dramatic of a range penalty. That said, some manufacturers are considering LiFePO4 for small, low-range city EVs (cheaper but not cheap).
Why not LiFePO4 battery? They’re about twice as heavy for the same capacity, and road damage goes up by the fourth power per weight on each wheel. Also, they still have all the other problems.
Children of Democratic Republic of Congo where more than half of the global cobalt supply comes from.
Cobalt is used in the lithium batteries. Child miners often are not being paid after a day’s hard work. An investigation by Amnesty International brought to light the harrowing experiences that youngsters have had to endure to eke a living.
No problem, it’s k11ling two birds with one stone, say ‘Caca verde’ protagonist, there are too many people in the world, many of these children may not reach maturity.
😟 😢
Those little, skinned, calloused, fingers…
The most precious gift God gives: children — sacrificed on the altar of greed.
Children.
One green solution causes another ten problems
1) “solution”
2) to a non-existent problem
and
if you define “green” as being conservation and what is truly good for the Earth and its inhabitants, not even green, so,
3)
greenThus, misery, inefficient markets, “ten problems,” all for NOTHING.
Disgusting.
Greed is disgusting.
From the article: “Are electric carmakers equally guilty too?”
Absolutely. These car makers know where their supplies are coming from. They are not naive. They are exploiting this situation for their own selfish purposes.
Car makers are meeting their fiduciary responsibility of maximizing their shareholders income, safely (especially in the workspace) and in compliance with all rules and regulations. We voters have the responsibility of electing politicians that are not irresponsible idiots.
“We voters have the responsibility of electing politicians that are not irresponsible idiots.”
This is true. 🙂
Maybe we can get started on that this November. Actually, we are getting started on that right now, as primary elections are taking place over the coming weeks and months.
However, many of those voters are, themselves, ‘irresponsible idiots’, so what else can we expect/
Carmakers are under a Sword of Damocles hung above their heads by Government regulators. I wouldn’t automatically blame the manufacturers for merely trying to survive.
This is an excellent video by Gravitas Plus on the exploitation and outright killing of young children in Congo. I hope owners of electric cars will take note of the human rights abuse they have caused.
EV buyers are little better than drug addicts who are causing the miseries resulting from their continuing to buy the products of drug dealers.
Key: drugs and EV vehicles are NOT quasi-essential* products.
Cell phones and other quasi-essential products are like anything produced by China – supporting the miseries of Communism (little freedom, miserable living and work conditions for most, etc.). Consumers need to loudly express their preference for non-misery-produced products, e.g., 1) by refusing to buy “Made in China” (and like regimes); and 2) telling the manufacturers/retailers. Also, VOTE for TRUMP (and others working to make the world a more free, healthful, prosperous, beautiful, place).
*quasi essential — not absolutely essential, as in drinking water, food, air, and shelter from cold or heat, but greatly helpful in daily living.
“… greatly helpful in daily living” isn’t even a thing. MOST people I know and see are using their “quasi-essential” cell phones to either send mindless texts or to play brainless games! In my mind that does NOT equate to ‘quasi-essential’! In MANY households, people don’t even speak to one another face to face; They prefer to ‘TEXT‘ each other!
Why all the hand-wringing and angst? It’s all for a good ’cause’, you know.
“I gave up on Judith Curry a while ago. I don’t know what she thinks she’s doing, but it’s not helping the cause…”
“By the way, when is Tom C [Crowley] going to formally publish his roughly 1500 year reconstruction??? It would help the cause…”
Michael E Mann is on a crusade fighting for ‘the cause’. If he and his ilk care not about the destruction of wildlife in their own backyard by wind and solar installations, what’s a few kids in DRC; out of sight, out of mind. Conscience clear.
The ends justify the means
Interesting fact: just one kg of Cobalt Oxide added as a colourant is enough to produce one ton of deep blue glass, referred to as “Cobalt” glass. Very powerful.
In order to be a true Climate Caterwaulist, you have to be a ginormous Hypocrite in addition to being a Liar. You need to be willing to blind to a whole host of evils being committed against both people and the environment in order to push the Climate Religion. Sucks to be them.
First step is to remove Critical Thinking from the educational system, then it’s possible to create any convenient hobgoblin to scare the witless population into doing anything you want.
Oh they’ve done step one. It’s been in progress for at least 40 years in UK education. Each cohort a little dumber and flakier than its predecessor
“Anxiety about climate change is on the rise and children and teenagers are being most affected”
Young people most impacted by climate anxiety – QIMR Berghofer
Quelle surprise?
We’ve definitely arrived.
But if you stopped the artisanal mining in the Congo what would happen to the 200,000 people, 40,000 of them children, that depend on it? Of course if you expand it by selling more EV’s you make the problem worse. It’s a complex problem, and there isn’t a simple solution. As the old saying goes: “You’re damned if you do, and damned if you don’t”.
The DRC doesn’t have to be a basket case, it has rich resources: of cobalt, copper, niobium, tantalum, petroleum, industrial and gem diamonds, gold, silver, zinc, manganese, tin, uranium, coal, hydropower, and timber.
Like much of Africa it needs modernising badly. It needs an educated population. UN/IMF/World Bank etc policies have kept Africa in the dark. They need help, but who in today’s woke world – aside from the Chinese – will step in? Who wants to be labelled the neo-imperialist/colonialist, or as a ‘white’ saviour?
Technically speaking, DRC is a Belgian, ergo EU, problem.
“The EU’s strategic objectives are in line with the national development strategies of the DRC and include:
Strengthening DRC’s democratic processes and promoting respect for human rights.
Contribute to peace and stability in the region.
Fight poverty by supporting inclusive growth that would benefit the most vulnerable while preserving the country’s natural resources.”
https://ec.europa.eu/international-partnerships/where-we-work/congo-democratic-republic_en
Yada, yada, yada…
Yes, the saviors, the “anti-colonialists”, have been normalizing diversity [dogma] (i.e. color judgment, class-based bigotry), inequity, and exclusion (DIE) over decades through politically congruent (“=”) constructs with empathetic appeal. They offer solutions to problems that they have created, and sharing/shifting responsibility abroad. It works both ways. Domestially, they can sustain redistributive change through progressive prices and other mechanisms, and democratic gerrymandering through labor and environmental arbitrage (e.g. Green New Deal), [catastrophic] [anthropogenic] immigration reform in lieu of emigration reform, while normalizing the elective abortion (i.e. wicked solution) of viable human life for social, redistributive, clinical, and fair weather causes (e.g. climate stasis). It’s a neat trick, if they can get away with, and they have for nearly a century.
That is a false dichotomy. It isn’t: A. cobalt mining and misery OR B. die of starvation.
Try C. .
The resourceful, bright, hard-working, people of Congo can do so many other things…. Their corrupt national government is fouling things up. Let the free market work and private property be respected and watch Congo flourish.
You’re right of course. Government corruption seems to be endemic throughout most of Africa. Current events tell me we’re not immune from it here in the U.S either :<)
Thanks for the gracious reply, Mr. Crawford. 🙂 I put that a bit bluntly — I should have made it clear that you and I were in agreement. And, sadly, yes… 🙁
The problem is, how do we as outsiders fix the corruption in their society?
Just how much interference in their society are you prepared to tolerate?
Good point, MarkW. To clarify: I don’t advocate us doing anything to their society. I was merely diagnosing the problem.
I think what we should do is stop buying EV’s (and end all taxpayer funding/regulations creating market share by fiat for EV’s).
btw: I haven’t seen you around for awhile (but, then, I kind of avoid a lot of WUWT these days, so, I really wouldn’t know). I was hoping (I even prayed) you were okay. Glad to see you!
🙂
Add a 1% education tax to the $5,000,000,000/yr* Congolese cobalt sales.
To provide $5/day for every child “artisanal miner sent to school that day rather than the pits.
40,000 children by $5 x 250 days = $50,000,000. About 1%?
A benefit is the children learn Chinese.
As a mining exploration geologist who has walked through many kilometers red-bed roll-front copper-cobalt mineralization, EV issues aside, I can assure everyone that this genetic style of cobalt can be mined by modern, safety and environmentally neutral techniques. The problem is corruption, which, unfortuenetlly, occurs at both ends of the supply chain.
All cars today are chock full of the very same batteries and electronic instrumentation as in EVs, so singling out EVs as a villain is dumb. The people writing these dumb posts at WUWT and reading and commenting on these dumb posts out in the ether world all exist in an electronic universe using exactly the same metals and other materials as in EVs. Where do you think your cars, your computers, your TVs, your mobile devices, and the massive banks of servers and cables that are the “internet” come from? Unicorns?
As if you guys actually care about the welfare of Chinese kids. That’s a laugher.
Just like all the crocodile tears shed over bird kills on windmills, while the gasoline powered cars and trucks you drive, and the sides and windows of the buildings in which you live in and work kill hundreds of thousands of times as many birds each and every year as do windmills.
The hypocrisy meter is pegged with these kinds of fake lamentations.
Miss the point much?
Mr. Cobb: GOOD FOR YOU. Apparently, Duane’s mischaracterizations and half-truths fooled over 30 (plus votes) people! Aaargh. His comparison is inapt: EV’s are NOT quasi-essential products. The average non-EV vehicle is.
(ugh — I sure hope whoever is playing “Duane” isn’t really that horrid a person ((shudder)) — what a vile, twisted mind and heart, or maybe…. “Duane” is just plain “dumb” (I doubt it — he is very clever at creating poisonous false accusations)).
DuhWayne has figured out how to stack the vote. Just like his dimocrat compatriots. He’s probably going from computer to computer in his office voting for his INANE comment.
Nobody (except DuhWayne) is STUPID enough to believe that all cars are chock full of the the same batteries used in EVs. That’s an OUTRIGHT LIE. ICE cars still use lead-acid batteries, NO COBALT mined by children. ICE cars use 50 lb batteries, EVs use 1000 lb batteries that use lots of cobalt.
Moderators, check where the votes came from. You’ll find they came from the same area where DuhWayne lives.
The bigotry follows from claims of clean life cycles, environmentally neutral, ecologically friendly, reliable energy that influence and distort the market. China is the leading provider of labor and environmental arbitrage to sustain this progress with forward-looking collateral damage to both labor, environment, and economy.
In what passes for your mind, there is no difference between a one ounce battery used in the electronics and the thousand pound battery used to power electric vehices?
If not, why compare the two and proclaim that the use of the one, is as bad as the use of the other?
As to your belief that you can tell the motivations of everyone who disagrees with you, do you often have these kinds of delusions.
Finally, Duane used to proclaim that he couldn’t care less as to whether people use gas or electric, he just wanted to set the record straight.
This post proves that claim was just another of his lies.
PS: I note that once again Duane has made no attempt to actually refute any of the claims made, his abilities are limited to insulting those who don’t properly worship electric vehicles.
DUANE THE Swamp.
Geoff S borrowing from another WUWT blogger.
So you’re okay with children being forced into mining? Sounds like it.
Isn’t this a wikipedia ‘news’ show? Paul, I’ve been trying to debunk all this NGO propaganda on child slave labour deaths in Africa for years. We vigorously resist the vicious totalitarian elite despots using phoney climate fears to herd us into obedient poverty, but don’t seem to realize the totes have invaded all areas of endeavor and we have to “trust but verify”everything.
Indeed this particular anti-mining industry is the the oldest ploy to prevent Africans from development and escape from needing ‘help.’ I usually give a full explanation and my personal experience with this from the middle 1960s onwards.
Dear Mr. Pearse,
I understand your point, but, I think you might want to consider that the problem condemned here is the artisanal mining and THAT is greatly due to non-essential-product-EV production. The corrupt Congo government is also a problem.
Indeed, mining is good — when done in a humane, environmentally (as in planet issues such as erosion and water pollution, not climate issues) responsible way.
Certainly, there are many competing causes (greed, selfish consumers, corrupt governments). Let’s at least attack one of them (consumer and manufacturer greed, here).
We have a viable, efficient, lovely, alternative to EV’s: internal combustion engine vehicles. Let’s promote them! 😀
Again, MINING IS GOOD done properly and humanely.
With respect (for your vast knowledge — I have read your writing and know this to be a fact) and with warm regards,
Janice
Gary,
I love my XME, SPDR S&P Metals and Mining. It’s up 30.4% year to date. I want children in school, not digging for cobalt.
Regards
bg
How much would a battery cost if all those miners were well paid, trained professionals, using all the proper PPE and safety precautions?
But the unemployment rate for six year olds is at an all time low.
The affordability and profit is correlated with both labor and environmental arbitrage. This is a life cycle problem. This is an anthropogenic distortion of the market with forward-looking consequences and collateral damage forced by scientific, political, and social beliefs with empathetic appeal.
As usual, I’m the only one on this thread calling BS to this story. It is promulgated by the same anti-development crowd that most on this site are battling against. The anti-mining, anti-manufacturing, anti-investment NGOs don’t want Africa to not need their ‘help’.
I know a bit about this topic. My first work in Africa was in the middle 1960s in Nigeria with the Geological Survey just after the end of colonial rule. As geologist in charge of the survey office in Jos, the centre of mining in the country, one of my tasks was to assist indigenous miners with mineral identification, property exploration, mine planning, ore processing and safety. There was even a mining inspectorate office that visited projects to assess safety issues.
Look, in any place in the world where there is a concentration of mineral resources, local artisanal miners and their families engage in mining. Mining is more dangerous, of course, than most industrial work, but locals in these areas are much better off than others in farming or other pursuits. They become skillful at it, and like a farm in the developed world, the kids have farm chores to support the family enterprise.
In the mining areas, most production is done by large, multinational, modern, safe mines and processing plants. This is also true re cobalt in the Congo. The fact that these large companies are not mentioned in NGO reports (or are vaguely referenced to give the impression that they are the actual slavemasters) is the ‘tell’ that it’s a BS story. These companies also purchase the concentrates from the local ops, a significant service to this community. I’ve worked in several other African countries and in Brazil where these small entrepreneurs are called garimpeiros.
Paul, by just accepting the propaganda from the UN, Mine Watch, Amnesty International, Greenpeace on this topic, you do harm to your otherwise excellent reputation for investigations into climateering. Today, everything is suspect because the woke and their minions are into everything.
The numbers seem to indicate that cooking food over fires of sticks and dung is taking more lives each day than child mining.
There is a large global industry of ignorati whose compulsion is to bash mining. This has consequences like the invention of regulators like EPA, who try to cripple mining by adding bureaucratic costs, when most miners are ahead of these EPAs in thought and action and importantly, with the money to pay for safety etc.
It is all so screwed up by socially parasitic dogooders.
Trouble is, some mining CEOs are going woke and helping to contribute to their added, unrequired impositions.
Written with the experience of decades of mining. Geoff S
This is not about mining, manufacturing, investment, or development. This is about labor and environmental arbitrage, misleading Green claims to clean and green, and anthropogenic forcings that distort and undermine the market from determining and optimizing price, sources, distribution, human welfare and development.
Sticker for EVs of virtue signallers.
Proudly powered by child labor.
The salient point is that it is Big Green and their fraudulent anti-carbon stance which is driving this huge demand for cobalt and other things, forcing the prices skyward, and it’s only going to get worse. This has opened up a market for “artisinal” cobalt, and the children involved in that are paying the price. If the concern is about poverty, that isn’t way to address it, with children’s health and even lives. So yes, it is correct to lay that at the feet of Greenie Weenies, particularly because they profess to be so against inequities such as that. If nothing else, it makes them total hypocrites.
This lady, Palki Sharma, of the Gravitas show of WION, is the best in commentator in the entire world for making the stupid or obvious sound profound. Last month I commented that her YT bit about runaway warming of 70C in the Antarctic was total BS, if she cared to check some actual weather stations instead of false media reports. My comment was “disappeared” within the hour. Obviously WION has a full time protective moderator….
Accent is so thick I can’t make out what she’s saying.
Are the virtue-signalling morons who buy electric cars guilty too?
“An electric car runs on battery – you know that.”
Thought they ran on electricity.
The obscenity that Climate Changism is, dead birds, electrocuted lobsters, plastic landfill, abusive mining, and expensive electricity, what a sham, what a total farce!
“Dedicated followers of fashion”, (Kinks) don’t care about the complex economic, social or environmental downside of the EV because in the end it is all about the strut. This year they mouth climate change and wear black masks and next year they’re building a new McMansion with 12 x more cubic square feet than they need and heat it to 72 and cool it to 68 with hydrocarbon fuel generated electricity at 33% efficiency from generator to house and car battery. My 2002 Mercury Sable Station wagon V6 engine is about 35% efficient. The Lithium care battery at 95% efficient, the electric motor is 85% efficient. My V6 is 2% (improvement over grid efficiency) + 5%+15%=22% more efficient over the EV, which means that it uses 22% less hydrocarbon fuel than and EV….. doesn’t that make me a climate activist?
All these numbers are dubious. Is the grid really 33% efficient on average? 10 years ago the grid was 17% efficient…what has changed? Are Lico3 batteries really 95% if they heat up under use? Finally, how efficient are electric motors in cars with average use.?
I would love to have a EV if it was economically advantageous, safe on all accounts and efficient but they ain’t. Come on Elon where is the damn new Next-Gen-battery? Give us a environmentally safe, efficient, practical and safe battery. Then I can burn my own hydrocarbon fuel to generate my own electricity by passing the inefficient grid …..at 99% efficacy while heating water and my house. Then the EV becomes a thing I want.
Please empower me economically with real installed affordable capital (turbine driven electrical generator and Next Gen Battery) in my home that would enable me to burn less hydrocarbon fuel by a factor of 2 or more….my socialized, income-redistributing, super-taxed, colluded monopolized energy bill driving me crazy.