Am I missing something here? What incredibly rare material?
Generally called "rare earths" they are what the batteries in the hybrid cars are made from. 97% of the worlds production of these rare earths come from China. The conditions and pay of the people who dig the stuff up is shocking.
Rare earths are finite and in the control of 1 government.
Fuel for ICE's is a renewable resource which can be created anywhere by recycling refuse.
This message is factually wrong.
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The fossil fuels lobby like the lobby of climate change deniers and like the pro tobacco lobby before them always make available loaded and simplified facts that get lapped up
by some people'Rare Earth' is the latest from the fossil fuels lobby that is lapped up by
some peopleThere is an abundance of lithium in Bolivia for example, its not only found in China
Ofcourse the production of 'rare earth' elements will cause environmental problems in their mining and refining and many "green technologies," while promising, have hidden environmental and trade implications.
Thats not the point - the point is not that fossil fuels are running out or are less harmful to the environment to mine than 'rare earth'
THE POINT IS THAT CONTINUED USE OF FOSSIL FUELS AT PRESENT LEVELS PRODUCES
EMISSIONS THAT HAVE TIPPED THE WORLDS ECOSYSTEM INTO A DESTRUCTIVE PHASE
it is not correct to say 'producing electric batteries harms the environment, so dont produce batteries even though once produced, their daily use for transport DOES NOT continue to harm the environment'
If it harms the planet '10 units of harm' to produce a battery, and then 1 unit for the lifetime of the car, how is that even slightly comparable to the existing ICE which harms the planet 1 unit to make the engine then 1000 units over the lifetime of the car?
People need to THINK before they post as jumping on a couple of isolated facts supplied by the fossil fuel lobby (the major oil companies)
is like saying there is no link between smoking and cancer because Philip Morris said so
lets simplify it- petrol engines burn fossil fuels EVERY SINGLE TIME they are used - These produce emissions that are VERY VERY VERY harmful - full stop. Electric cars (batteries) etc are produced from rare elements that are harmful to the environment to mine blah blah blah
But an electric car PRODUCES 0.0000 harmful emissions over the 20 - 30 years its driven around
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