As human beings have destroyed the atmosphere by burning fossil fuel, deforestation and excessive pollution from industries have ruined planet earth and now carbon emission is the talk of the town. It’s making the earth warmer than ever and making it miserable to have sustainable weather patterns like before.
After making a mess by humans and still doing so, alternative energy resources are needed to fix this mess somehow, which is too late to do so, at least a step forward to make things better (but Electric vehicle will bring crisis too).
After exploiting world economics over fossil fuels and invading various countries over their fossil fuel resources, now a dependency on fossil fuels needs to be shifted.
We have already heard that Electric cars are our future, to cut down on carbon emissions and be less dependent on fossil fuels will be our future. All the major automobile companies are rushing over it’s production ( Tesla, Ford Electric Car, Audi electric car etc.)
As shown above, the United States and China are the top nations in excessive carbon emissions and the list goes on. With wealth and controlling powers, we can be confident that the next conflicts could arise over the resources associated with electric cars.
Therefore, thinking about a better future on the verge of creating a new crisis will be a horrific impact on humans.
Crisis? Yes, you have read it right.
– Crisis Associated with Lithium:
Lithium is a key component of batteries and other hardware that are getting to be increasingly common around the world – especially within the case of rechargeable lithium-ion batteries utilized in electric-vehicle, as well as larger-scale battery storage.
With these high demands anticipated to quicken over the coming years, as the manufacturing increases, interest in this silvery-white metal have already proceeded, and investigators anticipate worldwide needs will be more than twofold by 2024.
There are about 80 million tons of identified reserves around the world. According to the USGS (united states Geological survey) which provides data on lithium reserves.
Few countries with the biggest reserve:
1- Bolivia – 21 Million Tons
This country holds About one-quarter reserves of the entire globe. Though, still premature digging of its resources and largely undeveloped as yet, due to political conditions in the country and foreign involvement to make the country unstable. Bolivia might not be able to take advantage of its huge resources
2- Argentina – 17 Million Tons
The same goes for Argentina
3- Chile – 9 Million Tons
The same goes for Chile as above mentioned countries
4- USA – 6.8 Million Ton
5- Australia – 6.3 Million tons
6- China- 4.5 Million tons
With the highest resources of Lithium among underdeveloped, politically corrupt, and foreign influence over them. Those resources might be in the hands of superpowers in the future, as can be seen with the underdeveloped countries with fossil fuel resources.
For example, with the Invasion of Iraq, Syria, and sanctions on Iran, Russia, Venezuela with the highest fossil fuel resources and we can see that they are going through a crisis.
A crisis of workers’ exploitation, resources, and invasion, all on the verge of making a better world with less carbon emission?
– Crisis Associated with Cobalt:
Cobalt is one of the essential metals in lithium-ion batteries, which control everything from portable workstations to cell phones to electric cars. Cobalt has been a prevalent choice for batteries since the metal increments battery life and energy density, which within the case of EVs means extended range, by keeping the battery structure steady as the battery is persistently charged and discharged.
Unlike Lithium, Cobalt is only found in one country ‘The Democratic Republic of Congo. Around 59% of the world’s cobalt (3.5 million metric tons) reserve is found there.
Almost 28 mines are in control of the Chinese, who have influenced this region by their debt trap policy and have gained control of cobalt mines.
Various reports of child labor, worker exploitation, and human rights violation have been reported. Locals working in these mines are treated harshly without proper gear and on less money.
Since its resources are primarily dependent on one country, and already those resources have been under the control of a foreign country.
A crisis of human suffering while the greediness of rich countries over its resources
Crisis associated with Electricity:
With the influx of electric cars running around the world, the demand for electricity has increased as well. According to the survey, an average of 2,114Kwh/year of electricity will be used by an electric car. More cars mean more electricity and EV charging stations will be required which means electric grids would need more production.
Mostly all-electric grids are producing electricity from fossil fuels, Natural Gas and Coal.
According to the Union of Concerned Scientists, producing power /electricity is the major source of air pollution due to the burning of fossil fuels and coal etc.
A crisis of pollution is already worsening and making it tougher with global warming effects.