Current Li-ion batteries have numerous issues, but fortunately there are several alternatives too. Bringing a new battery chemistry to production scale hasn’t been easy, but we’re taking small steps like that every year. Who knows which one of them ends up dominating the market after a few decades.
Eh…
Batteries take “rare earth metals” like cobalt.
www.abc.net.au/news/2022-02-24/…/100802588
There’s an environmental cost, and a huge cost on a personal level to the people who mine it.
It’s like if your house is burning down, but then a flood comes and puts out the fire.
Sure, the fire is out, but now your house is underwater. We’re just switching one problem for another, not really solving anything
Hamartiogonic@sopuli.xyz 4 months ago
givesomefucks@lemmy.world 4 months ago
Eventually I hope we end up with sodium batteries.
But that’s probably a long way off still
Ramenator@lemmy.world 4 months ago
givesomefucks@lemmy.world 4 months ago
Nice.
The whole sodium story is how we should be going about shit.
We didn’t focus on making the best battery and came up with sodium.
A couple college students instead looked for the most abundent and easily accessible thing we can make batteries out of.
Hamartiogonic@sopuli.xyz 4 months ago
Sodium batteries would be a welcome change. Solid state batteries are another interesting technology that looks promising.
Grimy@lemmy.world 4 months ago
People think your comment is pro fossil fuels because it’s literally a pro fossil fuel talking point. This is the kind of stuff they parrot. Dumb people think that having batteries somehow makes EVs equivalent to ICE when it comes to environmental impacts and will repeat exactly what you wrote while ignoring all the other facts.
You can be right and still be a mouthpiece spreading oil propoganda.
Showroom7561@lemmy.ca 4 months ago
I agree that no battery is perfect. But unlike gasoline, you can use a rechargeable battery over and over, then it gets recycled.
It’s a far better solution. And better batteries will come alone to replace what we use now.
n3m37h@lemmy.world 4 months ago
And petroleum products don’t? I don’t get your argument Lithium mining is pretty bad but nowhere near as bad as oil/fossil fuels
Fracking contaminates ground water, when you pump oil out it get replaced with what? Water, once again contaminating everything it touches. Plus this doesn’t happen with Lithium mining either
SlopppyEngineer@lemmy.world 4 months ago
Rare earths for alloys in oil pipes. Cobalt to refine fossil fuels. Noble metals in catalytic converters. "Do as I say, not as I do "
Sightline@lemmy.ml 4 months ago
Funny how people are overly concerned about cobalt in EV batteries but never cellphone batteries.
givesomefucks@lemmy.world 4 months ago
I said cobalt was an issue…
Not just cobalt for EVs, even tho I shouldn’t need to explain that bigger batteries take more cobalt…
Things might seem “funny” to you because you’re not understanding what they’re saying mate.
If you’re nicer about being confused, people may be more willing to take time to help you. But this is the most help I’m giving considering what you said.
DeadPand@midwest.social 4 months ago
Funny how people are overly concerned about gotcha games online rather than considering what the poster is trying to highlight or say.
Sightline@lemmy.ml 4 months ago
Almost like I’m pointing out that they don’t actually give a shit about cobalt.
TranscendentalEmpire@lemm.ee 4 months ago
Nah, people hate nuance, it’s now the age of false dichotomy. Where you either offer my position unconditional non-critical support, or you are offering my opponents unconditional non-critical support.
I said something similar about nuclear power a while ago and got a similar response.
givesomefucks@lemmy.world 4 months ago
Bruh, mentioning how much concrete it takes for a new nuke plant and how long it will keep spewing co2 in the atmosphere for curing will get you crucified lol
Like, we’re way past “crunch time” on climate change, we can’t afford to just do random shit without understanding all the consequences and just hope for the best.
People just want to feel like we have all these perfect solutions on standby
TranscendentalEmpire@lemm.ee 4 months ago
Yeah, I wasn’t even that critical in my statement. I was just explaining how switching to nuclear power would require us to combat the NIMBY attitude that killed it in the first place, and that political capital would probably be spent more wisely elsewhere.
I’m fine with nuclear power, but as you said it’s not exactly the silver bullet a lot of people claim it to be.
TheDarkKnight@lemmy.world 4 months ago
Is there an environmental cost with fossil fuels?
waigl@lemmy.world 4 months ago
Some Lithium-Ion batteries use Cobalt, but many don’t. Lithium-Iron-Phosphate, for example, is a popular variant without any Cobalt. There is a push going on to move to battery chemistries without Cobalt or to reduce the actual amount of Cobalt where it is still required.
marx2k@lemmy.world 4 months ago
Lithium production does still take an insane amount of water to produce
felbane@lemmy.world 4 months ago
Wait until you hear about the oil refining process!
XeroxCool@lemmy.world 4 months ago
My car meme groups keep recirculating a shitty gotcha anti-EV screenshot of a post listing out how many tons of rock get processed for the minerals, the gallon-per-hour rate of the mining trucks, generators, transportation, blah blah blah as if petroleum just naturally drips put of weeds and into their gas tanks. But I guess if you dilute into the ocean and atmosphere, it doesn’t really count because you can’t see it.
Knoxvomica@lemmy.ca 4 months ago
Or in the case of Canada, to separate oil out of the ground!