So the UK gov have bought forward the date where all new cars must be electric or hybrid.
Now forgive my ignorance but I get the damage that oil/petroleum does to the environment but surely there’s a negative impact to this ‘green’ tech too? Am I overlooking how much lithium or cobalt will be needed for this mass change? Surely having a huge need for these resources will mean just as much mining or seabed trawling to the degree that it’s not really ‘green’ any more…
In: Earth Science
Indeed mining for resources like mineral and copper are part of the “hidden cost” of green energy. Other things might be tire particles and lubricating oil from electric cars or transportation costs of equipment. Probably the best way to evaluate how “green” something is would be to compare the energy produced to the emissions produced.
For example, where I live we have coal power, which means an electric car runs on coal (dirtier than petroleum). However the power plant is more efficient at converting fossil fuels to electricity than a gas car due to its size. So even though coal powers the electric car to its generally better than gasoline.
With the resources like mineral mining, it gets even more complicated because of international politics. Minerals and magnets make the high efficiency turbines for a lot of green tech. There just are not that many do called “rare earth mineral” mines out there and around 80% of them are owned by China. These minerals are not only used for energy but also for defense and it is a riding geopolitical tension.
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