Flood of Oil Is Coming, Complicating Efforts to Fight Global Warming

Re:Flood of Oil Is Coming, Complicating Efforts to Fight Glo... by corodra on Monday November 04, 2019 @10:27AM (#21442471)

As a capitalist, I want to own all the lithium mining rights in the world. I dictate the price and flow when I seem fit. Like De Beers in blood diamonds... cough, sorry, "ethically sourced diamonds".

As a consumer, I want many, many capitalists owning different lithium mining rights in the world. They fight each other to lower the price and be competitive. Then find cheaper and cheaper ways to obtain lithium or even figure out better alternatives.

I am a capitalist. But I'm also not a total fucking monster. Oil companies don't play massive competitive games. They like working together. So no. I don't want them to have a hand in the future.

By the way, research lithium mining. A lot of big media have reported on it. It's fucked up and pretty much a modern day humanitarian/slave crisis.

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Re:Flood of Oil Is Coming, Complicating Efforts to Fight Glo... by shiftpgdn on Monday November 04, 2019 @12:09PM (#21443735)

Lithium is easily sustainable to mine and there are wildly ample amounts of reserves in the US. Almost all negative articles about vehicle electrification are hit pieces that intentionally conflate lithium and rare earth materials like Cobalt.

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Re:Flood of Oil Is Coming, Complicating Efforts to Fight Glo... by Robotbeat on Monday November 04, 2019 @03:00PM (#21445808)

I agree with you, but Cobalt is not a rare earth material.

And just to reiterate: lithium is abundant, widely distributed, and cobalt isn't required for batteries (LiFePO4 is a common chemistry, uses no cobalt, and has very long cycle life... good especially for grid applications).

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