"In June of 2022 the European Parliament voted to effectively outlaw the sale of new cars using gasoline or diesel by 2035." The Biden administration "wants as much as half of new car sales in the U.S. to be electric" by 2030.
Are you ready for your EV (electric vehicle) to help save the planet? A New York Times article stated that at the end of 2022 the Kelly Blue Book average price for an EV was $61,488 compared to $49,507 for all passenger cars and trucks – but is that the only place to look for the cost of EVs?
Replacing EV batteries can cost between $2,000 and $10,000, with an expected lifespan of 200,000 miles, which for those who drive 20,000 miles per year would be about 10 years.
Also, you might want to consider the charging time. Current DC fast-charging systems take about 20 minutes to recharge your car, which is considerably longer than the time it takes to fill your gas tank. Level 2 home chargers take from four to 10 hours to charge your car. Oh, did I forget to tell you? Your home will have to be rewired to accommodate the charger.
I imagine EVs are going to slow things down at NASCAR pit stops. Maybe they will shorten the races – the Indianapolis 250, perhaps.
Might you plan to take your EV camping? You know, to pull your trailer? Or, what if you want to just haul something? Well, as you increase the weight behind your EV, your already minimal driving range, diminishes. But don't worry. You will just have to make frequent 20 minute stops to recharge, if you can find a functioning recharging station.
Are you going to take your electric car to the beach? Please do not drive your EV on the beach in Daytona Beach, Florida, and especially do not drive on the edge of the ocean. After Hurricane Ian in Florida, EV cars that had been in ocean water, once they dried out, caught on fire without warning. It seems there is a chain reaction that takes place between salt in the engine and the batteries. That ought to make things exciting.
Then there are the hidden costs, the costs you have to dig a little deeper to find. For example, for each EV auto battery, one must process 25,000 pounds of brine for lithium, 30,000 pounds of ore for the cobalt, 5,000 pounds of ore for the nickel and 25,000 pounds of ore for copper. When it is all added, you dig up 500,000 pounds of the earth's crust for just ONE battery.
Let's examine the mine at Jiangxi, China. The workers use ammonium sulfate poured into big holes to dissolves the clay. The strong ammonium fumes are very damaging to the lungs of the workers, but that is par for the course for Chinese treatment of laborers. Using a number of other noxious, toxic, cancer-causing chemicals, the sludge is processed to remove the just 0.2% rare metals, with the remaining 99.8% contaminated toxic material being dumped back into the originally created hole. It is stated that, "many of these rare earth mining processes also unleash plumes of sulfur dioxide," a toxic gas, into the atmosphere. Of course people have concerns for aquatic life in nearby rivers and streams.
Then there is all the lithium that you need. One of the places for obtaining vast amounts of lithium is the Atacama Desert in Chile. This area is filled with subterranean aquifers, which are reserves of fresh water. They need lots of brine (salt water) to refine the lithium, but that is no problem, for they have discovered salt water brine below the fresh water aquifers. So in an area where fresh water is precious, they are jeopardizing the fresh water system by drilling through it to get to the needed brine, so we can make our EVs to save the planet. It is stated that there is a weight of evidence, such as "shrinking pasturelands, failing crops, disappearing flora and fauna," that all point to a process of desertification, which is being exacerbated by lithium extraction. It is stated, "the impact of disturbing a 'huge complex hydrological system' is not visible from one day to the next," but the lithium mining and the desertification "are interlinked without any doubt."
As is the usual story, the bulk of the rare minerals are in developing countries, with developed countries, including China, taking full advantage. It is stated "the dirty secret of the green revolution is its insatiable hunger for resources from Africa and elsewhere that are produced using some of the world's dirtiest technologies." Continuing, "the accelerated shift to batteries now threatens to replicate one of the most destructive dynamics in global economic history: the systematic extraction of raw commodities from the global south in a way that made developed countries unimaginably rich while leaving a trail of environmental degradation, human rights violation, and semi-permanent underdevelopment all across the developing world."
Oh I forgot to mention the human rights violations. More than 50% of cobalt comes from the Democratic Republic of Congo. So where are they getting workers for these mines? Don't worry; they have employed 40,000 children for $1-2 per day. Many of these children are suffering from "chronic lung disease from exposure to cobalt dust" or one of the many other toxic chemicals to which they are exposed daily.
Of course in 2016, while Joe Biden was still vice president, Hunter Biden helped China to purchase an American mining company in the DRÇ. It is stated, "Chinese miners have been accused of worsening what were already low labor and environmental standards." So, we have another high mark for the Biden family. At least they made money, right?
Who would have ever guessed that going green would be so destructive to the planet and be so abusive of children? Don't worry; we must remember that we are doing all this to save the planet, and it has nothing to do with the Biden family coffers. I wonder if AOC thinks of all the children she helped to employ as she drives her EV. She is so wonderful.
I could be wrong, but it looks to me like while with the new green initiatives, the U.S. might be getting a deal it doesn't want. Third World countries are getting the shaft that ultimately they will not want either, because the huge abandoned mine shaft is full of toxic chemical sludge – and we owe it all to Joe. What a great humanitarian!
Oh, I forgot one thing. Have you noticed that EVs run on batteries? Batteries do not generate electricity, but instead they store electricity that has been generated somewhere else. The primary electricity-producing plants are powered by coal, uranium, natural gas or diesel. So, "to say an EV is a zero-emission vehicle – is not valid."
Maybe EV really stands for EcoVillain.
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