An article regarding China possibly considering banning new internal combustion vehicles.
Not surprising when one sees those images of the unbeliveable air pollution in their cities.
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An article regarding a senior British Army General stating that the current military vehicles could be the last fossil fuel powered ones.
Great, hope they are all solar.
Will put an end to night manoeuvres? 
Finally remembered to take the photo. The car charging stations are free to use with a couple of different attachments to suit some vehicles (free recharging).
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A person has died after falling off a Lime scooter in NZ.
Progress in alternative battery chemistry;
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The following alternate article to that produced by ‘Science Alert’ may help with context.
Aluminium based battery technology when it is developed has massive potential.
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Good to see that the article compares the environmental toll of lithium and aluminium. As raised earlier, one of the major concerns of accelerated lithium battery production is the lithium mines are in very sensitive environments, which once disturbed will result in loss of ecosystems and significant irreversible damage in areas not previously significantly impact by humans.
It will be good to see if the Al solution gains ground to ensure such impacts are avoided.
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Australia is the largest producer of lithium, by far. The mines don’t appear to be in particularly sensitive environments.
All mining does harm. In reality, lithium is no worse than most.
Whatever else we do, we need to get a whole lot better at recycling.
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Many environmentalists and scientists have a different view and have raised concerns over new lithium mine development, including the impact on very sensitive ecosystems. See the earlier post in relation to this and there are many other articles which also highlight the same.
While lithium production in Australia is more hard rock style mining, there is a higher concern with mines in high altitude and dry environments. While it is ‘nice’ to think that Australian lithium mines will satisfy world demand for lithium, this will not be the case if future predictions of a electric energy world eventuate. The world will rely on the accelerated exploitation of lithium sourced from all deposits, including these high sensitive environments.
Australia can also not guarantee that any lithium battery imported is only from say Australian hard rock lithium mines. Australia will be importing batteries and technologies using high environmental risk lithium, as we import technological products developed elsewhere.
Notwithstanding this, rare metals which are also used in Li-ion (and potentially Al-ion) batteries produce radioactive wastes which currently many countries are struggling to deal with. An example is the Australian company Lynas which decided to set up its processing facilitates in Malaysia thinking that the local environmental requirements would be more suitable to its operations. Lynas has found out the hard way that many countries (and it locals) are not receptive to local radioactive waste management and disposal.
The management of lithium and rare earth mining wastes will continue to pose increasing challenges in the future.
Yes the world needs to get better at recycling all finite resources.
Recycling lithium, while will increase over time, will never be sufficient to meet future growing demand for lithium based products (it will only potentially meet a very small percentage of total demand until such a time arrives that the lithium market matures and the amount being used equals the amount being recycled…or in other words, no net growth/plateauing or decline in lithium use).
Unless one can find a way to alchemise lithium magically from other metals, lithium mining production will accelerate to meet forecast demand. This is a concern as this acceleration will rely on the exploitation of lithium from highly environmentally sensitive areas.
This is why any development of non-lithium based battery technologies are potentially welcome.
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Not that I’ve seen.
The fact remains, lithium mining is not significantly more harmful than any other form of mining. Fossil fuels, on the other hand …
While it may in some respects be somewhat true for Australian mining (if one excludes lithium processing which has its own challenges and unique wastes/impacts), it is not representative of the industry as a whole.
I suggest that one searches for articles from conservation groups and industry on the impacts of lithium mining. I have provides some in earlier posts, should one wish to read independent information on lithium mining and production impacts. Here is another example.
I have also seen firsthand, the current impacts of lithium mining in high altitude, dry desert environments in South America. One of the highly sensitive environments at risk from accelerated lithium mining. Governments and mining companies in these regions are ramping up production to produce cheap lithium to meet future world demand. To indicate that such impacts are no more significant than other forms of mining is incorrect and ignores reality. Lithium mining in many worldwide locations is also occurring in many new environs, which have never been impacted by mining. To destroy new areas of the planet in the quest for a new product should be treated with caution.
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Indeed. It’s a question of balance. I guess we’ll just have to agree to disagree.
I remembered reading about research into sodium ion batteries a few years ago which would overcome the relative rarity and potential supply problems of lithium and make batteries less costly so I Googled the subject and found these articles.
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There are many battery technologies. For me, the question is whether to go with rechargeables or replaceables. Replaceable battery packs address range anxiety issues, but there’s a chicken & egg problem with infrastructure, much as there was in the early days of petrol-powered vehicles.
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I would suggest that Coal mining, gas wells, oil extraction & fracking in both new & old areas also has huge impacts on the environment with huge problems in controlling the impacts of that mining including water pollution & usage, greenhouse gases, other pollutants including heavy metals. I would think in fact the impacts of carbon mining in all it’s forms are far greater than Li mining.
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I live in the Hunter Valley, so I’m well aware of the impacts of mining. That’s why I’m not too worried about environmental costs of extracting minerals that can be reused and why I believe we must get better at recycling.
Ignoring other impacts, if we’re to rely on fossil fuels, then we need to keep mining indefinitely, at ever-increasing volumes (until the resource runs out). At least with other minerals there’s a foreseeable point when extraction rates will begin to decline (assuming effective recycling).
I was discussing this last night. My comment was that exaggerating the potential environmental impacts of renewables distracts from the real and present impacts of fossil fuels.
Local Chinese consumers have lead the world demand for electric vehicles, which has principally been supported by CCP government subsidies to enable the fledgling Chinese EV industry to develop.
Mid 2019, the CCP government reduced subsidies on EVs sold in China and his has a direct impact on the demand for such vehicles. July sales as a result fell 14% and it is evident that the EV vehicles will struggle without significant government subsidies.
The EV vehicle sales had been increasing in China (albeit as a small percentage of total vehicle sales) even when traditional internal combustion engined vehicles were declining.
It will be interesting to see if the drop in sales is a one off and the Chinese market recovers over time.
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Toyota continues looking at
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