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Anyone remember back in the 80s/90's when paper bags at the grocery store were evil and we were told that we were chopping down the rainforest to produce them?
The answer then was plastic. Plastic bags and plastic bottle were the way to go. You could walk around proudly holding your plastic bag/bottle knowing that mother earth was smiling upon you.
Now we know the truth. Plastic bags and bottles are among some of the worse things you can throw away into you local land fill. They are seen as a dirty, bird choking , cancer causing blight on our society and mother nature frowns upon you as you try your best to keep that nasty thing out of sight. Now paper bags are looked as being more environmentally friendly than their plastic counterparts.
I see electric cars going much in the same direction. Right now, they are seen as a clean, environmentally friendly and responsible form of transportation...so much better that paying those greedy oil companies that are fracking our planet into extinction. Mother nature and the planet smil... you get the point..
What do you think we will be saying 10/20/30 years from now when we will possibly have huge landfills full of old lithium car batteries? Will we be looking back on gas power cars in a more positive light ? Will that nasty gas guzzler you are driving now become are more environmentally responsible choice?
Anyone remember back in the 80s/90's when paper bags at the grocery store were evil and we were told that we were chopping down the rainforest to produce them?
The answer then was plastic. Plastic bags and plastic bottle were the way to go. You could walk around proudly holding your plastic bag/bottle knowing that mother earth was smiling upon you.
Now we know the truth. Plastic bags and bottles are among some of the worse things you can throw away into you local land fill. They are seen as a dirty, bird choking , cancer causing blight on our society and mother nature frowns upon you as you try your best to keep that nasty thing out of sight. Now paper bags are looked as being more environmentally friendly than their plastic counterparts.
I see electric cars going much in the same direction. Right now, they are seen as a clean, environmentally friendly and responsible form of transportation...so much better that paying those greedy oil companies that are fracking our planet into extinction. Mother nature and the planet smil... you get the point..
What do you think we will be saying 10/20/30 years from now when we will possibly have huge landfills full of old lithium car batteries? Will we be looking back on gas power cars in a more positive light ? Will that nasty gas guzzler you are driving now become are more environmentally responsible choice?
Well, there won't be landfills full of lithium batteries. Just as there aren't landfills full of current automotive batteries or pools of used motor oil.
Those things will be recycled.
If you want to better get your point across.. Look more towards the lithium mines. Which very well could be an ecological nightmare on the horizon
Or.. You know, the last few days I've seen some places asking people to not run their AC or turn it up to take stress off the electrical grid.. Might want to look at that prior to having everyone stick their car on it to charge..
One day we’re going to realize there is no good way to produce electricity (unless the conspiracy theorists are right and the powers that be are hiding something).
Also, nature gives us all we need whether we like it or not: our own two feet and various pack animals. Humans miraculously survived thousands of years prior to the last couple hundred. How curious is that?
Anything else will end up being some sort of ecological disaster.
So yeah, we’re just replacing one problem with another.
The analogy isn’t great though. Many went back to paper bags because they’re made from something that can be grown. Reusable bags are also a thing. Some are plastic.
If we go full electric, I doubt we ever go back to gas to any great degree. It will be something else entirely. Maybe horses.
Interesting idea but seemingly lacking in critical analysis. Yes, it is quite alarming how the oil lobby was behind the promotion of rubbers and plastic (crushed the glass industry...no pun intended) and they completely misled governments and consumers with respect to recycling. Technically they said their products were recyclable...not that their products would be recycled, but it was enough to misled the public for the better part of 60 years.
Anyways, your assumptions seem based in stasis without the thought that electric vehicles of the future will be improved upon where perhaps lithium and mining will not even be part of the equation. Currently a number of automakers are doing R&D on motors and battery packs with no rare-earth materials. What we see on the consumer market was literally developed >10 years ago.
There needs to be some kind of large upfront bit in thread making which suggests existing threads and maybe thinking through if maybe these have already been posted or if perhaps it is better to research and think first before making a new thread. This has been brought up ad nauseum on this forum, and that's not the fault of the OP, but it is silly how repetitive this is.
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Current and future versions of e cars are 'temporary' (plastics and electronics / software is not gonna be supported in 20 - 30 yrs), use and toss them to the recycler. of no value to keep.
Technology will change (hopefully soon)
ICE is not dead (too practical, flexible, adaptable, portable, stable, repairable, dependable...)
so both EV's and ICE's + additional options for propulsion and fuel will be in the cards for the future.
I saw an EV-1 in a museum a few weeks ago (it's not going anywhere soon) Who Killed the Electric Car?
I saw a EV conversion our company did in 1974, it's still driving 48 yrs later (no complex electronics or battery technology)
I don't expect to be seeing current EV's in use in 20 yrs, but I have a friend who still drives his Prius 1st gen. (1997)
EV will morph but not exit
ICE's will sustain in many applications
synthetic and synthetic fuels will be reasonable options at $6/g +
Hydrogen and other fuel cells / condensed power modules will make sense
'Distributed electric grid generation' will become more popular (and necessary) (Modular nuclear, as is used in other countries)
Transportaion options will quickly evolve (hopefully CA can reduce it's number of cars by 50%)
Lots will happen, but EVs are be a temporary, but important solution, as will other paradigm changes in technologies (E vehicles arrived in 1880's, but slow in becoming main stream (i.e. not yet...). https://www.caranddriver.com/feature...30-to-present/
It's very possible. History would indicate that that will be the case. Another situation from the 80s: the AIDs epidemic. Activists protested and pushed government fast track research into treatments. Years later those same activists admitted that their efforts were misplaced and that caused greater harm because dead end treatments got prioritized while effective ones were delayed due to government intervention.
In the long run, I think we would see faster development of alternative fuels and energy if the government stopped getting involved and allowed the free market to development the best technologies rather than choking it and using government to choose winners and losers.
There needs to be some kind of large upfront bit in thread making which suggests existing threads and maybe thinking through if maybe these have already been posted or if perhaps it is better to research and think first before making a new thread. This has been brought up ad nauseum on this forum, and that's not the fault of the OP, but it is silly how repetitive this is.
Toyota recently signed a contract to partner with Redwood Materials for lithium battery recycling - joining Ford and Volvo - who already have agreements with Redwood.
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