By Elise Neish - United States of America and United Kingdom
Introduction
Electric vehicles are the future of transportation. Or so the industry wants us to believe. With the help of catchy slogans such as “Zero emissions. All Tesla.” and government incentives like the introduction of ULEZ charges, the EV market has recently skyrocketed. In fact, there has been a 50% increase in the number of electric cars on UK roads over the past year (Roberts, 2023). Despite this natural shift towards the use of EVs, the UK government has taken plans a step further, announcing a ban on the sale of new petrol and diesel vehicles from 2035 onwards. But is this penalty fair?
Positive aspects of electric vehicles
The arguments in favour of electric vehicles have one central theme: sustainability. Since electric motors do not burn fossil fuels, they do not release carbon dioxide. Therefore, cars are powered without releasing greenhouse gases.
It can also be argued that the introduction of electric vehicles has greatly improved the health of those living in densely populated areas, due to a decrease in air pollution. An American study showed that for every 20 electric vehicles per 1000 people, there was a 3.2% decrease in annual emergency room visits due to asthma-related incidents (Kato, 2023).
However, these claims only take into account the portion of the car’s life that it spends on the road. In order to fully understand the environmental and ethical implications of a vehicle, one must consider its complete life cycle.
The life cycle of an electric vehicle
The beginning
Arguably, the most important component of an electric car is the battery. Almost all electric vehicles on the road today rely on a large number of lithium-ion batteries, whereas petrol cars may contain one - considerably smaller - battery. The list of materials required to make a battery is extensive, so we’ll focus on two key components: lithium and cobalt.
To extract lithium, an immense amount of water is evaporated from brine in huge salt flats or underground reservoirs. 500,000 gallons per tonne of lithium, to be exact (Katwala, 2018). The evaporation leaves behind a mineral-rich solution, from which lithium can be extracted.
After the extraction, a solution of toxic and radioactive elements is left behind. Most lithium extraction plants have insufficient processing measures in place to remove the chemicals, dumping hazardous waste directly into the environment. The consequences of these unregulated actions have already been shown. For the third time in seven years, dead cows, yaks, and fish were seen floating down a river in Tibet as a direct result of an increase in lithium mining (Katwala, 2018). A large percentage of the mining in the area is being carried out by BYD, the world’s largest supplier of lithium-ion batteries for electric cars.
The majority of these reservoirs are located in arid regions, where the livelihoods of locals rely on the already-scarce water supply. For example, in Chile’s Salar de Atacama, lithium mining activities consume 65% of the region’s water, leaving the local quinoa and llama farmers in extreme drought (Katwala, 2018).
A second key component of the lithium-ion battery is cobalt. According to Gleb Yushin, founder of battery materials company Sila Nanotechnologies, cobalt is ‘uniquely terrible’ (Katwala, 2018). No special skills are required to retrieve it, and the DRC, where the majority of deposits are located, is among the poorest countries in the world. These factors combine to create a huge problem: child labour.
Roughly 20% of the country’s cobalt mining is performed by artisanal firms, while the remainder is carried out by foreign-owned corporations (Lawson, 2021). At most of the foreign corporations, regulations ensure that workers are of a legal age and have a relatively safe working environment. However, at the artisanal firms, no watchdog checks up on their ethical practices- resulting in the employment of 40,000 children, as young as 6 years old (Lawson, 2021). That’s roughly 16% of all Congolese cobalt miners. Artisanal labourers spend hours and hours in narrow mines, using their hands and homemade tools to scrape away the earth. Exposure to cobalt has been shown to cause cancer, fibrosis, and birth defects in Congolese workers (CDC, 2020). Most of them have unfortunately not been educated about these risks. After a full day of work, they get paid less than two dollars (Lawson, 2021).
Electric car companies are fully aware of the issue. In 2019, Tesla was sued over the deaths and injuries sustained among child labourers in the Democratic Republic of the Congo. However, it refused to comment on the issue (Holzman, 2020). Other car companies, like BMW group, have been more proactive, joining ‘Cobalt for Development’ in 2019 in an effort to support more ethical practices in the DRC (Lawson, 2021). However, if artisanal mines are forced to close, 255,000 Congolese will lose their jobs, further damaging an already-weak economy. The only real solution is to improve the regulation of mining, which will require international cooperation between authority and businesses - a difficult task under a corrupt government.
Cobalt mining is equally damaging from an environmentalist standpoint. The DRC is home to the Congolian rainforest, the second largest forest after the Amazon (Lawson, 2021). Mining operations result in the clearing of forestland to make room for roads and other infrastructure. By cutting down trees, we eliminate the planet’s natural carbon capture mechanisms. Furthermore, the operations generate considerable carbon and nitrogen dioxide emissions, contributing to climate change. According to a Roskill report, CO2 emissions of cobalt production were about 1.6 mega tonnes in 2021, and were predicted to nearly double to 3 mega tonnes in 2030 (Mining.com, 2021).
By the time an electric vehicle has made it through the production line, from the gathering of materials to the assembling of parts, it has produced 80% more emissions than the average petrol vehicle (Moseman, 2022). According to Guillermo Gonzalez, a lithium battery expert from the University of Chile, the invasive and damaging process required to make lithium batteries for electric cars “Isn’t a green solution- It’s not a solution at all.”
The middle
When a new electric vehicle hits the road, it has to be driven for 21,000 miles to breakeven with its gas counterpart in terms of CO2 emissions. It would take the average UK driver 3 years to cover this distance. However, after the three-year mark, the EV would indeed be a lower-emission choice than the average petrol car. Furthermore, because electric vehicles run on electricity, the driver could have a completely clean conscience about their detachment from the burning of fossil fuels. Right?
Wrong. Although electricity can sometimes feel like a magical invention that appears right out of thin air, it has to be generated somehow. Although more and more energy is generated from renewables and nuclear, 40.8% of the UK’s electricity today comes from the burning of fossil fuels, releasing carbon dioxide into the atmosphere (Poynting, 2023). Furthermore, classed under ‘renewables’, the burning of entire trees under the pseudonym of ‘biomass’ produced 12.9% of the UK’s energy in 2021 (Wentworth, 2023). Unsurprisingly, the burning of trees produces carbon dioxide, in addition to decimating carbon sinks. Although electric vehicles don’t perform their own combustion, they are often still powered by it.
The end
Another major concern of EV critics is the end of the car’s life. The batteries in the average electric vehicle can last for 10-20 years, after which they must be disposed of. Right now, we’re experiencing the first wave of dead EV batteries, and we don’t quite know what to do with them. If deposited in a regular landfill, the batteries leach toxic metals such as mercury, lead, and cobalt into the groundwater supply, threatening neighbouring ecosystems and the health of those nearby. The batteries could theoretically be treated in a similar way to nuclear waste and trapped in concrete compartments underground, but this would be incredibly expensive. Recycling the batteries would be an ideal solution, but researchers are still trying to determine the best way of doing so. Cutting into a battery can make it short-circuit, combust, and release toxic fumes. Perhaps, if it was profitable to businesses, a solution would be created more quickly. However, it’s currently cheaper to dig up new materials than it is to recycle old batteries (Hirschlag, 2022). Without incentive, the development of a widespread battery recycling program will be slow, leaving our planet to suffer in the meantime.
Conclusion
It’s true that for the time the car spends on the road, electric vehicles are more eco-friendly than petrol cars. They produce significantly less CO2 and help to prevent air pollution. However, the hazardous manufacturing and disposal processes of the crucial batteries mean that the EV’s complete life cycle is significantly more environmentally damaging than that of a regular car.
There is nothing wrong with owning an electric vehicle if people are aware of the implications of their choice. However, it is not okay to remain uneducated, brainwashed by the marketing strategies of electric vehicle companies, claiming to be an eco-warrior.
Bibliography
“Are Electric Car Batteries Bad for the Environment?” EVBox, 16 Mar. 2023, blog.evbox.com/uk-en/ev-battery-environmental-impact#:~:text=Cobalt%20mining. Accessed 13
Dec. 2023.
CDC. “Cobalt | NIOSH | CDC.” Www.cdc.gov, 24 Feb. 2020, www.cdc.gov/niosh/topics/cobalt/default.html#:~:text=It%20can%20harm%20the%20eyes. Accessed 26 Dec.
2023.
“CO2 Emissions from Cobalt Production Expected to Soar — Report.” Mining.com, 19 Apr. 2021, www.mining.com/co2-emissions-from-cobalt-production-expected-to-soar-
report/. Accessed 27 Dec. 2023.
EDF Energy. “EV: Advantages.” EDF Energy, 2015, www.edfenergy.com/electric-cars/benefits. Accessed 24 Dec. 2023.
Hirschlag, Allison. “Lithium Batteries’ Big Unanswered Question.” Www.bbc.com, BBC, 6 Jan. 2022, www.bbc.com/future/article/20220105-lithium-batteries-big-
unanswered-question.
Holzman, Jacob . “Tesla Asked to Report on Human Rights amid Cobalt Deal with Glencore.” Www.spglobal.com, 2 July 2020,
Accessed 26 Dec. 2023.
“How Do Electric Cars Work? | MINI UK.” Mini.co.uk, 2022, www.mini.co.uk/en_GB/home/range/more-mini-electric/how-do-electric-cars-
works.html#:~:text=Electric%20cars%20work%20by%20receiving. Accessed 13 Dec. 2023.
Jacoby, Mitch. “It’s Time to Get Serious about Recycling Lithium-Ion Batteries.” Chemical & Engineering News, American Chemical Society, 14 July 2019,
cen.acs.org/materials/energy-storage/time-serious-recycling-lithium/97/i28. Accessed 26 Dec. 2023.
Kato, Brooke, et al. “Electric Cars May Reduce Severe Asthma Attacks: Study.” New York Post, 3 Feb. 2023, nypost.com/2023/02/02/electric-cars-may-reduce-severe-asthma-
attacks-study/. Accessed 26 Dec. 2023.
Katwala, Amit. “The Spiralling Environmental Cost of Our Lithium Battery Addiction.” Wired, 5 Aug. 2018, www.wired.co.uk/article/lithium-batteries-environment-impact.
Accessed 13 Dec. 2023.
Lawson, Michele Fabiola. “The DRC Mining Industry: Child Labor and Formalization of Small-Scale Mining | Wilson Center.” Www.wilsoncenter.org, Wilson Center, 1 Sept.
2021, www.wilsoncenter.org/blog-post/drc-mining-industry-child-labor-and-formalization-small-scale-mining. Accessed 13 Dec. 2023.
Meyer, Susan. “Survey: Average Length of Car Ownership in America.” The Zebra, 1 Sept. 2023, www.thezebra.com/resources/driving/average-length-of-car-
ownership/#:~:text=Key%20findings%3A-,Americans%20own%20their%20longest%2Dkept%20cars%20for%20an%20average%20of,fuel%20economy%2C%20main. Accessed 26 Dec. 2023.
Moseman, Andrew. “Are Electric Vehicles Definitely Better for the Climate than Gas-Powered Cars?” MIT Climate Portal, 13 Oct. 2022, climate.mit.edu/ask-mit/are-electric-
vehicles-definitely-better-climate-gas-powered-cars#:~:text=This%20intensive%20battery%20manufacturing%20means. Accessed 26 Dec. 2023.
Poynting, Mark. “Renewables, Nuclear and Fossil Fuels: The UK’s Changing Energy Mix.” BBC News, 10 May 2023, www.bbc.com/news/business-63976805. Accessed 26
Dec. 2023.
Rees, Katie. “5 Ways Electric Cars Are Bad for the Environment.” MUO, 20 Jan. 2023, www.makeuseof.com/why-are-electric-cars-bad-for-the-environment/. Accessed 13
Dec. 2023.
Roberts, Gareth. “More than 1m Electric Vehicles Now on UK Roads.” Www.fleetnews.co.uk, 26 Apr. 2023, www.fleetnews.co.uk/news/latest-fleet-news/electric-fleet-
news/2023/04/26/more-than-1m-electric-vehicles-now-on-uk-roads. Accessed 24 Dec. 2023.
“The 2035 Ban on New Petrol & Diesel Cars – the Ultimate Guide.” Motorway, motorway.co.uk/sell-my-car/guides/the-2035-ban-on-new-petrol-and-diesel-cars. Accessed 24
Dec. 2023.
Wentworth, Jonathan. “Biomass for UK Energy.” UK Parliament, 16 Jan. 2023, post.parliament.uk/research-briefings/post-pn-0690/. Accessed 26 Dec. 2023.
Writer, Christy DeSmith Harvard Staff. “When Buying an EV Increases Your Carbon Footprint.” Harvard Gazette, 28 Aug. 2023,
news.harvard.edu/gazette/story/2023/08/when-buying-an-ev-increases-your-carbon-footprint/#:~:text=In%20the%20U.S.%2C%20the%20typical. Accessed 26 Dec.
2023.
Comments