That article is so ridiculous and over the top I have a hard time even taking it seriously:
"People in working or impoverished economic classes are responsible for the life-threatening, exhaustive, violent work of removing their parts from the ground and assembling them. Meanwhile, people in the global upper class design and purchase AirPods."
Admittedly not tiny little wireless earbuds, and costing twice what airpods do, my Sony XM3 noise cancelling headset had 30 hours of battery life when it was new.
After 1 year of full day usage during the work week, they last 24 hours. Kinda surprised the Airpods battery dies so quick.
Are AirPods any worse for the environment than any other electronic device? You could argue that they are unnecessary but they don't seem to be any different than older bluetooth earbuds or any other device that is plastic with a rechargeable battery.
That they're unreliable is just the icing on this sandwich.