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I don't have particular interest in that. But I suppose having access to poorly executed examples of such is important to the folks that do. In the same way having access to Shein is important to folks that think the world needs more environmentally friendly fashion.

I'll keep using old car models that don't require child laborers removing several tons of material from the earth to satiate my personal environmental sanctimoniousness.




> that don't require child laborers removing several tons of material from the earth

So no car, then? Gasoline vehicles use cobalt and rare earths too.

If you were actually serious, you'd be driving an EV with LFP batteries and induction motors.


Mining.com, who would seem to be knowledgable about mining, disagree: https://www.mining.com/web/evs-vs-gas-vehicles-what-are-cars...

Do you have a source for your claim that cobalt/rare-earths are used in conventional cars to the same extent as electric?

And my point all up is that no new vehicles should be mined/built/purchased, at least while any old reasonably efficient one remains drivable. And that is what I have done. Pulling a bunch of lithium out of the earth isn't better than simply using what we already have made.


Modern cars use lots of platinum group metals, which use lots of slave labour.

Your point about used cars is a good one, but cars are relatively fungible. Almost every purchase of a used car causes a new car to be built & sold.


Are you referring to the ~4 grams of palladium/platinum in a catalytic converter? That does not seem comparable to the many kilograms of cobalt/rare-earths in an EV.

And have you recanted the statement that ICE cars use cobalt and rare-earths anywhere near as much as electrics do?

> Almost every purchase of a used car causes a new car to be built & sold.

No, the only cause of a new car being built and sold is an individual deciding that a new car is a good choice for them. Them selling their old car is a result of that same decision, not a cause. And that decision comes more and more nowadays from a misguided impression that "my old car is bad for the environment, I must buy a new environmentally friendly one to be a good person".


When you buy a used car, you are removing it from the market making it unavailable to somebody else who wants a car. That other person may buy a used car instead.

When you buy a used car, you increase demand, raising prices for used cars. This makes new cars relatively more attractive.


And? You're willfully ignoring what puts the used car on the market in the first place.


Platinum ore is 5 ppm platinum. So 5 grams of palladium requires a ton of mining.


This article has platinum ore at 50oz/ton, or 1,400 PPM. Do you have a source for your claim that it is in fact one third of one percent of the stated value? https://technology.matthey.com/article/7/4/136-143/

Edit: I see now that it is in fact 1,400 PPM of some intermediary matte, not raw ore. Th matte/ore ratio is not stated. But that matte is nickel/copper rich, and the platinum is in some sense a impurity in the existing ore that would likely be mined for its other metals anyways.

Even still: not all ore is equal. Platinum mining is a heavily industrialized process where machines do the hard labor, cobalt is child labor camps digging.


Of course LFP batteries, like in most Model 3s, are Cobalt free. It's not like electric car manufacturers aren't trying to improve things.


Good job digging up, transporting, and then burning oil has no side effects




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