We May Not Have Enough Minerals To Even Meet Electric Car Demand (jalopnik.com)

Citing two reports from Reuters and Bloomberg, Jalopnik reports on the scarcity of metals necessary for electric cars. From the report: [W]hile demand for nickel keeps increasing, half the world's nickel supply is too low in quality to use for car batteries. All of which is going to have seismic effect on the world's suppliers. In short: There will be winners and losers, and the winners will be the ones with the highest-grade stuff -- not unlike, I suppose, the illicit drugs market. "Some of the biggest producers of the higher-grade ores, including BHP Norilsk Nickel, Vale and Sumitomo Corp, are moving quickly to take advantage and seal long-term supply deals with battery producers," reports Reuters. "Among those losing out would be lower-grade nickel mines like Cerro Matoso in Columbia, owned by South32 Ltd and Glencore's Koniambo in New Caledonia, as well as Anglo American's mines in Brazil producing ferronickel."

What of cobalt? Bloomberg sent a writer and photographer to Cobalt, Ontario, about 300 miles north of Toronto, to find out. The town, which began life as a silver town, also is believed to have some cobalt, though no one's really found much yet. The search for a new source of cobalt isn't taking place in just Cobalt, Ontario, of course, as mining companies worldwide try to capitalize on the our electric car future. But the search is ramping up as the world's biggest source of cobalt -- the Democratic Republic of Congo, where about half of all cobalt comes from -- is increasingly unstable, making car manufacturers nervous and cobalt all the more valuable.

Comments

Re:Another terrorist attack by a Moslem

[Kiuas]

BTW. Christians need not be smug since you can easily find plenty of genocide there although not as much as Islam.

Well now, that all conveniently hinges on what you count as 'christian'.

"Hence today I believe that I am acting in accordance with the will of the Almighty Creator: by defending myself against the Jew, I am fighting for the work of the Lord."

"The folkish-minded man, in particular, has the sacred duty, each in his own denomination, of making people stop just talking superficially of God's will, and actually fulfill God's will, and not let God's word be desecrated. For God's will gave men their form, their essence and their abilities. Anyone who destroys His work is declaring war on the Lord's creation, the divine will."

-Adolf Hitler, Mein Kampf

The oath taken to join the SS also directly mentioned God, and the Catholic church was in official alliance with the third reich, Hitler's birthday being an occasion of celebration in all churches within Germany. 'Gott mitt uns' was inscribed in each and every belt buckle of German soldiers.

But I presume in your books this does not count as 'real christianity', am I right?

It's likely very true that Hitler himself was not truly religious (in fact current historical consensus seems to be that he was fairly irreligious and just saw the importance of religion as a tool), but he consistently and repeatedly made references to the faith and is was a central theme in Nazi propaganda to emphasize that unity of the church (and god) with their cause. And the church agreed with this, wholeheartedly, the Pope said not one thing against Adolf.

And if you think that was the end of the church's genocidal tendencies you'd be wrong again. The catholic church openly took one side over the other in the Rwandan genocide, with catholic priests openly preaching murder and committing it themselves even, all in the name of god. Less than 30 years ago.

If however it is your opinion that as the views of the nazis (or of the Rwandan catholics) do not align with the modern interpretation of Christianity it's therefore alright to not count the holocaust or Rwanda as a 'christian genocide' even though Christianity was deeply involved in both, then you ought to give other religions the same courtesy and understand that the way states, especially theocratic states, implement and enforce their religious views does not define the entire religion or its believers. Right now there's a budhist-lead genocide going on in Myanmar.

The point that this should drive home to you is that as satisfying as it'd be to think religions cause totalitarianism, most often it is the case that totalitarian states co-opt religion and religious tendencies for their own purposes. In North Korea this has gone so far that the ruling elite has made themselves to be worshiped as gods, and created a religion where Kim is seen as an all-powerful miraculous figure.

I've met and talked with batshit insane theocratic muslims and christians alike. I've also shared bread with deeply religious people from both faiths who abhor totalitarianism because they've experienced its iron grip first-hand. I've also met many more followers of both faiths who are de facto atheist but choose to not use that term because it'd cause familial issues so they call themselves christians or muslims although you'll sooner find them in a bar than in churches or mosques.

In other words, a person who is fanatic in matters of religion, and clings to certain ideas about the nature of God and the universe, becomes a person who has no faith at all.

-Alan Watts