These ‘dirty’ aspects of electric vehicles still overlooked – Yorkshire Post Letters

SARAH Olney, the Lib Dem spokesperson for transport, writes (The Yorkshire Post, August 12) that the Government should do more to encourage adoption of electric vehicle (EVs) as they are the future and green.

Other supposed advantages are that EVs can be charged at home, but only if the owner has off street parking and can afford the additional cost of having a wall charger fitted.

Not much use to someone living on the 10th floor of a high rise. More troublingly, she seems to be unaware of the severe ecological damage being done around the world by the push for EVs.

Not only will there not be enough resources to produce the lithium battery packs to meet production targets for EVs from 2030 onwards, but the United Nations Conference on Trade and Development (UNCTAD) report of July 2020 details the severe environmental damage caused by lithium and other mineral mining in the alto plano areas of Chile, Bolivia and Argentina where it is estimated that over two million litres of scarce ground water are required to produce one ton of lithium.

UNICEF also produced further evidence of ecological damage being done in Brazil to the Amazon basin and in the Democratic Republic of Congo where their report estimates that over 40,000 children are employed in forced labour in mineral mines directly connected with EV battery and motor manufacture.

The acid mine drainage from mining activity there is also seriously damaging local rivers and streams, the toxic dust causes serious health problems to local populations and the report estimates that the detrimental effects will last for hundreds of years.

As the Director of International Trade for UNCTAD, Pamela Coke-Hamilton, stated: “Most consumers are only aware of the ‘clean’ aspects of the production process. The dirty aspects are out of sight.”

What should also be of great concern is that 75 per cent of the world trade in these important minerals is now controlled by the Chinese government. The strategic implications of an increasingly bellicose and hostile state having a near monopoly of the critical resources for our future transport systems are extremely worrying.

Pure battery-powered EVs will only ever will be suitable as urban runabouts. They are socially divisive and far from being the conscience-salving future of private and public transport. Hydrogen is the future.

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