Fixed Republicans keep trying to weaken state child labor laws In America, but still, it shouldn’t be too controversial to say that child labor is bad. It was bad when Hyundai’s third-party labor supplier was caught using child labor, and it’s worse still when cobalt mine owners use child labor in Congo. Considering that modern lithium-ion batteries require cobalt, this is also bad news for EV owners, because (as mentioned before) child labor is bad. Unfortunately for all the anti-EV people feeling incredibly smug right now, your gas or diesel vehicles are also dependent on Cobalt. At least if you want to take them anywhere.
The good news is that neither gas nor diesel engines release any significant amounts of cobalt into the air, so you’re good to go. The problem is, what is cobalt needed for?Extractive-catalytic oxidation process for desulfurization of octane.,” that is, separating out the dirty sulfur compounds so that your car’s fuel doesn’t pump them into the air we all breathe. Catalysts can usually be reused a few times, so some recycling is involved, but it’s still not good. It may be difficult to determine the exact percentage of global cobalt mined currently used for catalyst production, but This 2017 paper suggests It is less than 5%. Additionally, it appears that 91% of the cobalt used to make the battery was not used in EV batteries.
How these figures have changed over the past decade is unclear, but at least we have a rough estimate. It may be that catalysts are currently used more than before. Probably not. But it is still a significant enough percentage of global cobalt production to be notable. Every gallon of gasoline or diesel you buy was refined using cobalt Possibly carried out by one of the estimated 40,000 child laborers Employed by such mines. Over 15,000 miles at 25 mpg, you’re buying at least 600 gallons of child labor-contaminated gas every year, and you’ll likely keep doing so until you’re old enough to drive.
Batteries won’t need cobalt forever
It would be easy to turn this into a debate about whether child-labor-sourced cobalt used in EVs is better or worse than child-labor-sourced cobalt used to make gasoline and diesel. This would also be futile, because even if we somehow determined a “winner”, everyone still loses when child labor is involved. The only way to win is to get rid of child labour. Although we are working on it, taking cobalt out of the supply chain seems like the next best option.
The point is that even though most modern EVs use cobalt-containing batteries, not all battery chemistries use cobalt, and it is only a matter of time before sodium-ion, lithium manganese oxide, lithium iron phosphate batteries and other cobalt-free chemistries appear in new EVs. as well as, Cobalt in old EV batteries can be recycledTherefore it does not need to be mined fresh constantly. This won’t do anything about the child labor problem, but it will make it easier to ensure that less child labor is involved in EV manufacturing. As far as gasoline and diesel are concerned, the oil and gas industry already has a cobalt-free catalyst alternative in the form of nickel-molybdenum.
Still, whether EVs become cobalt-free before gas/diesel or after, no amount of change will keep kids out of cobalt mines. However, this is somewhat difficult to do, as it would require extensive international cooperation. And yet, as much as I disagree with Trump and the Republicans on almost everything, if they actually found a way to end child labor overseas and get kids out of the cobalt mines, I think we can all agree that would be good, right? Is no one arguing in favor of more child labour?
