Ian Bradford: THINKING OF BUYING AN ELECTRIC VEHICLE? Read this first.

In 2017, Human Rights organisation Amnesty produced a report into Cobalt mining in the Democratic Republic of the Congo. It found that there were children as young as seven, working in dangerous conditions. 

Cobalt is a vital component of Lithium- ion batteries used in electric vehicles, and of course such things as cell phones.  DRC produces around 70% of the world’s cobalt. Miners working in the mines face long term health problems including lung disease, and risk fatal accidents. Between Sept 2014 and Dec 2015 it is claimed at least 80 miners had died underground in southern DRC. 

One 14 year old orphan said he started working in the mines at age 12. He spent 24 hours at one stretch underground. His foster father wouldn’t let him go to school and instead exploited him by making him work down the mines. 

UNICEF estimates there are approximately 40,000 children working down the mines in southern DRC. As stated above, Cobalt is a key component of the batteries used in Electric vehicles. The New Zealand Labour government pushes the sale of electric vehicles. We have a Prime Minister who is supposedly concerned with the welfare of children but is happy to promote electric vehicles with batteries containing Cobalt mined by young children, who frequently die in the mines.  

Photo: Wikimedia Commons. Author: Julien Harneis.  (11)  

Some of the Problems Facing EV Owners

·     The cost of EV’s will not allow ordinary people to drive one. On average, you will pay $15,000 more for an EV over an internal combustion vehicle. Until recently, the only suitable EV was the Tesla. It can do about 450km on one charge, but it takes about 6 ½ hours to charge the battery fully on a normal charger. Compare that to 5 mins to fill a petrol vehicle. 

·       Trips may be restricted due to insufficient charging places. 

·       To build charging points countrywide, including in many homes, we may not be able to provide sufficient electrical energy.

·       Most EV’s only travel a relatively short distance on a charge. So they will essentially be town cars or a second car. 

·       When the weather is cold the batteries do not work well. Distance travelled is shortened.  You may end up stranded on a highway in very cold conditions. 

·       When you need to replace the battery the cost is prohibitive. If you try and sell the vehicle nobody wants it as they do not want the cost of a new battery, (if you can get one!).  As in Europe and elsewhere, your car may end up in a car cemetery. 

·       You cannot have too many EV’s in one area as the electricity grid may overload.  

·       The production of a battery releases a lot of CO_2.  Although CO₂ does NOT cause global warming it kind of defeats the purpose doesn’t it? 

·       Germany has banned EV’s from underground car parks due to the fire risk. Batteries can catch fire.

A friend of mine has some friends who were driving north of Wellington, New Zealand, in their relatively new EV when for no apparent reason the battery caught fire. Fortunately, they escaped unhurt, but the car was a write-off. Readers may be familiar with the fact that cell phones occasionally catch fire too. They have the same battery technology. Then again, I have another friend who witnessed an EV in flames in a street in Christchurch city NZ. So that’s  two that I know about in NZ, without making any effort to find out more. So how many fires have there been?  Then I have seen a video filmed by a bystander in the USA of an SUV which had a battery explode. The vehicle was in two halves, one on one side of the street and the other half on the other side. Had anyone been sitting in the back seat they would have been killed instantly. I wouldn’t have liked the front seat passengers’ chances either.  

Do we ever see these fires or explosions on TV in New Zealand.  No never. That wouldn’t do the governments push to get people into them any good at all.  As a matter of interest, there are many more examples too.      

Electric vehicles are powered with a Lithium-ion battery. A danger occurs when the battery is damaged say in a rear end or side rear collision, or if the battery is exposed to extreme heat, or if something penetrates the battery wall.  The batteries can store a large amount of energy in a small space.  When damaged, that energy escapes by a process called thermal runaway, and it can lead to ignition or even explosion.  This is not common but if they do occur can be extremely dangerous. In an EV fire over 100 organic chemicals are generated. These include toxic gases like Carbon Monoxide and Hydrogen Cyanide both of which are fatal to humans. While the fire service can wear protection the general public will not  generally have this protection. The recommendation for an EV fire is to let it burn out. That means closing a road for several hours. That is because the water required to put the fire out has to run somewhere and it will contain nasty chemicals.  However, once the fire is out the problem is not over. EV fires are known to reignite hours, days or even weeks after the initial event, and they can do so several times. Recovery firms are increasingly concerned about dealing with EV’s . Just because a fire has burned out there is no way of knowing if it will ignite on the back of a pick-up truck or in storage later. 

Photo: Stop These Things 

With more EV’s on the roads will we see more of these? 

In 2018, electric vehicles replacing petrol and diesel vehicles, saved 40 million tonnes of CO₂ worldwide, equivalent to reducing global temperatures by just 0.000018 deg C or a little more than one hundred thousandth of a degree Celsius by the end of the century- that is by 2100. To put it another way, in that year 2018, electric vehicles stopped a temperature rise of just 0. 0000002 deg C, or two millionth of a degree.  

Of course you might say that as more electric vehicles are produced there will be a greater temperature rise saving.  However, you are then putting more CO₂ into the atmosphere in the manufacturing process, so you may not be gaining anything.  

At present there are no recycling facilities in NZ. So what do you do with spent batteries? 

New Zealand climate change minister, James Shaw’s fuel efficiency overreach is promised on the fallacious notion that his net zero “greenhouse gas” emissions goal will somehow end billions of years of climate change on this planet and we will power ourselves with solar and wind materials while China builds a new coal fired power station each week.   

How many billions of dollars will it cost to provide electricity from wind and solar stations? Moreover, when do the EV owners most want to charge their batteries? At night, when there is no sun and probably no wind blowing. 

Modern petrol and diesel vehicles have catalytic converters in the exhaust. My 1994 vehicle even has one. Apart from being economical, these vehicles emit only Carbon Dioxide and water. Carbon Dioxide does NOT cause global warming nor any adverse weather effects. We need more Carbon Dioxide not less. The latest news states that a group of NZ chemists are working on a way to take Carbon Dioxide out of the atmosphere.  Are they funded by the government?  If all the worlds’ chemists started drawing Carbon Dioxide out of the atmosphere millions of people in developing countries would die. More Carbon Dioxide means greater crop production needed to feed the increasing world population.  Carbon Dioxide is not a pollutant and it is not poisonous. Submariners survive in levels of 8000ppm. We currently have only about 420ppm.  If the level of Carbon Dioxide falls below about 150ppm then all plants die.  Then of course we die too.  Oh, and just to put the cat among the pigeons,  most honest scientists predict we will be entering another little ice age by 2030-2040. The earth is already cooling due to little or no sunspot activity. There have been record low temperatures in the Northern Hemisphere, and many deaths of people and animals due to the cold. We haven’t felt it in NZ yet because we are surrounded by ocean. It takes a long time to heat or cool the oceans because of their huge volume, but the cold will eventually reach NZ. We shall need all the warming we can get. 

So if you don’t mind the high price, don’t need to drive very far or very often, have a reliable weather independent recharging source, never need to drive in very cold weather and don’t care about the environment and human rights, then buy an electric vehicle. 

 

 

 

 

 

This is the headline in the Australian Daily Mail from June 3^rd 2022:

 

CHILD MINERS AGED FOUR LIVING A HELL ON EARTH  SO YOU CAN DRIVE AND ELECTRIC CAR:  AWFUL HUMAN COST IN SQUALID CONGO COBALT MINE.

 

Combating Modern Slavery: Modern slavery, including forced labour is a major issue globally.   The New Zealand Government takes this issue seriously and is committed to eradicating all forms of modern slavery!!!! 

 

 New Zealand’s position: New Zealand is committed to actively contributing to international efforts towards the elimination of modern slavery, including forced labour, child labour, people smuggling and trafficking. 

A “plan of action” was launched on the 16^th March 2021 by the Minister of Workplace Relations and Safety, the Hon Michael Wood. 

The plan of action reaffirms New Zealand’s commitment to prevent and eliminate all forms of modern slavery and outlines 28 actions Government agencies are taking though to 2025. Under the plan of action policy work is currently underway to explore legislative and other options to address modern slavery, including forced labour in International supply chains. 

 

What Does This Mean for New Zealand Businesses? 

 

Businesses as well as governments have a responsibility to recognise and respect human rights in their operations, and to seek to prevent or mitigate adverse human rights impacts linked to their operations, products or services by their business relationships. 

 

Businesses should work with their suppliers and consumers to ensure modern slavery, including forced  labour,  and child labour,  are not a part of their supply chains. Businesses with international supply chains are encouraged to assess the risk of modern slavery including forced labour in their supply chains and implement human rights due diligence as applicable. 

 

I have known for over two years that very young children, as young as 7 work and die in the mines in the DRC mining cobalt, an essential element for batteries in electric vehicles. The New Zealand Labour Government under Prime Minister Ardern and Green party climate change minister James Shaw have pushed the sale of EV’s to supposedly prevent climate change. The most recent push, only a few months ago where more incentives were given to buy EV’s . This push of course coming a year after the government’s commitment to move towards eliminating child labour.  

EV’s will not make the slightest difference to climate. Climate change is a natural process and humans play virtually no part in it.  So to satisfy the obsession of the Prime Minister, and  the Climate Change Minister, children still mine cobalt and die. 

 Ian Bradford, a science graduate, is a former teacher, lawyer, farmer and keen sportsman, who is writing a book about the fraud of anthropogenic climate change.