One can probably be sure that the facts cited in the adjacent graphic that appeared in 2023 in Facebook are true. However, one must consider the scale and effects of their complaints. Of course we could point out that the author does not know how to spell nickel and that if one capitalizes some chemical elements one should capitalize all, but we would never go there.
If one accepts that mining, transportation and manufacturing of batteries consume the vast amounts described, one can also add "so what?" The absolute numbers tell us nothing about the relative environmental effects.
One can assume that the effects cited are highly localized. Mining at Thacker Pass, wherever that is, has no effect on horse ranchers in Mongolia. In contrast, the exhaust from fuel burning, being hotter than air, rises into the admosphere and spreads around the globe. Like the butterfly's wings, its motion has unknown effects, and it is conceivable that some Mongolian or his horse might be sickened by atmospheric hydrocarbons, but never by transcontinental diffusion of acid. In any event, sulphuric acid is well understood, even by high school chemistry students, and can be safely stabilized across its "life cycle." (Ref. attached.)
This is but one of many such Save internal combustion! screeds that have appeared in the last couple of years. Our guess is that they originate either with oil-company shills or with aging, unreconstructed high-school boys who still want to rev their engines at traffic lights to hear the sound of their detuned mufflers.
The cost of safely migrating our energy and transportation models away from fossil fuels will not be cheap, Worse however is that a Planet Earth with prevailing temperatures of 140ºF will not be survivable.
