Johnny, thank you! I learned a ton making this with you. It's amazing how clear things can get when you talk them out with a friend. You and Iz have been so supportive since I went independent (and before!) and I can't wait to keep making things together. Maybe next time I’ll have you on my channel :)
Glad she brought up the "how about public transit". Cars and the infrastructure aren't inherently the problem but, here in the US, our infrastructure has all but abandoned public transit and built entirely around cars
I understand that you mention China owning a significant number of mines, but it should be noted the Europeans, Americans and Canadians far outnumber the Chinese in terms of mining Cobalt and other minerals in East Africa. In my country, Barrick Gold from Canada managed to avoid 40 million in Taxes to my country through and elaborate scheme. Things will only become positive when we as Africans seize the means of manufacturing and trade of our own materials.
Oh really? By Africans, you meant "the others" i.e. China? I don't see Africans seizing their own resources any time soon, one hopes they did but unlikely.
I really hope Africa can take the opportunity to get industrialized and get rich when China is getting all the kinds of western pressure. I'm sure that when this game is over, whoever wins will try to make Africa stay poor like it always been. The only difference is that the western is a hypocritical aggressive defender and China is a realistic defensive aggressor. China accepted the rules created by the west and you guys will play by the rules until new rules come out.
YES on Cleo's last point. Places like Amsterdam and Tokyo are designed in such a way where you don't even need a car. You can get everywhere you need to go via public transport, bike, or on foot. No problematic new technology needed, just smart, thoughtful design. Shoutout to Not Just Bikes and Strong Towns for increasing awareness of good design.
There are a few cities that have good public transit, but the US really just needs to expand their bus network and allow for more biking and walking to those bus stations.
@@KRYMauL As channels like Not Just Bikes have pointed out, the way cities in the US are planned and constructed (lots of suburbs, zoning laws) makes it almost impossible to have a good public transport system. American cities would need to be denser and less segregated (segregated in housing and business areas) to make a car not necessary. I have lived in severeal medium to big cities all over western Europe, never needed more than 10 minutes to reach the next supermarket by foot.
Johnny and Cleo should do a whole series/podcast together. I love Johnny’s maps and catastrophic outlook on the direction of the world and I love Cleo’s ability to reel that back in and offer solutions. A perfect pairing!
These two make a perfect team; it's enlightening to see that not everyone is blindly following major EV makers like Tesla. Really hoping to see more collaborations like this; they should take a trip to the Netherlands and partner with the NotJustBikes channel or BicycleDutch 🚲🌍
You should do another video on how America became so car-centric in the first place. Massive lobbying led to an America where car travel is literally the only way to get round, and massive lobbying is still going on to keep it that way. While (like Cleo said) investing in public transport and better civil planning is objectively the better way to go.
The government fails at everything it touches. They will fail at public transportation, and will use planning to coral people. Allow free market...... stop subsidizing, and stop lying. We can and have built engines that utilize electrolysis and are exvlusively hydrogen and oxygen as by products. Free market is the answer. Gov is the problem.
@@niokat3866 it is much harder to stop cars than trains and buses, since the bus driver will be under the authority of the government and trains require rail
The whole industry has drastically reduced cobalt usage. Johnny is pushing out of date narratives used by propagandists to delegitimize renewables. He’s pushing narratives, not reporting. He does this consistently these days
Additionally, Tesla’s next generation 4680 batteries are cobalt-free and have begun mass production. Scaling the production batteries is truly the difficult part and most auto makers will see tremendous headwinds.
@@willitbreak5825 Honestly it sounds to me like China actually won *too big* on this one. They made an investment in monopolising a mineral hoping it would be important and it ended up *so important* that the monopoly became a matter of national security for most nations. Hence speeding up a cobalt-free process that otherwise would be decades behind.
It's wishful thinking for the rich, but illusion for the poor. A cleaner future for whom? People are struggling with basic things such as food, water and shelter in some places. Their priority certainly isn't a sustainable future if they don't have a future, or a present.
@@paulskiye6930 That's missing the point though, isn't it? More CO2 in the air, and therefore climate change, will only increase those basic need problems of food and water. The problems of e.g. mining cobalt are absolutely there, but the argument I think is that this is a solvable problem, and also a much smaller (and localized) problem than climate change, which affects anyone, including the poorer countries. In this case, I'd argue non-action (that is, not switching from fossil to electric) is actively more harmful to humanity as a whole, as non-action keeps worsening the climate,, affecting everyone. Whereas action causes a set of different problems, which we can solve.
@@dykam my point is: we all know the alternative is better for us. But require investment of time and labour for the long-term. But for those in poor countries, they don't have the ability to do so, or have different priorities. They have to worry for their day to day survival: i.e. food, shelter and water. They don't have the luxury to think about it or plan for the future, while their present is already fragile and threatened. They need to survive first after all.
The heading of video is " The Dark Side of Electric Cars" and Thumbnail is showing pic stating "China Controls the Minerals". This is enough to understand prejudice.
As if the USA has ever cared about workers rights around the world. Just recently the supreme court refused to ban cocoa farmed using slave labor in US allied countries. In fact the USA has staged coups in the past to increase exploitation of workers and protect the interests of big business, like in Guatemala when they toppled an elected government to install a brutal, mass murdering dictatorship, just so Chiquita (the united fruit company) could keep workers in terrible slave like conditions. The only reason China can get away with its neocolonialism is that it is friendlier and less exploitative than the imperialism of the USA and the IMF. The USA only has itself to blame for this.
Not sure that China is any better. They aren’t installing puppets but they support dictators and are eliminating their own people, the Uyghurs in a genocide. They’re back Russia’s invasion of Ukraine. Sure America did some dastardly stuff 100 years ago and. Favored dictators over communist dictators(remember communism killed 100 million people between Stalin, Pol Pot, Mao) but you look far enough into history and everyone was murderous and backwards. But if we’re talking about today, I’ll take western morals over China’s totalitarianism any day.
@@jdotsalter910 That 100 million figure is completely doctored, it counts nazi soldiers as victims of communism for example, and by the standards of the book it came from, capitalism has killed billions since the 1700s. The USA's imperialism doesn't stop 100 years ago either, or even 50 if you include the reprehensible stuff the Chicago boys did alongside Pinochet's fascist dictatorship in Chile or right wing death squads mass murdering suspected communist sympathisers Indonesia in the 80s (read the Jakarta method) or installing and supporting a right wing dictatorship in south korea that lasted until quite recently, it is still going on today. Slave labor in prisons, bombing the shit out of iraq and afghanistan, supporting Israel's ongoing campaign of genocide against Palestine and its people, providing bombs and bombers for Saudi Arabia's invasion of Yemen. And the only reason the USA has scaled down its genocide of indigenous people is that this genocide was carried out successfully. This genocide even served as a blueprint for the nazis, only difference was that they did it in europe with more advanced technology at their disposal.
He's come a long way since he did that terrible video about "American breakfasts" where he didn't actually talk about all the things Americans really eat for breakfast.
@@Strideo1 not sure what you're on about, most of the foods he mentioned in that video were accurate as to what Americans eat for breakfast. I live in America lmao
Of course, Exxon, Shell and all the oil companies _hate_ electric cars. Just like US Warmonger, Lockheed Martin, Boeing, Raytheon, etc _hate_ Russia Ukraine Peace Talk. These Warmongers love to send more weapons to Ukraine to ensure that the war won't end!!
Exactly. Newer batteries like LFP use no Cobalt and Tesla for example, even though it produced most EVs last year, they used less Cobalt than VW. Kind of disappointing that he didn’t mention alternatives for Cobalt or if it is even necessary (which it isn’t).
+1 for this, Cobalt is being phased out. It's finite, expensive, vulnerable to monopolisation but probably going to be replaced by solid state batteries. Why undermine EVs by only looking at one ingredient that will be phased out...
I think you should talk with "strong towns" ,"city beautiful" or "not just bikes". They talk about how we build out cities and towns directly leads to overuse of cars and poor resource management just by the zoning and types of houses we are forced to make.
I can see the strong towns message fit into his type of format. And I would enjoy watching it! Granted, I've only seen not just bikes presentation of the ideas, but those videos were great.
I think this story was always about China not about clean energy or transport. You forgot to mention that the largest cobalt mine in DRC was acquired by the Chinese from an American investor. But let us not forget how many coups and dictators have been supported by the West for the purposes of controlling crude oil.
Yes i was also hoping for a perspective on how to counter the enroaching chinese incursions and infiltration bids into Africa, especially in the DRC with regard to Cobalt mining.
As someone who lives in the car capital of the world it’s really hard to explain how much public transit is a solution that is overlooked and under funded as a solution that doesn’t involve getting Chinese control or mining finite resources
Cycling infrastructure has been a solution in many cities outside car-crazy North America. AFAIK my aluminum bike frame contains silicon and magnesium but no cobalt.
You been watching the news and the explosion of crime across parts of the US? We literally just had a terrorist attack in New York City from a shooter who was racist against white people...what good is public transportation if it's not safe to use? At least in my own car i can go my own way and ensure my own safety.
Only communists and socialists like "public" transportation. Raping the planet for non rewenable resources in personal vehicles is for people that want freedom.
So is Tesla. Over fifty percent already ) lots built in China, though). It's called the lithium iron phosphate, the LFP and the LiFePO4. There's no raw materials issues except for the lithium, which isn't much of the percentage of the elements in any li-ion cell.
yesss. There is a reason why almost all former eastern bloc countries invested massively in public transit. Because it uses the least resources and yields the best results, albeit the reasons were different back then, namely the lack of resources. But nowadays with an overabundance of resources, the same technologies (and city planning) like rail infrastructure, electrification (from renewables), trolley buses and light rail can help us solve our pollution and emissions problems.
not to mention the ecomomic mobility, not having a car and being poor in this country is a death sentence unless you're fine with living where you are for the rest of your life
Great video, tho this kind of behaviour is not only exclusive to China. If the US (or any other nation) had the foresight to take control of these mines, the situation would be the exact same. I'm not trying to let China off the hook here, but this is a global problem. Hopefully these mines will someday be owned by DRC itself.
@@Cecilia-ky3uw Yeah... It's not like they are actually democratic. The government are happy with dealing with China. I bet they have pocketed a lot from the deal too. It would only work if the people of the country actually rise up and revolt to form an actually decent democracy. But based on the poverty, education of the locals and who they are involving, China, I can't see a democracy happen in a hundred years.
Thank you Cleo for pointing out that switching cars for electric cars is not the solution, and that reducing our reliance on all cars is one. Land-use and zoning has such a huge, and overlooked, impact on emissions.
Totally agree on this. The issue of public transit has more layers than it seems. The density and the efficiency of infrastructure depends on the zoning. In the US, the zoning laws are so strict that if a zone is for residential only - it's only for single-family zoning; as in a detached house with possibly some yard. It's called Euclidean zoning and is very common in the US. This is inefficient use of land. For public transit to be efficient, there has to be a certain density to an area. You can't run a bus/train line servicing only hundreds of people for hundreds of miles. With strict zoning, you end up with sprawls of suburbs where the only way to get around - even to just buy coffee, is to drive. If zoning is relaxed, you can have multi-level housing buildings with shops and establishments. Everything you need to live for your everyday life is within walking distance - no need for cars. The concept of a "corner store" is very alien to many suburban Americans. With this increase in density comes better a more efficient public infrastructure. People can still own cars and live in single-family houses if they want but people should have choices to also live in dense areas. They should not be forced to ONLY live in single-family houses.
At 2:08 I have issue with saying China is stealing Congo's resources. I believe that any country has the right to nationalize its natural resources and may reclaim them any time, but at the moment China manages those mine based on an agreement. That's not stealing.
Agreed. The West steals because it uses violence and force against African nations. China isn't stealing if African nations willingly negotiate into the sale of its resources. Stealing is when you take without permission (i.e. European and American imperialism), not when you buy (Chinese acquisition of the mines).
I feel like you are more concerned that China controls these new resources. I dont think the mining operations would have been any different if it were some other country in control of this... West has its fair share of exploit and pillage in course of history, by no means I am supporting China for this, its just that it has been there before anyone would have gauged the potential for cobalt. Uganda and Africa in general has been exploited by west for centuries before China came in lately for its share... And for evs to be greener theres been a study that only after some 30-40k miles they get even with ICE cars depending on the way a country produces its energy.
@@pinknailsworldseries367 I am not! I am against the entire EV paradigm, unless we don't find some serious solution for recycling batteries, I reckon this EV thing(and our electronics in general) would be more detrimental in every possible way. World cannot bear a fleet of zillion cheap EVs coming out of China. The technology seems to be ever evolving like our electronic gadgets, and soon all these outdated ev's will be out phased by every other generation to come(with more range and gimmicks)...cant imagine the ewaste this would end up producing. I still think efficient fossil fuel vehicles make much more sense till we have proportionate amount of recycling for the EV industry. And that my friend is the main issue here...Instead of addressing the elephant in the room, I find this type of content 'A MERE RANT'..."ooo look what China is doing, here..." that just goes on and on...with zero impact Half of what china produces is for the 'so called developed nations...', stop procuring and outsourcing
Johnny tbh if it wasn't China controlling it, it'd have been the west. So yeah the problem is that we see electric cars as the "cleaner future" option when we should've invested in affordable & accessible public transport for all. US could've easily been a leader in that if they didn't keep spending like almost $1 trillion/year on the industrial military complex. Since we're talking about big powers taking over & exploiting poorer less powerful countries, maybe you should do a video on Bolivia & the coup done against Evo Morales by the US to make sure the US secures the lithium reserves there. Sounds a fair & balanced view if you show how all big powers play this dirty game
The irony thing is many of chinese arent are not using cobalt and nickle in their battery because they use LPF battery. So chinese ev are actually more envirentment friendly than the western EV
"then the west would" complete BS. the west is not trying to buy african land, give them enormous loans they cant pay back, stealing their mines and resources.
Johnny, your research is well-backed up and intriguingly done as always, but the way you approach this topic is giving more anti-China sentiment than concern (and honestly ire) over how Congo has been exploited for decades and conditioned towards political instability for the benefit of (mostly) the West. It seems like the only reason why people now suddenly care about Congo (and maybe even why you made this video) is because in this case, China, and not the West, is the beneficiary.
I know this is not kind of the "best option", but i think it's the less troublesome one for me: 1- Either goverments invest more on public transport (especially metro and Natural Gas powered BRTs) 2- Find a way to make biofuels that don't create CO2 as a byproduct. I just think it could go that way.
Well, I would not say China is a communist country; in fact, it is a socialist country with some "Chinese characteristics". However, China is literally a state-owned capitalistic country. Although the CCP stands for the Chinese Communist Party, China is definitely NOT a communist country. Also, using the word "steal" is extremely unprofessional and rude. No one steals anything. There's always a price in exchange for products. China just saw the opportunity and took action early, PERIOD. America always judged everything China did just so wrong and evil. Not everything has to be politically related. As the greatest country on earth, how about America helping Africa to build some infrastructure and lend them money as well? Stop blaming everything on China lol
I am no fan of China but what this video will be about if it's one of those Western countries monopolizing these mines? What difference does it make? China extraction isn't green while a western extraction is green? I just don't get the point why China has to be brought into the topic in first part.
"Personal agenda" ... USA has been doing the exact same thing for centuries look at what they did in Afghanistan and he never made a video about it ... yeah but sure super power china tho 🤦🏾🤦🏾
I thought the same too, but I think because China cares a lot about green energy (it's part of every 5-year plan these past few years), that's why it's under the spotlight and under a lot of scrutiny. But we also need to shed light on how Western countries exploited Africa way more than any other part of the world.
I was thinking the same, I don't care if China is there, they could have even more mines. But I also get his point, it really threw me off when he said that there's child labour and a lot of exploitation, even though if there wasn't any of that they would still make a huge profit, so why practise such things in this age where they are looked down as barbaric? So I do agree with Johnny here, that China should stop exploiting Kongo's population, and they should stop exploiting their own population as well, and start fighting child and cheap labour.
A part of this video was Johhny being a "Bad cop", Cloe being a "Good cop". At least that is my interpretation & it makes sense if it was meant to be so.
Unfortunately, this is one of those here-is-a-picture-and-here-is-my-10-minutes-of-lecture plus China-is-evil-and-we-are-doomed type of videos that don't live up to the Jonny Harris standard of journalism. Not much information or investigation, mainly based on speculation and personal opinion, story goes superficial and driven by hate and implemented by amplifying fear. The sheer size of China dictates that it is dominant in so many industries or manufacturing sectors just like the US does in others. Guess for every product or mineral that China has an advantage over the US a similar video can be made. It also sounds awfully hypocritical when "news outlets" nowadays try to tell narratives in which China should be responsible for all deep-rooted problems in Africa. As much as I dislike the Chinese government, this sort of cliche is getting boring.
@@Amador253 I'm pessimistic about China. That's not the point. The point is this video isn't top-quality journalism and the story is just pretty mediocre. Like I said you and I both can make thousands of videos for each industry/resource/product for which China is dominant, but there simply is no point in doing that.
I like the thermal stability point you talked about of cobalt which is true, heck even metal recycling plants are focussing on it. One part I missed is the effect of regulation/subsidies on the reason why lithium and cobalt batteries are so wanted
Difference being, I suppose, that those companies are not directly or indirectly state-owned. They're private companies doing the bidding and the contracting with very few, if any, ulterior political motives. They just care about profit, and how far local governments will let them go to maximize those profits.
@@erickpalacios8904 Why do you guys cream over Western illusions of separation of business and government when businesses lobby for policies and have deep ties with politicians? US companies IS the US government.
As others have mentioned as well, although the situation in the Congolese mines is awful, having them under American corporate or another nation's control wouldn't result in anything better. Hell we cant even get coffee, bananas or chocolate to be harvested in a humane manner or get our clothes to be made outside of sweat factories. How do you expect Corporations to keep children out of the mines in Africa? Definitely a problem that needs to be solved (for all these areas) but to badmouth china because of it is kinda... weird? hypocritical? whatever.
As an African American, I have to agree with this. China is not moving military or coups (as of now) to get these mines up and running. The corruption runs deep in Africa. Tribalism runs DEEP in Africa. It just the right set up for influencing. I am not a China shill but how much longer can we keep blaming other countries for the wrong doing of the leaders of these African countries (my dad is from one of them)? Its the one thing I hate because it NEVER solves the main problem. If Africans want to stop these situation, theyll have to shed blood of their own... again.....
His point from what I understand is kind of that it's just a repeat (if you couldn't tell from the flashbacks of previous exploitations of DRC by Western powers). It's not to target China because it's China, he's targeting China because of their actions. And it's not like Harris is a USA simp/China hater, he bashes on US all the time.
If you're sitting at the poker table cheating the other players, the only thing worse than someone calling you out on it is another cheater taking a seat at the table. If only one player breaks the rules, it's advantage, but when many break the rules no one's sure how to play the game anymore
@@forthexp8649 why you need to complicate your statment ! just say it ! you are against china because they are competing with you in africa ! in other words, china takes and gives but western country and usa takes and but doesn't give, instead, it destroys your country by a proxy war, just like iraq and syria and libya
@@noeswantra2295 He criticizes the entire China. But while criticizing america he focuses on the companies and how the companies manipulate US Govt which is dumb af when it comes to spending money.
@@shashankgadamsetty508 nope, he only criticize Chinese government, which is not the same as the Chinese people. So more or less similar to how he criticize American companies
@@noeswantra2295 while ignoring the American government assisting corporations exploiting the countries they extract wealth from. When talking about China it’s the governments fault when it’s America it’s the corporations not the government. A little concerning narrative
@@noeswantra2295 criticize Chinese government, which is not the same as the Chinese people." this is the most asinine excuse ever, like gov mandates every aspect of all that,you know nothing of the decentralization in china internally
Cleo is correct. While the amount on earth IS finite, well the air on earth we breathe is technically finite too... It's just we have a carbon cycle. Aluminum is also finite, but in the 1700s after the process to isolate aluminum was discovered it became dirt cheap and is also infinitely recyclable as are most other metals. Edit: changed "The Woman is right though" to "Cleo is correct"
I love how you added a "women" & "though" there lol just an interesting observation. Also yes majority of oxygen comes from phytoplankton in the oceans which is also being destroyed so yeah ✨progress✨
The problem is that such batteries need to be recharged, which means that the environmental cost is passed on to power plants, which for the most part continue to run on fossil fuels.
Battery chemistry is changing all the time. Most batteries of the future will not use cobalt. Most (at this stage) will be lithium-iron (LFP) batteries. The other thing to remember is that batteries are now 93-95% recyclable which means that once it's out of the ground, all of these minerals will be cycling through the industry without the need for further mining. What no one seems to be talking about as well is copper. We are right on the cusp of hitting a wall where we need to mine copper to have any (for the first time since the bronze age). Before this there has been copper cycling through industry that meant only a fraction needed to mined to keep up with supply. Luckily there are some technologies becoming available that will allow copper extraction from clay, but even with this copper will become a limiting resource and EVERYTHING electrical requires copper to manufacture, especially electric cars and renewable energy.
Battery chemistry is changing/evolving but very slowly, also cobalt is needed for very dense and high density batteries for heavy duty applications….. there are millions of oil byproducts and batteries won’t compete to replace those.
@@dynamic283 Technically yes but for human purposes it should be more than enough. Besides that we are possibly only a decade away from mining the Moon as well as asteroids in near-Earth orbit at which time ALL mineral commodities will be abundant. This is why I steer well clear of investing in gold, silver or platinum. There are massive asteroids out there currently being tracked that are made almost entirely of these metals and thanks to SpaceX we will soon be able to both mine them and land them safely on Earth cheaply. As they are in space with nothing to react with, very little refining will be necessary either.
The title is misleading. Tesla, Samsung and Panasonic are already moving away to cobalt-free batteries. Model 3 & Y with LFP batteries are already cobalt-free. A much more in-depth research video here: th-cam.com/video/DFL8iQ3p3cI/w-d-xo.html
Funny enough it’s basically China who is making LFP’s. All western car factories use cobalt, with the highest percentage in hybrides. Basically the bigger the battery the less cobalt you need. It’s not a storage problem but an charge and discharge problem (so amount of horsepower out of the battery).
A lot of the focus on cobalt in EV’s ignores that we already use cobalt for gasoline processing. EV technology is advancing to reduce dependence on cobalt and to recycle cobalt in batteries. Meanwhile the mature tech of gasoline development has decided that cobalt is the way to go with gas processing. Anyone who is truly concerned about cobalt use should promote EV’s over ICE.
@Hello Everyone Not at all, since gas will _always_ use cobalt and then its gone,. While batteries don't always and can be recycled. Also theres more cobalt in your phone than an EV, so go back to land lines?
Wow, I didn't know that, looked it up confirmed - "cobalt is also used in the refinement of crude oil, which is used to make petrol". Gas pollutes on production and consumption and is subsidized by federal government.
The best part about electric cars is that electricity appears out of thin air. Seriously how do you think the power to charge any of those batteries is made? Inconvenient facts not addressed at any point!
Replacing gasoline vehicles with electric is the biggest scam of the modern world. Fossil fuel is still needed to supply electricity for the vehicles and Fossil fuels are used in the mining process and every other process in the production of electric vehicles; Global pollution will take a global effort.
EV's (not including the big pickups) actually use less electricity than it takes to drill, pump, refine, transport, pump the equivalent amount of gasoline... Don't believe all the petrochemical industry propaganda.
Just curious, what is that worries you more: China controlling resources as opposed as US controlling resources or Congo people being poor whilst sitting in good just as Irak people just as an example?
Here is a bit on lithium-ion battery chemistry that most people do not seem to understand very well: All modern rechargeable lithium batteries are lithium-ion batteries, this refers to the fact that it is the lithium ions (negatively charged atoms of lithium) move from the negative side to the positive side through an electrolyte. The battery technology like Lithium Iron Phosphate (PFP), refers to the cathothe (positive) side of the battery. The current technologies are as follows: Lithium Nickel Manganese Cobalt Oxide (NMC, EVs, tools, grid storage, good specific energy and power density) Lithium Nickel Cobalt Aluminum Oxide (NCA, EVs, very good specific energy and lifespan, these are the most dangerous ones) Lithium Manganese Oxide (hybrid EVs, consumer devices) Lithium Iron Phosphate (EVs, tools, these are the safest ones) Lithium Cobalt Oxide (one of the early lithium ion chemistries used by Sony). Of theses, NCA and LFP are the two Tesla uses and seem to be the two that get the most press coverage. NCA is the better cell chemistry but they are more dangerous and expensive. LFP is much cheaper but not as energy or power dense. When people are talking about the price of Cobalt or Nickel and how it affects batteries, they are usually referring to NCA or NMC cells. The most important element remains lithium, as currently there are no good batteries being produced at any sort of scale that do not use lithium, but plenty of options using other materials. LFP is very promising as a cheap battery, since it is just Iron and phosphorus in addition to lithium. As a side note, the anode (negative side) is typically made of graphite, but there are other materials. Solid state batteries seem to be on the horizon, but do not underestimate the difficulty of mass production. Lithium ion batteries date back to the 1960s and where first in mass production and being sold by Sony in 1991. There is a lot more research into batteries nowadays, but going from a few dozen made in a lab to a few dozen a second is extremely challenging. As a further sidenote, lithium-polymer batteries are lithium-ion batteries, but the electrolyte is a solid polymer sheet. They do not differ too much from cylindrical lithium-ion cells and the arguably more accurate name for them would be lithium-ion pouch cell. Prismatic cells also exist, though they aren't very widespread. If you would like to read more, the Wikipedia page on Lithium-ion batteries is a good start.
Lithium Iron Phosphate aka LFP aka LiFePO4. Never seen PFP used before, guessing first P is for prismatic. As the chemical make up describes it has ZERO Cobalt. But it has the draw back compromise of low energy density. This may not be the cell chemistry that is used in the future. But it shows how Cell chemistry can vary wildly and what minerals are required can drastically change. What we need is to scale up and seek out the most ethical to source cell chemistry. This is very doable as foundational concept of Galvanic Cells is vast array of different chemical combination. Maybe other than Wikipedia is BatteryUniversity.com , maybe a little old and outdated. But the deep dive foundational knowledge is absurdly good for the price of Free.
This video seems to focus only on cobalt, which can be 'addressed' but there are also broader issues with other minerals. The latest NMC batteries today (like NMC811 and NCA) use 80-90% less cobalt as the earlier NMC111, however they use more nickel (which has its own issues, with supply concentrated in Russia and Indonesia with a lot of processing done by China). As the above poster notes, LFP does not need any cobalt, but of course because of a lack of valuable minerals, they are unlikely to be economically recyclable when they reach their end of life.
I work closely with the automotive industry and they absolutely hate it when you bring up the question “isn’t all this another limited resource we have to dig up?” For awhile I was hoping we would go hydrogen in our cars, but that process isn’t too pretty either after some research. Amazing work and great points as always 🤟🏼
@@Ferruccio001 Don't. It's a pipedream of the gas (station) industry and extremely unlikely to ever become a viable alternative in private vehicles. The only thing better than Battery EVs is public transport, and that will stay so for a very long time, if not forever.
I knew that EV batteries had a dark side to them that is so greenwashed most people don't know about it. I'm too poor at this point to be able to afford a new vehicle and EV is out of the question for me right now. The bright side is that innovation, technology and research in this is always being driven forward so its entirely possible that we could come up with cheaper simple solutions. The down side of it is that capitalism isn't driven by the humanity of these problems is driven by marginalized cost vs profits.
That's why we are moving away from Cobalt entirely. Every battery we use on my channel does not use cobalt at all, which is LiFePO4 and LTO. Cobalt based chemistries are also dangerous to use. And it's expensive, every EV maker is moving away from it as well. The minerals used in LiFePO4 can be extracted from multiple places in the world. And recycling this chemistry is much easier than the others. And the degradation rate is much lower as well. I currently use non cobalt based batteries and solar to charge my ev without the grid. Zero coal or foreign oil used to fill up my car. If you charge Offgrid and have a Tesla with lifepo4, all of these arguments instanly disappear.
But, you still need to mine all the stuff. If we move away from cobalt, its gonna be something else. And, i would say its prolly coming from a third world country with modern slavery.
@@Kumek01 oh so should we not have steel buildings because we have to mine iron ore? Extracting ore is not hard and we do it everyday. Is this not known by the general populace?
It's important to keep in mind that the green revolution is just a tech revolution, a change in the source of energy we use, not a social revolution where everybody lives in peace and happy. Mankind is still the same, politics are still the same and the pursue for power is still gonna be the same. China controlling mines doesn't necessarily means that the world is doomed, just that China took advantage over west countries in some specific resources that might be useless in the next tech wave. And also if the US or other west countries had the mines instead, the oods wouldn't be much different: people would still work in harsh conditions and they will pollute the environmient just as much in order to reduces costs because the returns on invetments need to be kept high. The world is still the same, let's just not fool ourselves.
I considered unsubscribing after the Russia video where he made a bunch of factual errors. After watching this one for a few minutes I hit unsubscribe. This guy is pushing some weird agenda. Literally all major lithium ions battery consumers and manufacturers have committed to wiping cobalt out and as far as I can tell he's completely ignored that to push out this piece of disinformation.
This comment should be higher up. Maybe there were a bunch of problems with cobalt mining, but honestly why even bother getting into it when the whole industry is going to be side stepped anyway.
Actually many people have used green energy hyperbolically in that if we don’t shift the planter is doomed. We have politicians stating the workd will be a point of no return in 12 years. So, actually the narrative has actually struggle with many saying green energy is solution at all cost. What Johnny is highlighting is that there is a cost to green energy and for us to be aware of it. That’s why he called it the “dark side” which implies there is a good /light side to the coin.
Unfortunately, time is not an infinite resource. Human population and consumption continue to grow at exponential rates, so modest improvement is not going to be good enough to make a sustainable future - the only real reason to discuss green sources of energy.
Okay, Who owned those mines before China? And how many are still running by America and their allies? Information should be disclosed fully, Johnny. Publishing, quoting, and/or emphasising on partial information is propaganda. You as a journalist should know this.
For more than a thousand years, China has been sourcing cobalt, initially from the Middle East and now Africa, for its traditional porcelain industry making vases, bowls, plates and ornaments and the recent discovery of adding the mineral in battery making has caused Johnny to be suddenly alarmed and accuse China of grabbing Africa's mineral resources. Technology changes very fast and before we know it, cobalt may not be a key ingredient in EV cars anymore.
The only reason he's concerned is because they feel like the big cobalt rise is not entirely under control of the US. Everything should be about them. If it's not then they play the human rights card
Run by America!?....agreed Private US companies do have a lot of influence in US Govt, but they ultimately have to answer to their share holders, not the US Govt....in China it's the opposite...all Chinese companies private or public are by Beijing law, owned by the Beijing Govt, have to have a Beijing appointed official, and ultimately are heavily leveraged by the Beijing Central Govt, who has the power to approve hefty loans or liquidate any Chinese company practically overnight....Western capitalism is no peer to Chinese capitalism with Chinese characteristics..
@@ameyas7726 I totaly agree. "Public traded companies have to make short term profits to keep the shareholders happy." That short term thinking is a very big downside for wallstreet imo. Thinking 10 or 20+ years ahead has to be the norm. Too bad in this case its a dictorial state.
Update. Colbolt price 2024 Sept is now back to low prices of 2016. It is $24,340 a tonne… down from peak in April 2022 at $81,300 So often metals spike (like Palladium) then crashes and things normalize. So a flood of colbolt crashed the price.
I do agree with some of Johnny's criticisms regarding worker rights, deforestation, pollution, and that China doesn't seem to be doing anything about it BUT let's not pretend it'd be any different if a western company held control of these mines. It'd be the same story but with a different bad guy. The only way forward is for the DRC government to step in, protect their citizens, and protect their resources. Unfortunately, I don't see that happening.
I really dig the duality of Johnny getting to the dark, seedy underbelly of the truth, but then Cleo to balance out that ugly reality with optimism. Moar collabs, please!
That's what everything is. Even in school, when you write essays, they want you to say, "This is why X is a strong argument. But this is why Y is compelling too. Ultimately, the answer is very difficult to pin down, and it is probably Z, a combination of some parts of X and some parts of Y." If you listen to any liberal podcast like the daily, they do the same thing ---x seems like the answer. But they give evidence for Y. And they end the show with uncertainty and by saying it's probably Z. I hate that fucking template. I like people with wild opinions that are gutsy and can be proven wrong. The "it's probably a combination of X and y" crap can't really be proven wrong.
True mate but that is large cultural shift. I take public transportation and ride my bike and ebike. I live in a car dominated city and most here see public transport as a poor person's solution. Do folks really like each other here, or are comfortable with each other? Not really. It would be a massive shift.
*THIS* . People need to understand this and push for a change. I highly recommend these digestible videos: _The "War on Cars" feat. PragerU_ , by Adam Something _SUPERBLOCKS - The Future Of City Planning_ , by Adam Something _The Suburbs Are Bleeding America Dry_ , by Climate Town
@@bobsingh7949 so public transportation when done Right is great, a good example is with large college campuses. That being said I generally don’t like dealing with normal people and the truely public transport that is available in most places in the US sucks. There are limited routes. With long times in between for busses to come. It’s just a mess.
I definitely think the point about not throwing the baby out with the bath water is a very good reminder for people. Our current clean energy solutions are not flawless, but that doesn’t mean we should give up on switching to clean energy, it just means we need to continue working to fix the problems that exist with green energy.
Wow looks like China learned one from the playbook. I feel like this is the same for China in the semi-conductor industry where US basically dominates in (including ASML & TSMC)
Best comment here, China isn't uniquely evil for exploiting 3rd world resources. They just got there before the west did this time. Anyways there are plenty of companies who have already predicted the rise of cobalt prices and are working on reducing/eliminating the need for cobalt in batteries
Great point… he is going a-wall because cobalt is not dominate by American and western as most minerals of the world. He just need stir up hype around a main topic ‘China’ and something that China is the forefront at.
@@phillipthach7924 US companies ARE the US government. Especially when they spend millions lobbying for policies and they have deep ties with politicians. There's no distinction between the two.
@@NecroPyroLion I disagree here. US companies stongly influence politics, but they are still regulated and have constraints. The CCP makes the laws for themselves, so they can do literally anything they want to at any time with no resistance. US companies at least have to put up a fight to get laws changed in their favor.
@@phillipthach7924 I don't see the difference if owned by government or not. In my country we have mines owned by Canada private companies and the canadians and their government enjoy all the benefits of it while the "Private company" destroy and contaminate around the world and Canada keep their "green" image. On top of that, as someone already, mentioned, those "Private" companies bribe ("lobby") those governments. I mean, even Elon Musk called for a coup in Bolivia. You would say that he was just "joking", but there is truth in all jokes, a desire, a thought. Watch the video about how many "private" citizens got rich with Afghanistan war. China is blunt in their needs. The West engage in mental gymnastics so they can portray one thing while the "private" companies do their fishy business.
I like Cleo’s perspective. I love the insight your content brings, but being 100% honest with ya, it gets pretty sad and overwhelming after a while. It’s nice that Cleo gave a path forward.
Solar Punk The Future Requires that we use VERBS today. Giving up is the lazy route. We need to forefront hope and problem solving better than our parents did.
Fun Fact about green energy: When power companies put up a new Green Energy site, they put up an equal-sized conventional plant somewhere else on the grid, which has to run the same time as the new Green plant. The reason for this is simple: if the grid goes down one volt below the minimum, the whole grid goes down. The tricky bit is that Green plants aren't consistent, but the demand is *constant.* Batteries can store a lot, but building enough batteries to store enough power to cover the gaps for an entire grid is possible, but that's a lot of heavy and rare metals being mined, eats up a lot of real estate and it's still both a limited resource and causing some massive human costs in the process. The problem is that, if the grid goes down and everyone can't watch the big game for six hours cause the wind's down or the clouds are out, people would be rioting in the streets. Power companies *cannot* afford that, in the PR or monetary sense, so they're obligated to put up those conventional plants to run as backups for the Green plants to meet their shortfalls. Ironically, one of the best power sources by their standards is dams, since it's zero emissions and has a controllable (and thus consistent) output. Nuclear is also Zero Emissions, but then it has it's own problems. The only truly No Harm power source is Geothermal, but that's limited by location.
There is one very important thing I wanted to add that hasn’t been mentioned and it seems to give a bit of a wrong view on this subject: your perspective makes China seem like the ultimate bad guy in this and that the U.S. isn’t involved in this at all but you definitely have to consider that what the Chinese are doing now in the cobalt mines is something that the Americans would’ve done as well if they had the chance to do so. But due to multiple factors the U.S. has lost their ground in the region and SOLD their mines to China. I think that’s a point that wasn’t part of your video. Thank you though for the video, the production quality of this video was awesome as always, thank you. :) A good podcast proofing my point is by The Daily from March 18th called “the global race to mine the metal of the future”.
USA also supported the Belgians colonization of the congo, also approved the assassination of the congo leader who tried to improve the country for the people.
@@Syae22 Because the US didn’t invest decades ago like China did. If you want every video on TH-cam to involve the US then it won’t happen, But he has plenty of videos exposing the US that you can watch.
People have problem with EV as if there is unlimited Oil in world . Oil would get expensive as years pass and only middle eastern princes would make money of it.
When Johnny was talking about how history is repeating itself when moving towards a greener feature, this reminded me of the discussion on which countries should take the burden of cutting carbon emission. Should cutting be placed on the first world countries who benefitted from industralization historically? Should it be the countries like China and India that are currently industralizing and thus producing the most CO2 in the present? Or since this is a global problem that affects everyone, then every country should reduce emissions, including the countries that never had the chance to industralize. Either way, someone gets the short end of the stick.
@@andrewdoesyt7787 i see 3/4 wtf there was other commnts thugh i saw noine despite alot some kidn of shadow ban where random comments blocked for some reason?
@@questworldmatrix Because they don't care about labor conditions and environmental impact of how foreign sources minerals operate. The five eyes nations could get Cobalt from Australia but we lack the work force capacity and the high cost of conforming to basic regulations. Australia is already the 3rd largest nation supplier of Cobalt and by wide lead the biggest supplier of Hard Rock Dry Lithium. These are possible because the easiest Cobalt is being mined and the more expensive high grade lithium is being sold. Operational Difficulty and Price Cost is the problem when it comes to places that do not operate like China.
I’m so happy reading the comments. I was afraid people would totally agree in the anti-China narrative, but happy to see the opposite and see people thinking holistically.
@@jackmorgan1677 lol they’ve seen a massive economic growth as well, they can start thinking about these things too and not just about where to find food as it was in the past ;)
@@tadm123 There’s nothing wrong with that, but unfortunately, the world is more complex than that, go figures. You need to think about why Johnny Harris is so anti-CCP. They are bad, but they are not the only evil in this world. Why is he specifically focusing on China? From the comments, you can see that cobalt as a resource isn’t even that big of a deal (compared to other global issues anyways), yet he’s twisting the narrative, and making it to be a big deal and tying it in with the Chinese. Maybe the China=bad narrative gets more clicks, but I wouldn’t be surprised if he had ulterior motives or is funded by or working for some third party.
Honestly it baffles me that we are trying to make cars greener instead of reducing the amount of cars in the world. In my hometown public transportation is highly ineficient, and the city is designed for cars, yet it's just the 30% of people who use them. It's a class issue as well as an environmental one.
cars represent freedom of movement for the individual. Public transport relies on schedules and preplanned routes. discouraging this freedom is a step backward in societal development imo
@@Thedarkknight2244 this is just fundamental misunderstanding of freedom by americans. Forcing you to drive isn't freedom. You can't call something that you need to live a freedom. Dense-ish walkable cyclable cities with public transport are the only way to sustainably have cities work. Cars are inefficient (space) are expensive to produce, require infrastructure that without density higher than throughput doesn't pay for itself (suburbs are literally creation of devil - a ponzi scheme)
It baffles you? The answer is pretty simple, bad urban design choices from decades ago require us to either spend trillions redesigning all of our cities or billions on BEVs and letting market forces create momentum. Not that we shouldn’t address urban sprawl but it’s not a problem that can be fixed overnight or even in a few decades.
@@jbrandonf > and letting market forces create momentum. You realize that its cars and suburbs that have been subsidized specifically to create worse cities for humans?
@@Thedarkknight2244 the only reason why cars represent freedom of movement in America is because that’s what it was built for. Entire neighbourhoods were demolished for highways, parking is heavily subsidized, and there are so many negative externalities associated with it. Car lobbies pushed for billions invested in highways and disinvestment of public transit. If public transportation was good and extensive, you never have to check a schedule and you can go wherever you want to go-and this is common in many cities in the world. If anything, cars represent a burden. You pay for something that’s depreciating in value, you have to pay gas and insurance, and you always have to store it somewhere, which requires endless concrete in precious space in cities. Cars in America actually reduce class mobility because lower income people in some areas need a car to get to work, and money spent on their car is money that could be spent on food, necessities and housing.
I get that mining, in the DRC or elsewhere, comes with its own problems and challenges. I also think that real solutions must include degrowth, better city planning, and recycling. But I do not understand why half of this video is about China, or what is the problem with China producing EVs instead of the USA. Is exploitation or environmental destruction of a better kind when carried out by a Western power? How's China's management of these cobalt mines relevant to the sustainability problem? Is America any better at committing seriously to sustainable goals? I don't think so. You surely remember that Trump didn't follow the Paris agreement and as far as we know he might be elected again.
Also what was on my mind. China is a huge concern in this video but almost all of those mines are owned and processed by ppl who do not live there. Very much includes the west. None of us should have our hands in there.
what do you mean by degrowth? Recycling is a waste of energy in most cases. Although, I don't know much about recycling batteries. Also, electric cars are not really good for the environment in the long term. You are just doing the same thing again. It is just a movement by people who want to see short term results but disregard long term consequences. Making a battery is a very hazardous process. It is not on the same level of a nuclear waste but it is very bad for the environment. Besides, how you are actually charging your car is again for now using fossil fuels. Wind is not really a stable solution. Solar is also not that stable. It is also very expensive and thus not affordable for middle class. Nuclear is very dangerous but if handled well is the cleanest and most efficient of all. However, all these have even bigger infra and maintenance cost than fossil fuel power houses. As for China's management or rather just mining, his point was just that clean energy is not exactly clean. It is the same as fossil fuels just that we are mining something else. I also agree that I am pretty sure European countries and US will have also made moves in Africa for these minerals and I don't see them in any better light than China but at least they are not going for anti-global markets like China is.
@@aalalagikun5492 In the case of the automobile industry, degrowth would quite literally mean stopping the growth in the production of cars and eventually reversing it. Certainly not just replacing it with an electric version. Of course, there's absolutely no way of doing such a thing without an alternative solution for mobility. And that's a considerable problem, that requires (among other things) some different territorial and urban planning, and serious investment in public transit. More generally, degrowth (décroissance) is the critique of the idea of constant economic growth (constant increase in industrial output) and the proposal of reducing production and consumption based on the environmental considerations
@@D_Archives this degrowth idea is stupid. If there are better alternatives, they would automatically be adopted. It is a bad idea to forcefully degrowth and adopt "environmental friendly" methods as they would lead to higher cost of living for middle class and lower class families. If they are affordable, they would automatically be adopted. As it has been mentioned before, the best way to tackle environmental problems is by increasing literacy rate and lifting people out of poverty. Only then do they have the money and thought to think about environment.
Johnny has made countless videos critiquing western government and corporate corruption. If it appears he's being biased, I would guess you're either wrong or he just wasn't aware of the extent of western involvement.
Just loved how Johnny mentioned DRC being 'used' by Belgium, china, but curtly misses out America's 'using' of African countries for years.... The level of journalism that Mr Harris normally does, this is unacceptable...
....u know this guy rags on America alot, anyway did u see how u change ur words, cos u were saying he talked about Belgium and China exploiting Congo, but then u say that he isnt tlaking about USA using African countries..., African countries arent Congo, the point was specifically about Congo not African countries in general, now I'm not sure if America has used Congo before or has had an agreement(which ppl like to call exploitation), but yes USA has used African countries but the video on that isnt the main subject
Appreciated the zoom in and the zoom out and you too really compliment eachother! The cinematic quality is also incredible and award worthy! Would love to see a video of all the incredible ways the world collaborates!
Sometimes when you learn about the challenges, it is easy to get bogged down or even overwhelmed. That is where Cleo comes in! If we look at China owning cobalt mines as merely a challenge to overcome, then we can think of ways to progress in ways that are more friendly to the environment as well as non-exploitative to other cultures. We can do that for a large assortment of challenges as well. It would be huge if we can make it true!
Wow, I wonder what happened to the DRC between the rule of Belgium to when China bought over the cobalt mines? Who did the Chinese buy the cobalt mines from by the way? Seems awfully convenient for that 40 years of history to be omitted here Johnny.
@@samuraijosh1595 to vastly oversimply a very complicated and nuanced history and narrative, the US had the first democratically elected leader of Congo assassinated because of interest in Russia in the 60s. What followed has been a string of dictators (read about Mobuto, he was crazy), warlords, civil wars, rebel movements, foreign interference and exploration, and corruption sadly resulting in an unstable nation that really could and should be one of the most prosperous and wealthy countries in the World. TL;DR - Greed happened.
This is how I feel after every video on this channel. I just want to sit this guy down and say, "Take a breath. It's not as bad as you are making it sound." My roommates and I call it the "hair on fire" channel. He draws attention to greatly important issues but it's so hyperbolic, I feel like I need a bottle of Xanax after watching it. Her explaining it's not so bad was such a breath of fresh air because she said everything I was thinking while he was talking. This was a great change of pace. I've been asking questions about EV batteries for years now. I'm glad someone else is. But it's not being ignored. It's a new technology and a lot of development is being done.
Yes, I realize the irony in complaining about someone being hyperbolic while also asking for a whole bottle of Xanax. That was kind of the point. Don't get me wrong. I love this channel and the issues it brings to light. Plus, I also love maps. Just felt like saying that because I read my comment again and the tone sounded harsh. I don't mean it that way. And we don't really call it the hair on fire channel. I don't even have roommates. But the energy of some of these videos can be a little over the top. It's meant as constructive criticism with love.
6:20 "How did a substance that made ceramics blue end up being so important to electric car batteries..." this section is really unfortunate. Cobalt is a cathode material in li-ion batteries. Without going into battery chemistry, the material choice a always a balance between safety, cycle life and cost. The use of lithium with a carbon anode already nets high energy density. The anode needs to provide surface area for the ions and graphene is the right structure and is cheap and easy to produce. Lithium ion based batteries use a polymer membrane and the lithium electrolyte between the electrodes. It's this area is volatile. Dendrite formation can occur with molecules forms from the electrolyte and the cathode. The molecular structure of the cathode determines how many of these side reactions occur which lead to the batteries cycle life including eventual shorting of a cell. That's why cells are all fused. Lithium Iron Phosphate is actually superior to cobalt variants on cost and cycles but not density. But it gets weirder. Lithium Cobalt Oxide isn't even used in EVs because it to is not high density and costly compared to other chemistries. This makes the specific use of cobalt more an accident. It's actually the novel combination of elements that are progressing density. Such as Lithium Nickel Cobalt Aluminium Oxide. The chemistry needs to balance density, power (surface area) and cost. The fact that cobalt is novel in industry is what actually makes it significant as a conflict mineral in this discussion. The fact that it was the first cathode for lithium ion batteries is more of a footnote since pure cobalt cathodes aren't used in EVs.
@@victorslyvester8977 it’s 2022, we now have alternative facts. With one month free subscription to skillshare, you too can be an expert in any field. With some extra hours to learn some video editing skills, you can turn your new found knowledge into “documentaries” to educate others.
It is really comforting to see a significant rise in the proportion of comments demonstrating a critical mindset. The same video, if posted even just a few years ago, would have certainly received mostly mindless anti-China comments that mirror the tone of the video, yet now in 2022, more and more people are finally waking up to the hypocrisy of the west, and starting to be skeptical about the rhetoric. This is especially comforting considering this is a mainstream western channel, where viewers are likely mostly anglosaxon, or non-Chinese at the very least. Being able to think from multiple perspectives when there is no apparent incentive to waste cognitive resources doing so is a sign of growing cognitive complexity, and I sincerely hope this trend continues.
@Social Libertarian Looking at the number of wars US has started in the past decades, and more importantly the undercurrent motives associated with each, I'd argue that liberal is really not a valid label for the US. Much like parenting, there is a difference between true freedom (autonomy supportive), and being simply irresponsible. I have seen these youtube comment section arguments pan out to ridiculous lengths, and am hesitant to emulate this myself, so here's hoping to a rationale response
@Social Libertarian Its human nature to dwell on the titles and labels, and to be influenced by them, for they are the easiest layer of information for the brain to process. So terms like liberal, authoritarian, communist etc can be really effective at colouring an otherwise blank piece of paper. This is why killing innocent middle eastern civilians was renamed "collateral damage", sinister invasions were termed "humanitarian interventions", the same event would be labelled a pro-democracy peaceful protest when on Chinese soil, while being labelled anti-government violent riots when on US soil. I could go on, but I think you get the point. Kudos to the US for capitalising on the laziness of human cognitive processing tendencies with sugar-packaging. I don't hope to have you change your stance 180 degrees overnight, but I do hope to sew a seed that could one day stem into greater levels of skepticism in the face of western mainstream media tricks.
@Social Libertarian I'd rather a safe world than a liberal world where people are free to go out and harm others. The successful Asian countries are the more Authoritarian ones like China and Singapore. South Korea and Japan's cultures are naturally more authoritarian in nature. In these countries, crime rate is low as criminals are treated harshly and efficiently dealt with. To achieve freedom to be safe from harm, there must be order!
Mindless anti China comments??? Lmao you are satisfied with starvation, censorship, no regulation for human rights or environmental rights, 1.4 billion people but 1/6 gpd per capita compared to Us. These circumstances are the result of globalists, US regulation, and bitch ass China. Bad players everywhere and no one is telling the whole truth. It seems we should be against regulation that would send jobs to China, we should focus on having little ties with them as possible. But no, we focus on fighting about abortion, borders, fascism, racism all while China is doing all of that and our tax dollars are being invested overseas. You can’t sit here and hold China and the Us to same standards. Like we don’t even have access to verifiable evidence of any claims China makes about anything.
When you set the narrative of “stealing”, it is inevitably biased. Can’t imagine a former student of IR would talk negotiations between countries like that…
@@stereomachine An agreement? I don't see the Chinese walking in with guns and tanks into the Congo forcing the government at gunpoint to hand over the mines.
That left a bad taste in my mouth too and it turns out that this 'journalist' was heavily critiqued a while ago about an unrelated story with regards to a conflict of interest that he conveniently did not disclose until it blew up in front of him. Overall, this topic is interesting to think and talk about (especially when you realize that there are people who think they are saving the planet by driving an electric car) but I'd still take everything this guy says with a grain of salt.
Although your comment is a joke and I laughed I’m constantly arguing with my wife about not wasting energy and money when layers of clothes are there and cheap.
@@shasmi93 It's a problem but you always have to see a bright side. Tbh, what they talked about in the video is just the surface. Everything is ruled by money for "the money". Having said that, saving every little bit is huge - like not leaving your pc/ energy devices on over night, turning off unnecessary lights, using firewood for heating, etc. Making those cheap clothes come with a pollution problem in itself.
I bet there won't be any "problem" if US or any western nation do what China is doing now in Africa just like they used to be. I don't support china but I'm disgusted with western hipocracy.
If the west helped stabilize the Congo instead of funding different factions and exploiting it's resources this shift towards china would never have happened. The Congo would not have been so corrupt and divided if the western multinationals and governments weren't polluting it's very essence.
Make more cities focused on pedestrians, bikes and public transport. I remember going on my bicycle all through my town growing up, but I feel like if my kid were to do that, I'd go to jail or have my child taken away. Cities keep getting more car focused and utilizing a bicycle just doesn't seem as feasible as it once did.
@@bonez747 then you drive a truck or something. I’ve seen people ride specifically large cargo bicycles for larger items, but I’d imagine most people would just drive if they need to…
Yes cars, regardless of combustion or electric, are not sustainable to save the planet. We invest in sustainable mobility: walk, bike, and public transit.
@@ahsanurr4219sadly that’s in the west, visit or try live shot term in places in China. Clean and efficient public transportation, cashless and etc…you’ll have answers yourself
14:51 I don't know that public transport is THAT un-sexy: I rather unironically enjoy spending 90 minutes each direction on my way to and from school, being able to zone out, read stuff on my phone, relax, and just generally not have to worry about anything beyond making sure I don't miss my stop to get off. yes, driving would probably cut my commute time in half, but then I would have to actually spend that time paying attention to the details of my surroundings, rather than just keeping an eye on when the bus is getting close to my stop.
Agreed. But most manufacturers are working to reduce cobalt use, most of the energy storage will be lfp without cobalt, and ev's still are way safer and better for the environment long term, especially as the vast majority of the battery can be recycled and battery cycle lives have dramatically improved.
Exactly what I was going to say, Nickel is a substitute for cobalt just less energy dense but that can be fixed with a little increase in silicon. Tesla doesn't use cobalt in it battery and it current batteries perform better than ones with cobalt, " necessity is the mother of invention"
"the vast majority of the battery can be recycled" - the key word here is "can". Unfortunately almost no one does that at the moment. Manufacturing new batteries is cheaper than recycling old ones. Because of that, majority of old batteries still end up in the landfills. That's why today EVs are still as dirty as conventional ICE cars (or maybe even dirties, as we still cannot predict exact environmental implications of dumping bunch of old batteries). We can only hope that some future technology will allow us to safely and economically viably recycle batteries.
The petroleum industry sold you the lie that plastic was recyclable too, and yet most of it is floating in the Pacific Ocean. You really think that Duracell you dropped in the battery bin at HD is going to make it back into a package soon? The mining operations for metals such as lithium and cobalt are exponentially more damaging to the environment then turning crude oil into gasoline. And you are likely going to be burning coal to charge your "green" EV so how are they "way better for the environment in the long term"?
I know its bad... but compared of how many deaths and disgrace that the oil business has created in the middle east, Russia and Latin America, this is just a collateral thing that can be changed FAR more ease than oil supply. In the beginning of the car industry, the rubber was also an "exotic" resource that after mass industrialisation became common. Same thing with fertiliser and electricity. I think that the industry will find more alternatives to these resources. Its just matter of time. We can't forget... the sugar justified the slavery for centuries but was not necessary to ban the sugar for outlaw the slavery.
Here in Chile, the Chinese are mining lithium. Due to economic pressures, they do not allow us to process lithium, only to export it as raw material, to later be processed in China and sold back as a product. And now more than ever lithium is incredibly important and here in Chile there is a lot of it. Unfortunately, everything belongs to the Chinese and we can do little.
Blame your government, not China. Who signs the deals? China comes to you with a deal, and you accepted it's terms of agreement, not much to argue, no one forced you to do it.
While we can recycle those minerals to repurpose them for other electronics, the fact is that it isn't as cost efficient as just getting the raw materials to make said electronics. Companies only care the bottom line, they won't heavily invest in recycling unless the government forces them to.
One possible solution often proposed for this is to attach the cost of recycling to the retail value of the battery. This will potentially remove the reluctance towards end of life recycling and also make the user bear responsibility towards it. Isolating end user from the environmental burden has been the common thread of modern manufacturing. Only way to do this is through policy change and we know that’s the most difficult bit, not technology.
For me, cycling is the best answer I can imagine for solving the problem of transport. I know yes yes some people can't cycle, but a lot can, and a lot is what we need. Anyone who has been to cities like Stockholme and Amsterdam know it's possible.
all travel under 15 miles besides a cab or a train should be done by bike or by foot.. would increase green space in cities, better our health and lessen our reliance on minerals/ fossil fuels
As much as I like cycling, it's just not a viable option to use for commuting to work in countries that are near the equator because it's so freaking hot everyday. You either arrive to work soaking wet with sweat or soaking wet when it rains. lol.
Cycling works if your commute is short enough (most aren't) and most importantly that you have good infrastructure for it. Most places don't in the US.
Johnny, a great follow-up video to this would be an investigation into the relationship between transportation and land-use. There is a lot of CRAZY stuff around zoning and density restrictions (racism, classism, capitalism, etc) that locks us into this EV problem. Cleo hinted at it, but there's a reason "investing in public transit" feels so unlikely and it has a lot to do with the fact that mixed-use buildings and apartments are illegal in 90% of buildable land in the US.
The lack of proper legislations is the reason why many Chinese companies are not held accountable. Just have a quick look at likasi, or kolwezi ( musonoï suburbs), you will find out that people are getting sick because of all the chemicals that contaminated water, and the soil. Erosion and pollution are the bigger concerns.
14:42 - “There’s also a lower tech version of this where we just invest more in public transport.” You should both take a look at what Culdesac is doing. This is a startup in Arizona focused on building walkable and bikable communities, minimizing cars for most daily tasks.
The probem with most people's vision of a green future is that they expect to keep on living exactly in the same way they did before but somehow it's all green. Maybe, just maybe it's not inherently sustainable to live in huge detached suburbans homes in neighbourhoods where you have to drive 10 minutes to get some milk? So it's not only a question of transportation, its also a question of urban planning and policy. A more dense urban fabric would probably also help to resolve the issue of homes that nobody can afford at the moment.
It's also a question of consumption. I can't help but doubt that constantly buying disposable goods meant to be quickly used and discarded can be made in any way sustainable.
Another point I would like to add is that mining any mineral has always been polluting, non eco-friendly and labor exploiting(lithium even more than cobalt). In a sense we can't really blame China, even America would mine cobalt the same way. The main issue is whether China is paying a fair share to Congo. Also do not think the west is clean in this regard, everybody knows about the paradise papers leak of glencore and how it exploited Congo(corruption) for its own needs.
so true. Imagine the ability to cycle or even walk your way to the nearest supermarket to grab groceries. And instead of having your lentils and other groceries packed in plastic packaging, you can bring your own containers and fill them up with produce. What about bring glass containers to fill with milk and plastic containers to fill with lentils and dry fruits. That is the future. Even better, instead of letting water go down the drain, you store that water and reuse it to grow a veggie garden. The solutions are out there, it's just that very few people focus on them. This is the idea of transition engineering. It's all about coming up with the most effective ways of getting to 1-2 gigatons of carbon emissions per person per year as quickly as possible.
@@zacharygustafson8714 even though i agree that packaging is an issue you really can't do anything about it. People buy their groceries like once in a month in bulk you can't expect them to take their entire kitchen's containers to the supermarket.
@@vincentchan4777 I'm more talking about how everything we own is designed to be broken/obsolete and thrown away every few years. Your phone? Cheaper and easier to buy a new one than have it repaired. Cars? They don't hold up past a certain amount of miles. Clothes? Who even bothers with sewing up holes anymore? Lightbulbs can be made much longer-lasting, but companies make sure they have a very limited lifespan to keep you buying. We're a trash culture; what doesn't work anymore, we throw out and buy a new one. We need to pivot towards maintaining the things we currently own if we actually want to do something for the environment.
That progress bar at the bottom of the Ad was very very innovative, I like it cuz many times I want to support the creator by watching those sponsored Ads but I need to know how long they will take or I will try to make it short and just accidentally skip it so kudos for that little innovation johnny
Johnny, thank you! I learned a ton making this with you. It's amazing how clear things can get when you talk them out with a friend. You and Iz have been so supportive since I went independent (and before!) and I can't wait to keep making things together. Maybe next time I’ll have you on my channel :)
Congrats!
Who are u
Great job!
@@vikrant1401 lol
:) I'll still gonna support ur channel 🙏
Glad she brought up the "how about public transit". Cars and the infrastructure aren't inherently the problem but, here in the US, our infrastructure has all but abandoned public transit and built entirely around cars
Self driving car are also public transport
@@Deveonn but that wasn't solve traffic problem
Just copy other country like in europe or east asia,make public transportasi as good as possble
If there is better public transit, then there would also be less traffic for all those who are too good to be around other people.
@@Deveonn just build trains duh
What about people that live in rural areas? Public transport does not exist nor is it practical
I understand that you mention China owning a significant number of mines, but it should be noted the Europeans, Americans and Canadians far outnumber the Chinese in terms of mining Cobalt and other minerals in East Africa. In my country, Barrick Gold from Canada managed to avoid 40 million in Taxes to my country through and elaborate scheme. Things will only become positive when we as Africans seize the means of manufacturing and trade of our own materials.
Oh really?
By Africans, you meant "the others" i.e. China? I don't see Africans seizing their own resources any time soon, one hopes they did but unlikely.
I really hope Africa can take the opportunity to get industrialized and get rich when China is getting all the kinds of western pressure. I'm sure that when this game is over, whoever wins will try to make Africa stay poor like it always been. The only difference is that the western is a hypocritical aggressive defender and China is a realistic defensive aggressor. China accepted the rules created by the west and you guys will play by the rules until new rules come out.
@@kaymanwang
Don't kid yourself, everybody sees themselves as angels, the Chinese are no angels by any means like you try to make them out to be :D
@@BioLogicalNerd there aren’t any angels until Africa is allowed to run herself
@@BioLogicalNerd How did you read that as him saying the chinese are angels
YES on Cleo's last point. Places like Amsterdam and Tokyo are designed in such a way where you don't even need a car. You can get everywhere you need to go via public transport, bike, or on foot. No problematic new technology needed, just smart, thoughtful design. Shoutout to Not Just Bikes and Strong Towns for increasing awareness of good design.
There are a few cities that have good public transit, but the US really just needs to expand their bus network and allow for more biking and walking to those bus stations.
shoutout to the r/fuckcars community aswell
@@KRYMauL . Look up the channel Not Just Bikes. Its a lot more than just the type of transportation. Our infrastructure design in the US is terrible.
@@KRYMauL As channels like Not Just Bikes have pointed out, the way cities in the US are planned and constructed (lots of suburbs, zoning laws) makes it almost impossible to have a good public transport system. American cities would need to be denser and less segregated (segregated in housing and business areas) to make a car not necessary. I have lived in severeal medium to big cities all over western Europe, never needed more than 10 minutes to reach the next supermarket by foot.
@@chwa7774 That's Strong Towns mate.
Johnny and Cleo should do a whole series/podcast together. I love Johnny’s maps and catastrophic outlook on the direction of the world and I love Cleo’s ability to reel that back in and offer solutions. A perfect pairing!
These two make a perfect team; it's enlightening to see that not everyone is blindly following major EV makers like Tesla. Really hoping to see more collaborations like this; they should take a trip to the Netherlands and partner with the NotJustBikes channel or BicycleDutch 🚲🌍
You should do another video on how America became so car-centric in the first place. Massive lobbying led to an America where car travel is literally the only way to get round, and massive lobbying is still going on to keep it that way. While (like Cleo said) investing in public transport and better civil planning is objectively the better way to go.
Knowing this, I still think cars are a vital part of the american freedom ethos and should be kept as a major form of transport
The government fails at everything it touches. They will fail at public transportation, and will use planning to coral people. Allow free market...... stop subsidizing, and stop lying. We can and have built engines that utilize electrolysis and are exvlusively hydrogen and oxygen as by products. Free market is the answer. Gov is the problem.
@@Cecilia-ky3uw Freedom from what? That's gotta be the stupidest reason to continue America's car-centrism.
It’s not an ethos.It’s generations of marketing influence by auto manufacturers.
@@niokat3866 it is much harder to stop cars than trains and buses, since the bus driver will be under the authority of the government and trains require rail
Chinese are actually big on cobalt free batteries. Tesla also buys these LFP batteries as basically the only western carmaker.
yeah it is ironic
@@Fauzanarief-n7i Lol
The whole industry has drastically reduced cobalt usage. Johnny is pushing out of date narratives used by propagandists to delegitimize renewables. He’s pushing narratives, not reporting. He does this consistently these days
Additionally, Tesla’s next generation 4680 batteries are cobalt-free and have begun mass production. Scaling the production batteries is truly the difficult part and most auto makers will see tremendous headwinds.
@@willitbreak5825 Honestly it sounds to me like China actually won *too big* on this one. They made an investment in monopolising a mineral hoping it would be important and it ended up *so important* that the monopoly became a matter of national security for most nations. Hence speeding up a cobalt-free process that otherwise would be decades behind.
"A cleaner future is a cleaner future, just with problems we still have to solve" That sentence really connected with me.
Did not resonate with me. 🤦♂️
It's wishful thinking for the rich, but illusion for the poor. A cleaner future for whom? People are struggling with basic things such as food, water and shelter in some places. Their priority certainly isn't a sustainable future if they don't have a future, or a present.
@@paulskiye6930 That's missing the point though, isn't it? More CO2 in the air, and therefore climate change, will only increase those basic need problems of food and water.
The problems of e.g. mining cobalt are absolutely there, but the argument I think is that this is a solvable problem, and also a much smaller (and localized) problem than climate change, which affects anyone, including the poorer countries.
In this case, I'd argue non-action (that is, not switching from fossil to electric) is actively more harmful to humanity as a whole, as non-action keeps worsening the climate,, affecting everyone. Whereas action causes a set of different problems, which we can solve.
❤️
@@dykam my point is: we all know the alternative is better for us. But require investment of time and labour for the long-term. But for those in poor countries, they don't have the ability to do so, or have different priorities.
They have to worry for their day to day survival: i.e. food, shelter and water. They don't have the luxury to think about it or plan for the future, while their present is already fragile and threatened. They need to survive first after all.
The heading of video is " The Dark Side of Electric Cars" and Thumbnail is showing pic stating "China Controls the Minerals".
This is enough to understand prejudice.
Well..China owns the new mines and Africa was/is carved up by Europe. China is a global power trying to control it. Simple.
As if the USA has ever cared about workers rights around the world. Just recently the supreme court refused to ban cocoa farmed using slave labor in US allied countries. In fact the USA has staged coups in the past to increase exploitation of workers and protect the interests of big business, like in Guatemala when they toppled an elected government to install a brutal, mass murdering dictatorship, just so Chiquita (the united fruit company) could keep workers in terrible slave like conditions. The only reason China can get away with its neocolonialism is that it is friendlier and less exploitative than the imperialism of the USA and the IMF. The USA only has itself to blame for this.
Very true.
Not sure that China is any better. They aren’t installing puppets but they support dictators and are eliminating their own people, the Uyghurs in a genocide. They’re back Russia’s invasion of Ukraine. Sure America did some dastardly stuff 100 years ago and. Favored dictators over communist dictators(remember communism killed 100 million people between Stalin, Pol Pot, Mao) but you look far enough into history and everyone was murderous and backwards.
But if we’re talking about today, I’ll take western morals over China’s totalitarianism any day.
@@jdotsalter910 That 100 million figure is completely doctored, it counts nazi soldiers as victims of communism for example, and by the standards of the book it came from, capitalism has killed billions since the 1700s. The USA's imperialism doesn't stop 100 years ago either, or even 50 if you include the reprehensible stuff the Chicago boys did alongside Pinochet's fascist dictatorship in Chile or right wing death squads mass murdering suspected communist sympathisers Indonesia in the 80s (read the Jakarta method) or installing and supporting a right wing dictatorship in south korea that lasted until quite recently, it is still going on today. Slave labor in prisons, bombing the shit out of iraq and afghanistan, supporting Israel's ongoing campaign of genocide against Palestine and its people, providing bombs and bombers for Saudi Arabia's invasion of Yemen. And the only reason the USA has scaled down its genocide of indigenous people is that this genocide was carried out successfully. This genocide even served as a blueprint for the nazis, only difference was that they did it in europe with more advanced technology at their disposal.
@@jdotsalter910 the west has no morals. Neither does china, but don't pretend the west has any either.
In the "past."
This is the first video ever where he doesn't use paper sheets with things printed on them.
I'm actually impressed.
He's come a long way since he did that terrible video about "American breakfasts" where he didn't actually talk about all the things Americans really eat for breakfast.
🤣😂
Johnny if you read this use less paper because paper made from tree xD
@@Strideo1 not sure what you're on about, most of the foods he mentioned in that video were accurate as to what Americans eat for breakfast. I live in America lmao
Of course, Exxon, Shell and all the oil companies _hate_ electric cars.
Just like US Warmonger, Lockheed Martin, Boeing, Raytheon, etc _hate_ Russia Ukraine Peace Talk. These Warmongers love to send more weapons to Ukraine to ensure that the war won't end!!
Thanks, I love your work
Most batteries made for EV's in China right now don't have cobalt, they're lithium iron phosphate batteries.
and the technology advance fast …..
You need more likes so that Johnny sees this.
Exactly. Newer batteries like LFP use no Cobalt and Tesla for example, even though it produced most EVs last year, they used less Cobalt than VW. Kind of disappointing that he didn’t mention alternatives for Cobalt or if it is even necessary (which it isn’t).
+1 for this, Cobalt is being phased out. It's finite, expensive, vulnerable to monopolisation but probably going to be replaced by solid state batteries. Why undermine EVs by only looking at one ingredient that will be phased out...
@@schraderclemens6122 doesn't fit his narrative i guess.
I think you should talk with "strong towns" ,"city beautiful" or "not just bikes". They talk about how we build out cities and towns directly leads to overuse of cars and poor resource management just by the zoning and types of houses we are forced to make.
Yes, time to talk beyond geopolitics and instead on good urban and transport planning
100%! Love those channels
all are good but sure love "not just bikes"
Johnny Harris the great white saviour
I can see the strong towns message fit into his type of format. And I would enjoy watching it! Granted, I've only seen not just bikes presentation of the ideas, but those videos were great.
I think this story was always about China not about clean energy or transport. You forgot to mention that the largest cobalt mine in DRC was acquired by the Chinese from an American investor. But let us not forget how many coups and dictators have been supported by the West for the purposes of controlling crude oil.
Exactly, globalists, corporations, distractions
Yes i was also hoping for a perspective on how to counter the enroaching chinese incursions and infiltration bids into Africa, especially in the DRC with regard to Cobalt mining.
It doesn't mean China is allowed to do the same, if others are doing too.
@@nayaktuhin no, but why single out China? Look at the perspective, at least China didn’t go to Africa with guns and bombs.
Because it's a problem if China does it with a win-win solution.
But it's not a problem if the West does it with a win-lose solution.
As someone who lives in the car capital of the world it’s really hard to explain how much public transit is a solution that is overlooked and under funded as a solution that doesn’t involve getting Chinese control or mining finite resources
nah, id rather be in a war with china than taking the tram to work!
Cycling infrastructure has been a solution in many cities outside car-crazy North America. AFAIK my aluminum bike frame contains silicon and magnesium but no cobalt.
Detroit?
@@fjp3305 you guessed it
Too many men on public transit harass women passengers. Locking our selves in a car is the only way many women survive leaving their home.
Thanks Cleo for mentioning the matter of Public Transit. We are just forgetting it for the sexier EVs.
Where is the new video?
HERE HE IS !!! THE JOHNNY FAN.
Public transport is horrible in developing nations. India including
Bangladesh a EV koi vai. Amra ekhono eet ar goru transfer er jonno 'fatfatiya' power tiller use kori.
and a pro pakistani radical like you are here to copy paste the content !
Only in America can you be called “pie in the sky” for suggesting that you should invest in public transport 🙄🙄🙄
You been watching the news and the explosion of crime across parts of the US? We literally just had a terrorist attack in New York City from a shooter who was racist against white people...what good is public transportation if it's not safe to use? At least in my own car i can go my own way and ensure my own safety.
WELL NEW YORK HAS ONE OF THE MOST WELL CONNECTED PUBLIC TRANSPORT SYSTEM IN THE WORLD
Only communists and socialists like "public" transportation. Raping the planet for non rewenable resources in personal vehicles is for people that want freedom.
Problem is it has to be made first before people will use it
@@jatinsinghyadav5941 only 49 states to go then 🙄
Chinese are actually big on cobalt free batteries
So is Tesla. Over fifty percent already ) lots built in China, though).
It's called the lithium iron phosphate, the LFP and the LiFePO4. There's no raw materials issues except for the lithium, which isn't much of the percentage of the elements in any li-ion cell.
@@fireofenergy pretty sure Tesla is a failed experiment as many and many people are regretting the purchase
BS
イーロンは邪悪だ
China is not stealing them like American and British did though. China is buying them and bringing it to the market. Which makes it cheaper.
I’m so happy that Cleo mentioned investment in public transportation because the solution is staring us in the face.
yeah, public transport is overlooked imo, some people have to drive. but most will be perfectly fine with it being a minor inconvenience at worst.
with ze peasents? le gross.
Why are you posting multiple OP comments here? Are you a shill?
yesss. There is a reason why almost all former eastern bloc countries invested massively in public transit. Because it uses the least resources and yields the best results, albeit the reasons were different back then, namely the lack of resources. But nowadays with an overabundance of resources, the same technologies (and city planning) like rail infrastructure, electrification (from renewables), trolley buses and light rail can help us solve our pollution and emissions problems.
not to mention the ecomomic mobility, not having a car and being poor in this country is a death sentence unless you're fine with living where you are for the rest of your life
Great video, tho this kind of behaviour is not only exclusive to China. If the US (or any other nation) had the foresight to take control of these mines, the situation would be the exact same. I'm not trying to let China off the hook here, but this is a global problem. Hopefully these mines will someday be owned by DRC itself.
china is just doing what the west has done in these countries for many decades
Yes, start thinking about the future of mankind, not just start another complaining game, be positive and constructive.
Not really, as a "democratic republic" i think it doesnt change much or evwn becomes worse
@@wm4934 you can stop trying to avert the blame
@@Cecilia-ky3uw Yeah... It's not like they are actually democratic. The government are happy with dealing with China. I bet they have pocketed a lot from the deal too. It would only work if the people of the country actually rise up and revolt to form an actually decent democracy. But based on the poverty, education of the locals and who they are involving, China, I can't see a democracy happen in a hundred years.
Thank you Cleo for pointing out that switching cars for electric cars is not the solution, and that reducing our reliance on all cars is one.
Land-use and zoning has such a huge, and overlooked, impact on emissions.
Totally agree on this. The issue of public transit has more layers than it seems. The density and the efficiency of infrastructure depends on the zoning. In the US, the zoning laws are so strict that if a zone is for residential only - it's only for single-family zoning; as in a detached house with possibly some yard. It's called Euclidean zoning and is very common in the US. This is inefficient use of land. For public transit to be efficient, there has to be a certain density to an area. You can't run a bus/train line servicing only hundreds of people for hundreds of miles. With strict zoning, you end up with sprawls of suburbs where the only way to get around - even to just buy coffee, is to drive.
If zoning is relaxed, you can have multi-level housing buildings with shops and establishments. Everything you need to live for your everyday life is within walking distance - no need for cars. The concept of a "corner store" is very alien to many suburban Americans. With this increase in density comes better a more efficient public infrastructure. People can still own cars and live in single-family houses if they want but people should have choices to also live in dense areas. They should not be forced to ONLY live in single-family houses.
✌👉 The Connections (2021) [short documentary] 💖✌
At 2:08 I have issue with saying China is stealing Congo's resources. I believe that any country has the right to nationalize its natural resources and may reclaim them any time, but at the moment China manages those mine based on an agreement. That's not stealing.
Agreed. The West steals because it uses violence and force against African nations. China isn't stealing if African nations willingly negotiate into the sale of its resources. Stealing is when you take without permission (i.e. European and American imperialism), not when you buy (Chinese acquisition of the mines).
due to corruption in African leaders, they lack vision to guide the people they control... Africa is in shambles
I feel like you are more concerned that China controls these new resources.
I dont think the mining operations would have been any different if it were some other country in control of this...
West has its fair share of exploit and pillage in course of history, by no means I am supporting China for this, its just that it has been there before anyone would have gauged the potential for cobalt.
Uganda and Africa in general has been exploited by west for centuries before China came in lately for its share...
And for evs to be greener theres been a study that only after some 30-40k miles they get even with ICE cars depending on the way a country produces its energy.
Why are you so obsessed about China? 😂 I literally want it to become the World leader and clapback USA
@@pinknailsworldseries367 I am not!
I am against the entire EV paradigm, unless we don't find some serious solution for recycling batteries, I reckon this EV thing(and our electronics in general) would be more detrimental in every possible way. World cannot bear a fleet of zillion cheap EVs coming out of China.
The technology seems to be ever evolving like our electronic gadgets, and soon all these outdated ev's will be out phased by every other generation to come(with more range and gimmicks)...cant imagine the ewaste this would end up producing.
I still think efficient fossil fuel vehicles make much more sense till we have proportionate amount of recycling for the EV industry.
And that my friend is the main issue here...Instead of addressing the elephant in the room, I find this type of content 'A MERE RANT'..."ooo look what China is doing, here..." that just goes on and on...with zero impact
Half of what china produces is for the 'so called developed nations...', stop procuring and outsourcing
Johnny tbh if it wasn't China controlling it, it'd have been the west. So yeah the problem is that we see electric cars as the "cleaner future" option when we should've invested in affordable & accessible public transport for all. US could've easily been a leader in that if they didn't keep spending like almost $1 trillion/year on the industrial military complex. Since we're talking about big powers taking over & exploiting poorer less powerful countries, maybe you should do a video on Bolivia & the coup done against Evo Morales by the US to make sure the US secures the lithium reserves there. Sounds a fair & balanced view if you show how all big powers play this dirty game
Great point
The irony thing is many of chinese arent are not using cobalt and nickle in their battery because they use LPF battery. So chinese ev are actually more envirentment friendly than the western EV
"then the west would" complete BS.
the west is not trying to buy african land, give them enormous loans they cant pay back, stealing their mines and resources.
Johnny, your research is well-backed up and intriguingly done as always, but the way you approach this topic is giving more anti-China sentiment than concern (and honestly ire) over how Congo has been exploited for decades and conditioned towards political instability for the benefit of (mostly) the West. It seems like the only reason why people now suddenly care about Congo (and maybe even why you made this video) is because in this case, China, and not the West, is the beneficiary.
Bingo
I’m congolese, and I can say you nailed it
It seems like the West got chest pains for China's jackpot 😂
EXACTLY
He's Amercian, what did you expect?
No journalism in this world is truly done without a hint of bias and prejudice.
I know this is not kind of the "best option", but i think it's the less troublesome one for me:
1- Either goverments invest more on public transport (especially metro and Natural Gas powered BRTs)
2- Find a way to make biofuels that don't create CO2 as a byproduct.
I just think it could go that way.
Watch America show on history channel. From the beginning when America 1st became a country.
Well, I would not say China is a communist country; in fact, it is a socialist country with some "Chinese characteristics". However, China is literally a state-owned capitalistic country. Although the CCP stands for the Chinese Communist Party, China is definitely NOT a communist country. Also, using the word "steal" is extremely unprofessional and rude. No one steals anything. There's always a price in exchange for products. China just saw the opportunity and took action early, PERIOD. America always judged everything China did just so wrong and evil. Not everything has to be politically related. As the greatest country on earth, how about America helping Africa to build some infrastructure and lend them money as well? Stop blaming everything on China lol
YES THATS WHAT I WAS SAYING
@@didyoumissedmegobareatersk2204 nah we dont
I am no fan of China but what this video will be about if it's one of those Western countries monopolizing these mines? What difference does it make? China extraction isn't green while a western extraction is green? I just don't get the point why China has to be brought into the topic in first part.
"Personal agenda" ... USA has been doing the exact same thing for centuries look at what they did in Afghanistan and he never made a video about it ... yeah but sure super power china tho 🤦🏾🤦🏾
Spot on, China just happen to got there in the first place. At least they didn't invade the place like some others who did for oil.
I thought the same too, but I think because China cares a lot about green energy (it's part of every 5-year plan these past few years), that's why it's under the spotlight and under a lot of scrutiny. But we also need to shed light on how Western countries exploited Africa way more than any other part of the world.
I was thinking the same, I don't care if China is there, they could have even more mines. But I also get his point, it really threw me off when he said that there's child labour and a lot of exploitation, even though if there wasn't any of that they would still make a huge profit, so why practise such things in this age where they are looked down as barbaric? So I do agree with Johnny here, that China should stop exploiting Kongo's population, and they should stop exploiting their own population as well, and start fighting child and cheap labour.
A part of this video was Johhny being a "Bad cop", Cloe being a "Good cop".
At least that is my interpretation & it makes sense if it was meant to be so.
Unfortunately, this is one of those here-is-a-picture-and-here-is-my-10-minutes-of-lecture plus China-is-evil-and-we-are-doomed type of videos that don't live up to the Jonny Harris standard of journalism. Not much information or investigation, mainly based on speculation and personal opinion, story goes superficial and driven by hate and implemented by amplifying fear. The sheer size of China dictates that it is dominant in so many industries or manufacturing sectors just like the US does in others. Guess for every product or mineral that China has an advantage over the US a similar video can be made. It also sounds awfully hypocritical when "news outlets" nowadays try to tell narratives in which China should be responsible for all deep-rooted problems in Africa. As much as I dislike the Chinese government, this sort of cliche is getting boring.
@Johnny Harris.. ah yes........ Johnny Harris with no videos..........
I mean he does heavy research if he's pessimistic about china there is probably a reason no?
@@Amador253 I'm pessimistic about China. That's not the point. The point is this video isn't top-quality journalism and the story is just pretty mediocre. Like I said you and I both can make thousands of videos for each industry/resource/product for which China is dominant, but there simply is no point in doing that.
I like the thermal stability point you talked about of cobalt which is true, heck even metal recycling plants are focussing on it. One part I missed is the effect of regulation/subsidies on the reason why lithium and cobalt batteries are so wanted
you absolutely forgot to mention that the US is ALREADY doing the same thing in Latin-America with the litium mines 😒
Good video though 👍
Difference being, I suppose, that those companies are not directly or indirectly state-owned. They're private companies doing the bidding and the contracting with very few, if any, ulterior political motives. They just care about profit, and how far local governments will let them go to maximize those profits.
@@erickpalacios8904 and what differences does that make? You want China to play fair and let their private companies to compete? 😂
@@erickpalacios8904 Elon Musk: We coup whoever we want. The west does way much worse and Johnny will never mention that in his video.
@@erickpalacios8904 Why do you guys cream over Western illusions of separation of business and government when businesses lobby for policies and have deep ties with politicians? US companies IS the US government.
Why do foreigners make the US, center of the world?
In this case same as western countries during industrial era, exploiting oil, coal, and other fossil fuel minerals. But no one talking about it.
People are talking about it.
everyone is talking about it constantly
As others have mentioned as well, although the situation in the Congolese mines is awful, having them under American corporate or another nation's control wouldn't result in anything better.
Hell we cant even get coffee, bananas or chocolate to be harvested in a humane manner or get our clothes to be made outside of sweat factories. How do you expect Corporations to keep children out of the mines in Africa? Definitely a problem that needs to be solved (for all these areas) but to badmouth china because of it is kinda... weird? hypocritical? whatever.
As an African American, I have to agree with this. China is not moving military or coups (as of now) to get these mines up and running. The corruption runs deep in Africa. Tribalism runs DEEP in Africa. It just the right set up for influencing. I am not a China shill but how much longer can we keep blaming other countries for the wrong doing of the leaders of these African countries (my dad is from one of them)? Its the one thing I hate because it NEVER solves the main problem. If Africans want to stop these situation, theyll have to shed blood of their own... again.....
Hypocritical yes,but don't do what aboutism,China and US are both very bad actors with no concern for human rights
His point from what I understand is kind of that it's just a repeat (if you couldn't tell from the flashbacks of previous exploitations of DRC by Western powers). It's not to target China because it's China, he's targeting China because of their actions.
And it's not like Harris is a USA simp/China hater, he bashes on US all the time.
💯
💯
This was way more balanced and nuanced than the title led me to believe. Loved Cleo’s take on the problem as being significant but solvable.
It's not just China doing that.. Western countries did that for decades before.
China literally bought their cobalt mines from american companies, after the american government had couped congo
If you're sitting at the poker table cheating the other players, the only thing worse than someone calling you out on it is another cheater taking a seat at the table. If only one player breaks the rules, it's advantage, but when many break the rules no one's sure how to play the game anymore
and they are still doing it ! look at france's total energies company exploiting african oil and gas
@@forthexp8649 why you need to complicate your statment ! just say it ! you are against china because they are competing with you in africa ! in other words, china takes and gives but western country and usa takes and but doesn't give, instead, it destroys your country by a proxy war, just like iraq and syria and libya
@@forthexp8649 Don't blame the players. Blame the game
I'm kind of worried about the focus on China when America's role in these problems is overlooked or minimized
@@noeswantra2295 He criticizes the entire China. But while criticizing america he focuses on the companies and how the companies manipulate US Govt which is dumb af when it comes to spending money.
Because China has active cc
@@shashankgadamsetty508 nope, he only criticize Chinese government, which is not the same as the Chinese people. So more or less similar to how he criticize American companies
@@noeswantra2295 while ignoring the American government assisting corporations exploiting the countries they extract wealth from. When talking about China it’s the governments fault when it’s America it’s the corporations not the government. A little concerning narrative
@@noeswantra2295 criticize Chinese government, which is not the same as the Chinese people." this is the most asinine excuse ever, like gov mandates every aspect of all that,you know nothing of the decentralization in china internally
Cleo is correct. While the amount on earth IS finite, well the air on earth we breathe is technically finite too... It's just we have a carbon cycle. Aluminum is also finite, but in the 1700s after the process to isolate aluminum was discovered it became dirt cheap and is also infinitely recyclable as are most other metals.
Edit: changed "The Woman is right though" to "Cleo is correct"
But the same isnt applicable to Lithium, etc, so that argument is completely useless.
I love how you added a "women" & "though" there lol just an interesting observation. Also yes majority of oxygen comes from phytoplankton in the oceans which is also being destroyed so yeah ✨progress✨
Pretty sure she has a name
@@obviousgorilla124 Wow! Chinese troll are here already...
Do you know what the rates are for ALU recycling?
Over 60% world wide now.
We have aluminium we are using today thats hundreds of years old now.
The problem is that such batteries need to be recharged, which means that the environmental cost is passed on to power plants, which for the most part continue to run on fossil fuels.
Battery chemistry is changing all the time. Most batteries of the future will not use cobalt. Most (at this stage) will be lithium-iron (LFP) batteries.
The other thing to remember is that batteries are now 93-95% recyclable which means that once it's out of the ground, all of these minerals will be cycling through the industry without the need for further mining.
What no one seems to be talking about as well is copper. We are right on the cusp of hitting a wall where we need to mine copper to have any (for the first time since the bronze age). Before this there has been copper cycling through industry that meant only a fraction needed to mined to keep up with supply. Luckily there are some technologies becoming available that will allow copper extraction from clay, but even with this copper will become a limiting resource and EVERYTHING electrical requires copper to manufacture, especially electric cars and renewable energy.
I didn’t know about extracting copper from clay, but isn’t clay also finite?
Battery chemistry is changing/evolving but very slowly, also cobalt is needed for very dense and high density batteries for heavy duty applications….. there are millions of oil byproducts and batteries won’t compete to replace those.
@@dynamic283 Technically yes but for human purposes it should be more than enough. Besides that we are possibly only a decade away from mining the Moon as well as asteroids in near-Earth orbit at which time ALL mineral commodities will be abundant. This is why I steer well clear of investing in gold, silver or platinum. There are massive asteroids out there currently being tracked that are made almost entirely of these metals and thanks to SpaceX we will soon be able to both mine them and land them safely on Earth cheaply. As they are in space with nothing to react with, very little refining will be necessary either.
@@alaricgoldkuhl155 You should watch the movie "Don't Look Up."
@@alaricgoldkuhl155 You are hilarious! How did you come with that 10y estimate for Moon/Asteroid mining?
The title is misleading. Tesla, Samsung and Panasonic are already moving away to cobalt-free batteries. Model 3 & Y with LFP batteries are already cobalt-free. A much more in-depth research video here: th-cam.com/video/DFL8iQ3p3cI/w-d-xo.html
BYD also the developing it's blade battery from their LFP battery
Funny enough it’s basically China who is making LFP’s. All western car factories use cobalt, with the highest percentage in hybrides. Basically the bigger the battery the less cobalt you need. It’s not a storage problem but an charge and discharge problem (so amount of horsepower out of the battery).
You are trusting a News Channel
L + Ratio + News Channel Sheep
@@Deveonn west doesn't want to get their hands dirty...
A lot of the focus on cobalt in EV’s ignores that we already use cobalt for gasoline processing. EV technology is advancing to reduce dependence on cobalt and to recycle cobalt in batteries. Meanwhile the mature tech of gasoline development has decided that cobalt is the way to go with gas processing. Anyone who is truly concerned about cobalt use should promote EV’s over ICE.
wey usa don't use car but use train , trolly bus and bicyicel . like in europe.
@Hello Everyone Not at all, since gas will _always_ use cobalt and then its gone,. While batteries don't always and can be recycled. Also theres more cobalt in your phone than an EV, so go back to land lines?
Wow, I didn't know that, looked it up confirmed - "cobalt is also used in the refinement of crude oil, which is used to make petrol". Gas pollutes on production and consumption and is subsidized by federal government.
but it's used catalyzer - recycled endlessly
The best part about electric cars is that electricity appears out of thin air. Seriously how do you think the power to charge any of those batteries is made? Inconvenient facts not addressed at any point!
And they didn't even touch the topic of LITHIUM mining. Ya know, the main ingredient to a battery.
@@datphatkat7210 and the fact that stuff like this isn’t recycled and just ends up where ever polluting the soil, water, earth and more
Replacing gasoline vehicles with electric is the biggest scam of the modern world. Fossil fuel is still needed to supply electricity for the vehicles and Fossil fuels are used in the mining process and every other process in the production of electric vehicles; Global pollution will take a global effort.
EV's (not including the big pickups) actually use less electricity than it takes to drill, pump, refine, transport, pump the equivalent amount of gasoline... Don't believe all the petrochemical industry propaganda.
Just curious, what is that worries you more: China controlling resources as opposed as US controlling resources or Congo people being poor whilst sitting in good just as Irak people just as an example?
or maybe they’re both bad and we can hold both accountable or?
@@NKanchevful impossible, majority of people on this planet will view everything as black and white and pick a side and blame the other one.
He is mad that a non-white country will dominate this industry rather than Americans
@@NKanchevful and what u gonna do? not use resources?
@@zhengyiyue9223 which ones?
Here is a bit on lithium-ion battery chemistry that most people do not seem to understand very well:
All modern rechargeable lithium batteries are lithium-ion batteries, this refers to the fact that it is the lithium ions (negatively charged atoms of lithium) move from the negative side to the positive side through an electrolyte. The battery technology like Lithium Iron Phosphate (PFP), refers to the cathothe (positive) side of the battery.
The current technologies are as follows:
Lithium Nickel Manganese Cobalt Oxide (NMC, EVs, tools, grid storage, good specific energy and power density)
Lithium Nickel Cobalt Aluminum Oxide (NCA, EVs, very good specific energy and lifespan, these are the most dangerous ones)
Lithium Manganese Oxide (hybrid EVs, consumer devices)
Lithium Iron Phosphate (EVs, tools, these are the safest ones)
Lithium Cobalt Oxide (one of the early lithium ion chemistries used by Sony).
Of theses, NCA and LFP are the two Tesla uses and seem to be the two that get the most press coverage. NCA is the better cell chemistry but they are more dangerous and expensive. LFP is much cheaper but not as energy or power dense. When people are talking about the price of Cobalt or Nickel and how it affects batteries, they are usually referring to NCA or NMC cells. The most important element remains lithium, as currently there are no good batteries being produced at any sort of scale that do not use lithium, but plenty of options using other materials. LFP is very promising as a cheap battery, since it is just Iron and phosphorus in addition to lithium.
As a side note, the anode (negative side) is typically made of graphite, but there are other materials. Solid state batteries seem to be on the horizon, but do not underestimate the difficulty of mass production. Lithium ion batteries date back to the 1960s and where first in mass production and being sold by Sony in 1991. There is a lot more research into batteries nowadays, but going from a few dozen made in a lab to a few dozen a second is extremely challenging. As a further sidenote, lithium-polymer batteries are lithium-ion batteries, but the electrolyte is a solid polymer sheet. They do not differ too much from cylindrical lithium-ion cells and the arguably more accurate name for them would be lithium-ion pouch cell. Prismatic cells also exist, though they aren't very widespread.
If you would like to read more, the Wikipedia page on Lithium-ion batteries is a good start.
Thanks.
Very detailed and good explanation
I feel like this is worth pinning
Lithium Iron Phosphate aka LFP aka LiFePO4. Never seen PFP used before, guessing first P is for prismatic.
As the chemical make up describes it has ZERO Cobalt. But it has the draw back compromise of low energy density.
This may not be the cell chemistry that is used in the future. But it shows how Cell chemistry can vary wildly and what minerals are required can drastically change.
What we need is to scale up and seek out the most ethical to source cell chemistry. This is very doable as foundational concept of Galvanic Cells is vast array of different chemical combination.
Maybe other than Wikipedia is BatteryUniversity.com , maybe a little old and outdated. But the deep dive foundational knowledge is absurdly good for the price of Free.
This video seems to focus only on cobalt, which can be 'addressed' but there are also broader issues with other minerals. The latest NMC batteries today (like NMC811 and NCA) use 80-90% less cobalt as the earlier NMC111, however they use more nickel (which has its own issues, with supply concentrated in Russia and Indonesia with a lot of processing done by China). As the above poster notes, LFP does not need any cobalt, but of course because of a lack of valuable minerals, they are unlikely to be economically recyclable when they reach their end of life.
I work closely with the automotive industry and they absolutely hate it when you bring up the question “isn’t all this another limited resource we have to dig up?” For awhile I was hoping we would go hydrogen in our cars, but that process isn’t too pretty either after some research.
Amazing work and great points as always 🤟🏼
Cobalt usage is being aggressively phased out and has been for years.
Toyota has not given up on hydrogen AFAIK. I would definitely keep an eye on that one.
@@Ferruccio001 Don't.
It's a pipedream of the gas (station) industry and extremely unlikely to ever become a viable alternative in private vehicles.
The only thing better than Battery EVs is public transport, and that will stay so for a very long time, if not forever.
✌👉 The Connections (2021) [short documentary] 💖✌
I knew that EV batteries had a dark side to them that is so greenwashed most people don't know about it. I'm too poor at this point to be able to afford a new vehicle and EV is out of the question for me right now. The bright side is that innovation, technology and research in this is always being driven forward so its entirely possible that we could come up with cheaper simple solutions. The down side of it is that capitalism isn't driven by the humanity of these problems is driven by marginalized cost vs profits.
Thanks
That's why we are moving away from Cobalt entirely. Every battery we use on my channel does not use cobalt at all, which is LiFePO4 and LTO. Cobalt based chemistries are also dangerous to use. And it's expensive, every EV maker is moving away from it as well.
The minerals used in LiFePO4 can be extracted from multiple places in the world. And recycling this chemistry is much easier than the others. And the degradation rate is much lower as well.
I currently use non cobalt based batteries and solar to charge my ev without the grid. Zero coal or foreign oil used to fill up my car. If you charge Offgrid and have a Tesla with lifepo4, all of these arguments instanly disappear.
China is taking notes
But, you still need to mine all the stuff. If we move away from cobalt, its gonna be something else. And, i would say its prolly coming from a third world country with modern slavery.
The Chinese were manufacturing almost 100 percent of those batteries in 2021. Not that there's anything wrong with that.
Rightly Said!
@@Kumek01 oh so should we not have steel buildings because we have to mine iron ore? Extracting ore is not hard and we do it everyday. Is this not known by the general populace?
You can never expect a fair representation of something that’s been politicized, it’s sad really.
Or once participants of a discussion get passionate about their beliefs the scientific inquiry ends.
he became a propaganda source
Johnny Harris is just a propaganda outlet and a successful one
What do u mean
yes that's really sad
It's important to keep in mind that the green revolution is just a tech revolution, a change in the source of energy we use, not a social revolution where everybody lives in peace and happy. Mankind is still the same, politics are still the same and the pursue for power is still gonna be the same. China controlling mines doesn't necessarily means that the world is doomed, just that China took advantage over west countries in some specific resources that might be useless in the next tech wave. And also if the US or other west countries had the mines instead, the oods wouldn't be much different: people would still work in harsh conditions and they will pollute the environmient just as much in order to reduces costs because the returns on invetments need to be kept high. The world is still the same, let's just not fool ourselves.
There's the question of just how much energy, and what kind that's required for the recycling process itself?
Thank God people still have some brains in their heads ! 👍
Cobalt is NOT needed for EVs. Half of all new Teslas sold currently use an LFP chemistry with zero cobalt.
Oh wow. Never knew
I considered unsubscribing after the Russia video where he made a bunch of factual errors. After watching this one for a few minutes I hit unsubscribe. This guy is pushing some weird agenda. Literally all major lithium ions battery consumers and manufacturers have committed to wiping cobalt out and as far as I can tell he's completely ignored that to push out this piece of disinformation.
@@building_keevo This man's videos are less factual and more propaganda now
@@evanchen703 I agree. I'm not even subscribed but his videos keep coming on my feed.
This comment should be higher up. Maybe there were a bunch of problems with cobalt mining, but honestly why even bother getting into it when the whole industry is going to be side stepped anyway.
Cleo basically took the words out of my mouth. No one ever said the green future would be perfect. We’re just trying to keep getting better over time
Did you know that electric cars were designed over 100 years ago? Look it up. Greed is the only thing holding us back.
@@MrSupernova111 did you know that typing words on a computer can be used to post comments on TH-cam?
@@TheWefikus hahahah nice one
Actually many people have used green energy hyperbolically in that if we don’t shift the planter is doomed. We have politicians stating the workd will be a point of no return in 12 years. So, actually the narrative has actually struggle with many saying green energy is solution at all cost.
What Johnny is highlighting is that there is a cost to green energy and for us to be aware of it. That’s why he called it the “dark side” which implies there is a good /light side to the coin.
Unfortunately, time is not an infinite resource. Human population and consumption continue to grow at exponential rates, so modest improvement is not going to be good enough to make a sustainable future - the only real reason to discuss green sources of energy.
Okay, Who owned those mines before China? And how many are still running by America and their allies? Information should be disclosed fully, Johnny. Publishing, quoting, and/or emphasising on partial information is propaganda. You as a journalist should know this.
For more than a thousand years, China has been sourcing cobalt, initially from the Middle East and now Africa, for its traditional porcelain industry making vases, bowls, plates and ornaments and the recent discovery of adding the mineral in battery making has caused Johnny to be suddenly alarmed and accuse China of grabbing Africa's mineral resources. Technology changes very fast and before we know it, cobalt may not be a key ingredient in EV cars anymore.
The only reason he's concerned is because they feel like the big cobalt rise is not entirely under control of the US. Everything should be about them. If it's not then they play the human rights card
Exactly, it is American companies that sold the mines to Chinese companies for profits.
Run by America!?....agreed Private US companies do have a lot of influence in US Govt, but they ultimately have to answer to their share holders, not the US Govt....in China it's the opposite...all Chinese companies private or public are by Beijing law, owned by the Beijing Govt, have to have a Beijing appointed official, and ultimately are heavily leveraged by the Beijing Central Govt, who has the power to approve hefty loans or liquidate any Chinese company practically overnight....Western capitalism is no peer to Chinese capitalism with Chinese characteristics..
@@ameyas7726 I totaly agree. "Public traded companies have to make short term profits to keep the shareholders happy." That short term thinking is a very big downside for wallstreet imo. Thinking 10 or 20+ years ahead has to be the norm. Too bad in this case its a dictorial state.
Update. Colbolt price 2024 Sept is now back to low prices of 2016. It is $24,340 a tonne… down from peak in April 2022 at $81,300
So often metals spike (like Palladium) then crashes and things normalize.
So a flood of colbolt crashed the price.
I do agree with some of Johnny's criticisms regarding worker rights, deforestation, pollution, and that China doesn't seem to be doing anything about it BUT let's not pretend it'd be any different if a western company held control of these mines. It'd be the same story but with a different bad guy.
The only way forward is for the DRC government to step in, protect their citizens, and protect their resources. Unfortunately, I don't see that happening.
I really dig the duality of Johnny getting to the dark, seedy underbelly of the truth, but then Cleo to balance out that ugly reality with optimism.
Moar collabs, please!
Lmfao
That's what everything is. Even in school, when you write essays, they want you to say, "This is why X is a strong argument. But this is why Y is compelling too. Ultimately, the answer is very difficult to pin down, and it is probably Z, a combination of some parts of X and some parts of Y." If you listen to any liberal podcast like the daily, they do the same thing ---x seems like the answer. But they give evidence for Y. And they end the show with uncertainty and by saying it's probably Z.
I hate that fucking template. I like people with wild opinions that are gutsy and can be proven wrong.
The "it's probably a combination of X and y" crap can't really be proven wrong.
Unfortunately there's no optimism in child labour. This won't stop or change.
@@yukinasaeki906 OMG!!! YOUR A GRIL!!!
Truth? Please... this dude is practically a CNN vlog warrior 😂😂
Calling public transport"not pretty" or whatever is such an US POV. People need to learn to love Busses, trains and bicycles
True mate but that is large cultural shift. I take public transportation and ride my bike and ebike. I live in a car dominated city and most here see public transport as a poor person's solution. Do folks really like each other here, or are comfortable with each other? Not really. It would be a massive shift.
Agreed, more public transportation please
*THIS* . People need to understand this and push for a change. I highly recommend these digestible videos:
_The "War on Cars" feat. PragerU_ , by Adam Something
_SUPERBLOCKS - The Future Of City Planning_ , by Adam Something
_The Suburbs Are Bleeding America Dry_ , by Climate Town
having sexiness and prettiness as important considerations in tackling climate change is such a first world thing
@@bobsingh7949 so public transportation when done
Right is great, a good example is with large college campuses. That being said I generally don’t like dealing with normal people and the truely public transport that is available in most places in the US sucks. There are limited routes. With long times in between for busses to come. It’s just a mess.
I definitely think the point about not throwing the baby out with the bath water is a very good reminder for people. Our current clean energy solutions are not flawless, but that doesn’t mean we should give up on switching to clean energy, it just means we need to continue working to fix the problems that exist with green energy.
Wow looks like China learned one from the playbook. I feel like this is the same for China in the semi-conductor industry where US basically dominates in (including ASML & TSMC)
Best comment here, China isn't uniquely evil for exploiting 3rd world resources. They just got there before the west did this time.
Anyways there are plenty of companies who have already predicted the rise of cobalt prices and are working on reducing/eliminating the need for cobalt in batteries
What struck me is: the relative amount of mines owned by all parties, instead only stating the Chinese owned ones.
We need more perspective.
Great point… he is going a-wall because cobalt is not dominate by American and western as most minerals of the world. He just need stir up hype around a main topic ‘China’ and something that China is the forefront at.
@@phillipthach7924 US companies ARE the US government. Especially when they spend millions lobbying for policies and they have deep ties with politicians. There's no distinction between the two.
@@NecroPyroLion I disagree here. US companies stongly influence politics, but they are still regulated and have constraints. The CCP makes the laws for themselves, so they can do literally anything they want to at any time with no resistance. US companies at least have to put up a fight to get laws changed in their favor.
Harris is just another Western propagandists at work..
@@phillipthach7924 I don't see the difference if owned by government or not. In my country we have mines owned by Canada private companies and the canadians and their government enjoy all the benefits of it while the "Private company" destroy and contaminate around the world and Canada keep their "green" image.
On top of that, as someone already, mentioned, those "Private" companies bribe ("lobby") those governments. I mean, even Elon Musk called for a coup in Bolivia. You would say that he was just "joking", but there is truth in all jokes, a desire, a thought. Watch the video about how many "private" citizens got rich with Afghanistan war.
China is blunt in their needs. The West engage in mental gymnastics so they can portray one thing while the "private" companies do their fishy business.
I like Cleo’s perspective. I love the insight your content brings, but being 100% honest with ya, it gets pretty sad and overwhelming after a while. It’s nice that Cleo gave a path forward.
Solar Punk
The Future Requires that we use VERBS today.
Giving up is the lazy route.
We need to forefront hope and problem solving better than our parents did.
@@abramrexjoaquin7513 our parents did fine
Our parents started it now we going to push it to new lengths
Fun Fact about green energy: When power companies put up a new Green Energy site, they put up an equal-sized conventional plant somewhere else on the grid, which has to run the same time as the new Green plant. The reason for this is simple: if the grid goes down one volt below the minimum, the whole grid goes down. The tricky bit is that Green plants aren't consistent, but the demand is *constant.* Batteries can store a lot, but building enough batteries to store enough power to cover the gaps for an entire grid is possible, but that's a lot of heavy and rare metals being mined, eats up a lot of real estate and it's still both a limited resource and causing some massive human costs in the process.
The problem is that, if the grid goes down and everyone can't watch the big game for six hours cause the wind's down or the clouds are out, people would be rioting in the streets. Power companies *cannot* afford that, in the PR or monetary sense, so they're obligated to put up those conventional plants to run as backups for the Green plants to meet their shortfalls. Ironically, one of the best power sources by their standards is dams, since it's zero emissions and has a controllable (and thus consistent) output.
Nuclear is also Zero Emissions, but then it has it's own problems. The only truly No Harm power source is Geothermal, but that's limited by location.
There is one very important thing I wanted to add that hasn’t been mentioned and it seems to give a bit of a wrong view on this subject: your perspective makes China seem like the ultimate bad guy in this and that the U.S. isn’t involved in this at all but you definitely have to consider that what the Chinese are doing now in the cobalt mines is something that the Americans would’ve done as well if they had the chance to do so. But due to multiple factors the U.S. has lost their ground in the region and SOLD their mines to China. I think that’s a point that wasn’t part of your video. Thank you though for the video, the production quality of this video was awesome as always, thank you. :)
A good podcast proofing my point is by The Daily from March 18th called “the global race to mine the metal of the future”.
Yeah why didn’t he mention the US involvement in all of this? hm
HasL
Thank you good point
USA also supported the Belgians colonization of the congo, also approved the assassination of the congo leader who tried to improve the country for the people.
@@Syae22 Because the US didn’t invest decades ago like China did. If you want every video on TH-cam to involve the US then it won’t happen, But he has plenty of videos exposing the US that you can watch.
A wise man once said:
"EVs aren't here to save the environment, they're here to save the car industry."
agreed
"do not bought EVs for save our world"
People have problem with EV as if there is unlimited Oil in world . Oil would get expensive as years pass and only middle eastern princes would make money of it.
It's gonna kill many legacy OEMs. They 🐥 figure out how to transit to EVs
YES SO ACCURATE
When Johnny was talking about how history is repeating itself when moving towards a greener feature, this reminded me of the discussion on which countries should take the burden of cutting carbon emission. Should cutting be placed on the first world countries who benefitted from industralization historically? Should it be the countries like China and India that are currently industralizing and thus producing the most CO2 in the present? Or since this is a global problem that affects everyone, then every country should reduce emissions, including the countries that never had the chance to industralize. Either way, someone gets the short end of the stick.
Elon Musk Tesla electric car company is destroying the competition here is the link:
th-cam.com/video/m9Ru8ZJtWuo/w-d-xo.html
It says multiple replies, but I see none.
Well US should definitely cut more emissions than other countries. Their per capita emissions is highest in the world.
India and China are also export economies, so their emissions have to be attached to countries that buy these products.
@@andrewdoesyt7787 i see 3/4 wtf there was other commnts thugh i saw noine despite alot some kidn of shadow ban where random comments blocked for some reason?
Johny Harris: lemme show you a map
The whole TH-camr community: 'gun click'
Wait a minute, is that means China had developing cobalt for over 20 years and recently you found that’s not all right?
Since now more money is involved, and his feelings are hurt cuz knowing we might get LESS profit than China on this "mine". 🤔🤦♂️🤦
My question is why if China has it it's the "dark side" of EV?
@@questworldmatrix Because they don't care about labor conditions and environmental impact of how foreign sources minerals operate. The five eyes nations could get Cobalt from Australia but we lack the work force capacity and the high cost of conforming to basic regulations. Australia is already the 3rd largest nation supplier of Cobalt and by wide lead the biggest supplier of Hard Rock Dry Lithium. These are possible because the easiest Cobalt is being mined and the more expensive high grade lithium is being sold. Operational Difficulty and Price Cost is the problem when it comes to places that do not operate like China.
@@Neojhun yeah, as if the Blood Diamonds were owned by the Chinese.
@@a1184079 WTF we're talking about ores for industrial chemicals. In this case Batteries. Which the Chinese have deep investments in.
I’m so happy reading the comments. I was afraid people would totally agree in the anti-China narrative, but happy to see the opposite and see people thinking holistically.
i wonder how 'holistic' Uyghurs and Tibetans think...
@@jackmorgan1677 lol they’ve seen a massive economic growth as well, they can start thinking about these things too and not just about where to find food as it was in the past ;)
What’s wrong with being anti CCP?
Nothing. What’s wrong China buys these materials? Stop being double standard.
@@tadm123 There’s nothing wrong with that, but unfortunately, the world is more complex than that, go figures. You need to think about why Johnny Harris is so anti-CCP. They are bad, but they are not the only evil in this world. Why is he specifically focusing on China? From the comments, you can see that cobalt as a resource isn’t even that big of a deal (compared to other global issues anyways), yet he’s twisting the narrative, and making it to be a big deal and tying it in with the Chinese. Maybe the China=bad narrative gets more clicks, but I wouldn’t be surprised if he had ulterior motives or is funded by or working for some third party.
Honestly it baffles me that we are trying to make cars greener instead of reducing the amount of cars in the world. In my hometown public transportation is highly ineficient, and the city is designed for cars, yet it's just the 30% of people who use them. It's a class issue as well as an environmental one.
cars represent freedom of movement for the individual. Public transport relies on schedules and preplanned routes. discouraging this freedom is a step backward in societal development imo
@@Thedarkknight2244 this is just fundamental misunderstanding of freedom by americans. Forcing you to drive isn't freedom. You can't call something that you need to live a freedom. Dense-ish walkable cyclable cities with public transport are the only way to sustainably have cities work.
Cars are inefficient (space) are expensive to produce, require infrastructure that without density higher than throughput doesn't pay for itself (suburbs are literally creation of devil - a ponzi scheme)
It baffles you? The answer is pretty simple, bad urban design choices from decades ago require us to either spend trillions redesigning all of our cities or billions on BEVs and letting market forces create momentum.
Not that we shouldn’t address urban sprawl but it’s not a problem that can be fixed overnight or even in a few decades.
@@jbrandonf
> and letting market forces create momentum.
You realize that its cars and suburbs that have been subsidized specifically to create worse cities for humans?
@@Thedarkknight2244 the only reason why cars represent freedom of movement in America is because that’s what it was built for. Entire neighbourhoods were demolished for highways, parking is heavily subsidized, and there are so many negative externalities associated with it. Car lobbies pushed for billions invested in highways and disinvestment of public transit.
If public transportation was good and extensive, you never have to check a schedule and you can go wherever you want to go-and this is common in many cities in the world. If anything, cars represent a burden. You pay for something that’s depreciating in value, you have to pay gas and insurance, and you always have to store it somewhere, which requires endless concrete in precious space in cities. Cars in America actually reduce class mobility because lower income people in some areas need a car to get to work, and money spent on their car is money that could be spent on food, necessities and housing.
alternative title: two adults padding each others back that the future is not like in their childhood tv shows
I get that mining, in the DRC or elsewhere, comes with its own problems and challenges. I also think that real solutions must include degrowth, better city planning, and recycling.
But I do not understand why half of this video is about China, or what is the problem with China producing EVs instead of the USA. Is exploitation or environmental destruction of a better kind when carried out by a Western power? How's China's management of these cobalt mines relevant to the sustainability problem? Is America any better at committing seriously to sustainable goals? I don't think so. You surely remember that Trump didn't follow the Paris agreement and as far as we know he might be elected again.
Also what was on my mind. China is a huge concern in this video but almost all of those mines are owned and processed by ppl who do not live there. Very much includes the west. None of us should have our hands in there.
what do you mean by degrowth? Recycling is a waste of energy in most cases. Although, I don't know much about recycling batteries. Also, electric cars are not really good for the environment in the long term. You are just doing the same thing again. It is just a movement by people who want to see short term results but disregard long term consequences. Making a battery is a very hazardous process. It is not on the same level of a nuclear waste but it is very bad for the environment. Besides, how you are actually charging your car is again for now using fossil fuels. Wind is not really a stable solution. Solar is also not that stable. It is also very expensive and thus not affordable for middle class. Nuclear is very dangerous but if handled well is the cleanest and most efficient of all. However, all these have even bigger infra and maintenance cost than fossil fuel power houses.
As for China's management or rather just mining, his point was just that clean energy is not exactly clean. It is the same as fossil fuels just that we are mining something else. I also agree that I am pretty sure European countries and US will have also made moves in Africa for these minerals and I don't see them in any better light than China but at least they are not going for anti-global markets like China is.
@@aalalagikun5492 In the case of the automobile industry, degrowth would quite literally mean stopping the growth in the production of cars and eventually reversing it. Certainly not just replacing it with an electric version.
Of course, there's absolutely no way of doing such a thing without an alternative solution for mobility. And that's a considerable problem, that requires (among other things) some different territorial and urban planning, and serious investment in public transit.
More generally, degrowth (décroissance) is the critique of the idea of constant economic growth (constant increase in industrial output) and the proposal of reducing production and consumption based on the environmental considerations
@@D_Archives this degrowth idea is stupid. If there are better alternatives, they would automatically be adopted.
It is a bad idea to forcefully degrowth and adopt "environmental friendly" methods as they would lead to higher cost of living for middle class and lower class families. If they are affordable, they would automatically be adopted.
As it has been mentioned before, the best way to tackle environmental problems is by increasing literacy rate and lifting people out of poverty. Only then do they have the money and thought to think about environment.
Johnny has made countless videos critiquing western government and corporate corruption. If it appears he's being biased, I would guess you're either wrong or he just wasn't aware of the extent of western involvement.
Just loved how Johnny mentioned DRC being 'used' by Belgium, china, but curtly misses out America's 'using' of African countries for years....
The level of journalism that Mr Harris normally does, this is unacceptable...
....u know this guy rags on America alot, anyway did u see how u change ur words, cos u were saying he talked about Belgium and China exploiting Congo, but then u say that he isnt tlaking about USA using African countries..., African countries arent Congo, the point was specifically about Congo not African countries in general, now I'm not sure if America has used Congo before or has had an agreement(which ppl like to call exploitation), but yes USA has used African countries but the video on that isnt the main subject
Appreciated the zoom in and the zoom out and you too really compliment eachother! The cinematic quality is also incredible and award worthy!
Would love to see a video of all the incredible ways the world collaborates!
Sometimes when you learn about the challenges, it is easy to get bogged down or even overwhelmed. That is where Cleo comes in! If we look at China owning cobalt mines as merely a challenge to overcome, then we can think of ways to progress in ways that are more friendly to the environment as well as non-exploitative to other cultures. We can do that for a large assortment of challenges as well. It would be huge if we can make it true!
Wow, I wonder what happened to the DRC between the rule of Belgium to when China bought over the cobalt mines? Who did the Chinese buy the cobalt mines from by the way? Seems awfully convenient for that 40 years of history to be omitted here Johnny.
We all know what Johnny's affiliations are..
@@Ivan-bg1jp which are?
Ok I genuinely don't know what happened during that timespan...can someone fill me in?
@@samuraijosh1595 to vastly oversimply a very complicated and nuanced history and narrative, the US had the first democratically elected leader of Congo assassinated because of interest in Russia in the 60s. What followed has been a string of dictators (read about Mobuto, he was crazy), warlords, civil wars, rebel movements, foreign interference and exploration, and corruption sadly resulting in an unstable nation that really could and should be one of the most prosperous and wealthy countries in the World. TL;DR - Greed happened.
It's a bunch of propaganda bullshit bc wight people didn't get to it first. China's playing by your rule book Johnny!
This is how I feel after every video on this channel. I just want to sit this guy down and say, "Take a breath. It's not as bad as you are making it sound." My roommates and I call it the "hair on fire" channel. He draws attention to greatly important issues but it's so hyperbolic, I feel like I need a bottle of Xanax after watching it. Her explaining it's not so bad was such a breath of fresh air because she said everything I was thinking while he was talking. This was a great change of pace. I've been asking questions about EV batteries for years now. I'm glad someone else is. But it's not being ignored. It's a new technology and a lot of development is being done.
Yes, I realize the irony in complaining about someone being hyperbolic while also asking for a whole bottle of Xanax. That was kind of the point. Don't get me wrong. I love this channel and the issues it brings to light. Plus, I also love maps. Just felt like saying that because I read my comment again and the tone sounded harsh. I don't mean it that way. And we don't really call it the hair on fire channel. I don't even have roommates. But the energy of some of these videos can be a little over the top. It's meant as constructive criticism with love.
He purposely have Cleo on so he can do the rant and she can be the one to calm things down and be optimistic. Love this collab.
@@excalipoor That's what I'm saying. Without her, it's all alarmist pessimism with nothing to balance it out.
6:20 "How did a substance that made ceramics blue end up being so important to electric car batteries..." this section is really unfortunate. Cobalt is a cathode material in li-ion batteries. Without going into battery chemistry, the material choice a always a balance between safety, cycle life and cost. The use of lithium with a carbon anode already nets high energy density. The anode needs to provide surface area for the ions and graphene is the right structure and is cheap and easy to produce. Lithium ion based batteries use a polymer membrane and the lithium electrolyte between the electrodes. It's this area is volatile. Dendrite formation can occur with molecules forms from the electrolyte and the cathode. The molecular structure of the cathode determines how many of these side reactions occur which lead to the batteries cycle life including eventual shorting of a cell. That's why cells are all fused. Lithium Iron Phosphate is actually superior to cobalt variants on cost and cycles but not density. But it gets weirder. Lithium Cobalt Oxide isn't even used in EVs because it to is not high density and costly compared to other chemistries. This makes the specific use of cobalt more an accident. It's actually the novel combination of elements that are progressing density. Such as Lithium Nickel Cobalt Aluminium Oxide. The chemistry needs to balance density, power (surface area) and cost. The fact that cobalt is novel in industry is what actually makes it significant as a conflict mineral in this discussion. The fact that it was the first cathode for lithium ion batteries is more of a footnote since pure cobalt cathodes aren't used in EVs.
So in essence this documentary is false and a lie
“Without going into battery chemistry”
proceeds to undertake full on essay about battery chemistry🤣🤣
@@victorslyvester8977 it’s 2022, we now have alternative facts. With one month free subscription to skillshare, you too can be an expert in any field. With some extra hours to learn some video editing skills, you can turn your new found knowledge into “documentaries” to educate others.
Go back to horses.
This comment is better and pure fact than that whole video above.
One of the many great things about Cleo Abrams is that she is able to explain concisely without using the word "like" 10 times a minute.
She's also hot 😂
It is really comforting to see a significant rise in the proportion of comments demonstrating a critical mindset. The same video, if posted even just a few years ago, would have certainly received mostly mindless anti-China comments that mirror the tone of the video, yet now in 2022, more and more people are finally waking up to the hypocrisy of the west, and starting to be skeptical about the rhetoric. This is especially comforting considering this is a mainstream western channel, where viewers are likely mostly anglosaxon, or non-Chinese at the very least. Being able to think from multiple perspectives when there is no apparent incentive to waste cognitive resources doing so is a sign of growing cognitive complexity, and I sincerely hope this trend continues.
@Social Libertarian Looking at the number of wars US has started in the past decades, and more importantly the undercurrent motives associated with each, I'd argue that liberal is really not a valid label for the US. Much like parenting, there is a difference between true freedom (autonomy supportive), and being simply irresponsible. I have seen these youtube comment section arguments pan out to ridiculous lengths, and am hesitant to emulate this myself, so here's hoping to a rationale response
@Social Libertarian Its human nature to dwell on the titles and labels, and to be influenced by them, for they are the easiest layer of information for the brain to process. So terms like liberal, authoritarian, communist etc can be really effective at colouring an otherwise blank piece of paper. This is why killing innocent middle eastern civilians was renamed "collateral damage", sinister invasions were termed "humanitarian interventions", the same event would be labelled a pro-democracy peaceful protest when on Chinese soil, while being labelled anti-government violent riots when on US soil. I could go on, but I think you get the point. Kudos to the US for capitalising on the laziness of human cognitive processing tendencies with sugar-packaging. I don't hope to have you change your stance 180 degrees overnight, but I do hope to sew a seed that could one day stem into greater levels of skepticism in the face of western mainstream media tricks.
@Social Libertarian I'd rather a safe world than a liberal world where people are free to go out and harm others. The successful Asian countries are the more Authoritarian ones like China and Singapore. South Korea and Japan's cultures are naturally more authoritarian in nature. In these countries, crime rate is low as criminals are treated harshly and efficiently dealt with. To achieve freedom to be safe from harm, there must be order!
@Social Libertarian you don’t know what you are talking about. You are just repeating mindless slogans.
Mindless anti China comments??? Lmao you are satisfied with starvation, censorship, no regulation for human rights or environmental rights, 1.4 billion people but 1/6 gpd per capita compared to Us. These circumstances are the result of globalists, US regulation, and bitch ass China. Bad players everywhere and no one is telling the whole truth. It seems we should be against regulation that would send jobs to China, we should focus on having little ties with them as possible. But no, we focus on fighting about abortion, borders, fascism, racism all while China is doing all of that and our tax dollars are being invested overseas. You can’t sit here and hold China and the Us to same standards. Like we don’t even have access to verifiable evidence of any claims China makes about anything.
When you set the narrative of “stealing”, it is inevitably biased. Can’t imagine a former student of IR would talk negotiations between countries like that…
@@stereomachine An agreement? I don't see the Chinese walking in with guns and tanks into the Congo forcing the government at gunpoint to hand over the mines.
stealing is the word he used for Belgium or the white people countries..
That left a bad taste in my mouth too and it turns out that this 'journalist' was heavily critiqued a while ago about an unrelated story with regards to a conflict of interest that he conveniently did not disclose until it blew up in front of him. Overall, this topic is interesting to think and talk about (especially when you realize that there are people who think they are saving the planet by driving an electric car) but I'd still take everything this guy says with a grain of salt.
✌👉 The Connections (2021) [short documentary] 💖✌
@@generalgiovannicresvaresur2771 same, these people are totally biased and this kind of "journalism" is toxic.
Johny needs to pay his heating bills, the layer of clothes is getting denser every video 😃
why waste energy? we are talking about greener environment, right?
Although your comment is a joke and I laughed I’m constantly arguing with my wife about not wasting energy and money when layers of clothes are there and cheap.
@@shasmi93 It's a problem but you always have to see a bright side.
Tbh, what they talked about in the video is just the surface. Everything is ruled by money for "the money". Having said that, saving every little bit is huge - like not leaving your pc/ energy devices on over night, turning off unnecessary lights, using firewood for heating, etc. Making those cheap clothes come with a pollution problem in itself.
counterpoint: Using less HVAC energy is nicer for the planet!
@@MrSmitheroons heat pumps?
the mix is amazing ❤
love you and Cloe together
I bet there won't be any "problem" if US or any western nation do what China is doing now in Africa just like they used to be. I don't support china but I'm disgusted with western hipocracy.
Agreed also it’s China bashing trend at the mo, so these TH-camrs just want get maximum views and $$ for their content👎
China is not enslaving people and making colonies, China is far from being the same
So we should support what China is doing, because someone else also did that.
If the west helped stabilize the Congo instead of funding different factions and exploiting it's resources this shift towards china would never have happened. The Congo would not have been so corrupt and divided if the western multinationals and governments weren't polluting it's very essence.
Thank you!
Make more cities focused on pedestrians, bikes and public transport. I remember going on my bicycle all through my town growing up, but I feel like if my kid were to do that, I'd go to jail or have my child taken away. Cities keep getting more car focused and utilizing a bicycle just doesn't seem as feasible as it once did.
How’s that work out hauling a sheet of plywood?
@@bonez747 then you drive a truck or something. I’ve seen people ride specifically large cargo bicycles for larger items, but I’d imagine most people would just drive if they need to…
Yes cars, regardless of combustion or electric, are not sustainable to save the planet. We invest in sustainable mobility: walk, bike, and public transit.
@@ahsanurr4219sadly that’s in the west, visit or try live shot term in places in China. Clean and efficient public transportation, cashless and etc…you’ll have answers yourself
14:51 I don't know that public transport is THAT un-sexy: I rather unironically enjoy spending 90 minutes each direction on my way to and from school, being able to zone out, read stuff on my phone, relax, and just generally not have to worry about anything beyond making sure I don't miss my stop to get off. yes, driving would probably cut my commute time in half, but then I would have to actually spend that time paying attention to the details of my surroundings, rather than just keeping an eye on when the bus is getting close to my stop.
Agreed. But most manufacturers are working to reduce cobalt use, most of the energy storage will be lfp without cobalt, and ev's still are way safer and better for the environment long term, especially as the vast majority of the battery can be recycled and battery cycle lives have dramatically improved.
Can you cite examples of Li-Ion recycling, as you've stated? Who is doing that, and how much of a car battery are recycled?
Exactly what I was going to say, Nickel is a substitute for cobalt just less energy dense but that can be fixed with a little increase in silicon. Tesla doesn't use cobalt in it battery and it current batteries perform better than ones with cobalt, " necessity is the mother of invention"
"the vast majority of the battery can be recycled" - the key word here is "can". Unfortunately almost no one does that at the moment. Manufacturing new batteries is cheaper than recycling old ones. Because of that, majority of old batteries still end up in the landfills. That's why today EVs are still as dirty as conventional ICE cars (or maybe even dirties, as we still cannot predict exact environmental implications of dumping bunch of old batteries). We can only hope that some future technology will allow us to safely and economically viably recycle batteries.
@@oxide9717 Teslas are a tad explodey tho compared to other EVs
The petroleum industry sold you the lie that plastic was recyclable too, and yet most of it is floating in the Pacific Ocean. You really think that Duracell you dropped in the battery bin at HD is going to make it back into a package soon? The mining operations for metals such as lithium and cobalt are exponentially more damaging to the environment then turning crude oil into gasoline. And you are likely going to be burning coal to charge your "green" EV so how are they "way better for the environment in the long term"?
I know its bad... but compared of how many deaths and disgrace that the oil business has created in the middle east, Russia and Latin America, this is just a collateral thing that can be changed FAR more ease than oil supply.
In the beginning of the car industry, the rubber was also an "exotic" resource that after mass industrialisation became common. Same thing with fertiliser and electricity. I think that the industry will find more alternatives to these resources. Its just matter of time.
We can't forget... the sugar justified the slavery for centuries but was not necessary to ban the sugar for outlaw the slavery.
good points 👍
Here in Chile, the Chinese are mining lithium. Due to economic pressures, they do not allow us to process lithium, only to export it as raw material, to later be processed in China and sold back as a product. And now more than ever lithium is incredibly important and here in Chile there is a lot of it.
Unfortunately, everything belongs to the Chinese and we can do little.
Thanks for your feedback!
FAKE NEWS, AMERICAN PROPAGANDA
WHILE IN INDONESIA UK AND AMERICA DIDNT LET INDONESIA TO PROCESS OUR MINES PRODUCT, THANK TO CHINA TO HELP INDONESIA !!!
@@andrialexander6624 What is fake news?
Blame your government, not China. Who signs the deals? China comes to you with a deal, and you accepted it's terms of agreement, not much to argue, no one forced you to do it.
exploiting children by all big companies for electric cars, smartphones, etc is horrible. shame on all of them
When Cleo was like “you good?” I felt like Johnny needs that on most videos nowadays Lmao
While we can recycle those minerals to repurpose them for other electronics, the fact is that it isn't as cost efficient as just getting the raw materials to make said electronics.
Companies only care the bottom line, they won't heavily invest in recycling unless the government forces them to.
One possible solution often proposed for this is to attach the cost of recycling to the retail value of the battery. This will potentially remove the reluctance towards end of life recycling and also make the user bear responsibility towards it. Isolating end user from the environmental burden has been the common thread of modern manufacturing. Only way to do this is through policy change and we know that’s the most difficult bit, not technology.
✌👉 The Connections (2021) [short documentary] 💖✌
For me, cycling is the best answer I can imagine for solving the problem of transport. I know yes yes some people can't cycle, but a lot can, and a lot is what we need. Anyone who has been to cities like Stockholme and Amsterdam know it's possible.
Only for flat terrain places, it's really hard to cycle to work, shop, etc. when you're living in hilly places especially in hot climates
all travel under 15 miles besides a cab or a train should be done by bike or by foot.. would increase green space in cities, better our health and lessen our reliance on minerals/ fossil fuels
As much as I like cycling, it's just not a viable option to use for commuting to work in countries that are near the equator because it's so freaking hot everyday. You either arrive to work soaking wet with sweat or soaking wet when it rains. lol.
Try cycling year-round in Canada.
Cycling works if your commute is short enough (most aren't) and most importantly that you have good infrastructure for it. Most places don't in the US.
Johnny dropping bangers while dressed like a hitchhiker who's headed to the congo who snuck into a fancy apartment. Keep it up.
Johnny, a great follow-up video to this would be an investigation into the relationship between transportation and land-use. There is a lot of CRAZY stuff around zoning and density restrictions (racism, classism, capitalism, etc) that locks us into this EV problem. Cleo hinted at it, but there's a reason "investing in public transit" feels so unlikely and it has a lot to do with the fact that mixed-use buildings and apartments are illegal in 90% of buildable land in the US.
The lack of proper legislations is the reason why many Chinese companies are not held accountable. Just have a quick look at likasi, or kolwezi ( musonoï suburbs), you will find out that people are getting sick because of all the chemicals that contaminated water, and the soil. Erosion and pollution are the bigger concerns.
✌👉 The Connections (2021) [short documentary] 💖✌
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Newsom just passed an executive order eliminating R1 (single family housing) zoning. A step in the right direction.
He already kind of did video for zoning laws.
14:42 - “There’s also a lower tech version of this where we just invest more in public transport.” You should both take a look at what Culdesac is doing. This is a startup in Arizona focused on building walkable and bikable communities, minimizing cars for most daily tasks.
The probem with most people's vision of a green future is that they expect to keep on living exactly in the same way they did before but somehow it's all green. Maybe, just maybe it's not inherently sustainable to live in huge detached suburbans homes in neighbourhoods where you have to drive 10 minutes to get some milk? So it's not only a question of transportation, its also a question of urban planning and policy. A more dense urban fabric would probably also help to resolve the issue of homes that nobody can afford at the moment.
It's also a question of consumption. I can't help but doubt that constantly buying disposable goods meant to be quickly used and discarded can be made in any way sustainable.
Another point I would like to add is that mining any mineral has always been polluting, non eco-friendly and labor exploiting(lithium even more than cobalt). In a sense we can't really blame China, even America would mine cobalt the same way. The main issue is whether China is paying a fair share to Congo.
Also do not think the west is clean in this regard, everybody knows about the paradise papers leak of glencore and how it exploited Congo(corruption) for its own needs.
so true. Imagine the ability to cycle or even walk your way to the nearest supermarket to grab groceries. And instead of having your lentils and other groceries packed in plastic packaging, you can bring your own containers and fill them up with produce. What about bring glass containers to fill with milk and plastic containers to fill with lentils and dry fruits. That is the future. Even better, instead of letting water go down the drain, you store that water and reuse it to grow a veggie garden. The solutions are out there, it's just that very few people focus on them.
This is the idea of transition engineering. It's all about coming up with the most effective ways of getting to 1-2 gigatons of carbon emissions per person per year as quickly as possible.
@@zacharygustafson8714 even though i agree that packaging is an issue you really can't do anything about it. People buy their groceries like once in a month in bulk you can't expect them to take their entire kitchen's containers to the supermarket.
@@vincentchan4777 I'm more talking about how everything we own is designed to be broken/obsolete and thrown away every few years. Your phone? Cheaper and easier to buy a new one than have it repaired. Cars? They don't hold up past a certain amount of miles. Clothes? Who even bothers with sewing up holes anymore? Lightbulbs can be made much longer-lasting, but companies make sure they have a very limited lifespan to keep you buying.
We're a trash culture; what doesn't work anymore, we throw out and buy a new one. We need to pivot towards maintaining the things we currently own if we actually want to do something for the environment.
That progress bar at the bottom of the Ad was very very innovative, I like it cuz many times I want to support the creator by watching those sponsored Ads but I need to know how long they will take or I will try to make it short and just accidentally skip it so kudos for that little innovation johnny