The Dark Side of Electric Cars
ฝัง
- เผยแพร่เมื่อ 17 ต.ค. 2024
- China is snatching up the key ingredient for EV batteries.
Follow this link to get an exclusive deal with NordVPN: nordvpn.com/jo...
Car batteries are the new blood diamonds, but it doesn’t have to be this way.
Check out Cleo's new channel: / @cleoabram
Big thanks to excellent reporting by the New York Times who did a deep dive into the human tragedy and exploitation in the DRC: www.nytimes.co...
Thank you to Guillaume Debrier and the International Peace Information Service (IPIS)
ways to support -
My Patreon: / johnnyharris
Our custom Presets & LUTs: store.dftba.co...
where to find me -
Instagram: / johnny.harris
Tiktok: / johnny.harris
Facebook: / johnnyharrisvox
Iz's (my wife’s) channel: / iz-harris
how i make my videos -
Tom Fox makes my music, work with him here: tfbeats.com/
I make maps using this AE Plugin: aescripts.com/...
All the gear I use: www.izharris.c...
my courses -
Learn a language: brighttrip.com...
Visual storytelling: www.brighttrip...
about -
Johnny Harris is a filmmaker and journalist. He currently is based in Washington, DC, reporting on interesting trends and stories domestically and around the globe. Johnny's visual style blends motion graphics with cinematic videography to create content that explains complex issues in relatable ways. He holds a BA in international relations from Brigham Young University and an MA in international peace and conflict resolution from American University.
press -
NYTimes: www.nytimes.co...
NYTimes: www.nytimes.co...
Vox Borders: • Inside Hong Kong’s cag...
Finding Founders: findingfounder...
NPR Planet Money: www.npr.org/tr...
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
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
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 🙄
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 🚲🌍
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.
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
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.
Yes. China and India are good countries and civilizations, while America and Rome are corrupt and malevolent, and think other countries are jealous of their power.
"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.
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."
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.
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 !
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!!
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
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.
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.
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.
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
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.
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.
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
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.
I’m Chinese once worked in Africa on mining for years.
One thing I want to clarify is that we won’t hire or force any children to do the mining job. We have plenty of mining equipment why hire children to do it?
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
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?
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.
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 😂
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.
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] 💖✌
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.
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.
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
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
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.
exploiting children by all big companies for electric cars, smartphones, etc is horrible. shame on all of them
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.
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
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.
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.
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
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...
this video seems honestly its just trying to appeal to a "china bad" audience, especially with all the intensity and "ooh the worlds gonna end". While its not good what happens, it's not like if america got there first etc... it would've been different.
What I also don't understand is the fact that china wanting to make cheap cars is somehow portrayed as a bad thing?
Plus he ignores that the whole industry is aggressively phasing out cobalt usage and has been for years. This video is based on a super out of date narrative pushed by anti renewable propagandists. Johnny is not reporting here. This is dishonest, unethical and perfectly in line with what this channel has become. A propaganda outlet
I agree. Why only highlight 15 mines controlled by China and not the rest of 75? Either this is a propaganda video or this is just another dirty click bait strategy.
@@rullypratama Because his videos were about Chinese mines, not about other country’s mines?
Cars manufactured here are union made. Not objecting to Chinese cars but they should compete on value, not because China can shut down the battery supply. Granted, American auto makers no doubt have had a competitive edge granted by the US government in the past if not as much today.
@@nimrodery china beat us at capitalism. dominating supply chains is part capitalism. If american companies cant compete, then they need to innovate.
USA has bombarded middle eastern countries for decades for controlling oil, so it’s good as long as china does it fairly in congo but it’s always gonna be apposite!!
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
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.
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.
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.
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.
💯
💯
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?
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.
The US has been doing this for how long and no one bats an eye, but as soon as their biggest competitor starts doing the same thing it becomes a massive deal.
Make no mistake, i'm not for slave labor, exploitation and a fascist Chinese Govt overtaking the US in terms of Global economic market share, but let's not pretend the US is any better just because we all deem it the "lesser" evil (probably??).
We need better global leaders than China/the US. Having the biggest stick in the yard has never been nor will it ever be a sufficient measure of leadership.
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.
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.
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
Johny Harris: lemme show you a map
The whole TH-camr community: 'gun click'
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.
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?
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
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.
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
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.
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 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
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.
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.
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 😂😂
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.
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?
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.
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.
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!
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?
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.
alternative title: two adults padding each others back that the future is not like in their childhood tv shows
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.
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.
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.
This is exactly why I and pretty much my entire friend circle think, that the EU's decision to rule out any other methods other than electrification for cars is absolutely stupid. Not only are we having to exploit and waste ressources, we're also polluting in other ways. There's also the fact, that it's not really clean until your electricity source is clean too. And that's not to mention how absolutely massive the needed infrastructure is, to get even half the population to drive electric. It simply doesn't make sense and isn't even feasible long term...
Instead we could focus on improving the Internal Combustion design to run clean on more abundant and readily available ressources like hydrogen or create a new solution entirely (maybe even consider nuclear energy due to it's insane efficiency and it not being as bad as people think).
But no, instead we are focussing on a technology, that doesn't take too much thinking to realise just how unrealistic it is to chase. Maybe if we focussed on improving public transport to the Swiss standard (I live there, I can confirm it's great), so it's not only usable and clean, but also in a lot of cases a better option than driving. It's also cheaper if you use it regularly and get a subscription, so there's a natural incentive for people to switch and it shows...
But at the same time I also hope we don't just completely give up on roads, given the amount of culture, that exists behind cars and motorcycles. In fact, if most people used public teansport, it would be an amazing experience even for those who drive for enjoyment, because there's less traffic and therefore roads also become safer. It's a win win really.
Please forgive my lack of education, but what is the Swiss Standard for public transport?
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?
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.
It's just so difficult to take someone serious when they're wearing a headband.
Except Mr Miyagi of course.
Lol why?
Yes, the energy to build an electric car is probably 5 years of gasoline burning. Solar panels take 2 years of output to equal the power generated and add 1 year for shipping/installation costs. So after a few years, a positive effect
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
There was a time when people just could not imagine giving up their trusted horses.
it's a fallacy. you are comparing apples to oranges. electric cars are just cars. i would give up for a flying car. or a hover car
@@archmad They might appear similair, but technically very far apart
Yeah but something better came out. This is far from even comparable
@@TheGreyGhost_of43rd nah i would still ride my horses in steppes of mongolia. car is expensive and can run out of fuel. horses dont. there is grass everywhere
@@archmad We don't need flying cars because we already have flying cars, airplanes. They take a lot of training to be able to drive one and staying alive, which makes regulations the way it is today.
"Steal resources from another country" Sounds familiar in my country.
Being the poor one of course
am arab america is stealing our oil
China steal minerals, America steal oils 😂💀
don't worry the US will send some back as gifts, just make sure to vicit your local landfills
@@booaks2980 EXACTLY
If you can't afford to extract it yourself then it's not really yours in any practical sense. Stay poor.
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
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] 💖✌
Subscribe to Climate Town and Not just Bikes
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.
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 👍
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!
I really don't mind with china rushes africa, because the west already did that before for hundreds years colonialism.
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.
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] 💖✌
Congo does not have 70% of worlds cobalt, it has little more than 50%. It produces 70% as of right now, that's true. But it's a big difference
😂💀
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!
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.
As a Congolese it will never not be emotional seeing the abondance of wealth in natural resources in Congo but yet seeing the continuous pillaging of its goods, I do hope one day Congo regains it’s pride as a country and become prosperous.
Thanks again Johnny for the enlightening video 👍🏾
As an African I hate to say that our political leaders are also to be blamed because China isn’t forcing its way into Africa. At the end of the day it’s business. The problem is that we have leaders who are after individual wealth and not wealth of the country which gives birth to such problems. Africa needs a revival of leadership. Africa is literally the richest yet exploited continent on earth and as hard as it is to swallow this, our leaders contribute to the exploitation.
@@hennisdoffman5412 I absolutely agree with you
@@hennisdoffman5412 always blaming the leaders, the leaders come from society, u can change the leaders but the next one will just do the same, its fair to say that most africans will shut up if the person stealing or misleading is their relative, there is pipeline of bad leaders willing to replace the current ones .if africans demand good leaders the good ones will come.
Breaks my heart. There is enough abundance, wealth, and resources for everyone in Africa ❤️
Not to mention how unnecessary child labor is!!
@@hennisdoffman5412 When Patrice Lumumba was elected in 1960 on a pledge to end the rule by outside corporations, Dwight Eisenhower's CIA and the Belgian government overthrew him and put Mobutu in power. So I would say even those African leaders who collaborate with the corporate exploiters are able to do so because the superpowers have wrecked democracy to benefit corporate assets.
Recycling is presented as "FREE MATERIALS". Recycling is an expensive and energy consuming process. Many cities are cutting back on what they recycle, and they admit it doesn't save energy or money. They are just doing it to be "GREEN". I know of one local area that will only take plastics and cardboard. No; metal, glass or Styrofoam products.
Exactly. The video is over simplifying the recycling aspect!
Because Industry took the only part of the trifecta that they can continue to sell more and more products with and that is the idea of recycling. In reality the biggest focus should be on REDUCING consumption and REUSING resources.