Sir, – While it was encouraging to see an entire page devoted to the subject of electric cars in last Saturday’s Weekend Review, I was disappointed to note that there was no mention of the murky dealings involved in the mining of lithium and cobalt , both of which are currently essential in the manufacturing of batteries for electric vehicles (EVs) (“EV Living: Are electric cars an inevitability and are they as green as they claim?”, Motors, October 2nd).
Readers could be reminded that 75 per cent of the world’s lithium is mined from one of the driest areas in the world in Chile, Argentina and Bolivia where the landscape is now scarred and farmers are left struggling. Toxic chemicals released during the mining have damaged the water supply in Tibet. Both Unicef and Amnesty International have published research about the exploitative labour practices of companies mining cobalt in the Democratic Republic of Congo, where thousands of children work in the mines for a pittance and also risk developing “hard metal lung disease”. It is important that there is transparency of the human rights risks involved and that steps are taken to ensure that the role of EVs in the energy revolution is truly clean and fair. I feel we ought not congratulate ourselves on the purchase and use of an EV without first delving into the whole story behind these vehicles and also making inquiries into the recycling possibilities of these lithium batteries into the future. – Yours, etc,
ANNE HARTE,
Rathfarnham,
Dublin 14.