Showing posts with label cobalt. Show all posts
Showing posts with label cobalt. Show all posts

Sunday, January 29, 2023

Fire crews use 6,000 gallons of water to extinguish burning Tesla Model S whose battery spontaneously combusted.

Or, 4,500 gallons of water; the story mentions both amounts.

Daily Mail: California fire crews use SIX THOUSAND gallons of water to extinguish burning Tesla Model S whose battery spontaneously combusted while driving down busy freeway.

* Fire officials said that nothing was wrong with the car before it combusted.
* Approximately 6,000 gallons of water was used to extinguish the blaze.
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It is unclear what caused the blaze,[.]
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Firefighters arrived at the wrecking yard to find the Tesla fully engulfed in flames. Each time the firefighters attempted to extinguish the flames, the Tesla's battery would reignite the fire.

The fire department posted an Instagram video of the ordeal, saying that even when firefighters moved the Tesla onto its side to spray the battery directly, the car would burst into flames again 'due to the residual heat.'

Eventually, the firefighters dug a pit near the Tesla and moved the burning car into it and then filled the pit with water, 'effectively submerging the battery compartment.'

The technique worked, and the fire department was able to put out the fire with no injuries and 4,500 gallons of water used - about the same amount of water used for a building fire.

Fires generated from electric vehicles can be especially hazardous, as they generate over 100 organic chemicals including some potentially fatal toxic gasses like carbon monoxide and hydrogen cyanide.

Hazardous chemicals and fatal toxic gasses are good for the environment! 👍

Saturday, July 16, 2022

UK heatwave triggers national emergency.

The National News (July 16, 2022): Second Cobra meeting called as UK heatwave triggers national emergency.

Londoners urged not travel on Monday and Tuesday with 80 per cent chance record temperature could be set and warning lives are at risk.

BBC (January 28, 2021): Renewable energy overtakes fossil fuels for first time as UK's biggest source of electricity in 2020.

For the first time, renewable energy overtook fossil fuels to be the biggest source of electricity in the UK in 2020.

Wind, solar, bio-energy and hydro (water) power generated a record 42% of UK power last year, while fossil fuels - mostly gas - produced 41%, according to a report by energy experts Ember and Agora Energiewende.

In 2019, renewables generated 37% of the UK's electricity, compared with 45% for fossil fuels.

How's that green, renewable energy working? The AC running good? Better get those child laborers in third-world countries to hurry up and increase their lithium and cobalt production. The Stiff-Upper-Lippers are having a heatwave.

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Update/Addition: Ooof ..hit the BBC link and scroll all the way to the bottom (which I didn't do the first time) and READ THE COMMENTS. They kind of all read like this:

"This is awesome, great news."

"The world will live longer." 🤣🤣🤣

"This is awesome."

"This is great news that renewable energy overtakes fossil fuels."

 I hope these same commenters enjoy their heatwave.

Sunday, February 16, 2020

Tech Waste. An Existential Threat? "Climate Change" is more popular and financially rewarding.


Scientific American: Tech Waste Is a Danger to Us All.
Hardware in general, and smartphones in particular, have taken over our lives so quickly that few of us have had the chance to think about what happens to them when we no longer use them. The answer is that they become a huge environmental and health problem in the Global South’s landfill sites.

We don’t hear much about this problem because it is out of sight, out of mind.

Electronic waste is currently 5 percent of all global waste, and it is set to increase exponentially as more of us own multiple smartphones, laptops and power banks—few of which are likely to be repaired or recycled at the end of their lives.
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There is an almost limitless consumer demand for hardware, and governments do not have bottomless pockets, especially when their green policies are focused on more high-profile issues like carbon emissions.
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Only the manufacturers can fix this, by creating a circular hardware economy.
No, this is not a problem that "only manufacturers can fix". Not any different than blaming manufacturers of plastic and the hysteria of the pearl-clutching-crowd crying for bans on plastic bags and bottles. People use and buy based on their wants, needs and what they feel is a good return for their money. Much of it is packed with plastic.

Do you want that plastic band around your ice cream container so you're assured no one the super market, opened it, licked it and returned it to the freezer? I'm betting no matter how much you hate and want to ban plastic, you like that plastic band.

Look around your house. How much plastic is there is in everything? I'm betting, at some point in their journey, fossil fuels were used in transporting those items to your home. Plastic is versatile and affordable, same for fossil fuel.

Consumers play a large part in tech waste. The question is, is the Tech-Obsessed-Must-Have-the-Latest-Device-Crowd willing to do their part? And a circular hardware economy has a limit, it's not an endless loop.

Tech Waste can wait. We have to solve the Existential Threat of Climate Change first.

I've referenced the stories below in the past and I'll use them again:

Amnesty.orgChild labour behind smart phone and electric car batteries.

GreenTech Media: With demand for cobalt and lithium surging, companies need to be aware of where they’re sourcing from.
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Scientific American Archived
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(Feb. 17, 2020 typo fix "is" to "in")

Friday, September 20, 2019

Facebook employee leaps to death from roof of corporate headquarters.


Daily Mail: Facebook employee jumps to his death from roof of company's Silicon Valley headquarters in apparent suicide.
A Facebook employee has died at the company's headquarters campus in Silicon Valley in what police call an apparent suicide.

Horrified bystanders in Menlo Park, California called 911 at about 11.30am on Thursday after an adult male jumped from the top of a four-story building on the 100 block of Jefferson Drive.

Paramedics rushed to Facebook's sprawling campus and rendered first aid, but the victim was declared dead on the scene.

The deceased individual has not been publicly identified pending family notification, but Facebook confirmed in a statement to DailyMail.com that he was an employee.
Zuckerberg may have to install suicide nets like Apple did in China to prevent employees from leaping to their deaths.

"Our AI wasn't programmed to identify suicidal tendencies."

Thursday, January 10, 2019

How many Dems will condemn Tim Cook's earnings?

Answer to post title: None.

This Is Money: Apple boss Tim Cook's BIGGEST BONUS EVER.
Apple boss Tim Cook collected his biggest ever bonus just weeks before the iPhone maker cut production due to poor sales.

The 58-year-old trousered £12.3million in 2018, including a £2.4million salary and a £9.4million bonus.

It was a 22 per cent pay rise for a year that saw Apple post record revenue and profit.

But it came just weeks before it dropped a bombshell, saying demand for its latest iPhones failed to meet expectations.
I have no problem with any CEO making a ton of money. I do have a problem with corporations with business ties in countries that exploit and use forced child labor for mining cobalt and lithium and any other resource. Don't tell me these companies "don't know". Years ago, Apple had to install suicide nets in their China manufacturing facilities because workers preferred leaping to their deaths rather than work at their job.

Green Tech Media: The Hidden Risks of Batteries: Child Labor, Modern Slavery.
Shockingly, 40,000 children are estimated to be employed in artisanal mines in southern DR Congo, including in cobalt extraction. Verisk Maplecroft’s cobalt risk assessment -- part of its commodity risk service -- reveals that human rights abuses are widespread in the sector and can occur within both industrial and artisanal mines.
Bloomberg: 2018: Apple negotiating to buy cobalt direct from miners in DR Congo.
The price of cobalt has more than tripled in the past 18 months to trade above $80,000 a metric ton. Two-thirds of supplies come from the Democratic Republic of Congo, where there has never been a peaceful transition of power and child labor is still used in parts of the mining industry.
Apple isn't the only maker of electronics that obtains cobalt and lithium from countries and sources that use forced child labor. Conducting business with countries and companies that deliberately look the other way on all types of child labor is appalling and must be stopped. What is Tim Cook going to do about it? What are you/we going to do about it? Yes, there's lithium and cobalt in your, and my, lap top, desk top, IPad, phone and everything else. What degree of responsibility belongs to those of us who use these devices?

While all activity or work contains some degree of risk, (simply being alive carries with it the inherent risk of death), and while we can each rationalize what we do in life and assess various degrees of risk we are willing to take, profit should never come at the expense of human life and health. This is mantra to every reasonable, free-thinking individual. But it is held in absolute holy righteousness by The Left. So, why am I not surprised that The Left maintains a silent vigil on this issue when it comes to Tech?

One could correctly call the cobalt and lithium industry the "new" Exxon or Standard Oil. But The Left never will.