Hacker News Reader

Comment by bblpeter | Hacker News Reader

Quitting coal mining in exchange for lithium mining? That’s like saying an addict is healthy because he quit heroin in exchange for being hooked on fentanyl.

View on HN

CO2 in the air is damaging all life on earth, while a lithium mine at most damages the local area around the mine. It's probably much better to have a few local "dead" spots than a complete planet out of whack.

And as a sibling comment said, lithium can be recycled.

> lithium can be recycled

It can’t. This is an extremely energy intensive process that produces toxic waste products.

It’s a fantasy.

Lithium is regularly recycled already.

There are major listed companies doing lithium recycling in Melbourne: https://www.reuters.com/technology/lithium-australia-signs-l...

CO2, whether from fossil fuel combustion or respiration (e.g. part of your and my exhaled breath, day and night) becomes plant tissue. Land plants, algae in the oceans, the herbivorous content of your salad, the flowers in your garden, etc.

"Carbon Dioxide Fertilization Greening Earth, Study Finds" https://www.nasa.gov/feature/goddard/2016/carbon-dioxide-fer...

Yeah, well, I expressed myself clumsy. CO2 in itself is not bad, but the global warming effect caused by too much and unnatural CO2 in the atmosphere is bad. And that global warming effect slowly wreaks havoc with natures balance and long-term kills life on earth as we know it.

It's actually like quitting heron for pot. Coal is vastly more damaging.

I assume you don’t live near a lithium mine

Do you know that after coal is burned, it’s gone?

Do you know that after your lithium battery degrades, it’s toxic waste?

Batteries can be recycled.

Reply on news.ycombinator.com