the Voice of
The Communist League of Revolutionary Workers–Internationalist
“The emancipation of the working class will only be achieved by the working class itself.”
— Karl Marx
the Voice of
The Communist League of Revolutionary Workers–Internationalist
“The emancipation of the working class will only be achieved by the working class itself.”
— Karl Marx
Sep 27, 2021
The transition to electric cars has already spurred the demand for raw materials necessary for the manufacture of electric batteries to skyrocket. To satisfy this demand, mining companies are ransacking the whole world.
One component of batteries is lithium. Several companies are aggressively searching for ways to strip lithium ore from the Pacific Ocean’s floor more than two miles deep, while scientists warn that this kind of mining will destroy vast amounts of sea life.
Companies are also mining lithium on the land. For example, Lithium Americas has already received a permit to mine lithium by bulldozing massive swaths of earth located at a pristine high desert, Thacker Pass, Nevada, and then using immense quantities of sulfuric acid and underground water to extract the metal.
This capitalist drive is also destroying humans. More than half the world’s supply of cobalt, another crucial material of electric vehicle batteries, comes from the Democratic Republic of Congo. Amnesty International estimates some 40,000 children are working in the Congo’s cobalt mines under horrible conditions as cheap labor to enrich electric vehicle manufacturers like Tesla.
These companies claim that, by pushing for electric vehicles, they are saving the environment, preventing climate change, and bringing a more modern future. But this is nothing but a cover-up for ever more environmental destruction and a gruesome human toll. These companies’ only goal is to profit as fast and high as possible at all costs.
If these companies get away with their profit-driven thievery, they will destroy the pristine lands, ocean floors, deserts, and forests not yet exploited.