Mining Turned Indonesian Seas Red. The Drive for Greener Cars Could Herald a New Toxic Tide.

November 25, 2019

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by Ian Morse (Washington Post) Now, a growing appetite for electric vehicles is creating new demand for nickel, whose chemical derivatives are increasingly used in cathodes of lithium-ion batteries. But the push for clean energy is coming at an environmental cost to forests and fisheries in one of the world’s most biodiverse regions.

Sahman (Ukas) does not know how much more his fishing village can handle. In the decades of meeting nickel-for-steel demand, the seas have turned red, marine life has left past the horizon, and the exhaust of smelters has triggered respiratory problems.

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Down the road from Sahman’s village, the global market has placed what will probably become a main source for the vital nickel component in electric-vehicle batteries. The country’s largest nickel producer, Vale Indonesia, majority-owned by Brazil’s Vale, and Japan’s Sumitomo Metal Mining are in the final planning stages for a mining and smelting operation. Sumitomo plans to double production of battery materials in nine years, focusing on supplying Toyota and Panasonic, supplier of Tesla’s EV batteries.

Toyota said it was working to reduce the amount of metal in its products and the environmental burden. Sumitomo declined to discuss the mine and smelter. Panasonic, Tesla and Vale Indonesia did not respond to questions.

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The project is among 25 planned mine-smelter combinations to be opened by 2022 across the country, currently home to 11 smelters. Nickel mines may already number in the hundreds, if not thousands, according to the Mining Advocacy Network, an Indonesian nongovernmental organization known as Jatam.

Electric vehicles will require millions of tons of nickel derivatives in coming decades. Indonesia sees an opportunity that an official has described as potentially larger than its palm-oil industry, blamed for deforestation and forest fires.

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Only recently have studies shown that nickel content in the sea is 20 times the government’s limit for sustaining life, but Sahman can sense it. Part of his village is built on slag, the waste of nickel smelters. The danger of such waste to humans has been little researched, but it may contaminate waters with toxicants.

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“If you’re removing forest, you’ll need to restore a forest of equal ecological value after mining,” Mudd (Gavin Mudd, an environmental engineer at Australia’s RMIT University) said. “There are a lot of promises, but I’ve yet to see good evidence that [companies] have been able to achieve it.”

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“The movement for electric vehicles is for zero emissions, but if you see it in the field, the reality is very different,” Arianto (Arianto Sangadji of Toronto’s York University) said. “It’s supposed to be renewable, but is it?”

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New growth presents the possibility that the police, army and government will continue to collaborate to evict residents living atop valuable minerals, said Melky Nahar, a campaigner at Jatam. READ MORE

Meeting Paris climate goals will require EV innovation: MIT report (Utility Dive)

Issue Brief | Autonomous Vehicles: State of the Technology and Potential Role as a Climate Solution (Environmental and Energy Study Institute)

Deep-Sea Mining Could Help the Clean Energy Transition. But Is It Worth the Risk? (Inside Climate News)

Excerpt from Utility Dive: ...

The researchers found that, as populations grow, so will "global demand for personal mobility," and travel in light duty vehicles could increase 50% in the U.S. by mid-century. The emissions impact of that increased travel could be mitigated by more electric and clean fuel vehicles, but only if that is accompanied by more electric infrastructure and a decarbonization of the power sector.
The study also modeled a future with a low-cost, door-to-door autonomous vehicle (AV) mobility service and found that it could increase congestion, travel times and vehicle miles traveled, while also reducing public transit ridership. Mitigating the negative impacts of the service would require public policy interventions to encourage transit use and reduce private vehicle ownership. READ MORE

Excerpt from Environmental and Energy Study Institute: Several automakers have been bullish about AV technology, predicting its imminent, broad deployment in the United States. They also note several synergies between AV and EV (electric vehicle) technology, so that AV deployment could find itself accelerated as governments across the world increasingly phase out vehicles powered by fossil fuels (see next page for details). Multiple issues remain, however, and some experts have cautioned that the development of reliable, safe, and affordable autonomous vehicles will take many more years than advocates claim.

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At the moment, AI has great difficulty reacting to the often unpredictable movements of pedestrians and bicyclists on roads, thus placing people engaging in active transportation at greater risk. Several deadly AV accidents have already occurred due to faulty AI, raising concerns among policymakers and community advocates.

Malicious hacking and surveillance are likely to present challenges to the successful deployment of self-driving cars in the coming decade.

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Commercially-available AVs are all likely to be electric vehicles (EVs) for three key reasons: emission-free and quieter vehicles are more likely to be adopted in dense cities and in a world that is seeking to reduce its carbon emissions; AV sensors and computers need a lot of reliable electricity, which batteries are better able to provide than combustion engines; and electric vehicles are much more responsive, which makes them safer and easier for artificial intelligence systems to control. It will also potentially be easier for electric AVs to recharge themselves without human intervention (versus gasoline refueling).

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Despite these potential environmental benefits, the broad deployment of single-occupancy AVs could have a net negative environmental impact. If people are able to spend more time working or relaxing in their cars, they may decide to travel more. This would cause vehicle miles traveled (VMT) to increase due to AV use, thereby increasing pollution as well. Testing also shows that more than half of an electric vehicle’s battery storage could be consumed by the computing power required by an AV's sensors and computers, as well as the cabin comfort and entertainment systems. This would negatively impact the vehicle's energy efficiency and lead to higher electricity consumption.

Authorities may determine AVs can safely be run at higher speeds and increase speed limits on certain roads, which would increase energy consumption over the same distance. Car manufacturers may also begin to design larger, less energy-efficient electric vehicles to accommodate mobile offices and bedrooms. Bigger vehicles with bigger batteries would produce more carbon emissions as a byproduct of manufacturing. When considering the vehicle’s entire lifecycle, from manufacturing to disposal, researchers have predicted that the widespread use of private electric AVs could increase carbon emissions by up to 200 percent.

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However, an increased number of AVs being used as personal vehicles or rideshares could actually have negative impacts on urban sprawl, road congestion, parking, and public transit in large cities. If AVs become a widely available option for private vehicles or rideshares, commuters may prefer them over public transportation. Decreased use of mass transit in favor of these AVs, in turn, would increase congestion on roads and could cause mass transit system operators to raise fares or reduce the number of available routes for regular riders (making mass transit even less appealing and potentially creating a vicious circle). AVs, which allow passengers to work or relax rather than focus on the road, could also make long commutes seem less daunting, pushing people further out into the suburbs. This would cause more urban sprawl, with all the negative environmental impacts that entails.

Many AV visions call for road systems free of traffic lights, which would reduce the space for cyclists and pedestrians. Widespread use of AVs could also lead to increased costs for roadway infrastructure and maintenance. Roads may need to be kept free of any small debris and uneven or irregular pavement lest they be misread by AV sensors, as any sensor errors could endanger passengers, property, pedestrians, and other vehicles. READ MORE