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   Jonathan Schofield (urlyman@mastodon.social)'s status on Monday, 20-Apr-2026 20:18:29 JST Jonathan Schofield

   This Renew Economy article does a good job of deconstructing the disinformation around cobalt and renewables, pointing out that…

   “Nearly every big battery installed in Australia these days uses lithium iron phosphate chemistry, which means no cobalt, and no nickel”

   and that…

   “cobalt has been used widely in many industries”

   …which long predate the current boom for rebuildables.

   But it contains a kind of disinformation of its own by omission…

   https://reneweconomy.com.au/wild-attack-on-batteries-and-renewables-by-7s-spotlight-program-falls-over-at-the-first-fact-check/

   • Embed this notice
     Jonathan Schofield (urlyman@mastodon.social)'s status on Monday, 20-Apr-2026 20:18:28 JST Jonathan Schofield

     in reply to

     …Our dilemma is that we’re a culture addicted to uninterrupted and growing power consumption.

     So if we don’t keep the implications of that front and centre as we advocate for the transition from one set of minerals to another set of minerals, we’re just shifting where the fragility of our economics is located without fundamentally ratcheting down the fragility

   • Embed this notice
     Jonathan Schofield (urlyman@mastodon.social)'s status on Monday, 20-Apr-2026 20:18:29 JST Jonathan Schofield

     in reply to

     …The strong implication above is that lithium extraction is fine and just a part of a “transition that must happen as quickly as it can”.

     The reality is more uncomfortable.

     Renewables (rebuildables) are much more metals intensive than fossil fuels and nuclear. Which, if we are as strategically inattentive as we currently are, carries in it the seeds of its own downfall

     https://mastodon.social/@urlyman/116351244625787731

     Steve's Place repeated this.