You kind’a have to look at the ‘big picture’ sometimes. Because things are connected. Its all good saying ‘3 units of alcohol a day will reduce risk of diabetes’ but it obviously increases the risk of liver problems, alcoholism, vomiting on the tube (if you choose ‘before breakfast’ as your chosen medication time).

Similarly with motorised vehicular transportation. Or ‘cars’ as the simple-minded call them. You can ban petrol and diesel because they’re bad things that pollute the atmosphere and create greenhouse gases and things, because you can replace them with ‘electric cars’. Which is why one leading manufacturer has come up with a slogan for his e-vehicles: “Less smog, more smug.”

Ok, that may have actually been me, but its not about that. Its about how you replace the 99% of current oil-burning vehicles with electric ones. Questions like ‘how do you charge them’? ranks quite high on the list. ‘Will the electric grid be able to cope with 500,000 Teslas all plugged in at the same time?’ Will charging be fast enough for motorway travel? What is the global impact on the massive change?

Details, details. The devil is in the details. Or is it: God is in the details? Whoever, but more details have come to light. Yes, my ‘source’ is the Mail on Sunday, so that immediately relegates it to ‘dubious’ or even ‘downright lies’ but it came originally from a tv documentary on child labour. In The Democratic Republic of Congo. Where kids as young as 5 sort through rocks to find cobalt. Other than lithium, the most important component in batteries for electric vehicles. And 60% of the world’s cobalt comes from the DRC and the industry is totally unregulated. But its not like you can just go to Sainsburys instead and buy the ‘Fairtrade Cobalt’, its not like that. So the kids work all day for about 8p. And the entire motor industry with its current obsession for ‘replacing conventional motors’ is driving this tragic industry.

So if you’re driving a ‘plug-in’ electric car, you’re a heartless fucking exploitative bastard with the blood of little African children under your accelerator peddle. If you’ve got a hybrid you’re just a tosser. Which is less bad really, but probably more smug. Its that atheist/agnostic metaphor again. Which is why I BELIEVE in petrol forever.

Happy Monday

A