Currency (money) in today's system only has value because whatever government that backs it says it does. Poor choice if you chose the Venezuelan Peso. Not that my friends in Venezuela had any choice in the matter but their Peso is worthless in any useful sense. But the cost of servicing it takes the entire usage of the largest pool of petroleum known to exist today. That's energy inefficiency of an epic proportion.
I have good news and bad today. We have a new battery combination that is much better than Lith-ion at long term storage and weight per KWH. Way Better.
The bad news. It's Lithium-Sodium and brings Cobalt back into the usage. For those that don't know, Cobalt is generally mined by pre teenagers in horrible conditions in completely un regulated Brazil. A fairly large number of Brazilian children are going to have to die to take the next step up in renewable energy storage.
And how do we stop? We don't. We take the next step and the next in the forlorn hope that maybe we can reverse the carnage in the age of our grandchildren. Before it is too late for the entire planet.
We can do better. We are doing better. We just don't know it yet.
Is it a pre-condition that it has to be a pre-teen? probably not. Perhaps one day, Boston Dynamics will create a robot to help do these kinds of tasks, instead of for policing and war. Perhaps if they were funded by crypto holders.
But that aside, I think this is the way of it and as long as we keep advancing with the goal of life improvement for all, I think that "collateral damage" is acceptable - But, shouldn't be accepted. The risk of collateral damage isn't well distributed across the global population.
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It is just slightly possible that I jumped on my high horse just a smidgen early. Current estimates are that 30% of the Cobalt mined in the Congo is 'free market' cobalt. The 70% is pit mined with big equipment and skilled labor.
The 30% uses a combination of child labor, slaves and advanced money (slaves for a set period). It's enough to make it unsightly...
But I do agree. We NEED the cobalt to save the planet. Somebody once said "The rain falls on the just and the unjust." It is unfortunately true.