Ethical Challenges of Meeting the Demand for Electric Cars

The world is moving toward electric vehicles. In Part 3 of our series on the hidden toll of this historic transition, business reporter Evan Halper breaks down this industrial shift and the concerns it brings over human and environmental costs.

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States such as California and New York are moving to ban the sale of new gas-powered cars over the next decade. Meanwhile, President Biden wants at least half of new car sales to be electric by 2030.

But the race to reduce our carbon footprint has hidden tolls. Workers in South Africa mining for manganese – an essential mineral for electric car batteries – are experiencing serious health problems. There are also geopolitical ramifications, with tensions in Afghanistan, where an untapped trove of lithium ore is beginning to garner interest from both the Taliban and Chinese prospectors. 

Today on “Post Reports,” Halper tells us how regulators, advocates and companies are responding to growing concerns over electric vehicle manufacturing. 

More from The Post’s bigger series, “Clean Cars, Hidden Toll”:

• In the scramble for EV metals, a health threat to workers often goes unaddressed. 

• In the race for lithium, Afghanistan is of interest to the Taliban and Chinese prospectors.

• To meet EV demand, industry turns to technology long-deemed hazardous. 

• Despite reforms, mining for EV metals in Congo exacts steep cost on workers. 

• On the frontier of new “gold rush,”  the quest for coveted EV metals yields misery. 

• The underbelly of electric vehicles. 

• Minerals are crucial for electric cars and wind turbines. Some worry whether we have enough.