>> Friendly reminder that the battery industry is filled with shady and evil stuff. Cobalt mining for example.

What I am about to say is going to come off as exceptionally insensitive, but bear with me. The mining conditions are horrific and of course it would be better if regulation was introduced and industrial methods of extraction was used. But you have to wonder, if there are thousands of men and teenagers willing to toil in the sun all day for a tiny amount of money, what other alternatives do they have for income?

If cobalt never existed in DRC, what exactly would they be doing for work and subsistence? Is this horribly unsafe and in-humane form of work a step up from whatever alternatives they have, or perhaps from nothing at all.

Again I am not condoning it, I am just wondering.