I’d say wasting 30% of the lithium, cobalt, nickel, etc. in the new way isn’t exactly “environmentally friendly” either. Those wasted materials don’t just disappear.

In 1950s computers were said to revolutionise everything and they did.

Primary energy is mostly waste heat. Using it massively overstates its importance. Electrification usually cuts energy use by 1/2 to 2/3. Once you allow for that, you find we're much closer to net zero than you would expect.

1950 - Nuclear tech was going to revolutionize....everything.

This article made it seem like Biden just reversed course on climate change, but that’s completely false. The Guardian forgets to mention a lot of details about how Biden has been fighting this since his first month in office. Here they are:

1. Biden put a moratorium on new drilling leases with section 4 of this executive order when he came into office.

2. This is the first time the Department of the Interior has allowed a new lease since Biden took office.

3. Why reverse the policy? Well, Biden has no choice.

13 GOP-led States sued the Biden Administration in 2021, and they won in 2022. Led by Louisiana Attorney General Jeff Landry and accompanied by 12 other Red states, their case stated that Biden didn’t have the authority to halt new leases with an Executive Order. Judge Terry Doughty of the Western District Court of Louisiana, a Trump appointee, deemed the executive order unconstitutional and ordered the Biden administration to lift the ban.

4. Actual production of oil from this lease won’t happen for about a year due to the amount of work required to begin drilling. The Biden Administration plans to appeal the court’s decision so they can get the moratorium reinstated. Also, there is still time to enact policies that will reduce environmental damage.

Schedule/timeline for BLM Lease bidding system: https://nflss.blm.gov/leasesale/list

Harvard’s litigation tracker related to this battle: https://eelp.law.harvard.edu/2021/12/leasing-pause-and-review/

That's alright, we all have our mechanomoments every now and then

The fact that NASA has to farm this out to Nokia is upsetting.

I think this is great news, but I am very skeptical of attempts to predict the future based on "at current rates." Sure, at their current pace, my Washington Nationals would lose 162 games this year. They will lose a crazy number of games, but not that many.

I think it's a new technology that uses less energy and less dangerous chemicals to recover the lithium. It might not get as much out, but it's more cost effective.

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I thought redwood materials was already recovering 90%+ of battery materials.

> we need to move away from lithium batteries.

Why?

The dominant lithium producer is Australia, which produces via standard hard-rock mining, so producing most lithium is no more harmful than any other developed-world mine.

Compared to the 7,500 Mt of coal mined per year and 4,200 Mt of oil extracted per year, mining 0.1Mt of lithium is not an urgent environmental or social issue.

(In case you were thinking about cobalt, LFP batteries use no cobalt and will reach 50% market share in the next few years.)

What happens to the remaining 30% lithium? Losing approximately a third of the lithium seems wasteful.

This could be a great thing for the environment though. I see a future where most people live in cities and the vast majority of land is preserved. Ecotourism would be huge. Imagine the buffalo once again roaming the US because there’s no more farmland to break up their habitat.

Yeah man, humanity can really be quite.. human. Our capacity for greatness is matched only by our capacity for folly.

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Don't say it's environmentally friendly, republicans may hear you and disagree

That's the point of the story! It's just a genuine exploration of that concept. My conclusion is that it's terrifying but perhaps yours would be different. Give it a read!

Is it a thing? What can you choose?

Excuse the tinfoil on my head, but is it being done ON PURPOSE?!

I have heard, but haven't retained the reason it is happening. Care to eli5?

The following submission statement was provided by /u/DisasterousGiraffe:

"In Europe, heat pumps enjoyed a record year, with sales growing by nearly 40%. In particular, sales of air-to-water models, which are compatible with typical radiators and underfloor heating systems, jumped by almost 50% in Europe. In the United States, heat pump purchases exceeded those of gas furnaces."

Please reply to OP's comment here: https://old.reddit.com/r/Futurology/comments/127nr2k/heat_pumps_could_supply_20_of_building_heating_by/jeexlmi/

That's great. I wonder, once scaled, if it will be done with a variety of batteries or only large car batteries. Hopefully that gets sorted out along the way.

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Carbon credits have nothing to do with charging companies who pass the cost on to consumers for carbon going into the air... Got it, thanks.

Very obviously it would be contained. Vanadium is just one of the projects that can pan out, albeit expensive. Other forms would be preferable.