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Podcast: The Future of Everything
Episode: Jef Caers: How better mineral exploration makes better batteries
Description: It has been said that batteries hold the key to a sustainable future.But so-called “clean energy” does not come without environmental costs. For instance, says Stanford geoscientist Jef Caers, the batteries in a single Tesla contain some 4.5 kilograms — about 10 pounds — of cobalt, in addition to plenty of lithium and nickel, too. With some 300 million cars in the U.S. right now, a full transition to electric vehicles would be impossible without new resources. But, finding new deposits and getting them safely out of the ground is an expensive and environmentally fraught proposition. Half of all cobal...