Batteries x Combustion Engines

 

This is the biggest debate of the moment. I guess people always have to have a hot topic to be talking about or “concerned” about.

This need actually comes from long ago. For example, during the Rome and Greece empires or even later in the middle ages, when the kings had to create some kind of common belief or general awareness of some kind of danger, or external issues in order to keep the populations attention away from the internal affairs.

Many of those external “distractions” were the fear of an enemy state, the fear of imaginary beasts, the fear of the gods, etc… The population was always constantly bombarded with news and rumors that there was an external danger and for that matter people should do this and that for their own good. When in fact, the ones who were spreading these rumors were the upper class who wanted to control the population in order to get them to do whatever they want without having to use force… Also keeps them busy and avoid the population paying attention in the corruption and on the real problems of the society, like inequality, poverty, violence, advantage being taken from the rich over the poor, etc.

This was always the case since any society was created and until today, the same repeats itself, just with a broader reach thanks to globalization. There are many ways the population can be diverted from paying attention on important subjects. One good example is the politics of “bread and circus” applied in ancient Rome by many of its emperors.

Today the same repeats… Just give to the people some big brother show, TV soap operas, series, live concerts, etc. And the government is always eager to fund such things or at least support because is on their interest. And believe me, when I say government, I don’t mean exactly those politicians that are on TV or those who actually were elected on formal events or ceremonies. Those politicians are generally only puppets from the ones who actually give the cards. The ones pulling the strings behind are much more powerful than the politicians. In order to get what they want these powerful people are always manipulating public opinion and steering the society on the way they will profit the most.

A good example of this are the wars that we have seen. Since ancient times countries were fighting each other but not because of public interest. It was mostly because the king of one nation wanted the wealth and the land of other nations in order to become even more powerful. But the reason told to the population was that the enemy was evil and that the other nations were trying to destroy them etc… We can see this same speech being disseminated nowadays. USA, Europe, and other nations go to war claiming that it’s for a great cause: fighting terrorism etc., when it actually is just for money. Most of the wars are fights from giants using the population on their behalf to get what they want. In the end a minority of powerful people, profit from the outcome of the war.

I will not go into the reasons behind wars now in this article because is also a long subject that needs a dedicated article on its own. I will produce another one later focusing on this.

My point now is masses manipulation.

As I mentioned before, the powerful people “behind the curtains” need to make the population do what they want in order to be able to get the desired outcome -> to get richer. This could be done by force, but history shows that this is a battle that cannot be won, even if you are powerful. Because as the saying says: Together we are strong!! It’s true. Although the powerful people have the resources and money, the masses are the majority. You can’t win this battle unless you decimate everybody. And you cannot decimate everybody because you also need those people to make money. So force is out of the way, at least on an extreme level.

The brilliant Idea here is to manipulate common belief in order to get what you want without using force. I could give many examples here but I will go directly to this new trend which is the air pollution. Studding history a person will notice that the big changes in the world were always led by money and this one is not different. Although is being advertised as “for the good of the environment”, believe me it’s not. That is how they make the masses do what they want. You have to make people believe that is for their own good.

I will not go into global warming causes or if global warming is caused mainly because of this or that, or is the cycle of the earth scenario, because nobody can say for sure and this is also material for a whole new article.

Here I will focus on the facts.

It’s being disseminated that electric cars are better for the environment then combustion engine cars. That is what is being bombarded during the recent months everywhere in the media, almost like the dictatorship times. Flood everybody with nonstop propaganda until they end up believing what you want… But nobody stops to think if this is actually true or not. Actually nobody stops to think that there was no study presented or proof that on the long term, electric cars are better for the environment.

Everybody is too much concerned believing on what the media says and willing to accept the story, that if they buy an electric car, they will be helping the environment and saving the earth. But actually none of this was proved or even calculated. I’m talking about electric cars and not global warming awareness.

Bottom line is: actually this electric car frenzy is a way that big powerful industrialist found to make money. Anybody noticed that this climate change “concern” started right after the oil crisis (2014 – 2015)? What happened on the oil crisis? It was exactly what I was explaining before. Big powerful people fighting each other for more money and power.

At the time, the oil price was sky rocketing and a lot of people were making money on the backs of the oil commodity. The one who were traditionally always profiting with this market and made their fortune with it, saw themselves now, having to share their profits with many other ones that started growing very fast. This not only puts their position in danger, but also is not ideal, because although they didn’t become poor, they have to share the profit that they were used to get only for themselves…

It’s a known fact that OPEC members control the oil market, no doubt on that. So what was the solution articulated by the big ones? Make an oil crises! Who has the strength to survive (the big ones) will survive, who doesn’t (the smaller, emergent ones) will file for bankruptcy and disappear. That is exactly what happened. A lot of oil was thrown to the market in order to lower the oil price. The only ones who could still profit from the market with the oil on those low prices are the big boys. That is what happened. It’s better for them (the big ones) to lose some money temporarily and eliminate the competition quickly, then actually having to share the profits for a long time.

If you check the charts, you can see that it is actually a good strategy. After that, the oil was in low for a couple of years, maybe five, and now is growing again. But the difference is that now only a few group of companies - industrialists are in the market and ready to get huge profits in the coming years.

A lot of people got jeopardized by this oil crisis, including other big players, not usually investors in the oil market, but that started investing because of the attractive prices. This big players have yet to make their move and fight back.

This is what is happening now. Two of the biggest commodity players in the world are oil and mining. Now the mining imperialists saw how much the oil ones rule the world. In order to avoid that and have the ball in their court, what could be done? The mining sector has to get a higher score in the game now. So how to increase the profit for the mining sector? In any case the masses have to be used because that’s how you make money. So how to make people use more mineral derivative products? What is the most diverse in minerals types and mostly accessible by the population? Batteries!! Ok good. But how to make people buy batteries even more? Easy. Make them think is for the good of the environment! Now wait… What is something that everybody uses and is assumed that is bad for the environment? Cars! Additionally, look at that. What is one of the highest profit sources from the oil companies nowadays? Gasoline and lubricant sales.

Wow, that means that if the engines are replaced by batteries, the mining sector will have a huge profit and at the same time jeopardize the oil sector profits? Yes it does. Two birds with one stone. And on the side you make it look like is good for the environment. Perfect!!!

The last part is how you convince the masses on doing what you want without using force. You make them believe it is for their own good, when actually this is only a fight of giants again. Don’t be fooled. Electric cars are not being sold because they are good for the environment. It’s because they are good for the mining sector big boys. Of course countries are making policies now in favor of electric cars, but this is just another example of how the people behind the scenes controls the politicians.

Another good example is the layout of the global powers nowadays. In the recent years we have seen global crises in the financial sector everywhere. On nation that got benefit of this was China. They lent loans everywhere. Chinese have their capital invested in South America, USA, Europe, Africa and Asia of course. Most of their money, they made using the Chinese market which is huge anyways, but this allowed them to expand all over the world. Before, Chinese market was isolated from the west, because everybody was afraid to be dominated by them. Because again, they are many and “together we are strong” right?

But with the last financial crises of the west, those countries and economies saw the need for more investment and they had no other choice to accept “help” from china.

Nowadays china controls a lot of western economy. And guess who has the majority of mining imperialists and the biggest mining industry? Exactly, China!!! They not only have the biggest mining industry and reserves in their home country but also they control most of the mining companies and reserves all over the world.

Now if you think about it, how the majority of the electricity is generated all over the world? If you exclude some nations like Norway, Brazil and a few others that use renewable or hydro power, most of the countries use Thermal power plants to generate electricity powered by coal.

With this electric car frenzy, you will have a lot of cars all over the world that need minerals to build the batteries, and you will need to increase the power generation capacity to power up all those batteries in the outlets. That means more coal to burn on the power plants. That is perfect for the mining sector. They win this battle. Everybody is happy in the end. Mining big boys are happy and rich, population got played like fools but they are happy because they think that they are helping the environment, politicians are happy, getting money being the middle man like always… The only ones that tare not happy are the oil business big boys and now, the car industry that got caught in the cross fire.

The car industry is strong, but they are not as strong as the commodities big ones. But hey..., is war right? Somebody always get caught in the cross fire…

My point here is: Do not believe blindly on what is told to you by the media or other mainstream communication channels. There is nothing proved or even calculated properly that electric cars are less pollutant then engines in a long term and considering all aspects of the environment, not only air quality.

What is focused now by the governments is to reduce the emissions. Many governments set a goal to reduce emissions by a certain year. Yes that’s good. But if you pay attention, this goal is only in the cities. Not in the whole country. Why? Because that’s easy. The government get the support from the population because is for a good cause. They replace all engine cars in the city centers by electric cars and in a few years they measure the air quality again and voila!! The quality improved… yes of course… But in the cities. Other areas and the overall pollution emission will increase, because the amount of coal and natural gas to be burned to generate all this power to charge those electric cars will increase somewhere else. Maybe in the same country far away from the city center or not even in the same country, but maybe in some other poor country where this electricity will be generated.

So the problem is actually not being solved is just being transferred somewhere else away from the sight of the people. And everybody is happy because no one cares as long as they can’t see… Battery propelled cars yet have to be proved better for the environment. First the battery production is very damaging to the environment. Mining activities are always using toxic products to extract the minerals from the earth, not mentioning the power that needs to be generated to extract those minerals.

Also, the power generated to supply the electricity to the batteries is generally obtained by burning fossil fuels like natural gas and coal. Those power plants are generally much less efficient then automotive engines and the scale of pollution is even bigger. Not mentioning the life cycle of the car itself. A regular engine car can last for about 10 to 20 years easily. A battery car will most likely be discarded completely after about 5 to 10 years. No one will want to buy an used battery car since the battery life will be severely depleted. Also changing the battery of the car will not be profitable since the most expensive component of the car will be the battery anyways… If you have to spend two thirds of the price of a car to change the battery, is better change the whole car already.

That will generate even more garbage and waste to the environment. Not mentioning that batteries nowadays are "not recyclable" because is not economically viable.

First, to recycle a battery you will need more energy than to actually produce a new one and second, the amount of profit made from the extracted minerals is very low. Not worth it. So no one will do it.

In the end we will have stacks of batteries rotting somewhere away from public sight, the forests and rivers near the mining areas completely polluted, the soil in many areas also polluted by mining activities, the overall air quality will also be worst because of all the increase of energy production necessary. But at least the air in the cities will be better.

And that is what matters because is where the majority of the people can see… Right? Everybody happy… thinking that they are saving the earth…!!!