You are not comparing the harms in this poorly-written Daily Mail article to any alternative.
Fossil fuels have disastrous harms for people, communities, and ecosystems. In order to show that cobalt mining is worth avoiding, you have to show why it is worse than the alternative it helps to replace. In this case, the cobalt (about 15 lbs per car) would replace gasoline consumption. I would be compelled to believe that, per car's worth of material and emissions, the net harms of the gasoline supply chain and exhaust effects on the environment outweigh the net harms of cobalt mining.
If we specifically want to speak about the dirty geopolitics of fossil fuels, that would be a several-days-long conversation. Countries with large oil reserves or where oil is a large contributor to GDP include Venezuela, Russia, Saudi Arabia, Iran, and Nigeria. The oil economy solidifies autocrats and corrupt systems in these countries.
Fossil fuels have disastrous harms for people, communities, and ecosystems. In order to show that cobalt mining is worth avoiding, you have to show why it is worse than the alternative it helps to replace. In this case, the cobalt (about 15 lbs per car) would replace gasoline consumption. I would be compelled to believe that, per car's worth of material and emissions, the net harms of the gasoline supply chain and exhaust effects on the environment outweigh the net harms of cobalt mining.
If we specifically want to speak about the dirty geopolitics of fossil fuels, that would be a several-days-long conversation. Countries with large oil reserves or where oil is a large contributor to GDP include Venezuela, Russia, Saudi Arabia, Iran, and Nigeria. The oil economy solidifies autocrats and corrupt systems in these countries.