Another day, another potential problem for #electricvehicles - one of the key components for #batteries is #graphite... and #China, which dominate the production & processing of both natural & synthetic graphite has just imposed export controls on its sale...
for the moment manufactures will likely be able to draw down stockpiles, but once the control(s) hit supply, much will be revealed about how the Chinese state wants to shape/control the global market for e-vehicles...
Drawing this time. My first year fine arts sculpture professor, the late Tom Henderson, lived in this house in Aulac, New Brunswick, just a few minutes from the Nova Scotia border and Fort Beauséjour National Historic Site, just off the road to Prince Edward Island. Typical late-19th/early-20th century home around here. Stillman & Birn hardcover sketchbook. 2B Pencil, Carbonpen, Copic markers. 2018. #canadianArt#art#drawing#sketch#graphite#ink#markers#canadianLandscape#architecture
According to the International Energy Agency, demand for 🔸rare earth elements 🔸 is expected to reach 👉three to seven times current levels by 2040;
demand for other critical minerals such as 🔸lithium 🔸may 👉multiply 40-fold.
Delivering on the 2016 Paris Agreement, under which signatory nations are obligated to reduce emissions to cap the global temperature increase, would require the global mineral supply to quadruple within the same time frame. At the current rate, supply is on track to merely double.
Obtaining rare earth elements begins with obtaining source materials, which can happen, broadly, in three ways:
🔹primary extraction, or mining directly from the earth;
🔹recovery from secondary sources, such as end-of-life electronics;
🔹and extraction from unconventional sources, including industrial wastes like coal ash and waste products from mines.
But China so dominates the market—it controlled 60% of global production in 2021—that other countries are at a disadvantage.
After China announced export restrictions in 2023 on gallium, germanium, and graphite, nations scrambled to find alternative sources in anticipation of future restrictions.
I know this is just a highlight color and not the accent color, but Apple needs to bring this back for Accent Colors -- There needs to be a Graphite accent color too. They replaced it with basic Grey and it's not the same.
Grey colored controls often look disabled.
Also this is just a #Graphite Aqua appreciation post. It's just gorgeous.
I’ve always loved Natural History. My first hyper-fixation as a kid was collecting and identifying rocks and crystals. I surround myself with them still. Drawing them and other pieces of nature is my comfort art.
A graphite pencil drawing I made in my sketchbook. At the moment I am in this “drawing old mean men” period, just love it! Did this on Talens paper that is a bit light weight but has a very nice grain. Further just mostly cross hatching technique