Who pays to keep your batteries charged?: This month’s Trade-Offs with Mridula Ramesh

 Who pays to keep your batteries charged?: This month’s Trade-Offs with Mridula RameshCobalt is central to the making of rechargeable batteries. As demand rises, mines are expanding. They are hazardous, toxic. Is there a better way?

The Germans called them kobold – small goblins that lived deep within the mines near Saxony. The foul gases that choked miners, and the falling rocks before a tunnel caved in, were the kobolds’ work. The kobold deceived them with a silvery metallic ore with a faint bluish tinge, which gave off poisonous gases when heated and left behind a worthless “tutty”.

It’s the middle of the night. You find yourself wide awake having doomscrolled for hours, your mind racing, thoughts swirling and brain refusing to shut down. Perhaps a bedtime story could help you drift off – something not too riveting, maybe even downright boring.