I dislike these articles because they start with an assumption that is a common pitfall of tech articles: how we do things now is how we will do them in the fut

I dislike these articles because they start with an assumption that is a common pitfall of tech articles: how we do things now is how we will do them in the future. Cobalt has a lot of issues, child labor being only one of them. Battery manufacturers know it and spend their R&D money on alternative or on research on how to use less cobalt per battery. LiFePO is already gaining much more traction and doesn't use cobalt. In a five years horizon it is possible that the cobalt battery will simply disappear. In that context, talking about 2050 and predicting increases in cobalt use for many years is simply shortsighted clickbait.