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Human rights abuses in mining related to battery mining is its own problem to be dealt with on its own terms. This is a good solution to that problem, not a 1%

by mort96 3y ago

Human rights abuses in mining related to battery mining is its own problem to be dealt with on its own terms. This is a good solution to that problem, not a 1% solution or virtue signaling.

dotancohen 3y ago
Even as the EU ignores human rights abuses in other fields that supply products to the EU? No, I no longer buy that. There is no need to specify electric vehicles in the regulation - it should be general enough to cover all aspects including vehicles, textiles, electronics, telecom equipment, etc. If they want to grandfather in some specific problematic company or component, sure, go ahead and do so. But making this regulation specific to EVs is clearly cover for a different motive.
- mort96 3y ago
  > Even as the EU ignores human rights abuses in other fields that supply products to the EU? Pretty much every government ignores human rights abuses in pretty much every field as long as the human rights abuses happen far enough away, no? I would love a huge "no product sold in the EU can have been produced in a way which involves any form of 'human rights abuse'" law, but we know governments well enough to not expect that, right? I don't even know how you'd define "human rights abuses" in a way which prohibits both mistreatment of miners for rare earth minerals and slavery and indentured servitude and underpaid, overworked sweatshop conditions and poorly treated coffee farmers under one definition without being overly broad and hitting unintended fields; coming up with such legislation genuinely sounds like a ton of work with a significant risk of fucking over industries unintentionally. For the moment, I'll take a trickle of laws which target specific industries rather than nothing. I certainly won't attack legislation which moves us in a good direction for not being the silver bullet "liberate everyone in the world being poorly treated or underpaid" law.
  - dotancohen 3y ago
    > but we know governments well enough to not expect that, right? So why target the EV supply chain, then? What made the politicians get up and start enacting laws now, but not start applying their lawmakering skills to other industries as well?
    - mort96 3y ago
      I mean I don't know, but I'd guess either lobbying or because someone thought it'd make their re-election chances better or because someone thought it'd give EU companies a competitive advantage? Or maybe someone is genuinely concerned about human rights and thinks this is realistically the best they can do right now? I honestly don't know or care.

by mort96 3y ago

Human rights abuses in mining related to battery mining is its own problem to be dealt with on its own terms. This is a good solution to that problem, not a 1% solution or virtue signaling.

dotancohen 3y ago

Even as the EU ignores human rights abuses in other fields that supply products to the EU? No, I no longer buy that. There is no need to specify electric vehicles in the regulation - it should be general enough to cover all aspects including vehicles, textiles, electronics, telecom equipment, etc. If they want to grandfather in some specific problematic company or component, sure, go ahead and do so. But making this regulation specific to EVs is clearly cover for a different motive.

mort96 3y ago
> Even as the EU ignores human rights abuses in other fields that supply products to the EU? Pretty much every government ignores human rights abuses in pretty much every field as long as the human rights abuses happen far enough away, no? I would love a huge "no product sold in the EU can have been produced in a way which involves any form of 'human rights abuse'" law, but we know governments well enough to not expect that, right? I don't even know how you'd define "human rights abuses" in a way which prohibits both mistreatment of miners for rare earth minerals and slavery and indentured servitude and underpaid, overworked sweatshop conditions and poorly treated coffee farmers under one definition without being overly broad and hitting unintended fields; coming up with such legislation genuinely sounds like a ton of work with a significant risk of fucking over industries unintentionally. For the moment, I'll take a trickle of laws which target specific industries rather than nothing. I certainly won't attack legislation which moves us in a good direction for not being the silver bullet "liberate everyone in the world being poorly treated or underpaid" law.
- dotancohen 3y ago
  > but we know governments well enough to not expect that, right? So why target the EV supply chain, then? What made the politicians get up and start enacting laws now, but not start applying their lawmakering skills to other industries as well?
  - mort96 3y ago
    I mean I don't know, but I'd guess either lobbying or because someone thought it'd make their re-election chances better or because someone thought it'd give EU companies a competitive advantage? Or maybe someone is genuinely concerned about human rights and thinks this is realistically the best they can do right now? I honestly don't know or care.