--:-- Vitsh Shemitah: Hey there, I'm Vitsh Shemitah, and I'm also the host of our weekly interview podcast, Apple News in Conversation.
--:-- Vitsh Shemitah: Our latest episode is about the unintended consequences of the electric vehicle boom.
--:-- Vitsh Shemitah: Climate scientists say making the switch from a gas-powered car to an EV is one of the best ways to reduce the greenhouse gas emissions warming the planet.
--:-- Vitsh Shemitah: But going green doesn't necessarily mean they're totally clean.
--:-- Vitsh Shemitah: There's a lot of greenwashing going on as consumers try to navigate what an EV is, the extent to which it is helping the environment.
--:-- Vitsh Shemitah: Evan Halper is a reporter with The Washington Post. He and a team of colleagues recently created a series called Clean Cars, Hidden Toll.
--:-- Vitsh Shemitah: It's sort of a buyer's guide to EVs. But what makes it especially thorough is the original reporting they've done on the human and environmental costs of the electric vehicle revolution.
--:-- Vitsh Shemitah: The Post's team traveled around the world to places where minerals are sourced to make EV batteries.
--:-- Vitsh Shemitah: Because while EVs don't need gas, they do need about six times more minerals by weight than a conventional vehicle for the roughly one battery block powering them.
--:-- Vitsh Shemitah: In their reporting about what it takes to get those minerals, Post reporters describe forced labor, co-opted indigenous land, toxic waste, and environmental spills, and in some cases, lots of emissions from coal-powered refineries.
--:-- Evan Halper: It's kind of like a black box. Fact-checking their claims isn't so easy.
--:-- Vitsh Shemitah: Many car manufacturers say they're abiding by environmental rules.
--:-- Vitsh Shemitah: But Evan says fact-checking their claims isn't so easy.
--:-- Vitsh Shemitah: Another reporter in the series is Rebecca Tan, the Post's Southeast Asia Bureau chief.
--:-- Vitsh Shemitah: She went to Indonesia, where nickel refineries are taking off to meet global demand.
--:-- Vitsh Shemitah: It's valuable reporting, certainly for the consumer, for the person who's looking to buy an EV.
--:-- Vitsh Shemitah: But it's also, I think, valuable reporting for people along the supply chain – the millions of people in Indonesia where the government is reorientating its entire economy to serve this new industry, what are the costs of that for them?
--:-- Vitsh Shemitah: My full conversation with Evan and Rebecca is out now.
--:-- Vitsh Shemitah: To hear the episode, search for Apple News In Conversation in the podcast app.
