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>> the oil industry is a far bigger user of cobalt than the battery industry

Bullshit.

Oil industry uses cobalt as a CATALYST, to strip out sulphur. The only "use" is in process losses ("spent hydrodesulphurization catalyst"), which are about 7,500-8,500 tonnes of cobalt per year, for the entire world's oil. And the oil companies are doing a lot of excellent research to recover and reuse even that usage (and all the other metals: molybdenum, nickel, aluminium, etc.).

Batteries, OTOH, were using over 20,000 tonnes per year in 2017, when total global demand was just 71,000 tonnes.

In 2019 global demand is over 90,000 tonnes and the increase has been attributed essentially entirely to additional battery production.

Automobile manufacturers' EV projections are for 2.5x demand within a few years. The Tesla S3 alone has a production target of 500,000 cars, which is 5,000,000 - 7,500,000 tonnes of cobalt just for that one model. Or 50-75 years of 100% of current global production. (Musk is not seeking low-cobalt batteries because he's a gween-hewo, that's just virtue-badging -- if he can't get them, his busted business model is even busteder.)

> My guess is that oil industries are very good at getting away with widespread environmental damage (and global warming)

Actually, no.

I suggest you/everyone actually learn a bit about the upstream raw materials industries you all critically rely on before joining in with the idiots/liars who like shouting dramatic slogans for attention. Who, indeed, often just make up bullshit.

Please don't be misled by attention-seekers banging the virtue-drama drum -- do due diligence.