ASX Today, page-43999

Fellow Shareholders.

Early on I came to the insight that FEAR trumps REASON….and that NEED ultimately trumps FEAR.

(There is also GUILT, used as tool by the lefties for the last 30 years to SHAME the rest of us into submission when the old tool REASON didn’t work – for the simple reason that REASON was always on our side.)

Anyway….

FEAR.

You can get people to respond to FEAR quickly ,with great force and in great numbers but it is a short-lived sentiment thanks to the double edged sword that is mankind’s incredible ability to get used to practically any situation.

Remember the FEAR instilled in us in the 80-ts during the AIDS epidemic? We were all going to die if we as much as shook hands with a AIDS stricken person! How long did it take for the whole AIDS hysteria to go ho-hum? Not long (except for the people on the receiving end of this – then – deadly disease) . People are adaptable. This is both good and can be bad. Like now. Global warming is quickly becoming ho-hum. The medias over reporting isn’t helping. People are getting numb to the whole thing.

So FEAR has a short shelf life.

NEED on the other hand.... is permanent. And the softer we become as a species our need for external validation in all its forms continues to grow.

14% was the figure not that long ago regarding how much CO2 the internal combustion engine contributed the total pollution problem. This is not much. The heavy industry of course was a much bigger culprit. But whilst you can – with a variable degree of success – replace the IC car with an EV, replacing a country’s manufacturing hub with solar panels is way harder. So – like the US deficit or Mayor Larry Vaughn in JAWS – we will continue to ignore this particular problem until it swims up and bites us in the ass! And put all our time and effort into building EV instead.

But FEAR runs out.

And practicality and daily needs replaces it.

Yes we will all drive electrical cars in a hundred years but right now the FEAR driven investment frensy that has been so lucrative for the lithium sector is temporary losing it mayor driving force.

But I think there is a saviour on the horizon…and this time it is base on NEED. And this won’t run out.

AI, Data centres and Crypto will save the lithium industry.

These humongous entities use up and obscene amount of power. This power will ultimately come from renewables – solar panels are already producing more power than coal (6% of the worlds consumption) but, as we all know, the sun sets. This is where banks of lithium based back up batteries in their millions feature. AI has just taken it’s first baby steps but will soon gulp more juice than we thought possible just a few years ago while Cryptos energy demands are well documented.

The world is changing. 40 years ago I would be hamstrung if my car didn’t start Monday morning - now I just take an Uber. But God help us all if the Internet is down when I get to work! That is the new pain. It is a NEED. And it will not subside like FEAR does.

Global warming will still most likely still eradicate the world we hold dear, but at least we will have good WIFI when Rome burns.