Abstract

The global push for electrification has placed battery technology at the forefront of climate solutions, but this almost singular focus is creating a precarious economic and environmental bubble. This article provides a multi-dimensional analysis – economic, scientific, and anthropological – of the looming battery industry crisis. We examine the rise of a “battery bubble” driven by the electric vehicle (EV) revolution, using Granular Interaction Thinking Theory (GITT) to highlight how narrow technological obsession can backfire. Nickel, a critical metal for batteries, is explored as the first casualty of this bubble. Its soaring demand and price volatility have led to severe environmental degradation and market instability. Drawing parallels to historical manias like Tulip Fever and the Dot-com bubble, we discuss how hype and herd behavior inflate expectations of battery dominance, risking immiserizing growth – an economic expansion that paradoxically worsens social, economic, and environmental well-being. Finally, we propose a pathway to escape the battery bubble through a shift to an eco-surplus culture underpinned by the “semiconducting” principle of environmental-economic value exchange. This approach calls for reorienting our value system to prevent solving one environmental problem at the cost of exacerbating others. The analysis underscores the urgency of recalibrating climate strategies before the battery bubble busts, with potentially catastrophic consequences for global stability.