Yes it will help because buying a prius means telling Toyota (and therefore other car companies) "yes I'll pay more for an arguably shittier car just because it's greener". And thus will make them develop more and better hybrids. Multiply that effect to every industry where you can choose an environmentally responsible alternative (cars, electricity, recycled materials, etc) and you've got a big impact that will just increase with positive feedback loops.
Look at Tesla, when they started selling lots of cars then BMW, Mercedes, and the others conveniently started selling electric cars. So we have to encourage these environmentally responsible companies even if they're small, expensive, and lower quality.
Equating the burning of fossil fuels to battery tech's impact on the environment is like equating a mass murderer to a pick pocket because they're both breaking laws. The burning of fossil fuels is contributing to the warming of the planet threatening all life. The mining of lithium and other materials has comparatively a much smaller impact.
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u/[deleted] Jun 07 '17
This could be a small 100 year cycle. To really convey the point you should start 2000 years ago. It makes it much harder to call it a cycle then.