Green energy is becoming more crucial by the year, with nations racing towards viable solutions. There is a metal that lies at the core of some of these solutions, hailed as a white gold, an essential ingredient in batteries, phones, and renewable storage systems, as well as electric vehicles. It fuels the desires of energy requirements, but its extraction can be devastating.
A fragile balance between the demand for electric vehicles and survival
Electric vehicles are considered to be a cleaner alternative to combustion engines, and every car manufacturer you can think of is either working on a line of electric vehicles or already has a few in production and on the roads. You would be forgiven for thinking that the idea is to fully do away with the combustion engine in the not-so-distant future. This would only do wonders for the planet, once its needs are put before the insatiable demands of the almighty bottom line.
The world hungers for electric vehicles, and pressure to meet these demands is growing as well. The materials used to make these need to be readily available and abundant. This has seen mining companies tasked with unearthing more of these important materials to match the growing desires.
Tons of brine need to be unearthed by mines. Pulled from beneath the desert crust, brine is where lithium, the white gold, is found. The process of extraction is tedious and by no means a gentle one on the environment. Water is pumped into evaporation pools where the sun boils away the liquid to leave concentrated minerals.
Concerns mount around ecosystems that are dependent on this limited water supply, suffering immense and, in some cases, irreparable strain as a result of lithium mining. The promise of cleaner energy might cost us wetlands and dwindling wildlife populations, all in the name of greener energy.
Lithium’s chokehold on the desert in Chile
Around 45 million tons of water are lost every single year because of lithium mining in the desert. This, in an ecosystem where survival is always teetering on a knife’s edge. Wildlife-like the Flamingos, whose pink plumage colors the salt flats-are disappearing at an alarming rate. They have less ground to feed on because of lithium mining. Local subsistence communities are also feeling the burden as herding and water availability encroach on their livelihoods.
These pressures are felt most in the Atacama Salt Flat. Beneath this arid yet beautiful desert expanse lies one of the planet’s largest known lithium deposits. Roughly 9.1 million tons of lithium can be found here. An amount that could yield even more tonnage of equivalent lithium carbonate. This has made Chile the global nerve center of electric cars.
Chile’s lithium for electric vehicles is at a crossroads
Balancing the need to supply the world with a mineral it can use for cleaner transportation while servicing this by threatening the water supply of one of the driest regions on the planet, sees Chile in a precarious position. The rush to expand mining operations tends to overlook this, as well as the impact on surrounding communities.
Global demand for lithium is expected to triple in the next decade, which could see things get worse for Atacama. Searching for solutions is becoming as important as mining lithium. Processes that use less water in the extraction of lithium are being looked at, but this will require government, conservationists, and corporate entities to strike an accord. A task easier said than done.
Chile could be a cautionary tale. As important as lithium is to green energy for transport, the cost of which to unearth it is as dangerous to the world as the combustion engine. A double-edged sword. Green energy cannot stem from pillaging any aspect of Mother Nature, and this will have to be conceded to before it is too late.
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