Lithium extraction in Bolivia poses more than environmental questions: It illustrates how notions about ‘raw materials’ can be at odds with Indigenous relations with the land.
Like Australia, Chile is facing mounting environmental pressures, such as an escalating water crisis. If the constitution is approved in September it’ll deliver profound changes to the country.
The electric car makes it possible to partially decarbonize transportation, but the fate of the batteries after their use remains an open problem.
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Bolivia’s huge lithium reserves are isolated and hard to extract, and global uncertainty over electric vehicles is bad for business.
Lithium ion batteries revolutionised the way we use, manufacture and charge our devices. They’re used to power mobile phones, laptops and even electric cars.
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M. Stanley Whittingham was one of three scientists who won the 2019 Nobel Prize in Chemistry for their work developing lithium-ion batteries – used to power mobile phones, laptops and electric cars.
Electric vehicles and renewable energy must mine more responsibly.
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More electric vehicles and renewable energy means more mining for resources. Unless industry adopts cleaner habits urgently, the environment faces more damage.
Brine pools and processing areas at the Rockwood lithium plant on the Atacama salt flat in northern Chile.
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