Yahoo Autos Lithium Mining for EVs Could Destroy the Planet if We Don't Change Our Car-Centric Ways: Report
A study published Wednesday shows just how bad the environmental damage will be if the United States switches to EVs while maintaining our current lust for large, personal vehicles. It’s not good, and the only way to avert disaster, according to researchers, is for Americans to give up their super car-centric lifestyles for accessible mass transit, walkable cities, and robust battery recycling programs.
Yup. We’re completely boned.
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The Guardian had an exclusive first look at the research by the Climate and Community Project and University of California, Davis. Researchers compared how much lithium would be needed to keep the current number of cars on American roads, as well as what consumption would look like if we started robust public transit programs. The result? If we keep things up, the worldwide output of lithium would need to triple by 2050 just for U.S. consumption alone. We’d be eating up 483,000 tons of the stuff per year.
Even for mining, lithium is particularly water intensive and bad for the environment. Much of it is found in already dry regions like Australia, Chile and Nevada — places which are already suffering water shortages due to climate change. In South America, mines have poisoned indigenous peoples’ water and land, or merely snatched up lithium rich real estate for themselves.
To meet the international goal of zero carbon emissions by 2050 and keep lithium mining to an absolute minimum, Americans would need to completely change the way they live — a notoriously easy task. The Guardian has a very Guardian take on these findings:
