Automakers studying environmental impact of lithium mining

[Yo_Mama_Been_Loggin]

A group backed by German car-making giants Daimler AG and Volkswagen AG has started a study into the environmental impact of lithium mining in Chile, the second-largest supplier of the key ingredient in rechargeable batteries.

GIZ, the German development agency running the initiative, is looking into how pumping up lithium-laced brine from beneath the Atacama salt flat is impacting local water supplies and communities. The project will last about two and a half years, a spokeswoman said.

It’s the latest effort by the global battery-supply chain to address growing concern among investors and the general public over the sustainability of industries that will produce the building blocks for the clean-energy transformation.

Albemarle Corp. and Soc. Quimica & Minera de Chile SA are ramping up output in the Atacama, which boasts the world’s largest reserves, in response to a projected tripling of global demand. That’s shining a light on the fragility of desert ecosystems once seen as resilient to the method of pumping up brine into massive evaporation pools.

https://www.msn.com/en-us/autos/news/automakers-studying-environmental-impact-of-lithium-mining/ar-AALZZA4

[mac2766]

1. The alternative?

Certainly there needs to be concern with how lithium is being mined, but the alternative to the EV is continued usage of crude oil to fuel vehicles.

It needs to be said that "car-making giants" have started this study. I'm sure that big oil is right there somewhere, or at least they will do their own studies to combat the trend that's happening.

[NNadir]

2. Unsurprisingly, this article contradicts itself in a single statement.

It's this sentence:

It’s the latest effort by the global battery-supply chain to address growing concern among investors and the general public over the sustainability of industries that will produce the building blocks for the clean-energy transformation.

How is it that a practice of questionable sustainability is defined as "clean energy?"

There is nothing, absolutely nothing, "green" about batteries, and the statement to the contrary is a lie on a Trumpian scale.

The whole "clean-energy" meme is laced with unsustainable mining demands. Substituting copper, lithium, cobalt, manganese, and lanthanides for petroleum is not "clean." It's a three card monty game, and the more we hand out this horseshit, the worse it's going to be.