While EV makers reiterate how their cars combat climate change, others note critical mineral mining environmental and social impacts on traditional people, and point to both supply chain and planetary boundary problems.
As lithium producers warn of shortages amid a global push for electrification, oil and gas companies are making forays into extracting the in-demand metal and banking on nascent technologies to “become big in lithium.”
Lithium holds the promise of revolutionizing the carbon-based global economy. But it has a dirty little secret in the intense water usage involved in its extraction.