The rise of green tech is feeding another environmental crisis

BBCRaquel Celina Rodriguez watches her step as she walks throughout the Vega de Tilopozo in Chile’s Atacama salt flats. It is a wetland, recognized for its groundwater springs, however the plain is now dry and cracked with holes she explains have been as soon as swimming pools.”Earlier than, the Vega was all inexperienced,” she says. “You could not see the animals by way of the grass. Now every part is dry.” She gestures to some grazing llamas.For generations, her household raised sheep right here. Because the local weather modified, and rain stopped falling, much less grass made that a lot more durable.But it surely worsened when “they” began taking the water, she explains.Ben Derico/BBCRaquel’s household raised sheep in Chile’s Atacama salt flats for generations however now every part is dry, she says”They” are lithium firms. Beneath the salt flats of the Atacama Desert lie the world’s largest reserves of lithium, a gentle, silvery-white steel that’s an integral part of the batteries that energy electrical vehicles, laptops and photo voltaic power storage.Because the world transitions to extra renewable power sources, the demand for it has soared. In 2021, about 95,000 tonnes of lithium was consumed globally – by 2024 it had greater than doubled to 205,000 tonnes, based on the Worldwide Vitality Company (IEA). By 2040 it is predicted to rise to greater than 900,000 tonnes. A lot of the enhance will likely be pushed by demand for electrical automotive batteries, the IEA says.Locals say environmental prices to them have risen too.So, this hovering demand has raised the query: is the world’s race to decarbonise unintentionally stoking one other environmental downside?Flora, flamingos and shrinking lagoonsChile is the second-largest producer of lithium globally after Australia. In 2023, the federal government launched a Nationwide Lithium Technique to ramp up manufacturing by way of partly nationalising the business and inspiring personal funding.Its finance minister beforehand stated the rise in manufacturing could possibly be by as much as 70% by 2030, though the mining ministry says no goal has been set. This 12 months, a significant milestone to that’s set to be reached.Ben Derico/BBCThe course of extracts huge quantities of water on this already drought-prone regionA deliberate joint enterprise between SQM and Chile’s state mining firm Codelco has simply secured regulatory approval for a quota to extract at the very least 2.5 million metric tonnes of lithium steel equal per 12 months and enhance manufacturing till 2060.Chile’s authorities has framed the plans as a part of the worldwide combat towards local weather change and a supply of state revenue.Mining firms predominantly extract lithium by pumping brine from beneath Chile’s salt flats to evaporation swimming pools on the floor. The method extracts huge quantities of water on this already drought-prone area.Ben Derico/BBCBiologist Faviola González screens environmental modifications within the Los Flamencos Nationwide Reserve, which is dwelling to salt flats, marshes and lagoonsFaviola Gonzalez is a biologist from the native indigenous group working within the Los Flamencos Nationwide Reserve, in the course of the Atacama Desert, dwelling to huge salt flats, marshes and lagoons and a few 185 species of birds. She has monitored how the native atmosphere is altering.”The lagoons listed here are smaller now,” she says. “We have seen a lower within the copy of flamingos.”She stated lithium mining impacts microorganisms that birds feed on in these waters, so the entire meals chain is affected.She factors to a spot the place, for the primary time in 14 years, flamingo chicks hatched this 12 months. She attributes the “small reproductive success” to a slight discount in water extraction in 2021, however says, “It is small.””Earlier than there have been many. Now, only some.”The underground water from the Andes, wealthy in minerals, is “very outdated” and replenishes slowly.”If we’re extracting a number of water and little is coming into, there may be little to recharge the Salar de Atacama,” she explains.Lucas Aguayo Araos/Anadolu Company through Getty Pictures’The lagoons listed here are smaller now. We have seen a lower within the copy of flamingos’Harm to flora has additionally been present in some areas. On property within the salt flats, mined by the Chilean firm SQM, virtually one-third of the native “algarrobo” (or carob) bushes had began dying as early as 2013 because of the impacts of mining, based on a report revealed in 2022 by the US-based Nationwide Assets Protection Council.However the difficulty extends past Chile too. In a report for the US-based Nationwide Assets Protection Council in 2022, James J. A. Blair, an assistant professor at California State Polytechnic College, wrote that lithium mining is “contributing to circumstances of ecological exhaustion”, and “might lower freshwater availability for natural world in addition to people”.He did, nonetheless, say that it’s troublesome to search out “definitive” proof on this subject.Mitigating the damageEnvironmental harm is in fact inevitable in the case of mining. “It is arduous to think about any type of mining that doesn’t have a adverse influence,” says Karen Smith Stegen, a political science professor in Germany, who research the impacts of lithium mining the world over.The problem is that mining firms can take steps to mitigate that harm. “What [mining companies] ought to have accomplished from the very starting was to contain these communities,” she says.For instance, earlier than pumping lithium from underground, firms might perform “social influence assessments” – opinions which keep in mind the broad influence their work can have on water, wildlife, and communities.Getty ImagesExtracting lithium entails pumping brine from beneath Chile’s salt flats to evaporation swimming pools on the surfaceFor their half, mining firms now say they’re listening. The Chilean agency SQM is likely one of the primary gamers.At one in every of their crops in Antofagasta, Valentín Barrera, Deputy Supervisor of Sustainability at SQM Lithium, says the agency is working intently with communities to “perceive their considerations” and finishing up environmental influence assessments.He feels strongly that in Chile and globally “we want extra lithium for the power transition.”He provides that the agency is piloting new applied sciences. If profitable, the thought is to roll these out of their Salar de Atacama crops.These embrace each extracting lithium straight from brine, with out evaporation swimming pools, and applied sciences to seize evaporated water and re-inject it into the land.”We’re doing a number of pilots to grasp which one works higher as a way to enhance manufacturing however scale back at the very least 50% of the present brine extraction,” he stated.Ben Derico/BBCValentín Barrera says Chilean agency SQM understands considerations and is working with communitiesHe says the pilot in Antofagasta has recovered “multiple million cubic metres” of water. “Beginning in 2031, we’re going to begin this transition.”However the locals I spoke to are sceptical. “We imagine the Salar de Atacama is like an experiment,” Faviola argues.She says it is unknown how the salt flats might “resist” this new expertise and the reinjection of water and fears they’re getting used as a “pure laboratory.”Sara Plaza, whose household additionally raised animals in the identical group as Raquel, is anxious concerning the modifications she has seen in her lifetime. She remembers water ranges dropping from as early as 2005 however says “the mining firms by no means stopped extracting.”Ben Derico/BBC’The businesses give the group just a little cash, however I might desire no cash. I might desire to stay off nature and have water to stay’Sara turns into tearful when she speaks concerning the future.”The salt flats produce lithium, however someday it can finish. Mining will finish. And what are the individuals right here going to do? With out water, with out agriculture. What are they going to stay on?””Perhaps I will not see it due to my age, however our youngsters, our grandchildren will.”She believes mining firms have extracted an excessive amount of water from an ecosystem already struggling from local weather change.”It’s totally painful,” she provides. “The businesses give the group just a little cash, however I might desire no cash. “I might desire to stay off nature and have water to stay.”The influence of water shortagesSergio Cubillos is head of the affiliation for the Peine group, the place Sara and Raquel stay.He says Peine has been pressured to vary “our whole ingesting water system, electrical system, water remedy system” due to water shortages.”There’s the problem of local weather change, that it would not rain anymore, however the primary influence has been attributable to extractive mining,” he says.He says because it began within the Nineteen Eighties, firms have extracted hundreds of thousands of cubic metres of water and brine – a whole bunch of litres per second.”Choices are made in Santiago, within the capital, very removed from right here,” he says.Lucas Aguayo Araos/Anadolu through Getty ImagesChile is the world’s second-largest lithium producer, after AustraliaHe believes that if the President needs to combat local weather change, like he stated when he ran for workplace, he must contain “the indigenous individuals who have existed for millennia in these landscapes.”Sergio understands that lithium is essential for transitioning to renewable power however says his group shouldn’t be the “bargaining chip” in these developments.His group has secured some financial advantages and oversight with firms however is nervous about plans to ramp up manufacturing.He says whereas in search of applied sciences to scale back the influence on water is welcome that “cannot be accomplished sitting at a desk in Santiago, however slightly right here within the territory.”Ben Derico/BBCSergio Cubillos says his group shouldn’t be a “bargaining chip”Chile’s authorities stresses there was “ongoing dialogue with indigenous communities” they usually have been consulted over the brand new Codelco-SQM three way partnership’s contracts to handle considerations round water points, new applied sciences and contributions to the communities.It says rising manufacturing capability will likely be based mostly on incorporating new applied sciences to minimise the environmental and social influence and that the excessive “worth” of lithium because of its position within the world power transition might present “alternatives” for the nation’s financial growth.Sergio although worries about their space being a “pilot challenge” and says if the influence of recent expertise is adverse, “We are going to put all our energy into stopping the exercise that would finish with Peine being forgotten.”A small a part of a worldwide dilemmaThe Salar de Atacama is a case research for a worldwide dilemma. Local weather change is inflicting droughts and climate modifications. However one of many world’s present options is – based on locals – exacerbating this.There’s a frequent argument from individuals who assist lithium mining: that even when it damages the atmosphere, it brings large advantages through jobs and money.Daniel Jimenez, from lithium consultancy iLiMarkets, in Santiago, takes this argument a step additional. He claims that environmental harm has been exaggerated by communities who need a pay-out.Lucas Aguayo Araos/Anadolu Company through Getty ImagesWhat’s taking place within the Salar de Atacama is a case research for a worldwide dilemma – and debate”That is about cash,” he argues. “Corporations have poured some huge cash into enhancing roads, faculties – however the claims of communities actually return to the very fact they need cash.”However Prof Stegen is unconvinced. “Mining firms at all times wish to say, ‘There are extra jobs, you are going to get more cash’,” she says. “Nicely, that is not significantly what a number of indigenous communities need. It truly might be disruptive if it modifications the construction of their very own conventional financial system [and] it impacts their housing prices.”The roles should not the be all and finish all for what these communities need.”Ben Derico/BBC’Our sacred birds which are disappearing,’ says FaviolaIn Chile, these I spoke to did not speak about wanting more cash. Nor are they against measures to deal with local weather change. Their primary query is why they’re paying the worth.”I believe for the cities perhaps lithium is sweet,” Raquel says. “But it surely additionally harms us. We do not stay the life we used to stay right here.”Faviola doesn’t assume electrifying alone is the answer to local weather change.”All of us should scale back our emissions,” she says. “In developed international locations just like the US and Europe the power expenditure of individuals is far higher than right here in South America, amongst us indigenous individuals.””Who’re the electrical vehicles going to be for? Europeans, People, not us. Our carbon footprint is far smaller.””But it surely’s our water that is being taken. Our sacred birds which are disappearing.”Prime picture credit score: Getty ImagesBBC InDepth is the house on the web site and app for the perfect evaluation, with contemporary views that problem assumptions and deep reporting on the largest problems with the day. And we showcase thought-provoking content material from throughout BBC Sounds and iPlayer too. You’ll be able to ship us your suggestions on the InDepth part by clicking on the button under.