The Conversation U.S.

Though #EVs emit fewer greenhouse gases than fuel-powered vehicles, their batteries require rare minerals – especially lithium.

Lithium extraction is speeding up in Bolivia, where it holds significance to Indigenous communities. The very idea of a ‘raw material’ is foreign to them.

https://theconversation.com/raw-materials-or-sacred-beings-lithium-extraction-puts-two-worldviews-into-tension-200047

#energy #Indigenous

Raw materials, or sacred beings? Lithium extraction puts two worldviews into tension

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.

The Conversation
May 9, 2023 at 11:16pmWeb
Show threadMarkMay 9, 2023

@TheConversationUS

Also, it bears repeating that petroleum doesn’t just cleanly appear at the gas pump. The industry is replete with environmental catastrophes at points of extraction, transport, and refining—all of which cause human and ecosystem damage on massive scales. For example:
https://chevrontoxico.com

Hopefully cleaner tech scaled up soon (sodium batteries, green hydrogen).

#petrol #environment #batteries #environmentaljustice

ChevronToxico | The Campaign for Justice in Ecuador

Over three decades of oil drilling in the Ecuadorian Amazon, Chevron dumped more than 16 billion gallons of toxic wastewater into the rainforest, leaving local people suffering a wave of cancers, miscarriages, and birth defects. Now, with the support of an international campaign for justice, the communities affected by Chevron's negligence are holding one of the world's largest oil companies to account.

Show threadbouriquetMay 9, 2023
@MarkBrigham @TheConversationUS The worst part is that Big Oil has the financial resources to invest in battery and other technology, and sometimes kill it. (Didn’t Chevron do this already?)
Show threadMarkMay 10, 2023

@TheConversationUS @bouriquet

Bingo! All the Oily Boys have known for 50 years, cuz the science was good enough back then to start changing course. They could have used their massive revenues and profits to invest in next-generation, clean technology. That would have been smart and forward-thinking. They consciously chose to harm us all.

Because change is hard; libertarian, anti-government populism is fun.

#petrofascism #theyknew #climatechange #OilyBoys

Show threadbouriquetMay 10, 2023
@MarkBrigham @TheConversationUS It’s the “I got mine and I’m not giving it up, not gonna change, so screw you” mentality that keeps large SUVs with one driver on the highway, belching combustion products sitting in traffic.
Show threadErik Szewczyk May 10, 2023

@MarkBrigham @TheConversationUS yup, still preferable to continually mining and refining oil products for the entire usable life of the vehicle!

(Also, auto batteries are highly recyclable)

Show threadMyOpinionMay 10, 2023
@TheConversationUS Stop spreading this FUD. It is time to electrify as many things as possible as quickly as possible.
Show threadaardvarkMay 10, 2023
@TheConversationUS lithium is rare? Googling this question is enlightening.