Stephanie Lance
Just as we depend on oil for gas-powered cars today, our future will be depending on scarcely mined Lithium with electric cars. Lithium is the world’s lightest metal, with the smallest solid density. It holds a charge well, which is why is has become so valuable for delivering the appropriate energy to electric cars without weighing them down, or requiring frequent recharging stops. The versatility of Lithium helps to charge laptops, and even treat bipolar disorder as a mood-stabilizing drug. Lithium is mined in briny solutions found beneath salt flats. Recently, Bolivia has found an estimated 5.95 million tons of lithium reserves beneath a high-altitude desert, the Salar de Uyuni salt flat sheds. They have to potential to become the “Saudi Arabia of lithium,” but at what cost? A group of salt gatherers and quinoa farmers on the edge of the desert know that the lithium may be Bolivia’s, but it is also their property. Bolivia doesn’t know how to proceed with the mining, and electric car companies are starting to put cars on the market, but with very expensive batteries because of the limited supply. If Bolivia begins to mine this area, the people who exploit the land now will need to find their resources in other places, however, Bolivia’s economy will boom with this large, lucrative, and highly demanded lithium export. Will this 12,000 foot-high desert prove to be integral in the reduction of the United States dependency on foreign oil? Will Bolivia’s nationalization of the lithium industry have an impact on world energy?
10 comments:
I'm glad someone brought this up. We have a change here, as in we as a society, to not make the same mistakes we did with oil. What we need to focus on is not only the pertinent use of this new resource, but of how we go about getting and distributing it. This includes how we treat the workers, and how the industry around Lithium mining is structured. I think that this situation is a great opportunity to show that there can be environmental and industrial cooperation on a sustainable level.
Maybe the people who live there now would be interested in getting a job mining lithium instead of harvesting salt. That would probably be the easiest solution. Otherwise you'd have to have some kind of eminent domain suits going on. Lithium batteries are better than using oil, but they have drawbacks too. They lose about half their charge holding abilities after about 2 years. I wonder if there is a way to recycle these batteries or the lithium in them instead of getting into another finite resource.
I agree with the other posts by the fact that we should look to Lithium as a potential energy source, but do so in the most precarious way possible. Both the U.S. and the world should work respectably with Bolivia, so as to help their economy grow through the extraction process, and to avoid conflict. Equal distribution and clear communication among the world is also essential for this process to run in the smoothest way possible, working to avoid another devastating war. Though I do not think this discovery will solve all our energy problems, or even a majority of them for the most part, I definitely don't think we should shy away from the mere idea of it.
I agree mostly with Chris. I think the easiest way to get around the problems with the farmers it to offer them a job mining lithium and also provide whatever else they need. Also, lithium batteries can be recycled an turned into new batteries, they just go through a smelting process which is not terribly expensive. I think that the only way Bolivia should go through with this is if they lay out an extensive plan that lays out how much lithium they are capable of producing and how much they are willing to export to countries most in need of implementing alternative fuels for cars on a large scale. All in all I think it is an interesting new development in the world of energy and it will be even more interesting to see what happens in the future.
It irks me tremendously that the vast majority of our plans for the future of energy and transportation in America are completely reliant on foreign countries providing the base material. While a reduction in greenhouse emissions is a wonderful goal, what good is trading a reduction in dependence on foreign oil for a dependence on foreign lithium?
I was thinking along the same page as Rex and Alexa that lithium just means switching from one foreign dependent to another when I realized that really any alternative fuel will still mean we're dependent on someone else. Even if it's biomass grown here, I'd imagine many of the materials used to make cars sans fuel concerns require materials shipped in from outside the U.S. The world is globalized, trading between countries isn't a bad thing in most aspects. Just because oil has a bad rep does not mean lithium will be the same way since we have a chance to be more active in its development. I think we should focus more on switching to renewable resources (lithium is somewhat renewable) than worrying about the fact that we need to work with others.
I agree with Rex! If our goal is to reduce dependence on foreign oil, becoming dependent on foreign lithium would be asinine. However, it does make one of the best batteries we know how to make. Hopefully battery technology will advance enough so that we won't have to be dependent on foreign materials (I know that a lot of work is being done trying to find better batteries to store renewable energy sources). I also have concerns about lithium mining. My limited understanding is that it's a rather dirty process, but I actually know very little. Does anyone know more about that?
Bolivia has a troubled past and still has major difficulties developing. This lithium has the potential to put it on par with some of its neighbors, such as Chile and Argentina. So why shouldn't they go ahead with it? Chile's development and highest quality of life throughout Latin America is largely due to its extensive mining. However, their are countless examples where a country failed because of its abundant resources, such as Iraq or Sierra Leone. For Bolivia just discovering its resources, I think lots of outside intervention and different parties would be necessary in order to prevent corruption scandals that have the potential to start war. This country has been in desperate need of an economic foothold, so it is imperative that this lithium be properly monitored.
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