Weighing the harm of gasoline against lithium – by Barry Saxifrage (National Observer – February 8, 2023)

https://www.nationalobserver.com/

More than a billion tonnes of climate pollution pours out American tailpipes every year. For scale, that’s more than the combined emissions from the 100 least-polluting nations.

Ending this gargantuan climate pollution disaster will require a sharp increase in new lithium extraction to build the zero-emission alternatives — battery electric vehicles. A new report by the University of California, Davis and the Climate and Community Project (CCP) reveals just how much more lithium will be needed.

The CCP report calculates the lithium required to transition the entire United States passenger car fleet to battery electric vehicles (BEVs) by 2050. They evaluated several policy scenarios showing which would increase demand for lithium above “status quo” and which would dramatically reduce the amount needed.
If you are interested in the environmental and social impacts of a rapid increase in lithium extraction — and the policies needed to reduce that harm — I recommend reading the CCP report.

For the rest of this article: https://www.nationalobserver.com/2023/02/08/analysis/weighing-harm-gasoline-against-lithium?utm_source=National+Observer&utm_campaign=f3dce3c962-EMAIL_CAMPAIGN_2023_02_09_02_48&utm_medium=email&utm_term=0_cacd0f141f-f3dce3c962-%5BLIST_EMAIL_ID%5D