More than 2 miles across and nearly 2,000 feet deep, the mining operation in a social media photo has replaced any flora that might have once inhabited the now barren landscape. Nothing but soil and stone is visible until the horizon meets the sky.
In an apparent attempt to disparage the renewable energy transition, the post showcasing the image wrongly asserts the devastation was caused by mining for lithium – a key ingredient in electric car and grid storage batteries. In reality, the post shows a gold mine and is one of a suite of false claims about lithium mining USA TODAY has debunked.
While the post fails to accurately identify the lifeless pit in the photograph, it does highlight a real issue. The renewable energy transition – intended to stave off the worst of global climate change – is causing a precipitous rise in the demand for lithium, copper, nickel and the other metallic ingredients of solar panels, wind turbines and batteries. Those materials have an environmental cost, but the potential harms from renewable energy mining should also be considered in context, experts told USA TODAY.
For the rest of this article: https://www.usatoday.com/story/news/factcheck/2024/12/01/renewable-energy-green-mining/76436837007/