The recent deal made to allow Chinese electric vehicles into Canada has met with conflicting reactions. But one aspect of the deal has been given less attention than it deserves. Some environmental organizations and writers have welcomed the climate benefits of electric cars and hope that Chinese imports spur a more affordable market for them in Canada. 

But are electric cars really an environmental success story? The reality is that EV batteries require the mining of lithium, a water-intensive, highly controversial process that is fiercely contested in rural and Indigenous communities of the global South. The countries of the “Lithium Triangle” — Chile, Bolivia and Argentina — contain the world’s largest lithium supply, but are also situated in one of the driest regions on earth. Miners pump vast underground brine reservoirs to create massive salt flats on the surface, where the brine evaporates and leaves behind lithium carbonate.  

Lithium mining uses a great deal of water — more than two million litres of both brine and freshwater to produce one ton. Reports show that lithium extraction is consuming local water sources and the salt flats are contaminating dwindling freshwater reserves. According to the journal Communications Earth & Environment, the amount of freshwater available for lithium mining in the region is about 10 times lower than previous estimates.  

But the lack of water is not stopping the fierce competition for lithium. Foreign corporations are already lining up to mine Bolivia’s “white gold” in its yet-to-be-mined Uyuni salt flat, thought to hold the world’s largest........

© National Observer