![\"EV](\"https:\/\/imgs.mongabay.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/20\/2024\/03\/28171251\/carsharing-4382651_1920.jpg\" "\\"\\"")
<\/a>Moreover, while electric vehicles clearly reduce carbon dioxide emissions (provided the electricity powering them isn\u2019t generated using fossil fuels), critics note that the full impact of EVs on the health of the planet must be assessed not only based on climate change, but taking into account impacts on soils, water, air and biodiversity.<\/p>\n
Scientists have identified nine planetary boundaries that support life on Earth as we known it, with the overshoot of any one boundary posing an existential threat to humanity. Electric vehicles, while helping stabilize the climate change boundary, are adversely impacting others, including the biosphere integrity, land system change, freshwater use, and \u201cnovel entities\u201d (synthetic toxic substance pollution) boundaries, each of which must be respected, if life as we know it is to be protected.<\/p>\n
Researchers have also identified a 10th boundary, notes Johan Rockstr\u00f6m, who led the international team that defined the planetary boundary framework. That is to acknowledge the inseparable link between planetary health and human well-being.<\/p>\n
Recognizing the importance of social justice and equity is not only crucial to the well-being of hundreds of thousands of traditional and Indigenous communities, but also helps protect the profound knowledge of the world\u2019s ecosystems these peoples have acquired over millennia \u2014 information vital to protecting the Earth.<\/p>\n A typical electric vehicle requires six times more minerals than an internal combustion engine vehicle, increasing global demand for these minerals and creating a mining boom. Lithium and cobalt are essential for EV batteries, with both minerals largely mined in developing countries. The surge in extraction is already harming local communities.<\/p>\n Lithium is most easily mined in the \u201clithium triangle,\u201d encompassing the salt flats of the Andes Mountains of Chile, Bolivia and Argentina \u2014 nations that hold more than half of the world\u2019s lithium reserves. Indigenous communities in the triangle are already protesting vehemently about the impact of this mining.<\/p>\n \u201cWhether the world likes it or not, Indigenous peoples live in strategic places where natural wealth is found,\u201d says Elena Rivera Cardoso, president of the Indigenous Colla community in the Atacama Desert in northern Chile. \u201cA new economic activity cannot arrive and impose itself at the cost of a centuries-old culture that lives, and has always lived, in the region,\u201d she says.<\/p>\n The Colla homeland lies within the Maricunga salt flat, situated at 3,700 meters (12,100 feet) above sea level. The salt flats are located in cuencas, basins where glacial runoff accumulates, and where ice melts and water evaporates in the hot sun, leaving behind lithium brine deposits.<\/p>\n Because Chile\u2019s salt flats are in the Atacama Desert, the driest place on Earth, all life there depends on the limited amounts of water coming from the annual melt of mountain glacier ice. But now, mining operations are laying claim to much of that water.<\/p>\n While lithium extraction has been going on for decades in the Atacama salt flat, one of the bigger salt flats, it is only just beginning in the much smaller and more fragile Maricunga salt flat. Mining companies are rapidly moving in, including state-owned companies in Chile, and with China investing more than $4 billion in lithium mining in South America in recent years.<\/p>\n Chilean geologist Luciano Travella warns that lithium mining is growing so fast that \u201cit is likely that in a few years, probably no more than two decades, the Salar de Maricunga will be completely degraded.\u201d<\/p>\n This is unjust, says Travella, because the mining will \u201cbring no benefit to the local population, which will be left to deal with the [social, economic and environmental] damage.\u201d<\/p>\n B\u00e1rbara Jerez, a lecturer at the University of the B\u00edo-B\u00edo in Concepci\u00f3n, Chile, who has studied the Atacama people, told Mongabay that lithium mining is \u201creplicating colonial extractivism,\u201d with mining benefits going almost entirely abroad, while local populations struggle with \u201cboth water depletion and ethno-cultural fractures.\u201d<\/p>\n Chile has just announced plans to protect some of its salt flats, but researchers have criticized the decision for not relying on scientific data. These protections aren\u2019t expected to significantly slow mining firm exploitation of the Atacama or Maricunga regions.<\/p>\n Community and environmental impacts are expected to worsen as mining gains momentum in the fragile arid region. Around 80% of animal species in the Atacama are native. They include three flamingo species, whose populations are already in decline. (Researchers say Chile\u2019s new salt flat protections fail to protect critical flamingo nesting sites.)<\/p>\n Of the 53 animal species living in the salt flats, 17, including the vicu\u00f1a, the guanaco and the short-tailed chinchilla, are endangered in Chile. Scientists are also beginning to appreciate the importance of the unique microbiota living in the salt flats.<\/p>\n Rivera predicts the destruction of the Maricunga salt flat will annihilate her people. \u201cWe are transhumants: [pastoralists] who rear animals. We are a people who work with ancestral medicine, with herbs found in our territories,\u201d she explains. \u201cWe are moved by the Earth, the water, the sun, the moon, we converge with them ancestrally and spiritually. If the salt pans dry up, our water will dry up and with it our culture \u2026 Water moves everything in life.\u201d<\/p>\n Lesly Mu\u00f1oz, Rivera\u2019s daughter, adds, \u201cIf we don\u2019t have water to make life in the mountains, we\u2019re going to be just another one of the many Indigenous cultures in Chile that has been exterminated.\u201d<\/p>\n Scientists say the heavy use of water by the mines is accelerating the death of the flats, with one study estimating that copper and lithium mining consume more than 65% of the region\u2019s water. James J.A. Blair, an assistant professor at California State Polytechnic University, calls mining lithium through brine evaporation \u201csenseless,\u201d and adds: \u201cCommunities are suffering a slow violence that\u2019s creating conditions of ecological exhaustion.\u201d<\/p>\n Even in the Atacama salt flat, where lithium mining is more widely accepted, there are problems. Some mining companies are investing in new technology to reduce the environmental impact. But Vladimir Reyes, president of the Council of Atacama Peoples, is concerned about the potential impact of new technology on the health of his people. \u201cA lot is being said about using new technologies but they haven\u2019t been tested and they haven\u2019t been regulated,\u201d Reyes says. He notes that plans are being drawn up for lithium extraction until 2060, without consultation of Indigenous communities.<\/p>\n Cobalt, a byproduct of copper mining, is also a vital EV battery ingredient. The world\u2019s largest known deposit of cobalt is found in the Democratic Republic of Congo (DRC), a poor nation with one of the world\u2019s largest mineral wealth reserves. It already supplies about 70% of the world\u2019s cobalt.<\/p>\n It hasn\u2019t escaped the natural resource curse \u2014 corporate extractivism based on a colonial model that impoverishes countries instead of developing them \u2014 say critics. A recent report by Australian journalist Michael Davie indicates the scale of the problem:<\/p>\n The violent rush to extract cobalt is unleashing a new cycle of misery and foreign domination in one of the world\u2019s poorest nations. Massive industrial operations \u2014 mostly Chinese-owned \u2014 have moved into the Congo, intent on dominating the next energy epoch. The big mines are accused of corruption, poisoning the locals, and exploiting the Congo\u2019s resources with little benefit for the country.<\/p>\n Mongabay in March highlighted a new report that revealed \u201ca glaring disconnect\u201d between a mining industry keen to promote cobalt as sustainable and free from social harms, and the \u201cstark reality\u201d on the ground.<\/p>\n The report went on to describe the mining city of Kolwezi, home to more than 500,000 people, that appears to be turning into a \u201csacrifice zone,\u201d with water contamination leading to health consequences and human rights abuses.<\/p>\n The vast majority of the DRC\u2019s cobalt comes from large industrial mines in its southern cobalt and copper belt.<\/p>\n Electric cars may be energy efficient, but that advantage is offset by other problems. Analysts note that to accurately gauge the environmental problems of any product, its entire supply chain must be evaluated. In the case of EVs, that goes beyond destructive mining practices.<\/p>\n For one, EVS are much heavier than conventional vehicles due to their batteries. Comparing two full-size pickups, Kelley Blue Book notes that a 2023 GMC Hummer EV weighs in at more than 9,000 pounds (4,100 kilograms), including the 2,900-lb (1,300-kg) battery, while a 2023 gasoline-powered GMC Sierra weighs less than 6,000 lbs (2,700 kg). EVs currently weigh roughly 20-30% more than equivalent ICE vehicles, though car companies say they\u2019re working on upping battery efficiency and decreasing weight.<\/p>\n The heavier the car, the greater the wear and tear on tires \u2014 which over their life produce a poorly reported but heavy toxic load. Tires contain 400+ chemicals and microplastics that can contaminate air, water and land, and which put increased pressure on the novel entities, freshwater, and aerosols planetary boundaries.<\/p>\n One of the chemicals emitted from rolling tires is called 6PPD; it\u2019s particularly toxic to fish. A study published in Science in 2021 linked 6PPD to deaths of coho salmon (Oncorhynchus kisutch) in U.S. West Coast rivers.<\/p>\n Industry representatives are confident that some EV environmental harm can be reduced. They say, for example, that batteries will become more efficient over time, reducing vehicle weight.<\/p>\n Alina Racu, batteries and metals analysis manager at the European Federation for Transport and Environment, told Mongabay that the Initiative for Responsible Mining Assurance (IRMA), created to promote responsible mining practices, will help. \u201cIn the case of lithium, [those technological advances] include scaling up more sustainable lithium extraction methods, such as Direct Lithium Extraction from brine, which can reduce water consumption and carbon footprint,\u201d she said. Racu also feels sure new battery technologies can be developed that rely less on lithium.<\/p>\n EV marketing notes that most materials going into EVs can be recycled, promising a circular economy, where no resources are wasted. While this seems possible, it is as yet a pipe dream. Relatively few batteries are currently being recycled. As with most metals, companies find it more profitable to mine more than to undertake the complex and often expensive task of recycling.<\/p>\n A recent U.N. report finds that the amount of e-waste, defined as any discarded product with an electric plug or battery, is piling up five times faster than recycling efforts. In the U.S., it\u2019s estimated only about 5% of lithium-ion batteries are getting recycled. Globally, there could be more than 12 million metric tons of lithium-ion batteries ready for recycling (or for being dumped) by 2030, with another five-to-tenfold increase between 2030 and 2040.<\/p>\n EV advocates also say that, while other environmental impacts matter, it is important not to forget the big advantage of electric vehicles: they don\u2019t produce greenhouse gases that heat up the planet. This, however, isn\u2019t entirely true: While EVs don\u2019t use gasoline or diesel while being driven, they do consume substantial amounts of oil, natural gas and coal during their manufacture.<\/p>\n Making EVs more sustainable is not, in itself, ultimately a solution. One of the key challenges facing humankind is how to avoid the Jevons Paradox, by which making something work better reduces cost, and thereby encourages people to use more of it, not less.<\/p>\n This often cancels out the environmental benefits of increasing efficiency in the first place. EVs may produce fewer greenhouse gases than fossil-fueled cars. But if, as some estimates suggest, by 2050 we are producing 2.4 billion vehicles annually, a billion more than now, the overall harm will be greater, even if all of them are electric. We end up using more minerals, more land, water, energy, more everything \u2026<\/p>\n The world continues being seduced by the siren song of the technology industry, that promises we\u2019re just one innovation away from solving the polycrisis (to which it has greatly contributed). But many analysts believe that technology alone won\u2019t suffice.<\/p>\n To make transportation sustainable, we must find ways to move people using fewer resources. Materials scientist Josh Lepawsky tells Mongabay this means that the use made of a vehicle needs to become more important than the way the vehicle is powered.<\/p>\nLithium mining \u2018replicating colonial extractivism\u2019<\/h2>\n
Cobalt in the Congo<\/h2>\n
EV supply chain impacts<\/h2>\n
EV solutions<\/h2>\n
Reducing consumption<\/h2>\n