Mining

Lithium prices doubled in 2018 because of the steady increase in demand. During this period, the International Energy Agency (IEA) predicted that the number of electric vehicles (EVs) worldwide would be 125 million by 2030. We had approximately 3.1 million electric cars in early 2018. There have been other similar projections since then.

The projections leave us with a paradox of “clean” electric cars versus “dirty” lithium mining. Remember, EVs, laptops, phones, and other digital devices use rechargeable lithium-ion batteries.

Introduction

Since the beginning of life, humans have exploited natural resources for the materials required to sustain life. That primarily includes food production and economic sustenance, although other substances are also extracted from the natural environment. However, human exploitation of natural ecosystems has long-lasting effects on the future provision of resources and other ecosystem services.

Degraded ecosystems take time to recover from overexploitation, while some might never bounce back even when exploitation stops. That might adversely impact the availability of resources like clean air, food, and other services, ultimately threatening human existence. Unfortunately, most countries struggle to guarantee the long-term use of natural resources at minimal environmental cost while guaranteeing social and economic development.

According to the UN Global Forest Goals Report of 2021, forests currently cover close to 31% of the global land area. However, only 1.11 billion hectares are covered by native or primary forests that are largely undistributed. Even worse, the world is continually losing its forests at a fierce rate, with about 420 million hectares lost to deforestation since 1990.