An opportunity to put lithium mining and unlimited growth on trial
Just before I published “When Land I Love Holds Lithium” (June 10, 2023), about Max Wilbert’s work to protect Thacker Pass, Nevada from lithium mining, Lithium Nevada Corporation sued Max and six others for Civil Conspiracy, Nuisance, Trespass, Tortious Interference with Contractual Relations, Tortious Interference with Prospective Economic Advantage and Unjust Enrichment (“profiting” by fundraising for expenses to protect Thacker Pass).
To clarify, anything with a battery—a flip phone, a smartphone, a laptop, an off-grid solar PV system, an electric vehicle—likely holds lithium.
To further clarify, manufacturing any electronic item demands mining multiple ores. Neither e-vehicles nor other electronics prevent loss of wildlife habitat. Every electronic device requires infrastructure that poses severe fire hazards. No electronic device biodegrades. Before calling any battery-dependent item (i.e. an e-bike, e-vehicle, solar PV installation or mobile computer) “green,” measure its ecological impacts from its cradle to its grave.
The big issue here is Overshoot: over-production, over-consumption. Climate change, toxic waste, biodiversity loss, economic inequalities…are all consequences of overshoot.
Max and his colleagues see Lithium Nevada Corporation’s lawsuit as an opportunity to put lithium mining—and unlimited, unregulated growth—on trial.
Here’s ProtectThackerPass’s press release about the suit.
Just after I published “When Land I Love Holds Lithium,” presidential candidate Robert F. Kennedy Jr. tweeted it, saying, “Let’s make sure that the quest for clean energy doesn’t sacrifice places and ecosystems….”
For a deeper dive into electric vehicle (EV) problems:
· “Transportation within Our Means,” my review of Robert Charette’s IEEE report explaining how EV chargers shorten transformers’ lives…and other problems with EVs.
· Rachel Chason and Ilan Godfrey’s article about manganese miners’ memory loss and other neurological ills, published in the Washington Post June 8, 2023. EVs and other electronics depend on manganese.
· Nate Hagens’ roundtable about whether replacing gas-powered cars with EVs is materially, economically, infrastructurally possible—or rooted in energy blindness.
For ideas about addressing our world in crisis:
· “Policies for More Ecologically-Sound Tech,” my recent substack.
· Rachel Donald’s Planet: Critical, a resource for critical thinking about energy, economic, climate and political crises.
· Lawyers are Responsible. These lawyers (largely from UK) have committed to solidarity with all those on the frontline of the climate and ecological crises by withholding their professional services for projects that support new fossil fuel developments and that act against climate protesters who exercise peaceful protest.