The global scramble for lithium, dubbed the "White Gold Rush," is unfolding much like its historical predecessors: rife with land grabs, human rights abuses, and ecological devastation. While the demand for batteries fuels this rush, communities on the frontline face a stark reality – "We don't eat batteries," they say, "Batteries take the water, and life is gone.".
The story echoes across continents, resonating with the historical exploitation of silver mines in Spain and Bolivia. Spain was famous for its prodigious output of silver during ancient times, particularly from southern Spain at Rio Tinto in the west and at Cartagena in the east. Spain became Rome’s greatest silver-producing region.
Later around the time of the end of Venice and the European expansion into the New World, Potosi in Bolivia became the central location of silver mining and was referred to as “man-eating mines” echoing the Roman saying damnatio et metalla.
Ecologically, today, we can see the results of pollution of the atmosphere of the Northern Hemisphere recorded in the levels of heavy metals impurities in Greenland ice, and lithium extraction is likely to be similar. In the U.S., professor Steven H. Emmerman, a hydrologist, raises critical concerns about the "reckless creativity" of companies like Lithium Americas (LAC) in places such as Nevada at Thacker Pass where the company is beginning operations for extraction. Emmerman is concerned of either “catastrophic failure (as with the Mount Polley disaster in British Columbia) or gradual leakage of pollution into the water table for thousands of years.” It is the same with another associated project in Argentina at Coachari Oloroz, though in an article by Mark Robison in the Reno Gazette-Journal, LAC representative Tim Crowley states that “he is unaware if the company has had problems with protesters in other countries.”
The human cost is equally alarming. In Latin America, indigenous communities living near lithium deposits are displaced and their water sources threatened. Their plea is poignant: "We are like rocks on the road, kicked away. "Corporate CEO Elon Musk, when challenged about being involved in the 2020 overthrow of the democratically-elected government in Bolivia where the president was one of the only native Americans to serve in the Western Hemisphere, Musk wrote on Twitter “we will coup whomever we want.” When the public backlash occurred, he said that he was joking and that Tesla gets its lithium from Australia, which has a similar history and ecological destruction today from lithium. Such comments expose the general, dangerous disregard for communities and democracies in the world today.
Within the challenges of today, Max Wilbert’s message is that we must move beyond "bright green lies" and embrace responsible, sustainable practices that prioritize the well-being of people and the planet. It's time to break the cycle of exploitation and ensure a future where communities thrive and nature is protected.
Max Wilbert is a writer and biocentric community organizer. He has been part of grassroots political work for 20 years and is the founder of Protect Thacker Pass. Max is the author of two books, most recently "Bright Green Lies: How The Environmental Movement Lost Its Way and What We Can Do About It" (Monkfish 2021). He is currently studying for a Masters Degree in Degrowth.
Layne Hartsell is a member of the board at Korea IT Times and is a research professor at the Asia Institute, Tokyo/Berlin. His work is on energy, economy, and environment (3E).
