Argentina's White Gold
Swiss referendum backs carbon cuts in ambitious climate plan
Argentina is home to huge reserves of lithium, a light metal used in electric batteries that is likely to be vital for reducing planet-warming fossil fuels. But those reserves lie beneath the Andean salt plains, a unique ecosystem stretching between Argentina, Bolivia and Chile that Indigenous communities are desperate to protect from a mining boom.
Local communities argue that lithium mining sucks up scarce groundwater and would be environmentally catastrophic for this stunning but arid region. "People who buy cars with green energy, they need to know that to build them, they’re removing our water. They are taking away our life," says activist Patricia Reynoso. Lithium is more valuable each day; its price is 10 times higher than in 2020. Chinese corporation Zijin invested 380 million dollars in building a lithium plant in the salt plains. They argue their operation is balanced; "we constantly measure the flow of the river and do calculations for the recovery of the level of water downstream."
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