The Lithium Paradox: Green Energy's Dirty Secret in Chile's Desert
Part of composite article Lithium Mining Is Draining the Desert Dry — and Chile's Atacama Is Paying the Price View full article →
The Atacama desert holds the key to fighting climate change. But getting it comes at a cost.
Lithium is essential for electric cars and renewable energy storage. Yet its extraction in Chile is creating growing social and environmental problems.
The Atacama is a high-altitude desert plateau spanning Argentina, Bolivia and Chile. On the Chilean side, researchers travel by Jeep through thin, cold air under a piercing sun.
The landscape shifts constantly. Wide basins give way to steep slopes. The Licancabur volcano towers above. As altitude rises, plants grow denser and the air turns cooler and wetter.