Adriana Daroqui, a graduate student at The New School, completed her capstone project on lithium in Chile with GJEP in 2021.

Electric Cars and Lithium Extraction Threaten to Drive Even More Climate Harm

Truthout 23 May 2022

By Adriana Daroqui

The climate emergency is almost universally seen by nations of the world as a threat to future survival. But approaches to mitigate it that are promoted by policy makers in the Global North focus on so-called “net-zero” emissions based on dubious carbon trading schemes to maintain current lifestyles and business as usual.

But, in the Global South, popular environmentalism relates to the struggle to achieve fair ecological distribution, to defend community access to natural resources, and to protect people’s livelihoods — all of which are threatened not only by climate change but unequal burdens placed on the Global South by so-called “nature-based solutions.” This has been seen quite dramatically in programs such as Reducing Emissions from Deforestation and Forest Degradation (REDD) that has led to displacement of Native cultures in order to convert or commodify ecosystems into assets to be traded as carbon offsets for carbon-emitting industries.

Moreover, green policies that promote “renewable energy” technologies such as solar panels, wind turbines and electric batteries threaten to do even more harm to ecosystems in extraction areas by destroying biodiversity, contaminating water, and causing social and environmental damage to local Indigenous communities.

For the full article visit Truthout.