Vince Beiser's article on lithium extraction ("A Clean Energy Conundrum") missed the mark. The writer doesn't just downplay the chaos being caused by fossil fuels but completely ignores the larger global context in which almost 9 million people die each year from carbon pollution and greenhouse gas emissions endanger the very livability of the planet. Yes, it is important to minimize impacts of all mining activities. But the scale and impact of lithium and cobalt mining are minuscule compared with the millions of tons of fossil fuels being extracted and burned daily. The article only begrudgingly acknowledges that lithium from California's Salton Sea would be much cleaner than hard-rock mining or the open ponds in the Atacama Desert. And the article barely mentions the promising prospects for recycling lithium from used batteries. Please don't allow perfectionism to paralyze the work of saving the planet.
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