The Place with the Most Lithium Is Blowing the Electric-Car Revolution

wsj.com

4 points·bookofjoe··5 comments

WSJ has a very paternalistic view of Chilean politics. Lithium extraction (and mining) pollutes water and uses a ton of it. In Atacama, the driest desert in the planet, it is already extremely scarce for local populations. Chile is not blowing up anything. A sovereign nation can do as it pleases with its natural resources and take any measures to protect its natural environment and population. Anyway, a lithium electric car revolution is a myth, lithium is too scarce to be a scalable solution.

Citation required. Australian Lithium miners would like to talk. As would Julian Simons, from the grave, he won his "limits to growth" bet because Erlich had made the usual mistake I think you are making: the difference between active sources, known reserves and probable amounts worldwide is immense, and the difference between active source and reserves varies as a function of capital investment and risk capital.

Typically people do the "if everyone wanted one NOW" model. But we're in a supply chain curve. Its not now, its over the next 25 years. We don't have a shortage of Lithium in time, over time, we have a shortage in supply chain now, but for a market which is GROWING not increasing by multiple orders of magnitude quanta in one cycle.

You might like to post that as two or three separate comments, since you're getting pushback on just one part of it. I strongly agree with you about the WSJ (and, personally, the rest, but the rest is separate).

https://archive.ph/w2fsh

They aren't "blowing" anything. Mass deployment of electric cars is a waste of resources that will not solve any problem and Chile is correct to prioritise minimising damage to the environment and human health.

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