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Let's face it: we're now on a different planet in a different era and it matters not at all that a committee of the International Union of Geological Sciences wasn't yet willing to officially call it the Anthropocene or (all too) human age. I mean, why sweat about that when, in a distinctly overheating world, we have so much else to sweat about? Call it what you will, but thanks to humanity, we're already sweating big time -- and not just in South Sudan, where schools were recently closed for two weeks in expectation of a heat wave that could hit 113 degrees! After all, last year set a dazzling record for heat and the U.N.'s weather agency, the World Meteorological Organization, expects 2024 to repeat the pattern in some equally grim fashion. It's already sounding a "red alert," warning that, as the organization's secretary-general recently put it, "never have we been so close -- albeit on a temporary basis at the moment -- to the 1.5C lower limit of the Paris Agreement on climate change."
In that context, it's no small thing that, just the other day, the Biden administration issued an important new climate regulation designed, as the New York Times reported, "to ensure that the majority of new passenger cars and light trucks sold in the United States are all-electric or hybrids by 2032." And on a planet where startling heat records were set monthly in 2023 and the same thing may indeed be happening again this year, that is no small thing.
Those words "no small thing," however, do trigger something else in my mind. It's a subject that TomDispatch regular Joshua Frank, author of Atomic Days: The Untold Story of the Most Toxic Place in America, takes up vividly today. It's no small thing that some of the same creatures responsible for heating this planet to the figurative boiling point now have the urge to try to "save" the planet. And while that's a distinct positive, don't think those creatures, who have already created so many problems, won't create more as they try to -- so to speak -- change gears.
Ah, gears! Yes, if we humans remain in the same gear as we try to solve the problem of climate change that we've been in while creating it, count on this: there will be a steep price for all too many of us. Think, for instance, of the parts of the Global South that had so little to do with creating the conditions for climate change in the first place or, in the case of the lithium that Frank focuses on today, both Native Americans and the land itself. We are, after all, the very same creatures who created the problem, so hold your hat as the "solution" comes down the line. The question remains: Who will pay what price in the perilous future to come? And how large might it be? Tom
Of Life and Lithium
Why the "White Gold" Rush Won't Save This Planet
By Joshua Frank
With his perfect tan and slicked-back hair, California Governor Gavin Newsom stood at a podium at Sacramento's Cal Expo in late September 2020 and announced an executive order requiring all new passenger vehicles sold in the state to be zero-emissions by 2035. With the global Covid pandemic then at its height, Newsom was struggling to inject a bit of hope into the future, emphasizing that his order would prove a crucial step in the fight against climate change while serving as a major boon to the state's economy. Later approved by the California Air Resources Board, his order is now being reviewed by the Environmental Protection Agency. For his part, President Biden has moved to tighten regulations on tailpipe exhaust, a not-so-subtle way of pushing car manufacturers to go electric.
As Newsom said shortly before signing his order on the hood of a bright red electric Ford Mustang Mach-E:
"Our cars shouldn't make wildfires worse and create more days filled with smoky air. Cars shouldn't melt glaciers or raise sea levels threatening our cherished beaches and coastlines" This is the next big global industry, and California wants to dominate it. And that's in detoxifying and decarbonizing our transportation fleets" And so today, California is making a big, bold move in that direction."
One stereotype about Californians is true: we do drive a lot, which also means we buy a lot of new cars. California is, in fact, the top seller of new vehicles in the U.S., with more than 1.78 million cars and trucks rolling off its lots in 2023. In total, significantly more than 14 million vehicles are registered in the state, nearly the same number as in Florida and Texas combined. So Newsom is undoubtedly right that ridding our roads of combustion engines will significantly reduce the state's climate toll. After all, California's transportation sector alone is responsible for more than 40% of its greenhouse gas emissions.
On the surface, Newsom's executive order appears all too necessary, indeed vital, if the use of fossil fuels is to one day be eliminated and climate change mitigated. California is also home to more than 50 electric vehicle manufacturers, and car companies that don't get on board will soon find themselves "on the wrong side of history," as Newsom warned. "And they'll have to recover economically, not just recover in terms of being able to look their kids and grandkids in the eyes."
Underpinning the governor's ambitious goal of an all-electric future is another reality. While we may change the kinds of cars we drive, we won't change our lifestyles to fit a climate-challenged future. Millions upon millions of new zero-emission vehicles will be required and to create them, we'll need staggering amounts of resources that are still lodged below the earth's crust. On average, a single battery in a small electric car today contains eight kilograms (17.5 pounds) of lithium, or "white gold." To put that in perspective, if Californians continue to purchase vehicles at the same pace as in 2023, the amount of lithium required will exceed 113 million kilograms (249 million pounds) annually going forward.
That's a mountain of lithium and an awful lot of mining will need to be done to make the governor's plan a reality. And mind you, those figures are lowball estimates -- a Tesla Model S battery needs 62.6 kilograms of lithium, for instance -- and they don't address the additional mining electric vehicles will demand to produce considerable amounts of cobalt (14 kilograms), manganese (20 kilograms), and copper (upwards of 80 kilograms) per car. Newsom is correct: ridding California's sprawling freeways of gas-guzzlers is a necessity and will also be highly profitable, especially for the extraction industry. Nevertheless, it will come with significant cultural and environmental costs that must be accounted for.
A Lithium Bonanza
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