The world’s biggest addict also has the biggest guns
Is the plug-in revolution more theory than reality?
Several years ago I predicted that the lithium revolution would be in high gear by 2010. Obviously, I didn’t know what I was talking about. Since then I’ve paid a lot of attention to lithium battery science, lithium mining and lithium politics. And I better understand why my forecast didn’t come true. Unfortunately, I also understand why my forecast might never come true.
And weird things like the odd connection between Bolivia and Libya continue to increase my worries.
Earlier today I read a report that claimed Russia and Bolivia have asked the Nobel Committee to strip President Obama of his Nobel Peace Prize for his role in the military operations against Libya. At first this rumor meant nothing to me, despite the fact that Bolivia is probably home to world’s largest supplies of lithium.
Later, however, I caught some news on CNBC regarding how higher oil prices and nuclear problems have been pushing new money into natural gas, a fuel many are starting to see as the interim fuel of the future. Not in America, I thought. With the potential for groundwater pollution, green activists are certain to ensure such wide scale natural gas production never happens.
Instantly, though, some lithium-mining pollution stories I’ve read in the past made me wonder how much pollution difference there is between natural gas mining and lithium mining. While many in the lithium mining industry claim that lithium mining can be carried out pollution-free with new nano-technologies, for instance, these ‘promises’ sound exactly like the ‘promises’ many in the natural gas industry claim regarding fracking pollution.
More important, places like Bolivia don’t believe lithium-mining will be pollution free. “It is also going to generate pollution, not just from fossil fuels but also from lithium plants, which produce sulphur dioxide. This isn’t a magic solution.”
Inevitably, both natural gas and lithium mining companies are for-profit corporations and overly optimistic, forward-looking statements are always part of the business. Unfortunately, real world business practices are never quite as forward-thinking.
So, which of these non-renewable resources is best to power the future?
In the interim – the next 10 – 20 years – I’d bet both will be desperately needed regardless of whether one is significantly better or cleaner than the other. But the bigger question might be, will the US ever have access to lithium in places like Bolivia?
Years ago Saul Villegas, head of a division in Comibol that oversees lithium extraction, warned ‘Let me make this very clear for everyone to hear. The previous imperialist model of exploitation of our natural resources will never be repeated in Bolivia.‘ That sentiment has been echoed numerous times by Evo Morales, Bolivian President.
And here we are today. Fighting in Iraq and launching cruise missiles into Libya because of our insatiable demand for the natural resources of other countries.
Could anybody blame Bolivia for not wanting to help the US become addicted to their natural resources?