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	<channel>
		<title>Conservation news</title>
		<atom:link href="https://news.mongabay.com/feed/?s=&#038;type=post&#038;topic=lithium" rel="self" type="application/rss+xml" />
		<link>https://news.mongabay.com/list/lithium/</link>
		<description>Environmental science and conservation news</description>
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	<url>https://imgs.mongabay.com/wp-content/uploads/sites/20/2020/05/16160320/cropped-mongabay_icon-32x32.png</url>
	<title>News on Lithium</title>
	<link>https://news.mongabay.com/list/lithium/</link>
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				<item>
					<title>What’s at stake for the environment in Chile’s upcoming election?</title>
					<link>https://news.mongabay.com/2025/11/whats-at-stake-for-the-environment-in-chiles-upcoming-election/</link>
					<comments>https://news.mongabay.com/2025/11/whats-at-stake-for-the-environment-in-chiles-upcoming-election/#respond</comments>
					<pubDate>13 Nov 2025 18:12:05 +0000</pubDate>
											<dc:creator>
							<![CDATA[Maxwell Radwin]]>
						</dc:creator>
										<author>
						<![CDATA[Alexandra Popescu]]>
					</author>
							<category><![CDATA[Uncategorized]]></category>
										<enclosure url="https://imgs.mongabay.com/wp-content/uploads/sites/20/2025/11/13175706/AP23170742560995-768x450.jpg" type="image/jpeg" />
					<guid isPermaLink="false">https://news.mongabay.com/?p=309501</guid>

					
											<locations>
							<![CDATA[Chile, Latin America, and South America]]>
						</locations>
					
											<topic-tags>
							<![CDATA[agribusiness, Biodiversity, Climate Change, Conservation, Copper, Deforestation, Environment, Environmental Law, Forest Destruction, Forests, Indigenous Peoples, Indigenous Rights, Land Rights, Lithium, Mining, Peatlands, Politics, Pollution, and Protected Areas]]>
						</topic-tags>
					
					
											<description>
							<![CDATA[Chileans will go to the polls on Nov. 16 to vote for a new president, 23 Senate seats, and all 155 seats in the lower Chamber of Deputies. The elections could be a deciding factor in how the country addresses a number of ongoing environmental issues, including the renewable energy transition, constitutional rights for Indigenous [&#8230;]]]>
						</description>
																					<content:encoded>
							<![CDATA[Chileans will go to the polls on Nov. 16 to vote for a new president, 23 Senate seats, and all 155 seats in the lower Chamber of Deputies. The elections could be a deciding factor in how the country addresses a number of ongoing environmental issues, including the renewable energy transition, constitutional rights for Indigenous groups, and the development of its mining sector, most notably energy transition minerals like copper and lithium. Chile has protected more than 20% of its land mass and more than 40% of its waters, and last year passed legislation with a special focus on peatlands, a major carbon sink. But it’s still short of meeting its 30&#215;30 targets, part of the Global Biodiversity Framework to protect 30% of land and water by 2030. The country is also dealing with land disputes in southern regions like Araucanía and Biobío, where Indigenous Mapuche groups often reject logging, agribusiness and an ineffective land titling process for ancestral territory. Earlier this year, the Presidential Commission for Peace and Understanding delivered a final report with recommended solutions to the land disputes, but implementation will be up to the next president. The world’s top copper producer and second largest of lithium, Chile is also a major player in the global energy transition. In recent years, numerous mining operations have been accused of abusing freshwater sources and endangering vulnerable species, raising questions about whether the country needs tighter oversight. The current president, Gabriel Boric, the millennial progressive who promised systemic change when elected in 2021,&hellip;This article was originally published on <a href="https://news.mongabay.com/2025/11/whats-at-stake-for-the-environment-in-chiles-upcoming-election/" data-wpel-link="internal">Mongabay</a>]]>
						</content:encoded>
										<wfw:commentRss>https://news.mongabay.com/2025/11/whats-at-stake-for-the-environment-in-chiles-upcoming-election/feed/</wfw:commentRss>
					<slash:comments>0</slash:comments>
										<doi>https://doi.org/10.66709/news-309501</doi>				</item>
						<item>
					<title>‘Clean energy is just one driver of mining’: Cleodie Rickard on critical minerals</title>
					<link>https://news.mongabay.com/2025/11/when-critical-minerals-arent-interview-with-cleodie-rickard/</link>
					<comments>https://news.mongabay.com/2025/11/when-critical-minerals-arent-interview-with-cleodie-rickard/#respond</comments>
					<pubDate>13 Nov 2025 08:13:42 +0000</pubDate>
											<dc:creator>
							<![CDATA[Aimee Gabay]]>
						</dc:creator>
										<author>
						<![CDATA[Latoya Abulu]]>
					</author>
							<category><![CDATA[Uncategorized]]></category>
										<enclosure url="https://imgs.mongabay.com/wp-content/uploads/sites/20/2023/03/23232540/2_ACASCIO_LiberoCopper_Stone-768x512.jpg" type="image/jpeg" />
					<guid isPermaLink="false">https://news.mongabay.com/?p=309308</guid>

											<reporting-project>
							<![CDATA[Indigenous Peoples and Conservation]]>
						</reporting-project>
					
											<locations>
							<![CDATA[Global and United Kingdom]]>
						</locations>
					
											<topic-tags>
							<![CDATA[Clean Energy, Climate Change, Climate Justice, cobalt, Copper, Critical Minerals, Deep Sea Mining, Energy, Fossil Fuels, Human Rights, Indigenous Peoples, Land Rights, Lithium, Mining, and Renewable Energy]]>
						</topic-tags>
					
					
											<description>
							<![CDATA[For Cleodie Rickard, the policy and campaigns manager at Global Justice Now, the term “critical” minerals, commonly used to describe the metals vital for the green energy transition, can be misleading. A new Global Justice Now report, authored by Rickard, reveals that nearly one in five minerals labeled “critical” by the U.K. aren’t essential for [&#8230;]]]>
						</description>
																					<content:encoded>
							<![CDATA[For Cleodie Rickard, the policy and campaigns manager at Global Justice Now, the term “critical” minerals, commonly used to describe the metals vital for the green energy transition, can be misleading. A new Global Justice Now report, authored by Rickard, reveals that nearly one in five minerals labeled “critical” by the U.K. aren’t essential for the green energy transition. In fact, more than half of the 33 minerals have little to no role in the transition, with five prioritized for aerospace and weapons instead. What makes a mineral “critical,” Rickard says, depends largely on each country’s strategic and geopolitical objectives, not just its role in clean energy. She says multinational mining companies and governments can often use the green energy transition as a pretext to ramp up mining projects, even though a lot of the minerals are intended for other purposes, such as the military sector and AI infrastructure. Countries also have differing definitions of which minerals are considered “critical” or “strategic.” “The term ‘critical minerals’ is often used to secure political and economic support for resource exploration,” Filipe Gabriel Mura, a Mura Indigenous leader from Brazil, tells Mongabay via WhatsApp. “But the problem is that [the term] groups together different minerals with very different purposes. Not all of them are essential to the energy transition, and many serve the defense or agribusiness industries.” Gabriel says this is the case in the Mura Lago dos Soares community in the Amazonas state, where a potassium project, a mineral classified as essential&hellip;This article was originally published on <a href="https://news.mongabay.com/2025/11/when-critical-minerals-arent-interview-with-cleodie-rickard/" data-wpel-link="internal">Mongabay</a>]]>
						</content:encoded>
										<wfw:commentRss>https://news.mongabay.com/2025/11/when-critical-minerals-arent-interview-with-cleodie-rickard/feed/</wfw:commentRss>
					<slash:comments>0</slash:comments>
										<doi>https://doi.org/10.66709/news-309308</doi>				</item>
						<item>
					<title>Lithium mining may threaten a precious resource — water: Voices from the land (commentary)</title>
					<link>https://news.mongabay.com/2025/10/voices-from-the-land-lithium-mining-may-threaten-a-precious-resource-water-commentary/</link>
					<comments>https://news.mongabay.com/2025/10/voices-from-the-land-lithium-mining-may-threaten-a-precious-resource-water-commentary/#respond</comments>
					<pubDate>27 Oct 2025 18:03:08 +0000</pubDate>
											<dc:creator>
							<![CDATA[Clemente Flores]]>
						</dc:creator>
										<author>
						<![CDATA[Latoya Abulu]]>
					</author>
							<category><![CDATA[Uncategorized]]></category>
										<enclosure url="https://imgs.mongabay.com/wp-content/uploads/sites/20/2025/10/27174024/DSC00745-768x512.jpg" type="image/jpeg" />
					<guid isPermaLink="false">https://news.mongabay.com/?p=308379</guid>

											<reporting-project>
							<![CDATA[Indigenous Peoples and Conservation, Land rights and extractives, and Voices from the Land]]>
						</reporting-project>
					
											<locations>
							<![CDATA[Argentina, Latin America, and South America]]>
						</locations>
					
											<topic-tags>
							<![CDATA[Clean Energy, Climate Change, Critical Minerals, Energy, Indigenous Peoples, Land Conflict, Land Rights, Lithium, Mining, Renewable Energy, and Water]]>
						</topic-tags>
					
					
											<description>
							<![CDATA[This series, Voices from the Land, brings together opinion pieces led and written by Indigenous peoples from around the world. Through these commentaries, we share our lived realities and reflections on urgent issues shaping our time — environmental destruction, our relationship with nature, and systemic injustice. We write from the heart of our communities, where [&#8230;]]]>
						</description>
																					<content:encoded>
							<![CDATA[This series, Voices from the Land, brings together opinion pieces led and written by Indigenous peoples from around the world. Through these commentaries, we share our lived realities and reflections on urgent issues shaping our time — environmental destruction, our relationship with nature, and systemic injustice. We write from the heart of our communities, where the impacts of these urgent crises are deeply felt, but also where solutions are rooted. Through this series, we speak from our territories, and ensure our truths are part of the global conversation. My name is Clemente Flores and I am the president of the El Angosto Indigenous community. We began 2010 with a major concern: the presence of lithium mining companies in the province of Salta, in the community of Cangrejillos. We live alongside other communities in the Salinas Grandes and Laguna de Guayatayoc Basin, which spans two provinces in northern Argentina, Salta and Jujuy. We are more than 30 communities that have lived around the salt flats for thousands of years, according to anthropological studies. We are very concerned about the arrival of mining companies seeking to extract brine water for lithium (a critical mineral) because we fear what might happen to our way of life if we run out of this essential resource: water. The Salinas Grandes and Laguna de Guayatayoc Basin is located in the Altiplano, also known as the Puna Plateau, an extremely arid ecosystem. In this desert climate, at about 4,000 meters (13,100 feet) above sea level, it practically&hellip;This article was originally published on <a href="https://news.mongabay.com/2025/10/voices-from-the-land-lithium-mining-may-threaten-a-precious-resource-water-commentary/" data-wpel-link="internal">Mongabay</a>]]>
						</content:encoded>
										<wfw:commentRss>https://news.mongabay.com/2025/10/voices-from-the-land-lithium-mining-may-threaten-a-precious-resource-water-commentary/feed/</wfw:commentRss>
					<slash:comments>0</slash:comments>
										<doi>https://doi.org/10.66709/news-308379</doi>				</item>
						<item>
					<title>In Argentina, lithium exploration proceeds amid community disputes</title>
					<link>https://news.mongabay.com/2025/09/in-argentina-lithium-exploration-proceeds-amid-community-disputes/</link>
					<comments>https://news.mongabay.com/2025/09/in-argentina-lithium-exploration-proceeds-amid-community-disputes/#respond</comments>
					<pubDate>10 Sep 2025 16:41:37 +0000</pubDate>
											<dc:creator>
							<![CDATA[Aimee Gabay]]>
						</dc:creator>
										<author>
						<![CDATA[Latoya Abulu]]>
					</author>
							<category><![CDATA[Uncategorized]]></category>
										<enclosure url="https://imgs.mongabay.com/wp-content/uploads/sites/20/2025/09/10163259/AP24062654390461-768x512.jpg" type="image/jpeg" />
					<guid isPermaLink="false">https://news.mongabay.com/?p=305739</guid>

											<reporting-project>
							<![CDATA[Indigenous Peoples and Conservation and Land rights and extractives]]>
						</reporting-project>
					
											<locations>
							<![CDATA[Argentina, Latin America, and South America]]>
						</locations>
					
											<topic-tags>
							<![CDATA[Critical Minerals, Development, Ecosystems, Energy, Human Rights, Indigenous Peoples, Indigenous Rights, Land Rights, Lithium, and Water]]>
						</topic-tags>
					
					
											<description>
							<![CDATA[For more than 15 years, members of Atacama and Kolla Indigenous communities near Argentina’s abundant lithium reserves say, their rights to a healthy environment and self-determination have been ignored. Located in the Salinas Grandes and Laguna de Guayatayoc saltwater basin in northwestern Argentina, arguments over proper consultation started cropping up as mining companies expressed an [&#8230;]]]>
						</description>
																					<content:encoded>
							<![CDATA[For more than 15 years, members of Atacama and Kolla Indigenous communities near Argentina’s abundant lithium reserves say, their rights to a healthy environment and self-determination have been ignored. Located in the Salinas Grandes and Laguna de Guayatayoc saltwater basin in northwestern Argentina, arguments over proper consultation started cropping up as mining companies expressed an interest in exploring the region for rich lithium reserves, of which the country has plenty. Among them was Lition Energy, which obtained a permit to explore for the mineral at its Agonic Mine in 2023 after consulting with only one of the two communities directly impacted, according to local sources. Lition Energy told Mongabay via email that “the Agonic Mine has all the required legal permits; otherwise, we would not have been able to carry out our exploration work.” According to the company&#8217;s website, it aims to establish a relationship of mutual trust with communities and focuses on community strengthening, local development, with local employment and suppliers, entrepreneurship development, and education in communities near its projects. Many of the wider region’s 33 Indigenous communities are actively opposed to mining. Straddling the provinces of Jujuy and Salta, communities in the area depend on the land and its resources for cattle rearing, subsistence agriculture, traditional salt extraction and tourism. Before the Agonic Mine came into the picture, some communities and the Environment and Natural Resources Foundation (FARN in Spanish) filed an environmental protection lawsuit against the provincial and national governments, seeking the suspension of all lithium and&hellip;This article was originally published on <a href="https://news.mongabay.com/2025/09/in-argentina-lithium-exploration-proceeds-amid-community-disputes/" data-wpel-link="internal">Mongabay</a>]]>
						</content:encoded>
										<wfw:commentRss>https://news.mongabay.com/2025/09/in-argentina-lithium-exploration-proceeds-amid-community-disputes/feed/</wfw:commentRss>
					<slash:comments>0</slash:comments>
										<doi>https://doi.org/10.66709/news-305739</doi>				</item>
						<item>
					<title>Lithium mining leaves severe impacts in Chile, but new methods exist: Report</title>
					<link>https://news.mongabay.com/2025/09/lithium-mining-leaves-severe-impacts-in-chile-but-new-methods-exist-report/</link>
					<comments>https://news.mongabay.com/2025/09/lithium-mining-leaves-severe-impacts-in-chile-but-new-methods-exist-report/#respond</comments>
					<pubDate>10 Sep 2025 14:45:42 +0000</pubDate>
											<dc:creator>
							<![CDATA[Aimee Gabay]]>
						</dc:creator>
										<author>
						<![CDATA[Latoya Abulu]]>
					</author>
							<category><![CDATA[Uncategorized]]></category>
										<enclosure url="https://imgs.mongabay.com/wp-content/uploads/sites/20/2025/09/10123055/AP23111009152246-1-e1757515524265-768x512.jpg" type="image/jpeg" />
					<guid isPermaLink="false">https://news.mongabay.com/?p=305721</guid>

											<reporting-project>
							<![CDATA[Indigenous Peoples and Conservation]]>
						</reporting-project>
					
											<locations>
							<![CDATA[Chile and Latin America]]>
						</locations>
					
											<topic-tags>
							<![CDATA[Critical Minerals, Ecosystems, Environment, Global Environmental Crisis, Indigenous Peoples, Indigenous Rights, Lithium, Mining, Renewable Energy, Water, and Water Scarcity]]>
						</topic-tags>
					
					
											<description>
							<![CDATA[A new report on the impact of lithium mining in South America’s lithium triangle has found that methods used by companies in the rush to extract the mineral in Chile’s Salar de Atacama has led to an “irreversible” and “unrecoverable” loss of water. Nearby Indigenous Colla peoples, whose land has not yet been exploited, told [&#8230;]]]>
						</description>
																					<content:encoded>
							<![CDATA[A new report on the impact of lithium mining in South America’s lithium triangle has found that methods used by companies in the rush to extract the mineral in Chile’s Salar de Atacama has led to an “irreversible” and “unrecoverable” loss of water. Nearby Indigenous Colla peoples, whose land has not yet been exploited, told Mongabay that without the implementation of more sustainable mining methods, they will likely face the same problems neighboring communities have experienced over the last four decades, such as a loss of vegetation cover and the disappearance of lagoons. Since the 1980s, lithium mining has been conducted in Salar de Atacama, a salt flat in Chile’s Antofagasta region, located within the traditional territory of the Lickanantay (Atacameño) Indigenous peoples. The report was published by the Citizen Observatory of Chile (OC), Argentina’s Center for Legal and Social Studies, the Postgraduate Program in Development Sciences of the Higher University of San Andrés in Bolivia and the International Federation for Human Rights. “The information we gathered in our study shows that the impact of lithium mining on water is enormous,” said José Aylwin, a lawyer, coordinator of the OC Globalization and Human Rights Program and lead author of the report. “It is estimated that the production of 1 ton of lithium carbonate, based on the technology currently used in the Atacama Salt Flat, requires, on average, the evaporation of half a million liters [132,000 gallons] of brine water.” A recent study found that lithium mining in the Salar de&hellip;This article was originally published on <a href="https://news.mongabay.com/2025/09/lithium-mining-leaves-severe-impacts-in-chile-but-new-methods-exist-report/" data-wpel-link="internal">Mongabay</a>]]>
						</content:encoded>
										<wfw:commentRss>https://news.mongabay.com/2025/09/lithium-mining-leaves-severe-impacts-in-chile-but-new-methods-exist-report/feed/</wfw:commentRss>
					<slash:comments>0</slash:comments>
										<doi>https://doi.org/10.66709/news-305721</doi>				</item>
						<item>
					<title>Endangered Andean cat is imperiled by climate change and its solutions</title>
					<link>https://news.mongabay.com/2025/07/endangered-andean-cat-is-imperiled-by-climate-change-and-its-solutions/</link>
					<comments>https://news.mongabay.com/2025/07/endangered-andean-cat-is-imperiled-by-climate-change-and-its-solutions/#respond</comments>
					<pubDate>10 Jul 2025 14:58:46 +0000</pubDate>
											<dc:creator>
							<![CDATA[Sean Mowbray]]>
						</dc:creator>
										<author>
						<![CDATA[Glenn Scherer]]>
					</author>
							<category><![CDATA[Uncategorized]]></category>
										<enclosure url="https://imgs.mongabay.com/wp-content/uploads/sites/20/2025/07/10042617/Image_1-768x512.jpg" type="image/jpeg" />
					<guid isPermaLink="false">https://news.mongabay.com/?p=302156</guid>

											<reporting-project>
							<![CDATA[Almost Famous Animals]]>
						</reporting-project>
					
											<locations>
							<![CDATA[Andes, Argentina, Atlantic Forest, Bolivia, Chile, Latin America, Peru, and South America]]>
						</locations>
					
											<topic-tags>
							<![CDATA[Animals, Biodiversity, Camera Trapping, Cats, Climate Change, Conservation, DNA, Endangered Species, Environment, Extreme Weather, Habitat, Habitat Degradation, Habitat Loss, Hunting, Lithium, Mammals, Mining, Monitoring, Mountains, Natural Resources, Research, Small Cats, Species, and Wildlife]]>
						</topic-tags>
					
					
											<description>
							<![CDATA[Many conservationists dedicated to protecting the endangered Andean cat have never seen one in the wild, with the species known to science by just a few photos until the late 1990s. And it took Juan Reppucci, leader of the Andean Cat Alliance’s In the Field 24/7 program, nine years to spot one of these elusive [&#8230;]]]>
						</description>
																					<content:encoded>
							<![CDATA[Many conservationists dedicated to protecting the endangered Andean cat have never seen one in the wild, with the species known to science by just a few photos until the late 1990s. And it took Juan Reppucci, leader of the Andean Cat Alliance’s In the Field 24/7 program, nine years to spot one of these elusive cats in its natural habitat. The Andean cat (Leopardus jacobita) is one of South America’s most endangered small cat species, roaming the high Andes of Argentina, Bolivia, Chile and Peru. About the size of a domestic cat, it resembles a miniature snow leopard. Thick fur and an elongated tail make it well adapted to the harsh alpine environment it calls home and for chasing its favorite prey — vizcacha, a rabbit-resembling rodent — across rocky landscapes. Reppucci’s sighting happened on a very “weird” day, he recalls. While out looking for a radio collar that had fallen from a Pampas cat (L. colocolo) in Jujuy province, Argentina, the researcher’s dog Monty (an ever-present companion and guide on field trips) got spooked by a herd of llamas and went missing. Juan Reppucci and his dog Monty, who acts as both field trip companion and guide for AGA research teams. “If it&#8217;s dark, I follow the dog because he knows the way,” Reppucci says. Image courtesy of AGA. Reppucci walked for hours searching for both the collar and Monty. Eventually he reached a cliff edge and paused to catch his breath. “I was super tired, because I was&hellip;This article was originally published on <a href="https://news.mongabay.com/2025/07/endangered-andean-cat-is-imperiled-by-climate-change-and-its-solutions/" data-wpel-link="internal">Mongabay</a>]]>
						</content:encoded>
										<wfw:commentRss>https://news.mongabay.com/2025/07/endangered-andean-cat-is-imperiled-by-climate-change-and-its-solutions/feed/</wfw:commentRss>
					<slash:comments>0</slash:comments>
										<doi>https://doi.org/10.66709/news-302156</doi>				</item>
						<item>
					<title>Private financing for Argentina’s lithium is anything but green, critics say</title>
					<link>https://news.mongabay.com/2025/07/private-financing-for-argentinas-lithium-is-anything-but-green-critics-say/</link>
					<comments>https://news.mongabay.com/2025/07/private-financing-for-argentinas-lithium-is-anything-but-green-critics-say/#respond</comments>
					<pubDate>01 Jul 2025 14:45:15 +0000</pubDate>
											<dc:creator>
							<![CDATA[Maxwell Radwin]]>
						</dc:creator>
										<author>
						<![CDATA[Alexandra Popescu]]>
					</author>
							<category><![CDATA[Uncategorized]]></category>
										<enclosure url="https://imgs.mongabay.com/wp-content/uploads/sites/20/2025/06/01145147/AP24062652958789-768x450.jpg" type="image/jpeg" />
					<guid isPermaLink="false">https://news.mongabay.com/?p=301482</guid>

					
											<locations>
							<![CDATA[Argentina, Latin America, and South America]]>
						</locations>
					
											<topic-tags>
							<![CDATA[Climate Change, Conservation, Energy, Environment, Environmental Law, Governance, Indigenous Peoples, Indigenous Rights, International Trade, Land Rights, Law, Lithium, Mining, Politics, Renewable Energy, and Research]]>
						</topic-tags>
					
					
											<description>
							<![CDATA[Argentina has the second-largest reserves of lithium in the world, at around 22 million tons. As battery technology advances and global demand for the mineral grows, the country is trying to position itself as a global hub for renewable energy generation. Corporations and banks have heralded a wave of “green” policies aimed at accelerating the [&#8230;]]]>
						</description>
																					<content:encoded>
							<![CDATA[Argentina has the second-largest reserves of lithium in the world, at around 22 million tons. As battery technology advances and global demand for the mineral grows, the country is trying to position itself as a global hub for renewable energy generation. Corporations and banks have heralded a wave of “green” policies aimed at accelerating the country’s lithium mining industry. But some observers argue these policies aren’t as green as advertised, and may actually be harming the environment and local communities. Last year, the World Bank launched a program aimed at formalizing land tenure across the globe, arguing that climate action requires “direct access” to titled property for the private sector. Around half of the Paris Agreement climate action plans involve land, it pointed out, and more than half of all transition minerals are located on or near Indigenous territory. Finding “suitable” land for climate investments can be risky if land claims are unrecorded or disputed, it said in a statement last year. The program aims to address that obstacle by dedicating $10 billion over the next decade to land sector investment. Not everyone thinks this is a good idea, though. The program benefits large corporations and could exploit local communities opposed to lithium extraction, according to the Oakland Institute, a think tank based in California. After a title is granted, land can be leased and sold away from the small communities it once benefited. “The bank’s land agenda is about enabling unfettered global economic growth — directly opposing the urgent&hellip;This article was originally published on <a href="https://news.mongabay.com/2025/07/private-financing-for-argentinas-lithium-is-anything-but-green-critics-say/" data-wpel-link="internal">Mongabay</a>]]>
						</content:encoded>
										<wfw:commentRss>https://news.mongabay.com/2025/07/private-financing-for-argentinas-lithium-is-anything-but-green-critics-say/feed/</wfw:commentRss>
					<slash:comments>0</slash:comments>
										<doi>https://doi.org/10.66709/news-301482</doi>				</item>
						<item>
					<title>In Brazil’s Jequitinhonha valley, communities share how to reduce lithium mining impacts</title>
					<link>https://news.mongabay.com/2025/04/in-brazils-lithium-valley-communities-share-how-to-reduce-mining-impacts/</link>
					<comments>https://news.mongabay.com/2025/04/in-brazils-lithium-valley-communities-share-how-to-reduce-mining-impacts/#respond</comments>
					<pubDate>30 Apr 2025 16:09:10 +0000</pubDate>
											<dc:creator>
							<![CDATA[Amanda MagnaniRebeca Binda]]>
						</dc:creator>
										<author>
						<![CDATA[Latoya Abulu]]>
					</author>
							<category><![CDATA[Uncategorized]]></category>
										<enclosure url="https://imgs.mongabay.com/wp-content/uploads/sites/20/2025/04/24134904/Jequitinhonha_Lithium_Rebeca_Binda-2-768x512.jpg" type="image/jpeg" />
					<guid isPermaLink="false">https://news.mongabay.com/?p=298109</guid>

					
											<locations>
							<![CDATA[Brazil, Latin America, and South America]]>
						</locations>
					
											<topic-tags>
							<![CDATA[Community Development, Conflict, Environment, Global Environmental Crisis, Illegal Mining, Lithium, Mining, Pollution, Resource Conflict, Sustainability, Sustainable Development, Water, and Water Scarcity]]>
						</topic-tags>
					
					
											<description>
							<![CDATA[ARAÇUAÍ, Brazil — It’s a sunny, cloudless morning in the Poço Dantas when a sudden loud blow shakes the ground of Maria Aparecida’s* house. A few kilometers away, a cloud of dust coats the horizon, and the air smells of explosives. Almost a minute goes by before the distant sound of a siren becomes discernible. [&#8230;]]]>
						</description>
																					<content:encoded>
							<![CDATA[ARAÇUAÍ, Brazil — It’s a sunny, cloudless morning in the Poço Dantas when a sudden loud blow shakes the ground of Maria Aparecida’s* house. A few kilometers away, a cloud of dust coats the horizon, and the air smells of explosives. Almost a minute goes by before the distant sound of a siren becomes discernible. Since 2023, the roughly 70 brick houses of this 150-year-old village in Brazil’s southeastern state of Minas Gerais have been experiencing the seismic waves from Sigma Lithium’s Greentech mining plant at least twice a day. Residents say they face atmospheric pollution, water shortages and increased social inequalities. Located in the Jequitinhonha Valley, a region that is home to up to 85% of the country’s known lithium deposits, Sigma Lithium is but one of the companies currently mining or prospecting the region. The Brazilian Lithium Company (CBL in Portuguese) has also been mining in the area since the 1990s. But there’s a difference, say residents, as the decisions a company takes regarding where and how to mine result in different levels of impacts for communities and the environment. “It used to be much better. There were no explosions, no dust, no piles of dirt,” says Antônio*, a member of the Aranã Indigenous people in the region, while he sits under the shade of a vine with his wife. A Poço Dantas resident looks through the window at the pile of mining waste from Sigma Lithium’s operation. Image by Amanda Magnani. The choices on how to mitigate&hellip;This article was originally published on <a href="https://news.mongabay.com/2025/04/in-brazils-lithium-valley-communities-share-how-to-reduce-mining-impacts/" data-wpel-link="internal">Mongabay</a>]]>
						</content:encoded>
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					<slash:comments>0</slash:comments>
										<doi>https://doi.org/10.66709/news-298109</doi>				</item>
						<item>
					<title>Bolivian communities push back against foreign-backed lithium projects</title>
					<link>https://news.mongabay.com/2025/04/bolivian-communities-push-back-against-foreign-backed-lithium-projects/</link>
					<comments>https://news.mongabay.com/2025/04/bolivian-communities-push-back-against-foreign-backed-lithium-projects/#respond</comments>
					<pubDate>17 Apr 2025 12:00:05 +0000</pubDate>
											<dc:creator>
							<![CDATA[Carla Ruas]]>
						</dc:creator>
										<author>
						<![CDATA[Alexandra Popescu]]>
					</author>
							<category><![CDATA[Uncategorized]]></category>
										<enclosure url="https://imgs.mongabay.com/wp-content/uploads/sites/20/2025/04/18171259/indranil-roy-F6PtEfUxYY4-unsplash-768x512.jpg" type="image/jpeg" />
					<guid isPermaLink="false">https://news.mongabay.com/?p=297718</guid>

					
											<locations>
							<![CDATA[Bolivia, Latin America, and South America]]>
						</locations>
					
											<topic-tags>
							<![CDATA[Activism, Batteries, Community Development, Conservation, Corporate Social Responsibility, Drinking Water, Electric Cars, Energy, Environment, Environmental Law, Freshwater, Global Environmental Crisis, Indigenous Peoples, Indigenous Rights, Land Conflict, Lithium, Mining, Water, and Water Scarcity]]>
						</topic-tags>
					
					
											<description>
							<![CDATA[Dionicio Colque, 42, has fond memories of growing up on the edge of Salar de Uyuni in Bolivia. It’s the world’s largest salt flat, spanning about 10,500 square kilometers (4,050 square miles). His family farmed potatoes on the outskirts of Colcha K, a community of around 1,000 residents in Nor Lípez province. But in around [&#8230;]]]>
						</description>
																					<content:encoded>
							<![CDATA[Dionicio Colque, 42, has fond memories of growing up on the edge of Salar de Uyuni in Bolivia. It’s the world’s largest salt flat, spanning about 10,500 square kilometers (4,050 square miles). His family farmed potatoes on the outskirts of Colcha K, a community of around 1,000 residents in Nor Lípez province. But in around 2005, the freshwater spring that sustained their ranch ran dry, a loss Colque attributes to the effects of climate change and nearby mining operations. With no water, the family was forced to abandon its ranch and move into the city. “It was heartbreaking to watch our land dry up,” Colque told Mongabay. “Without water, there is no life.” Colque, now a teacher at Colcha K’s main elementary school, is among the residents alarmed by an influx of lithium mining plants that threaten the community’s remaining groundwater. In September 2024, Bolivia’s state-owned lithium company, Yacimientos de Litio Bolivianos (YLB), signed a $970 million contract with Russia’s state-owned Uranium One Group to develop a new lithium plant within Colcha K municipality. Just two months later, YLB secured another deal, this time worth $1.03 billion with China’s CBC, a subsidiary of CATL, the world’s biggest manufacturer of lithium-ion batteries, to establish two additional plants nearby.  At full capacity, these facilities are expected to produce almost 90,000 metric tons of lithium carbonate annually for production of lithium-ion batteries — enough to power 3 million electric vehicles. An aerial image of lithium mining in Salar de Uyuni. Image by Oton&hellip;This article was originally published on <a href="https://news.mongabay.com/2025/04/bolivian-communities-push-back-against-foreign-backed-lithium-projects/" data-wpel-link="internal">Mongabay</a>]]>
						</content:encoded>
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					<slash:comments>0</slash:comments>
										<doi>https://doi.org/10.66709/news-297718</doi>				</item>
						<item>
					<title>Lithium Triangle mining may strain water sources more than expected, study says</title>
					<link>https://news.mongabay.com/2025/04/lithium-triangle-mining-may-strain-water-sources-more-than-expected-study-says/</link>
					<comments>https://news.mongabay.com/2025/04/lithium-triangle-mining-may-strain-water-sources-more-than-expected-study-says/#respond</comments>
					<pubDate>04 Apr 2025 17:13:38 +0000</pubDate>
											<dc:creator>
							<![CDATA[Maxwell Radwin]]>
						</dc:creator>
										<author>
						<![CDATA[Alexandra Popescu]]>
					</author>
							<category><![CDATA[Uncategorized]]></category>
										<enclosure url="https://imgs.mongabay.com/wp-content/uploads/sites/20/2025/04/04160916/Geature-768x450.jpg" type="image/jpeg" />
					<guid isPermaLink="false">https://news.mongabay.com/?p=297105</guid>

					
											<locations>
							<![CDATA[Argentina, Bolivia, Chile, Latin America, and South America]]>
						</locations>
					
											<topic-tags>
							<![CDATA[Ecosystems, Energy, Environment, Environmental Law, Freshwater, Global Environmental Crisis, Governance, International Trade, Land Rights, Law, Lithium, Mining, Politics, Renewable Energy, Research, Water, and Water Scarcity]]>
						</topic-tags>
					
					
											<description>
							<![CDATA[Global demand for lithium is expected to increase by nearly 500% over the next few decades, as countries invest more in batteries and electric vehicles meant to reduce their carbon footprint. But lithium also brings its own environmental concerns, putting stress on freshwater supplies in the desert areas where the mineral is most common. Measuring [&#8230;]]]>
						</description>
																					<content:encoded>
							<![CDATA[Global demand for lithium is expected to increase by nearly 500% over the next few decades, as countries invest more in batteries and electric vehicles meant to reduce their carbon footprint. But lithium also brings its own environmental concerns, putting stress on freshwater supplies in the desert areas where the mineral is most common. Measuring water availability for lithium extraction is still unreliable, especially in South America’s high-altitude Lithium Triangle, home to the world’s largest deposits. More accurate models need to be applied there so mining operations don’t use more water than is available, one recent study argued. If mining operators continue with their current water usage, it could exacerbate the region’s scarcity problem and lead to the destruction of ecosystems and a crisis for nearby communities. “The conventional wisdom is overestimating the amount of water by at least an order of magnitude,” said David Boutt, who co-authored the study in Communications Earth and Environment. “We found that all but one of the 28 basins in our study should be classified as ‘critically water scarce,’ even without incorporating current, to say nothing of future, demands on the water supply.” The Lithium Triangle spans more than 414,000 square kilometers (160,000 square miles) across Chile, Argentina and Bolivia, where an arid climate and water-trapping basins have helped form an estimated 98 million tons of lithium deposits. Mining the lithium involves extracting salty brine and storing it in large evaporation ponds where the sun removes the water, leaving behind a solution that is&hellip;This article was originally published on <a href="https://news.mongabay.com/2025/04/lithium-triangle-mining-may-strain-water-sources-more-than-expected-study-says/" data-wpel-link="internal">Mongabay</a>]]>
						</content:encoded>
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					<slash:comments>0</slash:comments>
										<doi>https://doi.org/10.66709/news-297105</doi>				</item>
						<item>
					<title>As lithium mining bleeds Atacama salt flat dry, Indigenous communities hit back</title>
					<link>https://news.mongabay.com/2024/12/as-lithium-mining-bleeds-atacama-salt-flat-dry-indigenous-communities-hit-back/</link>
					<comments>https://news.mongabay.com/2024/12/as-lithium-mining-bleeds-atacama-salt-flat-dry-indigenous-communities-hit-back/#respond</comments>
					<pubDate>20 Dec 2024 10:44:28 +0000</pubDate>
											<dc:creator>
							<![CDATA[Barinia Montoya]]>
						</dc:creator>
										<author>
						<![CDATA[Jeremy Hance]]>
					</author>
							<category><![CDATA[Uncategorized]]></category>
										<enclosure url="https://imgs.mongabay.com/wp-content/uploads/sites/20/2024/12/20103653/Laguna-Puilar-es-parte-del-sistema-hidrologico-de-Soncor.-Este-ultimo-es-sitio-Ramsar-y-ademas-forma-parte-de-la-Reserva-Nacional-Los-Framencos.-Autor-UMA-CPA-768x512.jpeg" type="image/jpeg" />
					<guid isPermaLink="false">https://news.mongabay.com/?p=292106</guid>

					
											<locations>
							<![CDATA[Chile, Latin America, and South America]]>
						</locations>
					
											<topic-tags>
							<![CDATA[Conservation, Corporate Social Responsibility, Ecosystems, Environment, Indigenous Peoples, Lithium, Mining, Research, Water, and Wildlife]]>
						</topic-tags>
					
					
											<description>
							<![CDATA[You could be forgiven for thinking there’s no water in the Atacama Desert. In fact, the driest desert on Earth has underground springs that feed the Chaxa, Cejar and Tebenquiche lagoons, as well as other bodies of water, providing oases for various animals such as flamingos and extremophiles. It’s said that the ancestors of the [&#8230;]]]>
						</description>
																					<content:encoded>
							<![CDATA[You could be forgiven for thinking there’s no water in the Atacama Desert. In fact, the driest desert on Earth has underground springs that feed the Chaxa, Cejar and Tebenquiche lagoons, as well as other bodies of water, providing oases for various animals such as flamingos and extremophiles. It’s said that the ancestors of the Indigenous Lickanantay people practiced agriculture here without damaging the fragile ecosystem, using only the water deposited in irrigation channels, in a method known by locals as “sowing water.” The Lickanantay have built a unique cosmovision around the water cycle or Puri in the Kunza language. “They know how to live with its scarcity, tame it and even sometimes fear it,” says Oriana Mora, an Indigenous Atacameño, in a study she carried out while at the University of Seville in Spain. It’s no coincidence that one of their most important ceremonies, the Talatur, consists of cleaning out the canals so that the water can flow freely, she says. However, the Lickanantay are not the only ones interested in the natural resources of the Atacama Desert: the lithium industry is too. The two mining companies operating in the region extract more than 63 billion liters (17 billion gallons) of brine per year from deep beneath the desert, a rate of nearly 2,000 liters per second, or 525 gallons per second. The industry also consumes a significant amount of freshwater. Indigenous defender Sonia Ramos Chocobar. Image courtesy of Sonia Ramos Chocobar. This prompted researchers at the University of&hellip;This article was originally published on <a href="https://news.mongabay.com/2024/12/as-lithium-mining-bleeds-atacama-salt-flat-dry-indigenous-communities-hit-back/" data-wpel-link="internal">Mongabay</a>]]>
						</content:encoded>
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					<slash:comments>0</slash:comments>
										<doi>https://doi.org/10.66709/news-292106</doi>				</item>
						<item>
					<title>Bolivia&#8217;s internal colonization and its March to the East</title>
					<link>https://news.mongabay.com/2024/12/bolivias-internal-colonization-and-its-march-to-the-east/</link>
					<comments>https://news.mongabay.com/2024/12/bolivias-internal-colonization-and-its-march-to-the-east/#respond</comments>
					<pubDate>05 Dec 2024 16:30:47 +0000</pubDate>
											<dc:creator>
							<![CDATA[Timothy J. Killeen]]>
						</dc:creator>
										<author>
						<![CDATA[Mayra]]>
					</author>
							<category><![CDATA[Amazon]]></category>
										<enclosure url="https://imgs.mongabay.com/wp-content/uploads/sites/20/2024/12/03193022/bolivia_drone_190309-768x512.jpg" type="image/jpeg" />
					<guid isPermaLink="false">https://news.mongabay.com/?p=291144</guid>

											<reporting-project>
							<![CDATA[Perfect Storm in the Amazon]]>
						</reporting-project>
					
											<locations>
							<![CDATA[Amazon, Bolivia, Latin America, and South America]]>
						</locations>
					
											<topic-tags>
							<![CDATA[Agriculture, Colonization, Deforestation, Governance, Human Migration, Indigenous Peoples, Industrial Agriculture, Infrastructure, Lithium, Migration, Mining, Population, Rainforests, and Soy]]>
						</topic-tags>
					
					
											<description>
							<![CDATA[In the middle decades of the twentieth century, Bolivian society was profoundly traumatized by the Chaco War and the loss of about thirty per cent of its national territory; before that, it had ceded Acre to Brazil and its coastal provinces to Chile. Schoolchildren learn at an early age that Bolivia lost those territories because [&#8230;]]]>
						</description>
																					<content:encoded>
							<![CDATA[In the middle decades of the twentieth century, Bolivian society was profoundly traumatized by the Chaco War and the loss of about thirty per cent of its national territory; before that, it had ceded Acre to Brazil and its coastal provinces to Chile. Schoolchildren learn at an early age that Bolivia lost those territories because the country failed to occupy them. Consequently, it welcomed the assistance in 1942 when a team of economists sponsored by the US Embassy outlined a strategy for focusing future development on the sparsely populated plains of its eastern lowland territories. Known as Plan Bohan, after its lead author, the document outlined a series of investments and resettlement initiatives that were referred to as the ‘Marcha hacia el Oriente’. In the 1950s and 1960s, this strategy led to the construction of all-weather roads linking the Andean highlands with the lowlands in Santa Cruz, Cochabamba and La Paz. US financial assistance via the Alliance for Progress was part of a broader strategy to combat the spread of leftist ideologies, particularly the guerilla insurgency led by Che Guevara in 1967. Multilateral agencies subsequently supported key investments, including highways linking the Chapare colonization zone with the agro-industrial landscapes of Santa Cruz, as well as export corridors to both the Pacific and Atlantic coasts. Initiatives sponsored by the World Bank to promote food security and export commodities were leveraged with private-sector investments to create an export industry and key motor of job creation. The two landscapes impacted by these investments,&hellip;This article was originally published on <a href="https://news.mongabay.com/2024/12/bolivias-internal-colonization-and-its-march-to-the-east/" data-wpel-link="internal">Mongabay</a>]]>
						</content:encoded>
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					<slash:comments>0</slash:comments>
										<doi>https://doi.org/10.66709/news-291144</doi>				</item>
						<item>
					<title>Locals in a Brazilian valley report health issues after arrival of lithium mine</title>
					<link>https://news.mongabay.com/2024/11/lithium-mining-brings-sickness-to-jequitinhonha-valley-communities/</link>
					<comments>https://news.mongabay.com/2024/11/lithium-mining-brings-sickness-to-jequitinhonha-valley-communities/#respond</comments>
					<pubDate>18 Nov 2024 10:17:33 +0000</pubDate>
											<dc:creator>
							<![CDATA[Caio Guatelli]]>
						</dc:creator>
										<author>
						<![CDATA[Xavier Bartaburu]]>
					</author>
							<category><![CDATA[Uncategorized]]></category>
										<enclosure url="https://imgs.mongabay.com/wp-content/uploads/sites/20/2024/11/18100435/litio-jequitinhonha-2024_040-768x512.jpg" type="image/jpeg" />
					<guid isPermaLink="false">https://news.mongabay.com/?p=290239</guid>

					
											<locations>
							<![CDATA[Brazil, Latin America, and South America]]>
						</locations>
					
											<topic-tags>
							<![CDATA[Conservation, Environment, Indigenous Peoples, Indigenous Rights, Land Conflict, Lithium, Mining, Public Health, and Traditional People]]>
						</topic-tags>
					
					
											<description>
							<![CDATA[ITINGA, Minas Gerais, Brazil — It is the middle of the night in Minas Gerais, and work at the lithium mine in Jequitinhonha Valley does not stop. Noise from machines churning up the soil echoes off the mountains, destroying the peace and quiet of the traditional communities living in the region. It is 3:30 a.m. [&#8230;]]]>
						</description>
																					<content:encoded>
							<![CDATA[ITINGA, Minas Gerais, Brazil — It is the middle of the night in Minas Gerais, and work at the lithium mine in Jequitinhonha Valley does not stop. Noise from machines churning up the soil echoes off the mountains, destroying the peace and quiet of the traditional communities living in the region. It is 3:30 a.m. when a line of trucks forms on top of a rise. With the help of tractors, tons of rock are dumped downhill. The rumbling mixed with the sound of engines reaches the 70 homes in the village called Piauí Poço Dantas, Itinga, established 150 years ago on the banks of Piauí Creek, a tributary of Jequitinhonha River. The hill is, in fact, a waste rock pile — stored unusable materials rejected from Brazil’s largest lithium mine. Currently producing 270,000 tons of lithium concentrate per year, the mining company recently received 500 million reais ($86.3 million) in financing from Fundo Clima, the Climate Fund, to double its capacity. The financing was approved after an analysis of the projects and the licenses that Sigma obtained from the appropriate environmental agencies, says the National Economic and Social Development Bank (BNDES), manager of the fund created to finance measures that fight climate changes. In order to reach a 540,000-ton annual capacity starting in 2025, the piling area designated in the company’s initial plans had to be quadrupled. The 400,000 m2 (4.3 million ft2) licensed in 2019 increased to 2 million m2 (21.5 million ft2) on its last operating license,&hellip;This article was originally published on <a href="https://news.mongabay.com/2024/11/lithium-mining-brings-sickness-to-jequitinhonha-valley-communities/" data-wpel-link="internal">Mongabay</a>]]>
						</content:encoded>
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					<slash:comments>0</slash:comments>
										<doi>https://doi.org/10.66709/news-290239</doi>				</item>
						<item>
					<title>Disputed Manono lithium mining project in DRC sparks concern</title>
					<link>https://news.mongabay.com/2024/08/disputed-manono-lithium-mining-project-in-drc-sparks-concern/</link>
					<comments>https://news.mongabay.com/2024/08/disputed-manono-lithium-mining-project-in-drc-sparks-concern/#respond</comments>
					<pubDate>08 Aug 2024 13:27:28 +0000</pubDate>
											<dc:creator>
							<![CDATA[Didier Makal]]>
						</dc:creator>
										<author>
						<![CDATA[Christophe Assogba]]>
					</author>
							<category><![CDATA[africa]]></category>
										<enclosure url="https://imgs.mongabay.com/wp-content/uploads/sites/20/2024/08/08130714/ConcessionArea_ManonoKatangaDRC_AVZFairUse-CROP-768x512.jpg" type="image/jpeg" />
					<guid isPermaLink="false">https://news.mongabay.com/?p=285858</guid>

					
											<locations>
							<![CDATA[Africa, Central Africa, Congo Basin, and Democratic Republic Of Congo]]>
						</locations>
					
											<topic-tags>
							<![CDATA[Climate Change, Conservation, Environment, Environmental Policy, Indigenous Peoples, Lithium, Mining, and Pollution]]>
						</topic-tags>
					
					
											<description>
							<![CDATA[LUBUMBASHI, Democratic Republic of Congo — In Manono, a town in the province of Tanganyika, in the northern part of the Democratic Republic of Congo&#8217;s (DRC) Katanga region, a mining project has still not broken ground, more than two years after the confirmation of a sizeable lithium deposit. Lithium has been in high demand worldwide [&#8230;]]]>
						</description>
																					<content:encoded>
							<![CDATA[LUBUMBASHI, Democratic Republic of Congo — In Manono, a town in the province of Tanganyika, in the northern part of the Democratic Republic of Congo&#8217;s (DRC) Katanga region, a mining project has still not broken ground, more than two years after the confirmation of a sizeable lithium deposit. Lithium has been in high demand worldwide for about a decade for the production of lithium batteries — the best electrical energy storage system currently available. The prospecting of the Manono deposit has brought hope that infrastructure such as roads will be developed and jobs will be created for local residents. Thus far, agriculture has remained the primary economic activity in Manono and the surrounding region. Young people, however, are turning away from farming in a quest to earn quick money. They climb down into hand-dug, underground galleries looking for cassiterite, another popular mineral in the electronics industry, in demand among Indian and Chinese buyers, who have established trading posts on site. An artisanal miner in North Kivu holds cassiterite crystals, from which tin can be extracted: young people in Manono also dig for this mineral to sell to traders. Image by Laura Heaton/Enough Project via Flickr (CC BY-NC-ND 2.0). However, Dathcom Mining SA, a company created specifically for the lithium mining project, still has not begun operating, and its chances of doing so are decreasing. This is because the Congolese government has taken interest in another partner, the Chinese mining giant Zijin, which already operates copper and cobalt mines in Katanga.&hellip;This article was originally published on <a href="https://news.mongabay.com/2024/08/disputed-manono-lithium-mining-project-in-drc-sparks-concern/" data-wpel-link="internal">Mongabay</a>]]>
						</content:encoded>
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					<slash:comments>0</slash:comments>
										<doi>https://doi.org/10.66709/news-285858</doi>				</item>
						<item>
					<title>After 2-year wait, Sonoran wilderness protection law gets closer to reality</title>
					<link>https://news.mongabay.com/2024/07/after-2-year-wait-sonoran-wilderness-protection-law-gets-closer-to-reality/</link>
					<comments>https://news.mongabay.com/2024/07/after-2-year-wait-sonoran-wilderness-protection-law-gets-closer-to-reality/#respond</comments>
					<pubDate>17 Jul 2024 16:52:43 +0000</pubDate>
											<dc:creator>
							<![CDATA[Daniel Shailer]]>
						</dc:creator>
										<author>
						<![CDATA[Alexandra Popescu]]>
					</author>
							<category><![CDATA[Uncategorized]]></category>
										<enclosure url="https://imgs.mongabay.com/wp-content/uploads/sites/20/2024/07/17164509/MWM0306-768x512.jpg" type="image/jpeg" />
					<guid isPermaLink="false">https://news.mongabay.com/?p=284488</guid>

					
											<locations>
							<![CDATA[Latin America, Mexico, and North America]]>
						</locations>
					
											<topic-tags>
							<![CDATA[Animals, Biodiversity, Conservation, Deforestation, Development, Endangered Species, Environment, Environmental Law, Forest Destruction, Forest Loss, Governance, Jaguars, Land Conflict, Law, Law Enforcement, Lithium, Politics, Protected Areas, and Wildlife]]>
						</topic-tags>
					
					
											<description>
							<![CDATA[SAHUARIPA, Mexico — Where saguaro cacti give way to palm trees, some 130 miles south of the U.S. border, a small ranching town is quietly obsessed with jaguars (Panthera onca). Jaguar murals adorn walls, and local ranchers, usually demure and mustachioed, treasure their printouts of big cats caught on camera traps. Sahuaripa is the nearest [&#8230;]]]>
						</description>
																					<content:encoded>
							<![CDATA[SAHUARIPA, Mexico — Where saguaro cacti give way to palm trees, some 130 miles south of the U.S. border, a small ranching town is quietly obsessed with jaguars (Panthera onca). Jaguar murals adorn walls, and local ranchers, usually demure and mustachioed, treasure their printouts of big cats caught on camera traps. Sahuaripa is the nearest town to the Northern Jaguar Reserve, 22,600 hectares (56,000 acres) of protected, privately owned land, where trail cameras have captured more than a dozen jaguars padding through the very northernmost reach of their range at any one time. The reserve itself is still several hours’ cross-country drive away from Sahuaripa, part of what struck conservation manager Miguel Gómez Ramírez when he arrived there 16 years ago. “From the start, this seemed like nowhere I had been before, especially because of how far away the reserve is, how difficult it is to get there — the road, the time.” The Northern Jaguar Reserve now sits close to a recently declared lithium mining zone. Image courtesy of the Northern Jaguar Reserve. Recently, however, the reserve has captured a different type of attention. On a trip in April 2024, Gómez Ramírez pulls to the side of a dirt track halfway between Sahuaripa and the first campground and points to a dead palm trunk surrounded by slightly sulfurous mounds of earth. “Everything yellow is lithium,” mixed with clay, he says. Just 2 kilometers (1.2 miles) from the edge of the jaguar reserve, this deposit is now part of the&hellip;This article was originally published on <a href="https://news.mongabay.com/2024/07/after-2-year-wait-sonoran-wilderness-protection-law-gets-closer-to-reality/" data-wpel-link="internal">Mongabay</a>]]>
						</content:encoded>
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					<slash:comments>0</slash:comments>
										<doi>https://doi.org/10.66709/news-284488</doi>				</item>
						<item>
					<title>Sweeping reform package threatens environmental protections in Argentina, critics say</title>
					<link>https://news.mongabay.com/2024/06/sweeping-reform-package-threatens-environmental-protections-in-argentina-critics-say/</link>
					<comments>https://news.mongabay.com/2024/06/sweeping-reform-package-threatens-environmental-protections-in-argentina-critics-say/#respond</comments>
					<pubDate>28 Jun 2024 21:21:02 +0000</pubDate>
											<dc:creator>
							<![CDATA[Maxwell Radwin]]>
						</dc:creator>
										<author>
						<![CDATA[Rebecca Kessler]]>
					</author>
							<category><![CDATA[Uncategorized]]></category>
										<enclosure url="https://imgs.mongabay.com/wp-content/uploads/sites/20/2024/06/28211843/6185777522_d4155efac0_3k-1-768x450.jpg" type="image/jpeg" />
					<guid isPermaLink="false">https://news.mongabay.com/?p=283911</guid>

					
											<locations>
							<![CDATA[Argentina, Latin America, and South America]]>
						</locations>
					
											<topic-tags>
							<![CDATA[Agriculture, Energy, Environment, Environmental Law, Forest Loss, Forests, Governance, Greenhouse Gas Emissions, Indigenous Peoples, Indigenous Rights, Infrastructure, International Trade, Lithium, Mining, Politics, and Pollution]]>
						</topic-tags>
					
					
											<description>
							<![CDATA[A sweeping reform package introduced by the new government in Argentina is drawing criticism from conservation groups, who say new state programs and weakened regulations could endanger the environment. Congress passed the massive reform package this week to overhaul the country’s struggling economy. But conservation groups say many of its policies weaken protections for local [&#8230;]]]>
						</description>
																					<content:encoded>
							<![CDATA[A sweeping reform package introduced by the new government in Argentina is drawing criticism from conservation groups, who say new state programs and weakened regulations could endanger the environment. Congress passed the massive reform package this week to overhaul the country’s struggling economy. But conservation groups say many of its policies weaken protections for local and Indigenous communities and encourage accelerated investment in projects with a record of deforestation and pollution. “This is dangerous and concerning,” Manuel Jaramillo, head of the Wildlife Foundation in Argentina, told Mongabay. “It’s fair to think that in the context of climate change, biodiversity loss and environmental pollution, we should be creating legislation to protect the environment for everyone’s benefit. But [these reforms] are making it harder to confront those challenges.” The reform package establishes a one-year “public emergency” that grants the national government increased powers to act on economic, financial and energy matters. It also streamlines the development of large investment in infrastructure, oil and gas and the mining of copper and lithium, among other things. President Javier Milei, who took office in December, developed the package, known as the “omnibus law,” to resuscitate a floundering Argentine economy plagued by inflation and debt. A libertarian and outspoken climate change denier, he’s emphasized deregulation, privatization and austerity measures as vital to strengthening Argentina’s competitiveness. President Javier Milei speaks at the World Economic Forum’s Annual Meeting in Davos. Photo courtesy of WEF. The original version of the bill, introduced soon after he took office, had more&hellip;This article was originally published on <a href="https://news.mongabay.com/2024/06/sweeping-reform-package-threatens-environmental-protections-in-argentina-critics-say/" data-wpel-link="internal">Mongabay</a>]]>
						</content:encoded>
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					<slash:comments>0</slash:comments>
										<doi>https://doi.org/10.66709/news-283911</doi>				</item>
						<item>
					<title>Green credentials of electric vehicles come under fire</title>
					<link>https://news.mongabay.com/2024/05/green-credentials-of-electric-vehicles-come-under-fire/</link>
					<comments>https://news.mongabay.com/2024/05/green-credentials-of-electric-vehicles-come-under-fire/#respond</comments>
					<pubDate>23 May 2024 14:44:38 +0000</pubDate>
											<dc:creator>
							<![CDATA[Gerry McGovernSue Branford]]>
						</dc:creator>
										<author>
						<![CDATA[Glenn Scherer]]>
					</author>
							<category><![CDATA[Uncategorized]]></category>
										<enclosure url="https://imgs.mongabay.com/wp-content/uploads/sites/20/2024/05/23101920/James_Flamingos_MC-768x512.jpg" type="image/jpeg" />
					<guid isPermaLink="false">https://news.mongabay.com/?p=282402</guid>

											<reporting-project>
							<![CDATA[Circular economy and Planetary Boundaries]]>
						</reporting-project>
					
											<locations>
							<![CDATA[Africa, Chile, Democratic Republic Of Congo, Global, Latin America, and South America]]>
						</locations>
					
											<topic-tags>
							<![CDATA[Business, Climate Change, cobalt, Consumption, Electric Cars, Emission Reduction, Endangered Species, Energy, Environment, extractives, Governance, Green, Greenhouse Gas Emissions, Greenwashing, Industry, Just Transition, Lithium, Marketing, Mining, Politics, Pollution, Renewable Energy, Technology, and Water Pollution]]>
						</topic-tags>
					
					
											<description>
							<![CDATA[While EV makers reiterate how their cars combat climate change, others note critical mineral mining environmental and social impacts on traditional people, and point to both supply chain and planetary boundary problems.]]>
						</description>
																					<content:encoded>
							<![CDATA[Global new electric car sales rose 35% in 2023, to nearly 14 million vehicles, with almost all purchased in China, the U.S. and Europe. This was a 35% increase over 2022, and six times higher than in 2018. Although that momentum is faltering this year, as the industry adapts to a mass market, EVs continue rolling off showroom floors. Much of their appeal comes from manufacturers’ claims that the vehicles will play a key role in averting catastrophic climate change. Makers proudly assert that EVs will reduce oil consumption by 5 million barrels a day by 2030. While possibly true, global demand for oil is still expected to increase, with the International Energy Agency predicting the global oil supply will grow 8% by 2030, over 2021 levels — not shrink. EV sales have soared, but for this new technology to be truly sustainable, car companies need to re-assess and retool their entire supply chains. Image by andreas160578 via Pixabay (Public domain). Moreover, while electric vehicles clearly reduce carbon dioxide emissions (provided the electricity powering them isn’t generated using fossil fuels), critics note that the full impact of EVs on the health of the planet must be assessed not only based on climate change, but taking into account impacts on soils, water, air and biodiversity. Scientists have identified nine planetary boundaries that support life on Earth as we known it, with the overshoot of any one boundary posing an existential threat to humanity. Electric vehicles, while helping stabilize the climate change&hellip;This article was originally published on <a href="https://news.mongabay.com/2024/05/green-credentials-of-electric-vehicles-come-under-fire/" data-wpel-link="internal">Mongabay</a>]]>
						</content:encoded>
										<wfw:commentRss>https://news.mongabay.com/2024/05/green-credentials-of-electric-vehicles-come-under-fire/feed/</wfw:commentRss>
					<slash:comments>0</slash:comments>
										<doi>https://doi.org/10.66709/news-282402</doi>				</item>
						<item>
					<title>Rapid growth of Bolivia’s lithium industry creating new problems for local communities</title>
					<link>https://news.mongabay.com/2024/04/rapid-growth-of-bolivias-lithium-industry-creating-new-problems-for-local-communities/</link>
					<comments>https://news.mongabay.com/2024/04/rapid-growth-of-bolivias-lithium-industry-creating-new-problems-for-local-communities/#respond</comments>
					<pubDate>15 Apr 2024 17:53:49 +0000</pubDate>
											<dc:creator>
							<![CDATA[Maxwell Radwin]]>
						</dc:creator>
										<author>
						<![CDATA[Alexandra Popescu]]>
					</author>
							<category><![CDATA[Uncategorized]]></category>
										<enclosure url="https://imgs.mongabay.com/wp-content/uploads/sites/20/2024/04/15172602/FEATURE-6-768x450.jpg" type="image/jpeg" />
					<guid isPermaLink="false">https://news.mongabay.com/?p=280968</guid>

					
											<locations>
							<![CDATA[Bolivia]]>
						</locations>
					
											<topic-tags>
							<![CDATA[Environment, Environmental Law, extractives, Governance, Indigenous Peoples, Infrastructure, International Trade, Land Rights, Lithium, Mining, and Politics]]>
						</topic-tags>
					
					
											<description>
							<![CDATA[Bolivia is racing to attract foreign investment in its massive, untapped lithium reserves, with plans to expand operations and build new processing plants. But residents living near the lithium deposits say there are too many problems with the facilities already in operation. A lithium plant opened last year has untested equipment and is possibly mismanaging [&#8230;]]]>
						</description>
																					<content:encoded>
							<![CDATA[Bolivia is racing to attract foreign investment in its massive, untapped lithium reserves, with plans to expand operations and build new processing plants. But residents living near the lithium deposits say there are too many problems with the facilities already in operation. A lithium plant opened last year has untested equipment and is possibly mismanaging its use of freshwater, raising concerns for residents about whether the Bolivian government can responsibly manage the rapid growth of the industry. The facilities are located in the Salar de Uyuni, a salt flat with an estimated 21 million tons of lithium. Located in the Department of Potosi, the salt flats are believed to be the largest lithium deposit in the world, and makes up one piece of the “Lithium Triangle” with neighboring Argentina and Chile. “We want to see the industrialization of lithium,” Potosí senator Elena Aguilar told Mongabay. “But it has to be done responsibly for the sake of our natural resources, like water.” Last month, several activist groups and senators toured the lithium processing facilities run by the state-owned Yacimientos de Litio Bolivianos (YLB), the China Machinery Engineering Corporation and Beijing Maison Engineering Co. They discovered equipment that still wasn’t operational and found that officials were unsure how much water, electricity and chemicals they were using. The facilities are designed to produce raw materials for batteries — including lithium carbonate and potassium chloride — while also treating the freshwater needed to carry out those processes. While two of the facilities opened last&hellip;This article was originally published on <a href="https://news.mongabay.com/2024/04/rapid-growth-of-bolivias-lithium-industry-creating-new-problems-for-local-communities/" data-wpel-link="internal">Mongabay</a>]]>
						</content:encoded>
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					<slash:comments>0</slash:comments>
										<doi>https://doi.org/10.66709/news-280968</doi>				</item>
						<item>
					<title>Locals slam Zimbabwe for turning a blind eye to Chinese miner’s violations</title>
					<link>https://news.mongabay.com/2024/04/locals-slam-zimbabwe-for-turning-a-blind-eye-to-chinese-miners-violations/</link>
					<comments>https://news.mongabay.com/2024/04/locals-slam-zimbabwe-for-turning-a-blind-eye-to-chinese-miners-violations/#respond</comments>
					<pubDate>01 Apr 2024 16:06:44 +0000</pubDate>
											<dc:creator>
							<![CDATA[Tatenda Chitagu]]>
						</dc:creator>
										<author>
						<![CDATA[Latoya Abulu]]>
					</author>
							<category><![CDATA[africa]]></category>
										<enclosure url="https://imgs.mongabay.com/wp-content/uploads/sites/20/2024/03/29104749/dominik-vanyi-Mk2ls9UBO2E-unsplash-768x512.jpg" type="image/jpeg" />
					<guid isPermaLink="false">https://news.mongabay.com/?p=280345</guid>

											<reporting-project>
							<![CDATA[Land rights and extractives]]>
						</reporting-project>
					
											<locations>
							<![CDATA[Africa, East Africa, and Zimbabwe]]>
						</locations>
					
											<topic-tags>
							<![CDATA[Business, Clean Energy, Conflict, Conservation, Crime, Energy, Environment, Environmental Law, Governance, Industry, Land Conflict, Land Rights, Lithium, Mining, Politics, Pollution, Renewable Energy, Resource Conflict, and Violence]]>
						</topic-tags>
					
					
											<description>
							<![CDATA[MASVINGO, Zimbabwe — At the end of November last year, Zimbabwean President Emmerson Mnangagwa and Sinomine Resource Group chair Wang Pingwei walked into a lithium processing plant, construction hats firmly on. With a crowd of policymakers, company workers and press looking on, they hailed the mining group’s $300 million investment into processing plants. The facilities [&#8230;]]]>
						</description>
																					<content:encoded>
							<![CDATA[MASVINGO, Zimbabwe — At the end of November last year, Zimbabwean President Emmerson Mnangagwa and Sinomine Resource Group chair Wang Pingwei walked into a lithium processing plant, construction hats firmly on. With a crowd of policymakers, company workers and press looking on, they hailed the mining group’s $300 million investment into processing plants. The facilities will process the ore that the company unearths at its Bikita mine and turn it into a higher-value product for export. “I commend Sinomine Resource Group for taking heed of my government’s call,” Mnangagwa said at the gathering in the southern district of Bikita. Zimbabwe has banned exports of raw lithium, requiring companies to develop domestic processing facilities and increase local jobs. The country is now calling on other companies to copy Sinomine’s footsteps, pushing forward a building boom by Chinese mining companies. “This has contributed to the realization of our target of attaining a $12 billion mining economy by year end,” Mnangagwa said. The sentiment was understandable for the 81-year-old president. Zimbabwe has been cut off from global financiers over failure to service its debts. The country was also hit by sanctions and trade embargos by the European Union, U.K. and U.S. over serious human rights violations. For the past two decades, it has turned to China, adopting what the government terms a “Look East Policy.” In 2020, Mnangagwa described the Asian giant as “our all-weather friends.” But many workers and villagers in Bikita and Gutu districts aren’t feeling very friendly toward either Sinomine&hellip;This article was originally published on <a href="https://news.mongabay.com/2024/04/locals-slam-zimbabwe-for-turning-a-blind-eye-to-chinese-miners-violations/" data-wpel-link="internal">Mongabay</a>]]>
						</content:encoded>
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					<slash:comments>0</slash:comments>
										<doi>https://doi.org/10.66709/news-280345</doi>				</item>
						<item>
					<title>Report: Rush for ‘clean energy’ minerals in Africa risks repeating harmful extractivist model</title>
					<link>https://news.mongabay.com/2023/12/report-rush-for-clean-energy-minerals-in-africa-risks-repeating-harmful-extractivist-model/</link>
					<comments>https://news.mongabay.com/2023/12/report-rush-for-clean-energy-minerals-in-africa-risks-repeating-harmful-extractivist-model/#respond</comments>
					<pubDate>29 Dec 2023 03:19:54 +0000</pubDate>
											<dc:creator>
							<![CDATA[Malavika Vyawahare]]>
						</dc:creator>
										<author>
						<![CDATA[Latoya Abulu]]>
					</author>
							<category><![CDATA[africa]]></category>
										<enclosure url="https://imgs.mongabay.com/wp-content/uploads/sites/20/2023/12/29125131/uis-mine-1-768x512.jpg" type="image/jpeg" />
					<guid isPermaLink="false">https://news.mongabay.com/?p=277186</guid>

											<reporting-project>
							<![CDATA[Land rights and extractives]]>
						</reporting-project>
					
											<locations>
							<![CDATA[Africa, Central Africa, Democratic Republic Of Congo, Namibia, Southern Africa, and Zimbabwe]]>
						</locations>
					
											<topic-tags>
							<![CDATA[Activism, Alternative Energy, Business, Clean Energy, Energy, Environment, Environmental Law, Governance, Human Rights, Industry, Land Rights, Lithium, Mining, Pollution, Protests, Renewable Energy, and Social Justice]]>
						</topic-tags>
					
					
											<description>
							<![CDATA[A recent report from U.K.- and U.S.-based nonprofit Global Witness captures the details of how a new mining rush driven by demand for “clean energy” minerals can go wrong, reproducing the same model of extractivism that has impoverished African countries for centuries. “Sheer mineral wealth hasn&#8217;t always translated into development, particularly for the communities who [&#8230;]]]>
						</description>
																					<content:encoded>
							<![CDATA[A recent report from U.K.- and U.S.-based nonprofit Global Witness captures the details of how a new mining rush driven by demand for “clean energy” minerals can go wrong, reproducing the same model of extractivism that has impoverished African countries for centuries. “Sheer mineral wealth hasn&#8217;t always translated into development, particularly for the communities who live next to mines,” said report author Colin Robertson, a senior investigator at Global Witness. The team investigated mining projects for lithium, an essential mineral in the production of batteries for electric vehicles and power storage, in Zimbabwe, the Democratic Republic of Congo, and Namibia. They highlighted the risk that future mining will “embed corruption, fail to develop local economies, and harm citizens and the environment.” In January this year, residents living near Uis in western Namibia started noticing a daily convoy of trucks leaving an area they believed to simply be an artisanal mining site. The large vehicles were passing through the community on their way to the port of Walvis Bay on the country’s western shore, according to Jimmy Areseb, a community activist. In reality, the trucks were exporting minerals from an extensive operation residents knew little about. In March, people took to the streets to protest the activities of Chinese miner Xinfeng Investments, the owner of the trucks and entity extracting resources, alleging the company was carrying out large-scale industrial mining without the proper permits or social license. A demonstration against lithium mining by Xinfeng in Uis in March this year. Image&hellip;This article was originally published on <a href="https://news.mongabay.com/2023/12/report-rush-for-clean-energy-minerals-in-africa-risks-repeating-harmful-extractivist-model/" data-wpel-link="internal">Mongabay</a>]]>
						</content:encoded>
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					<slash:comments>0</slash:comments>
										<doi>https://doi.org/10.66709/news-277186</doi>				</item>
						<item>
					<title>A lithium &#8216;gold mine&#8217; is buried under one of Europe’s last heritage farming systems</title>
					<link>https://news.mongabay.com/2023/12/a-lithium-goldmine-is-buried-under-one-of-europes-last-heritage-farming-systems/</link>
					<comments>https://news.mongabay.com/2023/12/a-lithium-goldmine-is-buried-under-one-of-europes-last-heritage-farming-systems/#respond</comments>
					<pubDate>11 Dec 2023 20:06:11 +0000</pubDate>
											<dc:creator>
							<![CDATA[Marta Vidal]]>
						</dc:creator>
										<author>
						<![CDATA[Latoya Abulu]]>
					</author>
							<category><![CDATA[Uncategorized]]></category>
										<enclosure url="https://imgs.mongabay.com/wp-content/uploads/sites/20/2023/12/11162120/Communal-potato-harvest-768x512.jpg" type="image/jpeg" />
					<guid isPermaLink="false">https://news.mongabay.com/?p=276562</guid>

					
											<locations>
							<![CDATA[Europe, European Union, and Portugal]]>
						</locations>
					
											<topic-tags>
							<![CDATA[Agriculture, Batteries, Biodiversity, Clean Energy, Climate Change, Community-based Conservation, Conservation, Culture, Electric Cars, Energy, Fossil Fuels, Land Conflict, Land Rights, Lithium, Mining, Politics, Protests, Renewable Energy, Solar Power, Supply Chain, Technology, and Wildtech]]>
						</topic-tags>
					
					
											<description>
							<![CDATA[COVAS DO BARROSO, Portugal — In the hills of Barroso high in northeastern Portugal, the water gushes down small channels built many centuries ago, winding through a mosaic of pastures, oak and pine forests, and arable and fallow land. Sitting on her porch overlooking a carefully kept garden full of flowers and vegetables, Aida Fernandes [&#8230;]]]>
						</description>
																					<content:encoded>
							<![CDATA[COVAS DO BARROSO, Portugal — In the hills of Barroso high in northeastern Portugal, the water gushes down small channels built many centuries ago, winding through a mosaic of pastures, oak and pine forests, and arable and fallow land. Sitting on her porch overlooking a carefully kept garden full of flowers and vegetables, Aida Fernandes remembers the day she first started taking part in her village’s community-managed irrigation system. “I was 12 years old. My father got me a small hoe and told me to be careful not to fall into the water. I grew up connected to the land and was told I should take care of it,” says Fernandes, now a 45-year-old farmer. The ancient water channels, known as levadas, divert the water flow from the mountains to the plains. The collective efforts to maintain the levadas help retain the scant water resources and distribute them throughout the rugged landscape, keeping the slopes green even in the driest months. But the year Fernandes inherited the age-old tradition and took her share of responsibility for Covas do Barroso’s ancestral water system was also when she first encountered a researcher studying the region’s minerals. “I was tending my family’s cows and a geologist asked me what I wanted to be when I grew up,” Fernandes recalls. While many of her friends and neighbors migrated to look for opportunities in cities or abroad, she decided to stay. “I chose to give continuity to what I inherited from my ancestors and to&hellip;This article was originally published on <a href="https://news.mongabay.com/2023/12/a-lithium-goldmine-is-buried-under-one-of-europes-last-heritage-farming-systems/" data-wpel-link="internal">Mongabay</a>]]>
						</content:encoded>
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					<slash:comments>0</slash:comments>
										<doi>https://doi.org/10.66709/news-276562</doi>				</item>
						<item>
					<title>Study: Tricky balancing act between EV scale-up and mining battery metals</title>
					<link>https://news.mongabay.com/2023/09/study-tricky-balancing-act-between-ev-scale-up-and-mining-battery-metals/</link>
					<comments>https://news.mongabay.com/2023/09/study-tricky-balancing-act-between-ev-scale-up-and-mining-battery-metals/#respond</comments>
					<pubDate>08 Sep 2023 15:54:20 +0000</pubDate>
											<dc:creator>
							<![CDATA[Liz Kimbrough]]>
						</dc:creator>
										<author>
						<![CDATA[Liz Kimbrough]]>
					</author>
							<category><![CDATA[Uncategorized]]></category>
										<enclosure url="https://imgs.mongabay.com/wp-content/uploads/sites/20/2023/09/08134216/traffic-1-768x512.jpg" type="image/jpeg" />
					<guid isPermaLink="false">https://news.mongabay.com/?p=273082</guid>

					
											<locations>
							<![CDATA[Global]]>
						</locations>
					
											<topic-tags>
							<![CDATA[Adaptation To Climate Change, Air Pollution, Alternative Energy, Batteries, Bioenergy, Business, Carbon Emissions, Carbon Footprint, Carbon Market, Chemicals, Clean Energy, Climate Change, climate finance, Climate Science, E-waste, Electric Cars, Emission Reduction, Energy, Energy Efficiency, Environment, Fossil Fuels, Global Warming, Green, Greenhouse Gas Emissions, Industry, Lithium, Mining, Mitigation, Politics, Pollution, Rainforests, Renewable Energy, Research, Supply Chain, Sustainable Development, Technology, Transportation, and Water Pollution]]>
						</topic-tags>
					
					
											<description>
							<![CDATA[Rapidly transitioning the world’s vehicle fleet to fully electric could significantly cut greenhouse gas emissions from transportation, but also dramatically increase demand for critical battery metals like lithium, nickel and cobalt, according to a new study in the journal Nature Communications. Researchers from Cornell University and the Paul Scherrer Institute modeled different scenarios where major [&#8230;]]]>
						</description>
																					<content:encoded>
							<![CDATA[Rapidly transitioning the world’s vehicle fleet to fully electric could significantly cut greenhouse gas emissions from transportation, but also dramatically increase demand for critical battery metals like lithium, nickel and cobalt, according to a new study in the journal Nature Communications. Researchers from Cornell University and the Paul Scherrer Institute modeled different scenarios where major countries phase out oil-powered vehicles and switch to electric vehicles by 2050. &#8220;The big picture is the climate issue,” study co-author Fengqi You told Mongabay. “As we try to decarbonize transportation with electric vehicles, the challenge is, will we have enough materials and metals to manufacture enough EVs to meet demand in the future?&#8221; The analysis shows clear tensions between reducing emissions and straining supplies of essential EV battery metals. With 40% EV adoption by 2050, lithium demand could jump by 2,909% from 2020 levels. In a 100% EV scenario, lithium needs could grow by more than 7,500% by 2050. Nickel, cobalt and manganese requirements would also surge by more than 2,000% each. Mining these metals has major environmental impacts, typically requiring deforestation and a lot of water. Tailings from mining can pollute waterways with toxic chemicals like cyanide, mercury and arsenic if not properly contained. Many key battery metals are concentrated in Chile, the Democratic Republic of Congo, Indonesia and South Africa. The study indicates a rapid transition to EV use, coupled with cleaner electricity like solar, could substantially cut transportation emissions. With 100% EVs and energy systems limiting global warming to 1.5° Celsius&hellip;This article was originally published on <a href="https://news.mongabay.com/2023/09/study-tricky-balancing-act-between-ev-scale-up-and-mining-battery-metals/" data-wpel-link="internal">Mongabay</a>]]>
						</content:encoded>
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					<slash:comments>0</slash:comments>
										<doi>https://doi.org/10.66709/news-273082</doi>				</item>
						<item>
					<title>Bangladesh to produce lithium batteries, electric vehicles to cut emissions</title>
					<link>https://news.mongabay.com/2023/08/bangladesh-to-produce-lithium-batteries-electric-vehicles-to-cut-emissions/</link>
					<comments>https://news.mongabay.com/2023/08/bangladesh-to-produce-lithium-batteries-electric-vehicles-to-cut-emissions/#respond</comments>
					<pubDate>28 Aug 2023 07:53:11 +0000</pubDate>
											<dc:creator>
							<![CDATA[Abu Siddique]]>
						</dc:creator>
										<author>
						<![CDATA[Abu Siddique]]>
					</author>
							<category><![CDATA[Uncategorized]]></category>
										<enclosure url="https://imgs.mongabay.com/wp-content/uploads/sites/20/2023/08/28074015/electric-car-768x512.jpg" type="image/jpeg" />
					<guid isPermaLink="false">https://news.mongabay.com/?p=272547</guid>

					
											<locations>
							<![CDATA[Asia, Bangladesh, and South Asia]]>
						</locations>
					
											<topic-tags>
							<![CDATA[Air Pollution, Carbon Emissions, Cities, Electric Cars, Emission Reduction, Environment, Environmental Law, Governance, Greenhouse Gas Emissions, Industry, Lithium, and Pollution]]>
						</topic-tags>
					
					
											<description>
							<![CDATA[In order to fulfill its promise of cutting greenhouse gas (GHG) emissions as part of the country’s nationally determined contribution (NDC) under the Paris Agreement, Bangladesh is on the way to setting up a lithium battery production plant with an annual capacity of 1 gigawatt. Simultaneously, several electric vehicle manufacturing projects are in line as [&#8230;]]]>
						</description>
																					<content:encoded>
							<![CDATA[In order to fulfill its promise of cutting greenhouse gas (GHG) emissions as part of the country’s nationally determined contribution (NDC) under the Paris Agreement, Bangladesh is on the way to setting up a lithium battery production plant with an annual capacity of 1 gigawatt. Simultaneously, several electric vehicle manufacturing projects are in line as well. Business insiders believe these moves might change the energy landscape of the country. NDCs are individual countries’ plans to help keep global temperature rise below 2 degrees by the end of the century. Bangladesh has proposed 3.4 million metric tons of CO2 equivalent GHG emission reduction unconditionally by 2030 in the transport sector, which accounts for 9% of the country’s total GHG emissions. To lessen pollution and reliance on fossil fuels, Bangladesh intends to phase out internal combustion engines in favor of electric vehicles. EVs favor lithium-ion battery technology over other types of batteries for propulsion. As part of this, lithium battery production is the first step to implementing the targets. Bangladesh Lithium Battery Ltd. is the company first to take on this venture. The company has already finished the infrastructural development of the plant and hopes to start producing batteries at the beginning of 2024, said  Mir Masud Kabir, managing director of Bangladesh Lithium Battery Ltd., in a media interview. To lessen pollution and reliance on fossil fuels, Bangladesh intends to phase out internal combustion engines in favor of electric vehicles. Image by Muhammad Mostafigur Rahman. According to the Bangladesh Road Transport Authority,&hellip;This article was originally published on <a href="https://news.mongabay.com/2023/08/bangladesh-to-produce-lithium-batteries-electric-vehicles-to-cut-emissions/" data-wpel-link="internal">Mongabay</a>]]>
						</content:encoded>
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					<slash:comments>0</slash:comments>
										<doi>https://doi.org/10.66709/news-272547</doi>				</item>
						<item>
					<title>Can Lula balance the transition to renewable energy with Amazon mining expansion? (commentary)</title>
					<link>https://news.mongabay.com/2023/08/can-lula-balance-the-transition-to-renewable-energy-with-amazon-mining-expansion-commentary/</link>
					<comments>https://news.mongabay.com/2023/08/can-lula-balance-the-transition-to-renewable-energy-with-amazon-mining-expansion-commentary/#respond</comments>
					<pubDate>02 Aug 2023 22:42:17 +0000</pubDate>
											<dc:creator>
							<![CDATA[Christian PoirierGabriela Sarmet]]>
						</dc:creator>
										<author>
						<![CDATA[Erik Hoffner]]>
					</author>
							<category><![CDATA[Uncategorized]]></category>
										<enclosure url="https://imgs.mongabay.com/wp-content/uploads/sites/20/2023/08/02215251/Aerial-view-of-the-mining-plant-and-stockyard-of-the-S11D-Complex-in-Para-state_Credit_-Ricardo-Teles_-Agencia-Vale-768x512.jpg" type="image/jpeg" />
					<guid isPermaLink="false">https://news.mongabay.com/?p=271743</guid>

					
											<locations>
							<![CDATA[Amazon, Brazil, Latin America, and South America]]>
						</locations>
					
											<topic-tags>
							<![CDATA[Commentary, Community Development, Development, Energy, Lithium, Mining, Renewable Energy, Social Justice, and Sustainable Development]]>
						</topic-tags>
					
					
											<description>
							<![CDATA[When it comes to advancing a much-needed ecological transition alongside the expansion of industrial mining, Brazil’s Lula Administration presents a clear contradiction. Recently, during the summit in Letícia, Colombia, President Lula emphasized the importance of avoiding an ecological transition based on the “predatory exploitation” of critical minerals, warning about the dangers of concealed neocolonialism. Yet [&#8230;]]]>
						</description>
																					<content:encoded>
							<![CDATA[When it comes to advancing a much-needed ecological transition alongside the expansion of industrial mining, Brazil’s Lula Administration presents a clear contradiction. Recently, during the summit in Letícia, Colombia, President Lula emphasized the importance of avoiding an ecological transition based on the “predatory exploitation” of critical minerals, warning about the dangers of concealed neocolonialism. Yet the Lula government is also promoting a so-called &#8220;Green Plan&#8221; that stimulates efforts towards a transition away from our current over-reliance on fossil fuels, but paradoxically relies on the expansion of mining. The plan in fact replicates a colonial extractivist model that Lula rightly signals must be a thing of the past. Among the projects featured in the &#8220;Green Plan,&#8221; the &#8220;Solar for All&#8221; program is notable, as it aims to install solar panels in urban peripheral neighborhoods, providing renewable alternative energy to underserved communities and lowering their electricity costs. However, the production of solar panels depends on the extraction of critical minerals, which often occurs in ecologically sensitive areas, meaning that our much-needed transition to clean energy could come at an unbearable cost to the ecosystems it’s intended to safeguard. Deforestation caused by a bauxite mine in the Amazon. Image by Daniel Beltra for Greenpeace. Furthermore, Brazil’s &#8220;Green Plan&#8221; envisions boosting South American integration with bioeconomy initiatives entailing the development of a series of regional  energy, infrastructure, and mining projects, which threaten Amazonian ecosystems and forest communities. The plan also features the significant deployment of offshore wind energy, increasing demand for minerals such as&hellip;This article was originally published on <a href="https://news.mongabay.com/2023/08/can-lula-balance-the-transition-to-renewable-energy-with-amazon-mining-expansion-commentary/" data-wpel-link="internal">Mongabay</a>]]>
						</content:encoded>
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					<slash:comments>0</slash:comments>
										<doi>https://doi.org/10.66709/news-271743</doi>				</item>
						<item>
					<title>Element Africa: A lawsuit over oil, deaths over mining, and worries over lithium</title>
					<link>https://news.mongabay.com/2023/02/element-africa-a-lawsuit-over-oil-deaths-over-mining-and-worries-over-lithium/</link>
					<comments>https://news.mongabay.com/2023/02/element-africa-a-lawsuit-over-oil-deaths-over-mining-and-worries-over-lithium/#respond</comments>
					<pubDate>10 Feb 2023 13:31:47 +0000</pubDate>
											<dc:creator>
							<![CDATA[Mongabay.com]]>
						</dc:creator>
										<author>
						<![CDATA[Terna Gyuse]]>
					</author>
							<category><![CDATA[africa]]></category>
										<enclosure url="https://imgs.mongabay.com/wp-content/uploads/sites/20/2023/02/10121542/clean-up-ogoni-2-768x512.jpg" type="image/jpeg" />
					<guid isPermaLink="false">https://news.mongabay.com/?p=265485</guid>

											<reporting-project>
							<![CDATA[Element Africa]]>
						</reporting-project>
					
											<locations>
							<![CDATA[Africa]]>
						</locations>
					
											<topic-tags>
							<![CDATA[Conflict, Conservation, Environment, Environmental Law, Governance, Illegal Mining, Law, Lithium, Mining, Oil Spills, Politics, Pollution, Protests, Social Justice, and Water Pollution]]>
						</topic-tags>
					
					
											<description>
							<![CDATA[Niger Delta community pursues new claims over Shell oil spills in U.K. court More than 11,000 people from Nigeria&#8217;s southeastern oil-producing region have filed claims against Shell at a London court, demanding the fossil fuel giant clean up damage from decades of oil spills and pay compensation to affected residents. Following a U.K. court ruling [&#8230;]]]>
						</description>
																					<content:encoded>
							<![CDATA[Niger Delta community pursues new claims over Shell oil spills in U.K. court More than 11,000 people from Nigeria&#8217;s southeastern oil-producing region have filed claims against Shell at a London court, demanding the fossil fuel giant clean up damage from decades of oil spills and pay compensation to affected residents. Following a U.K. court ruling that Niger Delta residents could sue Shell in British courts, U.K. law firm Leigh Day submitted the claim last week on behalf of 11,317 people and 17 institutions in Ogale, an Ogoni fishing community of around 40,000 people in the Niger delta. It follows individual claims from 2,335 people in Bille, a fishing community also in the Niger Delta, which were submitted to the London High Court in 2015. The latest filing says repeated oil spills dating back to at least 1989 severely contaminated the stream that served as Ogale’s main source of drinking water, and left borehole water covered in oil sheen, with a strong stench of oil. Shell’s own records show more than 55 spills have taken place in this community alone since September 2011. In Bille, spills between 2011 and 2013 damaged vast areas of mangrove forest and killed most of the fish in nearby rivers, leaving the population without a source of food or income, the lawyers say. Shell, which has operated in Nigeria since the late 1950s, says it is legally distinct from its local subsidiary, Shell Petroleum Development Company of Nigeria (SPDC), and that only Nigerian regulators — typically&hellip;This article was originally published on <a href="https://news.mongabay.com/2023/02/element-africa-a-lawsuit-over-oil-deaths-over-mining-and-worries-over-lithium/" data-wpel-link="internal">Mongabay</a>]]>
						</content:encoded>
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					<slash:comments>0</slash:comments>
										<doi>https://doi.org/10.66709/news-265485</doi>				</item>
						<item>
					<title>Bolivia looks to opaque methods, firms to build lithium powerhouse</title>
					<link>https://news.mongabay.com/2022/12/bolivia-looks-to-opaque-methods-firms-to-build-lithium-powerhouse/</link>
					<comments>https://news.mongabay.com/2022/12/bolivia-looks-to-opaque-methods-firms-to-build-lithium-powerhouse/#respond</comments>
					<pubDate>12 Dec 2022 16:34:27 +0000</pubDate>
											<dc:creator>
							<![CDATA[Ian Morse]]>
						</dc:creator>
										<author>
						<![CDATA[Daniel]]>
					</author>
							<category><![CDATA[Uncategorized]]></category>
										<enclosure url="https://imgs.mongabay.com/wp-content/uploads/sites/20/2022/02/23172145/47617675391_6a13a7fa69_o-768x512.jpg" type="image/jpeg" />
					<guid isPermaLink="false">https://news.mongabay.com/?p=263491</guid>

					
											<locations>
							<![CDATA[Bolivia, China, Germany, Russia, South America, and United States]]>
						</locations>
					
											<topic-tags>
							<![CDATA[Batteries, Climate, Climate Change, Conservation, Corporations, Environment, Lithium, Mining, and Protected Areas]]>
						</topic-tags>
					
					
											<description>
							<![CDATA[The Bolivian government is set this month to choose companies that would turn the lithium in reservoirs below its salt flats into economic resources exported to the world market. Launched during a global commodities boom that emboldened the country, Bolivia’s lithium industry has struggled. The state lithium corporation, Yacimientos de Litio Bolivianos, or YLB, has [&#8230;]]]>
						</description>
																					<content:encoded>
							<![CDATA[The Bolivian government is set this month to choose companies that would turn the lithium in reservoirs below its salt flats into economic resources exported to the world market. Launched during a global commodities boom that emboldened the country, Bolivia’s lithium industry has struggled. The state lithium corporation, Yacimientos de Litio Bolivianos, or YLB, has produced only a fraction of what was hoped. The solution, it thinks, is a series of new technologies designed by new companies. Six foreign firms – four from China, one from the U.S. and one from Russia – expect a decision from the Bolivian government about which will earn the opportunity to use new technologies, collectively called direct lithium extraction, or DLE, to speed up the country’s extraction of the world’s largest recorded reserves of lithium. With scant public information about neophyte technologies, the ecosystems supported by the salt flats, and the companies vying for the government tender, researchers and advocates are worried that YLB and officials are rushing into a billion-dollar development scheme that risks failure at the expense of communities and the environment. “I feel that Bolivia is somewhere down the line going to produce lithium on a commercial scale. Something I don’t know is whether this is something that is going to benefit the country,” says Juan Carlos Zuleta, a Bolivian lithium analyst and former head of YLB. Lithium is a metal predominantly incorporated into lithium-ion batteries, used in consumer electronics such as smartphones and, increasingly, in electric vehicles. Lithium demand is&hellip;This article was originally published on <a href="https://news.mongabay.com/2022/12/bolivia-looks-to-opaque-methods-firms-to-build-lithium-powerhouse/" data-wpel-link="internal">Mongabay</a>]]>
						</content:encoded>
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					<slash:comments>0</slash:comments>
										<doi>https://doi.org/10.66709/news-263491</doi>				</item>
						<item>
					<title>Five pressing questions for the future of lithium mining in Bolivia</title>
					<link>https://news.mongabay.com/2022/12/five-pressing-questions-for-the-future-of-lithium-mining-in-bolivia/</link>
					<comments>https://news.mongabay.com/2022/12/five-pressing-questions-for-the-future-of-lithium-mining-in-bolivia/#respond</comments>
					<pubDate>12 Dec 2022 08:30:33 +0000</pubDate>
											<dc:creator>
							<![CDATA[Maxwell Radwin]]>
						</dc:creator>
										<author>
						<![CDATA[Daniel]]>
					</author>
							<category><![CDATA[Uncategorized]]></category>
										<enclosure url="https://imgs.mongabay.com/wp-content/uploads/sites/20/2022/12/07175944/feature1-768x450.jpg" type="image/jpeg" />
					<guid isPermaLink="false">https://news.mongabay.com/?p=263333</guid>

					
											<locations>
							<![CDATA[Bolivia, Latin America, and South America]]>
						</locations>
					
											<topic-tags>
							<![CDATA[Activism, Agriculture, Animals, Conservation, Energy, Environment, Environmental Law, Freshwater, Governance, Green, Indigenous Peoples, Indigenous Rights, Infrastructure, Land Rights, Lithium, Mining, Politics, Pollution, Research, Water Pollution, Water Scarcity, and Wildlife]]>
						</topic-tags>
					
					
											<description>
							<![CDATA[COLCHANI, Bolivia — Bolivia is taking another shot at lithium investment. After decades of stalled projects and soured relationships with international investors, the central government, under left-wing President Luis Arce, is evaluating offers from six overseas mining companies eager to help the country set up a monopoly on the world’s largest deposit of untapped lithium. [&#8230;]]]>
						</description>
																					<content:encoded>
							<![CDATA[COLCHANI, Bolivia — Bolivia is taking another shot at lithium investment. After decades of stalled projects and soured relationships with international investors, the central government, under left-wing President Luis Arce, is evaluating offers from six overseas mining companies eager to help the country set up a monopoly on the world’s largest deposit of untapped lithium. The focus is the Uyuni salt flat and other desert areas in the department of Potosí in the southwest, where the U.S. Geological Survey estimates there are 21 million tons of lithium. Argentina, with 19 million tons, has the second-most in the world, followed by Chile with 9.8 million tons. Together, the three countries make up what’s known as the “Lithium Triangle.” But so far, only Argentina and Chile have cashed in on the potential. The two countries have been among the world leaders in lithium production over the past several years, along with Australia and China, as demand for lithium-ion batteries continues to rise. Last year, Chile produced around 26,000 tons of lithium. Argentina has gone on a global campaign recently to solicit additional investment in its own lithium industry. Bolivia, meanwhile, has botched most attempts to build up a thriving industry of its own. Foreign investors have been hesitant to work with the central government, which nationalized lithium in 2008 despite, critics said, lacking much of the necessary technology and expertise. One of the few companies that struck a deal with the state-owned Yacimientos de Litio Boliviano (YLB) — which companies must partner&hellip;This article was originally published on <a href="https://news.mongabay.com/2022/12/five-pressing-questions-for-the-future-of-lithium-mining-in-bolivia/" data-wpel-link="internal">Mongabay</a>]]>
						</content:encoded>
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					<slash:comments>0</slash:comments>
										<doi>https://doi.org/10.66709/news-263333</doi>				</item>
						<item>
					<title>Nickel, Tesla and two decades of environmental activism: Q&#038;A with leader Raphaël Mapou</title>
					<link>https://news.mongabay.com/2022/06/nickel-tesla-and-two-decades-of-environmental-activism-qa-with-leader-rapheal-mapou/</link>
					<comments>https://news.mongabay.com/2022/06/nickel-tesla-and-two-decades-of-environmental-activism-qa-with-leader-rapheal-mapou/#respond</comments>
					<pubDate>22 Jun 2022 12:00:28 +0000</pubDate>
											<dc:creator>
							<![CDATA[Nick Rodway]]>
						</dc:creator>
										<author>
						<![CDATA[Latoya Abulu]]>
					</author>
							<category><![CDATA[Uncategorized]]></category>
										<enclosure url="https://imgs.mongabay.com/wp-content/uploads/sites/20/2022/06/21191520/Raphael-Mapou-LachieCarracher-scaled-e1655841119637-768x512.jpg" type="image/jpeg" />
					<guid isPermaLink="false">https://news.mongabay.com/?p=257572</guid>

											<reporting-project>
							<![CDATA[Indigenous Peoples and Conservation]]>
						</reporting-project>
					
											<locations>
							<![CDATA[New Caledonia, Oceania, Pacific Islands, and Pacific Ocean]]>
						</locations>
					
											<topic-tags>
							<![CDATA[Batteries, Biodiversity, Coral Reefs, Culture, Development, Electric Cars, Indigenous Peoples, Islands, Lithium, Marine, Marine Conservation, Mining, Oceans, Pollution, Protests, Water, and Water Pollution]]>
						</topic-tags>
					
					
											<description>
							<![CDATA[GORO, New Caledonia – Known widely as the “Madagascar of the Pacific,” New Caledonia is coated in remnant Gondwana rainforest and surrounded by reefs rich in marine life that constitute one of the largest marine parks on earth. It is a French territory located approximately 1,470 kilometers (900 miles) northeast of Brisbane, Australia. Despite its size, [&#8230;]]]>
						</description>
																					<content:encoded>
							<![CDATA[GORO, New Caledonia – Known widely as the “Madagascar of the Pacific,” New Caledonia is coated in remnant Gondwana rainforest and surrounded by reefs rich in marine life that constitute one of the largest marine parks on earth. It is a French territory located approximately 1,470 kilometers (900 miles) northeast of Brisbane, Australia. Despite its size, New Caledonia punches far above its weight ecologically. It houses the longest continuous barrier reef in the world and is internationally renowned for its plant species, over 80% of which are endemic. The territory is also one of the world’s largest producers of nickel and holds a quarter of the earth’s known reserves. Mountain range in New Caledonia. Image courtesy of Jeremy Bezanger on Unsplash. Despite the wealth nickel mining has produced on Grand Terre, the principal island of the nation, the extraction of the metal has had an ambiguous social and environmental impact on the country’s Indigenous people, the Kanak community. With the archipelago colonized by the French in the mid-19th century, there is still little formal recognition of the Kanak community’s legal and customary attachment to their traditional lands. The effect of this history is being played out at New Caledonia’s largest mine, Goro, and the plant that services it. Plagued by environmental and social issues, including five acid spills in ten years, the last decade at Goro has seen waste mismanagement, land clearing and sediment run-off into the sea. This has reportedly had a detrimental effect on the barrier reef that wraps around&hellip;This article was originally published on <a href="https://news.mongabay.com/2022/06/nickel-tesla-and-two-decades-of-environmental-activism-qa-with-leader-rapheal-mapou/" data-wpel-link="internal">Mongabay</a>]]>
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										<wfw:commentRss>https://news.mongabay.com/2022/06/nickel-tesla-and-two-decades-of-environmental-activism-qa-with-leader-rapheal-mapou/feed/</wfw:commentRss>
					<slash:comments>0</slash:comments>
										<doi>https://doi.org/10.66709/news-257572</doi>				</item>
						<item>
					<title>All eyes on Tesla as it invests in a troubled nickel mine</title>
					<link>https://news.mongabay.com/2022/06/all-eyes-on-tesla-as-it-invests-in-a-troubled-nickel-mine/</link>
					<comments>https://news.mongabay.com/2022/06/all-eyes-on-tesla-as-it-invests-in-a-troubled-nickel-mine/#respond</comments>
					<pubDate>22 Jun 2022 09:00:51 +0000</pubDate>
											<dc:creator>
							<![CDATA[Nick Rodway]]>
						</dc:creator>
										<author>
						<![CDATA[Latoya Abulu]]>
					</author>
							<category><![CDATA[Uncategorized]]></category>
										<enclosure url="https://imgs.mongabay.com/wp-content/uploads/sites/20/2022/06/21191530/The-Goro-Mine-in-southern-New-Caledonia-LachieCarracher-768x512.jpg" type="image/jpeg" />
					<guid isPermaLink="false">https://news.mongabay.com/?p=257590</guid>

											<reporting-project>
							<![CDATA[Indigenous Peoples and Conservation]]>
						</reporting-project>
					
											<locations>
							<![CDATA[New Caledonia, Oceania, Pacific Islands, and Pacific Ocean]]>
						</locations>
					
											<topic-tags>
							<![CDATA[Batteries, Biodiversity, Conservation, Coral Reefs, Development, Electric Cars, Energy, Indigenous Peoples, Islands, Lithium, Marine, Marine Conservation, Mining, Oceans, Pollution, Protests, Renewable Energy, Sustainability, Sustainable Development, Water, and Water Pollution]]>
						</topic-tags>
					
					
											<description>
							<![CDATA[GORO, New Caledonia — On the south side of Grand Terre, the largest and principal island of New Caledonia in the south Pacific, mountains rise like a spine out of a vast, turquoise lagoon that forms part of the longest continuous barrier reef in the world. Although a French overseas territory, New Caledonia—located approximately 1,470 kilometers (900 miles) [&#8230;]]]>
						</description>
																					<content:encoded>
							<![CDATA[GORO, New Caledonia — On the south side of Grand Terre, the largest and principal island of New Caledonia in the south Pacific, mountains rise like a spine out of a vast, turquoise lagoon that forms part of the longest continuous barrier reef in the world. Although a French overseas territory, New Caledonia—located approximately 1,470 kilometers (900 miles) northeast of Brisbane, Australia—has been home to the Indigenous Kanak people for thousands of years and has a history and culture as rich as its ecology. “Most of the vegetation we have in the south of the island is endemic and it is a region that contains many of our medicinal plants,” said Raphaël Mapou, a Kanak leader and head of a local environmental organization, Rhéébù Nùù. “The legends of the Kanak people speak of the importance of rivers [and] the ocean. The coral reef is a very important source of food for Kanaks.” Shallow coral reef in New Caledonia. Image courtesy of Jeremy Bezanger on Unsplash. Just a few short miles from the famous lagoons, lies a vast, sprawling, open-cut nickel mine. Known locally as Goro, named after a nearby town, this pit and its processing plant are proving to be a stress test for a country that is thought to contain a quarter of the world’s known nickel reserves. As the mine receives new owners and investors, including manufacturing giant Tesla, Kanak people and environmentalists are poised to see whether they can handle the mine’s troubled record. Ecological and financial difficulties have plagued Goro since&hellip;This article was originally published on <a href="https://news.mongabay.com/2022/06/all-eyes-on-tesla-as-it-invests-in-a-troubled-nickel-mine/" data-wpel-link="internal">Mongabay</a>]]>
						</content:encoded>
										<wfw:commentRss>https://news.mongabay.com/2022/06/all-eyes-on-tesla-as-it-invests-in-a-troubled-nickel-mine/feed/</wfw:commentRss>
					<slash:comments>0</slash:comments>
										<doi>https://doi.org/10.66709/news-257590</doi>				</item>
						<item>
					<title>Climate-positive, high-tech metals are polluting Earth, but solutions await</title>
					<link>https://news.mongabay.com/2022/03/climate-positive-high-tech-metals-are-polluting-earth-but-solutions-await/</link>
					<comments>https://news.mongabay.com/2022/03/climate-positive-high-tech-metals-are-polluting-earth-but-solutions-await/#respond</comments>
					<pubDate>15 Mar 2022 14:35:26 +0000</pubDate>
											<dc:creator>
							<![CDATA[Claire Asher]]>
						</dc:creator>
										<author>
						<![CDATA[Glenn Scherer]]>
					</author>
							<category><![CDATA[Uncategorized]]></category>
										<enclosure url="https://imgs.mongabay.com/wp-content/uploads/sites/20/2022/02/24125613/Array-of-solar-panels-on-Srinakarin-lake-near-the-dam-in-Kanchanaburi-province-Thailand-3-768x512.jpg" type="image/jpeg" />
					<guid isPermaLink="false">https://news.mongabay.com/?p=253000</guid>

											<reporting-project>
							<![CDATA[Covering the Commons and Planetary Boundaries]]>
						</reporting-project>
					
											<locations>
							<![CDATA[Global]]>
						</locations>
					
											<topic-tags>
							<![CDATA[Adaptation To Climate Change, Alternative Energy, Bioenergy, Carbon Emissions, Carbon Market, Chemicals, Clean Energy, Climate Change, climate finance, Climate Science, E-waste, Energy, Energy Efficiency, Environment, Green, Lithium, Mining, Politics, Pollution, Rainforests, Renewable Energy, Research, Supply Chain, Sustainable Development, Technology, and Water Pollution]]>
						</topic-tags>
					
					
											<description>
							<![CDATA[Technology-critical elements (TCEs) — vital for wind and solar power and electric cars — are contaminating land and water, impacting biodiversity and health. A circular economy may be the solution.]]>
						</description>
																					<content:encoded>
							<![CDATA[The rapid development of renewable energy technologies — including wind, solar and hydropower, and the commercial success of hybrid and fully electric vehicles — are helping put the world on track to achieve a net-zero carbon economy and meet Paris climate agreement targets. Yet these positive advances rely on a small number of “technology-critical elements,” or TCEs, rare materials whose mining, production and disposal are linked to myriad environmental problems, ranging from large-scale energy and water consumption, to serious soil, water and air pollution. These 30 to 35 TCEs are essential to computers, consumer electronics, solar cells, wind turbines, electric cars, plus military and medical applications. They include the platinum family of precious metals, rare-earth elements such as neodymium and scandium, and other metals such as cobalt, lithium and tungsten. What this diverse grouping has in common isn’t some shared chemistry, but rather its technological necessity and geopolitical scarcity. They especially share indispensable characteristics — the ability to store energy or form permanent magnets, for example — that make them essential for technologies that could help meet the Paris goal of limiting global warming to 2° Celsius (3.6° Fahrenheit) above pre-industrial levels. But the reliance on TCEs to make high-tech green products puts these elements at risk of contributing to the breach of the nine planetary boundaries that demarcate habitable conditions on Earth. Open-pit mines, like this copper and cobalt mine in Zambia, require the clearing of large areas of native vegetation and removal of huge amounts of soil, while&hellip;This article was originally published on <a href="https://news.mongabay.com/2022/03/climate-positive-high-tech-metals-are-polluting-earth-but-solutions-await/" data-wpel-link="internal">Mongabay</a>]]>
						</content:encoded>
										<wfw:commentRss>https://news.mongabay.com/2022/03/climate-positive-high-tech-metals-are-polluting-earth-but-solutions-await/feed/</wfw:commentRss>
					<slash:comments>0</slash:comments>
										<doi>https://doi.org/10.66709/news-253000</doi>				</item>
						<item>
					<title>At a disputed Native massacre site, tribes brace for a new, lithium-driven rush</title>
					<link>https://news.mongabay.com/2022/02/at-a-native-massacre-site-tribes-brace-for-a-new-lithium-driven-rush/</link>
					<comments>https://news.mongabay.com/2022/02/at-a-native-massacre-site-tribes-brace-for-a-new-lithium-driven-rush/#respond</comments>
					<pubDate>23 Feb 2022 17:30:44 +0000</pubDate>
											<dc:creator>
							<![CDATA[Carly Nairn]]>
						</dc:creator>
										<author>
						<![CDATA[Latoya Abulu]]>
					</author>
							<category><![CDATA[Uncategorized]]></category>
										<enclosure url="https://imgs.mongabay.com/wp-content/uploads/sites/20/2022/02/23170345/49793763547_6a8a027064_k-768x512.jpg" type="image/jpeg" />
					<guid isPermaLink="false">https://news.mongabay.com/?p=253005</guid>

											<reporting-project>
							<![CDATA[Indigenous Peoples and Conservation and Land rights and extractives]]>
						</reporting-project>
					
											<locations>
							<![CDATA[North America and United States]]>
						</locations>
					
											<topic-tags>
							<![CDATA[Batteries, Clean Energy, Climate Change, Conservation, Culture, Electric Cars, Energy, Fossil Fuels, Indigenous Peoples, Indigenous Rights, Land Conflict, Land Grabbing, Land Rights, Lithium, Mining, Politics, Renewable Energy, Solar Power, Supply Chain, Technology, and Wildtech]]>
						</topic-tags>
					
					
											<description>
							<![CDATA[On the border of northern Nevada and southeastern Oregon sits a caldera that formed around 16 million years ago through the collapse of a super volcano’s lava dome. Its formation created a soft clay sediment, and within it, one of the largest lithium deposits in the world. The McDermitt Caldera is the proposed site of [&#8230;]]]>
						</description>
																					<content:encoded>
							<![CDATA[On the border of northern Nevada and southeastern Oregon sits a caldera that formed around 16 million years ago through the collapse of a super volcano’s lava dome. Its formation created a soft clay sediment, and within it, one of the largest lithium deposits in the world. The McDermitt Caldera is the proposed site of the Thacker Pass lithium mine, an open-pit operation of Lithium Nevada Corp., a subsidiary of Lithium Americas. The site, in Nevada’s Humboldt county, sits on public land administered by the Bureau of Land Management (BLM). The project is currently in the preconstruction phase, after years of getting federal permits approved, and is expected to have a lifetime of 41 years. While environmental critics of Thacker Pass decry the extractive nature of all mining, proponents point to the expedited need for jobs and fossil fuel alternatives. Arrowleaf balsamroot brings color to the hillsides above the proposed Thacker Pass lithium mine site. Photo courtesy of Max Wilbert. The lithium extracted from Thacker Pass will be used to make lithium-ion batteries, an essential component for a robust domestic supply chain in the production and manufacturing of electric vehicles — the cornerstone of U.S. President Joe Biden’s push to reduce carbon emissions and combat climate change. Thacker Pass is a hotly contested site for some Indigenous people in the region. To some members of the Fort McDermitt Paiute and Shoshone and the Burns Paiute tribes, Thacker Pass is a massacre site and is sacred. It’s also important habitat for&hellip;This article was originally published on <a href="https://news.mongabay.com/2022/02/at-a-native-massacre-site-tribes-brace-for-a-new-lithium-driven-rush/" data-wpel-link="internal">Mongabay</a>]]>
						</content:encoded>
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					<slash:comments>0</slash:comments>
										<doi>https://doi.org/10.66709/news-253005</doi>				</item>
						<item>
					<title>Will Nevada support renewable energy vs biodiversity &#038; Indigenous rights? (commentary)</title>
					<link>https://news.mongabay.com/2021/06/will-nevada-support-renewable-energy-vs-biodiversity-indigenous-rights-commentary/</link>
					<comments>https://news.mongabay.com/2021/06/will-nevada-support-renewable-energy-vs-biodiversity-indigenous-rights-commentary/#respond</comments>
					<pubDate>17 Jun 2021 15:00:04 +0000</pubDate>
											<dc:creator>
							<![CDATA[Max Wilbert]]>
						</dc:creator>
										<author>
						<![CDATA[Erik Hoffner]]>
					</author>
							<category><![CDATA[Uncategorized]]></category>
										<enclosure url="https://imgs.mongabay.com/wp-content/uploads/sites/20/2021/06/17135145/Wildflowers-above-Thacker-Pass-768x512.jpg" type="image/jpeg" />
					<guid isPermaLink="false">https://news.mongabay.com/?p=243815</guid>

					
											<locations>
							<![CDATA[Sierra Nevada and United States]]>
						</locations>
					
											<topic-tags>
							<![CDATA[Biodiversity, Commentary, Energy, Indigenous Peoples, Indigenous Rights, Lithium, Mining, Renewable Energy, and Social Justice]]>
						</topic-tags>
					
					
											<description>
							<![CDATA[Update, 2/2022: The U.S. Bureau of Land Management approved this mine in northern Nevada, despite efforts to protect the sacred site, read more here at Mongabay. Global emissions of carbon dioxide reached 36.8 billion metric tons in 2019, and were on track for the highest levels ever in 2020. But then the coronavirus hit, and the resulting [&#8230;]]]>
						</description>
																					<content:encoded>
							<![CDATA[Update, 2/2022: The U.S. Bureau of Land Management approved this mine in northern Nevada, despite efforts to protect the sacred site, read more here at Mongabay. Global emissions of carbon dioxide reached 36.8 billion metric tons in 2019, and were on track for the highest levels ever in 2020. But then the coronavirus hit, and the resulting economic slowdown caused carbon emissions to fall by 7 percent. Now that the economy is beginning to hum again, oil consumption is rebounding and is projected to surge past pre-pandemic levels. All of this shows how difficult it will be to break our addiction to fossil fuels. Of course, we know the Biden administration has an ambitious $2 trillion climate plan to try to replace fossil fuels with investments in renewable energy, electric vehicles and charging stations, and other infrastructure. But while renewable energy has the potential to reduce our dependence on oil, gas, and coal, at scale it poses its own environmental threats. Fossil fuel extraction and processing is harmful, but renewable energy technologies impact more land to produce a similar amount of energy. For example, the clean energy plan promoted by Stanford Professor Mark Z. Jacobson, a prominent advocate for 100% renewable power in California, would necessitate more than 4,000 square miles of land dedicated to the installation of wind turbines — that is an area four times the size of Yosemite National Park. Members of the Fort McDermitt Paiute Shoshone Tribe protest outside a public meeting in Orovada, Nevada. Photo courtesy of Max Wilbert. In fact,&hellip;This article was originally published on <a href="https://news.mongabay.com/2021/06/will-nevada-support-renewable-energy-vs-biodiversity-indigenous-rights-commentary/" data-wpel-link="internal">Mongabay</a>]]>
						</content:encoded>
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					<slash:comments>0</slash:comments>
										<doi>https://doi.org/10.66709/news-243815</doi>				</item>
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