The drama of the Atacama Desert in Chile, already with scarce amounts of water, is deepened by the extraction of lithium.
This is a highly invasive activity that puts at risk the fragile ecosystem of the desert, its wildlife, and the livelihoods of the indigenous people who live there.
In addition to this, the exploitation of other elements such as copper or potassium, which also require water in the process, adds to the problem.
The drama of the Atacama Desert: excess lithium extraction
What happens with salt flats facing lithium extraction.
Lithium mining consumes unsustainable amounts of water and also pollutes the environment.
This directly complicates the survival of the Atacameño Lickanantay people, whose territory includes this desert as part of their ancestral heritage, as established through the rights granted by the Indigenous Law 19.253 to the State of Chile.
Therefore, the survival and way of life of these people depend on sustainable agriculture, livestock breeding, and harvesting.
The salt flat of the desert and its central importance
Another key point is that salt flats, like other ecosystems, can become extinct.
“Salt flats are aquatic ecosystems that in the past were large lakes, large paleolakes, that over time evaporated, dried up, and also separated from each other,” explained Cristina Dorador, Bachelor of Science with a major in Biology from the University of Chile (2002) and Ph.D. in Natural Sciences from the University of Kiel.
“These legacies of ancient lakes are located in northern Argentina, northern Chile, and southern Bolivia, and are crucial for the place where they are because we are talking about a very arid area, especially in the Chilean part, like the Atacama Desert, therefore, they are the water reservoirs of the Andes,” she said in dialogue with Mongabay Latam.
“At least in the Chilean part, the Salar de Atacama is the cradle of the Lickanantay Atacameña nation, from which a millenary culture has developed for over 11,000 years,” Dorador insisted. “That’s why they are crucial for people’s lives, especially in agricultural and livestock practices,” she added.
Can we move forward in an energy transition without this lithium extraction?
In the same article, the specialist considered the problems caused by lithium extraction for countries rich in this mineral, in the face of the need to use it for the transition.
“Electromobility has been one of the alternatives that most countries have pushed for, for which lithium batteries are required,” she said. “The issue, I believe, is that the magnitude of obtaining lithium from fragile and unique ecosystems such as salt flats has not been considered,” Dorador said.
The expert considered that this issue is not incorporated into the equation when discussing energy transition. “That’s why this topic is rarely discussed locally. For example, why do we need lithium? Because if we are only thinking about replacing fossil fuel cars with electric cars, there is not even enough lithium on the planet,” she pointed out.
“Also, little is included in this conversation about planetary boundaries and again the effects that occur at a local level. The destruction of biodiversity is also a topic linked to the climate crisis,” she emphasized.
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