Opinion: Atacama Desert faces challenges with lithium extraction for electric cars.
In one of the driest places on Earth, the paradox of our time beats. There, beneath an endless white crust, lies the “white gold” of the future. They call it lithium because it is the base of batteries that power electric cars, phones, computers, and even renewable energy storage systems. But what is extracted is much more than a mineral.
### A Strategic Resource in an Extreme Landscape
Atacama, a region in Chile, has led lithium exports for two decades due to its rich reserves. Lithium is obtained by pumping brines from underground and letting them evaporate in gigantic rectangular pools that paint the landscape in impossible turquoise and green hues.
However, this process consumes billions of liters of water each year in an ecosystem where every drop is vital. It not only depletes water sources but also transforms the surface: land sections sink, ancient carob trees die, and the lagoons that feed the flamingos inevitably shrink.
### The Ecological Cost of White Gold
The biologist Faviola González, from the Chilean National Reserve, warns that the flamingo population has significantly decreased in the last decade. A report from the Natural Resources Defense Council confirms that nearly a third of native carob trees began to die from 2013 onwards.
It’s not just a matter of extracting a valuable resource but of a fragile ecosystem dependent on microscopic balances. Each massive extraction of brine disrupts these balances. And although lithium travels to Europe, China, or the United States to fuel electric mobility, the environmental impact remains in Atacama.
