One of the cornerstones of the green new deal is the switch from gasoline powered autos to electric vehicles. Perhaps the most important component of contemporary EV's is the battery which supplies the energy. The most important part of the battery is the lithium which facilitates energy storage.
Climate change deniers are quick to point out it takes tons of ore refined at great cost to produce each lithium car battery. That is their excuse to continue extracting fossil fuels and burning them and the planet. I found out that up to a third of the lithium now used in battery production comes from the Atacama plain in northern Chile. This high and dry area in the Andes mountains has been home to an indigenous population for thousands of years. It has been oppressed from the time of the Spanish conquest of the Incas and now it looks like it will happen again, along with the environmental degradation inherent in the mining industry.
It looks like the first world will get its shiny new electric vehicles and once again native populations will pay the price, whether in Chile, Bolivia or the Congo.
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