Exploring the Atacama Desert and Its Lithium-rich Evaporation Pools

This is the second episode of a five-part series exploring the lithium-ion battery supply chain. If you haven’t listened to the first episode, we recommend you start there.

To produce enough batteries to reach global net-zero goals, the International Energy Agency says we'll need to increase production of critical minerals by six fold by 2040. It's a monumental task. 

It can feel like a contradictory mission. To save the planet, we have to mine more minerals; but mining and processing those minerals increases emissions and often negatively impacts indigenous communities and the environment. 

In this episode, we start at the beginning of the battery supply chain: lithium mining. 

We’ll ask why so much rides on where and how we source lithium, and whether we can balance growing demand with local communities and the land.