.jpg)
Lithium is a key component of the lithium-ion batteries that power phones, laptops, tablets, electric bikes, and electric and hybrid cars and buses. There is also increasing interest in lithium-ion batteries for stabilizing the intermittent supply of electricity from renewable energy sources such as wind and solar.
There is thus increasing global demand for inexpensive sources of lithium, driven both by increasing consumption of these technologies and by concerns for a shift towards “decarbonization” of transport and energy supplies as a measure to mitigate climate change and other environmental issues associated with fossil fuels.
Accumulated over millennia, the salt flats (salares) of Argentina, Bolivia, and Chile hold significant reserves of this key mineral, and as such, there is increasing interest in expanding extraction of lithium in these areas. The salt flats and surrounding territories are often described as deserts or “wastelands”, yet they are homes to politically and culturally marginalized groups of indigenous people who use the salt flats and surrounding territories for their livelihoods, as well as to diverse species of flora and fauna, notably vicu?a, an Andean camelid.
Lithium extraction and refinement and the construction of lithium batteries pose, certainly, a number of technical issues. Less attention however has been drawn to the social, cultural, and political implications of lithium extraction at the local and broader scales. In fact, little is known about the effects of lithium extraction on local socio-ecological systems, water, and local livelihoods. Lithium extraction has excited mixed reactions and brought competing visions of the future into confrontation at local, national, and global scales.
What are the current and potential social and environmental impacts of lithium extraction at the local level in these areas, particularly on freshwater and on livelihoods in the territories surrounding the salt flats? How are the negative impacts and potential benefits distributed between different actors (the state, private lithium mining companies, local populations) and across spaces and scales? How are these patterns negotiated and how are conflicts addressed? How does lithium extraction fit (or not) into the livelihoods, perceptions, hopes and fears of local communities? What role does lithium play in discourses at the global, national, and local levels (for example, on climate change, decarbonization, energy transitions, national development)? How do European and particularly Nordic countries, with goals for renewable energy and electrified mobility, but also geostrategic interests in protecting access to lithium resources, domestic automobile production, and contending with the dominant role of China in controlling battery supply chains, fit into the picture? These and many more questions are waiting to be explored.
Interested students are invited to contact me at morgans@sosgeo.uio.no. I am working on an ongoing research project on related themes with other researchers in Switzerland, Argentina, Bolivia, and Chile.
Potential Supervisor
Morgan Scoville-Simonds
Potential partners
Centre for International Environmental Studies, Graduate Institute, Geneva
Partner universities in Argentina, Bolivia, and Chile.