IN JUNE 2021, A HEAT DOME PULVERIZED MY hometown of Portland, Oregon, delivering an almost psychedelically high temperature of 116°F, killing 69 people, and smashing any illusions that the Pacific Northwest offered a relative haven from the scourge of a warming planet.
We now know that if Oregon hopes to avoid another heat dome, or if California hopes to dampen wildfires, or if Florida hopes to stanch the rise of coastal sea waters, we need to harness the elements of greener energy. Fortunately, some of the brightest scientific minds are striving to reap these elements from the grist of crisis.
Those earth-saving elements are literally that, elements. Lithium tops the list, along with cobalt, nickel, and manganese. Those four metals form the cathodes-the source of lithium ions-in lithium-ion batteries. Not far behind are the likes of tungsten, gold, and rare-earth metals.
These are all elements that power virtually every vehicle, device, and tool enlisted in the effort to decarbonize our lives, and in the long term, divert climate catastrophes.
But most of us have overlooked or missed that these foundational materials for so many green technologies currently come at a steep environmental cost. For example, with every pound of lithium that's mined, 15 pounds of CO₂ gets emitted in the process. In addition, most lithium battery factories run on coal power-which emits nearly twice the greenhouse gases of even natural gas-before the batteries are shipped halfway around the world.
To make our situation worse, the supply-chain snarls of the last three years have cut the stock of green components, especially lithium batteries, just as their demand is skyrocketing. By 2030, the market for lithium batteries is projected to increase by a factor of 5 to 10. This would be great news if we had enough lithium-or cobalt and other key elements and less carbon-intensive methods for processing it.
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