Image by Liz Carrigan and Safa, with visual elements from Alessandro Cripsta, used with permission.

This article was written by Liz Carrigan for the series ‘Digitized Divides’ originally published on tacticaltech.org. An edited version is republished by Global Voices under a partnership agreement.

Climate change has been documented by scientists in one way or another for centuries. Already in the early 1800s, French physicist Joseph Fourier argued that human-made greenhouse emissions could change the climate. Since Fourier’s initial arguments, scientists in the past 200 years have expanded upon his work as the earth’s climate condition has become more dire and urgent, but the greenhouse effect, in particular, has not been discredited. Researchers in the 2024 “State of the Climate Report” warned: “We are on the brink of an irreversible climate disaster. This is a global emergency beyond any doubt. Much of the very fabric of life on Earth is imperiled. We are stepping into a critical and unpredictable new phase of the climate crisis.”

To mitigate the escalating impacts of climate change, it is crucial to cut down on greenhouse gas emissions, and quickly. This requires a shift in energy production, moving away from fossil fuels toward sustainable energy. Lithium-ion batteries have been determined to be central to the “green energy” transformation, as they reduce emissions in both the transportation and energy industries. Mining plays a vital role in this shift to renewable energy, supplying raw materials for various technologies, from batteries for devices to electric vehicles. China is considered the undisputed leader of rare-mineral mining, a sector that has even shifted from land-based to deep-sea mining.

While the most urgent reason for transitioning to renewable energy is the survival of all species on this planet, there is also an economic dimension. In the face of increasing wars and low private-sector investment, countries like Germany have entered recession. The acceleration of the renewable energy transition is, in part, an attempt to address these economic crises. As with copper, lithium is another mineral critical to the transition away from a fossil fuel-based economy.

Extracting lithium… and land

The distinction between traditional and renewable energy sectors is not yet clear-cut. While there is significant variation among producers, mineral extraction still relies on fossil fuels, especially as deposits are found in increasingly remote and deeper locations. As Martín Arboleda highlights in “Planetary Mine,” mining continues to depend heavily on traditional energy sources, a dependency that is only expected to grow. A 2024 UN report predicts that global mining of raw materials will increase by 60 percent by 2060. To give an idea of the material requirements of electric cars, the same report suggests that the mineral requirements of electric vehicles are between 6 and 10 times those of combustion engines.

It is no coincidence that most of the world’s lithium production, except in Australia and Portugal, takes place in the countries of the global majority. Latin America has a long history of resource extraction. With over 80 percent of lithium projects and more than half of copper, zinc, and nickel projects located on Indigenous peoples’ lands, it is crucial to consider human rights in the context of the “green” transition.

Over a decade, the Business and Human Rights Resource Centre recorded more than 600 alleged human rights abuses directly linked to extracting transition materials, most of them occurring in Africa, and Central and South America. Researchers wrote that “despite its framing, the language of green transition is also being used to hide and “greenwash” intensified militarism, including on Europe’s borders, with so called critical “green” raw materials ending up servicing the needs of the booming arms and security industry.” Just like the traditional energy sector, mining renewable energy materials is not without human rights violations and environmental problems. While most people can pinpoint the social and environmental harms of fossil fuels (both at the site of extraction and at the point of combustion), there is growing concern over mining for renewable energy materials.

In northern Chile lies the Salar de Atacama, a delicate desert ecosystem that is home to unique species found nowhere else on Earth — a biodiversity hotspot. Indigenous communities, such as the Lickanantay people, have also inhabited Atacama for more than 11,000 years. Chile is the world’s second-largest lithium producer. In particular, within Atacama, the lithium extraction, with its immense demand for water, is profoundly transforming the landscape. Brine is drawn from beneath the desert alongside fresh water, placing increasing strain on the salt flats and the fragile ecosystem.

Over time, local communities have witnessed the toll this extraction has taken, with satellite images now revealing a sinking landscape. While deserts are often depicted as barren and devoid of water, it is not only essential for the survival of inhabitants and the environment but also deeply woven into the cultural and spiritual life of the Lickanantay people. “It's the richness of the culture and community spirit that's disappearing. It's not like it was before, and it'll never be like it used to be. I don't see such a bright future anymore,” said a 72-year-old member of the Indigenous community. Concerns about the sharing of natural resources even prompted Chileans to rethink their economic model, leading to a national referendum on whether this issue should be written into the constitution.

Is an immaterial tech utopia really possible?

Just as AI and other digital technologies are portrayed as immaterial, the sheer volume and scale of mining required for the renewable energy transition and its environmental impact are often minimised or overshadowed by hype and promises of sustainability, without paying attention to who benefits and who loses out. Those who own multiple gadgets and drive electric cars are a very different group of people from the communities that live (or used to live) where mines are situated.

When it comes to the finished product, the benefits of these technologies are far from equally shared. Communities living near mines often bear the brunt of pollution, environmental degradation, and the economic instability brought by boom-and-bust cycles, while end-users and proprietors enjoy the economic and environmental gains. In 2025, a dam holding acidic waste from a Chinese-owned copper mine in Zambia collapsed, with disastrous consequences. The stream, which links to a significant river providing water to five million people, was contaminated; local wildlife, including fish and birds, died. Nickel mining in Indonesia has left local communities in Bahodopi struggling to sustain themselves and fighting off widespread respiratory infections. Human Rights Watch’s declaration for COP26 highlights how lithium mining is frequently linked to environmental destruction, freshwater contamination, and the loss of livelihoods for local communities: “A truly clean, just and equitable energy economy will require […] that the move to clean energy doesn’t recreate the same systems it aims to destroy and helps to build climate change solutions that put communities, workers and the environment first.”

Similarly, in another publication by Human Rights Watch “If Electric Cars are the Future, Let’s Make Them Responsibly,” researcher Jim Wormington calls for stricter regulations to prevent human rights abuses, such as land displacement and environmental harm, in lithium-rich regions. “Car companies should be required to map and disclose the mines and refineries in their supply chain, conduct and review rigorous third-party assessments of mines and refineries’ respect for human rights and the environment, and ensure that they take corrective action to respond to abuses.”

These examples underline a troubling global trend: while resource extraction fuels technological progress and profits for distant stakeholders, the burden is disproportionately borne by those living closest to the mines.

To complicate things even further, not only does the production phase of electric cars create high emissions, but companies such as Tesla generate profits through selling carbon emissions credits. Regulatory incentives allow companies like Tesla to acquire and sell offset credits they receive but do not need. Carbon offsets are theoretically one way that you can “offset” the carbon used in one activity, (like flying) by purchasing credits to have emissions reduced somewhere else. It has been shown that many of these “climate-positive” offsetting projects have removed Indigenous people from their lands. “41 percent of Cambodia’s surface has nature reserve status, but the country boasts one of the highest deforestation rates in the world [exemplifying] how protected areas that are not community-led fail to benefit either people or nature.”

Often framed as “conservation” efforts, these initiatives frequently rely on narratives that depict certain lands as empty or “sparsely populated,” justifying their use for “green” energy projects while ignoring the existing communities, cultures, and ecosystems already present. The reality of rare-earth minerals and the means of mining for it, results in massive barren footprints that our planet may not recover from.