Why a Chilean salt flat is a microcosm of the extractive frontiers of green capitalism

AI Summary

Lithium extraction in Chile’s Atacama Desert is presented as an example of the social and environmental costs of supplying minerals for the green transition. The article describes the region’s high-altitude landscape and examines tensions surrounding extractive development.

In the Atacama desert, the extraction of lithium – so crucial to addressing the climate crisis – comes with escalating social and environmental costs A high-altitude desert plateau traverses Argentina, Bolivia and Chile. I am on the Chilean side, sitting in a Jeep along with two other researchers. The afternoon air is thin and brisk but the sun is piercing – a combination I am familiar with from years of living and travelling in South America’s Andean range. The landscape is a study in contrasts and contours: broad basins suddenly cut off by sweeping curves; flat expanses sliced by near vertical ascents. The Licancabur volcano looms large above us. Vegetation and humidity levels change rapidly with the rising altitude, bringing cooler temperatures, wetter air and denser plant life. Continue reading...