[thehappypm]

A gas car dumping CO2 into the atmosphere contributes to climate change all over the world. Is it fair to the rapidly disappearing Maldives that Americans like gas guzzlers? Hell no. They get all the externalities of worldwide CO2 emissions, even though the Maldives is a tiny producer of carbon. That's not fair.

However, if a Lithium mine in South America opens, and it wrecks and pollutes the land, the same place that bears the costs (the pollution) also gains the benefits (the jobs/revenue from the Lithium). At the very least, it's more fair.

[giantg2]

Sort of, the runoff ends up in the ocean, which would be a global concern too.

[pmiller2]

Wouldn't that depend on how far inland the mine is? Certainly, mining operations tend to pollute groundwater, but I wouldn't expect that a mine that's more than a few miles inland would significantly pollute the ocean via runoff.

[giantg2]

True that it must be relatively close. It's about a 150 mile downstream impact. They also use fossil fuels in the extraction and processing, so it would still impact those islands anyways. It's still a step in the right direction but I can't wait to see economical super capacitors or alternative batteries (love those kinetic/gravity ones for grid storage).