Many climate experts see its deserts as a place to build the green-energy future. For two local activists, the price is too great.
Their work highlights the difficult calculus stakeholders must grapple with as they confront climate change. To help prevent catastrophic global warming that will devastate ecosystems, the nation needs to build renewable-energy infrastructure. Domestically mined lithium is crucial to that infrastructure, green-energy advocates say, even if it means the prospect of destruction in parts of southwest Nevada. “There’s always a trade-off,” says Mark Jacobson, a Stanford University professor of civil and environmental engineering who studies energy. “But we have to do something. And the cleanest thing to do is add solar, to add wind, and that will replace much dirtier fossil fuels.”