No doubt that mining lithium has negative impacts, but those negative impacts feel localized in a way that can in principle be mitigated and cleaned up, and though bad for local communities, it doesn’t pose existential risk. This is in stark contrast to the fossil fuel cycle which distributes pollution globally into the atmosphere, and will be tremendously difficult to undo.
Untouched National Parks don't bounce back to pre mine status so that's a Yes to "in principle" but a No to "in practice".
Lithium exploration drilling near Litchfield National Park raises sustainability questions [1]
> University of Queensland professor of conservation science James Watson says that mining associated with renewable energy could cover about 50 million square kilometres of the Earth's surface by 2050.
> His prediction is startling.
> "About 10 per cent will be in national parks and protected areas, another 7 or so per cent will be in areas that have been identified as critical biodiversity areas to sustain species and stop extinction, and a further 15 per cent or so will be in our last remaining wilderness on the planet," he said.
I've spent a few decades in mineral exploration, in geophysics and in mapping global mineral and energy resources.
We have some real issues to sort out going forward with respect to resource extraction and the rights of indigenous people and wilderness.
What percentage of national parks will be affected by climate change? I see your point but if we have two bad options and one is absolutely worse than the other, making them look equivalent because they have some environmental impact is not helpful to protecting as much if the environment as possible.
A surprisingly high percentage in National Parks globally (ie. many different jurisdictions) that are also (or adjacent to) indigenous lands with various treaties and contracts.
eg: The US has one ~$64 billion copper resource (leased to Anglo - Australians) in native lands [1] which is an as yet unresolved and sizeable can of worms, and that's barely the start of the list (although it is the largest global pending copper project).
There's a nice GIS directory of such things that we (here in W.Australia) compiled a decade ago (along with automation to run it forward) that's now a bit paywalled [2]
