Expert Article Final

False Advertising
Why electric cars are not the green solution they seem to be

Extravagant, elegant, exotic – all words to describe flamingos, one of the biggest birds on the planet. Now, imagine a world where human actions cause the deaths of this majestic animal. Would you do everything you could to prevent it?

Some people would not. “Every electric car, Tesla or otherwise, matters to the environment… Every time someone chooses electric, the future gets a little bit brighter!” Tesla CEO Elon Musk tweeted, implying that electric vehicles are a saving grace for our environmental problems. Little do his followers know that electric cars actually negatively affect the environment, especially flamingo habitats.

From Production to the Grid to the Roads

Electric vehicles work like the laptops we use everyday. We charge them and the electricity from the charge powers a battery that runs all the other parts. Many people praise electric vehicles because their batteries produce zero carbon emissions during driving. Say goodbye to gas-fueled cars that breathe out greenhouse emissions every time we step on the pedal. 

Unfortunately, the view that electric cars solve climate change problems is too narrow. This view only considers the actual car driving aspect and not what it takes to produce the car and then power it. These processes demand environmentally harmful actions.

Making the Electric Car

So what does it take to produce an electric car? The answer is lithium, a rare metal used to produce electric car batteries. Lithium is a non-renewable metal, meaning that people must mine it from the earth, like coal mining. Specifically, people pump freshwater down into drilled salt beds to force minerals and salts to the surface. From these transported elements, an evaporation process takes place and lithium is extracted.

So why is this lithium mining process harmful? Because miners need more water than you could ever imagine for a small amount of lithium. To produce one ton of lithium, miners need about 2.2 million liters of water. According to current lithium mining capabilities, that equals 22 million liters of water in one day (Campbell). To put this into perspective, that’s enough water to fit into 9 Olympic sized swimming pools – for only one day! (How Much) In comparison, coal mining only requires 250 liters of water to produce one ton (Moon). If you’re doing the math, that’s a 99.999% reduction in water consumption.

Even though society views battery power as much better than coal, this statistic shows how there are more sides to the story. A tradeoff for low carbon emissions means high water consumption.

And it gets worse. 75% of the world’s lithium reserves exist in only three countries, exacerbating the environmental effects in these regions (Ahmad). Known as the “Lithium Triangle,” Chile, Argentina, and Bolivia are already the driest places on Earth. In Chile’s Salar de Atacama,” lithium extraction companies consumed 65% of the region’s water supply” (Ahmad). This created “extreme water shortages for local residents and had a substantial impact on the abilities of local farmers to grow crops and maintain livestock” (Ahmad).

All of this leads to the depletion or contamination of resources for animal habitats, like the flamingo’s. In Salar de Atacama, researchers discovered the loss of 10% of James’ flamingos and 12% of Andean flamingos. Overall globally, flamingo numbers haven’t dropped, only in Salar de Atacama where Chile’s major lithium mining reserves are (Osborne). According to the study, flamingos are key species in the lakes’ ecosystems because they help regulate tropic processes. This shows how lithium affects the entire food cycle even though it may only cause the extinction of one species. 

This all leads to the question – how many more animals need to die to produce electric car batteries?

Charging the Electric Car 

Unsurprisingly, the charging process for electric car batteries is equally problematic. We get electricity from a system known as the electric grid, which is a network of large power plants and power lines. The power plants generate the electricity and then transmit it through the power lines to an end destination, like a house or charging station. But how do the power plants generate electricity? In the end, everything comes back to fossil fuels. According to the U.S. Energy Information Administration, 61% of electricity generation comes from fossil fuels, specifically coal, natural gas, and petroleum. (“What is U.S…”). That means electric cars still lead to carbon emission production. To summarize the process, electric cars require electricity to run, but electricity generation requires fossil fuels, meaning that electric cars depend on fossil fuel use. Because fossil fuels release carbon emissions, the claim that electric cars are fully net-zero emissions is false. Additionally, the current electric grid can't even produce enough electricity to power widespread electric car use. According to the Washington Post, by 2030, the U.S. “will need to invest as much as $125 billion in the [electric] grid to allow it to handle electric vehicles” (Englund). Even today, the electric grid fails in times of stress, most recently shown by the California heat wave, which caused statewide power outages. Thankfully, the U.S. government recognized this problem and devised a plan to expand the electric grid. Not thankfully, parts of this plan include the destruction of nature to build power plants and lines. In upstate New York, Avangrid Renewables is building wind turbines to increase New York electric grid capacity. Avangrid placed the wind turbines across the “state’s third-largest forest” despite local resident objections, and “cut more than 10 miles of [tracts] to connect the turbines” (Englund). In my opinion, it doesn’t make sense to cut down forests to power electric cars.

Avangrid is only one example of how the need for electric grid expansion because of electric cars indirectly leads to environmental harm. As energy companies look to build bigger power plants, they will want large areas of free lands, which are often nature reserves. Looking Towards the Future Tackling the climate change problem is the most important movement that will happen in this generation. But this cannot happen at the expense of fragile ecosystems and living beings that depend on their habitats for survival. Although electric vehicles are a solution to reducing carbon emissions during driving, their full environmental impact is something we must consider when choosing a long-term climate change solution.

Works Cited

How much water does an Olympic sized swimming pool hold, https://www.patagoniaalliance.org/wp-content/uploads/2014/08/How-much-water-does-an-Olympic-sized-swimming-pool-hold.pdf. Accessed 21 September 2022.

Ahmad, Samar. “The Lithium Triangle: Where Chile, Argentina, and Bolivia Meet.” Harvard International Review, 15 January 2020, https://hir.harvard.edu/lithium-triangle/. Accessed 21 September 2022.

Campbell, Maeve. “South America's 'lithium fields' reveal the dark side of electric cars.” Euronews, 12 September 2022, https://www.euronews.com/green/2022/02/01/south-america-s-lithium-fields-reveal-the-dark-side-of-our-electric-future. Accessed 21 September 2022.

Englund, Will. “The electric car future is coming fast, but the power grid isn’t ready.” The Washington Post, 13 October 2021, https://www.washingtonpost.com/business/2021/10/13/electric-vehicles-grid-upgrade/. Accessed 30 September 2022.

Moon, Ellen. “Why do coal mines need so much water?” Phys.org, 13 April 2017, https://phys.org/news/2017-04-coal.html. Accessed 21 September 2022.

Osborne, Margaret. “Mining Lithium for Electric Vehicle Batteries May Threaten Flamingos, a Study Finds.” Smithsonian Magazine, 16 March 2022, https://www.smithsonianmag.com/smart-news/mining-lithium-for-electric-vehicle-batteries-may-threaten-flamingos-a-study-finds-180979741/. Accessed 21 September 2022.

“What is U.S. electricity generation by energy source?” Frequently Asked Questions (FAQs), U.S. Energy Information Administration (EIA), 4 March 2022, https://www.eia.gov/tools/faqs/faq.php?id=427&t=3. Accessed 30 September 2022.