All your whatever we want are belong to us 4

Comments View as Flat

1. 

   Gar Lipow Posted 5:18 am
   03 Feb 2009

   NY Times also missed an important storyIn addition to the attitude problem that the resources are ours by right, the Times also missed an important conflict going on in Bolivia. Morales, and the current party in power does want to sell minerals and resources. They just want a better price, and maximum Bolivian participation and ownership. But many of Morales supporters don't want the mining at all, and many others want real local veto power.

   Permalink

2. 

   amazingdrx Posted 7:34 am
   03 Feb 2009

   LithiumCorporate imperialism being what it is...
   I think that nano tech lead/acid graphite batteries might make this moot, as far as cars and utility scale battery storage (distributed in each building).  It's possible.
   Lithium will still be a device battery, power tools, high end sports cars, computers..  but the big storage solution could be cheap lead graphite and acid, boosted to hihger density and cycling life with nano tech.
   Locals should demand lithium battery recycling plants be built in the area so they will have jobs once the mining is done.  Solar powered recycling plants, that power up the local power grid too.  Demand long term green investment in return for resource development.
   
   http://amazngdrx.blogharbor.com/blog John Schneider, Northern Wisconsin

   Permalink

3. 

   Bart Anderson Posted 8:23 am
   03 Feb 2009

   Peak lithiumMany of the same ideas surrounding peak oil can be applied to lithium.
   One famous motto can be rearranged thus: What is OUR lithium doing under THEIR altiplano desert?
   Keith Johnson who keeps the Energy Capital blog on the Wall Street Journal continues the comparison: Concerns about global supplies of lithium are a lot like the debate over peak oil. Some experts believe the huge increase in electric cars will actually strain the world's lithium supplies in a few years; as with peak oil, "above-ground" factors like Bolivia's politics may be just as critical as geology. Other experts figure lithium supplies are ample and exploding demand will just juice more lithium exploration, as happened with oil.
   Peak Lithium: Will Supply Fears Drive Alternative Batteries?
   
   Bart
   
   
   Energy Bulletin

   Permalink

4. 

   biodiversivist Posted 9:03 am
   03 Feb 2009

   Bolivia can choose to do it right, do it wrong, ornot do it at all. It's their call. If they choose to keep their lithium, they may find that they just threw a winning lottery ticket away if a battery that does not use it wins the competition because of the high price of lithium.
   My bet is that Bolivian power brokers will eventually mine it like a gold rush, polluting and destroying the landscape, using and abusing the people who will move to the area looking for jobs, displacing the locals. Indigenous people are feeling the heat everywhere because they sit on natural resources others want. An ancient story that repeats itself like a broken record. Just listened to a book about how Chief Joseph and his people were chased off their land.
   
   In the end, it all comes down to biodiversity. Poison Darts--Protecting the biodiversity of our world

   Permalink