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Europe's mining quest faces a hurdle: angry locals (www.reuters.com)

submitted 1 year ago by [email protected] to c/[email protected]

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In Portugal's northern Barroso region, Maria Loureiro weeps at the prospect of losing her family's land to a mine that could become one of Europe's biggest producers of lithium, used in electric vehicle batteries and other clean technologies.

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[–] [email protected] 5 points 1 year ago (2 children)

well lady, did you also weep when thousands of people in the rest of the world had their family's land turned into mines? or did you not even think about that and just merrily enjoyed using devices with batteries?

[–] crushyerbones 4 points 1 year ago (1 children)

Why does this have to be a race to the bottom? Just because some people were expelled from their homes doesn't mean we have a moral right to keep doing it to everyone.

[–] [email protected] 6 points 1 year ago* (last edited 1 year ago) (1 children)

it's going to continue to happen whether you like it or not, people aren't going to stop demanding batteries.

Best to at least have it happen in countries where the evicted people are actually compensated and we can regulate the mining operations, and where we will directly feel the impacts of our insistence on overconsumption.

It's real easy to sit in comfort and say that things should magically stop being bad, but unfortunately that's not possible and the only way people are going to stop being evicted for mining is if we stop needing the minerals underground to build phones, and people clearly aren't willing to give up our modern comforts..

[–] crushyerbones 1 points 1 year ago (1 children)

I agree with your points but this isn't a case of "regretfully, the only place where we can extract lithium is right here, no where else on the planet has it. You guys have to move for the greater well being of mankind". It's just a place where we can pump it out cheaper.

[–] [email protected] 1 points 1 year ago

Indeed. There are many locations for Lithium, it's very abundant, so it definitely isn't the only place it can be extracted. Australia, Chile and North America also have huge deposits. It's definitely not the only place.

[–] [email protected] 3 points 1 year ago

Displace those people who have even less than us on another continent where we can't see or hear their suffering while we buy the next iPhone.

I bet you these people will keep buying new phones and things made from what's gained from the mines.