Lithium mine overexploitation to create more electric vehicles is destroying the Tibetan Plateau

Today's planet-saving green transition would not be possible without the help of Lithium-ion batteries, the heart of almost every electric vehicle you'll find on the streets. From Tesla to Ola, most major EV manufacturers use these cells to power their vehicles.

And for good reason too; no other battery type offers the energy, performance and cost efficiency of a lithium-ion. However, even while rooted in essentially a good thing, the race to be the top EV manufacturer is creating trouble in our sustainability paradise.

To make lithium-ion batteries, you require — you guessed it — lithium. This element isn't nearly abundant enough to ensure a frictionless EV transition, leading to vehicle manufacturers scrambling to get their hands on whatever mines can supply the "white gold".

Unfortunately for the Tibetan Plateau, which hosts 85% of China's total lithium reserves, this spells disaster.

Spanning over a large area that includes Ladakh, Spiti, Arunachal Pradesh and Sikkim in India, some parts of China and most of Tibet, the Tibetan Plateau's pristine landscapes harbour fragile ecology. And the actions of China are proving increasingly dangerous for this region, new research has found.

Being the world's biggest EV market, China requires a steady supply of lithium to keep the gears rolling. Unfortunately, this has led to exploitation of the Tibetan Plateau's reserves, leading to Chinese miners polluting the local environment with "quick, cheap and dirty" methods of extracting and processing the material, the report reads.

About 3.6 million tons of China's lithium reserves are found in hard rock deposits in Tibet and adjacent provinces of Sichuan and Qinghai. Environmentally unsafe mining techniques are destroying the region's ecology, especially in biodiverse areas particularly vulnerable to climate change. The study also mentions an incident where mining activity reportedly killed thousands of fish and ruined grasslands that the Tibetan herders were dependent on.

Further, Tibetan locals are rarely ever informed that their hill pastures are being sold away or worked upon, leading to exacerbated tensions between Tibetans and China, and a worsening of rights violations.

The report outlined that international EV firms are also indirectly adding to the crisis. Pressure from massive EV carmakers such as Tesla and BYD for a steady flow of lithium ensures that the region's treacherous mining escapes continue in full, unabated swing.

As the demand for faster and better EVs continues to spike, so will the mining operations and the toll on Tibet. With China's growing tensions with western importers, a rush for self-reliance could further exacerbate this burden on the region — something that needs to be checked immediately.