Lithium: The "Miracle" Mineral | Javiera Barandiaran

Planet: Critical February 12, 2026

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In the age of the energy transition, Lithium is our miracle mineral, the key to carbon-free energy storage and unlimited, cheap, harmless power. This belief has prompted a massive mining boom all over the world, destabilising ecosystems, communities, and even governance. But this is nothing new. In fact, the history of Lithium tells the same tale over and over again: the solution to our world problems is always more mining.

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Javiera Barandiaran, associate professor at the University of California in Santa Barbara and author of Living Minerals: Nature, Trade and Power in the Race for Lithium , researches the history of critical minerals and how resource rushes to secure them have shaped political discourse and economic policy. On this episode, she explains the surprising history of lithium, the narrative of Lithium as a cure-all, the reality of Lithium mining in Latin America and its devastating effects and how communities are fighting back. Finally, we discuss the possibility of sustainable mining, with Javiera insisting we have always mined, the problem is that no matter how much mining we do, we're never going to find the dream of unlimited, free power we are desperately clinging onto.

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