Yeah But… What About All The Lithium Mining?

This is the third post in my “Yeah But…” series, where I unpack the laziest, loudest, and most persistent excuses thrown around to delay or distract from climate action.

If you missed the others, I’ve already covered:

Yeah But… It’s Made in China and Yeah But… It’s Made With Fossil Fuels

Now we come to a crowd favourite: “Yeah but… what about all the lithium mining?”

It’s often said with a smirk, as if to suggest the entire case for clean energy collapses because batteries aren’t perfect.

So let’s break it down.

1. Yes, lithium mining has impacts. All mining does.

No one serious about climate or justice is denying this. Lithium mining - like all extractive industries - has environmental and social costs. Water use, land disturbance, Indigenous land rights, labour standards: these are real concerns and must be addressed. But here’s the truth: it’s still vastly less destructive than fossil fuel extraction.

2. Lithium is a one-time input. Fossil fuels are burned forever.

You dig up lithium once and put it in a battery that lasts 10–15 years. That battery can then be reused, repurposed, or recycled. Coal and gas? You dig them up, burn them once, and pollute the atmosphere forever. There’s no recycling, no reusing, no way back. And you have to keep doing it every time you need energy.

If we replaced all petrol cars with EVs and powered them with clean electricity, we’d end our need for petrol. That’s the difference: fossil fuels are a habit; lithium is a tool.

3. We need better mining - not more delay.

The right response to the downsides of battery minerals isn’t to stick with coal. It’s to demand stronger safeguards, better recycling, and circular design. And that’s already happening:

• Battery recycling is growing fast (up to 95% of lithium and other metals can now be recovered).

• New chemistries are emerging that use less or no lithium.

• Australia and Europe are building cleaner supply chains.

We can and must mine better. But clean tech mining is solvable. Climate collapse isn’t.

4. If you’re only worried about mining when it’s for batteries, check your motives.

The fossil fuel industry has mined trillions of tonnes of coal, drilled millions of wells, and destroyed ecosystems and communities for decades. But it’s only now - when lithium and rare earths are in the spotlight - that some people suddenly care about land impacts?

If you’ve never protested a coal mine but you’re clutching your pearls about lithium, maybe your concern isn’t about the planet. Maybe it’s about protecting the status quo.

Bottom line:

Mining for clean energy is not perfect. But mining to destroy the climate is much worse.

We should absolutely push for better environmental and human rights standards in lithium, nickel, and cobalt mining. But let’s not pretend that’s a reason to keep burning fossil fuels.

Let me know in the comments what I should write about next in my “Yeah But…” series.