Posted on 09/17/2022 4:40:34 AM PDT by lowbridge
Conservationists are seeking Endangered Species Act protection for a tiny snail half the size of a pea that is known to exist only in high-desert springs near a huge lithium mine planned in Nevada along the Oregon state line.
The Western Watersheds Project filed the listing petition last week with the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service for the Kings River pyrg, a springsnail found in 13 isolated springs around Thacker Pass 200 miles (321 kilometers) northeast of Reno.
It says the biggest threat to the snail’s survival is disruption of groundwater flows as a result of the 370-foot-deep (113-meter), open-pit mine that the Bureau of Land Management approved last year and is currently being challenged in U.S. District Court in Reno.
Other threats to the snail's survival include livestock grazing, road construction and climate change, the petition said.
“Federal land managers put this aquatic snail in the crosshairs of extinction by hastily approving large-scale lithium mining at Thacker Pass,” said Erik Molvar, executive director of the Idaho-based group.Ramped-up domestic production of lithium is key to President Joe Biden’s blueprint for a greener future, a critical element for electric vehicle batteries. Worldwide demand for lithium is projected to increase six-fold by 2030 compared with 2020.
Molvar, a wildlife biologist, agrees the nation must “transition from the dirty fossil fuels that are responsible for climate change" but not by mining in sensitive habitats.
“We have a responsibility as a society to avoid wreaking ecological havoc as we shift to renewable technologies.” he said.
(Excerpt) Read more at abcnews.go.com ...
/eyeroll
Enviroweenies wrecking Greenies plans. Irony.
The age old dilemma. Save the earth by using battery powered cars, or save a snail. I wonder which will win.
Use their morals against them - Saul Alynski
We don’t need no lithium mine wrecking our environment. Buy the lithium from China and, as a bonus, the “big guy” will get his 10% cut.
We don’t need no lithium mine wrecking our environment. Buy the lithium from China and, as a bonus, the “big guy” will get his 10% cut.
I guess “endangered species” only reside in the USA. The rest of the world is bereft of them.
“Joe Biden’s blueprint for a greener future, a critical element for electric vehicle batteries”
Biden’s blueprint is to enrichine China. (IMO). They have or control 100% of lithium production. Follow the money to the Biden crime syndicate. Poor Joe can’t depend on fake news propaganda to sell his narrative anymore.
How many times have we heard this story before?
The snail. That way, people in the U.S. won’t have any cars at all.
This is as predictable as the sun rising in the east.
Yet these same Leftists say nothing about windmills killing thousands of eagles every year.
A species that cannot adapt is subject to extinction.
Permitting those that cannot adapt to conditions beyond their wild habitat is against the natural order
The snail, every time. There never was a plan for the US to be self-sufficient in lithium.
If you really want to recover LARGE amounts of lithium, extract it from the lithium salts dissolved in sea water. In fact, mining the sea for most metallic elements is a perhaps more practical and cost-effective way to extract minerals than grubbing holes in the earth, and fighting the environmentalists for the necessary permits and the mitigation measures.
How do we extract metallic elements from sea water? By evaporating large amounts with the application of a lot of heat, then by progressive fractional crystallization of the much more concentrated brine. There are very definite striations of the various minerals, which can be identified by the point at which they crystallize, and they may then simply be scooped up between the striation lines.
And how do we get the heat? Well, sunlight comes to mind, but for really LOTS of heat, the use of nuclear reactors to provide the heat to boil down the brine goes a lot faster. Also, a condensation tower above the plume of steam coming off, to capture the now distilled water, provides potable water either for human use, or irrigation of crops in desert lands.
The water problem for coastal California is solved, and the lithium and cobalt supply problem for the manufacture of the playtime electric vehicles is also solved. With that much nuclear power on tap, a portion may be used to generate a huge baseline electric power for the grid to keep all those electric vehicles charged up.
This can work, but first Californians must embrace nuclear power.
This is why first-world countries prefer lithium mining be done out of sight in China or Congo.
The glowing chemical soup in the tailing ponds doesn't just "go away."
Nevada Ping!
To add your name to the growing Nevada ping list, FReepmail me...
This case will work it’s way slowly though the courts. :-)
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