The Lithium future

Chris Aherne
Mr. Ippolito
Core Bio
5-8-19

Gramling, Carolyn. “The Search for New Geologic Sources of Lithium Could Power a Clean Future.” Science News, 7 May 2019, www.sciencenews.org/article/search-new-geologic-sources-lithium-could-power-clean-future?tgt=nr.

Ever since the cars conception in 1893, humans have begun to rely on this piece of technology. However, we did not know that the fuel, that would later power every car across the planet, would not be a sustainable source of energy. From its high price to its destructive properties, gasoline would inevitably have to go. In the article "The search for new geologic sources of lithium could power a clean future", by Carolyn Gramling, she describes how the use of lithium batteries could solve our oil issues. Lithium batteries are our only current option to a clean renewable source of energy for everything we need. Although many people are skeptical of this new energy source, Gramling points out that lithium batteries have already been in high demand, since these are what powers our phones, and that people have nothing to worry about if they already carry around a phone all day. Because if people will carry these batteries with them everywhere they go, they should trust them in the hoods of their cars.

The most popular electric car to date is the Tesla, which has been using lithium ion batteries in all of their cars up until this year. Also occurring very recently, is the large boom of electric/ hybrid cars coming out of almost every car company on the market. And with more car companies making these cars, the more lithium batteries will be used. Gramling suggests that this is a very good thing for our environment, since automobile emissions are one fifth the total amount of pollution in the US. Even stating that with every gallon of gas used, 24 pounds of carbon dioxide and other harmful gasses are released. It has become evident that these gas emissions are a large contributor to global warming, which will only further our planets decay.

I would say that overall Gramling did a great job with this article. She was very thorough and made sure that she included everything surrounding the topic.She also gave good reason for everything that she mentioned. However, I felt as if she could have given us more insight into what this would mean for the future of automobiles. For example, she never explained how this would affect the stock market, and she never once mentioned how much money would be saved or lost in the transition to lithium batteries. Overall, she did a great job and I learned a lot.