Digital Earth

“Here on these ancient salt flats, sacred mountains stand guard over a landscape charged with electric potential. A new future awaits. This landscape is central to the culture and mythology of the indigenous Aymara* people, and it’s pregnant with billion-dollar prospects. This ethereal place is set to become the feeding ground of a global green-energy revolution.

The drive for small and powerful batteries has rendered this landscape one of the most sought after on earth. Buried here is a grey gold called lithium–the power in our pockets. It’s fundamental to the charging and recharging of millions of gleaming electronic devices, and it’s the future of electric cars.

Half the world’s reserves lie dissolved in brine beneath this salt crust, untapped, and for the people of the Bolivian Altiplano its extraction brings with it unanswered questions of land ownership, resource royalties and environmental impacts. [...]” – Unknown Fields

Read 𝘛𝘩𝘦 𝘉𝘳𝘦𝘢𝘴𝘵𝘮𝘪𝘭𝘬 𝘰𝘧 𝘵𝘩𝘦 𝘝𝘰𝘭𝘤𝘢𝘯𝘰 in Vertical Atlas, head to the link in bio to download the free pdf!

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All images: Unknown Fields