If we are going to please our leftist overlords by driving expensive electric cars, we are going to need a lot of lithium. This is bad news for the environment — particularly for Tiehm’s buckwheat, a species that could be driven into extinction by lithium mining in Nevada.

From the moonbats at CNN:

Environmentalists say the benefits of Tiehm’s buckwheat could be vast… [B]otanists say they’re impressed with Tiehm’s buckwheat’s ability to thrive where few species can — poor soil that’s full of boron and lithium.

That may turn out to be the plant’s undoing.

Ioneer, an Australian mining company, has said it’s ready to break ground on a lithium mine later this year on the land where Tiehm’s buckwheat grows. Under the barren soils lies 146.5 million metric tons of lithium and boron.

Based on the improbable notion that electric cars will prevent the climate from fluctuating, Biden is blowing $174 billion on electric cars as part of his “infrastructure” looting spree.

Electric vehicles can’t happen without lithium — and a lot of it. Lithium is a critical mineral in the batteries that power electric vehicles. The world will need to mine 42 times as much lithium as was mined in 2020 if we will meet the climate goals set by the Paris Agreement, according to the International Energy Agency. Existing mines and projects under construction will meet only half the demand for lithium in 2030, the agency said.

Better dig up Nevada and hope Tiehm’s buckwheat survives being relocated to someplace where it doesn’t belong. Otherwise, the climate might fluctuate.

Environmentalists shouldn’t shed too many tears for the plant. Its extinction is nothing compared to the environmental havoc that will be inflicted trying to generate electricity for all those vehicles without using fossil fuels or nuclear energy. Bird-chopping wind turbines will have to line the horizon coast to coast.

Fortunately, academia has stepped forward to solve the Tiehm’s buckwheat conundrum. All we have to do is abandon the last vestiges of liberty and submit to Soviet-style central planning:

Dale Jamieson, a[n] NYU professor [who] studies environment and philosophy, said the United States would be better off with centralized industrial planning to help navigate sticky situations like what to do with Tiehm’s buckwheat. …

There’s a risk, he said, of businesses responding to short-term economic incentives without longer-term strategies.

Big Government would never do that. If it did, we would have to worry about massive spending sprees and even the handing out of free money to those who don’t work, which would crush the country under a millstone of debt and potentially cause runaway inflation.

On a tip from Steve T.