Will Lithium Batteries Make Bolivia the "Saudi Arabia of Electric Cars"?

BOLIVIAN SALT DESERTS



I love a win-win situation. Who doesn't? One of the greatest things about new fuel technologies is that often they produce [potential] win-win situations. But harnessing resources for new technoloies effectively requires a careful balancing of concerns on how to most efficiently bring key raw materials to market, concerns about environmental responsibilites, and concerns for the inhabitants of lands containing such materials.

PRODUCING A VIABLE ALTERNATIVE

More efficient batteries are the key to producing viable electric vehicles which will be able to compete with traditional combustion engine vehicles because they extend the usuable range to a comparable distance and free up interior space for passengers and cargo.

Right now, lithium is the key compenent to making those better batteries that will power those viable alternatives. It seems only proper then to assume that the demand for lithium is going to rise in parallel with the growth in popularity of lithium batteries as a power source.

THE OBVIOUS QUESTION

Where is the increased supply output going to come from?

Right now, it looks like the obvious answer is Bolivia.

Located in the heart of South America, Bolivia is a relatively undeveloped country. But it possess numerous salt deserts. It's from these deserts that lithium is harvested. Bolivians are literally standing on their future. As one of the poorest countries in South America, this natural resource could be their key to a better life (or the key to their destruction, if one were a pessimest...).



BOLIVIA'S NATIONALIST APPROACH

Evo Morales, the Bolivian President and strong critic of the U.S., is wary of foreign exploitation of his country and it's resources, and understandably so. It makes sense. After all, it is their lithium. Right now, the country is forging ahead in a nationalistic direction to protect its self-interests.

However, its' best interests may better be served by embracing a participatory, global perspective. While Chile, Argentina and even the US have natural lithium resources of their own, the U.S. Geological Survey estimates that 5.4 million tons are waiting to be extracted from the salt deserts in Bolivia - half the world's lithium supply, and significantly more than any other country in the world.

Read more HERE at the New York Times, or HERE at the Huffington Post.

HOW WILL BOLIVIA EXPLOIT ITS RESOURCES EFFICIENTLY?



The Bolivian government is projected to spend millions in harvesting and development plants for refining its' lithium reserves over the coming years. However, the country still lacks necessary funds and the know-how regarding harvesting all that lithium.

GM, Toyota, Mercedes-Benz, BMW, Nissan-Renault, Mitsubishi and Volkswagon are all looking to get their hands on lithium to either upgrade existing hybrid/electric cars or to use in new model production.

Read More HERE at Treehugger.com.

To date, the Bolivian government has denied companies the ability to harvest the resource in it's raw state. The Bolivians want a piece of the action, and rightly so. In that light, it appears that the only option is to strike a deal - Bolivia needs to find a partner that can efficently harvest and refine the raw material into market-ready product.

As one journalist wrote recently: "Bolivia could own 51 percent of the new operations while allowing foreign capital to invest new funds through acquiring the remaining 49 percent share of the business. This would keep the final decision in the hands of the Bolivian people while at the same time provide enough capital upfront to commence the production process."

Read more HERE at the Council On Hemispheric Affairs (COHA.org).

While sort of a simplistic solution, the point it makes is obvious. As an added bonus, the increased revenue coming into Bolivia would help elevate the country from it's current meager spot on the world stage. The government would have money to invest in newer technology, more jobs and most importantly education.



CAUTIOUS OPTIMISM

Provided that lithium extraction is done in an environmentally responsible way, the revenue is channeled properly through to its citizens and safeguards are implemented to prevent foreign corporations from cleaning Bolivia the way a school of piranahs might clean an unlucky cow in the waters of the Amazon, a new generation of Bolivians could spread their wings, with new opportunities and resources never before available to them.

Sounds [potentially] pretty win-win to me.

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Bye-Bye Search Engines. Hello KNOWLEDGE ENGINE - Check Out Wolfram|Alpha.

INFINITE KNOWLEDGE AT YOUR FINGERTIPS

Ever try to find a specific answer or information about something by typing your search into Google? Sometimes you can get a direct answer (like a currency conversion or a metric/standard conversion) if you type the right search, but more often then not, you get LINKS to many other sites (or worse, spamblogs) that may or may not have relevant or accurate information.

ENTER WOLFRAM|ALPHA

(screenshot)

Wolfram|Alpha is a new kind of search engine. In fact, its creators call it a "Knowledge Engine".

Want to see stats on the "International Space Station" (including even it's current location in orbit)? Just type it in. Need to solve a complex math equation? Just type it in! Want the demographic information or local weather for "Louisville, Kentucky", or the average nutritional facts for a "Pizza"? Yep - just type it in.

Click on the Wolfram|Alpha search bar above, or Click HERE to try it out at www.wolframalpha.com. Couldn't be easier.

More specifically, according to its FAQ's page, Wolfram|Alpha is a free "computational knowledge engine: it generates output by doing computations from its own internal knowledge base, instead of searching the web and returning links" and it is designed "to bring expert-level knowledge to everybody."

Use it for combined websearching, and even insert a Wolfram|Alpha box in your Googleor Yahoodesktop, or in your blog (like the one on the right of this page). It works with all standard browsers (and your iphone too). It's intuitive and as easy to use as Google. The company even has custom intranet and corporate data solutions (Click Here). And what they don't have today, the will have soon.



Here are a few screenshots of search results on the Wolfram|Alpha homepage:




WHAT DO YOU THINK?

Check it out, kick the tires and let us know what you think by posting your comments here!

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Don't Like Your Boss' Markup? Wipe Your A$$ With It - Literally

TURN OFFICE PAPER INTO TOILET PAPER. ON THE SPOT!


Who hasn't spent all week drafting some TPS Report or other? You stay late, give it your all, turn it in to your boss, only to get it back 20min later, murdered in red ink.

How many of you have arrived at work bright and early, like a good worker bee to the hive that is so loyal to you, to find the nice surprise of printed emails on your desk, each with 1 paragraph of orders and 5 pages of email headers all disclaiming the communication therein from liability as legal or tax advice? You know, the "This is not tax advice. Consult your tax adviser. Seriously, I'm not kidding, this is NOT tax advice." footer...

Well, instead of just tossing it at the recycle bin (really, whoever makes them ALL in?)...

NO SERIOUSLY, WIPE YOUR A$$ WITH IT! IT'S FOR THE ENVIRONMENT!

That's right, thanks to the engineering wizards at Nakabayashi Japan, you can LITERALLY turn recycled A4 (letter-size) printer paper into toilet paper! Alchemy is so seventeenth century. Water into wine? Too biblical. A4 into quilted 2-ply - THAT's where it's at!

IS IT AWESOME?

Well, the idea is, the reality is not. At least not yet.

Sounds cool, right? Just get this machine, stick it between the laser printer and the crappy "commercial grade" Lexmark p.o.s. multifunction scanner/copier in the word processing bay and you're company's all set, right?

Not so fast, there sport.

INNOVATION: NOT ALWAYS BETTER

This Nakabayashi beast weights 1,3000lbs. It costs $95,000. It makes 2 rolls and hour and takes 1,800 sheets to make those 2 rolls. So unless you have a HUGE amount of paper that isn't already being picked up by a recycling service anyway, you're probably better off just squeezin' the Charmin for now. Or if you ARE going to still use the TPS Reports, get 'em wet first - they're much softer that way.

We'll let you know when they come out with one that mounts right in the stall that you can feed "while you work"... THAT would be worth a try!

via Treehugger.com

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