Massive ecological protests against lithium mining in Serbia right now

https://i.redd.it/8c3u55ntcvhd1.jpeg

by Landrayi

19 comments

  1. Rio Tinto has a long history of causing ecological catastrophes, particularly in Third World countries. Their policy often seems to be that it is cheaper to destroy nature and pay fines afterward than to act responsibly.

    The planned mine was near the Drina River, and it would endanger both the Drina and the Danube River through the Sava River, affecting multiple countries.

  2. Hmm… Genuinely didn’t know that lithium extraction was particularly harmful or had so many potential negative externalities… For that matter, I didn’t even know that Serbia had significant lithium deposits (I’d thought most lithium was in Australia or China for some reason…). Does anyone have further reading I could do on this?

  3. I don’t think can go carbon neutral without lithium batteries.

  4. Who’s leading the protest? Pro-Russian opposition, pro-Western opposition, neither of them?

  5. Im sure the same people protest when million liters of oil destroys our nature every second year right?

  7. The Chinese companies are setting up some battery factories in Hungary, and they will probably source the lithium from Serbia because it is close. The whole thing is also supported by the EU, because we can produce electricity for cars, but we can only buy oil from the Russians or Arabs.

    Since the leaders of both countries are dictators (or street-fighters), there will certainly be mines there.

  8. One of the examples of the EU and Russia working together.

    Germany and the EU using our corrupt government to open a dozen or so mines across Serbia in an area that has fertile land and lots of rivers. This is most likely to lead to the devastation of the environment and the utter pollution of our land, due to the fact that the company that is going to do that already has an outstanding record of exterminating the environment wherever it goes. Imagine, like over 10% of a small country being just covered in lithium mines and bare land. But, yeah the EU needs batteries so dig it!

    On the other hand, Russia is “warning” our government that the protesters are going to use violent means to overthrow the government and bring chaos to Serbia.

    China is happy because they are on of the biggest shareholders in the company that is going to the excavations.

    Also, the funny thing is, many people here (in Serbia) think that our government is working closely with the Kosovo government to stir tensions whenever there is a need for political points for either side. They knew that there would be big protests and, suddenly, the Kosovo government decided to close Serbian banks in Kosovo or something like that, out of the blue, which is just great because now our government is linking the protesters with the Kosovo government and an attempt to “destabilize” Serbia.

    I really hope that this will mean an end to the current decadent government and all possible future projects that might harm our country

  9. I always have conflicts sentiment abou this stuff. It is legitimate to complain about the negative effects of anything and I wold probably do the same, but then we also want the good things. 

    Everyone wants to have electric but no one likes having a power plant or transmission line nearby. Have cars and roads but not close to highways or refineries. Dumping trash but not having landfills. It just hypocrite.

    Everyone should be open to compromise a little, granted ther are sufficient guarantees.

  10. I’m supposed to visit Belgrade this Wednesday (for tourism). Serbians, how significantly would you say this will impact travel there, if at all?

  11. Hahahah Chinaman said “dig”, Serbia replies “how deep?”

  12. Are they trying to start mining again? I though that the plans were cancelled after the protests around 2 years ago

  13. When you give the PRC free rein to do what they want, this is what you get. once the Rio Tinto contract is cancelled, a Chinese company will take it over without a whisper from the masses.

  14. I use lithium as antidepresan for years.Tho it is still unknown how it does cure mental ilnesses such as major and minor depression,bipolar.Great mood stabilizer.Why would anyone be against that?

  15. Please show support for us, we are fighting against the destruction of our land and our corrupt government!!

  16. Isn’t Rio Tinto a brittish corporation? why everyone in the comments is talking about China?

  17. Oh boy, Elon is about to tweet something about Serbia too. Civil war and crap

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