For mining in arid regions to be responsible, we must change how we think about water, say researchers

A research team led by the University of Massachusetts Amherst, in collaboration with the University of Alaska-Anchorage and Columbia University, has conducted the widest-ever hydrological tracer analysis of the Dry Andes region in Chile, Argentina and Bolivia, home to the majority of the world's lithium deposits and other elements, such as copper, critical to the green energy transition away from oil and toward electricity.