No evidence for sudden bird deaths from lithium evaporation ponds, contrary to claims in viral meme

In August 2024, a meme that has been circulating the internet for years resurfaced on social media with over 13,000 shares in one week. The meme features an image with text claiming that ‘lithium leach fields are so neurotoxic they kill birds within minutes of landing in them’ and that ‘leach pond water is what goes into electric car batteries’. Below we will provide more context for the image in the meme, and investigate these claims using scientific evidence.

After some digging, we discovered that the original photo used in the meme was sourced from a collection of aerial photographs captured by photographer Tom Hegen (linked here). His collection features a series of aerial photos which appear to be taken in 2021 at the Salar de Atacama salt flats in northern Chile. Although Hegen includes a very brief discussion about some of the social and environmental impacts of lithium mining, he does not make the claims about ‘neurotoxicity’ and ‘bird deaths’ shared in the meme that used his photo. But this is no surprise – turning complex topics into oversimplified memes is nothing new. In fact, Science Feedback recently reviewed another viral meme about lithium mining impacts (linked here), that was revealed to have misleading content. But what about the claims from this more recent meme?

Evaporation ponds change colors as lithium concentrations gradually increase – this water is not what ‘goes into batteries’

Before we investigate claims about lithium – let’s explore what it is and why we extract it. In addition to its other uses – such as medication for bipolar disorder^[1] – a 2023 research paper explains that “lithium is a fundamental raw material for the renewable energy transition owing to its widespread use in rechargeable batteries and the deployment of electric vehicles^[2-5]”^[6]. However, these batteries have numerous applications, as explained in a 2020 Nature article: “Lithium-ion batteries (LIBs), while first commercially developed for portable electronics are now ubiquitous in daily life, in increasingly diverse applications including electric cars, power tools, medical devices, smart watches, drones, satellites, and utility-scale storage”^[7]

Currently, lithium is extracted from two main sources: hard-rock ore (i.e., rocks containing lithium that can be extracted) and continental brines, which are underground reservoirs with saline water rich in dissolved lithium^[6] that account for two-thirds of the world’s lithium production^[8], The yellow water shown in the meme is a continental brine that has been pumped from the ground and placed in ponds to evaporate (Figure 1). However, what the meme refers to as ‘lithium leach fields’ are normally referred to as lithium evaporation ponds – a name that better describes the actual process they undergo (Figure 2).

 

After saline water is pumped into these ponds, the sun slowly evaporates water away, allowing lithium to become more concentrated^[6]. As the water evaporates, other salts and minerals – which precipitate out before lithium does – fall out of the brine in the different ponds^[6]. As the lithium concentration changes, so does the color of the ponds^[9]. But contrary to the misleading claim in the meme, these brines are not ‘what electric batteries are made of’. In reality, once the optimum lithium concentration has been achieved, the brine is removed and processed in a series of steps to reach a battery-grade product of lithium salts^[8]. While that addresses the first part of the claim about what goes into batteries, what about the birds?

No evidence found for lithium evaporation pond water being neurotoxic and killing birds

After a thorough review of the available literature on lithium mines, no evidence was found to support that ‘birds die within minutes of landing on lithium evaporation ponds’. In fact, no studies were found that researched the toxicity of these ponds to birds. A search on Google Scholar for scientific articles on this topic returned no relevant results^#. The closest report we found was a 2022 study that showed a correlation between decreasing flamingo populations and increases in lithium mining activities at Salar de Atacama^[10]. However, this research only studied flamingo population size – based on past population surveys – and general mining activities (i.e., changes in pond size) to draw this correlation. They did not study – nor mention – water toxicity or birds dying from entering lithium evaporation ponds. Instead, they suggest that flamingo breeding behavior was likely altered due to “increases in disturbances such as noise and vehicular traffic from industrial activities”^[10] and “the effects of increasing mining pond area on the amount of surface water”^[10] in the salt flats.

Although it was not stated explicitly, the meme vaguely suggested another claim. After making misleading claims about bird deaths, the meme reads “take a guess what it does to your nervous system”. Although this line is vague, the suggestion seems to be that the falsely claimed ‘neurotoxicity’ for birds also applies to humans. However, a 2008 literature review studying lithium toxicity on humans and the environment explained that “lithium is not expected to bioaccumulate and its human and environmental toxicity are low”^[11]. Regardless, as we explained earlier, the brine solution itself – the yellow water shown in the meme – is not what ends up in batteries, but rather a purified product of lithium salt.

As a final note, it is worth noting that the impacts of lithium extraction are still an ongoing subject of research. As explained in a 2021 review paper on this subject, the authors explain that they “are aware of the limits of our analysis, given the reduced availability of data and diffuse nature of studies”^[12]. In a 2023 paper, researchers explained that “solid quantitative evidence of the negative environmental impacts of lithium mining was only reported from 2018. The data are still quite limited and relate only to Salar de Atacama”^[6]. Given these data limitations, potential impacts of lithium extraction on humans and birds could exist that are currently unknown; however, the current scientific evidence does not support claims from the meme.

Conclusion

Overall this meme is misleading and makes claims that are unsupported by scientific evidence. The claim that lithium evaporation ponds – which they call lithium leach fields – ‘are neurotoxic and kill birds within minutes of landing in them’ is not supported in the available scientific literature. The meme also misrepresents what goes into electric vehicle batteries, which is not brine evaporation ponds as the meme suggests, but rather a product that is later processed and purified from these ponds to make a battery-grade product. Lastly, the available scientific literature suggests that lithium’s human and environmental toxicity are low. Although there are social and environmental concerns associated with lithium mining, they are not represented in this meme.

Notes:

# Google Scholar search query: (“lithium” OR “lithium extraction” OR “lithium mining”) AND (“birds” OR “avian”) AND (toxicity OR effects OR impact)

REFERENCES

• 1 – Choi et al. (2019) The impact of anthropogenic inputs on lithium content in river and tap water. Nature Communications.
• 2 – Trahey et al. (2020) Energy storage emerging: a perspective from the Joint Center for Energy Storage Research. Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences.
• 3 – Koohi-Fayegh and Rosen (2020) A review of energy storage types, applications and recent developments. Journal of Energy Storage.
• 4 – Dehghani-Sanij et al. (2019) Study of energy storage systems and environmental challenges of batteries. Renewable and Sustainable Energy Reviews.
• 5 – Olivetti et al. (2017) Lithium-ion battery supply chain considerations: analysis of potential bottlenecks in critical metals. Joule.
• 6 – Vera et al. (2023) Environmental impact of direct lithium extraction from brines. Nature Reviews Earth and Environment.
• 7 – Grey and Hall (2020) Prospects for lithium-ion batteries and beyond—a 2030 vision. Nature Communications.
• 8 – Flexer et al. (2018) Lithium recovery from brines: A vital raw material for green energies with a potential environmental impact in its mining and processing. Science of the Total Environment.
• 9 – Rentier et al. (2024) Lithium brine mining affects geodiversity and Sustainable Development Goals. Renewable and Sustainable Energy Reviews.
• 10 – Gutiérrez et al. (2022) Climate change and lithium mining influence flamingo abundance in the Lithium Triangle. Proceedings of the Royal Society B: Biological Sciences.
• 11 – Aral and Vecchio-Sadus (2008) Toxicity of lithium to humans and the environment—A literature review. Ecotoxicology and Environmental Safety.
• 12 – Chaves et al. (2021) Concerns about lithium extraction: A review and application for Portugal. Extractive Industries and Society.