"But if terraforming is supposed to make a lifeless planet as verdant as Earth, mining, to the contrary, often leaves parts of Earth itself uninhabitable. While the environmental impacts of mining brine are less obvious to the naked eye than, say, mountaintop removal, extracting the lithium-rich liquid does in fact threaten a fragile, desert water system, along with the ecosystems and people that depend on it." https://www.theguardian.com/world/2026/oct/11/chilean-salt-flat-extractive-frontiers-green-capitalism-atacama