The race to mine essential minerals for AI and clean energy is creating “sacrifice zones” that harm the water and health of the world’s poor

At the heart of the global transition to a cleaner, greener, and technology-driven future is a troubling contradiction: modern technologies—everything from AI to wind turbines to cell phones, electric vehicles, and defense systems—rely on critical minerals. But many of the communities where these minerals are mined suffer from polluted water and poorer health due to mining.

Lithium supplies batteries with energy. Cobalt stabilizes them. Copper transports electricity. Rare earth elements make wind turbines and digital devices efficient and durable. All of these substances are crucial to the technologies of the fourth industrial revolution, but they are also toxic and require enormous amounts of water to extract.

As researchers at the United Nations University Institute on Water, Environment and Health, we have studied the impact of critical mineral mining on communities around the world. Our new report shows why mining will ultimately worsen the lives of some of…