system
Given the following post, respond as if you're commenting on Reddit:
human
What is the environmental impact of lithium mining?

Lithium ion and lithium polymer are the most common batteries used today in EVs. With the increase in EV production, how does lithium mining’s carbon footprint and overall environmental impact compare to traditional petroleum based cars?
gpt
Carbon emissions due to lithium mining are from high energy usage. Batteries right now have a very high carbon footprint because they are mostly build with chinese coal power. Using regenerative energy sources instead can reduce these emissions significantly. While reducing fossil fuels carbon emissions is extremely hard, reducing it for batteries is trivial. So there is huge potential in green sustainable production.