Are lithium-powered electric vehicles as ‘green’ as we think they are? Most of the world’s stocks of lithium are found in brine deep beneath salt flats, high in the Andes. But in a super-dry region, and lithium extraction demanding huge quantities of water, there’s anxiety – and outright opposition. Linda Presley reports from the north of Argetnina on this special radio programme for BBC R4 Crossing Continents. She talks with the local communities in Salta and Jujuy, visits the salt planes in the norther Andes and reflects about a problem that will later develop in a huge environmental issue.