Short abstract

This paper examines how promises of domestic lithium extraction on European soil are constructed and contested through EIAs. While EIAs render landscapes into ‘sacrifice zones’, activists, artists, and communities develop ‘counter-documents’ that challenge extractive narratives of inevitability.

Long abstract

Since its discovery in 1817, lithium has given rise to different imaginaries of the future. Today it is promoted as a critical raw material for the ‘green’ and digital transition, with the EU actively investing in the ‘onshoring’ of lithium mining on European soil. This contribution examines how these promises are articulated and contested through the Environmental Impact Assessment (EIA) surrounding the proposed lithium extraction in Cínovec, a village on the Czech–German border that sits on what is presumably Europe’s largest hard-rock lithium deposit.

Focusing on the EIA as a contested media and bureaucratic document, the paper analyses how promises of regional development and global sustainability are constructed through maps, zoning plans, and visual models embedded in these reports. Originally designed as tools for democratic participation and environmental protection, EIAs can also function as instruments through which landscapes are rendered as already ‘damaged’ and therefore ready to be sacrificed. At the same time, the EIAs serve as legal and discursive tools through which residents and environmental organizations can challenge extractive narratives and proposed visions for regional development.

Drawing on document analysis, collaborative fieldwork and artistic research, the contribution highlights examples of ‘counter-documents’ produced by activists, artists, and local communities in response to the EIAs. From alternative infographics and counter-mapping to collective landscape walks, these interventions operate as forms of culture jamming that challenge the communicative authority of EIAs, disrupting narratives of inevitability and opening up space for alternative future-making.