tonight, powering the future. abc's ginger zee venturesnt the mojave desert searching for the source of energy in electric cars. >> the lithium that powers our phones looks like this. you can see why it's sometimes called white gold. >> how the metal may be the key to a greater future. but at what cost to the environment? >> there are only 15,000 of these plants, more or less, in the whole world. >>s secrets of the whales. taking a deephe mysterious lives of these gentle how they grieve to why they sing. honoring the big creatures. this special edition of

"nightline," "earth day," will be right back. you'd never want leftover food residue on your surfaces. but that's what you could be doing with a used dishcloth. so, switch to bounty for a more hygienic clean. unlike used dishcloths that can redistribute residue, bounty keeps your surfaces cleaner. bounty, the quicker picker upper. i don't just play someone brainy on tv - i'm an actual neuroscientist. and i love the science behind neuriva plus. unlike ordinary memory supplements, neuriva plus fuels six key indicators of brain performance. more brain performance? yes, please! neuriva. think bigger. today's ways of working may work differently tomorrow. but you can work out anything with comcast business. get fast internet on the network that can deliver gig speeds to the most businesses.

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2030. but to get there, much more clean energy is needed. for a key element to power the future. >> reporter: over the vast valleys of nevada, tucked away in the mojave desert, is the place that may just be the epicenter of the next gold rush. we're headed to esmeralda county, about 3 1/2 hours northwest of las vegas, a county that doesn't have a gas station or a traffic light, but instead, a horizon that blends into crystal blue waters that eventually result in one of the most soughtrld, lithium. here at solar peak, they're not mining rock, they're farming lithium. these undergr salt aquifers, each of them nearly 500 football fields long,

rich in lithium. this quiet and desolate oasis is home to the element that powers our fast and loud world. it's critical to fight climate change and the source of our energy for electric vehicles, laptops, and cell phones. the lithium that helps to power our phones looks like this. you can see why it's sometimes called white gold. between 2008 and 2018, annual global production of lithium more than tripled. now by 2030, it's expected to go up more than 1,000%. lithium production in the u.s. is just tiny compared to australia, south america, and china. more than half the world's lithium is produced in chile. in australia, they mine for it mostly in solid form. but at silver peak here in nevada, it starts as a liquid. >> it's the lightest metal known to man. it's very energy dense. that reactivity in nature makes it hard to come by. what's happening here in this closed basin over tens of thousands of years is mother nature gradually bringing it

into this valley. like any other mineral that's extracted in a liquid form, you're going down anywhere from a couple hundred to a couple thousand feet. >> once the original well is drilled it goes through a series of ponds. they look beautiful. the sun and the arid nature of nevada here takes care of the processing. 18 months later, lithium carbonate. that's eric norris. he and his company used the same process in chile where they have another facility. and that is where most of the world's lithium is being produced. but this site, silver peak, is the only one in the united states commercially producing lithium right now. >> seems like you're in the caribbean on vacation. >> yes, in the caribbean in the middle of nevada. se. >> reporter: he says these s have been producing lithium since the 1960s. >> can i touch the edge? >> it's saline. >> people would pay for this for a facial. how much do you all mine? >> around the world, about

85,000 metric tons of lithium carbonate. here, it's 5,000 of that 85,000. small amount, which is why we're looking to double it. >> does it have an agricultural or impact to the land surrounding? >> that water, untouched, would remain underground and wouldn't have a benefit. effectively, we're not using water that would otherwise be used for an agricultural purpose. >> reporter: evaporation is not the only way, though, to get lithium out. when you mine it out of the rock, it can be harder on the earth. toxic waste, emissions, and pollution. but the government says we can regulate that. >> the signs are unmistakable. the science is undeniable. pthe cost of inaction keeps mounting. the united states isn't waiting. we are resolving to take action. >> today in a virtual summit, president biden telling world leaders that he plans to cut greenhouse gas emissions in the united states by at least half by the year 2030. >> when people talk about climate, i think jobs.

within our climate response lies an extraordinary engine of job creation and economic opportunity ready to be fired up. >> reporter: during president trump's administration, there was a big call to up the ante, produce more minerals like lithium right here in the u.s. we've got it. california, for example, could produce up to 40% of the global lithium demand. so far, we have not been a big player in the lithium market. but that could change. we've just got to get the technology to extract what is estimated to be an immense around of lithium in the western u.s. it's not just nevada or california, but it's arizona too. some of that's going to come from the thousands of acres at two giant lithium projects already planned in nevada. one of them is just over rylight ridge. they could create $9 billion in revenue, but they're endangering a very rare wildflower. >> you can see here, this is teams buckwheat.

we're getting the smallest new little leaves for spring growth. >> you said, as we walked in, please be careful are where we're walking. >> there are only 15,000 of these plants, more or less. >> reporter: this varietal is not known to grow anywhere else in the world. the buckwheat adapted to that lithium-rich soil. >> lithium is extremely important to tackling the climate crisis. if they could build this mine without destroying this wildflower, we'd walk away and find a gold mine to fight instead. >> reporter: he's the director of the center for biological diversity. ak. ays this is notoi to sver pper my opinion. >> once the mine goes in, how long do they have? >> the mining company's own estimates are less than 10 years to strip mine this whole area. we're left with a big hole in the ground full of toxic pit lake water. >> we are going to put enormous effort to support this plant,

and we're using the state-of-the-art methods to make sure that there's no leaching of any kind into the soils. >> reporter: james callaway, the chairman of the company overseeing that mine, says we've got to do it if we're going to catch up with our climate goals. >> we will have enable the production of 400,000 electric cars every year for the next 50 years. >> reporter: it's a symbol of the debate between our energy future and our environment in the present. >> we're facing dual crises. there's the climate crisis, which poses a threat to all life on earth. but then there's the extinction crisis. this is a species of flower that grows nowhere else on earth but here. mineensibly is to prevent climate change from destroying the earth, perpetuates the extinction crisis, are we really saving the environment? >> this is why i'm here. i got an electric vehicle because i wanted to be a part of a solution.

then i realized, wait a minute, i'm sitting on a giant battery that i don't know where it came from or where it's going t. veotha and t tav united states right now, we are such a small player. but this will make a difference. >> it could. it could. >> is it better for us to do it right here than to be getting our phones from lithium in australia or china or south america, where we don't know that it's done right for our planet? >> we absolutely need to do it right. and right now, those impacts are being offshored to distant countries. do we need to do it here in america? we need to ask hard questions, what sacrifices are we going aa little wildflower does not mean we're trying to avoid those hard questions. lithium is part of our future. we need to have a reckoning about how we're going to do it without destroying biodiversity.

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♪ nearly three-quarters of the earth's surface is covered in water. populated by creatures big and small. now the new national geographic

don't care ow series diving into the complex world of whales, gentle giants who may be more like us than we think. here's "nightline's" ashan singh. >> i grew up in massachusetts. and i can remember my parents taking me to the beaches of cape cod and rhode island, new hampshire, as a little boy. and truly falling in love with the ocean. part of my brain was stimulated with the idea of exploration. what was lying out beneath those waves? >> reporter: four decades. that's how long "national geographic" photographer brian scary has been trying to answer the question, what lies beyond the waves? >> i've read you spend over 10,000 hours underwater, is that true? >> yeah, not in a row. accumulatively. >> that's more than a year of your life. >> yeah. >> reporter: 10,000 hours

hrouim ofe of learning about our ocean friends. from sharks to sea turtles to whatever this is.>> to get a li like just down here -- >> reporter: we're not finding any of those today. just a few ducks. small potatoes for an ace photographer like ryan. >> when a great photo comes down to gesture and grace -- >> reporter: when he's not snapping pics of ducks with me, brian is filming something a bit bigger. much bigger. because his latest project brings us face-to-face, up close, too close even, to the biggest, smartest animals in our blue seas. premiering on earth day, national geographic's new series on disney plus, "secrets of the whales," brings together more than three years of whale watching like you've never seen it before. why whales?

>> whales are great aasdo for t. they'rve much like humans. they haveng ethnic foods, they have singing competitions, they do all these really cool things. >> reporter: brian is front and center as one of the faces of the series, telling us the intimate story of these captivating creatures. but behind the scenes, he has some help from a team of absolute rock stars. >> welcome. welcome to our waters. >> reporter: i know you know who that is. "aliens." "titanic." "avatar." the man who journeyed to the bottom of the ocean. yep, none other than the king of the blockbuster himself, james cameron. james, you know, the ocean has been an inextricable part of your career for as long as i remember. when you started making films 40 years ago, did you ever think that your storytelling and your conservation work would be so

intertwined? >> i mean, i think it has to be a goal. you have to make that happen. but it was also just a natural convergence. i literally took kind of eight years out of my life between "titanic" and "avatar" to go exploring, to just satisfy my own curiosity, my own desire to be in the ocean, to project myself physically into that world and bring backstories. it was exactly what i imagined it to be. it was big. it was scary. it was wondrous. it was alien. >> there's only one truly white whale. >> reporter: brian and james, sure, they've got good voices. >> like a ghost. >> reporter: but not good enough to narrate nature documentaries in a world where david attenborough still lives. >> and just as mysterious. >> reporter: for that, they needed to call in the big guns. >> beluga whales. >> reporter: hollywood royalty, legendary actor sigourney

weaver. your voice very much guides us throughout this whole series. what's it like, you know, being a voice for these animals that otrwonas humpbacked whale clansa culture all their own. >> i have to remind myself keep narrating, because it's so mind-blowing, sometimes, what you're looking at. i came to feel so much respect and love for them. almost as if you're a member of the family. i think that was my job is to sort of be a storyteller, as if i was kind of a liaison between the ocean and land. it was such a privilege for me. >> they seem so much like us. yet we've only begun to reveal the secrets of the whales. >> reporter: so much learned, but so much left to learn. especially when scientifically speaking, we know more about the

surface of mars than we do about our own oceans, which makes a moment ttrk m oaor her baby. >> that occurred on thanksgiving day. it was cold, snowy, gray day. put on my wet suit. i was thinking about my family back home, celebrating, wishing i was there. but went out in the fjord and saw this family of orca swimming purposefully through the field. in the water i saw this very emotional scene where the mom was carrying the dead baby on the top of her head. and the rest of the family was almost in this funeral procession, for lack of a better analogy. so very, very disturbing. >> they have emotion. they have grief. they have joy. they have play. they have family bonds. so they're as complex in so many ways as we are. but they've learned to live in perfect balance with their world. >> reporter: a perfect balance

that from time to time they graciously and confusingly choose to share with us. >> had this female orca swimming to me with a stingray hanging out of her mouth. then she drops it. i go to the bottom looking at this thing, she comes back and she's faced off with me. there's me, there's the whale, there's the ray in between. and as if offering me food. like, are you going to eat that? amazing. you could never script that. >> reporter: sharing this world, saving these animals, will take time and resources. the more we learn about these whales, the more we learn about how t the and our environment. >> onceeceith yos, and you undd there's so much to with, that now it becomes, well -- they're also in trouble. >> the more in love we are with these animals, the more we learn about them and respect them, the more we feel a sense of challenge that we have to do the

changes necessary to our society ourselves to imagine a future - hundreds of years from now where we still get to share this planet with these amazing creatures. >> reporter: this world, our world, does not survive without our oceans. whether it's the middle of the arctic or this tiny slice of southern maine. not just on earth day. but every day. it's up to us to protect it. over 10,000 hours underwater. do you feel like you're just scratching the surface? >> absolutely. we're not apart from nature, we're not above it. we're aimcoec dhe these other o thanks to ash. you can catch full episodes of "secrets of the whales" on disney plus. disney is the parent company of abc news. up next, the little boy and

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finally tonight, one man's trash is another man's treasure. >> look at what i found! >> on the hunt, 5-year-old oliver caver of gulf shores, alabama, searching for garbage left behind on beaches. oliver and his dad picking up more than, get this, 3,500 pounds of waste, inspiring neighbors to also keep the earth clean and healthy while protecting friends on land and in the sea. happy effort day, everybody. we only get one. that's "nightline" for this evening. see you back here tomorrow, same