A hidden deposit of lithium in a US lake could power 375 million EVs::undefined

  • @kaitco
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    556 months ago

    I’m sure this won’t have a major ecological impact, right? Right…?

      • @TropicalDingdong
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        236 months ago

        It’s got strongly developed post apocalypse vibes. You can pull down just about any street and be like “I should not be here…”

        • @[email protected]
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          66 months ago

          Now I want to visit. I mean, there should be 1000 and 1 reason to visit USA and California in particular, but that’s the first one which really gives a feeling.

          • @[email protected]
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            66 months ago

            You’d also like the 3rd largest city in California, California City. Both are portraits of a generation that could afford to dream big and avoid financial ruin.

            • @RubberElectrons
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              6 months ago

              Bakersfield too, if you want to find life hanging on a bit better than some of the inland counties. California has a lot of strange feelings if you take the time to look in the right corners.

              • A desert megacity next to the sea? Los Angeles.
              • Incredibly posh people surrounded by the destitute? Newport beach in orange county.
              • A slow-motion wave of impenetrable fog gently cresting the mountains around it? San Francisco.

              This state has a lot more to it than TV and movies let on. Don’t just drive it, check it out on motorcycle or bicycle too.

      • @kaitco
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        56 months ago

        Oh, that’s just lovely.

    • @[email protected]
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      316 months ago

      The lake was a runoff for the colorado river back when farmers over used water and the leftover was dumped ino that “lake”. The lake in its current state is too saline and dried up to ecologically be stable. The buildup of farm chems over the year cause dust in problems in socal when winds picked it up.

      • @gibmiser
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        266 months ago

        Well, when you put it that way using a part of the country we already ruined to try and help us not ruin any more of it, it sounds like a damn good idea

    • @[email protected]
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      246 months ago

      The lake is the major ecological impact, if you bother to read up on the background of that area.

      • @[email protected]
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        166 months ago

        Fun fact, the beach is made entirely out of barnacles and it smells like someone ate 10 pounds of salmon and then ripped ass straight up your nose. Don’t go in the water, you’ll die!

        • TunaCowboy
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          106 months ago

          I was there about twenty years ago, the banks were made up of rotting marine life (mostly fish) 12 - 18 inches deep.

          • @[email protected]
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            66 months ago

            The barnacles must be a more recent phenomenon, I was there a couple years ago. There were still fish skeletons lying around, but mostly this:

    • @Gregorech
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      246 months ago

      Consider the lake isn’t supposed be there in the first place…

    • @Maggoty
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      26 months ago

      The entire thing is a lesson in the hubris of man. It was created as a major ecological impact of a failed engineering project. It’s being destroyed by irrigation.

    • @Nudding
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      -16 months ago

      No, we have to mine and destroy as much of the world as we can before the collapse, its the human way :)

  • @sartalon
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    6 months ago

    I used to fly out here when practicing low-level desert flight (helicopters, I was an aircremwan).

    We would land right next to the lake but not overfly it. At night, it was like a perfect mirror.

    But man did it smell, it was eerie af, and the dust sometimes made all your gear stink for days.

    I seem to recall an orange? grove that grew next to where we would land. I always wondered if it’s proximity to the Salton Sea affected their taste.

    It continually got worse and worse, and this was back in 2003-2012, while I was out there.

    Edit: One of my favorite photos, of a sign, where we would land.

    Yes, those are bullet holes, no not from us.

    • @Maggoty
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      6 months ago

      Looks like we have our next Discovery channel reality TV show. Which cast member finds a bomb in today’s episode? Tune in to Lithium Blast at 9 o’clock central to find out!

  • @[email protected]
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    326 months ago

    It really doesn’t seem feasible, I mean how are they going to get the third world children there to mine it?

    • @[email protected]
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      56 months ago

      Step 1: Status quo immigration

      Step 2: loosening child labor laws and the regulatory state

      Step 3:???

      Step 4: capitalism has now captured a new second class to extract this resource! Profit!

    • @Maggoty
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      36 months ago

      Same way the meat packing industry does?

  • @Gregorech
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    266 months ago

    Lake is a stretch, Salton Sea for anyone that was curious.

      • @Gregorech
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        296 months ago

        It’s a shallow salt water puddle, created by accident. It’s a lake, it’s an inland sea, it’s toxic.

        It also look like a big penis from space.

  • @psychothumbs
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    246 months ago

    It’s so funny seeing the people trying to fearmonger about not having enough lithium and other minerals for electric vehicles.

    • capital
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      86 months ago

      NIMBYS will make it like pulling teeth to actually get our hands on it.

  • Codex
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    6 months ago

    There’s a cool old documentary about the place called Plagues and Pleasures on the Salton Sea, narrated by John Waters. It goes into the history of the place and shows a little of how dilapidated and decayed it now is (well, now was, when it came out in 2006).

    It tries to livin up the modern day stuff by showing some of the “colorful” characters who lived there. I have to imagine there was a lot not being said, and I’m sure 20 years of further decay have not made it the friendliest and funnest place to be.

    Edit to add: Apparently some enterprising soul has uploaded it to YouTube: https://youtu.be/8TjGAWxL23c

    • @mongooseofrevenge
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      86 months ago

      In the last year or so I heard about how the water level is dropping due to drought which is concentrating all the pollutants in the lake. It’s also becoming l so saline that the few species living in the lake are dying and washing up on shore. Then the high winds are blowing around extra salty sand combined with dead carcass particles so it’s actually a breathing hazard to be around. This is also combined with the runoff of pesticides from the farms to the north that also polite the water. So it sounds like a great place to hang out!

      • TunaCowboy
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        76 months ago

        In the last year or so

        It’s been like that for decades. I was there about twenty years ago, the stench was gag inducing, and there’s no getting used to it. The banks in every spot I visited were made up of rotting marine life 12 - 18 inches deep.

      • @andrewth09
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        76 months ago

        Europe has cars with towing packages that aren’t trucks

      • @spongebue
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        36 months ago

        What if I told you there are more practical vehicles out there that can also tow things, and few people actually tow anything particularly heavy?

          • @spongebue
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            46 months ago

            If that’s what I thought, I would have said “no people” instead of “few people”

            There are a ton of pickup trucks on the road. The Ford F-Series has been the best selling car in the US for decades. Since the context is about that and towing, do you really think the number of pickups on the road is proportional to people who really need that kind of towing capacity as they drive around suburbia?

  • @[email protected]
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    56 months ago

    Lmao. Of course, they named a section of it the Sonny Bono Salton Sea National Wildlife Preserve.

  • The Menemen!
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    6 months ago

    Sounds like so much. Than you stop for a second and realize how many cars there are in the USA and go “huh”.

    (It is 289million cars. My guess, this would probably last 15-20 years.)

    • @cuntonabike
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      26 months ago

      15 to 20 years

      As if, with the rate we’re going into electrification, I doubt that.

  • @RizzRustbolt
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    56 months ago

    Stay away from my lithium carbonate!

    • capital
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      126 months ago

      Environmentalists: “We really need to address climate change”

      Me, an environmentalist: “let’s mine like crazy for the materials we’re sure to need”

      Environmentalists: “no, not like that!”

    • @spongebue
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      66 months ago

      Honestly, yes. Look that lake up and you’ll see how worthless it is for anything lake-y.

      • @Maggoty
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        26 months ago

        Also though, let’s not pretend we wouldn’t strip mine Lake Tahoe if there was unobtainium under it.

    • @BreadstickNinja
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      36 months ago

      It’s a manmade lake, for what it’s worth.

  • @mydude
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    16 months ago

    Looks like US will need some freedom-bombs brought to them by USA.

  • @Maggoty
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    16 months ago

    I think they mean the Salton Valley. There’s no such place as the Salton Sea. Never was.