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

Comments

• kaitco@lemmy.world ⁨11⁩ ⁨months⁩ ago

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

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  • RubberElectrons@lemmy.world ⁨11⁩ ⁨months⁩ ago

    I’ve passed by this ‘sea’, a multitude of enterprising resorts decaying in the quiet sun. This time capsule of the 1960s smells like death, and its strangely yellow dust is concerning even if you didn’t know how much fertilizer runoff was dumped in there by surrounding date farms.

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    • TropicalDingdong@lemmy.world ⁨11⁩ ⁨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…”

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    • tar_xf@lemmy.dbzer0.com ⁨11⁩ ⁨months⁩ ago

      You certainly have a way with words.

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    • doctorcrimson@lemmy.today ⁨11⁩ ⁨months⁩ ago

      If a person IS strangely into all of that stuff then I actually recommend the annual Fallout New Vegas festival they hold in Goodsprings Nevada, instead.

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    • kaitco@lemmy.world ⁨11⁩ ⁨months⁩ ago

      Oh, that’s just lovely.

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  • Dudewitbow@lemmy.zip ⁨11⁩ ⁨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.

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    • gibmiser@lemmy.world ⁨11⁩ ⁨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

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  • gravitas_deficiency@sh.itjust.works ⁨11⁩ ⁨months⁩ ago

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

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    • SwampYankee@mander.xyz ⁨11⁩ ⁨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!

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  • Gregorech@lemmy.world ⁨11⁩ ⁨months⁩ ago

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

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  • Nudding@lemmy.world ⁨11⁩ ⁨months⁩ ago

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

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  • Maggoty@lemmy.world ⁨11⁩ ⁨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.

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• sartalon@lemmy.world ⁨11⁩ ⁨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.

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  • Maggoty@lemmy.world ⁨11⁩ ⁨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 Lithium Blast at 9 o’clock central to find out!

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• thenumbernine@infosec.pub ⁨11⁩ ⁨months⁩ ago

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

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  • Patches@sh.itjust.works ⁨11⁩ ⁨months⁩ ago

    Step 1: Loosen current child labor laws (We’re here now) …

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  • neptune@dmv.social ⁨11⁩ ⁨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!

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    • No_Ones_Slick_Like_Gaston@lemmy.world ⁨11⁩ ⁨months⁩ ago

      Were already at step 2, you can ask the governor of AR.

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  • Maggoty@lemmy.world ⁨11⁩ ⁨months⁩ ago

    Same way the meat packing industry does?

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• Gregorech@lemmy.world ⁨11⁩ ⁨months⁩ ago

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

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  • Ashyr@sh.itjust.works ⁨11⁩ ⁨months⁩ ago

    Are you saying it’s too big to be called a lake?

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    • Gregorech@lemmy.world ⁨11⁩ ⁨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.

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• psychothumbs@lemmy.world ⁨11⁩ ⁨months⁩ ago

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

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  • capital@lemmy.world ⁨11⁩ ⁨months⁩ ago

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

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• Pxtl@lemmy.ca ⁨11⁩ ⁨months⁩ ago

  Or about 5 f150 lightnings

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  • Ilovethebomb@lemm.ee ⁨11⁩ ⁨months⁩ ago

    Me drive car, why anybody need truck?

    Towing? What is towing?

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    • andrewth09@lemmy.world ⁨11⁩ ⁨months⁩ ago

      Europe has cars with towing packages that aren’t trucks

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    • spongebue@lemmy.world ⁨11⁩ ⁨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?

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• CodexArcanum@lemmy.world ⁨11⁩ ⁨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.

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  • mongooseofrevenge@lemmy.world ⁨11⁩ ⁨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!

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    • TunaCowboy@lemmy.world ⁨11⁩ ⁨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.

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• spoon00@lemm.ee ⁨11⁩ ⁨months⁩ ago

  Yeah, fuck that lake!

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  • capital@lemmy.world ⁨11⁩ ⁨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!”

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  • spongebue@lemmy.world ⁨11⁩ ⁨months⁩ ago

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

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    • Maggoty@lemmy.world ⁨11⁩ ⁨months⁩ ago

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

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  • BreadstickNinja@lemmy.world ⁨11⁩ ⁨months⁩ ago

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

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• menemen@lemmy.world ⁨11⁩ ⁨months⁩ ago

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

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

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  • cuntonabike@lemmy.world ⁨11⁩ ⁨months⁩ ago

    15 to 20 years

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

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• TransplantedSconie@lemm.ee ⁨11⁩ ⁨months⁩ ago

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

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• Akasazh@feddit.nl ⁨11⁩ ⁨months⁩ ago

  I’m now convinced this lake tastes like old school 7Up

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• RizzRustbolt@lemmy.world ⁨11⁩ ⁨months⁩ ago

  Stay away from my lithium carbonate!

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• tsonfeir@lemm.ee ⁨11⁩ ⁨months⁩ ago

  US is suddenly not interested in Ukraine

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• Maggoty@lemmy.world ⁨11⁩ ⁨months⁩ ago

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

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• mydude@lemmy.world ⁨11⁩ ⁨months⁩ ago

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

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