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Firewolf420 t1_jahw18a wrote

Reply to comment by AGVann in German scientists show a commercially feasible method for cyanobacteria to extract 17 rare earth elements from low-concentration sources. Currently, most of the world's supply of these elements is mined in China. by lughnasadh

What can we - as consumers - do about this stuff, aside from just not buying tech and living like luddites? Is there some kind of sustainably sourced rare earth metals thing we can support?

I already try to make my own electronics and repair broken ones, and I avoid buying new tech when it's unnecessary to do so. Which I argue is likely more than most, but I'd rather find some way to not be involved in this toxic lake (and issues like this) if possible.

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AGVann t1_jai0scd wrote

> What can we - as consumers - do about this stuff

I work in the environmental sciences field, so I'm gonna use this to soap box a bit.

I'm going to give you straight: You cannot avoid it. If you've ever bought a phone, you've financially contributed to the toxic chemical dumps, to the child slaves killed in cobalt mines, to the exploitation of factory workers. This is where the 'ethical capitalism' that's touted by greenwashing corporations falls short. Unless you are willing to live like a Luddite, you have to buy these products to participate in the modern world, and asking people to sacrifice their quality of life for the sake of morals is a tough ask. When it comes to these world-turning industries, boycotts are just rounding errors. Even the companies themselves find it difficult to change due to to tight margins, financial risks, long term contracts, and pressures of profitability.

So what can we do? The realities of this field can be depressing as fuck and I've often had people ask me this. For the average person, I recommend two things: Do the best you can for your conscience, and sometimes the best we can do is to mitigate. This is the reality we're facing now in everything climate and pollution related. We can't stop it. We have to start preparing to deal with it in other ways.

We all want to save the planet, but everyone's got different realities and tolerances. Don't use single use plastics. Stop buying bottled goods. Bring your own reusable mug to the cafe. Cycle or walk to work. Buy Fair Trade or Conflict Free audited goods. Eat vegetarian 2 nights a week. Join a local detrashing community, or tree planting group, or nature conservancy. Learning to repair tech is an excellent idea, and something I've tried to do more this year.

Not everyone is in a situation to do all of this, but at least you can be reassured of the fact that you're trying. It sounds silly, but this little bit of positivity does a lot to help the mentality of climate change being a hopeless but faraway problem, to one that we can work on in our own small ways and actually see a difference. If billions of us do make these little changes (or just dozens in a local community) it does help. In India, a single man started a beach clean up club that snowballed into the biggest beach clean up project in the world, and the beach is clean enough that sea turtles which hadn't been seen in decades came back.

We don't all need to be Gretas or Afrozes and change the world or a nation, but at least we can change a little about how we live.

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gurgelblaster t1_jalh9vl wrote

> So what can we do? The realities of this field can be depressing as fuck and I've often had people ask me this. For the average person, I recommend two things: Do the best you can for your conscience, and sometimes the best we can do is to mitigate. This is the reality we're facing now in everything climate and pollution related. We can't stop it. We have to start preparing to deal with it in other ways.

We can, though, but it requires political organising and active political will, and if enough people pour their energy into those pursuits (i.e. towards circular economies, sustainable societal infrastructure, global solidarity, and anti-capitalist and green socialist political movements) that's going to have an outsized impact. Most of all, we need to drop the pretense that individual action from relatively poor people, even in rich countries, is going to have an impact. Stop the private jets, luxury fast fashion and superyachts and you've a good start going, both because of the direct impact of those industries, but also because that kind of action has symbolic value: your money doesn't protect you, and doesn't mean that you are not responsible and can't be held accountable. Rather the opposite in fact.

Sure, if you can be politically active and do the small-scale individualist consumer-power thing as well, that's good, but only through collective, political, direct action, are we truly going to get anywhere.

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Lost-Otaku t1_jai633y wrote

Well, many are trying to save the planet but i don't think the most cauze as known they are not even literate. Rich are doing only to the sufficient(some are trying hard), middles are doing there level best, lower ones don't even know and don't even care. I think the rich one's are just hoping to migrate the planet (or save enough funds to migrate their generations). They are focusing more on technologies like outer space colonizing through the hope that one day we can use the materials of space to build mega structures (i think that's too futuristic). I literally don't think international unions are taking major strict steps to solve this problems. +++ I can feel the weather changing like cannonball w.r.t previous decade which can be start of a big climate disruptionnnnn. Summary. Helppppp

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AGVann t1_jai7loa wrote

> I think the rich one's are just hoping to migrate the planet

If they can't even overcome their greed to survive on a planet that's already perfect for us, what hope do they have to build an artificial environment where one single mistake or cost-cutting measure can kill everyone?

It's going to go down like Covid: Nothing will happen until we're right in the middle of the crisis. Until there's a resource and climate crisis with millions of refugees and countries on the verge of war, then all the things us scientists and activists have been pushing for decades will happen in the record time.

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NessTheGamer t1_jalb0ea wrote

Well that’s the issue with the climate crisis, by the time we hit the panic button the lion’s share of pain will be irreversible. Large scale population displacement is gonna be a disaster

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