Hey big news in case you don’t know…. One main reason russia probably wants the area they’d been occupying before it got worse in Ukraine… and more… is because there’s a shitload of rare earth minerals there. I heard an estimate on bbc that possibly multiple trillion dollars worth in today’s dollars.

Convinient cherry picking to say they don't care because of extracting vital materials, it similar faulty logic to blaming all emissions on Asia by pointing at China or India.

Look at the adoption rate for renewables in the rest of the western world, and current usage. France for example is ~70% nuclear, here in the UK we use a shit ton of wind power and some solar power.

That trend follows for pretty much all of Northern/Western Europe in their own unique ways, much like they have their own unique problems as well.

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> It's insane to me that you would place equal blame

I didn't say "equal blame", I said "culpable".

> The consumer is largely a passenger in terms of what exists and what doesn't

So you're claiming that consumer demand doesn't exist and has zero measurable impact on market practises? Well buddy, it's not me that's "insane".

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The consumer is just as culpable, because without that demand there wouldn't be an industry there in the first place. Playing the finger pointing game is a waste of time that solves nothing.

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> 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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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

Absolutely ! The more the wastewater and tailings can be processed the less harmful they should (theoretically) become.

Settling Ponds are a wealth of resources, it is just unknown how & therefore unfeasable to process a lot of the that waste.

I would think they would need caves to grow in, with the REE's exposed on (or near) the loose exposed surface. Mushrooms dont have roots like trees. I am unsure if the wanted REE's would be considered nutrients to a plant or mushroom. (after-thought; Some REE's definatly not as they are toxic and/or (mildly) radioactive).

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True, but mine water quality is a huge barrier to successful mine closure.

This has the potential to allow for way less chemical treatment, and therefore lower costs of closure and less likelihood of abandoning mines.... Provided it can also address other metals too.

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30 years from now: Nobody was quite sure which of the new organisms became the seed for the Grey Goo, but…

Just a taught experiment : what if we make plants and mushrooms concentrate those minerals for us then make a soup with them. Then the bacteria finish the job.

It takes a couple of years to shift, because it takes a lot of infrastructure (and planning) to mine and refine.

But remember when China talked of export quotas on these minerals, to punish certain countries (Japan at the time)? That was a couple of years ago, and countries started developing their own supply already, because they understood the problem. So China doesn't have the same leverage anymore.

Don't worry, we'll offset the environmental damage from this any day now with our reusable canvas bags, paper straws, and spontaneously combusting EVs.

> 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.

Slaps knee, welp, im off to join the brotherhood of nod.