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233C t1_iticbzr wrote

Reply to comment by adarkuccio in All the Metals We Mined in 2021 in One Visualization by CronicChaos84

You'd be surprised at the number of people still expecting that iron is found in ingot form in mines.

In pictures, the literal specks of metal have to be mechanically grinned down and then undertake several chemical processes (each metal having its own specific processes and industries), all of this very energy intensive and with considerable waste and environmental impacts.

The bottle necks we're facing go far beyond metals.

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Emergency-Wave-5335 t1_itk8sm8 wrote

Everyone knows you have to put it in a furnace with some coal and then you can take the iron bars to the crafting table and make some tools and armor

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233C t1_itk9hny wrote

melt rock, pour into cast, voilà.

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imbiandneedmonynow t1_itk36z9 wrote

great now we have to worry about sand going extinct

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233C t1_itkc3l8 wrote

Climate change is just the get away crisis.
Sand, and other raw material bottle necks are "only" jeopardizing modern economical/technical development (on which our entire world economies are based).
Meanwhile, the year isn't over yet and we've already crossed 2 more planetary boundaries. Each one having the potential to render human life on earth fairly unpleasant.

Sand? We've reached the grotesque when Saudi Arabia has to import its sand from the other side of the planet.
And yet, this pale in consequences compared to, say, the Nitrogen and phosphorus cycles which threaten nothing less than our ability to feed ourselves.

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ralanr t1_itjmagv wrote

I’ve just never seen metal smooth in the wild before.

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