Mar 4, 2026 12:03 PM (This post was last modified: Mar 4, 2026 12:04 PM by Rsynced.)
This type of horror is just going to start spreading as the AI industry grows. Nvidia and other semi-conductor manufactures are increasing pollution at an alarming rate.
There is extensive documented evidence that mining and processing the metals used in chips and electronics has caused severe contamination around mine and refinery sites, and you can point to both mainstream news and social media as proof.
Why this is tied to semiconductors?
High‑end chips and AI hardware rely on “critical minerals” like rare earths, cobalt, and lithium, used in magnets, motors, batteries, and many components of electronics and the wider tech supply chain. Mining and processing these minerals has been linked to toxic tailings lakes, polluted rivers, radioactive waste, and severe health impacts for nearby communities.
Rare earths: Baotou’s toxic tailings lake (China)
News and documentary coverage
New York Times – “China Has Paid a High Price for Its Dominance in Rare Earths” (2025)
Reports that rare‑earth processing near Baotou has discharged toxic waste into a four‑square‑mile artificial lake, with heavy metals and radioactive thorium contaminating groundwater beneath the dam only a few miles from the Yellow River.
BBC / Tim Maughan – “The dystopian lake filled by the world’s tech lust” (mirrored and summarized here)
Describes a man‑made lake outside Baotou filled with “black, barely‑liquid, toxic sludge” from rare‑earth refineries supplying smartphones, wind turbines, EVs, and other tech; radiation tests on clay from the lake showed about three times background radiation.
Newser / Yahoo Finance summaries of the BBC piece
Call it a “Toxic Lake of Horror,” a dumping ground for radioactive, toxic waste from rare‑earth mineral refineries that make components for phones, tablets, and green tech.
CorpWatch – “Baotou Iron & Steel to Expand Vast Toxic Lake Dump…” (2025)
Details plans to expand the Baogang tailings lake near Baotou; notes local cancer rates reportedly 70 times higher than the national average and a huge bone‑disease hospital serving affected residents
There are many spots like this on Earth. Sadly with now the investments in AI. We are seeing more of this pollution at a rapid pace.
Investing money into renewables and recycles provide very little return. Hence why companies focus more on their own capital gain then they care about the environment.
(Mar 4, 2026 12:28 PM)RangoWorld Wrote: There are many spots like this on Earth. Sadly with now the investments in AI. We are seeing more of this pollution at a rapid pace.
Investing money into renewables and recycles provide very little return. Hence why companies focus more on their own capital gain then they care about the environment.
Crazy they plan to EXPAND the toxic lake. Seems organic solutions may never happen,.
Whats worse is how "disposable" things have become rather than repurposed or things like disposable vapes being the main product at most markets where we one time use them than off to the landfills the lithium and plastic goes. Even small changes like replacing disposable vapes as the standard at gas stations with refillable vapes is something I'd like to see. (Kind of off topic of AI, but simply unnecessary waste)
(Mar 4, 2026 01:12 PM)MadScientist Wrote: Whats worse is how "disposable" things have become rather than repurposed or things like disposable vapes being the main product at most markets where we one time use them than off to the landfills the lithium and plastic goes. Even small changes like replacing disposable vapes as the standard at gas stations with refillable vapes is something I'd like to see. (Kind of off topic of AI, but simply unnecessary waste)
At this point almost everything is disposable including the people.
I begin to hate computers in my middle age. Not the fun they once presented, now that the whole world is run on them and they are a requirement I feel more like trapped in a hell of sorts. Even retreating back to Nintendo NES retro games does not seem to break the spell of impending doom from my once most loved toy in my life.
(Mar 4, 2026 01:22 PM)Rsynced Wrote: At this point almost everything is disposable including the people.
So, many people are going to be disposable as far as jobs go now. I feel like it's going to get very bad before there is a course correction.
Because taking jobs from everyone to replace them with AI to keep your bottom line fat is going to stop working when there aren't enough people to buy your products and services.
And this environmental stuff......is AI really going to be that bad for the environment?
I had a deep dive into this because of this thread, fascinating and horrifying, looking into the map and videos and so on, I cant imagine living there :(
The risk of not taking risk is riskier than comfort.
Mar 10, 2026 10:17 AM (This post was last modified: Mar 10, 2026 10:25 AM by Phantom_NiNja.)
(Mar 4, 2026 12:39 PM)Rsynced Wrote: Crazy they plan to EXPAND the toxic lake. Seems organic solutions may never happen,.
I think companies needs to invest together and make a new company that deals with these types of issues.
We need to be more mindful how we are destroying the planet instead of focusing on making money.
We need to look into more renewal energy tech and invest in more to make technologies that align with nature to
solve these complex problems.
(Mar 7, 2026 03:12 AM)The Pact Wrote: So, many people are going to be disposable as far as jobs go now. I feel like it's going to get very bad before there is a course correction.
Because taking jobs from everyone to replace them with AI to keep your bottom line fat is going to stop working when there aren't enough people to buy your products and services.
And this environmental stuff......is AI really going to be that bad for the environment?
I think we are transition to a new era of civilization. Education is still needed and people will have jobs. AI and robots will automate most jobs in the coming years but we still need humans to make sure there's no errors happening. We need to double check the work of the AI and robots. Think about the calculator before that you had to do math manually. Most that did it that way got upset to my generation on how we can just use a calculator to solve math problems faster. In some cases you didn't need to be good at math you could just check the math in different ways to see what answer looks right.
However, the calculator was a tool. It also made us dumber because most cannot do math manually or are weak at it. It's because we heavily use the calculator. AI is the next step from this tech now the AI is a powerful calculator and a logic machine it can help you do research and much more.
It's not always accurate and you have to double check the work.
The goal here is to automate everything. We will have a new economic sytem where we all will be supervisors and technicians we will learn how to maintain our robots and our AI machines and make sure things work right. We will use robots and AI to do the actual work. We will give it orders and sit back and relax and just make sure the robots are doing their jobs.
Yes for sure wow. Sadly when you think of clean energy such as solar panels, this is what is left after the manufacturing process.
(Mar 10, 2026 10:17 AM)Phantom_NiNja Wrote: I think companies needs to invest together and make a new company that deals with these types of issues.
We need to be more mindful how we are destroying the planet instead of focusing on making money.
We need to look into more renewal energy tech and invest in more to make technologies that align with nature to
solve these complex problems.
I think we are transition to a new era of civilization. Education is still needed and people will have jobs. AI and robots will automate most jobs in the coming years but we still need humans to make sure there's no errors happening. We need to double check the work of the AI and robots. Think about the calculator before that you had to do math manually. Most that did it that way got upset to my generation on how we can just use a calculator to solve math problems faster. In some cases you didn't need to be good at math you could just check the math in different ways to see what answer looks right.
However, the calculator was a tool. It also made us dumber because most cannot do math manually or are weak at it. It's because we heavily use the calculator. AI is the next step from this tech now the AI is a powerful calculator and a logic machine it can help you do research and much more.
It's not always accurate and you have to double check the work.
The goal here is to automate everything. We will have a new economic sytem where we all will be supervisors and technicians we will learn how to maintain our robots and our AI machines and make sure things work right. We will use robots and AI to do the actual work. We will give it orders and sit back and relax and just make sure the robots are doing their jobs.
Unless the 'ELITE' kill us all and just keep a few 'SLAVES' to monitor and service the AI rOBOTS.
(Mar 7, 2026 03:12 AM)The Pact Wrote: So, many people are going to be disposable as far as jobs go now. I feel like it's going to get very bad before there is a course correction.
Because taking jobs from everyone to replace them with AI to keep your bottom line fat is going to stop working when there aren't enough people to buy your products and services.
And this environmental stuff......is AI really going to be that bad for the environment?
I think this is the plan, it doesn't matter to them... The sooner we all die the SAFER they will be.
Do you think the RULERS of China lose sleep over the TOXIC LAKE?
(Mar 10, 2026 10:17 AM)Phantom_NiNja Wrote: We need to look into more renewal energy tech and invest in more to make technologies that align with nature to
solve these complex problems.
Renewal energy tech is filling the TOXIC LAKE TODAY. Only one solution TURN IT ALL OFF.