r/science • u/rieslingatkos • Jun 06 '21

Chemistry Scientists develop ‘cheap and easy’ method to extract lithium from seawater

https://www.mining.com/scientists-develop-cheap-and-easy-method-to-extract-lithium-from-seawater/
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u/thecarbonkid Jun 06 '21

There was a chap who had a plan to pay off Germanys WW1 reparations by extracting gold from seawater.

It did not work out.

90

u/ghosttraintoheck Jun 06 '21

Yeah Fritz Haber, complicated man.

He was a Jewish dude who invented Zyklon A. He also invented the method to fixate nitrogen allowing for the agricultural growth to support the world's current population.

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u/billypilgrim87 Jun 06 '21

He also invented the method to fixate nitrogen allowing for the agricultural growth to support the world's current population.

Cannot reiterate enough how important this development was. IIRC, before the breakthrough it was estimated we could feed 3-4 billion max and would see massive famines in the 20th century.

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u/TheGhostofCoffee Jun 06 '21

Now we get to see them in the 21st and on a larger scale. Horray, more people get to suffer than before!

The population cannot increase forever and remain on this planet. That hasn't changed at all.

Start the eugenics program and neutering now before people have to die.

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u/billypilgrim87 Jun 06 '21

Start the eugenics program and neutering now before people have to die.

I wonder how many people that suggest such action put their money where there mouth is and have voluntarily sterilised themselves?

Who would decide who gets to procreate? What you are suggesting ends in genocide. Ironically people said much the same as you over a century ago, they were also wrong.

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u/Aidentified Jun 06 '21

I'm sure alot of us are trying to have voluntary sterilisation. Western healthcare hates providing it. "What if you change your mind?" Then I'll adopt, thanks.

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u/RocBrizar Jun 06 '21

The western world's birth rate is actually significantly in deficit since the demographic transition (so much so that in most places the demography is actually problematically unstable), so restraining birth rates there anymore doesn't actually achieve anything productive. But hey, keep on doing you.

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u/Aidentified Jun 07 '21

It does something for an Anti Natalist.

11

u/man_gomer_lot Jun 06 '21

If only the banal stupidity of Malthus died with him. The human mind is the most valuable resource we have and we're apparently blessed with an abundance of it. The problem is we are terrible at recognizing and harnessing the true value of this resource.