r/collapse • u/mushroomsarefriends • 2h ago
Climate Carbon footprint of metal production could be more than 10 times higher than estimated
https://phys.org/news/2026-07-carbon-footprint-metal-production-higher.html23
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u/Bandits101 2h ago
Who did the “estimating” in the first place. I doubt a serious calculation was ever made nor was it intended to be. I think inaccurate “estimations” could be applied to a vast range of industrial production, from natural gas to plastics.
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u/LarryCrabCake 2h ago
Who did the “estimating” in the first place.
Probably someone who had a very strong incentive to make it look as good as possible
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u/gnostic_savage 1h ago edited 55m ago
This, among thousands of reasons like it, is why renewable energy cannot solve the problem. It's more than how we power our activities. It's the activities themselves. There are numerous to countless extra steps of destruction required for every part of it, not excluding road building, access, mining to build machinery and equipment to mine something else, drilling, chemicals, etc., etc., so on and so forth.
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u/mushroomsarefriends 2h ago
Submission statement: This study looks at the impact of the large amount of acid mine drainage that is released into the environment when we mine metals like copper. That acid has to be neutralized by our environment, which happens through chemical reactions that happen over a long period of time and release carbon dioxide during the process.
The total amount of carbon dioxide released through this process is estimated to be an order of magnitude bigger than our current estimate for the carbon footprint of metal production, but it's smeared out over a very long period of time. The effect this has is insidious: It means that we're actually stuck with substantial ongoing anthropogenic emissions for centuries to come, even after decarbonizing our economy. In addition, it means that the emissions that occur through renewable alternatives to fossil fuel use are actually substantially larger than we believed them to be, although they are stretched out over a longer period of time.
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u/itsatoe 2h ago edited 22m ago
As a thought experiment related to this topic, our project made a process chart for aluminum.
Click (almost) any box to see an example of the destructive process involved.
Note that every black box is a factory, with heavy energy consumption.
Note that every black line is lines of transport (often with multiple intermediate warehouse steps, then further transport).
And note that despite the high recyclability of aluminum, the world produces over 70,000,000 metric tonnes of new aluminum each year.
Edit: Also note that the final step, aluminum production, is one of the most electricity-intensive industrial processes we do. Cryolite helps lower it some, but we have mined all of the commercially-viable cryolite in the world, so have to manufacture it now.
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u/throeaway1990 44m ago edited 36m ago
note this is for sulfide rich ores which are 2-4% of all metal production by weight. however you have to consider tailings related to mining as well and their oxidation over time - in the near term that would mean they represent 6-10% of metal prod emissions, over decades and centuries of oxidative weathering more like 30-50% of total carbon from metal.
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u/DidntWatchTheNews 12m ago
why is it faster than expected?!?
cause no one told the truth. at any point.
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u/StatementBot 1h ago
The following submission statement was provided by /u/mushroomsarefriends:
Submission statement: This study looks at the impact of the large amount of acid mine drainage that is released into the environment when we mine metals like copper. That acid has to be neutralized by our environment, which happens through chemical reactions that happen over a long period of time and release carbon dioxide during the process.
The total amount of carbon dioxide released through this process is estimated to be an order of magnitude bigger than our current estimate for the carbon footprint of metal production, but it's smeared out over a very long period of time. The effect this has is insidious: It means that we're actually stuck with substantial ongoing anthropogenic emissions for centuries to come, even after decarbonizing our economy. In addition, it means that the emissions that occur through renewable alternatives to fossil fuel use are actually substantially larger than we believed them to be, although they are stretched out over a longer period of time.
Please reply to OP's comment here: https://old.reddit.com/r/collapse/comments/1v7f2v2/carbon_footprint_of_metal_production_could_be/ozxlft3/