Black sludge pours into the lake – one of many pipes lining the shore (Credit: Liam Young/Unknown Fields)

Hidden in an unknown corner of Inner Mongolia is a toxic, nightmarish lake created by our thirst for smartphones, consumer gadgets and green tech.

The city-sized Baogang Steel and Rare Earth complex dominates the horizon, its endless cooling towers and chimneys reaching up into grey, washed-out sky. Between it and me, stretching into the distance, lies an artificial lake filled with a black, barely-liquid, toxic sludge.

Dozens of pipes line the shore, churning out a torrent of thick, black, chemical waste from the refineries that surround the lake. The smell of sulphur and the roar of the pipes invades my senses. It feels like hell on Earth.

Source: BBC News

Date: April 12th, 2015

Link to paste into browser to read the article: http://www.bbc.com/future/story/20150402-the-worst-place-on-earth

Discussion

1) ” It’s a truly alien environment, dystopian and horrifying. The thought that it is man-made depressed and terrified me, as did the realisation that this was the byproduct not just of the consumer electronics in my pocket, but also green technologies like wind turbines and electric cars that we get so smugly excited about in the West.” says the author of this article. How is it that “green tech” can have such a toxic impact on the planet and almost no one knows about it?

2) Now you’ve seen the impact of your smart-tech on the planet, why will it make no difference to how you consume tech?