I need a job! If any of you folk out there need a writer/toymaker/artist/analyst let me know. I will work for you with unflagging fervor, intellect, and creativity. I only need a smidgen of money for catfood and rent (and someone else to manage the spreadsheet)!
Sadly, according to the want ads I have been looking at, the world does not want astonishing super creativity. Right now, the market economy only wants these infernal i-phones and tablets which everyone is looking at all the time. The majority of jobs available are for low-level sales-clerks and admins to staff humankind’s great transition into a fully functional hive mind (where we humans, the individual neurons, are all always networked together through our androids and blackberries).
I’m no Luddite. I enjoy technology and I can imagine great benefits arising from the internet when it fully grows up into a vast colony-mind. Yet, so far iphones mostly provide a solipsist diversion—or, at best—a platform for buying and selling more unneeded junk or channeling resources to Carlos Slim and other anointed telecom winners. Naturally, I exempt Wikipedia from this grumpy jeremiad—it is indeed an amazing realization of the great utopian dreams of the Encyclopedists. I suppose I should exempt this very blog and you, my cherished readers, as well… but, after a day of looking at ads for junior marketing interns and assistant admin assistants, I can’t entirely. Here I am creating “content” for free so some MBA higher up the tech food chain can point at an infinitesimal rise or fall on a bar chart while his colleagues clap him on the shoulder and talk of “synergies.” I certainly don’t want to be that guy either! But what else is there? What are we supposed to do?
Workers at a Microwave Factory in Baotao China
To escape these circular author-centric thoughts, let’s take a field trip around the world. To provide a more comprehensive vision of the smart phone revolution, today’s post takes us to Inner Mongolia—the vast landlocked desert hinterland of China. There, amidst the lifeless dunes and the alkaline sink holes is a vast manmade lake—Lake Baotou—which reflects some of the complicated dualities of the globalized market and the technology revolution. It has been said that each computer screen and cellphone window is a “black mirror” where we watch ourselves. Lake Bautu is a different sort of black mirror. It is literally a layer of super-toxic black sludge which is left over when the rare-earth elements and heavy metals necessary for smart phones have been processed.
Waste draining into “rare earth lake” Baotou, Inner Mongolia of China (ChinaFotoPress/Getty Images)
Ferrebeekeeper has visited the world’s biggest lake, and we have dipped our toes into the fabled waters of Mount Mazama where the Klamath spirit of the underworld dwells. We have visited Lake Lonar where a space object slammed into the black basalt of a long dead shield volcano, and we have even been to China’s biggest lake where the world’s largest naval battle took place. However, Lake Baotou is a whole different manifestation of the underworld. Sophisticated modern electronics require cerium, neodymium, yttrium, europium, and goodness only knows what else. These so-called rare earth elements are also necessary for wind turbines, electric car arrays, and next generation green technologies.
Giant sludge pond in Baotao China (Photo by Veronique de Viguerie/Reportage by Getty Images)
Yet the refinement process for these elements is unusually corrosive and toxic and the waste products are horrifying. The raw materials tend to be found in great evaporitic basins (like those of Inner Mongolia, where an ancient ocean dried into vast dunes) but most nations are wary of processing these materials because of the unknown long-term cost. China’s leaders recognized the economic (and defense!) potential of becoming the world’s main (only?) supplier of these esoteric elements and the end result has been cheap consumer electronics, a communication revolution…and Lake Baotao, which slouches dark and poisonous beneath the refining towers and smokestacks of Baotao City.
On the plus side, Baotao (pictured here during rush hour) is evidently the bicyclists’ paradise I was wishing for last week!
A former roommate of mine visited Inner Mongolia and walked the streets of Baotao City. He described a wild-west boomtown filled with brothels, bars, Mongolian barbeque places, and…cell phone stores! Crime and excess were readily apparent everywhere as were prosperity and success—like old timey Deadwood or Denver. I wonder if Baotao City will develop into a modern hub like Denver or Chicago, or will it disappear back into the thirsty dunes when this phase of the electronics boom is over (or when its effluviums become insuperable).
In the mean time we all have to flow with the shifting vicissitudes of vast entwined global networks. We must make ends meet in a way which hopefully doesn’t harm the world too much. Now I better get back to scouring the want ads! Keep your eyes open for a job for me and please keep following me, um, on your computers and smart phones…
ferrebeekeeper 
23 comments
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May 13, 2015 at 4:49 AM
agnesashe
When you think about it the ‘rare earth lake’ is possibly the equivalent to the ‘dark Satanic Mills’ of Blake’s ‘Jerusalem’ (if you agree with Industrial Revolution connection) only for the Brits of the 18th/19th century the mills were often on their horizon. The big issue we have today is Lake Baotou and all the eco problems are for most people out of sight therefore out of mind. Great informative post that I hope many people will read and excellent use of your time – just wish for your sake you’d been paid for the content. Good luck with your search for remunerated, meaningful employment.
May 14, 2015 at 12:11 AM
Wayne
I’ll settle for “remunerated”. I think “meaningful” doesn’t happen unless you are a STEM person.
I like your comparison with the mills from the dawn of the industrial revolution! It made me look up my Luddite post and link back to it: I had forgotten what an intense story that was!
May 14, 2015 at 3:24 PM
agnesashe
I was originally a STEM person, but I returned to Uni as a mature student to cross the void and take Art History – “meaningful” can take many different forms either side of the divide. However, I think being both meaningful and remunerated on the arts side is, sadly, very challenging these day. I wish you all the best for remunerated and all the luck that it is meaningful for you too.
May 14, 2015 at 6:58 PM
Wayne
Thanks so much, Agnes! There is a solution out there somewhere. What sort of scientist were you? That sounds like a story worth telling! Are you an art historian now?
May 15, 2015 at 5:32 AM
agnesashe
Keep looking for solutions, opportunities can be found in the most unforeseen places with the most unlikely people.
Regarding me, started out with a physiology degree working in labs then offices and after a decade went back to study. My Art History MA was working on the medieval cultural production of East Anglia. Now, all was going fine, started a PhD changed time period to 19th century and subject to be multi-disciplinary researching within an English Dept. TOO much change coupled with childcare issues equalled crash and burn (lesson – know your own limits!). Then life and the financial crisis came to call so here we are conversing across the pond on Planet Blog – a thread or two of this rich tapestry.
May 13, 2015 at 5:03 PM
Calendar Girl
One of the darker posts, this one… 😦
I hope the creative avenues soon emerge from behind the noise. As much as I’ve been enjoying your writing, I can’t quite hire you for that, but would be happy to buy a drink for you (or cat, or both), when I’m on that coast
May 14, 2015 at 12:08 AM
Wayne
Aww, thanks for the kind words. I’m sorry my frustration at mass culture broke through there a bit (also I didn’t get a job because I wasn’t smartphone savvy enough and I felt like lambasting the infernal black rectangles). I might take you up on that drink next time you are out here. But little Sepia certainly better not start boozing it up!
May 17, 2015 at 4:01 PM
Calendar Girl
the options coming up are 5/28 evening drinks or 5/29 morning drinks
May 18, 2015 at 9:47 PM
Wayne
I’m sorry I have responded so slowly! It is an unsettled time and I am no master of the calendar (unlike some people) but shall we pencil in the 28th?
May 19, 2015 at 7:17 PM
Calendar Girl
That’ll work 🙂
May 14, 2015 at 9:48 AM
sjschen
That black sludge is not just super toxic, it’s also slighty radioactive due to the amount of thorium and uranium products in these ores. Low levels, but likely still above recommended doses.
May 14, 2015 at 2:08 PM
Wayne
That’s good to know…although ordinary bricks are slightly radioactive too. It’s hard to tell how afraid to be of everything.
Probably it’s best not to get too near the black goo for all sorts of reasons!
May 14, 2015 at 4:14 PM
sjschen
True, not to mention those really pretty granite countertops. That said most Western nations do not do Rare Earth refining because of the legally troubling quantity of mildly radioactive tailings generated.
May 14, 2015 at 7:06 PM
Wayne
Mild radioactivity seems to cause people to lose their head with fear! It is like how the world goes mad with anxiety when a plane crashes but gives no thought to the thousands of people killed by cars everyday. Admittedly I am a pro-nuclear (and pro-aviation) person so perhaps I am biased.
Maybe western countries should be refining rare earth elements on our own instead of tutting moralistically at China while reaching out greedily for all of the cell phones and windmills we can get. However the acid, heavy metals, and other poisons left over from the process are what trouble me. Easy answers are as hard to find as easy jobs!
May 14, 2015 at 7:09 PM
Wayne
Also, although this is probably not the right place to mention it, your blog of Qing dynasty recipes is amazing!
May 14, 2015 at 9:41 PM
sjschen
Thanks! Considering what unscrupulous Chinese merchants are adding to their food products and what environmental toxins are getting into Chinese foods, actually, you’re at the right place to mention both.
Have you seen Kirk Sorensen’s talks and Thorium breeder reactors? It’s pretty awe and hope inspiring stuff. The fact that China is developing one, prehaps redeems them a tiny bit.
May 14, 2015 at 11:46 AM
beatrix
I don’t think I could handle a ‘real job’ ever again. Marketing oneself, feigning interest in ‘mass cultural’ crap, jumping through endless meaningless hoops & always being ‘Fine”.
Nope.
Never again.
If Nepal’s tourism industry doesn’t recover in the next 5 yrs we’ll probably move to India – yet another cesspit of insuperable effluvium.
Can’t you make things to sell on etsy or at arts & crafts fairs, Wayne?
May 14, 2015 at 2:03 PM
Wayne
[holds head in hands] Every time I look at the contemporary art world (at least in New York) it seems to be nothing but marketing oneself and pretending mass culture effluvium is intellectually meaningful. I’m not very good at those things (though I have started a Twitter account to make snarky comments about ephemera, so that’s a start). Likewise, I haven’t tried selling things on Etsy because I am afraid that I will alienate people and that my pieces won’t sell, but maybe I better just get out there and start hawking stuff. I can fix up my marketing game “on the fly”.
I hope Nepal recovers quickly! It sounds like you really belong there.
We’ll figure something out. Maybe we should collaborate! Do you know any inexpensive Nepali woodworkers?
May 15, 2015 at 6:01 PM
Neomys Sapiens
Contemporary art is not so hopeless. 2 months ago, I took a visiting lady to an art fair in Karlsruhe, where we discovered some really nice and thoughtful creations amongst the shredded paper and smeared paint. Hidden in between the junk were gems for nearly every taste.
Smartphones are not to blame. Their users are. Like you mentioned somewhere, you could call up Wikipedia as well as Facebook, you can use and abuse this technology. So I think that the biggest problem we are facing in the western world is to call people to terms. To duty, to sense. It cannot be tolerated any more that people indulge in pretty bullshit, especially of those who are intelligent enough to make a difference. If there is only the solution of reducing their freedom, so be it. They had enough of it and made little with it.
Some of the answers you are getting here strike me as outright perverted. To turn away from a scientific/commercial activity for something that does not even remotely adress the problems of humanity should not be allowed. Of course, this includes the necessity to see how the commercial activities fit into the bigger framework of getting things done, because pure science often doesn’t.
The environment forgives more quickly than the green alarmists think, For example, in densely populated, industrialized Germany, we see a resurgence of many types of animals which were scarce during my childhood. Nowadays, you can see Maulwurfshaufen (Mole Hills?) at nearly every piece of meadow, implying as well the smaller life to feed them, Bats and even owls are retaking our cities. So I think the world as a whole can cope with some toxic effluvia in the chinese outback. Of course, that doesn’t make it any easier for the people directly involved. But they might grab their chances to partake and then part. And no one is really to blame for not trying except the individual itself.
And don’t get me started on the silly radiation scare.
Well, I’m wishing you luck with the job search (be it less toil and more reward than mine – when a clump of ice develops every time one of the newer air vehicles comes down in a less orderly way until your parts and bits are cleared of wrongdoing) and islay whisky for your cat and catnip for you or whatever! Keep it up!
P.S. The french brew that goes by the NINKASI brand is delicious, I’ve sampled some of it.
May 18, 2015 at 10:14 PM
Wayne
Thanks for the thoughtful words Neoomys. I guess it always takes a while to sort out the good art and the bad art–but unfortunately I only have one lifetime…
Don’t worry I am not a technophobe nor do I advocate spurning the astonishing advances we have made. In fact, I believe that only by learning more and pushing science forward at a faster pace can humankind redeem ourselves and not cause planetwide horror and catastrophe. If we carved out some spiffy new homes for life in the universe, all of the mistakes caused by our appetite and our carelessness would seem insignificant.
Also, as you note, nature can be very resilient. I was watching the brants down at the beach, and it occurred to me that if humankind flew off to Fomalhaut or somewhere, the ecosystem would bounce right back to pre-industrial levels…but who knows? This is an imponerable philosophical topic for many posts and much discussion!
I enjoyed hearing about your job–it sounds fascinating and important (albeit difficult and dangerous). Thanks for keeping us all in the air safely. I’ll let you know what I end up doing–probably nothing so concrete and useful.
May 19, 2015 at 2:40 PM
Wayne
Although, come to think of it, if we kill off elephants, blue-fin tuna, and pangolins, I might revise my opinion of us way down…
May 16, 2015 at 12:26 AM
beatrix
Hmmm..I don’t know any Nepali woodworkers but I’m sure I could find some.
I was thinking you could make toys to sell on Etsy & at fairs. I used to go to lots of arts & crafts sort of festivals & fairs when I lived in California. Paintings didn’t seem to sell so well but there did seem to be a dearth of quality toys. (Especially around Xmas time.)
May 18, 2015 at 9:51 PM
Wayne
That’s an exciting idea! I have built a miniature toy theater with wood, paint, and photoshop (making all the little drawings and backdrops took forever). Maybe I should build some more things like that (as well as, you know, producing salable copies of what I spent so much time making). Thanks for the feedback, Beatrix!