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A comment on Iron, How Did They Make It? Part II.

Re:Iron, How Did They Make It? Part II by plat12 on Friday September 25, 2020 @04:04PM (#24593603)
Interesting to see that the largest input by an order of magnitude is trees.

Reminds me of the infographics showing that only a small fraction of our water usage is direct (lawns, showers, ...) and most is indirect (meat, almonds, ...). In both cases, supply chains abstract over the inputs "embedded" in the outputs.

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Re:Iron, How Did They Make It? Part II by Sharlin on Saturday September 26, 2020 @02:45AM (#24596904)
The whole Central and Western Europe used to be heavily forested. The reason almost none of those forests remain is largely the iron and steel industry’s thirst for charcoal during the early modernity and the industrial revolution.
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Re:Iron, How Did They Make It? Part II by comicjk on Friday September 25, 2020 @05:30PM (#24594297)
In chemical engineering school I learned that water is the biggest input to most chemical plants. Even oil refineries take in more water than oil (mainly for cooling).
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Re:Iron, How Did They Make It? Part II by plat12 on Friday September 25, 2020 @06:15PM (#24594675)
Fracking also uses a substantial amount of water.
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