Why Salt Is Vital - But Potentially Catastrophic

Wars fought over it, roads paved for its trade, taxed levied against it and even cities named for its legacy. Salt was once needed to made international economics possible. Salt has shaped the global economy - and the way we use it has shifted dramatically throughout history.
Now, salt’s biggest use is to keep roads safe. The global market for salt was worth over an estimated $13 billion in 2021. More salt is permeating our environment. This increased salinization contaminates drinking water and soils and causes billions in damages.
“You could not have an international economy if you didn’t have salt,” Mark Kurlansky, author of “Salt: A World History,” told CNBC. “There was very little food you could export without salt. Vegetables, meat, fish, dairy products.”
Watch the video above to learn more about how salt became a game-changing mineral and solutions for a saltier world.
Chapters:
0:00 - Introduction
01:26 - From food to roads
05:33 - Hidden markets
07:53 - Saltier world
10:23 - Solutions
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Why Salt Is Vital - But Potentially Catastrophic

[@Zakerath]

Imagine the reactions if some ancient civilization where salt was as valuable as gold, were convincingly told that in the future, governments would throw out salt into the streets for free, to make them less slippery 😆

[@wildkeith]

Well not free, we pay for it with our tax dollars. Still a good point.

[@alexandrejuve1305]

Salt didn't cost as gold, but it was needed a lot more in households and it was vital for them. But yes an ancient civilisation wouldn't understand all our abundance.

[@WillTheBassPlayer]

@@alexandrejuve1305 in many places in the ancient world salt was more important and scarce than gold money and had a higher value per unit of weight than the gold to purchase it. TL:DR: Yes it did, shut up

[@mattweger437]

Imagine going back knowing that you could make salt by letting sea water evaporate

[@hitmusicworldwide]

That really shocked the economic chicken littles at the time that wanted to keep their currency and economy on the salt standard.

[@jamescox7007]

I remember 17 years ago I was in charge of a large snow removal contract at a local smelter. I asked the Transportation Department to order 26 skids of salt so I can place them in the S.O.S. bins. You never place loose salt or sand as it freezes solid when moisture is present. I received a call and the transport arrived and we could start placing salt bags in the bins. Once the driver removed the tarp I immediately noticed they sent 26 skids of restaurant / cooking grade salt. I refused the load of salt and notified the Manager of Transportation. We all had a good laugh, then they ordered the correct salt.

[@NazriB]

Lies again? RSL Arabic Text

[@Growlizing]

Good thing that you noticed!

[@droldsw31]

Tell us another funny story!

[@albear972]

8:49 check out those safety sandals for jackhammering.

[@eddieslittlestack7919]

That’s OSHA for ya 🙄 Safety sandals 🙄 Back in my day, real men worked bare foot! Kidz these days I tell ya!

[@ShidaiTaino]

That might not be in the US

[@ckm-mkc]

I'm surprised there is no mention of the cost to consumers as their vehicles corrode away and have to be replaced far sooner than they should. The economic & environmental cost is enormous and far outweighs the benefits of salting the roads. Where I currently live, there are record snowfalls and no salt is used at all - it seems be either habit or just the industry pushing salt on roads, esp. in the Northeast.

[@paulsansonetti7410]

Where is that exactly? In Pittsburgh where it is extremely hilly I think the calculus might be different but I'm genuinely curious

[@jefferypinley4336]

In central Oregon we use cinder instead of salt

[@kentbyron7608]

Bravo thank you for this report as I always wondered about salt. My neighbor's well got contaminated from Road salt and he had to get a new freshwater well drilled farther away from the road at a cost of about $12,000. This well contamination locally is happening more frequently due to overuse of road salt. And now we have vehicles whose engines can run way past 300,000 miles but will never see that length of travel because the body of the vehicle corrodes from road salt. We are doing this without much consideration for the future. It's extremely hard to clear up fresh water after its been salinated, and salty freshwater has repercussions for our own health as well as for our agriculture and for the environment which sustains us. It seems like the only time we appreciate fresh water as a species is when we lose it. Clean fresh water is so easy to take for granted, until it's too late.

[@Kyrephare]

I know up here in the Pacific North West in the temperate area, they rarely use salt if it can be avoided, Its temperate here so it rarely snows but the concern is actually for the Salmon population around here. It was very different than when I lived in the Midwest where that rock salt got layered thick after a storm.

[@WG55]

The word "salary" does not come from a payment in salt to Romans. It comes from an additional monetary allowance given to Roman soldiers to buy salt in addition to their provisions. It then became a general term for all monetary allowances.

[@creativemindplay]

Thanks, Delbert

[@JoelReid]

It is fascinating to see each country and their salt production. Domestic Australian and Indian salt is almost entirely solar salt simply because it has plenty of warm coastline to produce it. Australia has almost zero rock salt production, and rock salt is almost exclusively used as a niche fashionable food product, not as a primary product. Compare this to Europe which lacks large coastlines, thus relies much more on rock salt. In fact the food product compared to Australia is almost entirely reversed, with sea salt being the niche fashionable product.

[@kria9119]

I would disagree. I'm in southern Europe and we produce vast amounts of solar salt, which covers both national needs and is exported across Europe. Same goes for all southern European countries. Rock salt is most definitely not the main product in majority of Europe

[@JoelReid]

@@kria9119 most European salt is imported from foreign rock salt sources in China. but locally sources salt is predominately rock salt. Sea salt is a minority of European salt.

[@petesmitt]

@@kria9119 Solar salt represents 10% of the salt produced in Europe and the main producers are located in France, Greece, Italy and Spain.

[@Routamaanpoika]

I wouldn't say "Europe lacks large coastlines". I urge you to look at a map if you are not from Europe. The coastline of the EU is almost double the length of the coastline of Australia. My best guess is, that in the regions where solar salt production would be most feasible they compete with beaches and infrastructure used for tourism. Which is an important part of the GDP for southern European countries like Italy, Spain etc.

[@Eozu]

This reminds me of the game Triangle Strategy, salt as a resource is in constant demand historically regardless of technology.

[@bens5093]

For the honor of House Wolffort!

[@lord_eudald]

Let our convictions guide us.

[@barrybarry-bb28]

This video was educational and informative. Thanks. 👍

[@GroovyVideo2]

putting salt on roads is INSANE

[@tjwoosta]

Not really, the negative effects have been entirely blown out of proportion in this video. It's probably not a good thing to keep doing it if we can conceive of alternatives, but it's really not a giant environmental disaster like they lead you to believe. Look at any cold climates where they regularly salt the roads for hundreds of years now, no major issues, unlike the widespread use of synthetic fertilizers worldwide. Grass and and weeds and trees still grow along edge of the road just fine, lakes and rivers are still thriving on the edge of the roads. I'm sure the salt levels must be accumulating slowly, but it's not like you could taste a difference in the water or anything, and there are no dead fish floating around in all the lakes or dried up plants along the road because of runoff.

[@GroovyVideo2]

@@tjwoosta hope you are correct

[@mikerepairsstuff]

Great video. A very complicated topic affecting everyone’s life.

[@Miamcoline]

Great balanced report that took into account the point of view of all stakeholders including producers, government and the environment, without holding back on the dangers of overusing this resource! Thank you for this report.

[@Raintiger88]

Wow. . that Ohio Valley/Pennsylvania accent really comes shines through. This was a really good overview of the salt issue. A follow up for free chlorine radicals would make it more complete. I've wondered that since my university chemistry professor mentioned it to the class many many years ago.

[@hydroaegis6658]

Crazy that there are people worth more than entire vital industries.

[@xlynx9]

You salty?

[@cedriceric9730]

That's true but misleading, that net worth can evaporate in seconds while the worth of salt is eternal

[@hydroaegis6658]

@@cedriceric9730 I doubt Jeff Bezos shares of Amazon will evaporate in seconds.

[@rolandalfonso6954]

This was wonderful. Salt! Only you and CNBC could pull this off.

[@vhol93]

Super interesting video!

[@Vyzard]

Nice of Bert giving his input of salt economics

[@kremesti]

Very good report

[@RajA-0202]

The salt market is immense... take that with a grain of salt 🧂 😅

[@inthezone9817]

Wanna Rewind's Salt vid brought me here. Great cover on salt.

[@hbarudi]

Ocean desalination should also produce salt from the "before filter" parts of the desalination process.

[@sn5301679]

Yeah, its possible to further process the brine. But maybe atm, it didnt give them much profit, so we didnt hear it yet.

[@darinherrick9224]

It does. Problem is it's sludge wastewater ultra-toxic "brine". Totally unusable and dumped into the ocean.

[@r3dp1ll]

@@darinherrick9224 why more toxic than regular solar salt ?

[@ronblack7870]

@@darinherrick9224 that does not make sense if it's just seawater concentrated. evaporation salt will have all the same stuff in it .

[@christinearmington]

Fascinating

[@alfredomenezes8814]

Very interesting!

[@littleBIGrobots]

BTW that Salt book is fantastic.

[@Qamara]

I definitely enjoyed this.

[@twerkingfish4029]

So I'm not the only one who thought "gee, I wonder if dumping salt everywhere has consequences".

[@Theoryofcatsndogs]

I will take this as a grain of salt.

[@rovermiles1]

Common expressions: "salt of the earth", and "that man is worth his salt".

[@spnyp33]

You could have picked better imagery for the rusting rebar section 8:26 , the video you showed was road degradation from erosion - not metal corrosion. Also, that appears to be blacktop. Typically, rebar is used as a reinforcement measure in concrete.

[@megamanx466]

Which salt? Oh, "table salt"! Gotcha. 😏

[@octagon69]

Triangle Strategy was real??

[@SUPREMECULTUREMEDIA]

@8:50 my boy using a jackhammer in open toe slide flip flops

[@stevenjuan259]

Taking the first step is the hardest, but 7 house later living off passive income since June 6, 2016. You’ve got to start taking steps to achieve your goal.

[@donwhizz7880]

Thanks for your response but how do I get access to your financial consultant? Can you share more info about him if you don’t mind.

[@nathanjane7729]

my coach is "Jackson sten marsh". is highly qualified and experienced in the financial market.

[@denisdavid342]

Wow!!! I know and I have been growing with him since 2018. His expertise has been the best for my financial journey. I have created a passive income over the years and life feels really better and easy for me. I feel so delighted to read these good reviews about him

[@expertjacksonwilliams7368]

That's a good decision if you start now. I invested in Stocks or Gold coins with the help of a Fin. consultant and was able to buy my second house last year September and hope to buy more if things keep going smoothly for me.

[@yaughl]

4:00 Truzaic? I can't even find a definition on google for this word.

[@KingGeorge]

You can get all the salt you need from an average Rainbow 6 ranked game.

[@kelrune]

what about mag chloride. its what we use in denver for salt on the road. Its also sprayed on not poured on as a rock salt.

[@Southghost5997]

This did not explain how road salt and food grade salt are processed differently. A vacuum pan does not mean food grade, and Himalayan salt is mined mostly in Pakistan from large chunks, not from artificial brine pools.

[@darrenkitchin1842]

I would assume the salt being a smaller size, is because in food people are generally leaning towards takeaway and other processed sugars. Which is weird because salt can bring out so much of that flavour with less impact

[@HisShadow]

After playing Triangle Strategy I've never been able to look at salt the same way.

[@tsancio]

There's a CNBC employee who contributed to this video called Harvey Salt.

[@dheeraj_one]

Here's an idea: how about fewer roads and less car dependency to reduce the use of salt?

[@Shakdnugz2024]

BAHAHAH

[@BpDinn]

It’s rare when I see another Bryon. 😊😊

[@3089io]

If you "really wouldn't want to eat" the deicing salt, which I'm not saying you would, but if you wouldn't want to eat it... it's not 100% sodium chloride. Unless you only don't want to eat it because it's large chunks. Which yeah, big salt rocks aren't great to eat... but you could crush them and eat them... but I bet you don't want to eat it because there's something else floating around. Machine oil, diesel fuel, whatever. I'm just saying, y'all aren't doing anyone a favor by being loose with the definition of 100%.

[@tsancio]

Now wondering why the brine from desalinization is pumped back into the ocean instead of being packaged for any of the applications in this video.

[@suyogv8235]

Too much brine, too little demand

[@permeus2nd]

The deicing salt I find the funniest as you are literally paying for salt you are planing to throw away.

[@ejakeway]

Just wanted to comment and say every ad that played while watching this was the same ad every time. The kiss musician ad.

[@evanmeszaros352]

The ">13%" figure shown around 3:19 should have been "

[@johnvannewhouse]

Salt is the most common mineral on earth and is essential to human survival, because it is one of the substances upon which all of life on Earth evolved to depend on. Salt is involved in regulating the water content (fluid balance) of the body. The sodium ion itself is used for electrical signaling in the nervous system. Human beings need salt right down to an atomic level... YET, until about 150 years ago, in the history of recorded human activity, its procurement was unbelievably difficult. One of the first recorded wars in human history was fought in China over, among other things, salt. Salt was comparable in value to gold, and was also - in China - used as a medium of exchange. The Romans were some of the first to realize that if they controlled the salt of a region, they controlled that region. The modern word salary is derived from the Latin salarium, meaning “stipend,” which is related to the Latin word salarius, meaning “pertaining to salt.” But the connection between the words is lost to us, although there is no concrete evidence that Roman soldiers were ever paid in salt or that the salarium was, as another theory holds, an allowance for salt. But it would lend some background to the phrase "worth your salt".... Amazingly, salt was regarded as so valuable that spilling it was considered a sin - precipitated in popular origin as being caused by the devil shoving you from behind. Which is why if you spilled salt you would throw it over your shoulder to blind the devil and send him back to hell. There were many salt rituals in the ancient world, and casting salt over something as a curse or purification seems to have been a part of several different traditions. It is said that one disciple spilled salt at the Last Supper, and that disciple was Judas. EVEN UP UNTIL OUR REVOLUTIONARY WAR, salt was of such critical importance that the British attempted to cut off our salt supplies to essentially starve the American army by destroying their ability to preserve food. And yet today, with the advent of modern technology after the industrial revolution, we produce and mine salt in such industrial quantities that we can spread it over our roads when it snows. That would have been nothing short of unthinkable to people a mere 200 years ago, to say nothing of ancient peoples.

[@Chops473]

What is a bulk unit?

[@jasonbroom7147]

I can't believe you did a piece on salt without mentioning the sodium-ion battery technology that is going to absolutely revolutionize personal transportation, along with stationary storage of intermittent energy generation.

[@enadegheeghaghe6369]

Since those batteries are still in development, that use case doesn't even show up on the chart for salt usage. There are dozens of uses for salt that are more important right now

[@jasonbroom7147]

@@enadegheeghaghe6369 - Those batteries are not still in development. CATL is building a sodium-ion battery, right now, that is being used in at least one brand of EV. They are here and they are the biggest reason lithium is down 35% in the last month and over 50% in the last year. This stuff is changing so fast!

[@enadegheeghaghe6369]

@@jasonbroom7147 so which car can I buy now that has Sodium batteries? And how does it qualify as one of the top 50 uses for Na right now?

[@jasonbroom7147]

@@enadegheeghaghe6369 - BYD, one of the biggest vehicle manufacturers in China, is using a sodium-ion battery in one of their EV's. If you can't see the significance of that in the future of alternative energy storage, including what that has already done to the cost of lithium, then maybe investing is not for you.

[@enadegheeghaghe6369]

@@jasonbroom7147 How many of that EV have been sold? What miniscule percentage of current Na use does it constitute? And by the way this video was about current Salt usage in general not the future of alternative energy. Maybe you watched the wrong video. There is no investment advise in the video either. So once again you seem to like going off on your own tangent.

[@Gatecrasher1]

Now I see salt in a whole different light

[@patrikisgod]

Imagine countries that salt their own lands

[@williammiller2242]

In Manitoba we don’t use salt on our roads. We use sand.

[@Maddog165]

And all of the cars are in much better condition than other places that spread salt. I really wished that it would change in the USA (or at least Wisconsin where I live). It not only corrodes car’s fast, but all the road infrastructure deteriorates faster. Metal bridges, expansion joints on highway overpasses are held together with steel bolts, even the pavement falls apart faster when salt is spread vs just sand.

[@sarcasmo57]

Glad it doesn't snow here.

[@Nabraska49]

Makes you wonder how all that salt got concentrated is such quantities in those mines .

[@karl0ssus1]

Dried up seabeds in the geologic past. The salt flats in Nevada are a modern example.

[@alrxandersmiths242]

Here’s an idea let people stay home when roads are bad sacrifice, and economic production for the better good

[@megeek727]

“Salt: A World History,” - an excellent book. Who knew salt could be so interesting. A very entertaining read. Much more interesting than this video.

[@n3rdst0rm]

Minnesota roads have salt deposits next to the road.

[@henryjanicky4978]

All desolinasation plants should collect brines on the ground, instead send it back to oceans, for future use in chemical industry and elsewhere

[@Tuanesto]

I'm Salty now

[@santhoshnanjundarao2887]

It is difficult to imagine world without Salt, Salt is necessary in Daily food needs, global market for salt was worth over an estimated $13 billion in 2021 great news in 21st century.

[@Novastar.SaberCombat]

As always, the base resources are mined, utilized, and re-absorbed back into the environment. But when the BALANCE is all out-of-whack, so are the life forms who are mining and utilizing all of it. 🐲✨🐲✨🐲✨

[@smmcb647]

We don’t use salt on our roads in Australia, but we do use it in our swimming pools!

[@saschaatta1]

The value of gold and salt was equal at one time... centuries ago...

[@duran9664]

Imagine the world without salt 🙄 heaven 🙄💥 USE potassium 💥 #SoSalty

[@arnowisp6244]

"What will happen if the world keeps getting saltier." People in 2020 and beyond. That's an understatement lady.

[@stefan_popp]

1:38: they're literally not both 100% NaCl. Otherwise you'd have no impurities in the winter melt salt and could eat it.

[@ghoraxe9000]

I'm pretty sure salt is extremely important in the fishing market still.. ice alone won't cut it.

[@MrBrewman95]

I feel my blood pressure go up just watching this.

[@totoroben]

Beet juice is a way to treat roads without salting them

[@ilghiz]

Paid in salt? Nonsense. They called it salt money just as tips are called tea money in some languages. Noone pays in actual tea or salt.

[@samsonsoturian6013]

Those substitute salts are equally corrosive. Why are they even being proposed?

[@mikelee923]

I am just curious if anyone else thinking maybe this salt that we put on the ground, end up in the ocean, and now the ocean water is also getting saltier? which in turn, causing the ice to melt faster in the poler regions? has anyone ever taken that into effect?

[@henryjanicky4978]

Not out of merit

[@philipb2134]

We also pull a lot of salt out of the oceans. Bear in mind that the volume of water in the oceans is staggering. The entire annual world production of salt would easily fit within the Puget Sound - and there's a huge amount of water beyond that.

[@Cyrus992]

It’s helping my illnesses now

[@Jalu3]

Make more desal plants, get fresh water, waste is brine. Take brine, allow brine to concentrate and evaporate, harvest salt. Two problems, solutions both ways. Done.

[@jimysk8er]

I hate that desalination plants produce brine and dump it and then it ruins things. It's one of the most used source of sodium!!!!!

[@michaelhiltz7846]

There's only 14000 uses for salt?

[@gljames24]

We need permaculture in urban design. If we didn't pave half of our cities with asphalt, there wouldn't be as much salt to leech.

[@tjwoosta]

I would think urban areas would be the easiest to solve. Just embed heating elements in the roads, like in-floor heating. That wouldn't make economic sense in rural areas, but cities have the budget.

[@bravokarthik4655]

Salt is the only drug you can't say NO TO

[@citizentex5720]

Great video. It is distracting when the narrator doesn’t pronounce the T in “Morton’s” and “Important.”

[@braxtoncarroll5133]

This isn't journalism and it's just hard to watch.

[@pj3200]

damn cars really are at the root of each problem

[@Zed_Oud]

So it all comes back to car dependency and dangerous levels of anti-urbanization. Fewer vehicles, fewer roads, fewer lanes: less damage from salt, smog, etc.

[@gilbertbarr7580]

If the ocean gets to saline we will have another ice age.

[@lego4av]

this report was too salty for my taste. but I was waiting to hear more about Himalaya salt.

[@bimvitan1583]

To those who played Triangle Strategy on Switch, you know it. Salt is life. 😂

[@KirtFitzpatrick]

8:10 did the video editor fall asleep at their keyboard?

[@jcnbw01]

hold on, they highlighted Bangladesh with having saltier fresh water, and then said that the main reason freshwater is getting saltier is because of the de-icing road salts... but it doesn't snow in Bangladesh, does it? Also, i've seen videos showing the hyper salty brine thats created when desalination plants try to make fresh water out of seawater... why isn't this being used to process and produce salt, instead of dumping it back into the ocean causing more problems?

[@grischa762]

I can answer the second question. Cause it is not economically viable. Same reason that gas is burned off or plastic is not recycled. It could be done and it would make sense fot the enviorment... but not not economically. And that is all that matters.

[@jcnbw01]

@@grischa762 thanks; had a feeling it was along those lines. For all the good we are capable of, when it comes to scale, we're ultimately a very selfish species, aren't we? Or rather we've built a global system where the powerful few dictate what happens globally and is driven by their own self interests.

[@ronblack7870]

there would be way to much volume of brine from a large desalination plant to turn into salt. those shallow ponds get filled once and take a year or more to be ready .

[@deeplife9654]

We South Asian will not any food without any salt but I was surprised to see that people can eat food without salt

[@elainelindseyrampertab1945]

My mother eats most fruits like oranges, pineapples, imlie, amla and jamun with salt

[@johnn3542]

Auto companies love the salt on the roads. Rots out all the car where I live.

[@mattheweburns]

Nobody seems to care about that salt affect on creeks and rivers. You know it washes off the roads. Where do you think it goes?

[@A3Kr0n]

Glue yourself to a snowplow! Ban Salt!

[@GamerbyDesign]

Im guessing Florida doesnt buy much deicing salt.

[@bmanpura]

It's not only the physical world that gets saltier, the online world too.

[@minirock000]

Make sure to use sites that have profanity filters, I guess.

[@phillyphil1513]

Salt Lake City (UT) has JOINED THE CHAT.

[@lr937]

False… a truck driver gets paid 2,000 dlls to deliver a load 1,200 miles away from start to finish… it is cheap to move salt… what they talking about?

[@lckfan3696]

Triangle strategy

[@Iquey]

Salt batteries. To store solar energy. Deice roads with acoustic vibrations to break up the ice layers. You're welcome. Still using salt's power, without polluting streams.

[@yeyeTF2]

great info but whoever organized this video essay needs to spend more time working the structure and flow of their thoughts. hard to follow with every other sentance spoken by someone else and switching topics without transitional sentences