Legal Insurrection has a great pair of posts on the topic of the rare earth elements necessary to build all of the "green" doodads so beloved in the media. Here's a couple of snippets.
From the NYT:
GUYUN VILLAGE, China — Some of the greenest technologies of the age, from electric cars to efficient light bulbs to very large wind turbines, are made possible by an unusual group of elements called rare earths. The world’s dependence on these substances is rising fast.How eco-unfriendly are these metals? Dig this.
Just one problem: These elements come almost entirely from China, from some of the most environmentally damaging mines in the country, in an industry dominated by criminal gangs.
Miners scrape off the topsoil and shovel golden-flecked clay into dirt pits, using acids to extract the rare earths. The acids ultimately wash into streams and rivers, destroying rice paddies and fish farms and tainting water supplies.I feel better about my windmills and hybrid cars already!
There's tonnes* more fun to be had. Rather than go on much longer, I'll stop with the Hall of Fame quote from the bunch.
Environmentalists argue that this, coupled with widespread criticism of China's stance during the Copenhagen climate summit, adds to the need for a "plurality" of rare earth resources. One campaigner said: "There are legitimate questions over Beijing's control of these resources. Copenhagen showed they are not above putting national interest ahead of global efforts to curtail global warming."Geeze, dude, put down the bong for a bit and let your head clear. Have a soy latte and think for a minute. The Chinese own the stuff. They're selling the stuff. So they can, you know, make, like, profits and stuff. Whoa! It's like the Maoist dudes have gotten greedy, man! How bogus is that?
That VDH piece I linked to earlier today seems more and more prescient all the time.
* - Each wind turbine requires two tonnes of Neodymium.
Neodymium, one of the most common rare earths, is a key part of neodymium-iron-boron magnets used in hyper-efficient motors and generators. Around two tonnes of neodymium are needed for each wind turbine.The best way to divest yourself of a non-renewable resource is to devour tonnes of non-renewable resources! Err, or something like that.
4 comments:
I'd just like to clarify one point:
"Rare Earths" are not particularly rare.
They just don't become really highly concentrated into ores. There are lots of potential locations where they could be mined, it's just that historically the market has been pretty limited (mostly to things like TV screen phosphors and cigarette lighter "flints"), so mostly they haven't been explicitly mined. The minerals they are extracted from are mostly found in placer sand deposits along with literally dozens of other (generally more valuable) metals, so mostly the rare earths are produced as byproducts of other mining.
Thanks for the clarification!
Two tons for one turbine?
Tim, good info. As I understand it, we actually have an inactive rare earth mining site in California that is slated to be opened within a couple of years.
In a sense, this kind of reminds me of drilling for oil. Once the public gets wind of some the environmentally hazardous byproducts of rare earth mining, I doubt there will be the political will to continue to do so.
Dean, I'm still about confused about the 2 ton thing as well. They must have meant 2 tons of ore or slurry or whatever. I can't imagine that the entire windmill motor assembly weighs anything close to 2 tons.
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