“Fragile ecosystems” is the new last refuge of scoundrels.
The Washington Post points out in an editorial today:
… China asserts that it has curtailed supply because of concerns that unlimited mining was damaging fragile ecosystems. There’s some truth to that — unregulated rare-earth mining can be devastating to the environment. But industry experts generally agree that China’s principal purpose was to create a competitive advantage for its own manufacturers of advanced products that contain rare earths. If so, that is the sort of behavior China’s membership in the WTO was supposed to discourage…
Class project: Find out what US industry used to consume most of the rare earth elements mined here, and what happened to it to cause the US mines to close?
George
The ironic part is that many of the current “green” technologies like windmills and electric cars depend on these rare earth minerals. So in order the save the earth from nasty coal mining and oil drilling, we have to subject it to nasty rare earth mineral mining. But of course the greenies oppose that too.
It is time for California’s Mountain Pass Rare Earth mine (Molycorp) to be put into full production. Leaving ourselves open to economic manipulation by China is just plain stupid.
All you need to know about REEs is right here:
Spoiler alert…….You’ll be really depressed about the future of our country if you watch.
“China asserts that it has curtailed supply because of concerns that unlimited mining was damaging fragile ecosystems”
Certainly true – they way *they* are doing it!