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From where I'm standing, the city-sized Baogang Steel and Rare Earth complex dominates the horizon, its endless cooling towers and chimneys reaching up into grey, washed-out sky. Between it and me, stretching into the distance, lies an artificial lake filled with a black, barely-liquid, toxic sludge.
Dozens of pipes line the shore, churning out a torrent of thick, black, chemical waste from the refineries that surround the lake. The smell of sulphur and the roar of the pipes invades my senses. It feels like hell on Earth.
[...]You may not have heard of Baotou, but the mines and factories here help to keep our modern lives ticking. It is one of the world’s biggest suppliers of “rare earth” minerals. These elements can be found in everything from magnets in wind turbines and electric car motors, to the electronic guts of smartphones and flatscreen TVs. In 2009 China produced 95% of the world's supply of these elements, and it's estimated that the Bayan Obo mines just north of Baotou contain 70% of the world's reserves. But, as we would discover, at what cost?
Source: http://www.bbc.com/future/story/20150402-the-worst-place-on-earth
[Editor's note: this story is a few months old, but I think it is environmentally thought provoking; also, it was not "big news" so most here probably missed it.]
(Score: 1) by Schafer2 on Thursday November 26 2015, @08:46AM
AC induction electric motors, like used in Tesla vehicles, do not use magnets. The rotor field is induced, thus the name.
(Score: 2, Insightful) by Anonymous Coward on Thursday November 26 2015, @12:47PM
Yes, but the batteries used in electric cars (and most other portable electronics) are very dirty to produce. If everyone switched to electric cars tomorrow, the amount of pollution required for creation and replacement of battery packs for will probably dwarf the pollution from the ICE cars they replaced.
Not all pollution in co2, hell, a lot of stuff is a lot worse than co2, but this political obsession with co2 results in an increase in pollution that is far more damaging to the environment, not to mention human and animal health.
(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Friday November 27 2015, @04:26AM
If everyone switched to electric cars tomorrow, the amount of pollution required for creation and replacement of battery packs for will probably dwarf the pollution from the ICE cars they replaced.
Citation please?
And having all of that pollution in China isn't necessary as big a problem as having all the pollution in your city.
China should fix it, it doesn't actually have to be that polluted.