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: 3, Interesting) by DeathMonkey on Thursday November 26 2015, @06:05AM
It's an interesting story, I guess, but it's so light on details that it's essentially meaningless.
We have large tailings ponds here in the US. I've audited/visited truly massive steel industry sites that look like sets out of Mad Max. But, despite looks they meet their regulatory obligations.
And yes, I did RTFA.
I know China's reputation, but I guess I just wish they sent some environmental engineers along with all those architects for this story...
(Score: 1, Insightful) by Anonymous Coward on Thursday November 26 2015, @06:56AM
Mmhmm, sure, regulatory guidelines. The things that get flushed along with all the other waste. Just because the US has committed similar acts of environmental pollution does not make it OK. There have been many a scandle throughout the decades, that doesn't make the existence of such a large wasteland any better. I think the real motivation behind the article is to get people to care about these types of problems. If it isn't in most people's faces then they don't know don't care. It's human nature.
(Score: 2, Insightful) by khallow on Thursday November 26 2015, @03:52PM
Just because the US has committed similar acts of environmental pollution does not make it OK.
No, it is because the US has similar tailing ponds without the environmental pollution.
(Score: 1, Informative) by Anonymous Coward on Thursday November 26 2015, @08:29AM
was to point out the irony that all the new so called "environmentally friendly" technologies like electric cars still require dirty industries to make them happen
they only seem environmentally friendly because the pollution is being created somewhere else
(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.
(Score: 3, Informative) by Gravis on Thursday November 26 2015, @02:18PM
the cause of this quagmire is greed over environmental conservation. you can recycle anything, the reason factories don't is because it costs money and they rather the environment go to shit than give a damn. this isn't a unique issue to the region, we had such a bad pollution problem in the US that our rivers caught fire. it wasn't until environmental conservation laws were passed and enforced that things changed. China actually has environmental regulations but they haven't been enforcing them.
(Score: 1, Insightful) by Anonymous Coward on Thursday November 26 2015, @06:02PM
Do you not realize that the tech crazed westerners are the reason those factories in China are in motion? And it has to be dirt cheap, thus they have no money to do the right thing.
(Score: 2) by rleigh on Thursday November 26 2015, @06:09PM
This is one of the least informative articles I've read in a while, and it could have been very interesting if written by someone with actual knowledge and expertise.
I despair at statements like clay from the lake having "three times background radiation". Is this purely scaremongering for people with no knowledge of radioactivity? Because I don't find it at all surprising that the tailings have slightly concentrated unwanted elements in the ore after the extraction process--it's obvious and has zero bearing on the real problems here. I don't understand why it was even worthy of mention.