Processing rare earths is a dirty business. Their ore is often laced with radioactive materials such as thorium, and separating the wheat from the chaff requires huge amounts of carcinogenic toxins – sulphates, ammonia and hydrochloric acid. Processing one ton of rare earths produces 2,000 tons of toxic waste; Baotou's rare earths enterprises produce 10m tons of wastewater per year. They're pumped into tailings dams, like the one by Wang's village, 12km west of the city centre.
surely flight - you care about the environment, and Wang's children - or is it a case of out of sight, out of mind?????.
oh flight - you are probably one of these people who believe that coal powered power stations emit lots of black polluting, poisonous emissions - when that simply is not true - stick your head out the window now - and see if you can see any such evidence - keep in mind that the majority of australian energy is still produced by fossil fuels.
with a bit of luck, you and your family do not drive a car, and consume all those fossil fuels... oh well, watso does not even have a car - just cycles and uses public transport
