A Scarcity of Rare Earth Minerals Is Hindering Green Technologies!!
Let's talk about where Wind and Solar come from and indeed most of our electronic everyday appliances. Wind and Solar are not clean or green or renewable. They are toxic to our environment.
We bet the anti coal lobbyists have not thought about this?? What will they do when the Rare Earth Minerals run out?? And, it does not take a rocket scientist to figure that out!! They will run out!! More reason to keep coal as our major energy source for now and well into the future!!
A shortage of "rare earth" minerals, used in everything from electric car batteries to solar panels to wind turbines, is hampering the growth of renewable energy technologies.
With the global push to reduce greenhouse gas emissions, it’s ironic that several energy- or resource-saving technologies aren’t being used to the fullest simply because we don’t have enough raw materials to make them.
For example, says Alex King, director of the new Critical Materials Institute, every wind farm has a few turbines standing idle because their fragile gearboxes have broken down. They can be fixed, of course, but that takes time – and meanwhile wind power isn’t being gathered. Now you can make a more reliable wind turbine that doesn’t need a gearbox at all, King points out, but you need a truckload of so-called "rare earth" metals to do it, and there simply isn't the supply.
The move toward new and better technologies — from smart phones to electric cars — means an ever-increasing demand for exotic metals that are scarce thanks to both geology and politics. Thin, cheap solar panels need tellurium, which makes up a scant 0.0000001 percent of the earth’s crust, making it three times rarer than gold. High-performance batteries need lithium, which is only easily extracted from briny pools in the Andes. In 2011, the average price of 'rare earth' metals shot up by as much as 750 percent. Platinum, needed as a catalyst in fuel cells that turn hydrogen into energy, comes almost exclusively from South Africa.
Read More here: Scarcity of Rare Earth Minerals
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Rare earth metals are quite often toxic to the environment too!! It is such a shame that people who back wind and solar in this country are somehow blinded by that fact. They have the hide to run down the coal industry and call it toxic. Wind and Solar far outweigh coal in toxicity to the environment. Remember, COAL is just plants turned to carbon over millions of years being compacted under the ground. The Co2 that is released from coal is Co2 that was in the atmosphere millions of years ago. Millions of years ago Co2 was much higher in the atmosphere then it is today. Did all life on Earth die off because of this?? No, life actually flourished, otherwise we would not be here today. So, when an anti coal arlarmist says that Co2 is catastrophically warming the Earth, they are lying. Just look back in time and the FACTS will tell the truth. Such a shame that so many scientists and politicians have been caught up in this climate hoax. We think maybe the all important funding dollar is what drives scientists to fudge the truth and, well, politicians , who trusts them to tell the truth. They only care about taxing the pants off us.
Climate and the Carboniferous Period
Some interesting articles below about Rare Earth minerals which are required for most of our electronic appliances, wind turbines and solar panels. How hypocritical are the anti coal lobbyists to demonize coal , when the very products they rely on everyday are so much more toxic to the environment.
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'Clean', 'green' solar & wind components rely on Rare Earth minerals from China who supply 96% of supply?
Here is the green future!
Such an intensive mining operation has a definite impact on the surrounding environment. According to the Chinese Society of Rare Earths, 9,600 to 12,000 cubic meters (340,000 to 420,000 cubic feet) of waste gas—containing dust concentrate, hydrofluoric acid, sulfur dioxide, and sulfuric acid—are released with every ton of rare metals that are mined. Approximately 75 cubic meters (2,600 cubic feet) of acidic wastewater, plus about a ton of radioactive waste residue are also produced.
Source: Nasa
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Wind energy is not nearly as “clean” and “good for the environment” as the wind lobbyists want you to believe. The wind industry is dependent on rare earth minerals imported from China, the procurement of which results in staggering environmental damages. As one environmentalist told the Daily Mail, “There’s not one step of the rare earth mining process that is not disastrous for the environment.” That the destruction is mostly unseen and far-flung does not make it any less damaging.
Source: Canada Free Press
The lake of toxic waste at Baotou, China, which has been dumped by the rare earth processing plants in the background
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In China , the true cost of the Green Wind power experiment.
Pollution on a disastrous scale.
The toxic lake poisons Chinese farmers, their children and their land. It is what's left behind after making the magnets for the latest wind turbines... and, as a special Live investigation reveals, is merely one of a multitude of environmental sins committed in the name of our new green Jerusalem.
Source: Ninemsn
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Boom in Mining Rare Earths Poses Mounting Toxic Risks
The mining of rare earth metals, used in everything from smart phones to wind turbines, has long been dominated by China. But as mining of these key elements spreads to countries like Malaysia and Brazil, scientists warn of the dangers of the toxic and radioactive waste generated by the mines and processing plants.
Independent studies chart the industry’s global ecological fallout. But no country has as many rare earths processing plants, and their attendant environmental problems, as China. Last year, China’s State Council A half-century of rare earths mining in China has caused serious environmental problems. reported that the country’s rare earths operations are causing “increasingly significant” environmental problems. A half century of rare earths mining and processing has “severely damaged surface vegetation, caused soil erosion, pollution, and acidification, and reduced or even eliminated food crop output,” the council reported, adding that Chinese rare earths plants typically produce wastewater with a “high concentration” of radioactive residues.
Source: Yale University
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It is also interesting to note, that to make solar panels and wind turbines you need coal. Coal is also not just used for energy production, there are a variety of uses of coal that a lot of people would not know about. So, to demonize coal and to say it should stay in the ground is ridiculous. We rely on coal for our everyday life. There is no substitute for it. Think about that !!!
WHAT IS COAL USED FOR?
Coal has many important uses worldwide. The most significant uses of coal are in electricity generation, steel production, cement manufacturing and as a liquid fuel. Around 6.6 billion tonnes of hard coal were used worldwide last year and 1 billion tonnes of brown coal.
Different types of coal have different uses. Steam coal - also known as thermal coal - is mainly used in power generation. Coking coal - also known as metallurgical coal - is mainly used in steel production.
Other important users of coal include alumina refineries, paper manufacturers, and the chemical and pharmaceutical industries. Several chemical products can be produced from the by-products of coal. Refined coal tar is used in the manufacture of chemicals, such as creosote oil, naphthalene, phenol, and benzene.
Ammonia gas recovered from coke ovens is used to manufacture ammonia salts, nitric acid and agricultural fertilisers. Thousands of different products have coal or coal by-products as components: soap, aspirins, solvents, dyes, plastics and fibres, such as rayon and nylon. Coal is also an essential ingredient in the production of specialist products:
Activated carbon - used in filters for water and air purification and in kidney dialysis machines.
Carbon fibre - an extremely strong but light weight reinforcement material used in construction, mountain bikes and tennis rackets.
Silicon metal - used to produce silicones and silanes, which are in turn used to make lubricants, water repellents, resins, cosmetics, hair shampoos and toothpastes.
Source: World Coal Association
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So, the next time you hear someone running down the coal industry - Ask them if they use cosmetics?? Do they use shampoo and toothpaste?? Do they drive a car or ride a bike?? Do they take aspirin or use plastics and soap. If they say Yes. Then tell them that we will still need coal for a long time into the future. Until we can find a viable alternative to coal, at this very moment in time, there simply is not one!!
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This is where WIND and SOLAR come from: Think about that next time you think of clean green renewable energy!!
