The non-green processes behind green technologies

Two weeks in China have shown me the environmental cost of saving the planet.

It’s all about rare earths, elements with magnetic properties and high conductivity, which are the key to new green technologies such as wind turbines and hybrid cars. I’ve just seen how they’re extracted and processed, and it’s not pretty.

In Jiangxi, in south-eastern China, mafia bosses collude with local Communist Party officials to extract the valuable elements from the hillsides by pumping acid into the earth. The villager who took us around wore a motorcycle helmet in case anyone saw her – she was terrified.

The central government ordered the plants to close, because of the environmental damage they were doing, but she said they operate under cover of darkness, protected by armed guards.

Her husband has been in prison since September because he and other villagers blocked the roads to stop truckloads of acid and toxic chemicals.

They used to live off rice and ducks, she said, but now the rice withers and the ducks grow to only half their normal size. The land has been poisoned.

It was a similar story in Baotou, in Inner Mongolia, where the majority of rare earths are mined and processed.

Rarely have I been somewhere so polluted and miserable. (The fact that it was below freezing didn’t help).

But the story’s bigger than that. The demand for rare earth is rocketing, as the world tries to move to a low carbon economy. Suddenly people are waking up to the fact that we’re dependent on China for these essential elements.

They exist elsewhere, including the USA, Canada and Australia, but for the past 10 years no one has been able to compete with China on price.

So rare earths are hot, I learnt, when I went to the 5th International Metal Events rare earths conference in Hong Kong. China is restricting export and investors who last year wouldn’t part with their cash for a rare earth project in Australia are now more than keen.

The price is going up, western governments are beginning to understand that they need to guarantee supply, and many say a shortage is inevitable.

So much for the low carbon future.

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